Deb, poor Al suffering so with his vaccinations. Yukko. Mind you, :chairfall: when I read that he was sucking the cracks int he floorboards. LOL!!!

Brooke/Kate, Pup had/has a little patch of eczema on his forehead that I couldn't budge. It was there for weeks and starting to get really nasty looking. People started commenting on it ("oh, did he hit his head?", "Eww, what's that on his head?" etc). I had been putting sorbelene cream on and moisturisers to no avail. In the hot weather and whe he got upset, it got worse. The GP told me to get some 'Dermaid' from the chemist. It is a very very mild cortisone cream (I am using the 0.5% one) and I have only got to use the teeniest tiniest amount cause it goes a long way. In fact, I've used it about 10 times and you can;t even tell I've started the tube. This has really healed it, but I have to watch it, cause after a few hot days, it can come back. I try not to use soaps or shampoos on that bit of his skin if I can help it.

Fletch, I feel so sorry for that new mum. I had the youngest baby in my mums group and I felt like everyone's baby was better than mine (or else everyone was a better mum than me) because their babies were doing things that Pup wasn't. Turned out he was just playing catch up all the time as he was still learning things that they had 'mastered'. Even now, when things go askew, I can find myself in tears. And compared to that mum, I'm an old pro!!

Brooke, hear ya loud and clear on the eating paper thing. What is it about paper that is sooooo damn interesting to put in the mouth?? If any paper is within Pup's reach, he eats it. Today I had him on my lap trying to finish our Xmas letter and i didn't see that he had taken a peice of paper and had scrunched it up and eaten part of it. Turns out it was our contract with a feed company to supply feed for our cows!!! Saved it just in time (DH's signature is a bit mashed!)

Beckles, glad you asked about wonder week, 'cause I had no idea either. Can;t help you with the biting business - not good though. Pup did it to me and I smacked him on the head ( :-# ). It wasn;t hard and was more of a flick. Caught me by surprise though. If you come up with a solution, I'd be glad to hear of it.

Yay on Kelsey and Al's 5 month milestones

Well, tonight we took Pup to our CFA Christmas BBQ. This was Pup's first Santa sighting and he sat on his knee (Santa was one of our firefighters in disguise!). It was good to go because none of them had met Pup as yet and I haven't been to a meeting, a fire or anything since Pup was born. My last meeting was 2 days before Pup was born. People remarked on how much weight I had lost since they saw me last (well....der...I was 9 months pg!!)

Hayseed