Lionel Shriver The Mandibles is good. Sort of economic meltdown apocalypse.

Also Margaret Atwood – Oryx and Crake and sequels. Plus the Handmaid’s tale.

The other day my 6 year old shouted down the stairs “Mummmmy…..my sister just licked my poo hole” (she had as well)
His sister is 4.

Revolting creatures.

My 5yo loves the lego city and lego star wars ranges.

He wants the new lego arctic sets for Xmas. They are new to the lego city range.

Also I think the bed time thing is a red herring. OP isn’t moaning about bedtime?
Mine go to bed late (8:30-9), they get up late (7:30 or later). It works for us. We’re too disorganised to get them to bed earlier and we don’t like (or have to) get up really early (i.e. 7:30 will do in the week even though school/nursery runs are a bit of a rush)

Davey that ain’t the answer to everything as we did baby led weaning too, and my eldest is still super fussy.

I was a little stressed out about weaning my daughter as the eldest was so fussy, so one might think my “stress levels” or whatever would rub off on her, guess what, she eats everything. I think, although there’s stuff you can do to mitigate it, it’s just the luck of the draw to a certain extent.

Awww he sounds like my boy. Fussy little bugger.
We go for the “don’t make an issue” approach. He will frequently eat no tea except a bit of fruit. Tough luck!

molgrips, don’t necessarily agree about the vegetables, mine will only eat carrots raw, for example. So I guess it depends on the nature the fussiness takes!

My boy definitely has a sensitive sense of taste! I used to try and sneak, say a pea, in with a mouthful of pasta pesto – he would chew it, I’d think I’d got away with it, then he’d spit out the pea eat the rest and pull a face. Also give him a delicious bit of chocolate and nut cake and he won’t eat it as he can taste the nuts, even though he loves chocolate cake.

We have also tried sending him to school dinners, thinking that over time he would start eating new things through peer pressure. It hasn’t worked, we keep getting lectures from the school about how they are worried about him and we’re not getting value for money as he doesn’t eat. (He is not skinny and eats an enormous breakfast, so I am not worried)

Haha, it’s hardly the equivalent of having your daughter in a bikini aged 5 pictured in the daily fail though is it?

I looked it up to and my son also only needed to be a teeny bit taller or lighter to have been classified “normal”.

My son got one, he’s in reception. He’s apparently “overweight” as his BMI is on 90th percentile. He is very short for his age, but you wouldn’t look at him and say he is fat or even chubby. I threw it in the bin. Funny thing is I was worried a year ago he was a bit chubby but it’s all gone now!
I also saw a piccie of me about the same age, I would definitely have got one too, as I looked quite stocky. I am a normal weight now and have weighed almost the same since age 18.

You don’t get a letter if they are just short!

The funny thing is I googled it, and there was daily mail article with a picture of a normal looking girl who had got one of these letters. Her mum was up in arms, apparently the girl was distraught and refusing to eat. The mum was adamant she was not fat. Well why not throw the letter in the bin, not tell your daughter (the children are not told at school or anything) and NOT CALL THE DAILY MAIL.

Well I’m female and I didn’t get in. Even more grumpy to find out I have been positively discriminated towards and STILL didn’t get a place. Boo hoo.

I think it’s fair enough to want the lights on to do a poo. :-)

(I have to say we had no problems selling said underpinned house either – but when we bought and when we sold both times it was upfront and not found out about at the last minute)

When we bought a house that had been underpinned we got insurance from the mortgage lender who had done the survey and therefore said they were happy to insure (with a 1K excess for any subsidence issues). Just in case you haven’t tried this. (This was Nationwide)

I think you can get away with it if birthday is actually Xmas day/Boxing day/Xmas Eve, if it’s just sometime in December I think it would sound a bit daft.

I was put off having a 1/2 birthday for my son after reading a filler article in a newspaper about overkill parents giving half birthdays for their little darlings in the summer and how pretentious is was. Note to self: take no notice of crap articles in papers.

Friend of mine whose son born the same day does do the half birthday thing, at least for the party.

That’s nice Solar.
my son will be 5 this Xmas day. We have kind of varied it around depending on year so far, e.g. had it on Xmas eve once as cousins and grandparents were around. He doesn’t seem to notice it’s a pain in the arse yet, we have debated doing a half birthday party in the summer, but not sure he will be happy to wait that long!

He’ll only be 3, he probably won’t care/notice that much yet as long as you make a fuss of him? (or maybe my son is particularly dozy)

You do know first babies are usually a week late right?
My first was due on 18th Dec, it made for interesting Xmas day.

There are lots of quite nice paths that are joint use round Cambridge though.
I have to say I do usually think WHY exactly do you come out walking your dog off the lead on a major cyclist commute route at 8:30 in the morning, and then seem surprised when you encounter, shock horror, cyclists.

Also he’s a lovely chap.
There is some serious bike hatred round Cambridge and ime it’s mostly old ladies with dogs. You can’t win. Ring your bell.
Too far away, they don’t hear. “Can’t you get a bell?”
Ring the bell continuously <Abuse for being aggressive>
Too near, <death stare> Are you trying to run me over?
They turn round, see you before you ring your bell, you continue, smile nicely “Haven’t you got a bell?” Oh sorry, I thought you saw me, and have a nice day too.
And their effing dogs are always all over the place too.

I do get where they’re coming from as it’s quite intimidating walking where there are lots of cyclists, some of which cycle like idiots, but some just hate all cyclist.

I love that he was wearing “all the protective gear”. What, like a helmet? If he hadn’t had a helmet he’d have got abuse for that too.

This is awesome, I know this guy, he mountain bikes with us.
Time to take the piss!!

My son is 1m tall, and I was wondering about when to get him on a 16″, he’s on a 14″ isla at the moment, it’s quite a way above the minimum, and looks quite small. Maybe he has long legs for his height or something. Not actually tried him on a 16″ though.

According to islabikes website, smallest advised height for a 16″ is 104cm.

Maybe go to a bike shop and try her on a few.

Arriving late then faffing
Sexist comments (eg you’re quite good … For a girl, you’re a girl, how come you ride a mountain bike?)
Moaning – don’t bloody come out then if you don’t enjoy it (especially my husband)
Moaning you’re going to be slow and then being really fast (especially my husband)
Squeaking bikes (especially my husband)
Pushing in front before a downhill when you’re a mincer
Being overly competitive, taking it too seriously

In addition to being flat and not very exciting, it’s also very muddy and minging at the moment. May be a bit better by the weekend if it doesn’t rain.

I would second Thetford or Woburn if you have time to travel a bit.

You could try posting on the cammtb forum – more likely to get a response than on here I reckon.

i live in Cambridge but am not around this weekend!

Mafia is brilliant with about that many people.

I also second the cereal box game and the after eight game.

I’ve got 2 Airport express’s and an Apple Tv to run sounds in every room, can you use the Raspberry just like an Airport i.e. will it show as an airplay in Itunes.

This is what we use ours for as our airport express packed up. Works really well

Um, I think it’s somewhere in between. It’s not just fabric but it’s not made of hard plastic (like I think the burley ones are). It’s about 10 years old and still going strong!

I will check for you.

Re them being too narrow, we worried about that, but actually the double fits through most things (just) on cycle paths. The doubles are actually not that much wider than the singles. I ride on a lot of cycle routes where there a lot of these gates, and it fits through almost all of them (I know one it doesn’t)

We have a chariot, bought 2nd hand. However, know a few people with the croozers, and they are all very happy with them. They look great, and also they have loads of storage space, which looks handy (much more than our chariot)

Oh and yeah my eldest is constantly whinging that “We don’t get to go skiing very often, when can I go skiing”? Makes him sound a right spoilt brat!

We went with esprit with 3 year old and 1 year old last year. Accommodation and food a bit below par, childcare excellent (which is the way round we would prefer it!) and the whole thing was very relaxing. you have to pay for the under 3s to be in full time childcare or nothing though, but we just bit the bullet, did that and then accepted that we would take them out and do stuff with them and that we had paid for childcare that we weren’t using.

It was, most definitely, a way to ship them out and get a holiday if you wanted it to be. And I don’t feel guilty about it – we did take our eldest skiing when he was just 1 and did it ourselves. This time we paid a nanny for a day, used friends to go out for a bit and otherwise swapped over. It was NOT relaxing and I hated it (I was early pregnant and knackered though so may be biased) The ship it out to childcare holiday with Esprit actually felt like a holiday and the chalet hotel had kids everywhere and so you weren’t so worried about them causing chaos, etc (as it was kind of chaos), there were toys around for them, etc. I would recommend it when they are little as it makes it easy. (Or the alternative of not bringing them and leaving with grandparent, maybe for a long weekend, bringing a grandparent, or just going on your own)

I am the same as you, bores me loads doing kids playing. Husband is amazing at it though!

Just focus on what you like doing – e.g. I do mostly like going out with them, but I also like cooking.

Husband doesn’t like playing people and dollies though, nor do I, do if there is an extended game of people and houses to be played she has to do it on her own <evil>. Youngest (2) has an older brother, so there is lots of playing trains, lego, dinosaurs, cars round here. Daughter seems to like it (though she is also into dolls and people type role plays more than brother). Could you get more boy toys? Maybe you’d like that more?

Or just have another kid. Ours entertain each other, it’s awesome!

I want that batcave.

Yep, we call it “feral mode” though.

Oh I thought you were going to say she did it so she could buy you things as a surprise. She is clearly evil instead!

Midsummer house is amazing but so expensive. We spent over 200 quid for two and I was pregnant so drank only one tiny glass of wine. Also I can’t recommend snails with a pipette of sauce to inject into your mouth when 10 weeks pregnant – made me feel a bit pukey to be honest…

Browns is good but it is a chain I think which op says they don’t want.

Also I agree with mr greedy (appropriate name) I feel hungry now.

The restaurant in Hotel Felix (near girton) is also really nice. I put my other recommendations on the other thread!

Alimentum as well. It has a Michelin star now though so probably booked out! Also restaurant 22 (but probably also booked out)

Oh sorry it’s not ON mill road it’s near mill road. Efes (Turkish) is quite nice too and a bit more central

Backstreet bistro on mill road is nice.
I am another big fan of the hole in the wall wilbraham…easy cycling distance from me, love it.

I am coming on the 15th and I will be riding my FS (on account of a) my HT is old and only has 80mm of travel, b) I think I will find it challenging enough as it is). That’s ok, you can call me a mincer if you like :-)

I am looking forward to it!

power nap! amazing what 10 mins sleep can do.

Oh also, http://www.pleisure.co.uk/%5B/url%5D – been with these guys. It was about 6 years ago now but they were really good (and pretty cheap)

Sent my husband to this chalet for a long weekend last year, he really enjoyed it.

I found them through solutions room on chalet direct, here – you ask for what you want and chalets with availability let you know. Worked well for me!

My son was smaller than recommended height when he got his at 2, he’s a proper shortie. It took him a few months to get the hang of it, partly down to the height issue, but partly that he wasn’t really any good! Though I can’t remember his inside leg measurement but I think they have an overall height measurement and he was significantly under it? So if she’s almost there it will probably be ok. He was also under height for the Cnoc he has now but could ride that straight away.

Personally I would just get it, but I think the Puky ones might come up a bit smaller?