any other over 35 first time mums?

[clio]

Borboleta--I totally agree. Why should you have another if it means twice the work? I've never understood that (or maybe it makes all the sense in the world because OHs never get how hard it is)--when men want and push for the baby, but do nothing to help with the baby. Has this started since your OH went back to work?

And see--spending a min. of $100.00 for hair straightening just goes to show you how expensive it is here in North America to get your hair done. Sigh...

 

[Storm1jet2]

Ladies I love you all, you make me laugh! Clio when I get my hair done properly at a salon it's about £80 and you know what I might just do that soon It would be nice to sit with my feet up doing nothing.

Borboleta I thought you meant screwed too, as in he was getting a really rough deal? Although screwed also means DTD over here

I should probably go to sleep now, oh and L is currently dropping naps and her middle names are June Alexandra after both grandma's, wish I hadn't bothered with the Alexandra!

 

[kosh]

Happy birthday ClIaire!
hope you had a lovely day

Got back from Mexico a couple of days ago and i'm still seriously jetlagged (6 hours difference). Looks like Gael is too, as he woke up at 2am lastnight wanting to play and read books
Not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow

Will try and catch up soon
Hope you are all ok
Xx

 

[Indigo77]

I wrote a long post & then my battery died.

I hope everyone has a good night...

 

[Borboleta]

Clio: yes, the " I think we should have another baby" started since he went back to work . And yes I meant to write screwed .

Storm: I laughed so hard when you said screwed means DTD too . After how he spoke to me yesterday he definetely was not getting screwed !!!! But just screwed as getting the bad end of the deal !!!

Kosh: glad you are back and safe. Sorry you are having to adjust to the time change. It must be hard for you and Gael. But hopefully it will all be back to normal in a couple of days . Did he sleep better in Mexico?

 

[clio]

Storm: I laughed so hard when you said screwed means DTD too . After how he spoke to me yesterday he definetely was not getting screwed !!!! But just screwed as getting the bad end of the deal !!!

lol!!!

 

[clio]

Have decided. I am going to get my hair re-coloured tomorrow. I'm going to a good hair boutique tomorrow. I'll phone around to better places to see who can get me in. I have never been so mad at my hair before. And since I see my reflection all the time, I keep on getting really mad.

But I also have to get out of here! I'm literally going insane because I can't go outside. It's not like when it's too hot, where you can at least go out for a trip to, let's say, the garage. It is impossible to leave the house unless you are completely covered, which takes time. And my lord, dressing the boy, too! So we are entirely bound to this house. I miss my home so much!!!

Kosh, do you feel the same in England? And Borboleta, is Texas much like Brazil? I'm trying to arrange a cottage trip to Muskoka (northern-ish Ontario) next summer, at the hottest point of the summer, when I can go swim in a lake all day and stay cool. I figured my mum, sister, and her little family and our little family could rent a cottage on a lake, if not this summer, then the next. I'd really like the two cousins to get to know one another.

Oh, book suggestion! I got J this one on a whim:

Lost And Found

It was so whimsical, and I didn't think J liked it at first, but turns out, he did. So, I got him these two, too:

The Way Back Home and How to Catch a Star.

J loves them. They have airplanes and martians and monsters and rockets and moons and stars and penguins and ships in them. Everything J adores. Oh, and a telescope. J can simply not get over the telescope. Do your LOs ever fixate on one strange element in a book?

Oh, and I'm currently watching The Crazy Ones. Not too bad at all. Nice and light and funny.

 

[kosh]

quick one
clio - I love Oliver Jeffers books!

 

[clio]

quick one
clio - I love Oliver Jeffers books!

Which ones do you have? I've just ordered "Up and Down" from Amazon; I didn't realize that there was another one with the penguin and the boy. It's so cute; because "Lost and Found" is the first one we got, J thinks the boy's name is "Lostandfound" and referred to him like that when we read the other books:

"Lostandfound makes ay-ay-an [alien] friend!" And, "Lostandfound climbs rope!"

OH has "North Americanized" certain words though: "gas," instead of "petrol," "flashlight" instead of "torch." OH thinks he'll get confused. I'm sitting on the fence about this. If two of you are raising your children to be bilingual, then I think J can handle "torch" and "petrol" (and do you still say "lorry"? I haven't heard that one on British TV for a long time...).

ETA: Turns out J has been wandering about with all three books this morning, first getting OH to read to him, and now me. Go Oliver Jeffers! The other ones he wanders about with are the Farmer Brown ones.

 

[Kitty_love]

Clio - that's awesome J loves his books so much! Blake is really into flipping the pages on his board books. Sometimes I'll be reading to him, and he'll crawl away, find a board book, and sit there happily flipping pages in his own book while I keep reading to him.

And that totally sucks about the hair dye job gone wrong, especially for so much money! Mine costs about $175 for dye, highlights, and cut. That happened to me once years ago, had orange-ish dots on one side of my head, I was so mad! Like you, i had to "try" someone new, and was assured she was great. I called the salon, told them what happened, how I look like a freak with random orange dots, and I was very dissatisfied! They had me come back, get it re-done by on of their top level people (plus a deep conditioner, please don't get it dyed again without this as twice in one week, especially lighter, can really damage your hair I'm told?), and they gave me a $25 gift certificate for next time. Call your salon and complain, girl!! You shouldn't have to be unhappy after spending all that time and money!

 

[Kitty_love]

Kosh - sorry about the jet lag. Hope work goes ok for you today

Storm - I don't even know what to suggest. Sounds like your oh needs a giant kick in the pants! He obviously needs someone to sit him down and tell him whats up and to grow up! Maybe it should be your dad? Does your oh respect him? And I noticed in your recent posts he is no longer dh and is now P Sorry, it made me laugh. But, seriously, if he doesn't want to help you when you are 35 weeks with a toddler and full-time job, when will he? That's what worries me. I really hope he steps it up!

Could you try making him lists? I swear some men just don't see things that need done, or they remember doing something like vacuuming a month ago and think it was yesterday! We had great success with lists when I was working full time. Then once his list was done, he was free to relax away! I have to give Dan lots of credit, though, he helped A LOT with household chores when I was pregnant.

 

[Kitty_love]

Angel - Nicky nappy!!! Awwww, I love it! After reading your post, I realized I do add a "y" to some words I say to Blake (including Blakey lol!), so maybe I should cut back on that a bit? But so many words your boys may hear are like that, right? Nappy, dummy, bunny, kitty, puppy, blankie, mummy, daddy, telly (sp?), lorry, story, etc...

I also loved hearing about Three Kings Day and your tradition. Sounds fun, are you planning to do that with the boys each year?

Borboleta - ha ha ha! So funny! Had me laughing on the screwed comment. How cold is it getting for you guys today? We're at a high of -5 F, not normal for Ohio! And our pipes froze a few days ago when it wasn't even this cold (only in one bathroom, thank goodness) so I'm expecting that fun later today.

Ok, mommy brag moment I've got to share...Blake got a dump truck (Green Toys brand) for his birthday, and he's been loving it! So the last few days when we're playing together in his room, I've said, "Can you put your stacking cup in your truck?" or "Can you put your froggy in your truck?" (little stuffed animal, uh oh, there I go again Angel with the 'y' ) And he did it!!! At first I thought it was a fluke, maybe my body language, but he's done it over 10 times over the past 3-4 days! Also, Sunday morning, I got him up in the morning, and Tabitha kitty came in his room. I said, "Look, it's Tabitha kitty, do you want to say hi?" Blake immediately turned to see Tabitha and very gently pet her head. He got a little kitty kiss on the head in return.

 

[clio]

Kitty--It sounds like Blake will be a big book person himself! Two books at once--the boy is power reading!

I would go back to the original salon, but I don't trust them! I had never been there before, and thought they were completely new because the shopping complex around them had just started to be developed (I live in a very new area of Edmonton). Turns out, they have been there for two years, and the place was empty. That was the first red flag! If they were good, it would have been full of people who go there for quality, and convenience. So I've booked an appointment with a top salon to get it redone on Wednesday. I hoped to get it done today, but none of the good ones are open on Mondays. Grrrr!

Oh, and the other warning sign: for the first time ever, a stylist has said that she couldn't match the hair colour that was growing out. All others have said "no problem" and have done a very close and excellent approximation.

Good thing to know about the conditioning! I've only had the colour re-done once, when an idiot stylist thought that I'd be concerned about my roots when it grew out (I told her I wasn't at least 3 times), and so she coloured my hair...my natural hair colour. Wha? Who would think that this is a good idea? Who would even come up with this idea?!? I went back the next day, and she did a lovely job after I showed her pictures of previous colour jobs.

Okay, now onto finding a YMCA or a city-run gym which will let me come and try out their treadmills for a few times without having to spend money on a year-long membership. I just received a new SI joint belt in the mail (my other one got all bent out of shape from constant use and began flying off at the most inopportune, and often embarrassing moments). I need to find a way to exercise during these impossible winter months! And even though walking is on the "no-no" list for my joint, it's still the thing that helped me lose the most weight, as I couldn't help but walk with the kid.

 

[SabrinaKat]

am still trying to recover from jet lag as LO is taking longer sleeps at nap time and naps for night, meaning that he wakes up at 1am until 5am....argh, so am exhausted. Hopefully, we can get it sorted tonight as I refuse to let him go to sleep any earlier tonight (before 9pm)....

and OH is home (having accepted redundancy) and not a success - e.g. he slept until 12pm, then wandered aimlessly around, telling me about jobs that he might apply for...okay, to be fair, he did take LO to creche this am and then went back to bed...and implies that my asking him to help out with LO (twice this afternoon and I only had 3 hours sleep and had to work today) meant he couldn't apply for some jobs, etc (all gone within those 10 to 15 minutes, I guess) and I had to clean the kitchen, but at least, he was able to....?

aargh!

LO is now eating non-toxic crayons and I am falling asleep, but OH is impatient to get back to the new laptop (which he has not moved downstairs to the living room, where the old laptop is)...that means that HE got a new smart phone, a new tablet and new laptop, but me....? nothing....growl, not even a 'laptop' for LO!

hugs!

 

[clio]

am still trying to recover from jet lag as LO is taking longer sleeps at nap time and naps for night, meaning that he wakes up at 1am until 5am....argh, so am exhausted. Hopefully, we can get it sorted tonight as I refuse to let him go to sleep any earlier tonight (before 9pm)....

and OH is home (having accepted redundancy) and not a success - e.g. he slept until 12pm, then wandered aimlessly around, telling me about jobs that he might apply for...okay, to be fair, he did take LO to creche this am and then went back to bed...and implies that my asking him to help out with LO (twice this afternoon and I only had 3 hours sleep and had to work today) meant he couldn't apply for some jobs, etc (all gone within those 10 to 15 minutes, I guess) and I had to clean the kitchen, but at least, he was able to....?

aargh!

LO is now eating non-toxic crayons and I am falling asleep, but OH is impatient to get back to the new laptop (which he has not moved downstairs to the living room, where the old laptop is)...that means that HE got a new smart phone, a new tablet and new laptop, but me....? nothing....growl, not even a 'laptop' for LO!

hugs!

Again--how do they not see this as unfair? It is such common sense that if both parties work, then childcare duties should be equal. And now, the balance should fall his way, I should think. I'm sorry, SK!

I can't remember--why did your OH take redundancy?

 

[clio]

Kitty--Yay Blakey! Smart little cookie! I love hearing about milestones. It's like watching all of our kids grow up.

 

[kosh]

sorry ladies, this will be a self-centered post but I need help/support!

Had my first day back at work yesterday. At midday got an email asking to confirm if/when I will be attending to a very important conference/meeting.
In Germany.
5 days.

I'd try if it was one night, but 5 days? I know I can't do it, and I know that Gael (and DH) wouldn't cope without me.
I just don't know what to do or how to handle it!
It's a really important meeting and I know I am expected to go, and will look really bad if I say no. If this were my old job they would understand, but this is a new job and I am supposed to be earning 'brownie' points not being difficult!

I feel awful. I feel I can't deliver what it is expected of me at work. I feel my current life as a parent is actually not compatible with my new job, and that I should not have taken it.

And I feel it's all my fault, my parenting choices, the lack of support....


and I keep getting these emails reminding me to register for the conference, arghhhhhh

 

[AngelUK]

Oh dear you poor thing kosh! Is there no way you can take G and OH with you? What a horrid situation! Sorry I have no better advice but I don't think you made wrong decisions. It was this job or none back then and naturally you had to take it! You are a great mum! Sending tons of

 

[Borboleta]

Quick one:

Kosh: I agree with angel. Can you take them with you? 5 days is a long time to be away from G. I couldn't do it either.

Thiago is up since 4:15am this morning!!! I went to go get him at 5:45am and it is now 6:45am and we are just finishing with breakfast. He has been very clingy and crabby the past 2'days. I have a feeling is his molars since his finger now has moved in to the back of his mouth.

Talk to you ladies later.

 

[SabrinaKat]

clio - OH took redundancy due to a huge change in both hours and job description, and he got enough to tide us over for a year+. Today, the 'scanner' on my printer was broken, but it wasn't and after a tirade of 'we need a new printer', I scanned the document, showed him what to do and then reminded him to say 'thanks'...

kosh - can you take OH and LO? I absolutely understand how conflicted (and annoyed) you are - if they didn't tell you about the need for attendance at conferences (not one day ones, but longer ones!) before you applied or were offered the job, then you can't be criticised for being upset.

LO is trying to climb over the sofa (literally), so much run!

bye!