The new rolling ILX parenting thread, since the other one was getting unwieldy

Ha, youtube could open up a whole new can of cuteness on this thread.

Your boy made that shriek, and my dog's ears went up.

I know... I think my only real ILX feature request would be for embedded video.

Check these out. A friend is a photographer
http://northernskyphotography.co.uk/Bryher/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=nLGXzd4YEmw

-- schwantz

I like "ignores toys, reaches for remote" at the end :)

Lynskey - those photos are absolutely fantastic.

I'm really looking forward to be able to contribute to this thread properly.

also.... How many ILx babies being born right now???

oh, there are a few more. =)

i blame halloween sex

Thank you all.

Archel that shot is hilarious, "first we take my cot, then we take berlin", she's a breedin frenzy, congrats Alan and Emma and Mr/Mrs L!

Wow, ILXors be spawning lovely babies! It's like a natural progression from the hottness all over the WDYLL threads. (congrats to the Lynskeys and Mrs & Mrs T)

Kim? Baby?

(oh, and Kiwi too)

congrats everyone

also.... How many ILx babies being born right now???

under three months to go...

Photos are stunning, Porl

Oh yes, so so lovely! Should beg our friend to do the same. Never thought of it.

Sorry that I forgot to congratulate you, Alan! And Lynskey!

Three months to go and baby is kicking up a storm. As a result I have MAJOR case of reflux. Urgh! :-)

Ophelia is going on her first trip to her grandparents! Thom and I are nervous and excited. "What shall we do? GOOD LORD THE FREEDOM HOW WILL WE COPE!" hahah

A friend was wondering if she really HAD to wait for her 12-week scan before telling everyone she's pregnant. Do ILXors have hard-and-fast rules about this, believing you should get everything properly checked out or does everyone advocate the "blurting it out" gambit?

Just out of interest...

For our first one we decided to wait until after the scan but both confessed afterwards to telling our siblings much earlier :)

For the second we actually did manage to wait until 12 weeks, I think.

For the last one we had to tell everyone after 6 weeks as we had a bit of a scare and it's kind of hard to turn up at your mother's in tears to drop off the kids so you can get to the hospital without giving them a reason.

I think I started telling EVERYONE after a week or two. Not necessarily a wise thing to do, because the highest risk (of miscarriage) is in the first three months hence why people tend to wait until the first semester has passed. There's no hard and fast rule on this, just that, if something does go wrong, then you will have to tell your friends and/or family which makes the healing process a lot harder. This is the main reason why people tend to wait those first three months. But I think it's entirely up to the person. I couldn't wait cause I was just *beaming* and so effing proud. :-)

So in short: of course not, she can do as she pleases! :-)

With our little girl, I think we left it for more like 15/16 weeks, mainly because it all happened a bit quickly...

It's a tricky secret to keep.

one of those areas where superstition actually makes sense

So yesterday the twins saw each other for the first time. Until then, they just sort of ignored each other or just didn't "get" that there was another person there for them to play with. Ben looked at Owen, and Owen looked back, and they started smiling and giggling. This video was taken about 30 seconds later:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aG5z5dTlrIg

Brilliant!

kim wtf omg???!!!!?!!

congratulations everyone on the little ones in utero and ex utero!

Hahaha, the Kim news is starting to spread at last. ;-) (I only found out via a Facebook photo that rather gave the game away...)

Congratulations to all new parents and yay babies!

Ophelia is now two days with her grandparents (and staying till saturday). It's a very strange experience. I miss her and feel a bit strange. Of course we're taking "advantage" of the situation and going out but it's still so weird.

Kim, sorry I didn't catch on. Congrats!!!

And David, taht is SUCH a cute video! My husband came to watch it as well. So utterly cute. :-)

Congrats, all y'all!

Ben and Owen are so cute I can hardly stand it. I love the bits where they look like "oh, a new hand to put in my mouth!"

Since we're linking to Youtube, I recently made this video of Ivy charging around. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un0eiQFXP68

She's adorable (and quick!) and the end is magnificent - that wee mug!

Hehehe. Very sweet. :-)

That is some CUTE stuff.

Ivy is adorable and the video of the twins discovering one another? Oh lord - might be the best thing ever.

Oh, it's been so long since I put anything on YouTube...Ivy (lovely name; if it hadn't been taken by a friend, we might have considered that for #2) is a joy and the twins...marvellous. It's hardly a fair contest when Ava wrestles Lulu but when you've two the same size...

I can't even work out how to edit these little .avi files on our laptop, so I don't think I can be bothered waiting for 36MB of Ava dancing to a Sesame Street song to upload and I think the dancing to Propaganda on TOTP2 is too dark... I should take more video clips outside! I'll put something up tonight though.

OK - this one features Ava shouting "Crescent moon" and making Lulu laugh like a drain while Julie London plays on the stereo.

And this one from a couple of months back features both gals getting into Captain Beefheart. And dad was having a dance too.

=) no baby yet. probably at least another few weeks to go.

Dicking about in Photoshop 7.0 Curves and even a Curves plug-in for Photoshop Elements 3.0 (which kinda famously lacks Curves) means I can now spend even more time making pictures of the kids look like they were taken on film... ;)

Ava engrossed in Letter Factory (for the 26th time...)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1269/920781232_440eb2f8ac.jpg

Lulu blissing out to some coruscating digital filth:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1127/919918641_4f860eca25.jpg

I love how Lulu is just watching Ava like "say it again, say it again!" and then gets interrupted, "hello Dad! you're here, what are you doing with that thing?" and the delayed giggle when Ava starts crescent mooning again. This has totally made my day and I haven't even watched the second one yet.

And now I have - dancing with Daddy! So freakin' cute I can't handle it.

Oh, all these ilxor kids! It's so great.

Anyway, Nathalie how did you enjoy your child free week? I know we all love our kids to bits and everything but I have to say I very much enjoy the few days a year we get without them. I feel guilty a bit but the kids love it too and (I think) the grandparents do too.

At times it feels like walking with one shoe on and the other is missing. You can still walk, but, damn, it's strange. That said, we tried to make the "most of it" by going out most nights. I did enjoy the mornings: sleeping till 8:30! Woohoo! (half-jokingly) That said, I can't believe how fast time flew! She left on tuesday and tomorrow she's back. Wah?
Every day she emailed us a little message. Yeah, grandfather *typed* it. But isn't that the cutest ever? I found it so sweet of him to do this. We also called almost every day to check what she did and if everything was alright. As I expected, she enjoyed it. She went to the zoo, to her greatgrandmothers, going for walks and probably ate too many pancakes.
I enjoyed it, but I'll be happy she's back tomorrow.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1008/926662910_33621212de_o.jpg

sleeping on grandparents' bed. <3

(BTW I don't think there's ANY need to feel guilty. Of course you want some time for yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. People without children and children themselves would probably think it's a strange thing to say, but I understand. It doesn't mean you love your children any less!)

OH MAN is this thread ever making me want to have kids. I never thought I'd be like seriously hankering to have kids. We're gonna wait till we get graduate college, but man...

We're getting to go to Calistoga for 3 days/nights this coming weekend, courtesy of the mom-in-law and her sister. This will be my wife's first time away from the twins since they were born. I'm thinking we'll enjoy ourselves (we're planning on having a couple of over-the-top fancy meals and doing some wine tasting, and sleep-sleep-sleeping as much as we want!), but I'm sure we'll miss the little ones...?

In other news, we broke down today and got a bunch of gates and safety stuff. It's all pretty ugly and horrible, but... ya gotta do it, I guess.

Schwantz, I can highly recommend the Model Bakery in St. Helena for delicious treats.

guys i was just offered the interim job of manny to a <a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_lb4sYscOLw8/RmLP0i8n5nI/AAAAAAAAAI0/8KB_eHKuLiU/s1600-h/DSC00698.JPG";>2-yr-old</a>. (the parents are friends of ours.) i am an only child. i have never even had a pet. the one time i babysat her (a year ago) she basically screamed for two and a half hours except for the small period when i sang to her--then she was quiet but staring at me like wtf?

halp?

oops

Don't do it, that's IFC-style fight gear she's putting on.

On the other hand, you could duct-tape her to a chair and tell the parents "that's just manny bein' manny."

oh, i can take her. but she's got an impressive scream.

(not sure her parents know about manny r., but hiring me is a green light for the child saying 'pop')

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6920912.stm

Haven't had much time to post recently but glad all the ILX babies are doing well. Howie is great and is just learning to sit up. In a few weeks we will be starting on food which I'm looking forward to, I'm gonna try this baby-led weaning thingy 'cause he'll be 6 months and hopefully able to get to grips with finger food.

His eczema is still bad but we have a hospital appt for the end of August so hopefully some headway may be made then. Meanwhile we are co-sleeping for most of the night which does make it easier to cope with the disturbed sleep caused by his itching. Still, having been a determined 30-minute napper since about 8 weeks, he has just started having slightly longer naps (has been napping for about an hour right now). Which is nice.

Also if I can get away with a quick plug, myself and some friends with similarly non-sleeping babies have set up a blog about it at Sleep Is For The Weak,,,

meg, is he teething yet? we are waiting for 6 months before we start food too.

I wonder if any ilx parents use 'THE MAN' as a way of curbing their childs behaviour?

I hear this all the time and I think it's hilarous, but potentially damaging to the kids.

"Put that down, look, the man's coming!"

My friend has started it with her two year old girl, she says it works like a charm and so far the wee one hasn't shown any pathological fear of 'men'.

Isn't it better to teach her right and wrong yourself? I mused, but she becomes such a little angel when 'THE MAN' is around that I wonder if this is a good method after all....

We use "Leatherface is coming!" accompanied by the sound of chainsaws. If this means Ava grows up afraid of Leatherface and chainsaws, I think we've done her a favour. May lead to some difficulties when Daddy gets out the hedge trimmer though.

;)