June 10 babies are growing apace, teething and crawling all over the place.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Here we are ladies. Let's see if we can manage to chat a bit more on this one :).

You hve to put them in your basket before the 3 for 2 shows up. It is good as they really are expensive. I 'saved' £38. Just imagine how much I spent! (although to be fair it includes DDs christmas presnt too so I could egt free postage)

Love Schleich animals! Thanks for that.

Any tips for a reluctant drinker? I bf Emma first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Plus usually once a night when she wakes up. Apart from that, she basically goes through the whole day with barely a drop of anything liquid passing her lips. I have a plethora of different beakers which she will sometimes take minute sips of water from but more frequently shakes her head vehemently and biffs it out of my hand. I want to get her drinking moo milk so that I can drop the morning feed but again she is extremely reluctant and after one sip will chuck the cup on the floor and not want it back again. I don't think she is majorly dehydrated or anything but it is concerning!

Mia is walking !!!

She's been taking groups of steps at a time for ages, but was still doing her bum-shuffle when she wanted to get somewhere.

On Saturday morning she suddenly decided that walking was a more convenient way of getting from A-to-B!

DS and DD1 are very proud of her, and keep counting her steps until she topples....she loves the attention!

She's been living in slightly random hand-me-down baby shoes from DS and DD, none of which actually fit, so DH took her to Mothercare on Sunday and bought her some proper pre-walkers....they are very pink (apparently DD1 had something to do with the choosing ) and she loves them very much!

Work isn't getting any better (and I'm spending far too much of every day on MN instead of getting things done) but DH and I had a long chat about the wohm/sahm thing over the weekend and have agreed that we will re-assess in about 6-12 months time, once everything calms down and we have a better idea of where we're at.

Oh yes, and we (finally) exchanged on our new house at the weekend, too....although we're not moving until February (which is part of the 'carry on working for now' stuff).

Greensnail, the book arrived this morning, thanks so much, have started reading it already, it seems very balanced. Please let me send you something for it.

Very exciting about Misa walking filly, life has improved so much since Fergus started walking so hopefully will for you too. I also spend too much time on mumsnet etc at work and I only work part time so can only imagine how bad I wuld be otherwise!

La T Havent ordered any schliech animals yet as they seem to have much less online than in store. DOes the 3 for 2 work in the shop as well? Also save on delivery that way.

madamefreckle - I have just discovered that Alice will drink a lot more from an open cup than she ever would with one with a lid. She's always been a reluctant drinker and never took more than a couple of sips but the last few days I've been leaving the lid off her cup and she's so pleased with her big girl drink that she drinks it all!

goodname - wow, that got to you quickly. DH posted it second class on saturday morning so didn't expect it to get to you until at least tomorrow. I don't want any money for it, just glad that someone else is getting some use out of it and I hope it is useful.

DD1 loves looking at the Scliech animals in the toyshop in town so maybe I'll get her some to put in her stocking. Have been thinking of getting Alice some Happyland stuff for christmas so could order that too to get free delivery.

goodname - I'm sorry. I don't know.

Greensnail - they;'ve got some happyland half price too!

Filly - yay! and yay! and possibly another yay!

Hi, good to catch up with everyone's news.

greensnail thank you for asking about DS starting school - it's been a bit fraught, he's slept well for about a year, after we did serious bribery with Thomas the Tank stuff to get him back into his own bed after Alice was born. School teacher warned us to expect all sorts of unusual behaviour, so this isn't unanticipated, but he is waking and coming to our room asking for reassurance, maybe alternate nights - which means the one in between I'm awake listening for him. What with that and Alice's all night booby-cafe, I'm feeling a bit sleepless.

DS and Alice are a right pair of dogs in the manger - so continual mediation goes on. We took them to meet their new baby cousin on Saturday and Alice went into overdrive at me cuddling another baby. She has been walking 30+ steps at a time, but it's not continuous - for one day she reverted entirely to crawling. DH says DS walked everywhere after his first step. I have to admit I can't remember. The trip to meet their cousin was preceded by a trip to A&E for DS after he fell over a rocking turtle (don't ask) in his bedroom and cut his cheek open on the end of his bed.

filly interesting - and good - to hear that you and your DH had that discussion about work / life etc - DH and I had a mini-version last week, more along on the lines of 'how do we manage the next six months so they are easier than the last?', but useful all the same.

LaTrucha thank you so much for the ELC code! Have just gone a bit mad on there...

Thank you greensnail. I have an inkling that an open cup is the way to go but it's FAR more hassle as everything WILL get soaked.

If I try to hold the cup for her, she will attempt to tug and snatch it out of my hands = everything soaked!

If I put it in front of her and let her drink from it herself she will put it to her mouth then pour the whole lot down her front = everything soaked!

Sigh. She will learn!

Filly, sorry to hear that work is not good. Exciting about the house - and the walking! We're yet to meet that milestone! Hope that the work life balance gets sorted in the New Year.

madame freckle, fergus will only drink out of normal glasses/cups. We compromised by giving him espresso cups or glasses from his teaseat so there is not so mucg water to spill. He can manage perfectly well now with them but when he has had enough he pours it all into his dinner or on his highchair and starts splashing.
He is point blank refusing to be bathed at the moment. Have tried him back in baby bath and that worked for a while but now he wont even go in that. Have to chase him round with water and a cloth to get him at all clean. He is turning into the smelly child! Any advise anyone?

madamef - you're right about the mess. I had been amazed at how well Alice was getting on with the open cup, she can drink beautifully from it without spilling. Unfortunately she's now started experimenting on how much of her food she can get in there before anyone notices. She ended up with most of her tea in there this evening which I hadn't noticed until I gave her her pudding and she then poured it all back out of her cup into the pudding bowl. It was truly disgusting!

We're off on our holidays tomorrow. Going to a friend's wedding at the weekend and then having a week in York, just the four of us. I can't wait :)

DD1 went through a phase of not wanting to go in the bath too. We just didn't force the issue and just kept offering baths with no pressure for her to get it and washed her down with a flannel instead while she wouldn't go in the bath. Would he get in with you? How about offering a bf in the bath? Or a new exciting bath toy?

We've had bath issues in the past with DD. Lots of jollying along and having both DH and I do it, so lots of lovely attention. Also, less pressure. This helped too. Much fun.

Yup. ntoher one who went from a pretty neat eater to a disaster fiend.

Does anyone have any tips to deal with a fear of spiders?

Ruth was fine with them until about a month ago, when she was crawling up the stairs, reached around the top and must have brushed against one. A huge spider shot across the floor and Ruth started crying and wringing her hands as though she was trying to rub a residue off.

Now she is terrified. If she sees one she will stop and cry. Even suggesting there us one makes her shudder and run away (don't ask).

I had some success today, with a toy spider at MIL's where she was almost enjoying being frightened and even touched it once. But, apart from buying conveniet Halloween toys, any other ideas?

Hi there - not posted for ages! Don't get the time to Facebook AND go on Mumsnet now. Haven't managed to catch up so hope you're all well.
Lots of teething here (have bought a raw amber necklace - not sure if it works), A is walking and into EVERYTHING!! He is a true tornado, and can get up to lots of damage in the blink of an eye. DD2 started full time school 9 days ago - so last week I ventured out to some toddler groups with A. He loved it, nice to be able to spend some quality time with him. and it's lovely seeing the little man interact with others!
We've recently introduced A to his sisters Happyland and he loves the trains! I too have been looking at Schliech animals (but more for dd2!) - Great minds think alike! x
Glad that you're all still chatting!

Nice to see you again :)

Can't help with the spiders, Barbeasty, but I wonder if just ignoring the whole thing might help?

Greensnail - you just made me snort-out-loud at my desk with your dinner-in-a-cup description ....I can imagine Mia doing something exactly like that

Goodname - ds went through something similar at about this age. iirc (its a bit hazy) we used a combination of showers, not bathing, flannel-baths and the occasional screaming-fit-nightmare-but-we-need-to-get-him-clean bath. The my aunt gave ds a brilliant set of boats, submarines and people for xmas and suddenly the whole thing just stopped.

Madamefreckle - waterproof bibs until she gets the hang of it?

WWISA - they will grow out of it. Honestly, they really will. But it does sound very wearing for you, in the meantime....sending you some good sleep vibes for the interim....maybe you need some industrial-strength ear-plugs, and then let dh do some of the night-time getups?

Mia has started to become much easier since she learnt to walk. She can still be very clingy if she's tired (or just feels clingy!) but I'm still in shock every time she toddles off to go and explore another something regardless of what I'm up to....its such a relief! The best moment is after we get her up every morning, where she has to 'remember' that she can walk all over again...she falls over every 3 or 4 steps along the landing until she gets her balance, then she's fine.... :)

Emma has at last decided that walking can be better than a one-legged-hop-along-cassidy-crawl. Horray!!

Sorry, that was me - I had a temp name change for business purposes and forgot to change it back!

Congratulations MadameFreckle!

Hello JustBeME!

Barbeasty - I would be tempted to ignore the spider thing too.

Does anyone have a DC that looks like them. I mean EXACTLY like them? Danny looks so like me that sometimes it's odd looking at him. I found some photos of y brothers and I when we were little and was looking at the ones of my brothers thinking how strong the resemblance was until I stumbled on one of me at the age Dniel is now and in all honesty I could send ti to my inlaws telling hem it was Danny and they'd be utterly convinced. It's spooky.

Mia is the absolute spit of my MIL, LaT - does that count?

Oddly, she doesn't look much like MILs baby photos, but just exactly like her now...including the same comedy back-combed curly hair....

Oh well, with any luck she'll grow out of it.

And do you like MIL? Bet MIL is thrilled.

My MIL is a wonderful grandma, and a very kind and helpful MIL, so I know I'm extremely lucky...but she drives me up the wall!!!

Its ok now, but was a bit challenging when I was still bfing....

Luckily M also looks a huge amount (not identical, but very similar) like DD1 did at this age....and DD1 is (imo!) very pretty and only has family resemblance to MIL....so hopefully this is something M will grow out of! :)

I'm told Ruth looks like me, and she certainly looked like my baby photos. But then people always used to say that my mum and I looked the same, and would get an identical dirty look in return!

We seem to have resolved the spider issue. DH bought a pack of big spiders with glittery legs (a Halloween decoration) and hid them around the house- in her dolls house etc. Thankfully she liked the sparkley thing, to the extent that "pider" is her latest word.

We aren't going for open cups yet. It's bad enough having water tipped over us from her sippy cups. And she has suddenly started to dip her hand into my glass of water and splash around with it. I managed to stop DH's watch going in though....

Zoe looks a lot like I did when I was little and sometimes I look at her and think about my own family which prompts me to give them a call. It also makes me think about writing some points in a notebook that I wish a big sister had told me when I was growing up...
We've had a tough time with teething recently but now all the molars and canines are through, so I think we are pretty much done. Now hopefully a full night's sleep is within reach...

madamef - loved your description of the performance that goes with drinking from a cup - same here - very wet and messy

justbeme - hello!

dimb big envy at such a lot of teeth - Alice has just got her eighth, and so we have a long way to go yet. Sleepless nights forever maybe.

Alice looks quite a bit like DH & MIL in the lower half of her face, but several people have said how like my dad she looks, but maybe that's just sentiment, given how small A was when he died. I like to think so anyhow. She doesn't look anything like me.

Alice has conjunctivitis and we've just discovered rising damp in our flat, so a leaky week all round. filly meant to ask, are you moving out of London? IIRC that would then make me the only Londoner left on the thread.