September 09 - Hello world, we're here to destroy you!

[ChutesTooNarrow]

So the last thread could be used as proof that September 09 (and an August!) parents were kept far too busy by their babies to talk about them very often! Shall we see if we can get this one done before second birthdays (eek, 2 is so big) are upon us?

chutes - pillows here

we give oli a childs fork to play with and he loves it, even if he hasn't a scooby what it's for. we've prgressed from food being plucked off it to food being placed in mouth with it over the past week or two - now just to move onto spearing food rather than daddy with it

Hi all! Been working on my assignments, and been very good for keeping away from MN and FB!!

1. I was told that you can give whole nuts from the age of 4 year old, but I think it is now 5 years old. We've done chopped nuts in food for DD, but not whole nuts yet. I have to keep hiding in the kitchen whenever I eat cashew nuts as she wants to try them!

1. Well, J is a 3.5 at 15 months, but DD had her first shoes at age 12 months and she was a 5H! Total nightmare to get her shoes and still is. She is now a 10.5H and whenever anyone finds out they are very insulting about it, but I figure that foot size is the one thing you can do absolutely nothing about, so I don;t worry about it! She may grow up to have size 9 feet, but she may also slow down and just be an average size. She is tall, though and already in size 5-6 clothes, so not sure if this has anything to do with it?

1. DD has only ever had 3 'proper' haircuts in her whole life and she is 3y 8m! She really hates going to the hair dressers, so I just do it in the bath! Helps that it is one length and we are growing her fringe out, so no wonky bits!! J has just had his first haircut from me and he also hated it!! DH wanted to use the clippers, but the thought of it worried me slightly, so I just used the scissors!!

1. We have a washer and separate dryer, but I hardly use the dryer as loads of my clothes say that you can't tumble dry them and I also kept shrinking loads of the kids clothes in it!! I mainly use it for undies. towels and bedding now!

I think you can use pillows and duvets from a year old, Chutes. I kept DD in grobags until she moved into a bed at age 2 as they kept her from being able to climb out of the cot and also when she did go into her big bed she was so happy to have her own proper bedding!! Will do the same with J as he is a very wriggly sleeper and spins round his cot!!

Kveta, I used to have a friend who was super-competitive when it came to her DD and it was so tiring. I started to play down everything that DD did and this seemed to stop it because she then didn't have anything to be competitive over! Thing was, in her case her DD wasn't actually doing anything except sleeping and sitting, so then she would make things up like she'd say her DD was singing along to the night garden (she wasn't even of an age to start talking, let alone sing!!) and she used to say that her DD was sleeping for 12 hours a night, but she wasn't very good at keeping up the lie and used to drop herself in it!! Very satisfying!!! She also used to call DD a 'monster' because she was quite a bonny baby. Nice! Think it just comes from insecurity. Avoid Ignore her, or try to change the subject!

Right, back to the assignment! If you see me on her or FB tell me off!!

Mads has had a pillow for quite a while but it was in response to some congestion and he couldn't sleep flat at the time. Honest. He also has a quilt, and apart from the odd uber sweaty night he seems to get on with it quite well.

He's been feeding himself with a spoon for a few weeks, although bored of it quite quickly and tended to wipe yoghurty spoon in hair. Last night he fed himself quite a lot of roast dinner with a small fork while J fannied around with his.

Hello!

After all my postings about not having poorly children we have swung the other way and had all sorts of chest/eye/nappy rash infections! Ds has also developed glue ear and is slightly deaf so we have to keep shouting at him or he can't hear you! Even if you mention chocolate so you know it's serious... He should be fine though the doc says it normally clears up by itself. Dd is on the mend but it extremely grumpy! Woo its been fun in the house.

Will have a crack at your questions

1. Dd has no molars so no time soon. When she can chew! She has peanut butter/marzipan and is fine. To be honest I would think pistachios/peanuts/cashews would be alright once they can bite them properly but whole almonds or brazils I wouldn't even give to ds as they are perfect windpipe blocking size... And I'm not precious about these things at all. Go by your gut feeling, it's normally right WRT our children.

2. 2.5 but she has wierdy tiny fairy feet. 5 is normal (still little and squishy cute I'm sure!)

3. You if you think you can manage it. I did ds's first and it looked awful so took him to have it tidied up. You could always have a go and see how it looks! I took ds to a barbers as it was cheaper. Now he is bigger he loves going, watches cartoons while it's done and gets a sweet from the (very very gorgeous) Italian barber afterwards. Ok maybe I love taking him because of said Italian barber.

4. We have separate. I can imagine a washer/dryer getting annoying! I don't use the dryer for every load but have a nice big one that fits in all the dryerables from several loads of washing.

5. Dd has a very thin ikea baby pillow. They can be used from 12 months I think.

6. I would give him one to play with but fingers are fine for the time being in my book. Dd has just got the hang of a spoon but does prefer fingers even for porridge . I think if you all eat together as often as possible they watch you and learn to use them by copying. They do pick it up eventually!

Ooo I hate competitive parenting. They all even out over time with their own particular talents and strengths. I agree with Berry, it's probably jealousy/insecurity. I tend to smile and congratulate small child on totally normal wonderful achievement and not mention dd's rather than get into a conversation about it, I just can't be bothered anymore. I doubt you could say anything that would make any difference as we all know our own offspring are better than anyone elses, but some folks like that genuinely think that no kid has ever before been as truly wonderful and gifted as theirs, and if you don't see that their kid is better than yours you are deluded and strange. Sigh. Nod, smile and rise above it I say...

Sorry took my so long to write between keeping children happy cross posted with people!

I see I do the same as ladyem and not mention achievements to give them nothing to compete over. It does work :)

I'm tempted to post a boasty facebook status and wait for her to respond so you all know who I'm on about :o (she isn't a mnetter, just everytime anyone posts an 'aww, cute' statement about their child, she rushes in to tell us how incredible her wee one is)

I'm probably a bit competitive sounding sometimes, because I need to compare with other mums to make sure he's normal! luckily the nursery and childminder have reassured me that they'll let me know if he's freakish in anyway, so I'm now merely complaining about his sleep, and scaring old ladies by wearing him on my back. I try and save my boasting for here and my great grandmother who thinks he is the best child ever (or at least since I was born :o)

bigbang, hope your DS is ok soon - not being able to hear the mention of chocolate must be awful!! I'm so fglad the feet thing isn't weird - I've got enormous great clown feet, but DH is the same size as me, so we were wondering which of us oli will take after. ultimately there's about fuck all we can do about it anyway, so it's more idle wondering than actual concern!

I'm so fed up with the post just now - I ordered a load of stuff from muddy puddles in november, and it's not arrived yet, grr. need it for the czech republic!

suppose I'd better go and pick up the smallest and silliest one from nursery now before battling through the fog home.

(p.s. bigbang, where is this barber, he sounds, um, interesting and worth checking out his cutting skillz, and obviously when Oli needs a haircut... )

Arolf you don't sound competitive at all. There is a difference in sharing great achievements we are proud of and highjacking everyone else's great achievements all the time and constantly banging on about it!

Grandparents are perfect for boasting too

Barber is in central cambridge, well worth a day trip haha, where abouts is your new house by the way?

I am missing a large amazon order of books for christmas presents, the lack of post is driving me potty.

Sorry about my awful typos and spelling mistakes, ds is badgering me and I'm trying to rush!

Please do the FB status so we can see who it is!!

LADYEM GET OFF THE TINTERNET!!!!

well, you told us to!!

Couldn't help myself!! Promise I'll work when the DCs are in bed!!

Do it, do it and then I will post something along the lines of 'yes well, young Ptolemy mastered skating backwards yesterday, and at 11 months 2 weeks 3 days and 15 minutes he was a whole 26 hours before his older sister. We are so proud, anyway must dash have them both in advanced latin classes in 20 mins xxxxxxxxxxx'

Oh thank you for the pillow responses. I thought it was ok but when I googled it I got loads of American baby websites going under no circumstances was a pillow to be used before the age of 4. Gabe has a consistent bed routine now but a pillow seems to be the thing he associates most with going to sleep. It's so cute to watch him snuggle up into one.

before the age of 4?????

I couldn't sleep without a pillow, so I wouldn't expect my sons to

arudolf, you just know we'll all pile in on your status Dare you inflict us on your friend?

I've tried a semi-boastful status about his diet, but the only person to comment is you barry :o I'm not sure I can manage it...

I did see a wonderful one from an old acquaintance in the USA - it said "While packing away DC2s outgrown clothes, DC1 asked whether I was putting them away for another baby. I was surprised and asked, "Do you think mommy's going to have another baby?" And DC1 replied, "No. Another baby in another uterus in somebody else's house." My heart melted to think he understands the concept of giving to others in need."

her DC1 is 3... I was so tempted to comment with something snarky, but resisted. Ah, where would we be without other mums to judge?

how is the christmas home made gift making going? I made some macadamia, cranberry, and chocolate fudge (not as nice as it sounds, sadly) at the weekend which I've brought into work to share out at our meeting today. some of the computer scientists might have to make eye contact if they want some though, so we'll see how it goes down.

I've just eaten some of the Christmas Chutney I made in a baguette and it was yummy I've also made chilli jam (nice as well), hot green tomato chutney, garlic oil and rock hard jumbleberry jam I plan to scrape the jam back out of the jars and put in weeny tart cases I just bought from M&S (not just any weeny tart cases )

Also going to do the pickled feta-y thing from Nigella christmas for my brother's girlfriend. She has a gluten free diet so finding treats for herself is a bit tricky.

All this homemade present weaving was supposed to save me money this year, but I think I have spent more than ever

arudolf you're going to have to be less subtle with baiting your friend. Perhaps one of us should start something on your wall?

Lol arolf- at the computer scientists needing to make eye contact for fudge Dp studied computer science and is now a software engineer, he can make eye contact now and even gives out spontaneous hugs and kisses after much training. Some of his colleagues however...

I am just in the middle of making chilli jam. It smells good so far. I have decided to do caramelised walnuts covered in dark chocolate with my walnut glut, the cracking of shells is taking hours though I have also done a giant square christmas cake which I'm going to cut into squares and ice individually for people. I just have to try not to eat it as I cut it up.

I found that last year too berry, the cost went up and up and up! I have been saving jars for months and still have cellophane bags and ribbons left over so its not too bad this year. Ingredients can cost a small fortune though.

I love that American mom! How funny, we see what we want to see eh. I wonder if the child actually said 'uterus'?!

I'm sure the jam will taste lovely in the cases! I did something similar last year with onion marmalade, reduced it too much and it was like weird onion toffee.

'weird onion toffee'

You lot are putting me to shame with your home-made jams and fudge!! I had good intentions and was going to make festive shortbread for all the nursery leaders, but after a bad batch of chocolate cakes last weekend I decided that Mr Tesco knows better than me, so I got them all 3 for 2 smellies instead! May be next year!! I then have 12 months to practice!! I worry that I will do something wrong and give everyone food poisoning! (If it is possible to get biscuit poisoning!! )

Poor JJ's face is a mess at the minute as DD tried to 'help' him out of the front door and instead ended up face-planting him onto the step. He now has a massive bump in his forehead and a bright red nose. DD was mortified and keeps asking if it needs a plaster on!

Slight change of subject but, Berry, do you mind if I ask a hair dressing question? I have a choppy-bob hairstyle and want to do it a bit different for a night out next week. How would I go about getting <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=bobhairstyles.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/wavy1.jpg&imgrefurl=bobhairstyles.biz/&h=608&w=554&sz=38&tbnid=2ur7uw2iTU1gvM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwavy%2Bbob%2Bhair&zoom=1&q=wavy+bob+hair&usg=__-nCpjaDaH93nMkqDjnf4SU8Qmks=&sa=X&ei=OqcHTd-TL9OxhQfnp7GsBg&ved=0CCYQ9QEwBg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this kind of effect? Every time I try I end up looking like I just haven't brushed my hair, rather than a loose curl!!

Hi all, I am also very jealous of the home made presents. I have two rag dolls ready to sew but I have been putting them off - Lazy girl. Dh is out tomorrow so I shall maybe do them then.

Can I ask again about bottles, DD is being a bit picky about food and I'm wondering if I should drop the afternoon bottle??

What are you using Ladyem?

I'd go for a curling tong, although you can do it with GHD. I just prefer tongs for curls Anyway, best thing is to create the curl then pin it up to cool down in it's shape. Then you can let them all down and titivate by hand

Have been using tongs, but I think I must be doing it wrong as I just end up with a kink on the ends of my hair. I only have Tresemme straighteners, so not sure if the are hot enough to curl with. My hair is quite fine and doesn't behave itself!!

Peachy, J still has a drink of milk in the afternoon before his nap. He also has one first thing and one at bedtime. DD had the same up until a few months a go, but now she doesn't sleep in the afternoon any more she has stopped having that one.They both love milk, where as I hate the stuff (thanks to being forced to drink warm milk every day at infant school!) so I am encouraging them to keep drinking it!! I did try dropping J's afternoon drink when he got picky about food, but it didn't seem to make any difference other than he would drink more water, so I started giving it him again!! You could always drop it for a few days and see if her appetite picks up a little.

Right, back to this essay. Just the conclusion and I need to eliminate some words as I have too many!! I want it done before I go to bed so I can get on with the other one tomorrow night!

just don't let my hairdresser for my wedding anywhere near you ladyem!!

my UK hairdresser said there were online tutorials on how to curl your hair using GHDs, it may be worth investigating that?

can't help with bottles, but Oli has just had his pre-nap feed dropped - I was going to nursery to feed him at 1 every day, but he's in a new room and that clashes with naps, so no feeds between 8 and 4 for him during the week now. He now comes clambering up me shrieking 'deda!' and pulling my top up when he wants milk though (he has learnt how to unclip my bra cup which is really worrying ), so maybe it's just as well I'm cutting down his daytime feeds...

oh, and

actually, not even I'm just now. stupid house buying. bastard solicitors. arsehole banks. grrr.