Pickle

Maybe not laugh, but every time I drive past this house on Perry Rise it makes me smile... https://maps.gstatic.com/m/streetview/?panoid=pwuKC6c-wpqghaKavCr3hw&cbp=0,269.7915660831565,,0,0

I was at school with a girl we all assumed was gay due to her complete lack of interest in boys in the final years of secondary school. She married our music teacher 6 months after leaving school, he was in his late 20s, and 20+ years on they are still happily married with a large family. Ironically she is also now a teacher, and they both work at the school they met at. There was also a young teacher (early 20s) who was notorious for inviting himself to the leavers parties and trying his luck with the girls. He also went on to marry someone from my school year.

Yes, ours has been all the way to NZ and back, which is a total of 6 separate planes. We took ours right to the gate as had a few hours in transit, and checked it for our final internal flight in NZ. It's a great buggy for travelling with.

Mmmmm, the waistcoat sounds lovely ;) My brother (in NZ) sent "wet look" black leggings for my baby daughter when she was born. Needless to say they weren't used!

Ha ha, Monkey, mine wouldn't dare!

Some of it was quite nice, particularly the things for the baby, but they were all 6-12 months and summer styles. I might admit to swapping those ones (although I have switched a whole lot of baby pink for bright greens and purples!)

Do you do it? Do you tell the person that gave them to you? I've just had a lovely time in Bromley exchanging a whole lot of inappropriate (size/colour/wrong season/generally quite ugly) clothes that the kids grandparents gave us. Gift receipts were included, none of them would have been worn - most were quite summery styles that fitted the kids now but would have been too small next year, so no use at all. I got some lovely bits for each child instead which they will wear a lot, and only had to pay a few ??? over the value of my exchange. My problem is that we are seeing their grandparents in half term, and I can guarantee I'll be asked whether they are wearing the clothes they gave us. Given I'm already far from being favourite daughter in law, do I politely say "yes, they're lovely, wear them all the time, but they're all in the wash", or admit I swapped the lot?

Thanks both. I think it must be Little Oaks, that's the church I was thinking of. Never mind, we went for coffee and cake instead :)

Those of you that shop locally, it sounds like you shop little and often? As much as I'd love to do more of my shopping locally, I just don't have time for daily meanders down to Lordship Lane, so do a large weekly shop online and have it delivered. How do you fit this type of shopping in with work/kids etc?

I've been told there's a playgroup held at the church up from the Co-Op on Forest Hill Rd on Tuesday mornings, but can't find any details online (ED Tots and Google). Does anyone know the details? My baby is nearly 9 months old and we need to start socialising!

Yes, definitely. I know a number of male nannies and they are fantastic positive influences in the lives of the children they look after. No more of a risk than a female one in my opinion.

Just to add another perspective, my kids didn't start structured swimming lessons until they were old enough to go in by themselves (we go to Crystal Palace for lessons, so 3.5), and went from being reluctant to get their faces wet to swimming confidently in less than 6 months. There are a couple of kids in their class who have been to swimming "lessons" since they were infants and there is absolutely no difference in their ability. We are off there now, it's usually Daddy's job but he is away this weekend. I really dislike all the faff surrounding swimming!

p.s... Help-Ma-Boab, you are truly inspirational. I only hope that one day I can manage a 33 minute mile ;) did that include drinking time?

I used to run with Dulwich Park Runners, who cater for a real range of abilities, but as the membership was high there were always different groups covering different distances and at varying paces. They did speedwork once a week when I went, although it's about 6 years ago now. I entered a lot of races with them, there were some very serious runners, and the social side was great. My feeling was always that Dulwich Runners were a more serious club, but still a sociable group. Why not go along to each and join them for a run to see how you feel?

Cross posted with BB. I guess your way of seeing it is sensible, almost like your first parent's evening, but in a more relaxed environment, so a whole different purpose to the home visit we had.

We had a home visit by school nursery the week before starting. They don't look round your house (or at least our school don't!), it's more just a chance for the teachers to chat to you and your little one at home where they feel comfortable - in our case we sat in the kitchen while my daughter showed them her favourite books. I agree it's a bit strange to do it a month after starting.

So so true. In fact we only have one photo of us as a family of 5, and it was taken by my Dad, very badly, at the airport on the way back from NZ. I take all the photos, and looking at the 1000 odd photos on my phone there are around 12 that feature either me or Mr Pickle :( Must try harder, and yes, must book Lorenzo too!

Yes, we go through 14 pints a week these days so help keep Ken the milkman in a job! Ours is through Dairy Crest, via the website www.milkandmore.co.uk We get milk delivered 4 times a week, and you can alter your order online up to 9pm the night before which is very handy. Also great for the odd loaf of bread, eggs etc if you realise you're running out and need them early the next day. If I forget to alter online I leave old fashioned notes out in the morning and that's fine too. We've been very happy customers for around 3 years now, and I'm convinced milk out of a glass bottle tastes nicer!

Seemingly intelligent adults, holding down jobs, who repost those stupid scaremongering "your private messages are now visible to everyone" type things on Facebook. For f***s sake, they are NOT.

Kim Haddon at Village Blinds is excellent, she's done all of our window dressings and they look brilliant.

I am all for educating my kids about the importance of healthy eating and exercise. In reception they learn a bit about healthy eating which my son, in particular, found really interesting last year. We are a healthy household, with Mr Pickle playing hockey, squash, and running, and I also run and enjoy exercising as often as I can fit it in. After having my most recent baby I dieted to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight (have lost 30ish lbs) but it meant watching my portion sizes so I continued eating the same meals as the kids. I like to think that our overall approach means that the children will grow up knowing about healthy balance. When I worked as a WW leader (pre kids) children under 16 could be "prescribed" the programme by their GP. For a while I had a 12 year old girl in my class who was very overweight. She really struggled to lose weight, was accompanied to the meeting every week by her extremely overweight parents who both refused to make any changes to their way of life to help her (or themselves). I will never forget them one week, when their daughter had managed to lose a couple of pounds, saying "that's brilliant, let's go for a McDonalds to celebrate". Horrific.

I'm not sure it would do anything to help a cough, other than maybe help her get to sleep. I find Medised is brilliant when they're really congested, it helps clear the nasal passages. Not irresponsible at all in my opinion, as long as you are sensible about it.

Sainsburys have quite a large selection of DVDs for sale.

To be honest, I think my son would happily still sit with his mouth open and have me feed him, and he's 5.5!

She sounds exactly like my 2nd child, who wasn't interested at all, until she got to around 8/9 months (at which point she started eating whatever the rest of us ate). My oldest child used to sit with his mouth open and eat everything he was given, so it came as a shock to find it difficult second time around. At 4 she is a great little eater, so try not to worry. The key is to keep offering her a range of foods, try not to get stressed as it makes things worse, and in my opinion don't go to too much effort making special things for her. I'm sure my daughter just wanted what she could see me and her brother eating right from the outset. My 3rd child is 8 months and on solids now too, but my approach has been so much more relaxed and it's been far less stressful. She eats a mixture of our food, chunks of things and pouches of food. In the last few weeks there's been a massive improvement in her ability to feed herself, which I'm sure you will find too.