h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello Slapper,

Sorry I didn't reply yesterday, I was about, but rather drunk (so unlike me in the afternoon!)
Oh God I'm sorry to hear you and the family are all ill , we say it time and time again, but you feel for your kids so much when you see them suffering with a nasty cold or anything like that.
I hope you all have a speedy recovery.

You are brave opting for a real xmastree with charlotte about. We thought about it, but kids and pine needles just seemed too much of a nightmare. So I dug the artificial one out the loft. It looks naff, but Charlie thinks it's "the most beautiful tree in the world" Awww

He had his birthday party on Sunday, fantastic day. I put in my appearance as santa (only sussed by three older kids) and the clown we got in was pretty good too.

We also went to a kids panto, jack and the bean stalk, for one of Charlies little playmate's birthdays. It was hysterical. When the villain came on Charlie panicked, came rushing upto mum and dads lap, and sat there trembling saying he wanted to go home. 5 minutes later he was shouting "Its behind you!" louder than any kid there, and singing along and dancing to all the songs. Adorable!

Sorry you've had to endure more tests at the hozzy, any results yet?
And I'll ignore that remark about male pain thresholds! Cheeky moo !

Grace has been sleeping very well lately, no red cheeks, but still no signs of teeth popping through. Keeping the heating on at night seems to help her alot. I guess summer babies just get used to it being warm.

You reply whenever you get a chance. Hope I didn't upset SDM too much by posting "where's my wife" I hope he doesn't dissaprove of you talking to weird blokes like me.

I've just started chatting with Terri and Yoda, who I believe are friends of yours too. Cool

Oh and lately work have been tightening up on what we look at on the net at work, so should I suddenly dissapear, feel free to email me at [email protected]

Cheers.
Get well soon
Si

Hello Si

Drunk? in the afternoon? good god man... anyone would think it was Christmas or something

We are all mending slowly at this end. Charlotte made my day today when she crawled into bed with me following her morning bottle and promptly had a coughing fit resulting in me, her, the bed and duvet being puked on... and I mean projectile . It wasn't quite the start I wanted to my day, still I changed her, the bed and finally me, and we went back to sleep for a couple of hours to recover. Kids, you've gotta love 'em!

The real christmas tree is not as scarey as it sounds. Firstly it's a Nordmann (the type with the fat flexible round tipped pines) and hardly drops at all. In fact, last years is still covered in pines at the bottom of the garden (composting perhaps?). The other thing is that our living room is two rooms knocked into one. We have divided it back into two with a barrier (from mothercare) so one end is thoroughly baby proofed, the other end has the dining table etc and the tree will be in that grown up end. She can see it, but not climb it... cruel I know, but hey, life's like that

I bet Charlie is really loving everything to do with Christmas, it certainly sounds that way. I can't wait to take Charlotte to see a panto. We used to take my mum pre-baby as something to do on boxing day, but soon we can take our own, real life ankle biter we are spoiled for choice around here with Wimbledon, Richmond and Woking theatres all easily accessible. Wimbledon and Richmond both have excellent pantos and Tony's work does the printing for Wimbledon so we tend to get free seats so that is pretty good!

I'm glad to hear Grace is doing so well again. Charlotte is a summer baby too and always sleeps better when she is snug and warm. It makes sense really doesn't it?

Nothing back from the hospital until February now I shouldn't imagine with regard to my tests. That'll be a year since I first went. Nice to know they don't rush their diagnosis though

Well, it's getting to be time for me. SDM is guarding the baby and I'm getting some mummy alone time at 2am. Still, it's nice to get online without worrying she is going to climb out of her cot (yes, she has started doing that now the ). BTW, SDM found it highly amusing to find a thread "where's my wife" he rang me and told me about it. He keeps an eye on my postings from time to time when I can't get online so I know that all is well with my chums and if I'm going to need to burn the midnight oil to catch up

So you've met Terri & Yoda too? she's a really nice person to chat to, very friendly and thoughtful. We have a dodgy neurological system in common too!

Well, if you do disappear from my screen, don't think you will get away that easily... I will e-mail you - after all, how will I know what happens next with the little green dragon or whatever else Charlie is up to?

When do you break-up for Christmas? (sounds like school doesn't it?) In case it is tomorrow (Friday) then I'll take this opportunity to say that I hope you, Clare, Charlie and Grace have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year

Speak soon (I hope)

Slapper

Morning Slapper
Glad you are slowly on the mend.
Yuck about that projective vomit, especially all over the bedclothes, they do pick the best moments don't they. Poor Charlotte.

Good idea about separating your rooms like that, we've got a through lounge too, but Charlie was never an adventurous kid so let him go anywhere but the kitchen or stairs really. Got a feeling Grace is another story! She is already trying to climb out of her cot! at 8 months! I've had to lower it twice. She is so desperate to walk.

Charlie is So into christmas, still don't think he understands what will happen on xmas eve, but so far everytime he sees santa he gets a toy, so he's been a hit to say the least. Last night was funny, every year they have a santas parade round our road, just collecting money for charity on a float with a guy dressed as santa and carol singers etc. Well they came last night, and santa actually came to the door to collect the money from charlie. We got back indoors and Charlie said "daddy, he forgot to give me my present!" LMAO

Glad SDM saw the funny side of my cheeky post. Well it is your name isn't it ?
Terri & Yoda is very sweet, and sounds like she is also sharing your nasty cold at the moment She asked me to remind you about sending her your address for a xmas card.
I'd love to send you one too, but I hope a virtual seasonal wish will suffice this year. Merry Xmas from Me, Clare and the kids

Glad you want to be kept upto date about the green dragon, he helped Thomas the tank engine rescue santa and a reindeer last night. Completely charlie's made up story, nothing even suggested by me, I kid you not.
Then I told him the tale of the boy who cried wolf, which he found highly amusing, think I've planted a naughty idea in his head whoops!
Oh and then he told me a story about everyone he could think of, and a big car, and the car ran them over, and that was it! Sounds worrying, but before bed we had been playing cars and running over plastic dinosoars as you do

Break up for xmas!!!! are you having a giraffe! I work in a bank, therefore I get Bank holidays Saved a few days hol to take off the 27th and the 2 days before new year, so I get about a week off i think. but I'll be here until xmas day

Keep recovering, santa doesn't like snotty stockings you know!

G'day Si

Poor you, no lovely long holiday break then . On the bright side at least we are not all in the States where two weeks off per annum is standard and Christmas is one day! Tony's employers are gits on the holiday front. He gets three weeks over the year plus Christmas. This year he finishes on the 24th (a full day too!). How long he gets depends on what days of the week Christmas day and Boxing day fall on - still at least this year he doesn't go back until the 6th.

To get us in the festive mood, we had carol singers tonight! two 13 year olds howling 'we wish you a merry christmas'. Tony told them they were crap and gave them 50p to go away. He sounded like scrooge! Still, when he went to collect our supper, he caught up with the lads further up the road and explained he hadn't meant to sound quite so horrible and gave them another £1. I think they could have taken far more abuse for that much!

Did you had a good weekend? hopefully by the time you read this, ours will have been. Saturday, the tree is delivered, then we will be off to the shops to pick up a few last minute pressies for Charlotte. Luckily we have an excellent little toyshop in our high street so I don't have to schlep into town which is tantamount to traversing hell at this time of year!

Hopefully we will be seeing the Lord of the Rings film on saturday night (if I can book any tickets). We both read the book as kids (and many times since) so thoroughly enjoyed the first one. Then Sunday will be spent dressing the tree and making the house as festive as possible within the realms of reasonable good taste. I know that once Charlotte is old enough my colour co-ordinated christmasses will be a thing of the past, so I am making the most of it this year .

Charlies stories sound great, and him telling you what happens seems to be working out really well. Have you been making notes in case he questions you later, or do you have a good enough memory to bail yourself out? Grace is sounding like Charlotte on the adventurous front, I think it's a girl thing. Our next door neighbours have three kids, two boys (7 and 4 I think) and a girl (2) she really rules the roost with the boys completely dominated by her! they are really lovely children but Megan really is the boss... perhaps girls are just naturally more adventurous at an early age, while boys catch up and then overtake a bit later?

Oh well, it's time for me now. I'll speak to you soon.

Slapper

Good morning Slapper the red nosed old dear

Oh please don't feel sorry for me being stuck in the office over xmas. No one does any work, we just drink drink drink. Actually thaat doesn't sound too different from the other 270 working days we have, but there's no work to be done at all over xmas.

We had carol singers last night. two angellic 6 year olds, alone! at 9.15 PM. As sweet as they were I was so shocked at them being so young and out so late, thate they got an earful for not being tucked up in bed. I think thier parent was driving along beside them in the road, but all our houses are set back quite a bit. BAh Humbug!

Having got all the xmas shopping done (or rather Clare got it done) in November, we totally chilled out this weekend. Had a few freinds round dropping off presents. We took the kids swimming and had the pool to ourselves, and Sunday Clare and I saw two towers
Did you get to see it? Totally amazing wasn't it. I've also read the books untold times, I'm a big fan, and the films are just perfect to how I imagined them. Clare spent three hours going week at the knees at Aragorn! lol.

Charlie helped us dress our tree this year, and it looks, hmm interesting! make the most of the co-ordination and adult control of the decorations you have. In a years time you'll have no chance!

Erm, I hate to break this to you, but us boys are dominated by you girl all our lives! We just like to pretend to be big once we hit puberty. I agree girls are alot more adventurous, something we are learning the hard way. Grace did a swan dive off the bed yesterday :/ Clare put her right in the middle, surrounded by clothes and cusions while we got dressed, and she did a commando tumble and roll right off the edge All ok though, didn't cry for more than 10 seconds, much to our relief.
Seriously with charlie, you could balance him on a cliff edge and leave him for a week and he wouldn't have moved an inch as a baby.
Very different characters, but that adds to the excitement and fun of being a parent.

Yo! drunk bloke!

Sounds like a good weekend was had by one and all .

Poor Grace though! She sounds just like Charlotte, completely
lacking the "whoops! that could be dangerous; I'd better not do that" gene The number of times Charlotte has leapt from the bed, the sofa, the bookcase... Oh well, be brave, get some arnica cream and go with it It's just as well Charlie is sensible, they can balance each other out a bit

We did go to see the Two Towers on Saturday night... it was excellent wasn't it? I was a bit concerned by Gollum initially as I thought he looked a bit computer animated (yeah, I KNOW he is, but he doesn't have to look it), but after a minute or two he seemed completely realistic (I was concerned there may be a Ja Ja Binks scenario (or whatever his name was). Star Wars fans are still recovering from that one). I can't wait for the Return of the King... mmm, more Aragorn, yum yum!

Anyway, you will be glad to hear that we are all recovering more now, I've still got a really sore throat and husky voice which goes from Soprano to Tony Soprano in the space of a sentance which is a little disconcerting perhaps, but at least when I nag Tony it will seem more interesting. Charlotte and Tony seem much better though which is a huge relief.

Well, once again, have a very happy Christmas and I may catch up with you over Christmas if you are about. Have fun!

Slapper

Ho Ho HO Slapper,

Merry Christmas!

Glad you enjoyed the two towers as much as we did, and I agree totally with your Gollum comment, within seconds he became so lifelike any concerns I had evaporated. In fact I'd be hard pushed to spot more than a couple of places in the film that looked comperterified. Considering the battle scenes and armies they created that's some feat.

Last night Clare and her sister were debating who was sexier Legolas or Aragorn. They both ended up opting for both, simulataneously, with Gimli filling any left over spaces! You girls have a one track mind!

Glad to hear you are all nearly better, it's a nasty time of year to be ill. I had the worst cold of my life in xmas 1999 when Charlie was born, being snotty really spoils the xmas spirit.

Hope santa brings you everything a good girl like you deserves, and that Tony gets his bells jingled

Ho Ho Ho
Simon the silly

Happy New Year!

2003! blimey, time marches on doesn't it? How was Christmas? Did Santa bring lots of pressies for you all, can you still afford to live?

We had a good Christmas at this end, lots of pressies for Charlotte (her favourite is the Baby Pom Fimble), in fact we had to stagger the opening over three days! She was entranced by the tree (the real one) and the fibre(sp?) optic one. She has loved her advent calendars (especially the chocolate Tweenies one) and seems to have thoroughly enjoyed the whole yuletide experience. Her only doubts were on new years eve as the battle of somme started at 6pm and went on until 1am. Both her and the cat were a little surprised by the level of firework noise.

How is everyone at your end? Hopefully all well with no further colds/teething/any other ailments. Charlotte still has a vile cough, sounds like she smokes 60 Marlborough a day and is teething horribly too, still, she is very cheerful most of the time, it is only at night that these things seem to bother her.

Tony and I celebrated the new year with a bottle of Bollinger and pop ding meal from M & S... we know how to live! Did you and Clare do anything much for new years? We are not confident to use a baby sitter we do not know well yet (i.e. my mum or the childminder) and my mother took herself down to a luxury health farm from the 28th to the 1st so she was no use to us, hence our pop dings!

Anyway, let me know how you all are, and once again Tony, Charlotte and I wish you, Clare, Charlie and Grace a very happy, healthy and propsperous new year!

Slapper

Slappy New Year!

Hiya Mrs,
Sounds like you all had a good one.
What did you and Tony get each other for xmas?
I can no longer afford to eat, drink or even breathe, as Clare went totally bonkers and spent a grand on a rather tasteful new wristwatch for me I am chuffed to bits, and really don't deserve such luxuries. It kinda put the breadmaker I bought her to shame, oh and the skirt I got her wasn't the one she liked, but she took it back and exchanged it for cash to spend on herself (phew!)

Charlie and Grace got tons of toys, we really don't know where to put them all, we have a castle set up in our conservatory, a tracy island on the dinning room table and all manner of toys in every nook and cranny we can find. It was a little overwhelming for Charlie really, we might have to stagger things a bit more next year.

Sorry to hear little C still has her cold , thankfully mine are all right as rain, although I am still suffering from a monster hangover 2 days after new years eve

I love your 'pop ding meal' phrase, not heard that before, made me chuckle. To be honest it's nice to bring in the new year with just the two of you when the kids are young, nice time to reflect on how much your lives have changed since having kids.
We all went to stay with some friends, had a whale of a time. Charlie didn;t quite make it staying up til midnight, but he tried his best bless him.
Both Grace and Charlie behaved very well in company, so I'm a super proud dad.
Just a pity I'm back at work now, I was enjoying the time off so much. Only 2 days til the weekend though.

Just so you know, I might not be on h2g2 much, going to try and actually do some work for once (got a new boss to impress before pay rise time)
But feel free to email me ok, I still want to carry on chatting with you Karen, it's just the rest of h2g2 is far too distracting and eats up too much of my time.
[email protected]

Wishing you, Tony and Charlotte every happiness in the comming year.
Si, Clare & the munchkins
xxx