keane

With 2 boys age 9 & 5 I would have to say garden too - we had tiny garden and were bit of a walk from park & after 7 years in old house have moved to a house with bigger garden - tho u don't get huge in east dul on our budget it's more long & narrow! But if anything we've got smaller bedrooms than before but a bigger kitchen space with room for a sofa where we end up spending most time. In an ideal world of course it would be lovely to have bigger bedrooms & garden but I realised with 2 football crazy boys that garden space would be really good & u couldn't swing proverbial cat in old garden let alone kick ball. We now have baby 3 so I am hoping for summer of not much time in small bedrooms and lots of time in garden which should by then have a hammock in for me, football goal for them & maybe trampoline etc.

We had bunk beds for our two boys from age 6 & 2 as the little one needed to move out of his cot but the room was too small for 2 beds so there wasn't much choice - in the beginning I had to keep an eye that he didn't climb up but after a while he lost interest in the top bunk and we made his lower one cosy with bedside light, toys etc. they are now 9 and nearly 5 and still in bunks and will be for a while as they need to share a room! We have the metal white ikea ones, cheap but look great.

If you just want to try one I have one you could borrow as we not using it at the mo.

We had a bad experience with winkworth, they played us off against another buyer once our offer had been accepted and we got gazumped for another ?30,000. Obviously the person we were buying from played their part in this but Winkwoth didn't behave well.

It's not a non issue - as cars approach the lights at L lane, Barry road junction coming down with the Catholic Church & library on your left they are frequently travelling at high speed especially if the lights are green. There are lots of pedestrians and children at this point with st Anthony's and the library right there. On this stretch cars are often going at well over 40 mph. At night even more.

Blimey - looks like after being ransacked by burglars! Poor u!

I think it would be mean to post about them on here - I totally agree the child should say sorry as that's the only way to learn, but I don't think there will be a big cost of redecorating - when the same thing happened to us I just touched up the paint with the same colour and it was fine. It's always hard to get to exactly the bottom of which child did which bit when they are together. I now go rushing upstairs on play dates if the 'silence' goes on too long as that's when they could be up to something! In our case my child got a telling off and had to help me clean up and from what I remember lost cbeebies for a while and the other child was made to say sorry by his mum - that was enough as far as I was concerned..

This exact thing happened to me couple of years ago! My middle son now 5 but 2 or 3 at the time had a friend over and friends mum & me were actually commenting on how well they had played etc etc while we had been bla ba chat chat in the kitchen, then they left & I discovered most of the walls upstairs, hall, bedrooms had been drawn on in blue biro - tried baby wipes etc to get it off - didn't work and I ended up having to just paint over the patches two or 3 times before they disappeared. Both of them blamed the other one! Then another time a different child came round and he and my son 'posted' all my magazines Into the fish tank which killed one fish and took HOURS to clean up - so I feel for you!

My four year old just had it and my 5 month old baby got it exactly 2 weeks after him - but she coukdnt scratch which was a bonus and she was happy and not uncomfortable. Spots all gone within 2 weeks.

Who are you writing the piece for?

I think at 18 months u can go straight from b feeding to a cup, I went to a tommy tippee cup at 14 months with my first child and at 9 months with my second - I felt easier to miss out the bottle as one less thing to wean off and they seemed to adapt to the cup really well as it still has that 'sippy' feel. Also they are having solids so though milk is important its not the same as in the first 6 months. I think it's ok to go cold turkey with the night feeds tho at 18 months as too tiring! We did it with our eldest over a week by offering him water in his cup when he woke at night (he was 14 months) and after a week of protesting he got bored with the prospect of water and stopped waking and started eating more in the day so it was worth it! Good luck!

I wasn't saying he was perfect by any means was just making the point that we would not have done any harm or disturbed anyone if we had sat in thr front. No need to be mean.

I had the same experience ar la Chandalier - went there with my 8 year old son - for a treat & I wanted to introduce him to the concept of afternoon tea - he was smartly dressed and well behaved - we wanted to sit in 2 armchairs at the front that were vacant but were told we were only allowed in the back. I won't be going back.

Iceland was here long before a lot of the newer shops, yes it's obviously on the way out but people do use it - there are many things you can buy there that are the same as sold in sainsburys but cheaper. Many people who are on lower incomes & pensioners shop there, not everyone in East Dulwich is flush & Lordship Lane hasn't always been full of chi chi shops!

What age group would u say this is suitable for?

Booters I mean!

Baby boosters ar jags is great and run by a really lovely man Danny - both my sons started off there (now age 8 & 4) and the nice thing is that if they like it they can progress outside to Danny's football which is on the astro turf at 9 on sat mornings. Football magic also do a young group on Sat at Burbage Road

Hi James - also on the subject of dog mess - Crystal Palace road on the left hand side as u walk down from lordship lane to Heber - so much dog mess - same as Pickle says - its in the same places each day - sometimes the pavements are so covered in areas that u have to cross over as cant get pram and 2 children past it without getting in it. I ring the council when I can to report it but then it's just back the next day!

Not sure if you have time to get it done but one of my best presents was a 'bob s book' u can look them up online but essentially you pick family photos and some words and they turn it into a lovely book for you I got mine when my oldest was 3 and two children later I probably still look at it a couple of times a week and asked the other day if He could do another one!

Jimmy v - I agree with you, the dog poo problem on the pavements of East Dulwich is out of control. It is worth ringing the council as sometimes they come out and have a clean up if there is a lot.

Sorry scrub the typo 'is' or I may get pulled up on my grammar too.

Excellent - yet another pointless jibe from Lane Lover reading threads he or she is doesn't have to read!

Hi there - they don't have any trolleys with seats any more - it's a pain but basically u either have to have your pushchair & trolley or put car seat in trolley meaning u can't buy very much unless your child is big enough to go in the seat at the front of the trolley (the upright seat where they sit by where u push)

I think the butchers opposite the Plough are good - we've had some good meat from there & not expensive - he hasn't made such an effort with his window display & I wonder if not enough people know he is there - but it always seems crazy to me that there are queues round the block for William Rose on a Saturday when there's a perfectly good butcher 5 mins up the road with no queues!

The fact that people keep posting about it means its an important issue to people who live in East Dulwich. On our walk to school today along crystal palace road we had to negotiate small children & pram around 10 fresh lots of dog poo - all on the pavements. Our walk to school now is called 'dodge the dog poo' it's not right that people are allowing their dogs to crap on the pavements for everyone to walk in without clearing it up!