The PESH deli - Happy New Year! The one where Polly finally lays and we get lots more BESHy wins.

[PollyPoo]

BESH BAYBEES

dontrythisathome, girl born March 25.
Cheggers, twinz girlz, born April.
FannyPriceless, boy, born June 8.
CurlyCasper, girl, born June 24.
CUNextTuesday, boy, born June 29.
AlpinePony, boy, born 1 July.
Carrots, boy, born July.
IggyPiggy, girl, born July.
Cosmosis, boy, born Sept 5.
Backinthebox, boy, born Sept 7.
Skatergrrrl, girl, born Sept 10.
VAG, boy, born Oct 2.
Silversky, boy, born Nov 1
SomethingSuitablyWitty, girl born Nov 2
okiecokie, girl, born Nov 12
Honeymoo, boy, born Nov 11
ReginaMonologue, boy, born Nov 13
Maswera, boy, born Dec 24

UPDIFFED

PollyPoo, wondering if this baybee is every going to come out, due 23 Dec or 28 Dec, depending on who you trust
MrsFC, joining whether she wants to or not, due 22 Jan
ChoChoSan, "and Lo! The lord did resurrect her petrified womb", due 31 Jan
CluckyKate, hatching an egg, due February 2
Perfect Dromedary, defied medical science, due February 24
Muser, blooming at last, due February 27
Ginhag, reckless cake-carrier, due 28th Feb
Medee, has a deceptive bump, due March 12
Casserole, completely out of witty things to add, due April 8
Scorpette, now carrying a RL baby in addition to Clothilda and the squid, due 18th May.
Laurielou, the unmarried hussy with the "surprise" diff, due 31 May (ish)
Rocketleaf, no longer jealous of morning sickness, due 1 June.
TwinkleToes, supergluing her fanjo shut, due 20 June.
Orchid, hoping for a zen like child, due 1st July
Ginfox, loving the new mega-boobs, due 12th July.
Ivegotmrbitey, Marmite is a lovely name for a baybee, due 27th July.
LadyGoneGaga, Compulsive Stick pisser, due 28 July

Sorry for the not terribly inventive opening, but I need to moan update you all...

Come in, grab a chair, a wheel of brie and a glass of champagne to welcome in the new year.

I actually quite like neutrals as well. Although with some bright colours included to liven things up. Our Moses basket is a yellow one, it's a pass on from my brother. I was considering dying it as it is quite used. But I can't decide.

recently bought emergency cot bumper after head bashing incident, not only hidesous pink but also bloody useless in terms of size and shape. Back to rolled up blankets. We have bright green ikea sheets and a red/other bright colours sleeping bag at mo. Ikea colours get thumbs up. But making own even better. I've just taken up crochet so fancy doing a nice bright blanket. Need to get wall stickers now, as she's moved into her own, very magnolia, room.

Joy, it would appear ikea have discontinued the chest of draws/changing table i was going to get. Back to the drawing board.

IKEA is good for brights, schmart thinking, Caspy. Bumflakes to them discontinuing Rocket's thingummy

I all allergic to colours like mocha, beige and light coffee. Luckily for me, my bro lives in Amsterdam and they do really funky stuff for kids in nice bright colours that are mainly non-genderised in cheap-but cheerful places like Hema (think a much cooler Woolies).

I'll tell you what else me and TYF don't like - dressing babies and tiny tots in mini versions of adult outfits. Let them look like babies and be free to wriggle about, play, get dirty, mess around and generally have unrestricted baby fun! Actually, will probably do what my parents did with us in warm weather - when at home, just let us have fun wearing only a nappy or even naked when outside.

Oh crap rocket, was it the Leksvik? I wanted that and went to check in a panic and although I can find it in search it comes up as error when you try to select it. It was exactly perfect. Aargh.

I'd seen a lovely cheerful changing unit in Mothercare and they don't seem to have that either anymore

WANT! Why do I have champagne tastes on a tango budget?

That is a gorgeous colour. Why didn't the Bee come in that colour? Or purple. I would have loved a purple.

I love teal. All the prams I like are various shades of blue. In a perverse way, I don't want blue now it's a boy so I don't seem stereotypical!

How do I create an online JL wishlist? Is it possible? Am looking but can't see how/where [thicko]

Trouble with the genderisation thing is that once your baybee arrives you want everyone to see that your beautiful baby is a boy or a girl.....or at least I did. Got uttlerly fed up with people telling me what a lovely boy I had or asking "what's his name".

Other ishoo is that boys and girls clothes are sized differently - I bought DD some lovely trews which never fitted her round the waist....apparently boys are all fatsos

Scorps, we just got a secondhand chameleon on gumtree for less than 250 nicker, it had been barely used, and they come up a lot on gumtree, you don't have to bid, just act quickly if you see one you like. You can go and have a look to check clesnliness and condition before you buy.

Obv you can't pick the colour, but you can buy colour fabric hoods etc separately, tho prolly not the teal one yet. We saw one the same as we bought in mother care for over 750 last week, so we saved ourselves 500 quid to spend on magic beans or piss up the wall :)

scorps Go here. Is v useful.

I'm also hacked off by the genderisation of baby clothes. Thinking back to my childhood, there are no photos of me in pink clothes; 70s babyhood was all yellows and greens. Seems insane to think that we're more sexist as a society than we were then.

Have I already banged on about the brilliance of Natasha Walter's Living Dolls? Have Cordelia Fine and Lise Eliot on my reading list for this year, also.

Cheers for that, Drom :)
Y'know, my parents have been shocked at how genderised things are nowadays. Everyone wore flares and polo necks in primary colours or if you were feeling particularly girly, one of those lovely kilts with a built in vest with a jumper over it. Everyone had some variety of sensible cornish pastie shoes and a bowl fringe (or full bowl, for the very 'lucky').

And the toys were more unisex. Yeah, so there was Girl's World and Tiny Tears and mini kitchens for us lot and cap guns and Action Man for the boys, but there were plenty of things that everyone had (that telephone on wheels thing, Fisher Price garage, play-doh, etc.). Even Lego used to be unisex but it's now seen as for boys, really. And as no-one had loads of toys anyway, boys and girls swapped genderised stuff happily, be they friends, siblings, cousins, whatever. And why can't you get Fuzzy Felt any more?! God, I LOVED that shit.

I am such a gimmer, aren't I? 'It were so much better in my day'

Cos my h'academic speciality is basically all about genderisation, I do spend far too much time getting wound up by all this crap! The Cordelia Fine book is next on my far-too-big reading list. I think I might, however, spend most of my time reading it yelling 'YESSSS! I was saying this in the 90s!'.

Disclaimer: I am in no way trying to say I am even remotely clever as Dr Fine, just that she's proved stuff peeps have thought for yonks.

You can still buy fuzzy felt www.play.com/Toys/Toys/4-/13705601/Fuzzy-Felt-Starter-Set/Product.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:13705601%7Cprd:13705601!

FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC! Thanks Drom :)

But but but they are nit the SAME! I looked for them as I was going to make greetings cards from them but they have changed them and all the people are these crappy cartoon characters printed on card with a felt backing, I wax most upset!

Good tip re gum tree curlywhurley. Second hand chameleons go for little less than a new one on eBay and are all collection only from Surrey

Talking of 70s clothes did anyone have cloth kits clothes? I wish someone would bring those out again. They always had really boss arts and crafty prints on and the colours were v cool if I remember rightly. I remember tonal prints of flowers and wheat sheafs with little mice running up them.

muse yes it was the lepvik (sp?) gutted :( they only gave hemnes now which is more expensive and not as nice. Bah. It's a bit pathetic that this bothers me but I had a plan and now it's ruined.

Sorry I meant chocho not curls re pram. Apols!

Watchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis? Cloth Kits live!

(I went to bed, couldn't sleep, have got up again. My insomnia is your gain )

Um yeah google would have been my friend if I had thought to use it! Duh. Thank you from my unborn child auntiescore glad to see it is still awesome!

I really don't mind the beige stuff, as it goes with a lot of the neutrals in the house. My mum is knitting mainly in white, but also with some blue bamboo (she was (a) "drawn" to blue and (b) got a good deal) which I am quite relaxed about whichever sex the baby is as it is such nice wool.

I have a couple of lengths of fabric that I had kicking around that have inspired me for colours, one is a lime green and turquoise floral pattern and the other is brown with small spots in paler versions of the turq and green and neutrals. I plan to use them to make this and some other bits and bobs and then can get turq and lime decals for the walls from here. Nice and bright and none gender specific and if I can't get bright bedding neutral will go as well. Feeling creative this morning and have made one bird already!

I am considering blogging the transformation of this dump of an office into the nursery as I will have some time on my hands for the next few months but not sure if anyone would be interested. Spose it would be nice for family and friends to see. Will prob mostly be pictures anyway as I'm not so hot on the written word :o

We went out for FIL birthday meal last night and lovely MIL mentioned that she was not planning on buying pink or blue wool if we told them them the flava, she has obviously picked up on the fact i don't want that which is very lovely of her. She said she was going to mix some of the colours she had and do a plain knit hoody cardy in stripes instead of cable knit, result!!

That mobile is fantastic rocket, I would love to be able to make something like that.

I've been taking pics of our dump of a study and its transformation into study/baby room. We have lost 2 bookshelves, which were double stacked. Taking the last of the random junk to the charity shop/recycling centre today. Then the room has to be completely cleared for new carpets. Next weekend I shall paint it a nice sunshiney yellow and then the remaining book shelves can go back. Then we buy the baby's furniture, put the wall stickers up, and we're done.

I am currently in love with my hot water bottle. It turns out to be the one thing that can stop my back hurting, don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. I am going to be taking it into work.

I'd love to be creative.

Hot water bottles are the shiz! i have a half size one that fits down the back of my pj bottoms or yoga pants which clamps it firmly to the sore spot at the base of my spine, Bliss!

I honestly don't think you would need to be that creative to make the mobile, the pattern for the bird is free to down load and pretty easy to follow, you do need to be able to hand sew quite neatly tho. I think the tricky bit is going to be getting it to balance and for that you need physics more than creativity (this is where the whole thing may unravel for me!)

I'm terrible at sewing, that bit would defeat me.