Pickle

I left the swivel on, found it far too difficult to push with the front wheel locked. We had a buggy board on our Maclaren but hardly ever used it as I found if C got tired walking, he was then also too tired to stand on a buggy board, and the resulting meltdowns 15 minutes from home were too much to bear! These days the trusty micro scooters have revolutionised our lives! Even the Maclaren now sits gathering dust in the hallway.

Ha ha, I have just seen your post Sanne Panne... sorry :)) It's a sign of the times that I no longer look at posts about double buggies, we're well and truly out of that phase now. By the time M was getting to the head bashing the frame stage I had moved her up to the top seat and was forcing C to walk a bit more, figured it wasn't fair on her to have her down the bottom where she couldn't see much when her brother was perfectly capable of walking. He was happy enough to sit down the bottom when he was too tired to walk (most of the time - he would still take the buggy option now at 4 if given the chance). It was a bit tough to push at times set up this way, but I found it pretty tough to push no matter what to be honest! Did it's job when I needed it too, but wasn't sad to sell it when the time came. P x

Totally. My kids have come to expect the words "we've got a new system for your toys, come and see how it works..." on quite a regular basis. As they get older it gets harder. Lego. Worst nightmare.

Awwwwww. Cute little babies. Broody now. I asked for an epidural when I had been told I was 4cm... the epidural man was in theatre and was delayed 30 mins, by which point I was fully dilated (that was why it was hurting so much, I was in transition without realising). But I was then really pleased I didn't have one, as was the lady shown, so it's not all bad. I was really disturbed by the forceps delivery, how on earth do their little necks not get hurt when they're using that much force??

By far the most comfortable sling I found with a small baby was a Hugabub (or similar, a Kari-Me is the same design). They are wrap slings, so basically one long piece of fabric that you tie in a specific way to hold the baby - supposed to be much better for baby in terms of hip/leg position than a Baby Bjorn type carrier and are much more comfortable for the wearer. That said, my partner wouldn't wear it for love or money, so struggled on with the uncomfortable Baby Bjorn! When my little one got older (about 7 months) we switched to a Patapum (similar to an Ergo) which is an unstructured carrier which can be used on the front or back and was brilliant. Hope that helps.

Congratulations! Enjoy the early weeks of parenthood, they fly by (albeit in a bit of a haze!).

I'm also the oldest of 3, although between me and the youngest there's a 10 year gap so my experience probably isn't relevant. My brother is 4 years younger than me and to be honest we've never been close - but we are very different people and that was obvious very early on. My sister and I have a very close relationship... for the first 16 years or so of her life I did feel a bit like her 2nd Mum (which I loved) but now that she's an adult I don't notice the gap so much. She definitely got "babied" a lot more by our parents, even now at 26 her and Mum still act as if she's 6!

There are so many stories about how hard it is to go from 1 to 2, and like you I was concerned as my due date approached (mine is a 16.5 month gap). I honestly didn't find it as bad as I expected. I'm quite an organised person, and for me that was the key. Little things that made my life easier/more pleasant in the early weeks and months: - have a shower at night, as soon as the kids are asleep rather than trying to do it in the morning between baby feeds and toddler's demands... which is near on impossible - use a wrap sling for the baby, by far the best thing I bought. My daughter was hard to settle in the daytime, so I just got on with life with her strapped on my front. Not as easy with no 2 to take them out for walks for hours when you also have a toddler and their associated routine. - on the routine subject, if your little girl is in a good routine now, try your hardest not to change it. For me the bonus of a small age gap was that my boy still slept (at that point twice a day), and those nap times were sanity saving. I gradually encouraged the baby into the same nap routine, and to this day have two children who sleep at the same time after lunch... and my baby is now 2.5 - go to playgroups. Fantastic for getting a "break" in that your toddler will play, and there will probably be lots of willing people to hold your baby for 10 minutes while you have a cup of tea! From day 1 my daughter's main source of entertainment was her then bottom shuffling brother, she used to happily lie and watch him rather than play with toys. Now they play together brilliantly, she copies everything he does and they are developing a really close relationship. Hope that helps.

There are also lots of different activities at Rye Oak school - you will be able to get a list of them at the school office. I think these days you have to sign up for most of them (free though), but it's well worth looking into as we used to go (to Leapers) and it was really good.

Thank goodness for diligent school staff... I received our confirmation letter from Southwark earlier this week showing our school choices for 2011, which were shown correctly as per my application. My son already attends the nursery of our first choice school. Earlier today I had a phonecall from the school, who were cross checking their current nursery pupils against the list of reception applicants received from Southwark Council, and apparently we are not on the list! How on earth this has happened I don't know. I have to take my confirmation letter to the school office on Monday to prove that I have in fact applied. I phoned the number on the confirmation letter, but of course the person on the other end of the phone can't actually do anything other than "raise a tag". I have sent a strongly worded email to the admissions email address. What worries me is, in the current environment where applying for schools is a stressful enough process, how many other people have been affected by this? I will keep you posted with any response I get from Southwark, but it might be worth anyone who is applying for reception places to check with your chosen school that you are on their list!

I got one for my daughter when she started teething, and it did seem to work. She continued to wear it until she was about 2. Not at all uncomfortable or dangerous, I think they're worth a go!

I'm hypermobile, primarily fingers/hands/wrists but also to an extent my feet and ankles. My sister suffers (for her it's her ankle joints that cause the most problems) and my brother's elbows are an extreme case. I haven't been hugely affected, it's something I'm used to dealing with. For me joint pain and inflammation is the thing I have to watch for, but that said the thing I do the most of (flute playing) doesn't seem to bother me too much. My biggest issue at school was learning to hold my pen properly - teachers were at their wits end and eventually gave up, as my thumbs "dislocate" when I'm trying to do it the conventional way. That said, my way works, and I always got the neatest handwriting awards at primary school! My sisters ankles are really bad, associated ligament problems mean sprains are a very common thing for her, and it really limits her sport, which she loves. When C was being assessed at Kings for being a late walker they asked whether either me or Mr Pickle were hypermobile, as he is showing signs (and I tend to agree more now due to his wonky ankles). In what way is he being affected at school?

Make your files smaller and you'll be able to put multiple pics on one post. For photos a simple resize in Paint does the job.

A lot of the pubs have space that you could use: Herne Mag Plough (conservatory area) as well as the likes of the Florence which has a dedicated kids room. Alternatively Locale has a separate room which we got to use (for free) recently for our son's 4th birthday party. Have fun!

The Hairy McLairy books are fantastic (of course, being by a kiwi author...), both my kids love them. "Going on a Bear Hunt" is a firm favourite of both my children.

Congrats to you both, fantastic news!

Agree with Sillywoman - if it were just a basic boy's haircut ?25 would seem steep, but for a "proper" style I guess it's fair to be charged adult prices.

Having grown up in a country where the water has fluoride added, my teeth were in great shape... until about 3 years after moving to the UK when suddenly the enamel started wearing away and generally loads of problems started cropping up. If flouride helps teeth stay strong and healthy I'm all for it! I now have white fillings on my front teeth which I hate (although thankfully they're not too obvious).

I'm pretty strict about juice, as have also been warned about the damage to teeth etc. My kids have a tiny bit of juice at breakfast time, simply because Mr Pickle has it, so they've seen him and want the same), but in one of those plastic Ikea cups they have about 1cm of juice and the rest is water, so it barely even tastes. I let them have it as a treat if we're out for dinner, but that's about it. It helps that I don't drink it, so to them water during the day is the norm.

The new cafe near the Gardens (Forest Hill Road, across from Peckham Rye Park) has loads of space for buggies and comfy sofas, might be worth a try. I've only ever had a takeaway coffee from there, but it was nice.

We've found the recycling guys to be really helpful and on many occasions they've taken extra cardboard boxes etc. that we've had due to renovations. If they can't take it, you can ring the recycling line (number should be on your blue bag or bin) and they will collect extra stuff free of charge.

You are in the pilot area for the new recycling scheme (as are we). You should have received information on this, it started well before Christmas. Basically: - all cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, tin gets put in your blue box and collected every week - food waste is put in your brown (previously garden waste only) bin and collected every week - all other rubbish is put in your green bin as usual and collected every 2 weeks. We're a family of 4, and have found it works fine for us. We're recycling a lot more than before, and our green bin still has plenty of room in it at the end of the two weeks. Hope that helps.

My son dropped his around 18 months (although he's a lover of sleep and still has a nap after lunch and he's 4), daughter dropped hers much earlier, around 9 or 10 months from memory.

I'm hoping to make it along, in need of a night out!

While ordering my shopping online yesterday I actually found myself browsing the cleaning products section, and got very excited about a specialist stainless steel product that is going to make my sink the shiniest in ED.