BellendenBear

Toddler World at Crystal Palace is perfect for crawling / newly walking ones. I think it's only open from 10-12 and costs about ?4.

Teeth? Baby BB has only been eating for a few weeks but has fluctuated between hoovering down whatever I offer her to totally refusing anything off a spoon and only wanting finger foods. After each episode of spoon refusal a little tooth has appeared. I seem to remember the same thing with 1st daughter with going off spoon or bottle when teeth were coming. Controversial perhaps, but maybe 4 BFs between 7am-7pm is too much for him to be hungry for food as well during this time? I am still BF 4 times per day but give 3 feeds during day and then still a dreamfeed. Maybe you could switch one of daytime BFs for a dreamfeed in the hope that he will become more interested in food and then gradually phase this one out over the next few weeks?

Good points nunheadmum. And the Peckham Park one is an Academy but this one will be a Free School. How will they be managed differently? I also wondered whether sibling priority would be given to kids with elder siblings at the Peckham Academy?

Does anyone know anything more about this or have any thoughts? There's an open day next Thursday afternoon. I'm curious. It's a Harris School and they seem to have a good reputation for their secondary schools right? free school

Another vote for Bunmi. There's a good Peppa Pig episode about going to the dentist, you can find it on You Tube.

I also really like the Usbourne book, and it's still a favourite with my daughter 6 months after the arrival of her baby sister. As well as the breast feeding picture I like the way the Mum, Mrs Bunn, looks really knackered and still has a big tummy after the baby comes! I wish I'd prepared my daughter a bit more for breast feeding as she was a bit freaked out by it at first. Another lovely book is 'There's Going to be a Baby' (John Burnigham and Helen Oxenbury). It follows a mother and her little boy through her pregnancy as they speculate what the baby will be when it grows up. It has beautiful illustrations. The Mummy is a bit glamorous though!

Count me in!

After reading HollieES's post I know what my daughter will be saying about me in 30 years time. She recently had her face painted for the first time. I didn't want her to have anything naff like flowers or butterflies (I don't get the whole pink princess/fairy thing) so she was a pirate. A pirate with a moustache and big ginger beard! HollieES Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I was quite fond of fancy dress. I desperately > wanted to be a princess, or something with > glittery wings, or anything pink involving a > dress. My mum had other ideas. She wanted me to be > "original" so one year I got dressed up as Noddy. > Yes, Noddy, you know - the one with the blue > shorts and the weird hat. I remember that the > local newspaper came to our school to take a > photo...a bunch of girls dressed as Cinderella or > the like, the boys dressed as various superheroes, > and Noddy. > > In the next episode, I was dressed up as a dice. > Unfortunately, my mum hadn't factored in doorways > when plonking a giant cardboard box over my head, > so I couldn't manoeuvre from room to room without > stripping down to my vest. The fairies did not > have this problem. > > Thanks mum.

02032996163

Yes, well done Andy. The new equipment looks great and fits in perfectly. I was in WG yesterday afternoon and it was great too see so many kids enjoying that part of the park. Such a shame there isn't a Wingding this year in this lovely weather.

OK! Cafe at 3.30. I can be bribed with ice cream too.

Yeah! It's gonna be really hot. Shall we meet outside the cafe or maybe in the Arboretum which is good for keeping toddlers fenced in? 3.30 good for us.

Washing hair in the shower is much easier than the bath. If you let them splash around while you have your shower you can get their hair when they're not expecting it. Sometimes my daughter hardly notices. Much easier to rinse off shampoo and avoid eyes too. In answer to your question, not very often and mainly for fun. Hair wash about once per week and usually because we've been swimming.

We'll be there. I will also have 2. A bit later suits us better too.

It will be fine. I put my eldest daughter in nursery 3 days per week at 7 months then full-time from 12 months. She absolutely loves nursery. I can count on one hand the amount of times she has been upset when we left her in the mornings. In fact, I can count many more times when she hasn't wanted to come home in the evenings or has asked to go to nursery at weekends! I also agree with Monkey that they do make close circles of friends much younger than 3, and this is really lovely to watch. I also agree that nurseries offer a very nurturing environment. Don't let worrying about this spoil your remaining weeks of Mat leave.

Yeah! Weds morning or Thursday afternoon good for us.

Looks like a bit of a shin-basher to me. And possibly not good for those of us with short arms. Edited to add that I am not a pram-a-holic! I have settled on the uncool Quest + buggyboard combo. Hence my bashed shins and stretched arms.

We can't swim as I will have baby and toddler. Still around for coffee if anyone else is free?

We can do Wednesday or Thursday. Late Wednesday or anytime Thursday seem to be the best times for most people.

Is baby sleeping in your room? As RB says, I think that putting baby in a different room can really help with sleep. Otherwise you do keep waking each other up and you might feed her when she's not hungry and a cycle develops of her needing to BF to settle herself. My 5m old 'sleeps through' in her own room but on the few occasions when I have had to share with her recently I have realised that she does wake up a couple of times each night and just shuffles around in the cot for a while before settling back to sleep. Also, it is possible to exclusively breast feed without having to feed your baby frequently day and night. At the risk of being branded as Gina Ford's wicked step sister, breast feeding doesn't have to mean 'demand' feeding. You can still exclusively breast feed but do so in the way that you would formula feed a baby, ie gradually reducing the frequency of feeds so that they take bigger feeds less often. I really hope things improve for you soon. Sleep deprivation is awful. Don't feel pressured to stop breast feeding if you don't want to, but if you do decide to stop to allow someone else to do a couple of night feeds then don't feel guilty either. 6 months is a long time. Good luck

Sorry we won't be around this afternoon or tomorrow. Next week sounds good though!

There's a Kids' club at Albrighton Centre on Saturday mornings. Haven't been yet but it looks good. ?1 entry includes breakfast.

We'll be there. Shame we won't see you SB, I'm bringing fidgety toddler who is looking for an accomplice. I think we are around next Wednesday too.

Ditto what everyone else has said about plans, more plans, backup plans.... Worrying about childcare for my 2 year old was a massive source of stress in the build up to baby number 2. Luckily it all went very smoothly with a very speedy middle of the night labour, sister-in-law coming round at 6am to distract toddler when she woke at 7, baby born at home less than an hour later with toddler blissfully unaware upstairs. She was then whisked off to nursery and knew nothing of the arrival of her baby sister until tea time when we had caught up on some sleep. Phew.

Yes, it's really easy to find. On Albrighton Road, round building.