Well, I think I have finally hit a point where I'm afraid Minti and I will (almost) part ways. When the site starte, I must confess to having been addicted. My boy was only a few months old and I had spare time a couple of days a week whilst my daughter was at nursery to see what was going on. Now, I have a lovely, calm 3 1/2 yr old and an almost 2 yr old who thinks nothing of climbing anything and falling off most things (caught him at the top of a 6ft high gate the other day, thinking he was safe in the garden as he couldn't reach the latch...!)

I am currently trying to learn two new computer systems, a new piece of legislation and brush up on my First Aid to teach these four courses, all starting in October. I have also just started my second year in a degree course in education. Added to that, I am planning to try and get out responding for First Aid emergencies one evening a week. I'm not sure where my free time is right now. I have hit the stage where I am buying course books in audible format to catch up on research whilst driving. Not ideal.

So, what I wanted to say is that I am this evening going to amend my preferences so that I don't get daily updates. I am then going to resign from many of the groups I am a member of. I say this not to get any messages to convince me otherwise, but purely so that friends I have met here and value know why I am not around.

I think that Minti is a valuable and helpful resource and I still recommend it to parents I know. I wish everyone here the continues benefit of the combined wisdom and experience of all the members. I know that I will stay a member so that I have a reference point for my next fix (and let's face it, with parenting there are many!) but without the emails I probably won't be logging on so often.

So, good luck everyone and hope that you and your family stay well. I will try and drop people a line but apologise if I don't manage it - next assignment due very soon!

Anyway, first call came in when I was just in the process of putting Nyle to bed. Had to dump the poor boy in the cot, grab the phone and then take details of the call whilst kissing him goodnight and turning the nightlight and music on. First job was a ruptured peptic ulcer and we were beaten by the ambulance, so stood down. Next job (about an hour later) was an 87yr old woman who had just come home from hospital that day and fallen at home. Paramedic arrived on his own and we stayed to help (I respond with someone else - we both charge out from our homes when we get a call). Anyway, the paramedic ran tests and she clearly had a chest infection, but had had her absolute fill of hospitals and refused any further help. Haven't met such a stubborn so and so for a long time. Hope she and her equally old and fragile husband are coping well.

Got home about 1015pm and settled on the bed with a cup of tea to watch some tv. Nick popped downstairs for some reason and called up to say that my mobile was ringing. Despite the fact that we had booked off ages ago, the ambulance control had phoned to say that there was a 1-month old, not breathing, about 8 miles away - could we go? The nearest ambulance was some time away, so of course I grabbed my shoes and hurtled out. My buddy had told me the road name but said he couldn't find it on the map. I had left the map book in the car, so looked it up in the index, found the page, but no road. Ran back in to grab the laptop and look up multimap. Found address (time ticking by...) and ran back out. Drove off, decided red lights might just have to apply to other people and phoned my buddy en route. He had now found out where the road was and had the address "flats 1 - 5". Flats 1-5? WHERE?

Fortunately, ambualnce (with their "blues and twos") had got there first and were whisking the little girl off to hospital. Cause? No idea. Outcome? No idea, but boy do I hope it was a good one. Hopefully we will get updated at some time. Incidentally, the map book had the index out by about two pages, so that's worrying.

Calls like that (which we shouldn't have been sent to as we are only there for adults, not kids) make me realise the massive need for the scheme. Imagine, an ambulance must have taken at least 10 minutes to get to that call. Please, whatever you do as a parent, make sure that you are confident in your resuscitation skills. Get on a course. Do something so that if you are ever, God forbid, in such a terrible situation, you have some idea about what to do. I am not purely altruistic. The scheme is teaching me more and more first aid so that I can look after my family and friends, alongside helping others. I read a statistic:

"70% of people who are carrying out resuscitation techniques are doing so on family and friends."

This isn't to scare you. This is to make you think and hopefully act. I hope you never have to use the skills you learn, but equally hope you never have to wish you had learnt those skills but decided to use your time and money on something else...

Life is ticking along a pace for me. I went back to work three weeks ago and am still trying to find my feet. It is really strange returning after maternity leave as someone else has been doing my job (and she covered for me last maternity leave too) and my return means she is out of a job. I don't feel too bad about that in that if I hadn't gone off, she wouldn't have had the job at all, but it is a shame she has to leave. Feeling sorry for myself, it is also weird feeling like everyone is more sad to see her go than they are pleased that I am back. I wonder if she did a better job than me, and whether everyone would have preferred her to stay. Perhaps this is just paranoia on the part of someone feeling a little lost after more than a year off!

I am out two nights a week as I have kept up with Pilates and also am doing a 10 week First Aid course so that I can be a "First Responder" - a volunteer who does time on-call for emergency medical situations that an ambulance can't get to straight away. I don't know how much time on-call I will manage as my other half is also regularly on-call for work, but I guess anything is better than nothing. So, in my remaining evenings, I try to fit in the chores and helping with the decorating which is going ainfully slowly! Never mind, we are getting there.

I just wanted to say "Hi!" to my Minti friends - Izzy, EF, AllyP, Tink and all the others who are kind enough to pop in to my Minti lounge to post nice messages. I do think about you all but only seem to pop in for the very odd five minutes when something I have seen in the daily email has really got my curiosity going! I apologise for not writing back to people, keeping up with friends or joining groups - I sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed so just log out again and go and do some tidying! I hope everything is going well with you all, esp. Izzy and your mammoth pregnancy - good luck with the twins. Wow!

Chele - hope you are also well and will catch up with you soon, too, I hope.

Well. Hope you are all having a great time and life is being easy on you. Nyle and Leala are doing really well at nursery and have settled brilliantly, which is such a relief. Nyle is walking and climbing like a mad thing (comment from nursery - "I have never seen a child climb on and fall off so many toys") and Leala is just getting smarter by the day (biased - me??). Love em! My Mum and Dad are on their mega, 10-week trip round Australia (look out for them in the Sydney area!) and so no babysitters until they get back in April, so maybe I will find the time to be on here after all.

Keep well and speak soon. Love Helen

This evening, just before his bedtime, Nyle was playing in our bedroom and went over to a bookcase. He started pulling a book off the shelf, something he doesn't do, and managed to get one out and throw it on the floor. I then noticed it was "Everything You Need to Know...About Baby's First Year." Do you think he knows more than he is letting on? Spooky!

Life is still madly manic around here. Got home from holiday only for Leala to be diagnosed with chicken pox (I had a sneaky susicion, but on the day we were coming home, I took her in to a chemist who said it was the sun, so we clung on to that). I think a fair few people who were on the plane might be a bit miffed with me. Whoops.

Leala did cruise through CP with no major problems. Apart from the spots and a couple of nights when she woke up for a bath (which was a bit of a problem as we didn't have heating or hot water, so I had to carry her down the road to mym parent's house at midnight...), you wouldn't have known she was ill.

So, the next week and a half after she got over it, we were stuck pretty much indoors waiting for Nyle to go down with it. We were lucky enough to have a couple of friends who were happy to visit, but apart from that we have been getting pretty bored. Nyle finally got spots on Tuesday (16 days after he would have been infected) and has been a bit of a grouch, but not too bad, ever since. In fact, I have had two brilliant night's sleep out of the last three - 8 1/2 hours last night, unbroken! First time in about a year and a half!

This evening, though, when I undressed him for his bath, I noticed one of the spots on his tummy, which has been covered up all day, was really nasty looking. It was large (bigger than a 50p coin, if that means anything to non-UKers) and looked wrong. I phoned the local health service and was advised to get him to see a doctor. So, just before 8pm I had to load both kids into the car for our appointment, because Nick had gone out for the evening before this blew up. Parked in the hospital car park, only to realise later that I had no money to get the car out later. The Dr was very helpful and eventually prescribed a topical antibiotic so that I don't need to dose him up. Fortunately, I am lucky enough to have a friend who lives directly opposite the exit to the car park, so she gave me the cash to get out, and I finally got the kids to bed at 9pm. Phew.

So, the kitchen people come to start fitting the kitchen on Monday (yippppeeee!) and hopefully in a couple of weeks the house might be close to resembling normality. Nyle's birthday is next Thursday so we will have to try and arrange a family get together at my Mother-in-law's (well, she would be MIL if I was married...) because there is no way we could invite people here, but at least he should be mostly spot free by then, poor lad.

So, the kids are doing ok, the house is nearly finished, and I will soon be able to have more than just our bedroom to camp out and eat in. Can't wait! Have also been eBaying like mad to get rid of some of the stuff I have been storing, so have made some cash there, too. All coming together quite well, but where do the days go?

Hope everyone else is doing well and I promise to catch up properly, but probably not until January. See you then!

The building work is progressing and finally looking close to finishing, thank goodness. We haven't had the use of our living room for about a fortnight, and I am so looking forward to sitting on a comfortable chair again (although I will need to get all the dust off it first - the builders were a bit casual when it came to covering things up...).

Nyle and Leala are doing great. Nyle has his first word (clap, which sounds more like cla.) and is so, so close to walking. He has been having great fun pushing his sister up and down the kitchen with her standing in the tray of the baby walker. He is going to cause me so much grief as he gets older. Just the other day he managed to fall on his head twice before even 9am. He is non-stop active but without the brains to go with it, bless him! He is great going up stairs but then tries to crawl down head first. Oh dear.

Leala has now bitten the bullet as far as potty training is going. Wednesday morning when Nick was trying to get her dressed, she kicked him away saying "No pull ups! Pants!". And that was it. She has been ready for months, but I have been putting it off until Nyle was older. Well, it is now Monday evening and apart from a tiny accident Wednesday, another Friday, that has been it. She isn't keen on the idea of a poo in a potty, so that will be a challenge (she knows what to do just doesn't want to do it), but she is either waiting for bed time when she does get a nappy or asks for a pull up in advance. I am so proud of her. Today I kept asking her if she needed a pee and she would sit on the potty if I made her but do nothing. When she was ready, she asked for the potty and performed. What a girl!

Off on holiday to Tenerife for a fortnight next Tuesday (Halloween) and between now and then we need to rip out the rest of the kitchen, strip the tiles off the walls and pack. Easy! When we get back, the builders should have finished all the plastering and everything (Dad is keeping an eye on them) and then the kitchen fitters start 4/12, probably for less than two weeks. So, will need to eat down at Mum and Dad's but will probably still all sleep here. Should be interesting...

So, busy bisy for another month or so, and then the run up to Christmas, then back to work 15/1. I hate to think, but I bet time will really fly.

I apologise to all that I owe emails to. I hate to accept a friend request and not reply, so I am sorry that I haven't done that for my latest friends. Hopefully I will catch up in my lunch breaks next year!

Best wishes to everyone.

That's about it! Building work is carrying on a pace and there are dust sheets, which seem largely ineffective, all over the place. If only the builders were kind enough to shake them outside after a day's work, the dust might stay outside. Ho hum. At least I have my Roomba Minti to save me - life would have been hellish without him!

Nick has just dropped a glass on the kitchen floor and it has smashed sending shards all over the place. It is nice to be able to set Minti on the task in a minute! We have swept the floor and Minti should do a good job to be on the safe side. I love my Roomba!

As an aside, the building work is carrying on a pace here, although aparently they are a week behind schedule (not that I'd noticed...) We think that we have found the kitchen we want and I am planning another trip to the showroom on Thursday to haggle some prices over appliances that I have found cheaper online.

Looks like we will need the carpets cleaning after all this, though. And not because of the builders. Nyle was very quiet last night while I was dressing Leala in her pyjamas, and I crept back in to the room to see what he was up to. He had found the pot of nappy rash cream and had both hands well and truly covered, along with himself, our bed, the carpet, Leala's shoes and my book. I was torn between grabbing the wipes and grabbing my camera. If only the camera had been upstairs it would have won. As it was, I found that wipes do a great job of getting rid of the cream from everything exceot the carpet. Bless him, he was so happy smearing white stuff all over himself and then mean mummy came and ruined the game. Never did like that carpet anyway...

The building work continues to go well. I am amazed to have won the lottery as far as builders go. Very respectful, few requests for tea and coffee, refusals of biscuits (eh? You're a builder!) and apologies when they need to come in the house.  The other interesting thing about having assorted strangers wandering round the house is the odd chats you get in to. We have two 18 year old labourers working here, along with their happy, happy (only happy if miserable) brick layer boss type. One labourer had just dumped his 32 year old girlfriend with three children on the saturday only to find out on Sunday that she was pregnant (ouch). He is now back with her and planning the birth of his first child... The second young lad has just announced that he is going to spend £22,000 on a brand new car. What? I worked out that in 16 years of owning cars (four of them, two of which we still have) I have yet to spend that much in total. He tells me that a replacement tyre will cost £140, finance will be £350 a month for five years and he will have to get it serviced every 6 months for £580. Is it that certain people will always be stretched for cash? We had already had a chat about never buying brand new because of the depreciation and I thought he was listening, but maybe not. Oh well. His money. I just couldn't bring myself to buy a brand new car, knowing that within seconds of driving it out the showroom it will be worth about £2,000 less than I just paid for it. Maybe I'm just tight!

Anyway, my back is feeling strange and I have to sort out the cot I am giving said builder, and find the instructions for the car seat that I also passing on before I can go off to bed. Nick is out tonight with friends, despite having been away for two days to a meeting, and going out again tomorrow night. Alright for some. Still, can't complain as he is pretty good really.

Hope everyone is well.

Minti has cleaned the kitchen (twice) the living room, bedrooms, bathroom and landing. The carpets haven't looked this good. They were ok when we moved in but now look brilliant! Nick is even having to agree that he is impressed (he was very sceptical) and when I told him it would roam around then go home to charge itself the look on his face was priceless. "No! Really?"

So, I would have to say that it is well worth the money (especially when I didn't pay...). I wish I had one years ago. I am now imspired to tidy the house. You do need to pick up the junk so that it can clean well, so I am actually trying to pick up and tidy away instead of pick up and move to another room. That's why I haven't been here - I've been cleaning (and pulling down wardrobes so our new wall can be built).

Hope everyone is having fun. Happy Monday!

After phoning Dad (the man who knows all things usefull) looked online and found a "step down adapter" which will convert the UK power (240V) to US power (120 v). Why on earth do we not both work on the same power system? Now just have to wait for it to be delivered (hopefully Monday).

Fortunately, it did just have enough power to run around the kitchen for a few minutes, much to everyone's amusement - Leala was laughing like mad as it bumped in to her leg, although the cat was less pleased.... Must say that for a small thing, it did seem to do a good job. Now just have to get my adapter, charge the thing for 16 hours and then we will be raring to go! Luckily I hadn't expected it to arrive for ages yet, so I might just be able to cope until then! Thanks again to Minti - don't think I will be able to say that enough, and you would believe me if you had ever visited my house and seen the state of my floors! Not sure what I will call my new 'bot, but maybe Minti is a good name...

Have my pilates class tomorrow night, so that should be interesting. Especially as Leala is still rubbish at going to bed. I think Chele is right and she is unsettled because of having moved room and the builders in the garden most of the time. Took her to nursery yesterday and after I had put her down, she ran back to be picked up and burst in to tears. She has been going there almost 18 months now and this is only the second time she has cried EVER, (even when she fell over and cut her lip and bashed her nose - no tears). Not like her and I then realised what other mum's feel like when they have to just leave their little one bawling. Of course she was fine within a few minutes. I think it is to do with the poor sleeping and snotty cold she and her brother have. I still can't work out how one small baby can produce the best part of their own body weight in yuck every day...

Sent off for information about being a voluntary Emergency Responder a week or so ago and got a call last night. I was expecting them to say that they don't have any in my area, as it is fairly residential, but it seems that they have just strated up. I will most likely get a course in January (2 hrs, one evening a week) and will then be let loose on the public with my First Aid kit, responding to emergencies that the ambulance will take too long to go to. Should be interesting. Trained First Aid and used the Defibrillator until I went on maternity leave, so it will be good to see if I can put it in to practice in some emergency type situations. Still not sure how it will work, but will find out more soon.

Anyway, despite suggestions to the contrary, I was rubbish at writing letters as a kid. Unfortunately I do tend to get carried away writing on here!

Leala and Nyle were delightful today. Leala is chatting more and more, expanding her vocab and getting better at being understood without me translating. Nyle is easy going and a sweetie. So lucky.

Well,  Nick took the little ones off for a trip to a garden centre yesterday afternoon - always good places when it's raining because they have "animals!" (pet shop). So, I had two hours and actually managed to clean the kitchen and even the floor! It was nice to turn the stereo up and get on with it without having to have half of my brain wondering what Leala is up to or whether Nyle is still asleep.

This morning left Nick to have a quiet morning at home whilst I took the kids to visit a friend. Always nice to visit friends, especially ones who don't mind that all their toys get turned out on the floor (not always by my two, though), are happy to provide lunch for all and don't mind if my baby sleeps in their little one's cot. Oh, and if there is a potty training / drink / biscuit accident, it's no great drama. Far more relaxing than visiting relatives who are years and years away from small children and have reintroduced ornaments...

Went down to Mum and Dad's house this afternoon for a quick visit and Leala announced that she wanted to have dinner there. Fine by me! Mum happily cooked for her and entertained her whilst doing so, and I think Leala had a lovely time relaxing without Nyle crawling all over her (her latest favourite phrase is "Baby - out way!"). She was absolutely shattered when I picked her up to bring her back for a bath, but she still took an age to settle, finally falling asleep around 8.30pm. Hope it goes better tomorrow because we are off to Ikea in the evening and Mum is babysitting. Our nearest Ikea is about 50 miles away, in London, and the drive takes about 1 1/2 hours, so we only venture there about once a year. Off to check out their kitchens and will probably get side-tracked by the kids stuff...

Picked up a cheap, second-hand doll's house for Leala the other day, but without dolls or furniture, but posted a "Want" on freecycle and a lovely lady has offered us lots of stuff for it, once she has had a sort out. So pleased. Leala won't care if it matches or is new, as long as there are dolls and things. Hopefully will be able to get that in the next few days.

Am looking to start Pilates on Thursday. Had planned to go to a beginners class on Weds but it starts at 7pm and the chances of me getting Nyle to bed in time are slim to none. Fortunately, after turning the class down, they mentioned that there was an 8pm class on Thursday, so that should be good. Never done it before but deperately in need of doing something fitness-wise and on my own. Will let you know how it goes!

ENough for now. Serves me right (sorry everyone) for not keeping up to date!

1. What's your child's favourite book? "Jump In!" by Ian Whybrow. It is a brilliant rhyming story about Miss Lollipop and here truck. She is lonely one day and goes for a drive, and all sorts of animals jump in for the ride. Fantastic. 2. What's your favourite children's book? I fondly remember "The Faraway Tree" and "The Wishing Chair" series by End Blyton. Can't remember much more than the idea of the stories, but I must have read them at a time when they really slotted in with my imagination.  

3. What's your child's favourite thing to eat? For Leala, I think sausages are high up on the list, along with ice cream. Just last weekend she tried to drag me off in the other direction because she noticed that this was where people carrying ice cream were coming from! Nyle, well, food basically. Preferably someone else's and ideally Leala's. Having said that, it doesn't really need to be food to be eaten. A nice handful of sand went down a treat yesterday.

4. What's your favourite thing to eat? Oooh, tough. After a month of travelling once and dining on mostly rice with fried eggs and fruit (and more eggs) I dreamed of roast chicken with all the works. On a more normal day, I would love someone to turn up at my door with a really chewy meringue, thick cream and strawberries.

5. What's your child's favourite game? Leala loves to play in her house and bring us plastic plates with pieces of play food on. She can do that for a fair length of time. Games? Hiding somewhere and having Mum and Dad pretend very loudly that they can't find her... Nyle will have his day made by anyone who will tickle him, blow raspberries on his stomach and tip him upside down (if possible all at the same time). His second favourite game is to throw up over any adult who stupidly endeavours favourite game #1 straight after dinner. 

6. What's your favourite game? Spending time on the computer whilst pretending not to...

So, now I will tag... KatiePiatt, TheMentorMum, Lindterbean, Nomes and Elizabeth

I foolishly said to Nick "Well, at least she'll sleep in tomorrow." Nope. 0600. And despite having only had 8 1/2 hours sleep, she only napped for 10 minutes today... So, a grumpy Leala, me still feeling a bit woozy, and Nyle dealing with the fall out, we went to a farm this afternoon. Went well and then we came home for tea. Logged on to check my emails and see one from TheMentorMum congratulating me on winning a ROOMBA!! Yeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

So, Minti, thank you for improving my rubbish two days no end! My floors are in such poor order that they will not know what has happened to them! Luckily, we are going to get a new floor after our building work is finished, so that won't be too shocked by the idea of constant (let's face it, I'm going to be vacuuming ALL THE TIME) cleaning.

I am now going to help Nick feed the children and ring all my friends... My Dad has already asked for a personal demo of the Roomba when it arrives. So happy...

Starting with name, location, how many children.

My name is Helen (other initials are R S, and I picked this as a username in 2004…who said imagination is dead?) and I live in a medium-sized coastal town in Sussex, England (bottom of the map, just right of middle). I haven’t *quite* got around to getting married yet, but will have been with my boyfriend, Nick, for 14 years next month. We have two children, Leala, who is 28 months and Nyle, 8 months.

How did you find Minti?

I was assisted in this one – a techie friend (KatiePiatt on here) spotted the launch of the site on some techie site and put me on to it. We had been discussing getting together a list of websites and good information for pregnant friends, and then maybe taking it further, and she thought this would be a good site to look in to. I must confess that the compilation of our helpful list has fallen down in priority as I spend the time I had planned for that on here!

What's your favourite thing or feature at Minti?

I love all the varied articles. I have learnt so many things that I didn’t realise I needed to know through browsing the articles and comments. I would like to thank so many people for making my life easier and more interesting already, but it would take so long, so just thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences. I find Minti as a whole a great place to pick up hints and tips, and to provoke thought.

I just love seeing my little ones grow and mature, and learn to get along with each other and the world. Just this evening I was watching them both standing kissing their reflections in the mirror – Nyle because he saw another little boy, Leala because she was aware it was getting a good reaction from me, and because Nyle was doing it. It’s just great to see how they view the world and being almost able to watch their brains tick – something lost as we learn to hide our emotions.

I think that the first thing that comes to mind is trying to do my best in bringing them both up to be decent, pleasant people to be around. I know this might sound a bit heavy at such a young age, but I want to give them good examples and react the right way to make sure they learn good lessons. I am forever reassessing why I am doing one thing rather than another, e.g. when Leala misbehaves or when Nyle won’t eat his dinner. I also try to find ways to develop them in a positive fashion.

What's the best parenting advice you've ever gotten from someone?

I think that it is probably to always put your baby down to bed whilst they are still awake. I believe that good sleep patterns are crucial to a fully functioning family and I have used various strategies to build on this basic advice in order to try and teach my children to self-soothe and so get decent sleep. Touch wood, they are both doing pretty well right now!

and not only is it cool and funky (we have the one on the left) but it changes colour so we can teach her the names of those, too!

I am now off to take my cup of tea and mint ice cream (I know, so decadent) to bed as it is gone 11pm and I really should. Will try not to wake up my sleeping beauty!