I was asked today what I was going to do with the 12 old bottle teats I’d been saving from my son’s milk bottles… I’m not sure any answer would have been satisfactory but the truth is I want to make a weird Halloween costume.

They stayed… for now

I went to what I thought was an Easter event on Sunday at a local sports club, just me and the little one (7mo). I didn’t expect to do any Easter egg hunting, just thought he might like to look around and such.

I stood in a queue for 15 minutes that I thought was to enter the place. Turns out it was for face painting which we weren’t going to do. Had a nice chat with a family which was good though, they didn’t know the queue was for face painting either.

Went to the bar in the end and got a pint of lemonade, looked around and realized all the tables were booked for a private event and practically no one was there for the advertised event. I stood around for 10 minutes looking like a complete mug holding a baby.

Found out someone dressed as a rabbit was coming so thought ok I’ll wait for that as it was happening at 3pm. Waited another 2 minutes which felt like about a billion years, checked my watch and thought f*** it, it’s not worth the wait. Put baby back in the pushchair and high tailed it out.

He was absolutely great, just happy to look around and smiling at anyone who looked at him. He napped like a king when we got home so it was good for that, but it just seemed to lack some sign posting and organization… next year he’ll be older and we might actually do some egg hunting.

Right now he wouldn’t understand the concept of a white rabbit laying chocolate eggs for Jesus, but next year I’m confident he’ll know what a rabbit is so we’ll be one step closer

Thanks! Doing what I can.

We’re doing the shared parental leave thing starting in April which is just going to be so cool to be there up until his 1st birthday and see him develop without the stresses of work.

Being at work at the moment means I tend to miss him at his smileyest and he’s a little more subdued when I get in - and my SO is tired out from the day. It’ll be good to have the mornings with him. Not entirely sure if I’ll be welcome at mother and baby groups, but I’ll see what’s around. If all else fails I suppose there’s always the pub? They’ve got a playground…

That’s really sweet! What a great interest to have!

I’m a new father and my son is only 5 months old.

I know its not a competition and children especially this young aren’t on a strict timeline, but I’m proud of his milestones that he’s hitting and also proud of ourselves as parents for doing what we are with him. I feel like he’s getting a good foundation (though, honestly, I am feeling a lack of motivation and a tad down at the moment for mental reasons and am trying my best to make sure that doesn’t impact him).

So far he’s pretty much hit milestones to the day. He’s started rolling over, smiling, laughing, staying sat up (with a little help) and he’s fast approaching solid foods and rather enjoys eyeing up whatever we’re having. He likes baths and showers, he’s quite happy playing on his own and will smile at anyone.

I have heard from my SO that other parents that she’s met haven’t put as much time into tummy time and so they aren’t quite as able (of course no bad reflection on the parents - we all have busy and tiring lives).

On the other hand, he’s started screeching like a pterodactyl which is only doing my head in a little bit. I have been trying my best to encourage blowing raspberries which are wholly easier to manage albeit with a significant increase in dribble quantity. He’s also been battling bad reflux which has been a bit stressful so it’s not all smiles and screeches, but largely its going well.

It’s so annoying. They’ve stopped even putting the “You can’t sort rubbish right” signs on the bins. Not that our neighbors would give a flying bacon packet.

I did speak to one guy who said something like “Oh, yeah, we should do something about that like hire a skip or something… Some of it is ours though” Yeah, it’s got your name and address on it. It would be awfully terrible if someone were to be fined for fly tipping now wouldn’t it.

I have 2 bins, but only because the council took away the wrong one and have taken nearly 2 months to do anything nothing about it

We are supposed to have a black for general, a blue for plastic/packaging recycling, a black box for card and paper and a teenie baby brown bin for food waste. Our neighbors were fly tipping outside our property and their bins were full to the brim with incorrect waste so we reported it. They said they would remove the offending bins and we should leave ours apart from theres so there is “no confusion”.

There was confusion. I have called them what feels like a billion times.

And now my shed is full of almost 6 weeks of recycling as I can’t get to the tip as my wife gave birth and now I’m back at work.

edit: I’m still pissed off so added more info to vent

I once bent down to pick up a huge pile of laundry and fell asleep on top of it. Woke up a couple of hours later and got into bed for the night.