Hello all, have been reading all your posts but have had virtually no time to post myself. It's hard to believe that tomorrow will be our last full day at my parents'; the time has just flown by. I feel quite organised as I've already packed; I'm really hoping that the train will go straight through and there won't be any unexpected changes/bus replacement services, as I think I'm going to struggle with my bags as it is. My fault for buying too many books and too much Cadbury's, though!
I don't think Betamax existed when I was a baby/toddler; my mum had a cine camera, but it was always such a hassle to set the projector up that we hardly ever watched the films. My dad also had hundreds of slides, mainly of the year they spent in Australia, and we used to watch those on a small screen as well, which was hugely exciting!
Re going swimming with three DC, I wouldn't take all three to our local open-air pool on my own (although DH does). This is mainly because it's just so big (it's actually several pools) that I'd have to be in the water with them (or at least sitting on the edge) and it's always too cold for me unless I'm actually swimming, which turns my hair to a frizz and isn't really doable with all three DC there anyway. Plus, as I've said before, there are always far too many people there who I know. It was fine in Italy though, as I could sit on my sun lounger and read supervise the DC from there; DS can't swim yet, but he's OK as long as he has armbands on.
Ploom Grr at your ILs. They always sound so adventurous; didn't they go somewhere exotic for a few months not long ago? And take your DD to South Africa recently? My ILs haven't been on holiday since DH was about 6, when they came home early as SIL wasn't enjoying it (although DH thinks MIL used it as an excuse as she wanted to come home too).
Nutella It was DC2 who was the worst tantrummer in our case (but don't tell your DP that DC3 was by far the hardest work as a baby and toddler!). She was stuck in the terrible twos for years and it's only over the last year that she's started to calm down. DD1 has never had a tantrum in her life and DS was fine as a toddler, although recently seems to have discovered tantrums. 
Gator Glad you're getting the milk issue sorted out. I used to worry that DD1 ate very little when she was weaned, but remember someone reassuring me that they still get most of the nutrition they need from milk. I also remember being concerned that she was drinking too much milk and it was filling her up, so started diluting her milk (half milk, half water) but she was older than your DS so that's probably not something you need to be doing with a one-year old.
silken Sorry, was meaning to reply earlier to your questions about reading.
The prevailing attitude in Austria seems to be that there's absolutely no need for children to learn to read before school and if they already can, then they'll get bored at school (not the case at all IME). Knowing now what I didn't know back when DD1 started school - how much pressure children can be under - I shall be making sure that DS can read when he starts, although still have plenty of time as I don't think they do any reading in the Vorschulklasse.
I tried to teach DD1 to read using Jolly Phonics, but found it incredibly time-consuming - photocopying sheets, cutting up and laminating letters, etc etc. We must have spent a good hour on each letter, but it was very difficult to find uninterrupted time as DS was just a baby (who rarely slept) and she didn't seem particularly interested in reading. Thinking that she would learn to read anyway at school, I didn't push it - and really regret not encouraging her a bit more. Admittedly, I don't think anyone in her class could read when they started school and she's mildly dyslexic, but she really struggled when she started school. The teacher called us in, gave us an extra book of reading exercises to do with her, and it was quite a stressful time (she didn't enjoy reading at all and we would often spend up to an hour before she was able to read one A4 page - the amount they were reading in class after just a couple of months).
However, like I've already said, that probably won't be relevant for you as most children in her class learned to read without too many problems. But it was an experience I didn't want to repeat.
I was determined that DD2 would read before she started school, but didn't really need to teach her - she picked it up more or less by herself. I was thoroughly fed up with Jolly Phonics by this stage and knew that I'd learned to read just from looking at books with my mum, who hadn't actually made an effort to teach me, so decided to try that approach with DD2. I found an old Ladybird book of mine, On the Farm, which looked very easy to read, read it a few times with DD2, pointing out the words and she was able to read it herself fairly quickly (although of course it's difficult to tell how much she had memorised). We didn't have any proper learning-to-read type books, just looked at simple ones that we already had at home, and she picked it up from those. I also taught her to read in German, although it wasn't easy to find suitable books; the vast majority seem to have pictures instead of the more difficult words, which I find really "interrupt" the reading - it's very hard to find simply written books for beginner readers.
I decided to take a similar approach with DS and bought the ORT Read at Home series. He does enjoy looking at them and can read the first four or five books, although has probably memorised quite a bit of them. He can't read fluently, but does recognise and can also work/sound out quite a few words. I've also been doing Reading Eggs on the computer with him, which he loves and he'll often ask to do it. I bought a year's subscription after the 14-day free trial, which was definitely worth it in his case as he's made a lot of progress - and he won't sit and look at books for hours like DD2 used to.
Sorry, seem to have gone on a bit, hope it's helpful anyway!