Heather J

Little Miss is probably having a 'Super Heroes' party for her birthday.

She is 100% tomboy - no pink and fluffy stuff in her world!

Can any of you brainy people come up with ideas for party games for a bunch of 4 & 5 year olds? Indoors as it'll be winter.

I've thought of an adaptation of 'pass the parcel' - 'pass the kryptonite' (I'll do each layer green tissue paper)

Also though of 'pin the spider on the web' (Spiderman) and some sort of team game where they have to find hidden bats :)

Any other ideas?

1) Fenella the Kettle Witch,

2) Baron Silas Greenback

3) Nogbad the Bad

4) Zelda

5) The Hooded Claw

6) Skeletor

7) Gargamel

8) Shredder

9) The Scunner Cambell

10) Evil Edna

This is baby number 3 and I'm positive my other two didn't do this so early!

He is only just 7 months old and for around a week has been pulling himself up to stand. People's legs, the coffee table, the sofa, the baby gate --- anything goes!

Today he started the 'sideways shuffle' along the floor while holding onto the sofa. Pretty unsteady admittedly but it's more to do with coordination than strength!

Am I right to say the 'average' age for pulling up to stand is nearer 9/10 months than 7?

I've never had one of these before and neither has hubby so I don't know a lot about them.

My 4 year old daughter has/had a verruca on the ball of her foot.

I've treated it with 'bazooka' for these past 3 weeks and have been filing the dead white skin and reapplying the get nightly. She now has a pinkish area with a couple of tiny red dots in the middle.

How do you know that the verruca is completely gone?

The 'instructions' in the packet just say 'treat until gone'. When is this? I really haven't a clue what I'm looking for!

I've never had one of these before and neither has hubby so I don't know a lot about them.

My 4 year old daughter has/had a verruca on the ball of her foot.

I've treated it with 'bazooka' and she now has white dead skin.

How do you know that the verruca is completely gone?

The 'instructions' in the packet just say 'treat until gone'. When is this?

Genuine answers only please - no more Ben Dovers or Ruth Tyles!

I was at school with:

Peregrine Bacon

Amber Green

Holly Tolly

Veronica Reagan (Nickname was 'Ronnie')

I had my first child in 1997, my second in 2003 and my third 7 months ago.

My sister-in-law (who has never shown any interest in my kids) had twin baby girls a week after I had my third.

Whenever my husband or I speak to his sister she keeps giving us 'advice' on how to bring up our youngest. It goes along the lines of ' I was reading in the Lancet that you should do so and so' or 'did you know that you shouldn't do so and so'.

To begin with we found it mildly amusing but it is beginning to irritate me a little now. She is 10 years older than I am and suddenly thinks she is an expert on babies!

Would you say something? (These lectures can last 20-30 minutes by the way)

Seriously - my kids just refuse to do things 'by the book'.

This question is specifically about 'teeth'.

My daughter refused to grow any teeth until she was 15 months old. We took a family holiday to Canada to meet my online friend and she comes back with 6 teeth! (My daughter, not my Canadian friend) Of course all this 'tooth growing' in a strange foreign country where they use words like 'diaper' and 'pacifier' and 'sippy cup' instead of proper English really complicated matters!

I blame the water for the sudden spurt in gnashes! We didn't see any Mounties else I'd blame them!

My son is 7 months old and his first tooth is just cutting through on the top left. I've sat him down and given him a strong lecture and told him the bottom two are supposed to come through first. I even showed him the illustration in the 'Birth to Five' book they foist on new mothers but he refuses to listen.

Am I cursed with kids with freaky teeth?

Why is it that whenever there is a post about a child acting in a way that is slightly 'unusual' some people will immediately answer 'Have you had them tested for autism?' Likewise, when a child is misbehaving they get the 'ADHD' label!

Children are individuals. Children are:

Shy

Eccentric

Naughty

Quiet

Loud (mine!)

Confident

Bossy

Selfish

Nervous

Serious

Smiley

I could go on and on ... yet whenever someone posts about their child's behaviour there is always the 'Perhaps they have 'x'.

I hope you answer this one Ang! I'm sure you'd have great insight.

Are people too keen to label other people's children these days rather than just accept it is all about personality?

Picture this situation:

There are three siblings. One older sister followed by two brothers.

All three are grown up and have been married for over 16 years.

The older brother has two children age 14 and 11.

The younger brother has three children – one being a baby.

The sister has no children.

For the whole of their lives the sister has shown no interest in her nieces and nephews. She has seen each of them less than 4 times. She saw her younger brother's first born twice: once when he was born and again 6 years later when he was terminally ill.

For birthdays she will send a voucher, usually about a month late. For Christmas she will send money MINUS the money for ‘the gift the children would have spent on their auntie’ (all explained in the Christmas card along with the £2.50 cheque). This would usually arrive mid January.

This year she has not sent anything for the 11 and 14 year old (they had their birthdays in April)

So – she finally has children of her own, twin girls bought earlier this year.

What would YOU do this Christmas?

a) not bother with gifts for the twins?

b) send them £2.50 each?

c) be the bigger person and send something decent?

d) something else?

Over the weekend I washed all the dirty laundry and ironed it.

Today is Tuesday and I have just been into the kitchen. The dirty laundry basket is half full, there is a wash load in the washer and the ironing basket is piled high.

My question:

Does Laundry Breed?

Since starting school at the beginning of September my daughter has turned into a obnoxious and rude brat.

She answers back, won't do as she is told and is rude and unhelpful and ignores everything I say.

I'm fine on dealing with this so I don't need any parenting/disciplining tips but Im wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same thing?

She has always been high spirited but has turned into a monster in a few short weeks!

What's wrong with the stairs!!!

http://www.mailorderexpress.com/cgi/enlarge.asp?fl...

Do you ever get a really irritating tune or song stuck in your head for hours?

No matter what you do, what decent music you play, what you watch on the TV that tune is still there twittering away in your brain!

Right now I cannot shift 'I wish I could fly' by Keith Harris and Orville!

I found this and had to share:

YOU KNOW YOU WERE A CHILD IN THE 1980'S WHEN ...

# You never questioned why the A-Team were always imprisoned in places that had sufficient tools to build an armoured tank.

# Dungeons & Dragons was your favourite cartoon.

# You fell out with friends during heated arguments about the relative merits of Matt & Luke.

# You owned, or wanted a "Frankie says..." T-shirt.

# You have ever danced (or even worse cried) to Kylie & Jason.

# Cerise pink, electric blue and banana yellow have ever featured in your wardrobe or make-up collection.

# You remember when the A-Ha video was the pinnacle of modern technology, and you can still sing all the words.

# Parachuting Action man was your favourite toy.

# Your best party dress was either a ra-ra or puff-ball skirt.

# You ever owned a thin, black leather tie (and were proud of it), or worse it was patterned like a piano.

# You wondered why a popular kids TV programme told you to "Turn off your TV set and go and do some less boring instead".

# You ever said "It's my ball, and if I can't be Kevin Keegan I'm going home!"

# You remember when Keith Chegwin & Maggie Philbin were the hottest romantic couple.

# You wondered why your walkie-talkie didn't have the same range as those in the Red Hand Gang.

# You tried to set up a "Famous Five" or "Secret Seven" gang with your school friends.

# You tried to convince your Dad to fit a strip of red lights on the front of his Capri so it looked like KITT.

# "Ca-vey Wa-vey!" means anything to you.

# You ever had more than 10 sweets in a 10p mix-up.

# Not only did you wear luminous clothing, but they were mismatched fingerless gloves and towelling socks.

# You remember when Betamax was at the cutting edge of technology.

# Conveyor belts regularly carried washing machines, deep-fat fryers and a cuddly toy.

# You could have got away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.

# (Girls) You owned a pair of Pixie Boots, generally worn with leg warmers.

# (Boys) You owned a pair of pale grey slip-ons, generally worn with white towelling socks.

# You rolled the sleeves of your suit jacket up

# Ooh, you could crush a Grape!

# You went to school with Pogo Patterson, Gripper Stebson, and Ro-land.

# Fingermouse.

# You were proud of your picture appearing in the Gallery.

# You remember Look In magazine, and when it was only 20p

# You wondered why you and your mates never encountered diamond thieves whilst out on your BMXs.

# You can remember what spangles tasted like.

# Your best mate had a soda stream at home and you were jealous

Anything to add??????

Some months ago I posted a question about an abandoned cat.

Our neighbours had been evicted from their house and forced to move home with their respective parents and their young cat had been given over to the care of the girl's brother.

'Twinkle' had run away from the brother returned to his old home and was living rough. He became skinny and scruffy looking so I took him in. I contacted the RSPCA, cat's protection etc and eventually tracked down this guy (the brother) and got the background as to why he seemed abandoned and he was very happy for me to keep the cat.

No way could I burden the poor moggie with that name so he is now known as Bugsy.

For the past 4 weeks Bugsy has been disappearing for a 2-3 days at a time. I had not seen him since Monday morning and this evening he waltzed in the door WEARING A RED COLLAR!!!

I'm pretty annoyed by this - his appearance shows he is a well cared for pet and we had him neutered soon after 'officially' owning him. He obviously has a little old lady somewhere but my daughter (age 4) gets pretty distressed when he hasn't been seen for a couple of days.

What would you do?

I was shopping in Asda yesterday with my baby son and 4 year old daughter when I overheard a woman saying to the child she was with 'is Aidan alright?' She was referring to the baby in the shopping trolley to the side of mine but I did a double-take as my own baby is called Aidan.

I smiled at the woman and said, 'Oh my little boy is called Aidan too'. The woman then said to the girl (her granddaughter) 'Oh did you hear that Erin?' Well, my chin nearly hit the floor as my daughter is also Erin!

I told the woman this and she looked really amazed and said, 'You don't have an older boy called Dominic do you?'

I don't - but the coincidences were still a little freaky as neither Erin nor Aidan are particularly 'common' names in the UK!

A moment later the children's mother appeared. The Grandmother turned to her daughter and said, 'You won't believe this Heather but ...'

At this point I expected the theme from the Twilight Zone to start !!!

Has anything like this ever happened to you?

I'm just trying to clarify how different countries define a baby bed as I've seen postings on here about beds and cots and cribs and playpens. Indeed, when I holidayed in Canada with my (then) 15 month old there was some confusion!

I'm in the UK. Here babies can sleep in:

A Moses Basket - a small oval woven bed on a stand.

A Crib - usually wooden, a little bigger then a Moses basket, good for the first 6 months or so. Quite often they have rockers or a swing action.

A Cot - a bed that has four sides to it, one of which can often be 'dropped'. The base can be adjusted so it is higher up when baby is small and lowered once baby can haul itself up.

A Cot Bed - a bigger cot that has removable sides so lasts baby much longer, probably until they are 5 or 6 years old.

A Toddler bed - small bed, low to the ground, often with guard rails.

A Travel Cot - a foldable cot with mesh sides that is used when holidaying/visiting etc.

Playpen - a square or hexagonal cage thing that is at ground level - somewhere to plonk baby and (hope) they will still be there 10 minutes later.

So, how do we differ from the rest of the world?

11 days ago my 4 year old daughter had some sort of sickness bug where she was vomiting and had loss of appetite.

She got over that but ever since had been complaining of 'burning' pains in her stomach.

She has been to the doctor twice and see two different GP's who have ruled out appendicitis, cystitis or bowel problems and her glands are fine.

They think the retching from the initial bug may have strained the valve between her oesophagus and stomach and she is suffering from reflux which will hopefully get better over time. She has been prescribed gaviscon.

Meanwhile she is waking 2-3 times a night crying in pain.

Has anyone else had this in their child?

For how long did it last?

Any tips for helping her aside for persevering with the gaviscon?

11 days ago my 4 year old daughter had some sort of sickness bug where she was vomiting and had loss of appetite.

She got over that but ever since had been complaining of 'burning' pains in her stomach.

She has been to the doctor twice and see two different GP's who have ruled out appendicitis, cystitis or bowel problems and her glands are fine.

They think the retching from the initial bug may have strained the valve between her oesophagus and stomach and she is suffering from reflux which will hopefully get better over time. She has been prescribed gaviscon.

Meanwhile she is waking 2-3 times a night crying in pain.

Has anyone else had this in their child?

For how long did it last?

Any tips for helping her aside for persevering with the gaviscon?