oimissus

that's great that they do still seem to welcome families, but the salient point is surely that if they got planning permission because it would have a community space at the back, they should not have got rid of it, particularly as it was being used by the community! It's not all that local to me (I drove / bussed to Tippee Toes there) so I don't pop in, but would anyone be able to highlight this thread to them so someone could respond to it?

what about a buggy board? Or sling for newborn? Definitely if you use public transport, any massive pram, be it side by side or tandem, is a pain.

damn, I thought the angled cutlery might do the trick! It's so bloody frustrating when they refuse to eat something that they've polished off no problem 24 hours previously. Do try the reading thing, I don't believe that something has to become a habit (my daughter doesn't demand a book at every meal, I just bring them out when I can see she's not tucking in), and what's wrong with reading to your child anyway! I keep a food diary as well, more to ensure I'm not repeating myself too often, but you might find it useful. Also, maybe try different timings, I have moved mealtimes around as she's grown up, I moved lunchtime forward at one point as I felt she was too tired and cross to eat well, and more recently moved it back as her nap became later. Another thing (sorry to be so bity, things keep occurring to me!), she will eat some things (like banana, say, or a clementine) as a snack when we're out and about in the park, but not sitting in her highchair. Presentation seems to matter with her, bloody hard to try and second guess though! Try not to despair, (easier said than done when you're in 'the moment', I know), they can change their eating habits at the drop of a hat and that awful phase that seemed to last for ever will be a dim and distant memory - I was talking to a friend yesterday who has twins, aged 2 - the good eater is now the more picky one, and the one that was awful at the weaning stage is now pretty good. It's not you or your food.

yes, I'd like to know too. So disappointed that Tippee Toes is no longer able to use their back room, Kim is a great teacher and it was a really good group. The cafe has a big front room, I can't imagine on a weekday morning that they are so chockablock that they can't give their back room over to this.

park / playground? Goose Green and Ruskin Park are our faves, in fact we may well head to GG ourselves tomorrow!

the osteopath thing is odd, I didn't get how just a bit of gentle prodding could make any difference, but it only took one appointment for the wind problem to vanish!

re: holding her own spoon, larger Boots sell angled cutlery, babies eat off the side of the spoon so a normal toddler spoon is difficult for them. I used the angled spoon until my daughter was over 18 months, really helped the food to get in her mouth. I also used different cutlery which could sometimes help when she didn't seem to want much, so sometimes her own spoon, sometimes a 'grown up' spoon, tried spearing things on a fork ('good stabbing Mummy!') - make it fun for her. Stabbing peas and sweetcorn always entertains and takes minutes to cook from frozen. It's horribly stressful, isn't it, I used to get so wound up which if of course the worst thing. So, with hindsight - always put newspaper down to minimise the clearing up. I wouldn't bother doing loads of home cooking, there's nothing more irritating than seeing food you've spent time and effort creating go to waste. Jars (apparently Hipp stuff if half price in Sainsbo's at the mo?), and cheap'n'easy things like beans on toast, cheese and tomato puree on toast, scrambled eggs, omelette, sandwiches. Maybe try something completely different like soup, I can give you a recipe for pea soup, easy to make and she can dunk toast into it and make a jolly old mess. I also found doing the washing up the best thing to do if my daughter was being tricky, the less direct attention the better, eating with her at best made sod all difference, at worst was just her handing us her food! She could have a couple of little animals with her which sometimes helped. Moved her highchair into different positions so she had a different view. When she was a bit bigger and we'd had the booster seat out for another child she sometimes liked to sit there. These days (she's just turned 2) if she's being slow or just saying no I read a book to her and if she stops eating I stop reading, which normally encourages another mouthful to go in - I wish I'd done this earlier, she loves her books. It is so hard at the time, I absolutely hated mealtimes at one stage, but I could have handled it much better so it's great you're looking for ideas. Is there someone else (partner, grandma) who could do the odd meal here or there - my husband (because he didn't have to do it 3 times a day!) was much more relaxed, and also more creative than me, so he pretty much took over at weekends, and my mum could get her to eat pretty much anything (but we only see her once a fortnight or so). One final though - is she still teething? My daughter, after a certain age, showed absolutely no obvious signs of teething (dribbling, red cheeks, chewing, and is pretty stoical about pain) and again, it was only in hindsight and when a tooth appeared that we though, ah yes, she's been a bit (more!) off her food, and maybe a bit waily. Hope that some of this might help, I've got my fingers crossed for you!

I did teeth before milk until I stopped breastfeeding her to sleep which was when she turned 1, then (and now) I did milk then teeth then stories. My mum is a retired children's dentist and she thought this was fine (she said ideally they shouldn't have anything other than water once their teeth have been cleaned, but realistically . . . !), and my daughter at 2 doesn't seem to have any problems.

slightly unrelated but if your employer has a childcare voucher scheme your childcare provider must be Ofsted registered, so worth bearing in mind.

Have you thought about cranial osteopathy, we tried this after 3 months of using infacol and it worked a dream.

can second the microchip catflap, we had awful problems with a tom coming into our house, spraying and attacking our cats when we weren't in. We were seriously thinking of trapping it and handing into a rescue centre for them to neuter (or getting hold of an air gun and shooting the little f**ker) but went for the catflap, the moment when it chased one of our cats into the house and then crashed into the shut catflap was a happy happy occasion. Rarely seen it since.

d'you have to be a member to book trampolining? Had a look online, am confused!

I would love to come along to Hummy Mummies, as I can't do the existing time, but 2.30 would be too early for me. 3.30 would be better, my daughter normally sleeps till about 3 so would give enough time to get out and to wherever you'd be holding the choir, I'm guessing you'd be Dulwich way and we're in Peckham. It would be great to have something on in the afternoon, especially in the winter! On a purely selfish note if it could be Weds or Thurs even better! (PS, napping till around 3 seems the norm among the few mothers I know)

I've had the Bee for 2 years now, never regretted it. Have walked loads with it (even through the snow once time!), not off road though. Very nippy and manoeverable. Biggest plus point is its size, will fit into the tiny boot of our car, and as it's so slim fantastic for the bus. Didn't find the lack of carrycot a problem really, daughter slept loads in it as a baby. I think she'll be in it till she's 3.

Tippee Toes singing at All Fired Up Ceramics cafe on Tuesday morning. All Saints playgroup on Wednesday morning (church on Blenheim Grove by Peckham Rye station). Both lovely. Jellybabies swimming Tuesday afternoons at the Peckham Pulse.

I used body shop vitamin E body butter when I was pregnant, didn't stop me getting stretch marks but you certainly can't see them now. And when I burnt my leg accidently setting the school on fire I used wheatgerm oil, which also seemed to work. Have no scientific basis for either though.

really? wow. Guess that's just us then!

I have to say I'm surprised that anyone would actually need to use the safety harness, once the tray is in place (and once in place we never took it off, unless we were actually taking the high chair apart) it's damn near impossible for them to fall out, even when Little Oi was 6 months old we never used it. Also, 8 complaints from the gazillions they must sell of this hardly seems a major issue. We've just put ours away after 18 months use and it's been perfect.

I had hot milk for daytime and bravado for nighttime, there's no way I could have done without! I got fitted at Pretty Pregnant but actually bought the hot milk bras online as they were miles cheaper!

my mum has just bought our daughter a mini-micro, and when I was researching on the John Lewis website, a lot of people seemed to have bought the mini-micro as their second scooter, as their first, cheaper one, hadn't lasted, so it does seem worth spending the money. She hasn't been out on it yet so haven't got a helmet yet, hopefully someone will be able to help with that one.

these recipes sound great! One thing to bear in mind, as I found out doing research when I decided to bring our daughter up as veggie, is that veggie/vegan food can be very fibre-heavy, which isn't so good for children, so for example I always give our daughter white bread (which is fortified, unlike brown, so not as evil as I thought). Hope that helps and enjoy cooking!

no, starts again next week.

I've also got a recipe for a veggie spag bol (using puy lentils instead of mince) which is very tasty, I'll drag our scanner out and email it to you later. A good freezer stand by too.

we have a similar problem in that my husband is veggie but I can't eat much dairy/eggs. So family food has to be vegan. Here are 3 recipes that I do, and that our 2 year old will eat. http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/curry-recipes/southern-indian-vegetable-curry-with-cur I normally do this just with Cauliflower and peas, not all the veg he suggests, and I leave out the fresh chilli http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/risotto/roasted-and-sun-dried-tomato-risotto.html just leave out the creme fraiche and cheese at the end http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/v/vegetarian_shepherd_s_pie_with_sweet_potato_mash.html leave out the cheese all yum.

Asda are very good value, 2 double packs for ?10, literally half the price of Pampers, even if they're on offer. But second everyone who says not to get too many to begin with. I had Huggies when my daughter was born as my sister had recommended them, but as she grew I tried different brands and like Asda Active Fit the best for daytime. Wipes I've always bought Sainsburys/Boots/Asda own brand unfragranced wipes when on offer, never had a bad reaction to any. I wish we had tried reusables but I found the first few weeks so crazy that doing masses of washing and drying of nappies was more than I could contend with (midwinter and no tumble drier) and just stuck with disposables.