West London June thread (one day early)

[ComeOVeneer]

Almost made it to the end of the month. Children are gone. I am free until Sunday lunch

LOl - IKWYM Steppy - going out is a bit too much of an effort

I used to have a Mazda MX5 - only fun in the sun though, not when its winter!

foxie, what time's the school run? am popping into richmond shortly to do some banking.

could pop over if you're about?

was supposed to go and view a high rise single mother hell in roehampton but my IFA says ex-local authority concrete blocks are kiss of death to mortgage lenders!

We'll be back about 4.35 (late one today). Text me if you do pop!!

ah, what time d'you leave for the school run then?

Hello,

I was out with dd enjoying the sunshine. I saw quokka doing last minute shopping for her new tenants. She's got 3 kiwi girls moving in. 2 are accountants apparently. Quokka and family are leaving on Thursday now.

Hope you don't mind me blabbing about your new tenants, quoks.

Paddle, sfx did you go to the pools today? I was tempted to join you but I didn't really know where you were going etc.

Maybe next time.

Nanou,
What fair are you organising?

Dd is really attached to her baby doll she borrowed from the toy library on Saturday. It's like a Baby Annabel except it's called Baby Millie.

My question is does she know it's a doll and not a little baby? She saw a baby in a tv ad and she thought it was Baby Millie.

She tries to give the doll her sippy cup and talks to her like a big sister to a little baby.

How old are children when they can tell that dolls are not babies? It also makes me sad to realise that dd is really quite lonely as we weren't planning on having any more babies as it's not easy for me to get pg at all. Having dd took 10 years.

hi mellow

we went to old deer park pool and it was great. dd loved it and was good to see sfx and minisfx.

plan to really try and get there most tuesdays from now on i think. would be great to go with you too.

good to hear the Quokka house is rented out. that'll be a load off their minds.

as for dolls and babies. well dd has adored her "babies" since xmas when she got them. they are most definately "babies" and get fed, bottoms wiped and cry a lot.

i don't think it's a sign of lonliness at all tbh. i think it's just play and learning thru play. she does to her babie what i do to her iyswim. she also cleans all her soft toys' bottoms LOL! and occasionally she wags her finger and shouts "NO NO NO!" at them

yes, definitely copying what you do to them, but can understand how you feel sad about thinking she's lonely, mellow. as mums, we beat ourselves up all the time, don't we?

paddle - my dd does the finger-pointing NO!,thing too. we're obviously graduates from the same school of motherhood.
she also jigs "baba" up and down with lots of frantic SHHHHHing..

next thing she'll be opening a bottle of chilled white on the dot of 7pm...

now, before i had kids, was never one for gender differences - in that i thought it was nurture rather than nature that had biggest effect.

but

ds1 and ds2 never "shhhsed" their toys or pushed their toy buggies up and down like trying to calm a baby, like dd does, although they would have seen me doing it, too.
also really didn't want to get dd a toy buggy (although fine about boys having them. I know, i know, PC gone mad) or dolls...but she's always drawn to "girlie" toys. but reckon it all balances out as she also plays with the boys' trucks etc.

..did you go in the outdoor pool?
wasn't it bloody freezing?

steppie - used to have a big fuck off convertable - and yes I was VERY smug. Used to have the hood down and the air con on my feet

i'm teaching dd to use the corkscrew already, altho god knows why as i only ever buy screwtops these days!

agree with the nature/nurture thing but think nurture can affect nature too.

certainly not the outdoor pool! will have to get a damn sight hotter for that believe me!

Mellow agree with the others that playing babies is not a sign of loneliness in fact I don;t think they really start paying much attention to scoialising until they're about 2 (someone can correct me if I'm wrong). She is really only interested in being the most important thing in your life atm. It is just role playing/copying in teh same way that DS throwing a handbag over his arm and pushing a buggy is not a sign that he's gay (yet!) but that he is copying me. Of course if he's still doing it at 14 I'll reconsider that statement.

If asked, I'd be prepared to bet that DS would shriek in horror at the idea of sharing me with some horrible crying baby

kc....why oh why doesn't that surprise me?

paddle - remember when i was horrifed at the increased popularity of screwtops..just not the same, dahling, etc.
now i feel really hard done by if i have to go to the effort of removing a cork

Paddle - sorry - just about to leave now (tried to have a lie down just now but Dcs wouldn't let me )

Kew - are you going to the Queen's School fair Saturday? Anyone else up for it? I think its about 11.30-2.30 or something

we high flying city types have a rep to live up to you know...

hello again. oh mellow... your "baby" is just growing up! i think they know dolls are dolls but they like to pretend. it's like hearing myself sometime, with 2/3 decibels higher!
i know what you mean... sometimes I am scared dd is lonely too. i know she loves company and going to creche and seeing other kids. dh says she is not bored. but i still wonder. i cant bring myself to admit but it is very likely that dd will be a "lonely child" - and that expression does not help does it?!

I have no idea yet whetehr DS will be an only child (logistics would be a nightmare ut I have a kind of hankering...) but he certianly won;t be a "lonely" child because I bleieve that I can prevent that. Plenty of out of school activities and lots of inviting friends around for tea once they're old enough etc etc.

My brother and sister were 4 and 5 yrs older than me and frankly I hardly remember them in my childhood. I wasn't lonely because I had really good friends and we virtually lived in each others houses - both sets of fmailies had an open door policy with both of us and I even got a kind of religious exposure through one of my friends despite growing up in a near-heathen family. great experience to live in someone elses family for short times - made me the well rounded person that I am today [po-faced emoticon]

hello all

mellow yes do pop along it is a nice pool, mini paddle is just so big now! lovely to see you both. btw it is cheaper if you get a borough leisure card.

about dolls dd has 3rag dools but does not play/nurture them at all, the extent of the play is oh look they are friends lovely dolly,
i asked if she would like a baby brother/sister and she said NO NO i got X she said (friends baby name)

hope little gerkin and little foxie's cub are feeeling better today

quoka - hope the move goes well

and btw on those 'gender toys' some peo-ple we now refused to buy a tea set for their boy on the grounds that he would be bullied at schoolhe is 2!

Thanks everyone. It's reassuring to know that dd is only role playing. I definitely think she needs to be bought her own doll and not a borrowed one as it has to go back in 3 weeks.

I said to dh that I'm going to get her an Oriental doll so she doesn't want to be blonde and blue eyed when she's older. Dh says I'm too paranoid. Anyway, I'm rambling . . .

I have to agree QC. I didn't share the same friends as my siblings (1 sis and 2 bros) and we're all only a year apart.

But you're right, steppie, as a mom I try my darndest to beat myself up about stuff.

sfx mum at boy's parents. was just saying to dh last night that it is now time for legos! our dd although into her barbie stuff is getting into cars and trucks. does that mean that she will be pointed at at creche for showing signs of being gay
anyway.... the fair i am organising is a church thing on sat between 12 & 3pm. homemade food, bouncy castle, face painting, boys stuff too ie lots of fun. pimms, strawberry & creams, burgers by my dh and we will be sending second hand clothes toys books aimed at kids. st martins church, hale gardens W3. would be great to see you guys and could be fun for the little ones.

good luck quokka. we'll miss you!

if the weather is good will defintiely come for lunch nanou.

I think its important that DD has an asian doll - I'm equally obsessive about it - maybe we can obses together . I ahev the added problem that DS doesn't live with anyone who looks like him so I think having "normal" toys around that do is important.

Ever tried to find an Asian boy doll who looks like DS?

Oh oh, are we having a nature versus nurture debate. One of my favourite topics. But, I haven't really got time to read the thread. Will have to attempt later. But, I have a work drinks thing at 5:30, so I'm probably not going to catch up any time soon. Pity...

But I will say this, my girl didn't start doing girly things until she was old enough to learn them (i.e. nurture) from other people. The down side of this is that fight over the Thomas toys. Oops... didn't actually think about that one.

oh goody! last one we did for the sunday school bash was great fun! no idea of how many will turn up this time as open to public and am really hoping that all goes well and busy...
hhuumm ele, we are all too busy for a debate... asian dolls??? we may have one on sat? big asian community in west acton! who knows?!

don't think those people aprove of our dd who goes around in Thomas hat and holding thomas train etc.
about dools my parents were a bit 70's socialists so we had dolls like the UN and of both genders too
i temble at the thought of Barbie and will most def ban Bratz!