The Nappy Lady

Hmmm - lots of snow forecast from 9pm tonight and all day tomorrow...so ??????? Hurry up baby!!!!

Well done Gussy, sounds like you are now on 'sledge watch'!!! If the same ones they had last year - yellow with two black ski like runners and a steering wheel they are EXCELLENT!

First year that both of mine have managed OK out there. O at 6 played out for 3 hours yesterday after school, and made a fab snowman with her best friend. Little C at 2 manages about 30 minutes, but is not so good at keeping mittens on etc. so ends up with cold little hands and toes. I took her to bed when we got in and snuggled her up, was the only way to get her feet warm again, and she fell fast asleep for 90 minutes - lovely! She has also developed quite a taste for hot chocolate! I've seen a few people use parcel tape to keep gloves/mittens on, and also around the top of wellies if need be. I think it's really tricky until they are 2 or more because they just can't be mobile enough to keep warm. ladywotlunches - was OK out with the buggy today, but I've got a Mountain Buggy 3 wheeler, even so it was pretty hard pushing through the deeper snow off road. On the pavements it is now quite hard, icy and compacted. If you take the baby out do you have a loop on the buggy handle you can put around your wrist, then at least if you fall the pram wont take off down a hill without you, which is what terrifies me most. Has anyone considered using bungees to attach a Bugaboo pram body to a sledge??!!! LOL. Re slipping - if you don't have good non slip footwear then putting a pair of socks over your wellies will help them to grip - as for style....hey it goes out the window at times like this in my opinion (yes I was the one sporting the genuine 1980's C&A Snowsuit on the school run for the past 2 days)....retro chic? Who cares, I am warm, and dry - let the snowballs come!!! Lots more snow forecast from tonight at 9pm, all night and all day tomorrow from what I can gather, how exciting! Hope everyone is having fun and not going too stir crazy......

Yes - theory re the sex is that male sperm swim faster, so get there faster, but female sperm live longer, so if you have sex prior to ovulating male sperm will get there too soon and die, then when egg arrives female sperm will arrive just at the right moment. But, hey who knows....pink or blue, it's all good! Happy trying....:))

Mellors, I agree, put closest school as first choice and take it from there. Good luck, and do try not to worry as it does tend to all work out after the initial allocations, during the shake down process. Molly xx

Keep us posted Fuschia.....are they keeping you in now?

We got a great one from BC Bikes last year, they might have some again?

Paint & decorate containers such as old skimmed milk tubes / dairylee boxes etc to become penholders or loose change holders etc ?? My eldest did one recently & it came out amazingly well. Also home made Christmas Tree decks - google salt dough on line, you make the shapes (use cookie cutters to make stars, Xmas trees etc then let children pain with acrylic paint, glitter paint etc, leave to dry then varnish - did these last year, lots of fun. Can make decorations from things like toilet roll inners etc too - paint, cover in glitter, cut up, make spirals or whatever...

New Mother, I've had my own share of 'balance' and 'dealing with it' actually. For instance during the 3 years when I couldn't have a 2nd baby, and had 3 miscarriages, and an ectopic which resulted in a lost fallopian tube...how did I cope....by thinking how lucky I was to have a little girl already, that I could go home and cuddle, and by thinking of all the people out there who were going through what I was, but didn't have a child at all. I was able to recognise how lucky I was, but was that enough to stop me having moments when I'd feel like screaming out loud, or sobbing my heart out - no. I hate to be confrontational, but frankly I find it more sickening that you feel you can come on a thread and judge people you don't know, or know anything about. Don't assume the people on here are not also thinking of others. This thread was specifically about how hard it is to be a parent sometimes, so that is what they are discussing ON THIS THREAD. Don't read more into it than that. It is no bad thing to remind us all that there are worse things in the world, but I felt you did more than that in your post, and actually you sounded very (and in my mind unfairly) critical. My previous post was not trying to agree with your point, I am more in agreement with Mellors post on the subject.

New Mother, I think the issues you raise are good ones, but I think it's a bit unfair to raise them 'in comparison' to the issues on this thread. I think one of the hardest things when you become a parent is being able to put your hand up & say 'help' & some of the people on the thread may have done that for the first time. Almost anything can be put into a different context if you compare it to other dreadfully sad events in this world & yes we all have many things to feel blessed about, but it is OK to sometimes say 'this is hard' & denying that can be downright unhealthy.

Yes, that's the place I was talking about LOL!!

When sitting in our front room, the front door is in hall right 'behind' where I sit - when girls were little if anyone knocked on the door they would jump out of their little babygrows/startle awake etc!! At that point I got a doorbell and put a note on the door saying "Please ring bell, don't knock, new baby in house" and it did seem to work (so many people send parcels for new baby, poor postmen must be a bit paranoid!!)....but every battery operated doorbell we have seems to go kaput after a couple of months and stop working, so now girls are 2 and 6 I've gone back to the good old door knocker, and now have to put up a sign saying "Knock HARD, can't always hear over the children"!!! LOL, how life goes in circles......

Gussy, there's a great fabric shop in Lewisham - on the high street, sort of opposite the entrance to the shopping centre...can't remember the name, but they are on 2 floors, and have loads of stuff. Someone the other day told me there is also an amazing fabric place just by the entrance to Peckham Rye station, run by an old couple who seem to have every kind of fabric you can imagine, but that you have to root around to find it!! Othen than that I use John Lewis.... Hope this helps.

Def. A thread in family room classifieds re face painting classes - was in the last week or so.

EmmaG, someone on here posted re food 'under 1 it's just for fun' I think this is a good mantra - most babies are initially excited by the introduction of solids, then get bored. I agree with others, offer stuff that you are making anyway, or easy things that take little effort. After a set amount of time take what's left away without a fuss & try not to show stress/concern. Both mine have had fussy patches, my six year old was very tricky for a couple of years but is a great eater now & the little one, now 2 takes the lead from her big sister so is pretty good. Hang in there. Xx

Yes, oil filled rad with thermostat and plugged into timer switch so only on at night when temp drops too low - you can get them from Argos for ?50 or less. Crazy to heat the entire house all night.

You can get skiing base layers from Decathalon in childrens sizes,not sure what age they start at though. New Zealand Nature on line do lovely silk tops & longjohnsfor children, maybe a UK on line company does baby sizes, though I think tights are fine for then for first couple of years.

Hi SCSB, Might be worth telling your friend to take a look at this page; http://www.suzannejames.co.uk/venue-list.asp I guess each person's idea of 'funky' will vary, and of course if they actually want to hold their civil ceremony at the venue it will need to be licensed - not sure all the above suggestions are, though that doesn't stop you holding your reception there (or getting married the day before 'officially' at registry office, then having unofficial 'ceremony' of your choice on the day itself at any venue - you can even get a guy who will act as a 'Phoney Bishop' (or not a Bishop, but any person of your choosing on the day) to oversee your personal 'vows'). Sue has his name and contact details. I think a lot of the venues on her page are unusual, and not ones I new about previously - Wilton's Music Hall seems pretty cool to me, as is Perch Studios, and the Garden Museum with the right lighting. Hope this helps.

Why didn't I think of this when I was pregnant? What a good idea, hope they are open to it.

I agree - 3 days sounds perfect, my 1st was just at school when I had my second and it made life so much easier & less exhausting. Good luck!

Not at all, I think all equally relevant for different moments. X

Here are the poems my lovely Mum wrote after each of my girls was born; O's Poem; I gazed at you with love Your eyes responded Unfocused, all seeing The milky bubbles frothed On blistered, rosebud lips Pink petalled hands padding Catlike at my breast These things I remember My daughter. My love. C's Poem entitled "A long wait" (we had a hard time during the 3 years prior to having C as I think most on here know - hence the references to fear/grieving etc.) Nine months of waiting Fortyone weeks of hope, and dread Fearful always of fates untimely blow But now, instead..... This tiny girl Miniature fingers unfurling To clasp your heart To bind forever with the silken thread of love. In such a simple way The years of hoping, grieving, loss, regrets Vanish like smoke As skin to skin the precious bond is set. These mean so much to me, and I think actually O's poem has great duality as it was written after Mum saw me give birth, but also because of the memories it brought back to her of when I was born.

LOL, well the Abba song does that strange thing to me, where I'm smiling with joy, and crying (if not sobbing) all at once, which is totally bizarre. Such joy having children, combined with such terror as you watch them growing up and know you just can't protect them, or stop them making a fair few of the same mistakes you did yourself....

Yes Sillywoman, first time I heard the song was in an interview where she explained that very thing (Annie Lennox I mean). If I sing it to my girls I always cry.....hopeless!

Sorry - wanted to add, lots of good experiences from people on here like Sillywoman of staying put in London with older children. I'm not yet convinced that moving out to the sticks is all it is cracked up to be.