October 08 - New Year, New Thread.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

10th Sept (Due 1st Oct) - loulou33 - Boy - Joe Louis David - 6lbs 12oz
16th Sept (Due 8th Oct) - Ksal - Girl - Emma Rae - 6lbs
21st Sept (Due 5th Oct) - myjobismum - Girl - Naomi Caitlin - 5lbs 10oz
2nd Oct (Due 12th Oct) - star6 - Boy - Quinlan - 5lbs 15oz
4th Oct (Due 30th Sept) - Aubergenie - Boy - Stanley - 7lbs 12oz
8th Oct (Due 6th Oct) - ronshar - Boy - William Dexter - 7lbs 11oz
9th Oct (Due 17th) - 50ft - Girl - Martha - 7lbs 10oz - Elective c-sec
10th Oct (Due 1st Oct) - CantSleepWontSleep - Boy - Duncan Elliot - 8lbs 4oz
12th Oct (Due 4th Oct) - pistachio - Boy - Thomas Fraser - 10lbs 2oz
16th Oct (Due 11th Oct) - heather1980 - Boy - Alexander James - 9lbs 5oz
17th Oct (Due 10th Oct) - pepperrabbit - Girl - Jessica Rose - 7lbs 15.5oz
24th Oct (Due 29th Oct) - Ekka - Boy - Matthew - 7lbs 15oz
26th Oct (Due 20th Oct) - jenwa - Girl - Phoebe Jasmine - 9lbs 2.5oz
28th Oct (Due 23rd Oct) - RachieW - Boy - Jack - 7lbs 4oz
31st Oct (Due 20th Oct) - KnickersOnMaHead - Boy - Samuel Paul - 9lbs 11oz
5th Nov (Due 29th Oct) - Honeymoonmummy - Girl - Poppy Grace - 6lbs 15oz
5th Nov (Due 30th Oct) - MamaG - Boy - Harry James - 10lbs 9oz

I think that having an older sibling prob helps rachie, as they want to be like them and copy (although dd prob uses her fingers more than ds ).

Yay pistachio for the cake! mmmmmm

Rachie Q doesn't use cutlery. But he likes to carry it around and play with it . He'll stir with a spoon and he'll play with them, but very little interest in putting them in his mouth. I think he's put a spoon in his mouth a few times total and all of those times, the spoon got turned upside down just before entering his mouth! I don't know how to teach him to hold it steady. I figure it will just come with time, right? I'm (surprisingly) not fussed about him learning this.

I agree with you re cows milk 50ft and pistachio. But I like cheese. I just don't think we need milk as a drink. I let Q have it now (because I agree with Ekka that oatly was getting too expensive!). But he doesn't have loads.

CSWS - I think your dd sounds a bit like mine. She will hoover up meals which are finger foods, but fusses and faffs over anything where she has to use a fork. Actuall ds is better than she is at using cutlery - he can scoop stuff up better and holds his fork flat so as not to lose anything on the way to his mouth. Dd still has a tendency to tip her fork and lose the food back on the plate/her lap etc....

Please, please will someone give me a link this cake book that uses veg - it sounds great!

Star J is exactly the same as Q with the cutlery. I don't understand how in play he can get the spoon in his mouth properly but when he eats it goes upside down. I'm glad you say you aren't too fussed as I'm not either really but then always worry that I should be. In the blw book it does say using cutlery is like learning to eat again and to expect lots of playing around and then one day it will come.

We've just been to buy J his first proper shoes. His Aunty brought him some really soft pre-walking Kickers before Christmas but as he is so confident now we thought he'd better get some actual walking shoes. We ended up with a Ricosta pair of navy lace ups. He was very pleased to have his foot measured, he's such an attention seeker. I however was less pleased with the price...£36 I had no idea they would be so expensive, or maybe we just picked an expensive brand/shop? I will have to be more savvy with the next pair, I said to dh that's more than I spend on most of my shoes! They are lovely though and it is his first pair

I'd expect £25-£30 for shoes rachie (based on clarks/startrite), and £35-£40 for boots. I'm not familiar with Ricosta, but sounds like they are an expensive brand. Ah well, at least they should last him a couple of months .

Rachie - I nearly fell over in Clarks when I had to buy S's first shoes at £30. He's already on his second pair. I was hoping to get his next pair in the sales but when I got his feet measured a couple of weeks ago he was still the same size, and I didn't want to guess.

He doesn't really show that much interest in cutlery either. He puts a spoon in his mouth upside down too. I'm assuming it'll come eventually.

I'm tired. Went out for Mexican food with a friend last night, which was lovely, but got home really late and S proceeded to be very restless. I can't wait till bed time.

Little gap canvas shoes were winners for us. I've had my dad looking for the next 3 sizes in the babygap/gap kids in america. They are wide enough for Q yet narrow feet can wear them as well. Really cute little shoes, too. I love them. And cheap! I refuse (and just really can't afford) to spend 30pounds+ on shoes he'll outgrow so quickly when I can get perfectly good shoes at a better price. I got his wellies from tesco. For just 5 pounds.

I met a lovely lovely cm yesterday. I want her to look after Q in september but it depends if she has availability then. I hope so! She's just starting out with it and has no kids of her own. Her home was immaculately clean and she had loads of toys, a craft area, a sand and water play area in an outside play spot under a roof but still outside iyswim. And a nice garden with a trampoline for littles and a bigger one, too. She is the nicest, most lovely person. She was fabulous with Q especially for just meeting him one time. I like her philosophy on discipline...etc. I'm trying to bribe her to save me a space for sept.
I would start him there now but I have from mid June - September off and it would be silly to pay her for all that time in between (and unaffordable) and as she's jsut starting out, can't do without the money those months - next year is ok for that, though.

I had 13 pounds of amazon.co.uk credit and have just ordered that cake book. I'm so excited!
Getting ahead of myself here but when you grate the vegetables, do you have to take the peel off or does the peel get baked in with it? And do you have to pre-cook the veg? So excited!

Aubergenie I'm glad I'm not the only one in a state of shock and CSWS I'm not naive about the rate children's feet grow as I've heard from friends that I'll be buying shoes frequently to start with. The woman in the shop told us that we'd get three months wear out of them and Dh looked quite relieved, I haven't had the heart to tell him that may not be the case! I did want to get a Startrite pair but they had hardly any choice in this particular shop and the ones they did have were more clumpy than the ones we got. We've just been to MIL's to drop off J as we have a night out with friends She's brought him the cutest pair of uggs from Asda so I've left him trotting round in those in just a body suit and his top [hmmm] I guess we'll live and learn with the shoes and maybe it will be £5 uggs from now on

Oh forgot to say great news about the CM Star, is it possible you could arrange to pay her an affordable retainer? I know that is common place for CM's in our area but I don't know what they charge.

Did aubergenie post one a while ago? Who was that who posted one of the recipes? Anyone who isn't as lazy as I am know where it might be? Not sure I can wait for the book! Patience patience...

Ohh Rachie - I didn't know about the retainer fee... I'm not sure she'd do it this far in advance, though - it's 7 months from now that I'll need a full time place .

Hello all. Just flying by as we have relatives round tonight. Went to the MCNN drop in today and the chairperson of the local NCT branch was there........ She approved funding for me to do the breast-feeding councillor course there and then! Yay!!!!! They are desperate for a BFC as there hasn't been one locally for years.

Oh great news 50ft!

Star - the recipes tell you whether to peel the veg or not. Usually you peel the courgettes (which always go in raw, as does every veg in every recipe that I've tried so far). In fact I've just checked pistachio's cake, and she was supposed to peel them too .

That cm set up sounds nice star. What experience does she have?

csws she has 16+ years experience as a nanny with 5 families and all from birth (can't imagine having a nanny from birth). She has loads of child development coursework in working with 0-5s and a diploma in early childhood education. She is a very calm yet fun person. Her references are glowing. I know references are usually glowing, but compared to the others I've checked, hers went on and on about how much they and their children love her and the first family now many years on still see her often and kids adore her. She looks to be mid to late 40s or so (?? just a guess!!!! I'm awful with age). She was on her knees playing with Q in her playroom and bouncing all around. She is quite active/phsyically in good shape and showed me samples of menus she'd serve children (VERY good! though, I'd send my own food for Q b/c I'm a bit well, a lot pfb with him and food).
And she'd let me pop over from school midday or whenever I had a little break and see him (one cm said no to this ). She's even closer to school than my friend now. I really really like her. And Q took to her really well. He's not great with strangers lately.

She sounds great star. We have 7 months to work on you to let him eat what she serves . As he gets older, he won't want to be singled out and have something different from everyone else.

oh true csws! I didn't even think about him being singled out - duh, and I'm a teacher!!

I grew up having my mom pack lunches with her home made brown bread (which I'd die for now) but everyone else have white, wonderbread and it looked so much better! AND they wrapped our stuff in aluminum foil so we wouldn't use as many plastic bags! I'm appreciative now of course, but at the time I just wanted to be like everyone else!
oh, and a home made dessert (that of course was always delicious) but everyone else had little debbie snack packs!! I remember being so embarrassed about my lunch.

I thought the same re the peel, pistachio but yeah, potato peels would definitely not be so nice in a cake

Pistachio - when do you come near london? Will you have a few spare hours??

I didn't take the menu away with me unfortunately. It was all great stuff, though. I'd have no problem with him having any of it. I just have a thing about packing what he eats myself and knowing exactly what has gone into his body. I need to get over it. I'm working on it.

star, you are funny! Just to make you go when I got back from work yesterday, just before 7pm, Dh and the Dcs were all winding up to bathtime - I said to DS1 "so what did Daddy cook you for tea?". DS1 looks blank.... DH claps his hand to his face and looks .
He'd forgotten to feed him.
i laughed TBH. DS1s been poorly and had been off school - so he'd normally have been fed by CM. But even so!
At least he'd had lunch . (we did give him some cheese on toast in case you think that all i did was laugh!) but it was bedtime by then.....