Norfolkvillas

My husband just asked me how much he would need to pay me to do all the Christmas wrapping each year. I told him ?100 per Christmas. It's not a favourite pastime here at Norfolk Villas...

Bunny found - thank you to whoever sat him on a wall on Upland Road!

This thread has reminded me that about 10 days ago I came home in the evening to find the house reeking of some kind of cleaning fluid - just as if a whole bottle of something had tipped over somewhere. It most definitely came from our laundry room but I couldn't find anything. I asked my nanny and my husband and neither could shed any light, and by morning it had disappeared. To be honest, I didn't give it a second thought until now.... We're on the corner of Friern and Underhill, so not close to either of the other two areas mentioned..... weird!!

Hi forum Somehow my son has misplaced his cherished bunny this evening somewhere between the Co-op on Forest Hill Road and the corner of Friern and Underhill Roads. The route taken followed the top of St Aidan's Rd / Piermont Green / Upland / Underhill / Friern. On the off chance that anyone spotted him, please let me know. Bunny is light brown in colour, on the chubby side, with long pink ears. Pretty much like this one: http://www.buildabear.co.uk/shop/productdetail.aspx?ProductSKU=415202&Category=Bunnies&CallingPage=ProductSummary Thanks!

Best leggings I've found are from The White Company - really substantial, wear and wash really well, don't go a little bit see-through on the knees when you're sitting down - I hate that. I would definitely recommend them. Other pairs from M&S, Boden and Next have not come anywhere close. I did also have a pair from Monsoon which were good - they developed a hole in the knee, but I think that was because I caught them on something rather than due to the quality.

We loved Domes of Elounda in Crete - small and intimate (for a resort), with rooms that have separate living room so no creeping about in the dark after kids asleep. Kids club, creche from 4 months, kids pool, gorgeous beach with dappled olive tree shade right down to the waters edge. Brilliant service, couldn't do enough for us. Didn't need to bring anything as they supplied buggy, baby monitor, etc. It's not cheap though, but it was probably the first time we've been away and it's really felt like a treat for our son (2yrs) as well as us... Martinhal in Portugal also worth checking as it is fabulous for families - it's a hybrid hotel / self-catering, so best of both worlds... For the future, I also really fancy Le Sarrail and Almyra that the above two posters mentioned....

I meant to reply to this message when I first saw it, so apologies for the delay. I don't know Istanbul at all, but my parents relocated (from the UK to Oz) when my sister and I were little, and it gave our whole family an amazing experience, which I feel has really opened my eyes to the possibility of living in new places. In my opinion, I think a 'looked after' move like the one you've been offered - secure job, relocation package etc - has got to be the most amazing gift: To be able to experience a whole new life as a resident rather than a tourist, but with zero risk,relocation assistance and you can come back if it doesn't work out. I'd love to do this, and see relocating en famille as so much more practical than as a single person or a couple - kids seem to make it so much easier to network and tap into a community... Plus, Istanbul sounds like a fabulous city - a real hotspot right now, full of creative people, fabulous places to eat (Turkish food is amazing, and Turkish wine is also enjoying a renaissance), gateway to the East, daytripping to Cesme and Alacati for beach action, to Ephesus for culture, or even down to the Bodrum Peninsula for glam gulet cruising.. think of the sunshine! I'd jump at the chance if I were you - surely the old adage applies: you'll never regret what you do, only what you don't do....

I don't have a vaporiser, but I have a bottle of Karvol you can borrow if you want to do the Karvol / wet flannel on warm radiator thing instead? I always find it makes a difference with my son's sleep when he's sniffly...

Yes, I second Fuschia's question - my toddler isn't really keen on the unfenced stuff, so stood crying at the gate and pointing at the coloured equipment within the locked gated area yesterday. Next time I shall do as Fuschia did and just lift him over.

For my mum's 60th a couple of years back, my sister, my dad and I got together to compile a quiz about her. We sent this out to all of her friends and family across the world - mostly questions about silly stories from her past, but the last two were designed to be sentimental - eg what is the thing you love most about her / describe your fondest memory of time spent with her. Respondents could answer as many or as few questions as they liked / could, but everyone had to answer the two last questions. We then compiled this into a presentation which my sister and I made jointly on the night, with a printed copy for her to keep. She ended up with a lot of stuff to make her laugh, plus a long list of her favourite people saying lovely things about her. It worked a treat and is something she treasures to this day. It was time-consuming to put together (almost as time consuming as this post, sorry!) but a real money-can't-buy gift that I think she'll remember always. We also got her a beautiful pair of silver earrings from Georg Jensen...

We pay ?5 per hour, but like the above poster, we are rarely very far away, and our son is fast asleep throughout, so no real childcare involved...

Thanks both for your responses - very helpful to hear that this kind of thing does exist after all!

Sorry, I didn't know what else to call it! Wise Family-roomers, do you think it would be possible to find someone who would take on a permanent(ish) childcare role if it were only for 1 hour, or 1.5 hours a day, 4 days a week? My current nannyshare set up is shortly going to include a third child, as the other family have had another baby. We're worried that our current (very long) hours are just going to be too much for our nanny if she's looking after 3 instead of 2. As the other family's day finishes earlier than ours, I am wondering about the possibility of finding someone who would pick my son up from the other family's house (they host full-time) at 5pm and bring him back to ours, give him tea, and get bathtime started, until 6 or 6.30 when I get home. Our houses are just under a mile apart. I know of one person who, when an A level student, undertook this kind of "fill-in" childcare around their school hours, but that could have just been a very isolated and unusual case. Do you think its feasible that I might be able to find someone to do this without too much difficulty. I wouldn't be fussed about them being qualified childcarers - I'd be happy with a responsible student with some babysitting experiences (and references) under their belt, and would be hoping to pay a babysitting-type hourly rate. What do you think? Does it sound totally far-fetched? Thanks for reading my (slightly epic) question! All thoughts appreciated!

eedee Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thanks v much Norfolk Villas. Are you near the > Goodrich junction part? Is that the middle? I > appreciate your comments, many thanks. No we're near the Underhill junction - maybe more "northern-middle" section, then...

This happened to us, and I went up a size of nappy, but also, when I put the last nappy of the day on, I made sure to fix the tabs right at the top of the nappy, above the patterned band where you normally fix them. This did the trick and we haven't had a leak since.

I don't think I really qualify to give an opinion as I would call us "the middle" of Friern Road, but for what it's worth, we've been here for almost a year now, and absolutely love it. Having Peckham Rye Park at one end of the road and Dulwich park more or less at the other is amazing. We feel close enough to Lordship Lane shops / bars / restaurants, but not too close. It's also great being on the eastern side of ED, as it's so easy to get to useful rail connections - Forest Hill / Honor Oak Park (and surely eventually they've got to extend the 63 there) / Peckham Rye. We also just seem to be surrounded by cafes in every direction - Homemade, The Gardens, The French Cafe, Jacks are all within a 5 to 10 min stroll. Our section of the road has to date been very quiet and peaceful. Hope this helps!

Jeez, I wish I'd known that I could have booked my son a seat! Why do airlines keep these things a secret?? In case it helps anyone, I took a lot of sticky things with me on my recent four hour flight to Crete with my 22 month old - a stack of small multicoloured post-its, an Usborne sticker book, and those coloured sticky tabs that lawyers use to mark which page of a contract you need to sign. They worked a treat - on my fingers, on his fingers, on the seat back, on bunny's nose, on daddy's nose etc - especially for the tricky take off and landing bits. Conversely, the mini pots of Play Doh I bought for the same purpose didn't work as well as I'd hoped, nor were they quite as mess-free as I thought they would be.

I didn't think that it was possible to pay for a seat for an under two year old - does it vary from airline to airline?

My son sleeps on his front with his bum in the air and his knees and hands tucked in under him, along with at least one cuddly bunny and a bunched-up blanket in there too. It's very very cute, and looks pretty comfortable to me. He's done this since about 6 months.

Hi there, I've posted before recommending the carseat we got - Kiddy Infinity Pro - which I think goes from 9 months - 4 years, so is the age group down from what you're looking for. But I know Kiddy do similar models (or even the same model) for the next age group up, and they are SO easy to sling from car to car - super-light and they don't actually attach to the car at all. If you google them, their website has videos showing people moving them from car to car. Oh, and (more importantly) it won the Which safety tests by a mile over the more traditional 5 point harness seats. Hope this helps!

Same as other posters, I "invested" in a size 22 primark nightie with buttons down the front - strictly for one-time use. I arrived home after a 29 hour induced labour to find my family had arrived to meet the new baby. My husband, unpacking the hospital bag, brought in said garment and shook it out in full view of the entire room, asking did I want to keep it? I shan't go into details about exactly what state the (previously white and grey spot) nightie was in, but neither will I forget the look of abject horror on the faces of my little sister and her fiance! On a more civilised note, I treated myself to these PJs, and found them brilliant for being super-comfortable, practical for bfing, but also vaguely presentable for visitors. http://www.seraphine.com/maternity-clothes-categories/maternity-nightwear/displayProduct.asp?idproduct=790&idcategory=35&title=Bamboo+Lounge+Pyjama+Black%2C+Maternity+Nightwear

I had my son at St Thomas's in Nov 2009 (although my midwives came from my GP practice rather than the hospital). All of the actual hospital team - consultants, anaesthetists, junior doctors - were totally amazing. I had a long and complicated induced labour with pretty much every intervention possible bar a c section, and I felt that I was in safe hands throughout. Good luck!

Hi reren, In my (limited) experience, if there's really something wrong, you'll know about it. My son started picking up tummy bugs of varying intensity on a regular basis at about 10 months - some were just a long run of grim nappies, where he was cheery throughout (even if I wasn't!), others were obviously really making him feel unwell - he was very very subdued and clingy. For what it's worth, my advice is if he seems cheery in himself, just make sure he's getting enough fluids, stick to his usual diet, and don't worry too much. For my son, 10 months represented a bit of a threshold of new levels of mobility and hence new levels of germ exposure. I do now give him an infant probiotic supplement daily, and I think that may be helping with his overall digestive health - health matters on lship lane have several brands - udo's choice seemed to me to be the best. Hope this helps!

Another vote for the Tripp Trapp - definitely don't regret spending the money, and will be buying a matching one for the other end of the table when baby number two comes along. I particularly like the way it obviously supports their posture, even from when they're first in it.

Hi Mandymaz, I found a special offer and paid somewhere in the region of ?75 (think they're usually closer to ?90) and I would ideally like what I paid for it, as it hasn't even been opened. I would be happy to drop it over to you (assuming you're local-ish to SE22) tonight or over the weekend if you'd like it? I can really recommend this particular type of gate - unobtrusive, as stylish as a stairgate can be, and no trip hazards. Anyway, just let me know if you'd like it? Amber