Saila

great! i'll nip down tm on my day off - thnx for the advice

i have an 11 month old who's been cruising for a few months now is this the time to get shoes? if so, where's the best place to get their feet measured that doesnt' involve going into town (west end)

sounds terrible we too have had an awful run of nappy rash post norovirus induced diarrhea We found that all the different creams etc didn't beat nappy free time. even just for 30 mins a day - it totally does the trick we rolled up the rug in the sitting room and let him have 30 mins before bathtime running around and the next day it was all gone. The creams didn't seem to do anything much in comparison keep kitchen roll and antibacterial spray to hand during nappy free time obv

bt monitor vote again from me - we bought the tommee teppe one - it was sh7t so we had to take it back and buy another... can't fault the bt one.

hello, i'm very relieved by all these posts. Clearly this really was a one off and not something people 'get used to'. I was a bit shocked and perhaps if it wasn't my first time there, i'd have had the courage to go up and say soemthing. I did ask her where her mother was but she just looked at me blankly. I also looked around at all the mums/carers expecting to catch someone's eye but no one was watching (which was when i moved sections). People must have been aware what was going on as no one was talking except us and the whole session was fairly quiet with few people there. It does make you ask yourself, what's been said to her to make her say those things to someone else? anyway - next time i'll be better at dealing with the situation. i was just so stunned and upset... and weirdly a little embarrassed? i should have looked for carer and/or said something to the soft play person.

i've just been to peckham soft play, with my 10 month old for the first time. the staff were really helpful and polite which was a great start and he absolutely loved crawling around inthe ball section. but then... a young girl probably 4yrs old? threw a ball at my son. He laughed and it looked like she was just mucking around, so i just carried on watching. Then she lifted up a large mushroom thing and tried to throw it at him really hard. I went over, grabbed him and asked why she was doing that and she said, 'cos i want to hurt it.' I calmly said, 'why do you want to hurt him, he's just a little baby and doesn't want to hurt you?' she just looked at me and said 'i promise i will hurt it' and then picked up another object which was larger than him in size and moved over to him to smother him with it... so we went to another section ...but she followed... so we left am i being over protective here. i've not had to deal with this sort of thing before - i feel quite upset about it. I guess this is something you just get used to... :( and is part of upbringing. Seems quite harsh tho!

you sound lucky! we always seem to catch it too so that solves the sick-day problem new thread - how do you look after a sick child, when you're sick yourself?

Curmudgeon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think you'll find it's involved parents that > make a difference and not the class of parents spot on i read somewhere that success at school was linked to how 'involved' the father was/is....

I was given a bugaboo and never used it cos it was too slow getting around - preferred a sling which is easier to run around with / get on buses etc then we bought a second hand maclaren and we've only used it 3x we *love* and only ever use our Smart Trike! makes us all happy - i can run around getting things done (shopping/post office etc) and he thinks it's a great fun and just wants to go faster. plus it's dirt cheap relative to everything else

great tips - especially the tying to the wall idea i have an 'explore/pull/eat/chew/destroy' baby, who thinks 'NO!' is some hilarious joke... my biggest worry is him crunching through fairy lights.... however, my general 'golden rule' to myself since having a baby has been 'if you haven't heard it happen to another child, chances are it wont happen to mine'. i haven't heard of a child being electrocuted by fairy lights or harmed by a falling xmas tree (i've seen You've Been Framed enough to know it doesn't harm them) but... .. still a bit worried - perhaps i should attach it to the ceiling somehow?! i love Christmas trees too much to see them in a playpen ..... errrrr... oh dear (i only seem to open my mouth to change feet at the moment)

.. what do people do? Is it one big safety hazard? do people just go with it or do they barricade it off somehow?

ditto - oil filled radiator and ... i am going to use one of those 'timer adaptors' that fits into a plug socket. That means the radiator's definitely switched off between teh hours of 8am and 6pm so you never need to remember to turn it off in the morning rush hour before work....

the beginning of the end for the coalition

Unfortunately if your job requires you to go on work trips, you really must go. Otherwise i'd have to give up my job and i am the breadwinner. So as much as i don't like business travel, you have to compromise to keep a roof over your head... Moreover DS is not in anyway *more* dependent on me or him. We share childcare so it makes no difference who's there for DS as long as one of us is... if that makes sense

Thanks Nappy Lady. To clarify i dont' think he expected me to cancel the trip. I think his assumption was 'if you think it's a problem leaving DS without a parent in the country, then you cancel your trip'... ... but i think..... It's *our* problem. Once that has been established we should separately assess whose trip takes priority and as mine was arranged ages ago, really mine should. Anyway ... he's already said he'd be back before i set off so *hopefully* they'll be no weird volcanoes or terrorist threat to throw another spanner in the works....

ianr Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Great news. > > An idle question, to which I don't know the > answer: can one actually obtain a possession > order against persons who are not in possession, > or who also happen now to be no longer > identifiable or describable? My parents have delayed the IPO, or whatever stage their at, so the court case has been deferred indefinitely They will pick things up again if the squatters come back but it's a cold building site now with no running water We know they've been back cos their bed, which we'd put in the hallway, went over the w/e We have screwed in bars across the window so there was no way of getting in now

i'm not canceling - if anyone should cancel i think it should be him? He's assured me he'll be back before i leave... edit to add a bit more colour as we're moving into another topic which i guess is feminism... My trip's been arranged for months, his for weeks. If i cancel my trip does this set a precedent that somehow my job is less 'important' than his? We do *everything* 50:50 in terms of childcare (at least i strive for that) It's my request that DS isn't left in the country alone but he thinks it's not a problem...

thanks for all your comments and i feel much calmer now (he's agreed to be back before i leave) as i just said in a pm to someone - if it was in the uk somewhere or france/germ, i'm not sure i'd be so bothered but i'm in the US (east) and he's in india... this is easily 10+hrs away min he sleeps perfectly, naps and through the night so that's not an issue one issue is it is the w/e so he'll be a bit spun out by the grandparents (who don't look after him regularly) had it been mid-week then i'd be fine with it as it'd just involve bath and bed for 2x nights -easy but my main issue is that we are both probably a *day* away from home... no next of kin to go to hospital for a considerable amount (day?) of time shld anything bad happen and that makes me feel sick

.. we have a 10 month old baby and i have a work trip abroad for a 4x days just found out that DH may also be away with work with a two day overlap i'm just not comfortable having neither parent in the same country as our son i.e. no next of kin here DH doesn't think this is an issue and his grandparents can look after him... I am now looking into the cost to the company if i cancel my trip (of course it's me cancelling my trip but that raises other questions) am i being unreasonable? anyone had this problem before?

... can't bloody wait mine isn't interested in it yet (too little) but my god, i can't WAIT until i can plonk him in front of the tv and walk away ... not up for discussion.. just venting my views (dad is working tonight)

does anyone know what the catchment area is for bellenden primary school? we live on the tip of bellenden road, but not actually 'on' it i.e. at the east dulwich end... are we being realistic by wanting a place there? it sounds really good. Goose Green is much closer to us but i really like the sound of Bellenden in terms of size/loving environment (and i can't deny it ... the ofsted reports) etc. edit to ask: also are there many male teachers at bellenden primary? one thing i really liked about Goose Green was how many male teachers there are. With a son i think that's quite important in terms of role models.

In the bricks & mortar section today :) edited title due to it being incorrect

They left before the IPO - they may have been back since and seen the ipo? - there's no way of really knowing

yes - the builder has moved in - the whole main bit of the flat is a pile of rubble now (knocked down a wall already) and the water mains are about to go off (redoing bathroom) so i can't think they'd wanna move back in now. We've secured the door with a london-iron (?) and the builder's putting temporary metal beams ax the window, in case they decide to smash it to gain access. good question ianr, i guess we'll find out on wednesday! i'll tell you the outcome one thing that i found slightly odd/scary - was that the interim possession order has your (my parents) name and address on it... not sure i want them to know where they are currently living.. which is just around the corner oh well

Great news! The squatters have gone. The flat is empty & soon to be ours again. We are still going ahead with the court procedure though, just in case they come back but there's been no sign of them for a few days now Trial is on Wednesday Someone said to me that they probably thought it was an empty council property and didn't realise that it was privately owned etc. Fingers crossed this is the case....