[advert:mpu] We're pox-free, hooray! I did have it in the end, mildly and against (so the doctor says) the odds. Seems that it's not so dangerous for the baby towards the end of pregnancy, so long as the baby doesn't arrive within a week of the last spots appearing... so far, so good!
Watch out though - about 10 days after ds was clear from spots, he broke out in hive-like red lumps - some of them about an inch square - very itchy. Thinking it was measles, I rushed him to the GP in a fluster (you have to sit in the quarantine corridor when you go in for these things, not the main waiting room - it's really odd!), but turns out that their wee bodies can have the equivalent of an allergic reaction to the chickenpox virus which causes its own rash. Poor thing!
So we're officially a two house family! Dp now has a place in Germany which can accommodate us all (phew!) and doesn't have to spend nights kipping in his lab anymore. The procedure for renting a flat in Germany seems unusual to a couple of Londoners who have house-hopped every year for 10 years before buying our own place. You must make sure your flat is bare before passing it on to the next tenant. And I mean bare. No furniture (this, as you can see by the picture, can include kitchen units, light fittings, carpets...) and walls painted white. One of my friends sniggeringly pointed out that at least we got a free bucket with the kitchen pipes, but she has a point – a lot you can do with a bucket. I told dp this and he said that the old lady who lived upstairs had been down the day before to take it back. Heck, who needs a bucket, anyways?
Should be a lot of fun kitting out another place, especially since I'll miss all the really messy work and just turn up for The Painting of the Skirtingboards (it's dull, but I'm good at it, and you get extra brownie points because it's such a depressingly tedious task). There's apparently an amazing feature to the house I won't find out about until I arrive... when can you start flying with babies, again?
Bullying doesn’t just happen to other kids, it’s not always easy to spot and we need to give kids the confidence and the strategies to recognise and combat threatening behaviour.
Dp & I are getting married, 8 years and two kids down the line. It's less than a week away, we've got 100 people coming and we've yet to buy the rings - I haven't even found a dress - but here's ...
We've all been there - when your child makes an innocent remark (usually at the top of her voice) which turns out to be a horribly personal insult to someone within direct earshot... or worse...
Come on, I challenge you not to smile...
Watch out bugs, baby's about! Wiggle your tasty little abdomen in front of him and you're dead meat, honey!
The first person to wish me happy mother's day on Sunday was my mother in law, on my mobile, in the toilet, about 5pm. Can't get much more depressing than that...
Anyone else’s kids into this? It's like SecondLife but with penguins and for kids...
We're now halls supervisors, living in a quiet block and eating in the canteen with 230 students where every night is a potential party. It's great fun, but a bit out of the ordinary... how can the ...
After being pretty much indifferent to who gives him his presents, this year it seems that ds1 is DESPERATE to believe in Santa Claus, and the man’s lifestyle, generosity and ‘big brother’ ...
Of course in hindsight I see it's a little naive of me to trot around searching for rubber knickers, but you see we have this Poo Emergency on our hands (literally, as it goes)...
Yay! Ds2’s started to crawl at 8 & ½ months! He has been doing this thing for a while where he goes on all fours, sticks his bum in the air and then pumps up and down in a very wobbly and ...
An hour on an amphibious car round the sights of London with five four year olds yelling ‘quack quack!’ to passers by: more fun than it sounds!
It may take a while to settle my four-year-old and six-month-old into their new, German nursery.
So here we all are – we’re in our wee flat in Germany with just a few boxes, some raincoats and wellies and a couple of sleeping bags. Like Glastonbury without the mud, drugs or music....
Stagger, the ugly superhero who only comes out at night, is my son's new alter-ego...
So, the baby starts nursery on 28th August... and hasn't yet taken more than a mouthful from a cup or bottle. It's an uphill battle.
It's started: huge clumps of hair coming out when I brush my fingers through it. Plug hole totally bunged up when I have a shower. The old postpartum hair loss begins again...
So I think the happy hormones must be finally wearing off (fun while it lasted) and the incessant tiredness beginning to kick in. Or perhaps those are just my excuses for leaving the baby in the car ...
Paranoia was only made worse by horror stories from other mums: one who walked in on her older son standing in front of the new baby wielding a pair of scissors...
Son no.1 couldn't have been more pleased with his new baby brother. He picks out the cutest nappy for him to wear, and seems charmed when the baby does a poo whilst sitting on him!
We don’t go out trick or treating. We lie in wait for them to come to us. This year, ds dressed in his skeleton outfit and accosted passers by with sweets... All was fine until he stuck an eyeball up ...
Poor old ds really isn't looking forward to 'Big School'. “They won’t like me” he sobbed, “I’ll be in the corner of the playground on my own because I won’t have any friends of my own!” He thinks ...