MSE Newborn to 1 year (& beyond!) baby club 3

continualdiamond

Nice to see the thread is a bit more active.

I don't have much to say either. LO is now 11 months old and have just sorted out a cake for her bday. OH and I are both off on her bday now (a Monday). I managed to swap a day at work and OH then put in a holiday. Going to be just the 3 of us and trying to work out what we could do, probably go to the zoo or something, all of course weather dependent.

Been back at work for 2 weeks but LO has gone back to the beginning in terms of crying when I drop her off and pick her up. The 6 week break did her no favours so definitely going to send her for her 3 days every school holidays, even if it is for a shorter time. Our nursery only allows you to drop to 1 day a week in the big 6 weeks holidays anyway. So thought I'd probably send her 9-3 or something.

About to head off to a music class, followed by swimming. Should be interesting as she's been up since 7am and is currently refusing to nap (been in her cot for 45mins) and all she's done is chatted away.

Have a nice day everyone.

fran-o

Ooh I do have some news actually... We booked for Centre Parcs for next month
Going to the one in longleat and will mainly just take it easy, walk and swim... We won't be doing archery/ climbing/ orienteering with our 8mo baby! Can't wait. Hubby and I really need some relaxed time off together as my sleep deprivation has turned me into a ratbag and we're just not having much fun together lately.

katiechoc_2

Ooh Fran-o Longleat is AMAZING! Are you going to the safari park? Its honestly brilliant. I think they now have Postman Pat land or something or other too for the kiddies. We've got some vouchers for it so planning on taking a break down there soon hopefully.

Had another positive text from play school to say he's sat doing magnetic letters and numbers with the staff so feeling very reassured. Its OH's bday today too so we're going to pick him up and head off to the seaside for the afternoon when he finishes at playschool. I SO want to win a Minion out of the grabbers at the arcades, I've got a pretty good record on them - got most of the cast of Super Mario over the last year or two at various places so fingers crossed!

*Nutella*

sunshine_1988 wrote: »

At the moment A is insistent on taking a toy to nursery. Yesterday it was a happy land pirate and unfortunately it got left behind as the girls forgot to put it back in his bag. They do ask you not to take personal toys for that very reason but it was the only way I could get him out of the house on time! When he realised we had not come home with Mr Pirate it was meltdown central. It didn't help he was tired which made him all the more emotional!! Luckily we retrieved pirate this morning and I am really hoping he realises it is not a good plan to take toys to nursery now!

My LO's nursery has a genius way of dealing with toys from home along with any other random items that the children bring in (this morning, my LO arrived with two conkers from the park ). They have a 'show and tell' box, where the children put their items, and once they've finished breakfast and tidied away dishes and Weetabix ready to start to day, they all sit down together and talk about what day it is, what the weather is like and then they get the show and tell box out. They all look at what's in the box, pass it round and talk about it. Means everyone's random item gets some attention, but nothing gets lost or broken, as it then goes back in the box until the end of the day

*Nutella*

delain wrote: »

Both my younger 2 have a thing about snails I'm really glad to read that and know it's not just a family thing :rotfl:

It definitely isn't! :rotfl:My LO shares her interest in snails with a couple of little boys at the nursery - the moment they step into the garden, they run off looking for snails. You really wouldn't want to be a snail living in a nursery garden though - they get poked a lot

dizziblonde

Mine's obsessed with spiders at the moment - since she spotted the cobwebs on the plants at the front of the house and I told them the spider was trying to catch his breakfast she's been absolutely fascinated.

I promised a princess dressing up dress shopping trip tomorrow - someone is absolutely smitten with Frozen and apparently you can only sing the one line of Let it Go you know while sat on the potty wearing a tiara.

continualdiamond

Evening all.

Have come on here to ask for peoples thoughts if you don't mind.

I'm in a bit of a pickle. For those we don't know/forgot my stupid MIL wrote us a letter about how she felt in April and used the word 'doomed' to describe my relationship with them. Ever since I haven't known how to act around them or been overly bothered about seeing them.

She got all upset and decided we needed to clear the air (basically = me just agreeing to everything and her of course not being at fault at all).

Hubby doesn't see his mum's side of the family so I have never met them. When she came round for a chat I said how it was so lovely to see LO have family around her (meaning all of mine in Australia when we went on holiday). She bought up the fact that her family would love to see LO as well as saying I only had 3 immediate family in Perth so it wasn't a big deal (big deal my *** it's my mum, dad and sister so it's a HUGE deal).

Me being all nice said LO could met her side of the family and I'd go along so she wouldn't get upset. So did my part today and after a pathetic time frame of 11 years met my hubby's grandad and his aunty and LO at 11 months old met them as well.

Hubby still refuses to see them and I respect that but it kinda makes me think I've done my bit now if MIL wants LO to still see them she'll have to take them on her own as I'm not suddenly 'popping' round and being all family friendly.

What do you think?

My relationship with my inlaws is never going to be the same as a result of this letter. MIL mentioned how it would be nice if we popped in if we were near them, well we never really are as places we tend to go at the weekend are not in their direction and then they asked if they could pop round after work some nights....who does that....(maybe that's just me being funny).

Hubby agreed to that which made me mad as I pick LO up from nursery at 4:30pm, then got here at 6:00pm at which LO was having a nap (she always does after nursery) and at 6:15pm they put pressure on hubby to wake LO up so he did and then FIL didn't like it that she was crying (ummm what do you expect). They stayed until 8:30pm, hubby and I hadn't had any tea. It was just annoying.

They again changed their minds to looking after her a few evenings ago which = us not being able to go to an evening wedding reception.

So am I being reasonable with thinking this visit today is the one and only and if MIL wants LO to see her dad she can but without me going along anymore?

(All of this makes me sooo wanna move back to Australia when my family amazingly actually get along)

*Nutella*

CD, I'm in no way going to pretend that I know what it feels like to be in your situation, so you might find what I'm about to say inappropriate, in which case feel free to ignore me.... But since you asked: I would try to (easier said than done I know) set aside adult egos and dislikes and all that and try to see things from your LO's perspective. I know she's too young to have an opinion, but she's not too young to pick up on tension and frustration, nor is she too young to build relationships.

I have no family in this country, and neither does my OH. Seeing how much LO loves spending time with her grandparents when we do see them (3 x per year) makes me wish so much that she could have this interaction on a more regular basis. You don't have that option with your family in Australia, but you do with your OH's family. You can choose to continue thinking about 'what MIL wants' or you can focus on what's best for your LO and what she might want. I would think through a couple of different scenarios and then fast forward a few years and have a good guess at which option your LO would have preferred. That's not to say that your sanity's not important, nor that you should be a pushover (definitely set some ground rules, and don't rely on them for childcare), but I do think it's sad that your LO is potentially missing out on forming relationships with the family members that you do have regular access to - I would bend over backwards and then some for my LO to have that. But I realise that you may well feel that you've already done that, so apologies if you think I'm being unreasonable. I do hope you find a way forward that you can all live with, whatever that looks like. Sending you a big hugx

continualdiamond

Thank you very much Nutella and big hugs to you as well. Thank you sooo much for your reply, really appreciate it.

I guess my problem is being stuck in the middle with myself and LO visiting MIL's dad etc and my hubby not being part of it. He refuses to have anything to do with them, having not seen or spoken to any of them since 2000. I have lived here since 2003 and of course yesterday for the 1st time met hubby's grandad and 1 of his aunties.

Hubby didn't even visit his grandma when she was dying, this was a good 3-4 years ago maybe. I really tried to encourage him to visit but he didn't .

I just feel a lot of pressure as it's all down to me if LO visits this side of the family, at the moment anyway and of course I do not know them so I myself would be forming a relationship with them without hubby ever coming along with me.

Tough, tough, tough.

Hope everyone is having a good day. I'm off to tackle the garden now.

Mrshaworth2b

Hello ladies,

I've been checking back but it's been very very quiet. I guess most of our los are of an age where they keep us busy and on the go a lot more.

I love reading what all your los are up to and how you are all doing. I'm glad your all well.

Cd - it's a real tough situation your in, I suppose your oh doesn't find it an issue whether your lo is in his aunties, grandad etc life because he doesn't feel he needs to be in theirs either. So its hard because you are stuck in the middle wanting to do the "right" thing.

In regards to your in laws, they don't sound like they've made much of an effort with your lo, personally this would really bother me because I couldn't imagine why they wouldn't want to be there as much as they could but each to their own. I would say don't push it, if they want to make the effort, they will and if they don't then no doubt they will be the ones to regret it down the line.

Turning into a mammoth post.

My lo is 18 months in a couple of days which blows my mind. He's on the go all the time, constantly making noises and the tantrums are here but I can cope with them. He's saying new words each and every day which is very exciting. He heard me call his daddy by his name and now repeats it instead of calling daddy. Naughty!!

Question - lo has now got into stories in books however we only really have 3 books of a story, and they are getting VERY VERY boring after being read all day. So can you suggest any that your los love?