patt1980

Thanks for quick responses, that's a couple of ideas to float to MIL for approval:-)

Hi, I have my mother in law staying and with this cold weather we have been mainly holed up at home with my toddler apart from a few swing trips and I am now starting to go a bit insane, as is lively 2 year old! Want to get out the house today and do something but we are all a bit coldy so usual things such as swimming, city f?rm etc are off and was wondering if anyone had any bright ideas? Also MIL can't walk long distances and is not that mobile so thought busy soft play etc may not be ideal. Have the car though so can travel a bit. Thanks!

I meant to do a recommendation for Emmanuelle too but forgot so I will jump on this as I have bought most my now nearly two year old daughter's shoes from her and been very pleased with the selection, quality and her lovely manner. She even told me last week that my daughter hadn't grown out of hers yet so not to get any new ones for at least two months so that I could then get something more summery to last the summer.

Not sure if anyone knows the answer to this but I was sure when I had looked previously at the accredited Montessori's in the area that Blossoms had come up but now it doesn't seem to say it is accredited with either the above site or MSA. Does anyone else remember it being accredited previously?

I don't have school age kids yet but know my brother is in the same boat with 3 costumes to find for his lot. I haven't been there but drove past a new fancy dress shop in Penge the other day so maybe give them a buzz and see if they can help. Good luck! www.fancythatnparty.co.uk/

We persuaded our nearly two year old to have hers done by allowing her to have each big toe painted in mummy's pink polish and cutting them all before. She is very pleased with them and takes her socks off frequently now to admire her'pretty toes'!

I grew up in Beckenham and my mum and brother and his family still live there and there's lots to do with little ones. His kids are at Balgowan which they are v happy with. My mum who used to run a Montessori school rates The Beckenham Montessori although it is a bit further up towards Beckenham Junction.

Another vote for the Ikea one. My 21 month old got it for Christmas and she is very pleased with it.

Sounds like much the same repertoire we have! My toddler does also like puffed rice cereal, Rude Health do one with no rubbish in it that they sell in sainsburys and also mashed avocado on toast or oat cakes goes down well.

That is so sad, my daughter is also at the same nursery with their son. Agree if anyone knows if there is anything that can be done by the community to help them please let us know.

MGolden - it's funny as I vividly remember being the only kid whose mum didn't have snacks with her after school (she didn't deem them necessary) so maybe I am trying to over compensate! Saying that my daughter did start searching through another mum's handbag for food at a class this week so i might need to explain the rules a bit more.

Just to re-iterate the other posters comments but I would definitely look into a cow's milk protein allergy and/or soy as my daughter had similar symptoms and it is only when i got her diagnosed and onto neocate did i realise how uncomfortable she had been before as she changed personalities overnight! She went from a baby with severe reflux who could only sleep on my chest or in her carseat to sleeping in long (ish) stretches and was just so much more content. I am not sure if it is your first baby but my daughter was and i think it meant i put off visiting the GP as i thought all babies had such terrible wind and explosive poos and it was only when my mum came to visit that she told me it wasn't normal:-) Hopefully as well if you can get him more comfortable quickly you will be able to carry on combination feeding as i know my daughter started refusing the breast as she associated it with pain. Anyway good luck and if it is a dairy allergy it really is quite easy to manage and if my robust and healthy 18 month old is anything to go by does them no harm.

I agree, since starting nursery at 11 months my now 18 month old has varied as to whether she needs much more after finishing nursery at 5:45pm. I think it depends when she is having a growth spurt as i know she always eats loads at nursery, she also gets given a big lunch and lighter tea. I tend to take a few snacks with me for her to eat on our walk home like oatcakes, potato cakes, avocado sandwich fingers etc and that plus a bottle at bed tends to satisfy her. Although she now gets quite keen to see what i have in my bag when i collect her so maybe I am making a rod for my own back to always have a snack on board!

I use www.sitters.co.uk and have been very happy with their service. Have only used them for evenings when i have put my 18 month old to bed but there have never been any problems and now have a couple of regular preferred sitters. They charge ?6.50 p/h for week nights and ?7 on weekends plus you pay a booking fee of ?4 i think for each booking to sitters, they all have a car so no cab fare. I also know they very thoroughly check each sitter as my mum once signed up to them and was very thoroughly interviewed and reference checked.

I am pretty sure Kings in Beckenham takes new pupils on a weekly basis www.kingscolleges.com as my mum works there as a teacher. Alternatively she would prob be happy to do some one on one English lessons with her too so could always put you in touch if you want to PM me.

Not a family planning clinic but I have used the Lister Drop In GP Clinic in Peckham (on Peckham road near Lyndhurst Rd) when i quickly needed a prescription and had no hope of getting an appt at DMC.

I really like www.made.com stuff or the Linea range at www.houseoffraser.co.uk often has a sale on making it under ?500. Ebay also has some good deals for re-covered armchairs.

I live towards Peckham Rye side of ED and am on Three and don't get reception in most parts of my house and frequently not when out locally either so can't recommend it.

Gnocchi with a variety of sauces. If in a hurry i just do passata, frozen peas and sweetcorn or pesto and frozen broccoli - just bung the frozen veg in with the gnocchi and drain all together. It's ready in about 5 mins and you can even keep gnocchi in the freezer and cook from frozen.

I might need to upgrade my sky subscription then Belle:-)

We tried all the various methods too with our early waking daughter; wake to sleep, later bedtime, earlier bedtime, blackouts, coming into our bed etc etc and nothing really worked that well or consistently. She just finally grew out of it by about 14/15 months but will still wake about 5am when she is going through a 'wonder week' type developmental period. I have found i like to stick to an early'ish bedtime at 6/6:30pm as at least then she won't be as tired in the day and in a better mood plus i look at the sliver lining of having some time to myself in the eves! Good luck, it is really tough getting up in the pitch black before cbeebies is even on!

Yep we had the same thing, put our daughter on the waiting list and paid ?30 and then could never get hold of them to find out if we had a place. We went with somewhere else in the end too.

It is a tricky one and not one we have totally mastered yet either but one thing that has worked for us when staying in a half board style hotel is to put our daughter to bed in the travel cot at her normal time 7pm and then move her to her buggy after half an hour or so whilst asleep with a snoozeshade blackout on. We have then sat at the quieter end of the hotel restaurant and eaten and had a few glasses of wine with her asleep in the buggy. She is not a great sleeper and we'd never be able to take her out awake and get her to sleep (also very nosy) in the buggy but we find once she is in a deep sleep she doesn't wake up too easily. Hope you have a nice holiday whatever you decide!

?150 for a hamster - he must be mad and trying to rip people off! I think mine were ?3 from the pet shop when i was a kid.

Thanks alot. I use the pure soya margarine for day to day stuff but hadn't thought it was as simple as just replacing that for butter in recipes (you can tell i don't bake regularly!). I actually have the river cottage baby and toddler book Newtoedf but thanks for the offer. I love cooking just not baking so admit haven't read the sweet recipes really but will check them out. I will get on and bake tomorrow then as it is her first day at nursery so will have a WHOLE day and know i won't know what to do with myself other than worry how she is settling in! Thanks again.