October 05 - First Birthdays

[Yokefleet]

Happy Birthday to Joey!

Thanks Mawbroon. We live in Kent, which is notorious for hiking it's prices, so it'll probably work out prohibitively expensive, but i'll definitely check it out as we can't afford for me to not go back to work either!

I pay £90.00 a week, which includes all food but I'm fussy and always provide Evelyn with lunch, fruit and a snack. Dunno why, as the CM cooks dinner everyday so I dont know why I'm so fussy. I provide nappies and wipes etc, but everything else is included. The CM takes them to toddler group once a week, they've also visited two of the farms near us (no extra cost to us).
We found her on this site well, we found her sister who was fully booked up but she said that her sister didn't have a baby on books at the time so that's how we got to see her!
I'd be lost without her.
She works flexible hrs, Evelyn goes 7:30 til 5:00 but I know she used to do 6:00-6:00 as standard hrs and extra for after that time. She also does evening and weekends babysitting but I've never used it - my mum would kill me if she didn't get to look after her if me and DH went out for a night!!
The nursery we'd looked at was £120 (another was £150) a week, all food and nappies etc included in the price, but it wasn't for me - we'd booked her in at the nursery and I wasn't impressed with something I saw when I dropped off deposit money so I just broke the contract.

HTH - I'm kind of rambling a bit!!

Wow it seems to have gone in a flash this last year. DD was 1 a week ago and I have been back at work since June. She goes to a nursery at £115 per week and loves it. Shoes alao came from Clarks at £26 for her big feet 4.5G and she walks like Frankensteins daughter when she can be bothered.

Only 6 teeth so far which came through in a week about a month ago but it doesn't stop her eating everything and anything. She sits at the table with her brothers 5 and 3 and eats what they leave and more bsides.

Having fun with her but we have had had a lot of seperation anxiety of late usually at bed time

Thanks Elf - fab site! I found 6 childminders in my area, all supposedly with vacancies. I suppose the next step is to give them a call to arrange a meet-up and take it from there? I think i'll be ruling out the one that is a whole pound an hour cheaper than everyone else, as i'm a bit concerned as to why she's so much cheaper! Having discussed it with DP, we want to look at doing it once a week to start with and go from there. My work can't be that unreasonable surely, given that they've agreed this with my colleague that had the premmie baby before Joey was born, and i'm senior to her!?! Thanks for the help, NSNM x

NSNM - my CM is £30 a week cheaper than the "average" CM price around here. She says she gets a lot of flack from other CM in the area for "under-cutting" so doesn't update her details anymore on the gov website.
But, she told me that she has paid her mortgage off, and does minding for the kids rather than money. She has a lot of part time kids which bring her money up (so three part time kids at x an hour rather than one full time kid at a set amount).
We had a couple of bad experiences with nurseries when we went looking, none of the carers seems particularly interested in Evelyn at all. We went to see the CM on the off chance and I was blown away. Lovely home, pictures of kids she'd minded over the past up on the walls (Evelyn currently has two hanging in the living room!), and she instnatly took Evelyn out of the car seat and gave her a cuddle. That sold it for me - well, that and Evelyn didn't scream her head off at being held by a stranger!!
She's the cheapest in my area by far, but she's brilliant. She has kids visit her who she minded 10 years ago etc.

When you go, have a list of questions (I can send some if you like, think there's a lot of set questions in the CM & Going back to work section). You should ask to see Ofstead report as well, I got a copy of mine, and she gives copies out each time it gets updated.

Thanks Elf - that would be most appreciated, as i wouldn't have a clue where to start! My e-mail address is:- janicehirst 'at' yahoo.co.uk (obviously the 'at' needs to be replaced with the correct symbol), and if i get chance tonight, i'll look at the CM threads too. Thanks x

NSNM - I see that Elf has beaten me to it. I was going to say that you shouldn't dismiss the cheapest one purely on the price alone. She may make up for it by detailing all her expenses and charging them on top, or she may have charged these prices for a long time and felt awkward about increasing them, or like Elf's minder, might just be doing it for the love of it. And remember, that nobody is going to be thinking "oh I'm a crap childminder so I'll keep my prices down because of it" when they set their rates. Of course, if you don't like her if/when you meet her then fair enough, but I would encourage you to at least find out!
My mindees spent a large part of the afternoon planning a little party for Johnny's birthday. We baked fairy cakes, which in all the chaos (my sister and BIL were here too) got taken out of the oven too early and are soggy in the middle. I will have to make more tonight and pretend that they are the ones the kids made.

NSNM - I see that Elf has beaten me to it. I was going to say that you shouldn't dismiss the cheapest one purely on the price alone. She may make up for it by detailing all her expenses and charging them on top, or she may have charged these prices for a long time and felt awkward about increasing them, or like Elf's minder, might just be doing it for the love of it. And remember, that nobody is going to be thinking "oh I'm a crap childminder so I'll keep my prices down because of it" when they set their rates. Of course, if you don't like her if/when you meet her then fair enough, but I would encourage you to at least find out!
My mindees spent a large part of the afternoon planning a little party for Johnny's birthday. We baked fairy cakes, which in all the chaos (my sister and BIL were here too) got taken out of the oven too early and are soggy in the middle. I will have to make more tonight and pretend that they are the ones the kids made.

Oh bugger, sorry posted twice.

Am finding all this childminding info very interesting as we may need a childminder for a bit next year. I work 2 days a week and my mum comes to stay with us to look after the children (she lives 100 miles away). But next spring she's planning to go to visit my brother in Australia and will be there for 8 weeks, so we will need to fill the gap somehow. Dh's mum might do some of it but she's never looked after dd1 for more than a couple of hours and hasn't looked after Alice at all. So I'm wondering if we could get a temporary childminder, though I suppose that's unlikely really.

I should be preparing for Alice's birthday tomorrow - cake to make, presents to wrap (we've bought her a wheelybug like this one ). Hope she likes it and doesn't topple too much. She fell halfway down the stairs today because she doesn't want to come down backwards on her tummy any more, she wants to walk. But she can't walk yet, so that's a recipe for disaster. Fortunately the bruise on her forehead can be hidden by her fringe so she should look ok on her birthday photos .

Happy Birthday Alice have a lovely day.

Happy birthday Alice, hope you have a great day!

Thanks for emailing me those bits Elf, most appreciated. I shall start sorting it out next week, and i'll keep you posted.

Joey's pretty much over his cold now, but has got the most horrendous cough Poor thing was awake most of the night, as every time i laid him down, he'd go into a coughing fit so violent he'd be practically choking! I ended up with him sleeping propped up on me, not ideal i know, but at least he (and i!) got some sleep.

And i'm really sad- DP bought me (and Joey) a present yesterday, as he found it on really special offer. It's a Quinny Zapp pushchair and i love it So much easier to maneuvre than my old pushchair, and much easier to lift in and out of my car boot (ergo much better for my shoulder!). I'm sure i have a pram/pushchair addiction - i only have the one child, and including the Zapp, we've now got 4!!! Am i alone in my affliction, or is there a kindred spirit out there?

Happy Birthday to little Alice . Have a magical day!

It's my dad's birthday also today and he is the kindest person I've ever met - I was secretly hoping that my baby would be born today but glad I was spared the extra week of pregnancy in the end!

NSNM - I know what you mean about prams! Lost count of the number of buggies now. Trouble is I don't like getting rid of them. I decided to buy a 3 wheeler only a month ago, my excuse being that I don't have a car and do a lot of walking. There are plenty of pramaholics on Mumsnet - many pop up in the "For Sale" section! Maybe we need a support thread!

Jockey - glad i'm not the only 'pramophile'! Took my Quinny out for a spin earlier (with Joey in it, obviously), and it's so much better. The steerings really light, it glides over bumpy pavements, it maneuvres really well...i really am in love!!

oh, and i don't like getting rid of the others either. Good job we've got a big loft!

I'm still using my M&P but I'd lurve a Loola or a Zapp!!

I've got a Zapp as well . It's supposed to fit into the footwell of a car. If I ever do get a car, I'll be laughing. However, I must ditch the pram habit else I'll never be able to afford one (Dh has the main car during the day).

If you search for "pramaholic" on this site, you'll find a thread going at the moment.
Sorry, useless at links.

Hello and happy birthday to RTL's wee one Scarlett. It's Johnny's birthday today too. We had a mini party yesterday with my mindees (more for them than for Johnny - the making cakes and decorating and making cards filled up two whole days of school holidays!! ) So, after a year of being super overly cautious about allergies, I threw caution to the wind and gave Johnny about 1 square cm of birthday cake. Guess what, 40 mins later we were at the doctors with one allergic baby. My guess is the egg in the cake, but I can't be 100% sure. I was going to dab some egg on his skin in the morning to make sure there was no reaction, but thought that it was complete overkill, turns out that I should have done So, no birthday cake today when the other visitors come. He is fine btw, he got some antihistimine and was ok shortly after taking it.

Sorry to hear about the allergic reaction MB

Happy birthday to Johnny & to RTL's Scarlett!

Sorry to hear about poor Johnny. Do allergies run in your family? I know if it is an egg allergy, you need to be careful about certain vaccinations.

Happy birthday Johnny and Scarlett Hope you have a great day, even eithout the birthday cake for Johnny.

Have a good weekend All, NSNM x

Yes I am afraid that we are quite an allergic family NSNM hence my caution with the weaning. His cousin has since outgrown an egg allergy which was pretty severe. It was so bad that if you fried an egg then used the same oil to fry something else for him to eat then he would be violently sick. I really hope that whatever Johnny has reacted to doesn't end up as severe as that. I am really hoping not to become a regular on the allergy boards. I am looking for positives, and one is that I can tell well meaning folk not to feed him crap in case he is allergic without appearing completely neurotic or control freakish

Sorry to hear about Johnny, Mawbroon. Hope you have a lovely day today anyway!

Many happy returns to RTL's Scarlett, too.

Sorry been in Yorkshire for the weekend so Happy Belated Birthday to Johnny & Scarlett
Sorry to hear about the allergic reaction MB but hope you managed to have a lovely day anyway.
We had a dreadful night in the hotel room with Thomas last night he was wimpering for several hours, that is the only problem with going up to Yorkshire for the family visits as it knocks his routine out (probably not helped by the fact that he has 4 teeth on their way through at the moment, that makes 14!)
Hope you all have a good week xxx

Wow, 14 teeth!! Evelyn's teeth are playing hide and seek - she gets swollen gums, it looks as if a new tooth is going to break the surface, she's poorly and grizzly... then it all goes away and no tooth! She's had these six teeth since she was seven months, and nothing since then!!

Joey's still only got 4 teeth, despite going through the usual teething symptoms for ages again!