linzkg

We need some items removed from our property - old furniture mainly - I'm looking for a skip/or a van and a couple of guys to move it - unfortunately I'm not in London and my tenant can't lift heavy objects - any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi, A friend of ours is looking for a position as an au pair July/August time in the UK. She is a young French girl, living in France, and wants to better her English .. So she comes 'cheap'. She's not looking for money as such, she's wanting a live in postion and to be fed of coz. If you'd like further information and to speak to the family please let me know. Thanks, Lindsay

Ah, as I thought - thanks for letting me know - I will be going private straight away - I'm heading home from overseas especially to have my son seen so only have a few weeks - especially if there are more procedures/referrals. And just thought NHS won't see us as currently we're 'not' residents so not paying taxes hey .. hmmm ..

Thanks very much - the 3rd recommendation for them - I'll give them a call in the morning!

I'm travelling back home for a couple of weeks especially for my son to see some specialists .. and my worry is the NHS could take some time to get in to be seen and any follow ups / referrals they could take time too.

Hi, I need to find a PAED for my 2 year old and also an ENT specialist .. any recommendations please? Thanks!

Molly, do a search on Vieamin E oil for ear infections! Its a simple natural remedy and apparently the results are amazing - I'm almost excited to try it out as I suffered terribly as a youngster from ear infections and was given all the medicated antibiotics - not really what we want to be giving our youngsters hey .. (randomly on the forum after someone private messaged me ..)

Lou - darn, was hoping you'd miss this one ;-) Back to work soon hey - good luck x Polly - we can't get iPlayer here (gutted as missed finale of Britain's next top model and my family's crazy gap year, can't watch Australia's masterchef ..) but that series does sound interesting, sad as well. Imagine its good for the men to watch too. Ha ha, I'm sure every mother lets that thought slip into their head at some stage - the 'what ifs' but letters are an interesting thought - even in general to write them for fun almost and your son can read them when he grows up regardless .. horrible thought though :-(

Molly - no, its what we were expecting - can't wait to get stuck in! A lot more expensive though .. they automatically put the "western" hat on you and assume you're rolling in it as your company pays for everything - but we're breaking them down so they're taking it easy on us - especially when it comes to house hunting (or 'villas' as they like to call them here) as they're not showing us the complete castles anymore but reasonable sized and manageable villas. The food is yummmmmmy. You'll have to come see for yourselves though ;-) ps, the girls will be celebrities here. x

That's a good way of looking at it - I'll blame it on nature and natural instinct - not me being silly and overacting!! I'm hoping the kiddies will eventually join us on our pursuits too. Over night we've even now discussed giving up our driver in a few months (giving us a while to settle into the local way of life) and swapping onto mopeds as the kids seem to behave naturally and safely on them. Thanks :-)

I know I don't officially currently live in ED (but will be back soonish) and its a compliment that I value the opinions here .. so ladies please don't shake your heads in despair (I know hubby is ;-) .. but the expat forum here is pretty formal and general (no feeling in it!) So we were staying in an awesome spot on Vietnam's coast and had intended going diving - I had a small thought about hubby and I both being away from our son in a off land, under water, foreign country etc - but I dismissed it quickly. We're completely ok with leaving him in the hotel with a sitter as they're all so lovely and he's a friendly contented chap so has loads of fun. A day later my hubby mentioned the same thought .. so we decided not to go diving 'in case' something happened to us .. are we being silly? over reacting? will we ever feel ok about doing slightly 'wilder' sports? because of kids? He's only 15 months so maybe we're still newish parents ..

yay! (sorry) I'm not the only one with a temper tantrum little one that hasn't yet even hit the terrible 2s. My hubby places him as gently as possible onto the floor so he can kick and scream and stands back almost ignoring him and doesn't react but quietly and calmly says 'are you finished' and repeats himself and our son actually responds and stops almost immediately and gets rewarded by having a cuddle - where as I panic and try whatever to stop him generally only making matters worse so he plays on the attention. Just a thought ..

We son went to SA when he was 6 months so only had the usual limited jabs. He's since had the BCG - other then me originally being from SA hubby likes going 'into the bush' and roughing it whether in Africa or Asia so we got it just to be safe but also hopefully our son will travel when he's older too so at least he's covered. With regards to mozzies - you should be fine but maybe use citronella oil for your little one - obviously not directly onto the skin but put a drop onto the clothes. Water is SA is generally absolutely fine directly from taps too - if you end up in a game park or bush just ask - but your hosts will generally provide bottled water if there were any risks regardless. If anything make sure you've got sun protection and good skin creams (we just notice that while their sin is healthy in the sunshine it can dry out quite a bit.) Enjoy!

Those plug in wall Karvol things are fantastic too - I've used them for my little boy - to make matters worse he's always slept on his tummy - but they really do work and definitely helped keep him clear through the night.

my fault - sorry!

Ok scrap Babble and Squeak (thanks Fran!) as it isn't on this week. Meet in the picnic area of Peckham Rye park from 10.30am / 11am? Bee74 - opposite the parking at the cafe is a gate - if you walk through there, over the little bridge by the toilets and keep going straight up through various little gates you'll get to the picnic area - I'll have down some bright red/black/blue sarong type blankets so you shouldn't miss us.

bee74 - sorry, we usually meet up on a Tuesday afternoon from 2.30pm in the picnic area of Peckham Park .. but I have ransacked the thread to get the girls out this Friday as well. Molly - aha I see, makes sense! Good one you for even remembering to follow this up - haha. Ok so going forward I may try Calpol initially and see what happens .. mind you if its a little fever and its related to teething then I may not feel so bad giving him Nurofen - less quantity (though probably more concentrated ;-), it deals with the inflamed area and the fever all in one go. Thanks for this though - I'm glad to have it clear now after being rather confused ;-) Hopefully see you on Friday at some stage. x

Hopefully see you ladies (and anyone else who's around - Molly? Polly? Pickle?) on Friday for a little farewell for S and I :-(( I'm thinking either after Babble and Squeak for an early lunch or after lunch and nap time at say 2ish? Must get on with making cupcakes tomorrow! xxx

hooray - goodness I told a fair few friends to join your Friday group after our little-ins got to big for baby sensory .. and it was holiday time so everyone pitched to a closed up Mag! hehe

A few of us with varying ages of toddlers meet in Peckham Rye park picnic area from 2/2.30pm .. mind you, weather dependant that is! (If you don't get out i can pop around tomorrow instead of weds (or you guys can come here) .. and S can terrorise C ..!

Little life and Ergo are fab too!

Ha! Me! So glad to hear I'm not the only one! My 14 month old son's bedroom faces onto the road. I had just finished battling my son to sleep one night and was down stairs in the lounge when the van stopped right outside our house with his music blaring - I was actually jumping about giving him signs to stop playing the music .. when another neighbour walked straight by and just laughed at me .. I've never lived that one down ..

Hubby and I are having a rough time with our 14 month old as well. Last night it took 2.5 hours to get him to sleep - he is happy in his cot - but leave the room and you might as well cut off a finger. He's suddenly not ok with us leaving him alone - so if he wakes himself in the middle of the night he cries out for me until I go in to settle him again (do also think maybe its something to do with the dark, and teething, and he's full of cold, and the excuses just keep coming!! ;-) He's got staying power though - we've tried controlled crying but after a solid hour or so we give in as he's actually gone horse by then from the shrieking and screeching. So instead we sit in the room with him until he falls asleep, which normally takes an hour or so. Belle, we also scrutinise what we're doing wrong/not doing right. I then google the question and feel comforted when I read that lots of parents go through the exact same time. (I almost can't see the point of getting them into a sleep routine in the first place when they suddenly change randomly.) Pickle, we need to work back to the repeated lying him down theory - this used this theory once before to tire him out and didn't take too long for him to give up. One last idea - I've also definitely found that completely ignoring my son (when I'm in the room with him waiting for him to settle and fall asleep) even if he stands up and reaches out for me or talks to me. He gets bored after a while and lies down. Where as I used to tell him to lie down and go to sleep .. which he'd do but minutes later was standing again - obviously waiting for the attention. These kids are more clever then we give them credit for I think ;-)

Gosh, 10 months already! :-) Have you tried Piplings nursery?

Our son got to a similar age, about 7 months old, and also woke only once but also in the early hours of the morning - we even tried doing a dream feed at 11ish before we went to bed to see if that helped him but without fail he still work. By this age they shouldn't need food through the night (apparently) so we too gave him water instead - that and/or a quick cuddle soon got him out of the habit of wanting milk and he soon stopped waking. Another thing I did was to give him a bottle of formula at night (I breastfed fully for 1 year) but had heard that formula has more calories or something so babies sleep better - almost over night!