Moos

Foxes = Luddites

Can't comment on the baby room, but my son is settling in well in the main room, after a few weeks of reluctance. He still prefers not to go than to go, but I think that's because he hasn't made any good friends yet. There does seem to be high staff turnover there which is a concern, but we are lucky that our son's key worker seems to be excellent.

Pickle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is a thread I wish I'd never read :-S Pickle, I thought you Australasians were all immune to arachnophobia! ;-)

Today: 'No, the computer cable is not for putting in your mouth. Or your nose.' Gawd.

Bit unfair, Keef and Gimme? If I may say so very gently, not meaning to offend or kick anything off. No-one called the Mail in the Mind d?bacle, the woman involved was approached by the paper on the street, and she wasn't paid for it. I thought the whole debate got a bit out of hand, but after the CEO of Mind responded I think everyone accepted (including and most importantly the lady herself) that it had been dealt with well and appropriately.

In my opinion the letter made it perfectly clear that it was a request for interest and not a request for donations. If I get a chance I'll scan my letter and stick it on here so you can all judge for yourselves. It's always good to see people discussing issues directly on the forum, so I was glad to read Jane Ferguson's response, and found it well expressed. Expat, I read her note as meaning that all recent patients were equally targeted, ie their names and addresses were provided to the charity, but not treatment information so that for example there was no attempt to match cancer sufferers with cancer projects or pregnant women with neo-natal care etc. Thank goodness. Moos (also SE15 by the way, PR) P.S. "almost always"!?

In a perfect world, no - targeting patients may make people feel they 'ought' to donate for having used King's services. But in the imperfect world of charity fundraising it seems acceptable to me. I've also received letters from charities in the past reading 'thanks very much for your ?15/month, do you think you could manage a bit more?' which was rather annoying.

I got the letter also, and given that King's spent a lot of money on me in 2007 and that I'm a current outpatient, I'm not surprised that they wrote to me - I thought it was quite intelligent targeting.

Generally looks like a good list, many thanks (although have to admit I only scanned it) One minor comment - I don't think cot bumpers are necessary or even universally recommended.

Agreed! It was No Fun doing the weaning, but better than the continual replacing we'd been doing.

On the thermometer question, we bought the Egg one (because we thought it looked sweet) and hated it. It used to flicker from one colour to the next and flashed "too hot" all summer - ie meaning over 24 degrees. Which is a useful alert of course if you happen to be in the room at the time but disturbed the baby. The day it couldn't decide whether it was 23 or 24 and flickered back and forth between amber and red for an hour (like a mini light display in the dim bedroom) was the day I boxed it up and put it away. After that we relied on the thermometer on our baby monitor instead. That also flashed annoyingly but at least it did it at the business (ie parent) end, and left the sleeping child alone.

We are Anglo-German - my husband speaks to our son primarily in German and I speak English to him, but given that his daily life is English, I encourage German as much as I can with German songs, stories etc. My husband had a phase of not working during which time our son's German improved tremendously till it was almost 50:50 with his English, but since then it has dropped back and back. He is 3 and understands German but speaks it very little. However, we are hopeful that the seeds are being sown and if we persist he will grow up fluent in both languages. So sad for grandparents to have to converse with grandchildren in a foreign language if they themselves aren't fluent. Also, since German is both conjugated and declined, it should be a good base for learning other languages.

I have read that they can interfere with the establishment of breastfeeding so avoided dummies for the first month of my son's life for that reason, but am not sure how true that is. Plenty of evidence from pp that there was no ill effect. We had to take our son's dummy away at about six months as he couldn't fall asleep without it, but it used to drop out and wake him up as he dropped off (aargh), and he was too little to replace it. Bu that seems to be far from the norm.

Yes, definitely - gets more challenging for the nanny once both can crawl (in different directions). I'd look for a nanny with experience of working with such young children, and of course one who has a similar child-rearing philiosophy to your own with regard to tinies - e.g. strictness of routine (or not), when to wean etc.

I bet the conversation went like this: Prof: Bagel please Poor sod paid ?4/hour: Butter or cheese? Prof: Did I say butter or cheese? PSP?$/H: Er, no - they come with butter or cheese, which do you want? Prof: I asked for a bagel. I don't want butter or cheese. PSP?$/H: Oh, OK - you want a plain bagel. Prof: I want a bagel! PSP?$/H: Yes, but a bagel comes with butter or cheese. Is that what you want? Prof: Just give me a bagel! The English language is a beautiful and precise instrument. Had I wanted any dairy products adorning my bagel I would have waxed lyrical as to the delights of toppings, the - *the crowd building up behind starts to shift on its feet. Prof turns around and is delighted to find she has an audience, her lectures don't garner this sort of rapt attention. Her Celtic earrings swing wildly* - it's really perfectly simple, just give me a bagel! Or do I have to get you sacked to get some service, you stupid little man? PSP?$/H: Hey, don't call me names. If you want a bagel, it comes with butter or cheese. If you want a plain bagel just say so. Prof: I want to see the manager, my father didn't fight the Germans for me to be treated with this sort of linguistic hullaballoo, this PR bullying, this impertinent twisting of our mother tongue *etc etc* PSP?$/H: Um...

Barry, thank you for everything. You're an example to all of us.

PeckhamRose Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > And we're childFREE, dya mind? Who's that comment aimed at?

I liked the Waddilove book too, but thought it was quite old-fashioned in its approach. The constant 'don't worry!'s were great! However, she does advocate a 4-hourly routine which seems a bit of a stretch for a very small one.

It's next to the church, Mockers.

Definitely totally normal. My son (now 3) talked at 2 and hasn't stopped since.

David! you know how he ended up, now stop that.

The woman who posed for this painting died afterwards of pneumonia. Millais lit candles under the bath she was floating in to keep the water warm... unfortunately it wasn't warm enough.

Well, I didn't, I must say. I thought he was just another instrument of torture for Sherlock to apply to the hapless mortician. I still haevn't quite got over the shock of a 3-part series that ends on a cliffhanger. I hope it comes back soon. Do you think we'll get to meet Irene Adler? Who would make a good Irene? She'd need to be cerebral and sinister, but very sensuous and beautiful.

MacGabhann, you are a smartarse. So did anyone understand how the cabbie did it? I really wanted to know but couldn't work it out.

Mockers, what are you on about? Esher maybe, if we're talking purely the sound of it but Croydon? It even sounds grim. I'd rather be called Bromley. My son thinks that Funkadoo is a good name for a baby.