Pregnancy annoyances

I tell you, we women get the weirdest physical problems when we're pregnant. I won't go into too many details, as it might frighten those of you who've never had a baby into never wanting one. But I can say that it could possibly cause things like losing our hair, getting weird pigment on your face (called a birthmask), spider veins, cracked nipples, etc. All very unpleasant.

Anyway, I'm dealing with my own pregnancy annoyances at the moment. No, I do not look like a rackoon and my nipples do not resemble the sahara desert. But whatever my problems are....they really are a pest. First I am told not to exercise, but to sit and lie down as much as possible. Now it turns out that I should not be sitting down or standing still, but that I should be doing light exercise after all. Anyway, whatever I do these days I'm uncomfortable. That's all I will share about that for now. Just wanted you to know that I'm rather fed up at the moment.

What else is going on here? Well, Lucas has been changing his mind about pre-school rather frequently these days. He's now at the point where he hates it when he has to go by himself (up to the point where we are unable to leave him there, as he cries the whole morning), but loves it when he goes with his little friend Emelda. That could prove to be a problem in itself as Emelda was crying like hell today at pre-school and was hitting the head teacher. So God knows if she still wants to continue going. Oh well.... we will see. Toddlers are simply unpredictable creatures.

By the way, if any of you out there are parents.....check out the book "How to talk so kids will listen and how to listen so kids will talk". It is brilliant! I read it once before and thought that the authors came up with some interesting ideas and suggestions about parenting. But now that Lucas is getting older, I have been able to read it again and put some of those "interesting" suggestions actually into practice. And it is amazing how effective they are.

For instance, when Lucas goes on and on about something that he wants (and that he can't have), I used to tell him why he couldn't have it. If he then started whining and/or started throwing a tantrum, I would fight with him and put him on "the naughty chair". The whole thing was one big struggle and we would both end up feeling angry and annoyed. The new technique that I have learned from this book is strangely simple (and surprisingly effective). We simply write a list of the things that Lucas wants and stick it on the fridge. The bizare thing is that that is all we need to do. Once the list is up there, he is happy. It's the same with sweets that he can't have right now. We simply write his name on the packaging so no one will take it and that's it. He'll then be happy to eat an apple instead (knowing that he can eat the sweets tomorrow, for instance). Anyway, that's just one example. The book is full with little suggestions like that.
Enough rammbling for today (sorry if I have bored non-parents with this posting)