Meow you are speaking my language  so I know what you're saying.  She is certainly very proud and is a wonderful nana to Gabrielle, but the comparison thing grates me - especially when she says that she "gets annoyed" when another baby is doing something that Gabrielle isn't.  It doesn't annoy me because I never did the comparison thing.  My MIL thinks Gabrielle is prettier than everyone elses baby that she has ever clapped eyes on, and while it's lovely, I'm not sure all grandmothers out there would agree with her!!  But hey, she hasn't yet said that Gabrielle is "too fat", the words she chooses are "well covered"!!

What a bloody awful thing to say to you!!!  God - how long are they with you for again?  I didn't think babies overate anyway.  They only eat what they need to and don't gorge themselves.  Anyway - I would much rather see a healthy, bonnie baby than not.  If your MIL has anything to do with it, your poor wee baby is going to end up with an eating disorder!!

My MIL yesterday said to me that she got so annoyed when her friends grandson could pick the colours of the crayons.  If his nana said "pass me the red crayon" he would pick out the red one and pass it to her.  So now she's on a mission to teach Gabrielle the colours.  I got really annoyed because Gabrielle is doing just fine and is progressing naturally so I pointed out to her that this little boy is about 4 months older than Gabrielle so to cut her some slack and not pressurise her into stuff (she's only 20 months old and this other little boy is 2 yrs old).  Crikey - I don't want her growing up feeling incompetent. GRRRR   Sure I want her to learn colours, but not because MIL is running her own little competition about who has the best and cleverest grandchild.

My daughter is now 19 months old.  My MIL said to me about the dress (and don't forget the matching rompers) that when she out grows it next summer, she can just add longer straps on it because she still has plenty of that fabric left.  Oh Yay I said!!!

At least the straps will still match the dress because she wouldn't have worn it often enough for the dress (and matching rompers) to fade!!  I laugh now but if only you could see it!!

Newmum - you have cured my Monday-itis with that list of annoying things.  I think because I can totally visualise my MIL saying stuff like that.

My MIL means really well but yes - I go insane at the littlest thing.  They are wonderful to our daughter but she has this knack of making me feel totally incompetent.  She feels the need to point out every scratch, itchy bite, bruise, broken nail, mark, cough, runny nose as if I didn't already know about it.  Talk about make me feel like I'm not looking after her precious grand-daughter!  Then the outfits she makes for her are something from the 70's because she has had the pattern and the fabric for 28 years.  She then thinks we're ungrateful because we are not leaping all over the show with joy at this FABULOUS new outfit!  She only wears them when she is going around there.  Even my partner struggles to put his little girl in these dresses (with the matching bloomers)!

Sorry - I could go on for ages but the last thing (for now) is they have been giving her juice to drink.  Although diluted, now all my daughter asks for is juice when she used to be such a good water drinker.  So now because I won't give her juice all the time, we have tanties.  GRRR!

• "oooh we can clean your house together Ana"
• you know we will spoil Joey so much he will be terrible for you to get back in to any routine when we leave"
• he's overweight. We will have to work on that when I come"
• Don't forget the christening. I will bring my cake recipes as they are nicer than yours"
• can I really swap euros into NZ$ there? Do you have banks that do that? Should I bring US$ instead?"