Tearoom 25 - Benvenute a Venezia!

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YOu find us this time in a glorious palazzo in Venice, near to St. Mark's square, and on the water. With gondolas and vaporetti in abundance to transport us around to the various sights etc.

The palazzo itself of course has marble floors and fabulous murano chandeliers but aside of that we have the usual distressed chintz comfy sofas, assorted animals, bishops in their corner, priesthole for emergencies and a single solitary aspidistra in a bomb-proof glass cage to protect it from the ravages of a certain Canadian.

All are welcome - drop by for a cuppa, a glass of something stronger and a chat and relax in the safe and kind surroundings here.

Cin cin!

THANKS for the fish answer. Amongst other things at the Easter Fair Milk enjoyed fishing for plastic fish and I enjoyed it all the more for understanding why they are part of the Easter thaaaang.

Tee - AAAAH HAAA!!! I thought that might be your answer (I hope you don't mind me asking?)! I didn't know any Jews until I came to live here - but now several of my school gate and work friends are Jewish and ontop of it I live behind a synagogue with four of our apartment windows opening out onto the garden. So we wake up, cook, eat and fall asleep with the Jewish calander as our backdrop which to be very honest, being a non Jew from the countryside, I find rather romantic!

scout - second vote for sudocrem and bare bum. When Milk had it I took the radical decision to lay her on a pile of towels for the night and covered her in cream. I think I did the same thing the next morning (it was before crawling, let alone walking, though) It cleared up VERY quickly. Once you put the nappies back on change nappies VERY very often too... but as UniS says you might not have to put a nappy back on...

third bare bum advice; apparently Waitrose cocoa butter is the thing for nappy rash, but my friend used raw egg white, painted on with a pastry brush, when her DS had red raw nappy rash.
if it doesn't clear up in a couple of days, do take him to the doc to check for thrush as well.
and yes, the swimming pool will cause a LOT of pain.

ANZAC Day went very well - didn't rain on us this morning (did on the 5am service but not the 10:30am one) and apparently we sounded very good so hurrah!

Thanks, ladies. I'm already an aggressive nappy-changer which is why we get through packs so quickly. I tend to also know when he poos and it's off five minutes after that (having learned my lesson when he was little, I wait just a few minutes then get it off asap). Have said after his breakfast/morning poo we'd do another salt-bath then run around the backyard diaperless. Looks a bit better/not as aggressive this morning but it's still not nice. [busad]

I agree with sudacreme. Metmenium never seems to work on LCT.

Was suppose to have a picnic today, as MrTee is off this week on holiday, but it's going to rain. [busad] Guess a long walk is in order instead!

I hope everyone has a lovely day!

TS definitely thought running around half-naked (onsie on, not snapped, no nappy, socks and shoes) in the garden was just funny and kept pulling on his top. However, swinging was another story. Will give him another salt water bath when he gets home. They seem to be helping and he's not nearly as sore and unhappy.

Glad to hear it Scout! LCT's only had that type of rash once but it was less than pleasant for all involved! He was much younger than TS but mobile and we live in a flat so I lined his playpen with changing mats and let him play with some toys naked! He loved it!

I would just like to say here, now, in public...Thank you Crayola for washable crayons!! My coffee table is not really suppose to be an art piece!!!!

Phew! Have just been reading back. We have been to gay Paree for a few days. Ooh la la! Zut alors!

::Presents an assortment of chocolate fish for admiration and consumption::

Happy (belated) Easter!

Just back from a long weekend with the inlaws and survived! So stressed at times - the house is not at all toddler-proof so spent a lot of time trying to prevent Small Bean from crashing through glass doors etc. Oh, and chocolate was rationed... on Easter Sunday... as was wine...

Anyway, back home with large glass of .

Anyone doing anything nice for the rest of the week?

Maud - you were very lucky with the weather - it has been lovely the past few days!

What did you do & see?

bean - congrats on in-law survival.

We are back to school tomorrow. Milk is still awake... I feel it might be a rocky first day back...

Yes, we were very lucky with the weather but less so with the hotel. TripAdvisor here I come. We went to the Manet and Pre-Raphaelite photography exhibitions at the Musee d'Orsay and the Musee Rodin, did a bateau mouche trip and then just mooched about. I looove the Eurostar - we had lunch near the Arc de Triomphe and tea at home. And I really do have a chocolate fish.

::Shares round the cocoa goldfish::

Happy Easter all!

I have just had a lovely weekend away with the YD at a Quaker 'thing' (definitely not a retreat, not a conference, not sure what to call it - its title is 'Easter Settlement'). The YD enjoyed it immensely, and wanted to know why we didn't go last year! He found a kindred spirit - another 8 year old Lego fan.

The children and young people had seperate sessions some of the time considering the weekend's theme of Truth.

We had a fantastic speaker for two of the sessions. She held us riveted. She also held the children (aged 4-16) spellbound for over and hour!

There was also lots of time for walks, crafts, playing in the HUGE grounds of the place where we stayed, going down to the very cobbly beach, an Easter Egg hunt, dancing, etc etc.

Brilliant.

Tea perhaps the fish thing is because the early Christians used a fish as an important symbol for Christ? Maybe? [unsure emoticon]

evening all.
More choc egg anybody?? or are we all egged out yet?

Its official , I am turning into the mum all other mums hate - takes fancy dress too seriously mum-. Boy will be dressing up for school on Thursday, his year are having a prince/ princess/ knights/ wedding guests day. He wishes to dress as St George. So I've just made him a surcoat ( from an old pillow case) and a helmet ( cardboard, sprayed silver) to go with his sword and shield. Don't think I and DH can knit enough chain mail in time available so that ( on top of grey school trews) will have to do.

That sounds wonderful, UniS. It will be a refreshing change amongst all the bought-in-Disney-shop princess outfits.

I have policy on fancy dress, he can dress as what ever SO LONG as we have the bits and bobs in the house already....

.....or I can find them incredibly cheaply and will be able to reuse them. Like tinsel.

You sound very creative UniS - I wish that I was up to such activities!

Unis - I am terrible at fancy dress and envy anyone who can do it properly. For Comic Relief Small Bean announced at 6am that he wanted to go nursery dressed as a crocodile. - no chance!!

Now I would struggle to produce a croc at 6am, but them I stuggle with being upright at 6am. WIth a bit more time tho...
cardboard box puppet type head / hat. green trews, green Shirt, with egg box nobbles on a removable "tail" velcroed tagged onto a belt.

Do you think that would work?

I think part of your genius, UniS, is that you can see how these things could be done. I'm OK at the making, it's working out how that often foxes me.

Scout - re nappy rash - what about changing make of nappies? Might help? we used biodegradable nappies with oxboy not least because natural on the bottom and he never got nappy rash ....

Happy egg/ Easter/ Passover to all concerned

Had one of those odd parental conversations about Easter - what do "we" do now we have a child and our beliefs aren't the same/ matched/ as strong/ we have a different affinity for small fluffy chicks etc.

Much chocolate fun had here

Back to work tomorrow

Hugs to all and hello to those whose names I don't know in case they are not just in Easter Clothing

Paris sounds heavenly through both the Maud and the Tea filter!

::waves very sleepily at Oxeye::

::staggers off to bed::

Just a quick hi from the Rainy Coast... did everyone have a good Easter?
I normally work Mon, Tues and Thurs but decided to take today off, even though it's not a statutory holiday. I just wanted to. And I'm not doing an extra day to make up for it! [bugrin]

I'm happy to report that Jackbaby seems to be settling much better at nursery. I don't know if I posted this last week but he had a great day last Monday. He didn't go today, but will be going Weds. I took him on some errands with me, and then we went to the pool, as he'd been asking to go all last week. We had so much fun. He is currently watching an episode of "Diego" on my iPhone and I'm feeding him cheesy noodles by stealth (he's so absorbed he's almost not noticing spoon-to-mouth and just munching away. It's pretty cute.)

Yoga teacher training is going ok. Friday night was utter crap, we had the one instructor who is a complete airhead and she made some really stupid comments. Colour me unimpressed. Also she made us practice forearm stands (like a headstand but you're on your forearms) which I hate - normally because I don't do them very well and feel very unstable, but Friday in particular because I did something to my right shoulder while demonstrating something to a patient (go figure) and it's been very very sore.
Saturday was a little better, and Sunday we had my favourite instructor so it was a great day.

We had a mini Easter egg hunt at MIL's Saturday morning, and had brunch at hers. It was a gorgeous day.

Hope everyone is well - no time to read back as usual.

Scout - did those protein bars ever arrive? Could you FB me if they have?

Coffee and danish pastries anyone ? Peace reigneth here - ds has gone to school, and dh is out lungeing pony. Bliss.

Coffe and danish would be very nice, thank you. It is also peaceful here - I have a day off work and Small Bean is at nursery so having 10 minutes to myself before I go and start clearing out the garage!

Unis - thank you for crocodile idea - I will pick your brains when the next fancy dress challenge is sprung on us. Thankfully even I can manage a crown and cloak for the Royal Wedding garden party thingy this week!

Why is it ALWAYS on this sodding thread that my laptop has compatibility view issues?! [buangry]

ARGH!

UniS - looks like you are going to be the tearoom guru when it comes to dressing up!

JM (you know who you are!) - glad to see that Jackbaby is settling in more at nursery now [busmile]

I believe we are off to Canberra tomorrow for a couple of nights, and will take in Mount Kosciuszko as well. Not entirely sure why MrT wants to see the Snowy Mountains at this time of year, when there isn't a hope of seeing snow, but hey, it's his holiday.

Also hoping to find out tomorrow if he can get enough leave to come to the UK with us - if he does, we'll come back in June; if not, we'll come without him in May (it's cheaper). I have to be in Australia for June 7th for a gynae appt, so we go either one side or the other of that date.