etta166

I'm at a table inside with 2 children and a bump. See you soon.

I'm hoping to make it too, with both my children. Will there be space for us all? :)

Tumble at Albrighton would be good for us too.

How child-friendly it it? I've never been in the day. Dulwich park cafe night work better for the 2nd and 3rd timers amongst us. Or is there a good Tuesday drop-in playgroup we can all get to? If not, I'm happy to host a get together for those with toddlers/children from 9th April. I think I'm probably due last in the group, right at the end of May.

King's is walk in and only open until lunch-time (or was 7 months ago). They will refer you on for any tests that you need.

You'd face a lot of competition from online suppliers as well. You can buy a party kit on quite a number of themes from several websites like partypeices etc. I have to admit that keeping things low budget is my main party priority so I wouldn't be tempted by a party service.

Pickle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ... and I'm pretty sure a lot of family roomers > look at other sections of the forum too ;-) Indeed. I dithered so long about what section of the forum to start a thread on this subject that someone beat me to it :)

I really want to make it too, but my 4 year old is ill at the moment so I might not be able to come or very welcome if I did! What time are you thinking of meeting?

Put on the name that you currently use, and include your marriage certificate as you planned. You might get a call from the passport service to clarify the situtation with your name, but that's pretty unlikely. As you said, it's a common enough situation as not many people want to pay for a new passport until the old one expires.

I didn't have a car until I had 2 children (baby and a 2 year old). I used Zipcar/Streetcar before that for the odd occasion when we needed or wanted to use a car. The only problem with that strategy is that I couldn't get to our nearest car with 2 children and 2 car seats, so it wasn't really possible any more. Now that I do have a car, I find that I don't use it that much and we probably could get by without it when in London, and not miss it much at all. I would miss it for trips to see friends and family at the weekend, though. If I didn't have 3 children or if our family lived closer by, then I don't think I'd own a car. And once I don't need more than one bulky/heavy car seat I'm hoping to go back to Zipcar again.

We all sit in bed together (often the top bunk) or on the floor.

kmoon249 - like everyone has said, a completely breast fed newborn is unlikely to get it. It might be worth a call to your GP about what to do if your newborn does come out in spots. My GP recommended getting antivirals immediately (within hours) to reduce the risk of any of the very rare complications of CP in newborns. I was in a similar situation when my second child was only 4 days old. We went to a birthday party for my older child and all the other children there came down with CP over the next 2 weeks... Oddly, niether of my children got any noticable spots. And pebbles - staying in the buggy with a raincover on should be absolutely fine in terms of keeping an infectious child apart from other children. Also, CP does spread because in real life you can't always keep an infectious child at home alone all the time. We all try our hardest to do the prefectly right thing when our child is ill but it's not always possible in reality.

This is pretty normal when the novelty wears off and they realise that they are going to have to go to the potty/loo for ever. I'd go back to rewards, maybe a sticker chart during the day and then a present for a completely dry/clean day. My son chose a packet of little cars, and he got one for each sucessful day. Once they were all gone we got a bigger car, and told him he could have it at the end of a sucessful week. Most children do have ups and downs, and occasional bad days and accidents happen for months or years with some children. Try to stay calm, but you can express negative feelings about an accident. It can also be helpful to leave them in wet/dirty pants for a few minutes while you "finish" doing something and then get them to help out with the clean-up and getting dry clothes out. I know it's not that popular an approach here in the UK, but back home parents do tend to make sure that accidents are inconvenient and a bit unpleasant for the child once you are confident that your child is capable of not having them. Basically, it's got to be more hassle to have an accident than to go to the loo.

My first child was 2.5, the second was 18m. Both wear helmets, which have saved them from nasty face-plants if nothing more serious. I got the lower o-ring handle off the forum for my 18m old because she couldn't reach the handlebar on the original.

Like Convex said, you can often get a much better tasting version if you have to. The brand-name versions of a lot of suspension medicines (antibiotics, paracetamol, ibuprofen etc) often taste better than the generics. E.g. my kids tell me Calpol is much nicer than the Sainsbury's own brand. I still have an aversion to bananas and strawberries after having to take a lot of antibiotics as a child. Both flavours just remind me of being ill and make me want to heave.

I'll be able to do most week day mornings from 25th March when I start my maternity leave.

Pickle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Taking it one step further, I take it there are a > number of working mums posting on this thread. > Can I assume you don't wear makeup or high heeled > shoes to work? Generally I don't. I hate wearing makeup but sometimes I wear heels because I like the shoes and not to conform to any social expectation. I know many people who do wear makeup because they like the way it makes them look and feel, so each to their own. Men also face the same pressures on appearance at work, though, with strict conventions on suit colour, shoe colour and tie wearing. In a way, in many ofice-based professions women are much more at liberty to dress as they please than men are.

I genuinely do think that the critique approach worked for me and my sister (and my brothers). You can't prevent exposure to stories with dubious morals in the wider world of school, playground etc. I know that our kids are young for this, but trying to get them to think about a story rather than just accept it point blank will, I hope, be good for them in the long run. As for the princess dresses, I will cross that bridge when I come to it. My son has grown out of his brief phase of liking them and my daughter hasn't expressed any interest yet. I'll probably be here asking for advice if/when she does! @WorkingMummy: I'm also trying to celebrate my children's determination and strong wills. But, boy, is it hard sometimes :)

I share a lot of the concerns that people have given with Disney princesses and the portrayl of girls/women in children's stories. However, I wouldn't ever ban them from my house. We still read Cinderella (not the Disney version, but the Ladybird Best Loved Tales from the 80s) but discuss the story and whether we think the charaters are nice, what we might do differently in the same situation etc. This applies as much to want Cinderella might do for herself as to why we would never be as mean as the ugly sisters, or how Daddy would never let anyone be so mean to one of his children. My son is 4 at the moment, and really loves the story of Cinderella but mostly for the magic that can turn mice into horses and a pumpkin into a carriage. I also try to have stories that balance out the image of princesses (and heroines), like the Paper Bag Princess. I'm hoping that by discussing the story it will be more useful in the long run than trying to protect my children from having to think about the issues that it raises. I have to admit that I would (or will) be upset if my daughter (now 2) has a prolonged princess phase in the future. I think that's mainly because I was a tomboy as a child and I worry that I will find it hard to relate to her in a constructive way if she's very, very girly. But that's a completely different issue...

Have you tried lactulose and glycerine suppositories? Weaning gave my daughter appalling constipation for months and nothing would get her to go (no amount of water, figs, prunes, dried apricots etc.) other than a suppository. They work pretty quickly (within 15 mins) to make you go, but it can be painful if the poo is very hard. The lactulose makes the poo softer by trapping water in it, so it only really works if you can persuade your daughter to drink lots as well.

I'm not sure if I can make it any more. My 2 year old has had a tummy bug for almost a week and even though she was better today I think we should probably stay away from other children for a while.

Full time hours (which can inculde a couple of evenings a week of babysitting as well as 10 hours per day of childcare) is about ?300-350 a week net for the nanny. I have no idea exactly how much more that costs as a gross amount to the employer, but it's usually about 30% more for tax and NI contributions. There may be tax payable on accommodation costs as a benefit in kind, too.

pommie Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > at the moment doesnt > have the usual blister that comes up but was told > if this doesnt happen it means her immune system > is high That's the opposite of what I was told. I was borderline positive on my Heaf test but had a BCG as a teenager anyway. I was told I'd get a huge scar because of my high TB immunity. I didn't though, I hardly have a scar at all...

Words fail me that anyone actually thinks this way still! Most of my musing on this area recently has been more leaning towards thinking that men get a rough deal (e.g. most mothers in my office work flexibly but no fathers work part time at all...). I'd always thought that the only way things were going to equal out was if men stood up and asked for the same kind of flexability to try to get the right balance of work and family life. Looks like I'm wrong, thought :(

The Natural History Museum has a great section on pregnancy and childbirth (not too graphic) with a nice film about conception and pregnancy. My 4 year old found it helpful in understanding what's going on with my pregnancy, how the baby got in there, and how it is going to come out.