candj

Yes Moos in our home our second child bypassed the terrible twos and went straight to the F*&@ING threes!

I didn't think of that, if your cleaner has a helper with her then it would be the only reason she would blatantly leave a whole 2 hours earlier. The maths works out, but I presume your sister in law would have mentioned this.

I think if they are younger than 2 then go cold turkey, any older and you have to then negotiate with them and I think it's a bit more traumatic. He has to give it up sometime so it's a matter of whether you do it now or later (I should say whether you want to deal with it now or later). BOth mine used dummies only at nighttime - older one until she was 2 and younger one until she was 3 (eek, they did say 36 months on the orthodontic ones) and it was much harder to give up(in fact, younger daughter saw a photo of herself with a dummy the other day and asked for it!). I will say in our experience that they slept better with the dummy. I also think better dummy than thumb. And if you're wondering, they do learn to find their dummies in the night when they fall out, yours is just a bit young. Good luck!

Sorry can't answer your question, but we always used the Lascal with our Maclaren XT. The bugaboo one always looks quite different, perhaps call Mothercare or someplace similar?

The short answer is no, your cleaner should work the full 4 hours if that is what you have paid for. If she completes all of the tasks required then there is always other things to be done so a proactive cleaner is also extremely helpful and one that doesn't repeatedly need to ask 'what should I do.' I find that you need to tell new cleaners what you expect to have done during the week and work from there, ie, make a list for her if need be. We found our cleaner over 6 years ago via a friend and hired her full time to be both cleaner and ad hoc nanny (pay her tax, supported her visa, holiday pay, etc). They can be an invaluable asset to the family and well worth taking the time and finding a good one. Perhaps an agency would be the best route for you since you haven't had the best of luck with friend's referrals. **Edited to add, in your case your cleaner only works 4 hours a week whereas ours is full time so when she has a doctors appointment or is ill, we do not dock her pay for the hours missed. Sorry totally missed my point of posting a reply the first time!! Good luck with that and the c-section recovery.

new mother Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > if you are on holiday, be sure a neighbour is > moving your various bins back on to the property > from the pavement.. And another thing to do is if you go on holiday, make sure that a neighbour puts some of their rubbish in your bin as I've heard thieves will check if the bins have been empty for a while (esp around Christmas, summer, etc). Light timers are good for when no one is home, as well.

Really good thread Sillywoman and makes for interesting reading to someone who doesn't have teenagers... yet - eeeek! Everyone's advice is well reasoned, sensible and realistic so hope I can be the same when the time comes.

Both mine use the 4.5 tog which is the year-round weight. It best suits ours as our home is not that cold during the winters and if it does feel a bit chilly, I'll place a blanket on top. Hope that helps.

Good God, so glad they caught it in time! I only thought one was high risk for pulmonary embolism after c-sections (I've had 2) but am currently pregnant so very, very glad you posted this. Many thanks for posting this and take good care with the rest of your pregnancy. -C x

Vanish spray on stain as soon as possible to pretreat the stain then wash as usual in bio detergent. Usually does the trick for us. Although some pesky stains need another round and just as long as the fabric doesn't dry or get ironed, it works the second time.

Is that for me Sean? It isn't different at all. I just didn't realise that Tesco did it (they opened up in China a few years ago), but it doesn't surprise me as Carrefour, another big supermarket in China, also sell live animals which I've never seen in France (aside from fish perhaps).

> There was a whole online campaign and petition to > sign, automatically sending a protest email to > Tesco. They sell turtles see this link > http://www.tortoisetrust.org Probably not to everyone's taste but they sell a lot more than just live turtles at the markets in China - frogs, snakes, chickens, and all manners of seafood, etc. It is indeed for eating. I didn't realise Tesco did this, but I guess it's their market over there. In any case, I would recommend Ocado as being good and very reliable.

Wow Fuschia! I tried the tablets, but it made me gag so much that I switched to the liquid. My sister-in-law was drinking a bottle a day because her heartburn was so bad in her 5th pregnancy and she and children are fine. Just a weird craving for you I guess?! Maybe check with your GP?

It's true!

I think the rule for purchasing which I'm sure can be applied to renting is to buy the biggest possible place that you can afford in the area you LOVE. It sounds like the 3 bed in ED has a garden, albeit not as big as the house in Catford, but at least it has one. We have a very small garden but it's enough for the kids to get out and play and on days they really need to let off steam, we just go to any of the walkable parks in ED, Dulwich, Peckham, Goose Green playground or Sunray Gardens. I personally would miss all the rest of bustling ED that makes it great to get out and about with children. I don't know Catford very well, but think it would be nice to stay in the same area once your newborn arrives just for continuity sake. If you're really after a touch more space, I would at the closer surrounds, Herne Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Forest Hill all are within easy short bus rides away. Hope that helps and good luck with your decision.

And yes, I would do it all over again as I wouldn't change what we have now for the world!

Lying in bed with your husband/partner during the weekends, being able to read anything uninterrupted and taking your time when cooking dinner. I agree with the baths - have as many as you can now and potter around the house as much as possible making lots of noise because you'll be tiptoeing and cursing those squeaky floor boards in the near future. Best of luck with everything and enjoy!

Do you have a wide thermos? You could do a variety of pastas, fried rice or soups. Our lunch boxes are limited to the school's no nut policy which includes hummus and so no peanut butter sandwiches for us (which is a fav). Other things I've put in lunch boxes are samosas (because eldest loves them), sandwiches of all varieties (ham, chicken, cheese, smoked salmon, etc), brioches with jam, pastas (with parmesan cheese in a separate container so they can add it themselves), fried rice. I then load the lunch up with little tupperware containers of cut fruit, cheese cubes, one sweet biscuit, and yoghurts of some variety, etc. I know what you mean about the rut and it's difficult being creative at 7am before the coffee has settled into my system. On some days I'm really inventive and some days I forget to put the fork and napkin in. Duh! Hope that helps. Edited to add, I once had cold fried chicken (American style) from the previous night's left over and it went down really well in the lunchbox!

I think you'd be better off with an au pair Molly! Sell the Miele as she could wash the clothes! ;-) Our two take weekly Mandarin lessons (1 hour) to keep up with whatever they learned from living in Shanghai and the progress is slow but steady. I practice occasionally with them but resort to English 98% of the time. Surprisingly it's the youngest that has learned the most despite her not being in school in China. The problem I now have with the eldest is that she is doing French 4 days a week during school so I think it gets a bit much for her. This is in addition to the after school activities which include club, ballet and violin during school (her choice not mine). I would do as everyone else says and use Spanish cartoons/tv, take her to Spanish playgroups (if O has any friends that speak spanish invite them over), songs and of course keep up with the yearly sojourns to Mallorca. Aside from living in Spain and having a native Spanish speaker in your house it would be the next best thing. Hope that helps. -C x

Your alarm company can also install something on your windows called Vipers which sets off the alarm if there is a strong vibration ie, glass or wood frame breaking. Well worth putting on windows and french doors, imo, in addition to all the above locking mechanisms.

I had three little potties scattered all over the house when dd1 was potty training (including the baby bjorn and a ridiculous Japanese one with a fuzzy seat and handle to hold on to) plus one of those that sit directly on the toilet seat. When it came time to train dd2, she refused to use any of the little potties and preferred to sit on the toilet either with or without the baby seat. If I had to do it again I'd just get the cheap baby potty as it doesn't really matter and in the end and they will get used to it. In my opinion. Good luck potty training!

It's nice to have so many children together as it makes the roof repairs go much more quickly. ;-)

I never read anything about having to have the BCG for SA either, but if your little one is 15 months by then would think the MMR would be ideal. When we went to SA no one had any extra vaccines but then we were only in the Western Cape/Cape Town area but it really does depend where you go (ie, the lower areas are more prone to Malaria including Kruger Park). I would ask your GP to be sure. Have a lovely time.

I agree with the pretend toys, microwave, cooker, mini kitchen, iron and ironing board, etc. I bought my youngest a shopping trolly when she turned two complete with plastic groceries and mini boxes of cereal, biscuits, etc and it was her favourite for a long while. It even had a mini till with pretend money and a grocery scanner that beeped. You can see that I've played with it too! Hope that helps.

They now have orthodontic dummies Narnia which means that the shape of them is slightly different than a regular dummy. The neck part of the dummy is very thin so that the teeth aren't pushed out, but rather have a better chance of meeting together. Still would probably affect the teeth if used for a long time though.