Tallulahdoesthehula

My two are 3 and 4, they are either the best of friends or fighting! Mainly it's my 3 year old actively winding up the 4 year old who takes so much and then retaliates! I end up telling them both off, one for being a wind up merchant and the other for lashing out (whilst I do secretly sympathise with her). I'm hoping it's a phase..... So far my tactics dealing with it has been bribery, with limited success. We award gold stars for good behaviour and red marks for bad... 10 gold stars are converted to a prize (their choice). Each red mark can only be removed by losing a star.....

Excellent news! Glad all home safe and sound

We had this recently! My eldest caught chicken pox in February, we had a ski holiday booked in March which was 3 weeks later. Dr said we would be Ok and youngest would get it and be recovered by then if he was going to get it. Needless to say, my youngest had spots appear on the day we arrived skiing! Was pretty much the 21st day of the incubation period! 'Fortunately' they didn't come out until later in the day after we had arrived at out chalet, but it did mean the organised childcare wasn't possible. You are unable to fly if the child is contagious - ie has spots but they are not all crusted. My son would have been contagious when he flew but as he didn't have spots at that point we had no way of knowing. A week later when we flew home his spots were all crusty and he was no Longer contagious. The Dr offered go give us a Letter confirming this but nobody challenged us at the airport / on the flight anyway. I had called the insurance company prior to leaving and they did confirm we would be covered for any cancellation due to a child with chicken pox. Good luck

I haven't checked the stats for UK child abduction (would rather not know!), however, I would assume the figures to include abductions where the parents are estranged and the abduction is one parent from another. I would also assume this situation accounts for a large percentage. Do people really think this case received huge publicity just because the parents were middle classes professionals? My take is it's not, it's that the parents knew how to gain publicity and have kept it in the public eye.

My friend has twins and bought a mountain buggy - that is side by side although not that wide and seemed easy to push etc. I'm not a lover of double buggies but if I needed one that is what I would check out :-)

when we did our downstairs cloakroom I went to a large warehouse in Greenwich which was really good. Cant think of the name but its opposite the large B&Q which is the last exit off the A2 before the Blackwall tunnel - a google search should find it. large showroom with everything set up to see and didn't take long to order either.

someone must have seen something suspicious ........ that always brings about a good debate on whether a) it was suspicious or not and b) the description given :-)

Thanks Pickle, that's really useful. Mine will be a January baby too! I was erring to the Bee but that was based purely on my knowledge a few years back! Are they as nice to push / steer as the chameleon? We have the same buggy history as well as age gaps!! I had a Vibe as a double and bought a Maclaren for the car boot when I had a chameleon as it was a total pain to fold! I seem to remember there being a knack to folding the Chameleon too!

We have builders working on our house at the moment and I had a conversation with him about asbestos yesterday. We are currently having the house extended and renovated but the next project when the renovations complete is the replacement of an outbuilding that is in a sorry state and has a roof that appears to be potentially asbestos. Builder said he believed the roof was actually a type of concrete but it would need to be dealt with as though it was asbestos given how it looks (ie looks like could contain asbestos - lots of things do apparently). His reccomendation was to register the site as a contaminated waste site (think that is what it was called), which lasts a year and means all waste is disposed of properly. Once registered, it would only be @ ?1000 to dispose of the waste (it is a large roof). He confirmed that it is fine when not broken, the risk occurring from the dust which occurs when it is broken. We didn't go into the finer details of exactly how they remove and dispose of it other than it involving removal without breakage and everything being soaked in water - we are at least a year away from this work so apologies for the vagueness!

Justin White of Sterling White in New Cross is fantastic. Nice chap too. He did a great job on our plans and we are currently mid build - builders not complained about his plans either. My parents used him which was how we found him. Strangely when we met him we worked out he was the year above me at the same primary school in Kent and his mum lives a road away from my parents (in Kent), not that I knew him or even remembered him but small world!

Thank you Pickle, It sounds like we will have exactly the same age gaps :-) My eldest starts school in September and my youngest will be in the school nursery 4 days from then. Number 3 due Jan. I have a boy and girl and still have kept lots of clothes / toys / baby things /cot. Like you we wont need to change the car either. I do however need to research buggies and car seats again! Really pleased and excited although feel huge already and like its obvious - which my husband denies (trained well). Silly I know but I refuse to retrieve the maternity wear from the loft until I am post 12 weeks! Fortunately clothes all fitting fine so far (just feel big!).

Am in in the early stages of pregnancy with number 3 and whereas a few years ago I was up on buggies / car seats and knew exactly what was good / not so good now I am totally in the dark! I had a cameleon for baby 1 which I loved as did she - slept every time she got in it!! Number two meant a P&T 's which I found a poor second but the best of a bad bunch available at the time for double buggies. Now, I am in the market again but what to go for......... any suggestions / tips? I use the car far more now with the various drop offs / pick ups so a cameleon not practical (unless it no longer fills a boot and is a pain to fold), space not an issue any longer although my youngest is no longer in a buggy so I wont be needing a double (phew)and this will definitely be the last. I think something that a car seat clips on will be important as the school run involves driving. Other than that I am open to suggestions....... I am erring to a Bee plus, any mums had this and a cameleon? Do babies sleep as well in Bees as Cameleons? Thank you T x

Have been following this thread with interest as we were umming and arring whether to have another. We wanted one more but there are so many practical reasons why not........... Anyway, decided to leave to fate and found out a couple of weeks ago that I am pregnant :-) Very early days at the moment and not telling anyone just yet (which is really hard) but if all is well we will have the dreaded 3 1/2 year age gap between the new baby and the middle one. Is it really that hard? I have a romantic idea of number 1 at school, number 2 at pre school and me at home with just one baby which having had the first two with a small age gap, sounds a breeze ;-) The reality I am sure is I will be juggling school runs / childcare / working but hey ho I already do that!! How does 3 differ to 2? I've heard its easier......... (hmmm) Scary number of you seem to have twins third time! Too early for me to know yet........

Have been lurking on this thread and watching with interest. Recently turned 40 and just discovered I am pregnant with number 3. Excited and scared all at the same time. We are not telling anyone at the moment either which is sooooo difficult! Think a few friends already suspicious as I have been saying no to a glass of wine when offered ;-) Dreading telling my mum, she though she was too old to have a baby at 30 ;-) When I went to the Dr surgery they didn't bat an eyelid about my age and when I mentioned my concern, the Dr was surprised and gave the impression that 40 is nothing these days. The Dr actually told me the risks at 40 and 35 are not that different, 45 is the age when they increase. She also told me the chances of conceiving are similar between mid to late 30's and early 40's. None of this geriatric mother references :-) Still early days but keeping everything crossed and needing to do so much research on all the things I used to know everything about - buggies, car seats, etc Timing totally wrong but hey ho when is the timing right? Any other 40 plus preganant ladies out there? How has this pregnancy compared to previous (if any)? T x

there is a button you can press to deactivate the internal alarm whilst leaving the external one working.

But is it an employment matter or simply breach of contract; wages unpaid?