Pickle

I'd take a mixture of powdered and ready made milk. A few small toys for the plane and a sippy cup for water to keep her entertained. A spare top is a good idea, I always take a change of clothes for me when I travel to NZ, and they were useful on our way home in August when my baby had a reaction to something she ate! I'll swap your 7 hour flight with 1 baby for my 26 hours of travel with 3 children under 6 in just over two weeks time. Deal?

Surely nurseries are switched on enough to this sort of thing for it to not be down to sitting round in a dirty nappy? I'd be pretty annoyed if it was this, as it's a pretty basic part of looking after children! I would tend towards looking at dietary factors. Baby Pickle loves raisins and grapes, but they don't love her bottom. Ditto raspberries, and she would eat a whole punnet given free rein. Even if I change her immediately when her nappy is dirty, she gets red after eating these fruits.

I did Xmas at our house when my older kids were nearly 2, and 7 months (not sure what I was thinking ). We had similar nap times, so ended up starting our meal at around 1ish, meaning that when the kids got up they could come and join us at the table and have some nibbles/wear hats etc, and I'd had a chance to eat my meal in relative peace. They then had leftovers for their dinner later on. I'm having a kiwi Christmas this year, a lot simpler due to warm weather - we still have turkey, but with boiled new potatoes etc so the logistics of the oven are much easier!

I'm still using the bottles that came with the mop, haven't looked into it yet x

At least you got a bit of notice - I had my son tell me, 5 mins before we were due to walk out the door (earlier this year), that he needed an elf costume. Can't help, but sympathise, I'm not a fancy dress fan!

I've only used it to clean a patch of carpet (nasty dog poo/shoe incident) and it did the job well, not sure I'd ever do much more than that with it on carpet.

We used them to recarpet our downstairs double reception rooms, upstairs hallway and two flights of stairs, and the service was great. Their price was competitive and they did a great job. After laying our reception room carpet one of the guys noticed a (tiny, I never would have noticed it) flaw near a corner of the room, and they took the whole lot up and replaced it. Thumbs up from our household.

Yes, I love my Vax steam mop. You can eat your dinner off my floor, which is lucky as I tend to recycle all the bits that youngest Pickle throws there ;-) Every two weeks I use it with detergent and the rest of the time steam only. Enjoy!

Hi Sellena, Are you offering her food before milk? If so, I would switch it - so milk first, then food afterwards. At this stage it is the milk that is more important, as it contains far more nutritional goodness than early weaning foods do. It's easy to get carried away and up the quantities of solids too quickly. When I weaned each of my kids I took it pretty slowly, and didn't up them to 3 meals a day until around 8 months, at which point I introduced lunch as well as solids at breakfast and dinner time. My baby is 10 months now, but still has milk before breakfast (usually quite a big feed) as well as quick feeds before lunch and dinner and a long feed before bed. Good luck.

Cazz, you've fallen victim of the Lounge! Try posting your request in the wanted section, where you'll get responses that make sense :-)

It's possible, but only if those skills have been worked on by a parent or at a nursery etc. My older kids went to a cr?che a few hours a week where they gently exposed them to phonics, so both were able to recognise and write their names prior to starting school nursery at 3.5. From what I've seen, at reception age there is a huge variation in their reading/writing skills, and that's completely normal, so dont worry!

The wheel problem is a common one, but you just contact Bugaboo and they send out some washers, which fixes them completely. We have a Bee+, which we bought for the arrival of our third child in January. It has been brilliant, ticks all the boxes for us. With previous prams (Cameleon, followed by a Phil n Teds double) we have needed a second stroller to use for travel etc, but haven't needed this with the Bee. It was brilliant and cosy when our baby was born, with the cocoon, and is now equally as good in the cold weather with a footmuff and sheepskin seat liner. Very easy to manoeuvre, compact, lightweight. A winner for us.

Ha ha Otta, you could be right. In fact I read it on the East Dulwich Forum, so it MUST be true. ;-)

Yes, I've just noticed mine is down, I'm near Goodrich School.

I think this thread is a bit extreme. While I feel for the original poster, and agree it shouldn't have happened, I really don't think this cafe is as anti-babies/kids as is being made out. I was there today with my baby, and was very surprised that the place was empty at 10:30am. I've been there with larger noisy groups and never felt unwelcome. A group of Mums with small babies arrived as I was leaving and appeared to be getting service with a smile. Playing devil's advocate, I think if you enter a cafe with a smile on your face and willing to treat the staff with respect, most of the time you get the same treatment back. This doesn't just apply to parents, it applies to everyone. When I said thank you to the man emptying my recycling bin yesterday he told me I had made his day, as most of the time he gets people scowling at him for blocking the pavement/road etc. Anyway, I like the Gardens. I've said before that sometimes service can be slow (it wasn't today, but I was the only one there!), but the space is nice and the coffee is good.

Bluesuperted, engaged at 25 is fine! I got engaged at 19, having met him a year earlier in my 1st year at uni. We finally accepted that at 23 given we both kept avoiding having a conversation about marriage, it wasn't going anywhere. Probably the biggest regret I have in life, as it meant during my uni years I was in a serious relationship. It was further complicated by the fact that we did the same degree, and were both recruited from uni by the same firm, meaning we then shared an office for our first two years at work, and broke up during that time. My best friend also got engaged at 19, to someone she had met 6 weeks earlier, and they were married within 6 months. 19 years on they are still happily married with 3 kids :-)

Sorry, after all my waffling, personally I think around 19/20ish depending on what they do after they finish school. Meaning Mr Pickle and I will be close to 60, scary!

I left home at 19 to move into a student flat in my 2nd year of uni (in NZ). When I broke off an engagement (aged 23, what was I THINKING?!) I moved home, but hated it so much that after 4 days I moved back into the flat I had shared with my ex-partner and we both lived there for a month or so while we sorted out other options. My sister (10 years younger than me, and the you gets of 3) seems to have moved home at every opportunity and I think would quite happily live there forever, although she has just purchased her first house so perhaps this is her moving out for good. My little boy burst into tears a few months ago, saying he didn't want to live in his own house, having had a discussion with my Mum about the fact that you leave home once you are grown up. I've reassured him that 6 isn't grown up ;-) I think there's a real cultural difference here compared to NZ, driven mainly by rental and house prices in the uk, but it does seem a lot more "normal" here for people to move back home after uni, which doesn't (or didn't when I was there) happen so much in NZ.

Sounds really interesting, I've set it to record and will watch tomorrow.

Yep, I'm not disputing his talent at all, he's certainly got plenty. Same with Ella for me, she's got a good voice, impressive for her age, but I'd never buy her album. Union J are cute, but I'm not sure they're good enough to do well, especially not with One Direction on the scene who follow the same formula but have more of an edge (helped by the fact that one of them has a thing for older women which gets them lots of publicity aside from the music!). I am starting to quite like Rylan - I'm not sure how much of the stupidity is an act, but he is quite funny. His singing is terrible, loved that he asked whether he could mime. He will end up on tv somehow, on a reality show like all the other Essex types.

Christopher was bad last night, I think he will go tonight. It's Rylan that I think will make the final. I'm still not feeling the Jahmene love, and found myself laughing at the warbling he did last night. I guess I just don't like that type of singing.

Years ago (in NZ) I had brother and sister cats who absolutely hated each other, it was horrible, the little girl was a total bully and spent most of her time terrorising her brother! They were both neutered.

Book wise, my son loves a couple of non fiction books he has, one is called "Flight" and has very detailed pictures and facts on aircraft of all types - he can't read it all himself yet but will sit for ages poring over the pictures and diagrams. Another good one we have is a biology book, with all sorts of facts about the human body which (due to detailed and slightly gruesome pictures) really appeals to my son. I find boys much easier to buy for than girls at the moment, have loads of Christmas and birthday ideas for my son, none for my 4.5 year old daughter!

Based on my 6 year old - Lego or Star Wars stuff... Meaning Star Wars Lego is a winner, two birds with one stone! Superheroes are another obsession, Spider Man in particular.

We got a kitten when I was pregnant with my first child (so cat is now 6.5), and having grown up with pet cats myself I'm a huge advocate of bring up kids and pets alongside each other. Like anything, if you approach it sensibly it will be fine. 14 months is as good an age as any, just be firm with what's acceptable and what's not, and reinforce the "gentle" approach just like you would if your toddler was in a room with smaller babies. My 10 month old is intrigued by our cat at the moment, but I need to watch her as she is at the grabbing stage, and our cat has long fur. I help her to pat him, and if she grabs I take her away immediately. This is what I did with my older children and they very quickly learned to be gentle. Make sure the cats have a haven somewhere in the house that they can escape to - our cat has a little "nest" up in our loft bedroom, the children aren't allowed to go up there, and if he's had enough he goes up there to sleep in peace.