Sonners

We've not had ours back yet and my little girl will be 7 weeks on Monday. I seem to remember getting the results around 8 weeks with our older daughter. I'm not sure if they let you know sooner if there are problems.

Magnatiles might be good if he likes building things. Pricey but good longevity - my 2 year old loves them and her 11 year old cousins always ask for them when they come over with assorted aged children in between also enjoying them. I love playing with them too!

Another recommendation for Andy and Richard. They did some work for us in the summer and returned last week to fit a new utility room and do some other odd jobs (fit blinds, secure wardrobe to wall, fit shelves and install some new lights). Good speedy work, reasonable quote and nice guys to have around.

Oh yes renting is a very good idea. If the south London sling library don't have a connects then have a look at It's a Sling a Thing's website which do postal hires. They are excellent.

Connecta Solarweave are lightweight, UV protection and fold up really small so I would recommend for holidays. You can also sell them on for not much less than their purchase value.

My nearly three year old's current favourite is for me to tape sticky backed plastic on the patio door sticky side out and she sticks coloured cellophane to it to make a 'stained glass window'. We've moved on to adding Pom poms, feathers, tissue paper, fake jewels, anything really! Hobbycraft type shops are also currently selling great felt shaped Christmas trees with felt baubles and decorations to add to it or you can make your own (we were lucky and a friend's mum made ours for us). Great festive fun!

I'm on my second pregnancy and so far my standard appointments with Kings have been: 10 weeks booking appointment 12 weeks nuchal scan 18 weeks midwife appointment 22 weeks anomaly scan 28 weeks midwife The next midwife appointments are due to be 34, 36, 38 and 40 weeks plus a 36 week scan. If you are medium risk then you may also have consultants appointment(s). My first was at 28 weeks (to discuss VBAC vs ELCS). I will have another one at 36 weeks. I also had a cervical clinic appointment at 16 weeks due to previous history. Plus Anti-D injection (28 weeks) if you are a rhesus negative blood group, flu vaccine and whooping cough vaccine (between 28 and 32 weeks). For flu you can get this done at most Boots pharmacies if easier - I popped into one near work with my maternity exemption card and they did it for free there and then. Much easier than trying to get a doctors appointment I found.

We are meeting Sunday night if you are free!

Frugi is very good - their clothes are cut for cloth (and lovely!)

I am a bit nervous about the second jab for my 2 year old too now! But thanks for the heads up Tara, otherwise I would have assumed that she'd have been fine after it like the first dose. I've booked for a Saturday to give her 3 days at home before nursery so hopefully we'll be okay.

The winter babies group I joined three years ago had meet ups with both mums and dads so some of the dads met there. Probably not very possible for nighttime for those of us with a toddler at home but we could do some weekend meet-ups before the babies arrive? Other than that my husband got to know our ante-natal group dads quite well.

Health Hub in Herne Hill were very good for us for CP vaccine (and for Men B)

Ariadna is great!

I saw this and thought of this thread... http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/72341/car-play-deas

My friend's son also did this as a toddler with no apparent reason why so they thought it was a self-soothing habit too. She cut his hair very short for a few years and he grew out of it. I'm not sure how long it lasted in the end but I think it just stopped of his own accord. Scratch sleeves are great idea for night time (we used to use them to stop eczema scratching at night).

What about car related play which engages other sensory play? E.g. get cars muddy and then have a car wash in a soapy washing up bowl; drive them through paint for paintings; freeze inside ice blocks which he can chip out or pour warm water over to release etc. That said, I sometimes set up activities for my 2.5 year old and more often than not she abandoned it after 3 minutes! Although "washing up" seems to be a firm favourite and offering me soup from the washing up bowl. Although it's about to get trickier now that it's getting cold in the garden...

Barry I would personally say get on the waiting list as you might decide in 12/18 months that it is a good time to switch whatever childcare you end up doing now. My daughter only started at Gumboots when she was 20 months as we had a nanny initially. Moving her a year or so after I'd gone back to work when she was 2/2.5 would have also been a good fit in retrospect. Liro, in answer to your puzzlement about BH, I think it has not been popular in recent years due to frequently changing managers. When I was looking at nurseries (early 2013) it had been through 2 changes in quick succession and then had a further change before I went back to work. It sounds as though from Esme things are much better now and if they are getting back to you that is a good sign! There are definitely lots of plusses to BH.

I am up for meeting too although can only do 26th in September. A mum's evening drink would be great too so we can chat without the toddler distractions!!

We are very happy with Gumboots. The staff are lovely, the activities varied and the outdoor space was the best of the nurseries we visited. The admin staff are also really good which judging by some threads is unusual!! The waiting list is long though. I assume that most of the baby room places must go to siblings and depending on availability in the toddler room the children can stay in the baby room past 2. My daughter was moved up at 2 and 4 months. Depending where you commute from/to Upland Road can be quite far from public transport to drop off at 8 and be in work by 9 if you have timing constraints. I live a few doors down from Mother Goose and think I could struggle with the location. One of my friends is often a bit frazzled getting there for 6pm pick up! But she is very happy with the care her son gets there.

We have just had our garden extensively renovated and I wanted to recommend the people we used as they have been excellent. The garden looks fantastic, the quote was reasonable (and kept to) and they were thoroughly nice chaps to have about. Will Frost led the project [email protected]://www.williamfrostgardens.co.uk/ Will introduced us to Iain who built us an amazing pirate ship treehouse. It has been a massive hit with my daughter (and her friends). [email protected] 07984336300

We are also going to use Health Hub for Men B in a few weeks having used them for chicken pox. They are very nice and it's easily accessible from ED. I tried enquiring about getting a private prescription for chicken pox for my GP to administer and thd nurse looked at me like I was talking about going to the moon so I think you need to be lucky with your GO for that route to work!

Another positive recommendation for Andy and Richard who came and did a day's worth of jobs for us last week. They were very professional and polite and did a good job on a variety of tasks we needed sorting out. We will be using them again in the future for a utility room refit.

I have been waiting for a thread for us! I am due early January and have a 2.5 year old as well. Pregnancy is definitely tougher this time around...

We recently moved into a house with one and we use it a bit for water for saucepans although my husband still uses the kettle for tea. I find it a bit scary to be honest! If you are interested in getting rid of your kettle then I can see for lots of people it would be brilliant. I didn't realise they were ?1k!

I have had good food there and they are child friendly BUT they don't have any changing facilities so that may be a deal breaker if you have 3 month old twins!