Pickle

Skinofteeth, I do sit and eat with the kids, but once breakfast is done the two older ones tend to play with their toys (and baby watches) and I do it then, before the school run. I try to get as much done early in the morning as I can (washing hung out, general tidying, think about what's for dinner), so that once I've fed the baby after her nap we can then go out for the day.

I'll put my hand up and admit to being a complete neat/clean freak. I try to be really organised, for example I put all the breakfast bowls etc out the night before, which saves a little time in the morning, and I use that time to do the ironing from the precious day. Ironing is much easier if you do it little and often rather than letting ironing mountain build up (which does happen sometimes). My other trick is to deal with things as they arise, whether that be filing a bank statement or wiping down a cupboard front that just had something spilled down it. I have a cleaner for 3.5 hours a week, and she irons 5 shirts for Mr Pickle. She has been away the last couple of weeks so I've been doing all the cleaning which has been a challenge in school holidays with 3 kids 5 and under - it's definitely money well spent every week! I find once things are tidy/sorted it's so much easier to keep it that way. Can you put aside half a day one weekend to blitz it?

Mr Pickle caught a 185 to Lewisham this morning, then the DLR to Stratford. Apparently very quick and easy, although it was quite early.

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You really need to do it for him, then let him have a play with it afterwards. Our dentist recommends continuing to brush for them until around the age of 6 when they are more capable of being thorough. I let my older kids brush themselves in the morning before school (they are 4 and 5), but do it for them at bedtime. I seem to remember the Tombliboos (?) from In The Night Garden do a tooth brushing segment which is good to get toddlers copying.

Agree. Great show, rubbish ending. I doubt Danny Boyle made the decision to put him in it - I don't understand the obsession with McCartney, every performance I've seen him do recently has been terrible.

Yes, we were there too (with a home made torch, perhaps we were near you Stacey-lyn!). Great fun had by all, nice atmosphere, kids loved it.

Sorry to hear you're having such a tough time. Don't be worried about confusing him regarding using a hammock - we borrowed Alieh's hammock for our baby (now 6 months) and it was a godsend in the first few months in the evenings when she was hard to settle, the position and motion really seemed to help. She then happily made the transition to a Moses basket and now cot with no problems. Also I echo what others have said about co-sleeping. I had never done it prior to having #3 and never thought I would, but for the first 8 weeks or so it was the best way of ensuring sleep for all of us.

My kids released 5 painted lady butterflies into the garden last week (courtesy of a "Live Butterfly Garden" my daughter got for her birthday, we started with 5 tiny caterpillars, absolutely fascinating to watch the whole process). So if you happen to see one, do say hello. Their names - Medicine, Ryvita, Princess Leia, Rosie and Tom :)

We had a flying ant colony take flight from our garden yesterday. I noticed a few around when I was out and about, but not nearly as many as usual.

No, we haven't made it, never seem to get organised enough. Would be keen for a kiwi meet up, my accent is drifting all over the place these days. My two older kids are school age now (4 and 5) but I also have a 6 month old. Maybe we should arrange a kiwi picnic? I'll bring the bacon & egg pie. I'm flying home for 2 weeks on Aug 10th (visiting Dunedin, in winter, I am mad!) but around the rest of the holidays and beyond.

We will try to come and say hello, I think we are meeting friends for a picnic in the park so should be in the area. I'm the stressed looking one with 5 year old boy, 4 year old girl and 6 monthold. Purple Bugaboo Bee x

Yes, I think it would, you would just need to guide the play a bit more than with older kids. If nothing else, there are large beanbags and a lot of open space to take a big run up... (this activity alone filled in an hour for us!). It's a very clever setup. When we first walked in I felt a bit disappointed as at first glance it doesn't look like much, but there is so much to do, and they kept finding more. Some brilliant details, like little doors (that open) down at skirting board level - as adults we didn't notice them, but the children spotted them straight away.

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A bit closer to home is Hall Place, in Bexley (about 30 mins by car down the A2). We went last weekend, they currently have a brilliant child friendly interactive installation called the "House of Fairy Tales" which is hard to explain but totally captured the imaginations of my 4 and 5 year olds who spent a few hours playing. It's on until September, a family ticket is ?20 but gives unlimited visits. It's a very random collection of things, ranging from a four poster bed they can jump on, to an old fashioned school room with desks, ink, and a fridge with a frog in it... (told you it was hard to explain!). Nothing is off limits, everything is there to be touched and explored by kids. Brilliant. The gardens are extensive and free, and there was a nice cafe where we ended up having lunch and then also coffee and cake as we stayed so long in the house. Would be a nice place to take a picnic to on a sunny day, which it looks like we will see plenty of next week, hooray!

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I keep forgetting to post on here - Nunheadmum, no idea, but what a result! Grotty, I hope your motivation has returned this week and that you get a good result. Uptime, fantastic so far, it's great when people start to notice, makes the hard work worth it. And then there's me. Goal reached quite a few weeks ago now, still feeding my baby with the introduction of solids just starting, and I'm now almost half a stone UNDER my goal! Absolutely not intentional, I am tracking points to make sure I eat enough - last week I tried a week on 50 points a day, ate all of my weeklies and all of my exercise points, and I still lost a pound! Crazy. To give you an idea of how much food that is, last Saturday night I had GBK, wine, half a bag of liquorice allsorts as well as a pretty standard breakfast and lunch, and only just went over 50 points! God only knows how I'm losing weight eating so much! This week I really don't want to lose any more, so bizarrely I need you all to send me "stay the same" vibes.

Aha, that explains it! You can buy sweatshirts etc directly from the school office, or from http://www.yourschooluniform.com/schools/GoodrichCommunitySchoolSE220EP/ I get grey trousers, white polo shirts etc from Sainsburys. Hope that helps x

I think the open day info was on the initial letter asking for proof of address etc., there were people there that didn't have a current connection with the school so it must have been communicated externally. I'm sure you will hear from them! If not, reception starts the week of 10th Sept and school is back on 5th Sept, so give them a call.

We got a letter yesterday, our daughter is in the nursery there. I think the letters had just been printed, so perhaps you will get yours in the post shortly. You should have received a phone call regarding a home visit? These are taking place in the first week of term, with the reception children starting over the course of the following week. I seem to remember with my son (who has been in reception this year) we didn't find out his start date until the home visit. Did you go to the reception open day a couple of weeks ago and find out what class he is in?

Bora Bora, French Polynesia, for 10 days. Absolutely stunning. We got married in NZ so it wasn't too far to go from there, probably not such a practical option from the UK. Lovely though!

I have Little Lamb bamboo ones from the Nappy Lady website, they are excellent. I'm 6 months in to BFing #3 and haven't used a disposable pad since the moment they arrived in the mail (when she was a few weeks old) so given the price of disposables they are much better value (and more comfortable).

Just wanted to add that two of my children (#2 and 3) have been exclusively breastfed and still slept through from a dream feed at 10ish until 7/7:30am, so formula isn't always necessary to achieve this.

Oh horrible, I feel for you, I went through a phase of getting them regularly. I found Migraleve tablets were good, the pack has two different types of tablets, one which you take as soon as you feel symptoms, and they seemed to work. Paracetamol didn't help me at all. It was around the time I started knitting/crocheting again that I stopped suffering, and have since read that activity like that can help prevent them - not sure of the science behind it, and it may just be coincidence I guess!

Hi Joanna, I tried them for a while with my 3rd baby but just didn't get on well with them at all. I found that even when applied properly I ended up with milk "pooling" in the side I wasn't feeding off, and it was tricky to then get rid of it without it going everywhere. They were also hard to keep clean and I found them quite fiddly to use making it hard to use them discretely when out and about. With my other two babies I used Lansinoh disposable pads, but this time round I'm using really good washable ones I got from the Nappy Lady website. I don't know if my experience is typical, but personally I wouldn't recommend them.