sylviamaria

I can do first and last weekend of September, as I m in Greece the other two! Na poume 8 Septemvriou gia tin ora?

So we seem to have formed a small group. Shall we try and organise a coffee one day? I work full time, so can only really do weekends. Is anyone free any upcoming weekends? I feel I should be writting this in Greek to start practicing! :)

Hi! Thanks for the responce and bumping the post again. I didnt find anything in the end. We read greek books and listen to Greek CD's, talk to family on Skype etc, but there is no consistent 'conversation' in Greek. I would still be quite interested in meeting up and also practicing my own Greek - have lived here for more than 10 years and I m losing my vocab and accent...! :(

My 18th month old started playing up last week with toothbrushing. I found asking her cuddly toy friend to do it for her, ie hold the toothbrush with bunny, monkey or teddy's hands works really well...

Was planning to come - had a reminder in diary and all - but have had a nasty cold for a few days. :( Next time, I hope...

I just got back from Kefalonia a few days ago. My family is from there and I ve going there every summer since I was a baby. It is a great place for a holiday with beautiful beaches, great food and wine (try the sklavos winery for something interesting!) Blinds and crocks are good suggestions, but I would also make sure to have mosquito repellent too. My 16month old and my husband were bitten quite a lot this year, tho it didn't seem to bother the little one at all! As for food, my little one ate what we ate, though bear inind that Greeks do add lots of salt to food... The local meat pie is a must, as well as fried courgetes with tzatziki. As for the water, we all drank tap water there - just check that it is drinkable with the hotel... Enjoy! X

Thank you for your messages and the support! x

Hello Family roomers! This is a difficult one for me, but here goes... I was just chatting to friend of mine who gave birth a few months ago and she was telling me her birth story. During the discussion I realised that I am still dealing with my daugther's birth (more than 15 months ago now) and that I still don't have closure... My friend told me that she has slowly managed to get closure herself by talking about the birth to other women, her mum etc. My family live in a different country and I don't actually have any pre-baby friends(if that makes sense...) with babies, so not many people to share my birth story with - other than my NCT group, who have been great, but are probably a little bored of hearing my story by now! I was wondering if there were any mums out there who would like to meet up and share their stories (good or bad) over a cup of tea and maybe try and get some perspective to what labour and post-natal recovery are like for different people? I m hoping that I can get some closure, but I 'm sure it will actually be really interesting as well... Thanks for reading. :)

My husband and I are planning to go away overnight and leave our little one for one night in June. We would like to go somewhere within a 2 hr drive distance so that we can maximise time together. Can anyone recommend any nice boutique hotels/b&b 's/spa's? It's for an anniversary so we are happy to spend a little extra for smthing special. Thanks! :)

Thanks for the info! Will check out the turkish shop! :)

I'm looking to buy red food dye locally to dye some eggs for Easter (Greek Easter). It probably needs to be stronger then your standard red food dye... Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

I think guilt is unavoidable as a mum - I feel guilty about all sorts of things (birth, when she is unwell etc etc etc!). I don't actually feel too much guilt about going to work - I think its best for both of us, really. But I do find it hard some days and end up on my phone scrolling through pictures... Today was one of them :-$

Garson's pick your own farm. Used to go as a kid with my grandparents.

I 've got a few low fat or veggie recipes on my blog, but this one comes to mind: smoked trout salad with horseradish dressing; http://bighungryfamily.blogspot.com/2011/10/smoked-trout-salad-with-horseradish.html x

Theasidonio, thanks for the tip - I might look into it. Pickle - thank you for that, it would be nice to help her be bilingual! :)

I thought it might be a long shot... Oh well. :-$

We did BLW as well. It went/is going great. She now eats everything we do as well - no added salt of course! Have started a food blog for family meals and also have some specific BLW recipies on there. The sweet potato chips were a favourite for the early days! http://bighungryfamily.blogspot.com/2011/07/sweet-potato-cinnamon-chips-blw.html

Hi! I am half Greek myself and my husband is English. I grew up in Greece speaking English to my mum and Greek to my dad, but we only tend to speak English at home now, so my little one (13 months) isnt getting as much exposure to the language as I 'd like... Are there any other parents out there who speak Greek and would like to meet up occasionaly to get a bit more exposure to the language for their LOs? Probably a long shot, but thought I'd ask! :) Sylvia

My MIL has coeliac too. I weaned my Lo normally at 6 months. I think statistically the chances of your Lo having it are fairly low. Once u start weaning you can have a test done if u feel concerned. Hope this helps.

Thank you all for your responces again! Mine is a bit of an early walker, but I don't really leave her alone in the house (either shower while she sleeps in the mornings, or take her in the bathroom with me to play with her ducks). I obviously dont want any harm to come to her, but I also feel she should learn to explore her environment fairly freely - albeit with me following her around for the next few monrhts. We will stay stairgate free for a little longer ans see how she copes. If I see no improvement in her climbing skills, then I might reconsider! :)

Thanks for your replies. Do be honest we are quite tempted to go without. Saffron, the main reason for considering them would be to stop LO from tumbling down, not to stop her climbing up. Even before she was walking we were encouraging her to learn to come down the stairs backwards. She no knows to turn around on her own, when she gets near a step or the stairs. Pickle, good to know that it can be done without stairgates - I think we ll just take extra care for the next few months and hopefully she will learn to go up and down safely!

Our LO just turned one and also just started walking. We also recently moved to a house with stairs. The problem is that the stairs at the bottom are very awkward, in that they have no bannister for the fist 5 steps up... I can't really see a solution for installing stair gates there, unless we actually do loads of DYI (something I m not very keen on as we are renting!). Does anyone have a similar layout and what did you do? And the all controvercial question; Are stairgates necessary or has anyone of you managed without? Thanks in advance!

I have the same thing. Not so much in the early months, but since my LO was around 4 months or so I started strugling a little. I can no longer eat a proper dinner and I can definately not go out for dinner - went out for anniversary to a great place and couldnt eat much at all. Ended up feeling dizzy and nautious from the idea of eating more. My sweet tooth has completely dissapeared over the last few months too. I have been having councelling for PND, but the NHS sessions have come to an end now(you get 8 free sessions on the NHS). I find it very upseting as food was one of my main interests (have a food blog and everything). I hope you start feeling better soon, but I would ask your GP for help! x

I am selling two packs of 60 Lansinoh breast pads - bought too many online... I am happy to take ?6 for both packs. Thanks x

I breastfed my LO till she was 7 months old and only gave her a bottle of expressed milk once a week or so. At 7 months I started introducing a bottle feed a day to slowly get her ready for the childminder. This went well until someone else (Dad, Grandma, Granny etc) tried to give it to her. She refused it, pushed the bottle away and wouldn't have any of it. A month later we went away ovenight. While we were away she ate all her food, drank water, but no milk (we were only away for 12 hours, so she didnt miss out on too much...). When she was 9 months old she started at the childminders. After a couple of days of refusing milk she decided to start having some, and now she takes the bottle better from others than from me... I think it was partly separation anxiety, partly a phase... It went on its own, once she decided she was ready. Hope this helps. x