Hi Ladies.

I feel so behind, like I have fallen off the face of the earth or something! I am so busy ATM, I feel like my head is going to explode.

Work is absolutely manic. We have gone from being dead quiet for the past 2 years, to completely out of control for the next 3 months. I can't believe I am even working weekends.

I am so behind with what is going on with everyone, so I will not even attempt personals now, but I hope all babies/toddlers are happy, healthy and creating havoc just as G is doing. He can now reach things on the benches and tables. Unless things are right in the middle of the table, he can get them. I feel like all I tell him is NO!! No you can't turn on the air conditioner on! No you can't bang the remotes together! NO, NO, NO!! Poor boy. The funny thing is if you put something down that he can have but tell him he can't he is desperate to get it. It works and keeps him away from the things he really can't have.

Sorry about the short post, but I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

Note to self... check in more often to keep up with this thread!!

Have a good night all.

Another quickie from me.

Fraggles, at a BFP! Hell no!

Sam, Maya, Kate, Gabrielsmum & lurkers.

Kane is walking everywhere. Although, if he wants to get somewhere quick, he'll crawl and can reach a lot of things if he wants them now.
We've ordered a new dining table. 8 seater, going to look at one today as the place just rang to say it was a lighter colou but that suits me fine.

Have a great day. xxx

Hi everyone

Wow it goes from nothing to busy in here so quickly!

Sam - OMG to your new workload It will be fantastic to graduate so much earlier, though, and just think - no more nights! I hope you get the care sorted for the kids, I might be able to help out here and there early on before my workload cranks up if you get stuck. And an even bigger OMG to Ger's 'maybe a 3rd' comments - he was so adamantly against it! Perhaps he got all clucky and family-fuzzy with his trip away. Good luck with your first pracs next week, which clinic have they placed you at?

Fraggles - gosh your job sounds so riveting! Nothing worse than being bored sh*tless at work, makes the days sooooo long! Good lukc with your appt at the job agency - hopefully something great comes out of it!

Gabrielsmummy - hope things settle down for you soon, you sound super busy. G sounds like he is into everything.

Juz - yay to Kane's walking! What do the big kids think of it, excited I bet.

Maya - you certianly have a lot to be worrying about with your mum, I hope you find out soon if she has to move to Perth. And daycare is ridiculous - so damn expensive, no matter where you are I think. The cost does reduce a little with 2 in care, but you certainly have to earn a lot to make it worthwhile going to work.

Kate - gee, just not good enough coming on so infrequently - anyone would think you have two little ones to look after at once. Deep breathing and lower standards might help while O is feeding also it's quite ok to wander around while you're BFing, especially while they're little enough to carry without bother. I surprised many a visitor/delivery person with mine, opening the door with a bub attached Send any pics you want posted through too my dear, my photobucket is your photobucket lol. Keep your chin up, it will get easier really quickly as both H and O are changing so much so quickly

Peacey - I haven't done it for a while and I haven't done it with 2 kids, but working full time and being a mum was HARD work, and that was without much travelling about. Don't really know what to say except try not to beat your self up about it - you're doing what you need to do for your family, and your kids are both happy and gorgeous!!

Hi to everyone else

AFM - well I had my first taste of my nursing course yesterday and boy, am I in for some hard work! Exciting though, they have these really cool dummies we get to work on that have pulses, breathing rates, and can actually vomit/urinate/bleed etc - cool! There are quite a few older girls in the group too which is nice, got talking to some of the other mums - will be good to have some others to support each other when assignments are due and kids havn't been sleeping! Start lectures for real on Monday, so might be a bit absent for a while while I settle in.

Haydie started daycare last week and LOVES it! Has barely a cry, if at all, when I leave and sleeps really well for them too - guess I'm a bit more precious about his sleep than I need to be. He has a cold and is getting his last 2 eye teeth at the moment so a bit miserable, Em has a cold too but is loving kindy so life is pretty good.

Better go, got to get a kid out of the bath and one ready for dinner. Stay well ladies xxxx

hey everyone

nic - sounds like you are enjoying uni so far. and that is great that H loves daycare.

fuzjuz - ooh nice new funiture. i am currently trying to talk dh into a new bed base

gabriels mummy - wow you sound very busy. oh and i feel like all i say to T is NO most of the time, don't do that or put it down are others that get used very often

fraggles - hope it went well at the job agency. that must be so borning, days with nothing to do jsut seem to last forever too.

everyone else

has anyone seen ssorrento lately? hope everything is going alright with her and oli and DH.

well my new pram is being shipped from the states next week. can't wait to have a play with it, and then i can scrub up my strider and sell it lol. am just plodding along pregnancy wise, nothing much happening though you can feel some of the kicks from the outside now, though ryan keeps just missing it. my bestie sent me some pictures of her bump today and we are about the same size, well we are only a week apart lol. tristan is turning into a cheeky ratbag at the moment. cute and cuddley and wanting to play one minute and having a complete meltdown the next it's funny though he has this whole vocabulary of noises and babbles now. i think he has said no a few times (probably because he hears it all the time) and makes these cute little angry noises too. and we have figured out a way to get him to spit yucky things out too. you just say yucky and he goes ppfftt. i am starting to wonder if we might be toilet training him in a couple of months though. he just started yesterday basically telling us he has a dirty nappy (you ask him if he has a poo and he does the yucky thing) and he is going dry overnight basically. so we laybyed a potty, with some sheets for his big bed (think i overheard MIL on the phone organising her flight home). urg just remembered better put a payment on that. oh and we ahve had 2 builders out to provide us with quotes for the new room. it's going to be a new master bedroom and B2 is going to have our room (repainted and scrubbed clean). the new one is going to be bigger and have a built in wardrobe and maybe later our own patio and ensuite (this will have to be a house extension). so we are going to pain B2's room a nice mulberry colour and then if it is a boy or a girl i will get wall borders etc.
well i am rambling and dh is cooking so might go find soemthing to watch on tv. i'll post some new pics tomorrow i couldn't be bothered to deal with photobucket at the moment
maya

eta - i meant to say too we got the official news yesterday they want mum to move to perth as soon as she can organise it, so she can be put on the transplant list. the dr was pretty positive in saying he thinks she will only have to wait 6-12 months (which makes me think they will be sticking her pretty close to the top of the list). i guess we just have to hope for the best now.

Sorry to do it again - I seem to go MIA a lot but I sometimes struggle to keep up with everything, especially now I am back at work.

Ooooh - Kathryn CONGRATS on the new bubba!!! will have to go back and read all the details. When I was trying to work out what to do with Austy when bfing I read alot of thing that said to have a special toy/toys for when you are feeding. I fed so often I found that difficult as he would be bored of it next time I went t feed. Because Hugh is younger though it may just work. Have a closed box or two of special toys and rotate them between feeding sessions. Musical instruments (the quieter kind like egg shakers and bells) should do the trick, and even a kids music DVD to put on at the same time, think Justine Clarke, or those educational baby DVDs with classical music. Also, you could make it a special cuddle and read time when the baby is feeding better, so you can feed and read at the same time. I still do that with MAddy when it's time for Austy to go to bed as she is usually overtired and won't sit through his story so i just sit up on his bed with her, snuggeld next to Austy and read. She will sometimes take an interest but usually just impatiently says "Mik mik MIK!" as soon as I open the book!

Madelyn is really blossoming in recent weeks. She started walking two weeks ago, and now talking and saying quite a few words:

Nigh-no (Milo our new kiten)
titty (kitty - not the mil jugs!)
pease
taaa
dink
eat
apple
nummy
mummy
daddy
Atty (Austy)
lots of numbers (and she actally COUNTS!!!! She shocked us when Austy and I were counting to ten and she filled in 6 and 8 at the right times, and often will say feee if we count 1-2 and leave a pause before picking her up)
pout (hop out of pram/high chair)
up (which means up OR down... )
pear
nana
nanny
book
wotwot (she loves the wot wots and has a dottywot toy that MIL gave her for Christmas)
baby

The list goes on. Where did my baby go?!

Oh and here are a couple of snaps of my new baby (Milo - our Cornish Rex)



Austy drags the poor thing around all day, and he runs from him, but will let Madelyn do anything to him. She's like a little mummy herself, always trying to feed him, give him drinks, throw her toys at him or read him stories.

jgal - wow madelyn has such a large vocab, we are getting more sounds but no really words as yet except the odd one that sounds like a word.
here are some pics of my boy though
reading with daddy

trying his new crayons out for taste

eating ice

and jsut a cute shot though it is blurry

maya

He certainly is a cutie Maya, love his gorgeous blonde locks! Madelyn is finally getting hair, it's actually quite thick on top now, just not very long and being blonde she still looks bald in photos. I totally relate to the eating crayons pic. M and A are sooooo different. He'd read books she eats them, he'd draw with crayons (but not very interested) and she loves to use them as not only a fabulous art tool and she loves to draw) but a craft time snack as well! Same goes for playdough!

We are actually finding childcare harder with A in kindy as there are only a few that link to his kindy for pickup/drop off. However it's worthwhile thinking of a nanny once you have more than one even though you can't get the rebate unless one has a disability or you have 4 or more kids.

something very strange is happening to my computer. on top of the stupid vista security centre going completely bonkers yesterday and not allowing access to the internet we had 2 blackouts for 30 seconds and all teh stuff on the tool bars have disappeared and everything i try to do anything i am gettign an error msg. god damned power company, every time they do a so called upgrade to the power lines, we ahve trouble. at least we know we cna make them pay for appliances etc that they blow up because of their dodgy upgrades (last time we ahd to fork out $1000 in a day because our bore pump blew up and that is our only source of water, we got a checque from them a month later). grr

jgal - we thought about a nanny but if just not feasible. i guess i will just study for my degree instead of working and look after the kids until they start kiny/school. oh and tristan just ate 1/5 of a blue crayon so should be an interesting nappy tomorrow.

fraggles

well just popping in to say hi and making sure my net is at least working partially.
maya

Ladies

I'm behind again. Will try to catch up.

Nic, as long as he can't get in their rooms, they don't really care. Nah, they encourage him & say clever boy. How exciting re your course. Hope all went well today and glad to hear Hayden loves DC. Hope Em is feeling better soon too.

Maya, have you talked Dh round yet? 2 and a bit wks till it arrives. Yay on the pram & the TT. Hope it's a breeze for you. I at the crayon pic. How's your mums relocating going?

jgal, wow, she can say a lot. Kane says Mum, Dad, Oh dear, what's dat (similar to it), nan & ooooo. He knows all the cats names & the kids, just can't say them. Sounds like the kids enjoy Milo, not a cat I'd get but glad to hear he's fitting in.

Hi to everyone else.

Got Kane's new car seat today. He wanted to get in it straight away so took a couple of pics.


Think the headrest needs to come down one so will ask in the restraint section.

He's still b/f. Only 3 feeds a day. Tried him on a bottle on friday & nope, no idea what to do with it & just bit it & played with it. Thought it'd be easier for the DC lady but he should go to sleep without a feed?

That's about it, hope you're all having a great monday.

Hi everyone,

Juzzy - He looks so grown up in his new carseat. Can the headrest part come down or will it then be pressing on his shoulders?

Maya - Cute pics, H has one of the same T'shirts as T, the stripey blue, green and white. Hope your mum's move goes well and she gets her transplant soon. Yay on the pram how exciting.

Jgal - Wow with M's words.

Not up to much here at the moment. Need to start looking into Kinder's for next year for DD soon, i can't believe how early you have to get organised and get the forms in

Hi everyone

Started uni today so the old brain is swirling around like crazy bit of a freak out to hear that some of the others are only 17 - god, I'm getting Olddddddd.

Jgal - had a great big LOL (in a nice way) at your Cornish's eyebrows, so cute! And Maddy has quite the vocab there doesn't she.

Juzzy - Like Kane, Haydie has refused his bottle a couple of times at DC - he ALWAYS goes to sleep with a bottle at home, so I was a bit concerned but he coped fine. They just patted him and settle dhim for about 10 minutes and he went off for 2 hours each time. If K is fine with it just let it go I reckon - if he's not going to care full time it shouldn't matter. He looks so grown up in his big car seat!!

Maya - what a bum about your power company, so good that they will pay for those things that get blown though., Had been wondering what happened with your bore. Love the pics of T, he is such a gorgeous thing. Hope things get are finalised for your mum soon, must be a bit of a pain for her waiting to find out.

Fraggles - it's such a busy business, getting these kids in for kindy, specially if you're trying to go out of area. Love your sig too, is that another new one or I am slow on the uptake?

to everyone else.

AFM - Haydie gave me a sleep in this morning - 6:15am yay! Any other early risers in here, H is usually about 5/5:30... Won't complain though, way better than getting up during the night! He's trying to communicate so much now, but pretty much most things are referred to as 'neh neh' - we have no idea what that's supposed to be... Hayden? Mine? Now? Who knows>? We just point to or get him things until he's satisfied LOL. He can say Mum, Dad, Emma (maaaaaah), meow meow for the cars, woof woof, broooom, and a couple of other things that only a mum could understand LOL. He needs ANOTHER hair cut, gosh it grows quickly! poor love is going to hate these curls when he's older I bet.

Anyway, better go - have cracked a bottle of champers to celebrate getting through first day without any dramas and I don't want it to get flat.

Stay well

nic - yah for surviving your first day of uni. and well from experience with nursing students i prefer the older ones, they are not quiet so well arrgant (sp?) know it alls like some of the most recent crop of students we got from highschool for nursing. some of them think they know more then their lecturers and then expect library staff to do all the research for assignments for them.

fraggles - love the new sig em is absolutly gorgous and aww look at Hamish

fuzjuz - wow isn't he getting to be a big boy. what sort of car seat is it?

well tristan was awake at 4.30 this morning. and i have been awake since 2am so am soo tired. will go now as Dh wants the comp and i want the tv lol
maya

Kane took a bottle off DH tonight. I nearly cried. Thought he wouldn't take it but gulped it down. Then he had his usual b/f too. Little pig. So looks like bottles will be fine at DC.

Kim, it can come down but the straps are then below his shoulders which isn't recommended.

Nic, I know. He's such a big boy now. You all kwim. Yayyy on surviving your first day & enjoy your champers.

Maya, is a SnS Meridian AHR tilt & adjust. Love it. I want one.

2 post in one day. I must be ill. Night all.

Nic - Yep its a new sig, they are some of the pics we took on our holiday a few weeks back. Yay on surviving your first day of Uni.

Maya - Wow 4.30 is way to early for my liking.

Juzzy - Lol at Kane having a bottle and bf.

i know this sounds silly and it is probably the fact i only got about 4 hours sleep last night after a previous night of only 3, but do you think ishould be worried that T is still only making bub, dad and the occasionaly mum sounds? i know you shouldn't compare as they are all different but all the other babies at mum's group are using other words, nto many but most have a vocab of about 3-4 more, and T is just saying the same ones he has been saying for the past 4-6 months. and they are nto said in context either, most things are dad or bub. mamma we only get very rarely and it does seem to mean me. i do name things for him around the hosue when i remember (or am slack it doesn't happen very often as i feel like i am trying to train a pet monkey when i do do it) but he does get read to at least once a day. and he gets asked things like do you ahve a wet nappy, before i change him and do you want a drink before i give him his sippy cup. oh i don't know.
gtg need to get ready for work
maya

Maya - H only really says mummum, dada and now he is trying to say up. He wasn't even babbling to himself until recently. Does he show an understanding of what you are saying, i.e if i say to Hamish where's Ellie he will go and find her, if say are you hungry, he will head over to his chair. Because he is showing the understanding of what i am saying i am not worried yet that he isn't talking much, because of his ear problems i was worried about his hearing but i am quite sure he can hear fine. If you are worried perhaps get him checked but T sounds very similar to H with where he is up to.

Maya - I wouldn't worry too much about it just yet (if you can!), boys are often a little slower to develop language skills than girls, and he will probably have a big language burst in a month or two with heaps of new words coming through. Haydie has a considerably smaller vocab than Em did at this age, but he's much more physically coordinated that she ever was so they all just have different strengths.

oh Maya, don't worry..H has some kinda made up language. Like Iggle Piggle.
makes both of us laugh our leads off. you should relish thesedays when he can't answer you back yet or swear at you...I'm sure a few other mums on her ewith older kids can vouch for that!!!

just flying in here with no time to properly post....all is well. have seen enough poo for a lifetime though...must be teeth coming? Seems like I am ETERNALLY waiting for fangs ... how excitement!

x

Hi,
Just got back from taking DD to the podiatrist and she needs orthotics. Gah they cost quite a bit and they don't have payment plans. Working only 2 days a week is just not cutting it at the moment.
BBL just had to get that off my chest.

fraggles -

everyone thanks for the reassurance. on his speech. i am sure he will start talking and i will wonder why i ever wanted him to start. jsut someone told me "they are suppose to have a vocab of 20 words by now" tristan understand more then that but no way is he saying that. maybe in his own made up language, which mainly consits of b, d, w and m sounds

ok so babybrain has well and truly hit. my brain had gone walkabout. after last weeks episode of forgetting the swim bag when going to swimming lessons, and forgetting people's names that i ahve known for years, this morning i forgot my SHOES! i mean how do you forget your shoes. i know i was wearing them when i started the car and packed car with nappy bag etc, but somehow lost them in the trip back to get tristan out fo bed and into the car. Luckily i had a pair in the car though they have given me blisters. but i mean how can you forget shoes when you are going somewhere. really. oh and then i had forgotten that mum couldn't take tristan this arvo so i was suppose to bring MIL in to watch him so had no-one to look after him while i was a work. rang ryan just to see if on the off chance he could finish early or i would have had to drive home and then back to town and probably run late for work. luckily he did get off early. it is so much worse this time. the short term memory is almsot completely gone.
gtg time to finish work
maya

Wow very quiet in here again.

Went to fairy dancing lessons with DD earlier, she talked the whole time, i somehow think she is going to be the kid in school that gets in trouble for talking too much H run amok wanted to interrupt the class, wanted to join another class, wouldn't stay in the play area

Maya - Oh no at your baby brain. I def wouldn't worry about the 20 word vocab at this age. DD had lots of words at this age and she talked way to much then and talks way to much now

Hi girls, wow its quiet in here.

Fraggles - Aw fairy dancing classes, that's cute! lol at the talking through it, girls seem to be able to talk underwater!

Maya - Like fraggles said, I wouldn't stress about the words, I think boys tend to be a bit slower. I'm sure Fintan wouldn't have any if he wasn't constantly copying his sister, as it is he def doesn't have 20. He says dada, mumma, woof-woof, ow, oh-oh, wow, more, oopsy, nanna, nana (banana) and quack quack. oh and he says wahwahwah when his sister cries My friends son (same age as DD) didn't have 20 words at his 18 month check up, he only had about 10 and the nurse wanted to refer him to a speechie but she declined. By the time he was 2 he was talking in sentences and now he just talks and talks. So don't worry, he'll get there.
As for baby brain, I'm sure its a cumulative thing, gets worse each time not that you fully recover from it the first time I don't think!

Kate - Hope all is going well, sounds like alot of code browns at your place.... fun having 2 in nappies, eh?

Juzzy - lol at Kane taking the bottle and the BF, must have thought all his christmas' came at once!

Nic - Glad to hear all went well for your first day. How has the rest of your week gone? I know what you mean about the 17y.o's. I'm looking at some of the grads coming out, they're about 20 and look about 10.... makes you feel a bit geriatric doesn't it? On the flip side, I was 20 when I startedmy grad year and got so sick of patients saying 'are you sure you've qualified, how old are you?'!!!

We're all good here. F has gotten his molars in the last week or so, so he's waking a bit at night, to be expected I guess. He's only just discovered this week how to pull himself up and isn't very good at it, so I think walking's a long way off!
I have started the family child helath nursing this week, it looks like its going to be interesting, especially love I can apply what I'm learning at home

Ok well I have just spent my allocated study time procrastinating on here, so I had better go and do something before the kids wake.

Hope everyone is well

Well I don't know if we will here it again but I definitely here a "gamma" from T this morning. I have been telling him say granma say granma. Tell granma she's naughty (when she goes outside to smoke one of the cigarette she supposedly quit). I am sure he will be fine, and I shouldn't stress. I reckon it is just pure stubbornness on his part really, he was the same way with walking. He understands that if he says words then mummy will expect him to use them to help communicate so would prefer me to do all the work lol.

Sam - oh that would be fun, trialing the stuff you learn at home

Fraggles - aww how cute that H wanted to join in, though it probably wasn't at the time

Well I have decided that going back to work is more hassel then it's worth. And I hate bureaucracy. Childcare says one thing about the whole centerlink number thing and how it wouldn't work (so we might not get the 50% rebate - news for you lady he isn't going unless we get some money back), centerlink says it is all fine. I think I am going to have to go after work and try and sort this mess out as he starts next week. I think she is getting confused, even though we told them straight up we don't get any child care benefit, she is trying to make him registered for it and well I just tried of money hassles. Looks like besides the pram B2 won't be getting anything bought for it until after tax time at the earliest, whereas I was hoping to layby again and pay off most of it, but my whole wage will go to childcare and car loan, with petrol money if I am lucky. Think I need to sit ryan down and make him tell me what the hell he has been spending his wage on as well, as our savings are still sitting on the same level as before. I am tired of being the only one making sacrifices money wise. Sorry a bit of a rant there, am just feeling a bit overwhelmed money wise at the moment.
Better go am at work
maya
eta - finally got a hold of someone of the phone for centerlink that knew what they were doing, and guess what we do qualify for the child care benefit, not very much but every bit helps! yah it's all organised now i don't have to stress.

Hi everyone,
Off to Melbourne (child free) today to watch the Merchants of Bollywood stage show catching the train and really hoping i don't get lost in the streets of Melbourne.

Hey, had anyone seen Ssorrento around lately? Just wondering if she's ok. Hopefully just busy like the rest of us!

nic - i have been wondering the same thing. i hope evrything is going alright with her and oli and everyone.
gtg tis up to MORE mischief, i love this age but wow some of the things he gets up to
maya

No haven't seen ssorrento around for awhile either.

Yay home from Melbourne, didn't miss any of the trains or get lost. Show was great i can't believe how energetic those dancers are.

Evening

Heard from Ssorrento on 15 Feb. Let us know you're ok Ssorrento.

Kim, glad you had fun & didn't get lost.

Maya, glad to hear centrelink is all worked out. I'm trying to get Kane on the system atm & it's a PITA. They want to know what day he'll be going, I have no idea. They need the carers number but when I put it in it said invalid. Went into the local office on friday & they had a sign on the desk saying this is temporarily unattended & no indication of when it would open. So emailed them & hope they ring next week.

Kathryn & Nic.

Sam, I'm sure he did. Did you get any study done?

Finally got my eyebrows waxed on wednesday & getting a facial on tuesday. Woot woot, can't wait. Have started doing boxing on wednesday nights too. I'm really enjoying it. Kane has his first cold too. He's all snotty & clumsy. Has fallen over so many times & has a cut lip & a bruise on the side of his face. He's struggling to feed atm too. He hasn't had a bottle since last time either. I tried to give him one & he played with it again. Can't believe he's 15 months old today.
Had a fun afternoon denitting the kids. God I hate them things.

That's about it. Have a great w/e.

Fuz & Maya...I have some wicked Centrelink stories to share with you when I get a minute (if I ever....!)
THey lost not only his Proof of Birth (the original copy) AND his certified copy of his birth certificate among other ID of mine. There is probably some illegal kid running around out there claiming benefits called Oliver Terry....courtesy of the d*** heads at Centrelink now.

Having a sh*t of a weekend with DH...topped off last night where he wanted me to thank him for doing some ironing, WTF? I must get a Hotel sign for the front gate because it seems that he thinks I am his housekeeper again.

GTG & feed.

YES SAMSHINE!!!! Lots of Code B's here.....I literally run from H's room to O's room and then to the bin and then to the hand sterilizer. I think my skin is going to dissolve ha ha ha