Rowan what you say about M climbing the stairs faster than you is incredibly impressive! She really is something!
OH and I always say that Dominic will especially will keep us running after him at all times once he is mobile and that tiring though it is to look after the boys now, this will seem peaceful bliss once they can walk!
I do hope Martha won't be too tiring and sack-full-of-fleas-like once you get really big!
I love your description of her too. She sounds adorable and lots of fun
And as for your bottom... I really think you are the bravest woman ever! After that I don't think I could brave another pregnancy, especially as you had the diastasis too! Hats off to you. I really hope this one will be easier
Aren't you even considering a section?
Storm I hope you feel better today? Sitting on the sofa for 4 hours like that sounds as though you were really pretty much at zero, you poor thing! Did you imagine it would be so exhausting having a baby? I certainly didn't. But then I didn't know how rewarding it would be, either
As for not knowing when you have to pee, how do you manage not to burst then? Or leak or something? You poor thing! I am so glad I had a planned section now!
Hehe about the chocolate advent calendar! And why should you not treat yourself like that afterall?! We were thinking of getting a normal one for the boys but I really don't think it will make any impact. Besides I am very particular about which advent calendars I like. My firm favourites are always by a German publisher called Koppenrath and I like those best that have images behind the doors that match the theme of the main picture. There is one that they do every year that I love and will buy next year. It is of a dark house and the little doors are the windows and doors in the image. Slowly and every day the house gets more illuminated as you discover what the inhabitants are up to. I love that one so much
Luckily my mum and I are both equally juvenile and I know she has sent me a calendar and it should arrive any day now. Yay
Sabrina yay for Finn sitting
But now that he won't sit in his bouncy anymore, will you put him in a playpen when you have to go out of the room?
I hope your DH's niceness is continuing. Maybe he realised that he was talking out of his hat the other day when he said he does it all?
I am glad you are feeling better you poor thing. I know how miserable I feel when I am not well and looking after an active boy at the same time is then doubly tiring.
I feel for you so much that you are going to miss your family for xmas. I will miss my mum especially, if we do indeed not go over to Switzerland after all.
Clio I did laugh at your Six to Eight Black Men. I had no idea the Dutch St Nicholas was so different to the German or even the Swiss version. Hilarious
And yes normally we do celebrate the 6th of December. Not hugely mind you but there is usually some sort of chocolatey treat or Kaffee und Kuchen when I am home at my mum's. Same also for advent Sundays. I will miss her so much this year.
We are meant to go there for Christmas but I fear what it would do to the boys' sleep. It is quite bad at the moment as it is and I just know that Sebastian will be miserable with being in a strange place with strange ppl etc. So I think for the second time in my life I will be without my mum at xmas
Where will your mum be? Will your family all get together?
Your description of J has only confirmed my impression of him. He is clearly very intelligent and I do think that he may still learn to love books. Have you tried them on him too much perhaps so that he wants to steer against what you wish him to do? I know that I liked to do the opposite of what was expected of me when I was very small. Had a stubborn streak even then
Borboleta do you think the top teeth are always more painful than the lower ones? I must say that apart from the sleep going to pot, Dominic doesn't seem to be suffering much with it, so I am always worried what will happen if he does have pain with another set.
What you say about Thiago's personality is what I imagined too. He looks as though he thinks about things deeply. I am so glad that driving in the car isn't such an ordeal for him anymore. I wonder if perhaps before he felt a bit carsick and the dvd's are distracting him? I remember crossing the English channel from Newhaven to Dieppe (close to where my paternal grandmother lived) in a ferry many years ago and it was rough going. I distracted myself by going to the onboard cinema and watched 2 films in a row. Everyone else was really sick and throwing up. So maybe while Thiago wasn't that sick he still felt unwell?
I also think the elf on the shelf sounds like fun.
As for personalities. I wrote about this in my journal here so I will just copy that and paste it here if you don't mind
"Each boy is such a distinctive personality already. They are not alike at all, neither in looks nor in character. Though both are laughing happy boys, Dominic is the more jolly of the two. He is always shouting and babbling and smiling. He loves to play with his daddy especially and has this really sweet slightly shouty laugh. He loves playing in the playpen and sometimes bashes at his toys in there for almost 40 mins before asking to come out. He has the sunniest eyes and smile and he melts my heart every morning, even when once again he let me sleep only two hours at a stretch.
Sebastian is the more thoughtful and sensitive. He likes to study wash labels on toys and muslins and really focuses on them. But saying a soft hhhhaaahhh to him is enough to send him off into a peal of giggles. He also likes to nick anything Dom is playing with and storing it to the other side of himself so Dom cannot get it back. He even steals Dom's dummy out of his mouth if we let him lol. Dom doesn't seem to mind and just plays with something else.
Sebastian is the more cuddly of the two. When we lift Dominic up into our arms he treats us as a viewing platform and leans back pushing with his arms to look all around him and smile at everything and everyone. Sebastian likes to be held close and puts his arms and hands on my shoulders and around my neck. He is shy and cries when strangers look at him too closely.
He loves having his little face kissed, Dom tries to avoid it most of the time. But that doesn't mean that Dominic doesn't like to be held, he just expects that being held also means playtime. My OH has to jiggle him up and down on his knees or lift him high above his head or even put him behind his back on his shoulders while bouncing up and down. All of that makes Dom shout and laugh with glee and pleasure. (I cannot do those things as both boys are too heavy for me and I can just about carry them about the house for short periods, due to my annoying diastasis recti).
Both boys like it when we mock-startle them with sudden Waahs while they sit in their bouncies and one of us sits in the armchair in front of them. Both boys almost scream with laughter at that. They both babble a lot and I think Dom's Adaddaya means daddy or possibly Yay I am happy".
Ok got to go cause finally... FOOOOOD!
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! Things we had to go thru as a kid!!! I was always scared about the poor man that carried a bag ( garbage). Family would tell us that he would come and put us in his bag and take us away if we didn't behave!!!
! And you can't feel when you have to go pee!!!! 
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? And yes I was sooooo happy when the doctor said that I could go back; slow in the beggining, but still wonderful
!!! You are soooo young!!! I wonder who who is the baby of this group? I know Sabrina is 42 (?) and Clio is 40 and Claire and I are 39. Don't know how old is leeze, angel and Rowan ( although since she has 75 on her username I am guessing she might be 36?).
I miss the 7am
) that the birth was traumatic? mine was too (or at least that's how I recall it) if you ever want to talk, I am here. I asked for my notes and that kind of helped.
