Pickle

Eek, no, nothing even close! We had photos taken by Lorenzo Ali, all given to us on disk to do with as we liked, and it was around ?150 from memory. His username on the forum is lozzyloz and his work is brilliant.

I reality a sleep expert is pretty much going to put in place a routine, and these tend to end up being along the lines of up at 7am, nap at 9, nap at 12, nap at 4, then bath/milk/bed, with the small naps dropping as they get older (my 6mo still has 3 a day). So unless you've given this a good try yourself personally I would save the money. Feel free to pm me if you like, I think we may have spoken before on the subject? My baby is the same age a yours. P x

I haven't seen any of you for months due to having school run commitments, but might come along next week if you're meeting (with my big kids in tow too). From September both of my older children will be at school full time so it will be easier for me to meet up with Kate. Hard to believe my winter baby is 6 months old today!

My son is in the same class as Ryedalema's daughter. I haven't been regaled with facts of life stories, so I don't think she educated the whole class today ;)

You know we belong together You and I forever and ever No matter where you are You're my guiding star... (every morning while baby sleeps, with cup of coffee and sugary snack)

Wonder if anyone round these parts is breeding peach hair?

The Nappy Lady website is great for advise. I've used reusable nappies for 3 children (youngest is approaching 6 months old), and I know there are many others on the boards who use cloth. Feel free to ask questions. My advise would be to use a good two part system (nappy covered with a wrap) for the first 6 months or so, and then look at different options after that point. For the early months containment needs to take priority over style :)

On a related subject, anyone got experience of little boys and their, erm, discovery of the workings of their willy? Finding it hard to know how to deal with 5.5 year old who races up to me to proudly show me "how big I made it". If the smilies still existed I would put one of those embarrassed ones!

We don't have a drier, but one benefit of an old fashioned, badly insulated hot water cylinder is that it keeps our large bathroom very warm, so washing pretty much dries over night and the associated airing cupboard is excellent too. Such a housewife! Such is my fascination with the washing I found myself proudly telling the kids that I got washing dry outside today, and had the foresight to bring it in before the rain started. Bless them, they humoured me with enthusiastic "well done Mummy" responses :-) Aaaaaanyway, wasn't it nice to see the sun today, albeit briefly.

Thank you ClareC, that has worked. Brilliant!

Generally I can work things out myself, but this is driving me mad... Have had iPhone for over a year, use it to check/delete hotmail messages, all has been fine. Since May, when I delete messages on my phone it no longer deletes them from hotmail "proper"... in that on the rare occasion I switch on my computer I find it showing hundreds of unread messages. Same applies to iPad. There must be a setting somewhere that has changed, but it wasn't me, and for the life of me I can't find anything that works on either phone or pc. I'm sure it's something simple, can anyone help?

You and me both, it's so depressing. After looking up at the sky an hour ago I decided it was safe to hang washing outside, oh how wrong I was!

The concrete house? Long thread about it here http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?5,185836 (go to the most recent posts to read about what's happening at the moment)

Stickers are good too, and small colouring books or notebooks with a selection of crayons and pens. Also great are the small aqua draw sets

I've done the trip to NZ and back many times since we had kids (and am doing it in 5 weeks time with three kids under 6!). Sounds like you've got toys sorted, bring them out when needed one at a time. Let him walk around, don't worry about other people. We always find the space by the toilets is good for letting them stretch their legs and play. We always fly with Singapore Airlines, they are great. We just have a 5 hour wait in Singapore before our 2nd flight, so just encourage them to run, and make use of the various play areas in the terminals. Child meals are served first which is great, and they fill in time! For jet lag we always hit the ground and immediately switch to local time. Lots of fresh air and keep your routine, if you have one, the same as at home. Do you have a seat booked for him? If so, make a cosy space for bedtime, ask the cabin staff for extra pillows and blankets as we find it's hard to get them comfy with just one pillow. Try to relax, it's bound to be a lot easier than you're expecting! Feel free to pm me with specific questions.

Stick to your guns! I remember both of mine going through a bit of a phase around that age, but obviously still needing the sleep, so I stuck with it. Son ended up continuing his until he was 4 (!) and daughter dropped hers at around 2.5.

A trip to NZ in August to visit my family, who I haven't seen for over 18 months.

Farmers is on Lordship Lane, the shop that sells everything! Near the Locksmith & Gourmet Burger, usually has lots of plastic storage stuff etc outside. Chances are if you want it, they've got it!

Farmers?

Thank you, very reassuring replies. I'm not a purist by any stretch of the imagination and agree with a spoon for yoghurt, my mess tolerance isn't quite that high! I can see already that my main problem is going to be the other two, "but K is allowed to use her fingers and make a big mess, why aren't we?"

Thanks for your reply. She will learn, hopefully quickly. The rage is bad, to the extent that my other two were really confused about the noise that they were hearing from their usually placid little sister. If she could speak I fear it would be profanities ;-) Other than that it's been fun just putting things in front of her and letting her get on with it, I feel so much more relaxed about weaning than I did with the others.

Littlest Pickle will be 6 months old next week, very very scary. I'm keen to do BLW this time round but need a bit of advice. For the last week or so I've been putting bits of food in front of her to play with. A couple of times she managed to pick things up and lick them but generally didn't seem fussed. All of a sudden a few days ago she managed to get a piece of pear to her mouth and her face lit up, cue lots of happy slurping and munching. Since then she has been really interested in everything I put in front of her (generally at dinner time, so veges off my plate and fruit that the others are eating), but while she does sometimes manage to pick things up she then struggles to keep them near her mouth. ... and my usually chilled little girl becomes a little red ball of RAGE! If I then help her (to pick the food up again and hold it near her mouth) calm is restored and back come the smiles. Those of you who have used this approach from day 1 of weaning, did you really honestly do as the book says and leave them to get mad battling against slippery drooly pieces of food?

Hay fever has gone mad in our house over the last week or so (me and two oldest children), coinciding with the privet hedges being in flower, hard to escape!

Due to timings and class availability we ended up having to do an intensive NCT course in Brixton. I had read up quite a bit on childbirth (and become addicted to all the baby related shows on Discovery Health!) so didn't feel I learnt much, and unfortunately as a group we didn't really gel. It wasn't helped by the fact that we were all spread around Brixton, Herne Hill etc, which although not far away feels difficult when you've had your first baby. So I guess I was one of the unlucky ones, and with hindsight wouldn't have spent the money. I have friends who did the free classes at Dulwich Hospital and madengood friends that way. Equally I know lots of people who have strong bonds with their NCT groups.

Agree, the supermarket stuff is fine and a lot cheaper! My son has official school sweatshirts, but daughter has cardigans from Sainsburys - this seems to be pretty standard practise as the sweatshirts are quite boyish.