October 2011 - my, oh my, how the first years flew by!! It's birthday season!!

[MummyDuckAndDuckling]

So excited that the first birthdays are upon us! Will try get a copy of the stats..

Yeah I like that idea to. S has a book shelf in her room but all of her shoes have ended up on the bottom shelf, books on the middle and some cuddly toys on the top. Ill keep looking, her room is a decent size, but has 2 full length build in cupboards that I use for storage (flat with only 2 small cupboards in the hall, one of which houses the boiler) so I ended up buying her a separate wardrobe and she has a chest of drawers. I don't have much wall space left so would need to be something long and low to perhaps go under the window.

Tree is down

Like this m.zulily.co.uk/product/69317?ref=event&pos=1

i like that one, especially as you can boxes on top as well, just the price...

I know. I couldn't justify that price!

Mummy I couldn't see the other links, but we've got the Ikea Trofast storage units, it works really well. We went to get the 'step' one but ended up getting two like this m.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/art/00063672/ as they are more flexible. We've got big trays on the top for bigger toys and smaller ones in the middle and bottom that Seb can access. All his toys are sorted (one tray for bricks, one for small toys, one for soft toys etc) rather than all mixed in and stops the smaller toys getting lost at the bottom. They are in the front room at the moment but we will move them to his room when he is bigger. He has a load of toys on his bookshelf in his room too.

Not back at work until Monday: having a guilty day on my own with Seb at the childminder, getting some bits and pieces done and checking out mn. Picking him up early and he will be with me tomorrow and Friday and hopefully see some of his little friends.

We've got a big plastic tub in the corner of the living room so that we can de-baby the living room every evening by just hiving his toys in there (he plays mostly in the living room when at home so it makes sense for now. His room has his ride on caterpillar that just sits out and a large cardboard box for his other upstairs toys must get some proper storage in there soon. He doesn't even have a wardrobe just a chest of draws.

Straw, we had one of those (with wheels on the bottom which Seb used to love riding round the house in ) but we used to end up with the same toys and the other ones stuck at the bottom, so went for the shelf thing with trays - so much easier to organise.

Question for bottle-feeders? How many are you still on? We finally managed to replace his afternoon post-nap bottle with a sippy cup of whole milk (by gradually adding more milk) but he still has 150ml of formula at 7am and another one before bed at 7pm.

tally I gave up with the bottles completly the week S was sick (think around the 1st week in dec). By then she was only having around 4oz of cows milk before bed so I just replaced it with a cup. She now has a cup first thing in the morning and just before bed. I half fill it but she only really takes a few sips. On the days she hasn't taken much in the morning or hasn't had cereal (with the milk) I give her some mid afternoon. Tbh, she's eating a lot of cheese/yog/rice pudding etc that I'm not to worried about calcium.
Finally just this week packed away the steriliser, yay!

We're still on three or four 6oz bottles tally it had dropped a bit but he picked it back up again after his op. trying to cut him down a bit again now which will hopefully be easier now he's back at nursery where he seems to want less milk anyway

we're on four feeds a day including two night feeds. There are loads of babies that have bottles until they are two, I'm sure you will switch over to whole milk quite naturally. when you don't want to buy formula anymore

tally we're still on at least 3 bottles a day, more recently it's been really hot so I can ensure he's getting fluids - we're trying him on water and he has some, but not enough

Thanks guys, we're prob about right then. Might start moving another one to whole milk soon - so much easier (still got two tubs of forumla though as was on sale!)

pene stop teasing us with tales of hotness!

Damn, had a great big long list of things I needed to do when Seb was down for his nap and now can't remember them and ended up on mn!

Happy New Year ladies!

Back from UK yesterday, just trying to get back to normal now.

Sorry to hear your news MrsH

M has been thoroughly spoiled this Christmas. Have just tipped all of his "baby" toys into a bin liner to put up in the loft. Just trying to find homes for all of our presents (total first world problem ).

Are celebrating M's first English world - Hello! - which he hasn't stopped saying for the last week (including to complete strangers on the ferry home).

I can't believe how much he has changed in the last week. At the beginning of the week he was dropping to his knees and crying everytime he saw a stranger (at least 3 times on the way to breakfast every morning), crying everytime DH or I left the room at my DM/DF's, and hiding from my DBro and BIL, but by the end he was running around on his own and chatting to anyone who would listen (a little too enthusiastically sometimes, he took a dive off the bed and gave himself a bloody nose).

I think I will try and drop DSs lunch feed soon. I want to wear dresses again.

Atm he loves books, still likes the action nursery songs, standing on the bed and falling onto it (or running and dropping onto bean bags), still loving cuddles, gives great kisses, plays boo a lot (he has a word he uses even though it doesn't sound like boo), understands the question do you want milk and responds quite enthusiastically , running up and down the room if you ready steady go and still really into posting and grinning at strangers plus loads more. He really is lovely and only clingy when tired or if I go to take DD to the toilet. He understands let's go upstairs so is more happy to follow behind us, just at playgroup he melts a little if I go to take her. His teeth have come a lot closer since his lip tie was cut, but his tongue tie has reattached, waiting for a new appointment to assess it.

Think I have to strictly move him onto one nap as he takes ages going down for his second now. I'm sure once groups all start again that will happen naturally though. Still laying with him although we have had a fair few times of getting him off in his cot just sitting outside, but will wait until we are more into normal routine before persisting with that. Atm we're just still thankful he doesn't need rocking and at night he sleeps between feeds.

Do you speak to M totally in Dutch when at home then Engels?

How are night time sleeps Climbing we had a 4 hour waking at the end of last week from 11-2.45pm - wanted to stab my own eyes out . I ended up doing a you and lying next to P in her cot. She is pretty good at night really now but probably only been for 8 weeks at most, one night she even slept for 12 hours!! Lazy arse. Daytime mid day nap is all a bit random, although always happens when she is at nursery "apparently"

mummy we are looking for a storage type trunk/chest too, I saw a couple of things in an Argos mag yesterday on sale which have potential.

Turned up that activity table we got for the boy baby seemed to go down okay as his Dad posted his first shoes on fb so I guess there was an incentive to stand up since he got the table!

Does anyone elses baby have a HUGE tummy? I mean like HUGE, if P was a grown up she would look pregnant I think. Please tell me somebody elses baby's gut is as big.

Those of you with old children or babies with lots of teeth I was wondering whether their teeth are together. P only has 4 teeth and the bottom 2 are right next to each other but the top two have a gap (not big enough for another tooth). I presumed once all her other teeth came through they would push them together but DH has a bit of a gap in the same place and he is worried. Do I need to take her to the Dentist or is that completely mad?

engels glad you had a lovely time and well done M on the words!!
climbing I sometimes lay on the bed with S for her naps. I love watching her fall asleep
cheshire S has a big gut if she has ate a lot for dinner and is stripped off for a bath! Def looks like a preg belly!! Yay for teeth, S is getting 3, 4 and 5 through just now. Only one top tooth but from what I can see under the gum, there may be a gap between them. In guessing it must push them together when the rest come through.

I only speak to M in English chesh though obviously he hears a lot of Dutch with DH, ILs and nursery. So far, apart from mama and papa, all his words have been Dutch, mostly one offs.

Someone earleir was saying about having a walker or a talker. M babbles away ten to the dozen but it's all nonsense! Definitely a walker (he does not sit still!).

M says boo as well climbing (and loves it when we pretend we're scared!)

And M has a massive belly. Only dropped a bit when he had a sickness bug but now it's back. We went out to eat at a beefeater last week in the UK and he ate so much. When they bought it out I thought he'd have about half of it (kids meal), but he ate the whole bloody plate! His cousins (5 and 8) would struggle to eat that much (they're quite fussy eaters)

Yes I noticed her belly went down after she was so sick, but it's back now!!

She ate almost a whole punnet of blueberries as we walked round asda earlier, kept pointing at them in the trolly and saying 'ooooo' till I gave in and opened then

DD still has quite a pot belly, not noticed on DS but his clothes are baggy.

A average good night is 2 wakings, sometimes clustered together so we get good chunks either side. We've never had better than that but he does sometimes sleep until 7am now.

DS now eats fruit which is a relief actually.

Apparently the canines coming through really help the teeth push together.

chesh W's teeth are exactly the same! Big gap between his two top middle ones but not at the bottom, he also currently has 4 up top and 2 on the bottom (working on a few more bottom one tho) I'm guessing the top ones will get pushed together as more back teeth come through?

speaking of sleep, DD has only slept through twice in the last three months, although until this last bout of illness had got back to once nightly. When she was waking three nightly I was finding it tough.

Thanks, glad others have pot bellied snaggle toothed babies

Sending you longer/more sleep wishes Climbing

Big belly here as well! I think it's meant to get better as they move more?

A wants to co-sleep all the time now, we did it while on holiday and now he wakes up wanting it. Am trying the transition back to his cot which is proving hard, and I regret co-sleeping for purely lazy reasons while away!

What do you guys think about reins/wrist straps?

I was thinking about getting a wrist strap for M so he doesn't have to be in the buggy all the time, e.g. when we're on pavements on a short walk to the shops. DH is totally against. My mum used to use them but then there were 4 of us with 6 years betwen us so maybe she needed them more!