photos from SA holiday

zack chasing sienna and cole on our first Sunday

calvin enjoying a moment on grandpa's lap

back to earth with a thud...

Tomorrow is "exit day" - we fly out of OR Tambo at 21h25. It's going to be interesting to see how I cope with two little 'uns, but I'm not the first and the air hostesses have been very helpful thus far. Once I'm home tho...the daunting task of ripping up the floor and all the "dry rot work" lies ahead - what a pain in the butt. I feel exhausted just thinking about the mess and builders and Aaarrghhhh !
I lean on a verse in Matthew 6 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." [verse 34] - gives you a bit of perspective in all the mania.
On the upside tho' it'll be good to be home again. I can't wait to see the photos that Keith took and also begin the arrangements for Zack's 3rd birthday party next Saturday. Astonishing that he's turning three on Wednesday.

PND and all that

Yes, I know it's been quiet for the last while... it hasn't helped that we haven't had broadband for more than a month, but hey. Most of you know (from my Facebook posts at the least) that we've had a helluva time with the house - discovering dry rot under the kitchen floor (and who knows where else), ten days before we flew out to SA. I'm just hoping when Keith gets home tomorrow that it won't have grown into a forest in a short time. We'll have to wait and see.
I'm staying on in Jo'burg with the boys for another 10 days, which will be good for both Keith (getting up to speed back at the office), and the boys and I (more time with the grannies and cousins). I've been to see a counsellor and GP and have been diagnosed with Post Natal Depression (PND). It's strange, but I've had mixed feelings about talking about it since the diagnosis. I have been prescribed an SSRI antidepressant which I'll take for more than 6 months.

ever onward

It has been quite a week at Chez Guthrie. I've not been the happiest, or healthiest camper. We have however succeeded in interviewing 5 girls for the baby-sitting job, and there was one very clear leader. I am feeling extremely buoyed by Tunde and her willingness and natural affinity for children. It has been a real weight off my shoulders.

We had the locksmith in this week to replace front-door locks and put Chubb locks on all the sash-windows. A huge job, and an expensive one, but it's a good feeling to know that you've done what's necessary. We registered at a new GP practice and Calvin went for his 2nd round of shots too. I have had a nasty bout of oral thrush (candida albicans) for the last month at least, so it was good to go to the doctor's and get some Nystatin. I haven't had a chance to take it regularly enough, but I'm hoping it'll do the trick. I still have a rotten throat and sinus infection, but I'm guessing it's one of those "viral" ones, that the doctor's can't do anything about. Will go and see one in SA!

Yesterday was our 11th anniversary, and we had the wonderful Tunde here to look after the kids and put them to bed, while Keith and I grabbed some supper and went and saw a show together. It was SUCH a treat... it's been ages since we did something so nice. I think we've just been plodding along since Kelly stopped babysitting, and now I feel like we could get back into the 'regular' thing again.

Lenore has lent us a great book entitled "Getting from NO to YES, without bribing or threatening" - I have started it, but will need to take it with me to SA. It is full of great ideas and suggestions for dealing with child-rearing issues. We are taking a bit of strain with young Zack at the moment.

On Friday we went to Amy's place and saw Ruby, Caitlin, Amy & Trish. Both mums' are almost 39 weeks preggie. Whew! Sadly I didn't have the camera with me, only the vid-cam, so I'll have to upload a little clip of the kids playing together. It was delightful (mostly).

It is now midnight, and Calvin has vomited, and got diarea all in one bang. He hasn't been well since the day of his shots when he started with the upset tummy. Yesterday he vomited a huge amount of milk up, but was fine for the rest. Then again today around noon, he did the same thing again - a huge amount of milk came up (ages after a feed) – and then 'all fine' for the rest of the afternoon. He is looking quite pale, but his breathing is OK and he's still alert. I've decided to put him back to bed and feed him as soon as he wakes up again. Poor little guy - he really isn't well at all :(

settling in

We've been here for 2 weeks now, and I'm finally starting to feel more at ease. Zack and I went off to the Mum & Tots group on Monday. I felt a bit shell-shocked afterwards - no-one spoke to me, or even made a comment. There were about 50 kids there, so the place was heaving. It made me realise just how wonderful "Chatterbox" is (our 'old' group in Limehouse). The east enders are a friendly bunch - because so many of them are immigrants. Here it's one-big-homogenous-cakeslice who don't really need new friends, so they don't try . It means I'm going to have to put in some extra effort to "break the ice" as it were; it's not all bad tho.... We went along to the Woman's Bible study group at church yesterday morning and they run a creche. It worked out very well - Zack had a ball with the older boys, and played the piano a bit with the girls. I had to drag him away at the end. Calvin slept thru' the entire episode, so no complaints there. It is good to be surrounded by mums with kids the same age. Afterwards I bumped into 2 or 3 of them walking home, which adds to the sense that this is a community. Things are looking up!

Getting things sorted out at home is taking night after night of our energy : I got to IKEA at 9pm last night. It's a good thing as I managed to find a blind & curtain for the kid's bedroom. I had spent two sessions at our local John Lewis (department store) looking at curtains & blinds earlier this week, but to no avail. The ready-made ones are all too short. I suppose the other thing is that IKEA's stuff is fine (and they fit) and doesn't cost the earth. I found blinds for the study too, and the difference in cost is more than £1000!! And not for a vastly different creature either I might add.
The fridge arrived on Tuesday which was fabulous. And it's a monster ! It is nice to have the space after living out of a bar-fridge for almost 2 weeks. You think you'll never fill these things, and then steadily all the stuff creeps in.

Zack has been up & down this week. Some days he's been lovely and really interactive, enthusiastic, participated well, communicated well. Other days we've just come to loggerheads all day - those are the hardest days for me, because by 5pm my patience is gone and I turn into the disciplinarian. Keith's hours are still not too good, so he gets home well after the kid's bedtime which isn't really part of the plan. One night this week I was so tired of fighting with Zack that I got him out of the bath at 7:30 and then said to him that he could do whatever he wanted until daddy got home to read him a story and put him to bed. Keith walked in at 8:40pm and wondered why Zee was still up.
Another night this week, I just went to bed at 8:30pm - as soon as Keith got home. It's emotionally exhausting and I hardly get enough sleep anyway. It was good to be asleep for an extra few hours.

Calvin is 24 weeks tomorrow, and is getting over his conjunctivitis. It's one of those funny infections that kids get, and you really just need to be persistent about cleaning. I would like to have another round of 'shots' before we leave for South Africa. Unfortunately we aren't yet registered with a new GP here in Muzzies, so I'll probably have to go to the Barkantine to get it done. It's not all bad - will make it part of a trip to sort out the flat in Coldharbour. That is another saga, for another blog. Suffice it to say, the flat is getting fixed up and we should be able to put it on the rental market in the next week or so.

It is two weeks until we fly to South Africa and I am counting down. I CANNOT wait to be there and just rest a bit. It will be blissful having the grannies, aunties and uncles around to play with the kids and spoil them with attention and games. My poor hands and feet need lots of TLC - moving house ruins them, especially in a harsh winter like this one.

I have tried & tried to find a baby sitter to replace (the wonderful) Kelly. It's been hard work. I have still not actually managed to meet a potential candidate, but roll on next week, when I will line up some eager girls. I'm hoping to also make the time to see the local nursery (across the road) and find out about the Open Days at the local Montessori's (there are two).

how bad can it be ?

Pretty bloody awful to be fair. We moved in last week Friday - so it's been a week now - and I don't think I've felt quite this low in a long time. There have been a few big issues with the house. When we moved in we were aware that we'd need to do a few bits and bobs to make it more liveable.
As it turned out none of the showers worked properly : the first one's shower head just poured water out the top of it - useless! That bathroom has no door, and nor does the actual shower, so the water splashes everywhere including the bedroom carpet. The next shower, although convenient (it's an en suite) didn't have a mixer that worked. That meant you could only get scalding hot water. The hand shower isn't wall mounted, so you have to pick all the bits off the floor if you want to use them.
The last shower was leaking like a sieve... straight into the utility room downstairs. Turned out the shower tray hasn't been properly attached to the wall, or sealed. On top of that we've had taps that leak, and handles that fall off.
What really pushed me right over the edge yesterday tho' was the washing machine. I'd carefully timed the booking of the plumber (who has repaired most of what I've listed above), to follow the delivery of the new machine. But Keith decided that he could plumb it in and it would be fine. He couldn't have been more wrong. Yesterday was extremely stressful with so much to do between the plumber leaving, and then me driving down to the Docklands to leave Zack & Calvin with friends, so that I could attend Keith's Xmas Party. Add to this a husband who remembers at the last minute that it's black tie, and now I need to find a tux, a dress shirt and a waistcoat somewhere, in some cupboard or box, in one room or another, in a very messy house that is full of boxes. We went without a bowtie in the end!
Anyway... I set the machine to wash and before I left home I heard it spinning and it was the most awful noise. I went downstairs, to see that it was bouncing around all over the place and it's too heavy for me to move, so I just took everything off the top of it and put it on the floor. I rang Keith to say so, and he said, "Just put a towel at the door of the room so that if it floods, the water won't run onto the hardwood flooring." Guess what !? We went out to this party in central London, it finished after 12:30. We left the Docklands after 1:30am, so we only got home around 2:30am and my beautiful new washing machine had been banged against the wall and radiator. It had ripped itself out of the waste pipe, so all the waste water had filled the utility room and guest loo. Everything that I'd moved on the floor was sodden - 2 boxes of washing powder, a large bag of dirty clothes, all the instruction manuals and warranties, the neat pile of building rubble from the plumber, who'd had to cut a hole in the ceiling to find the leak from the shower, etc etc etc. I just wanted to weep. You don't feel very strong at 3am, especially after all the stuff that's needed fixing already.
There is so much washing to be done and now I don't have a machine that works - because it's not level, AND I cannot make it level. I can't go to the laundromat because I can't control 2 small children for 2 or 3 hours in a confined space with nothing to do. Besides, it's raining and snowing so we can't exactly play outside can we?
Keith blames it entirely on the fact that John Lewis took away the one piece of equipment that he needed to level the machine - a special LG spanner. It's unusually large so nothing we have fits it. Brilliant!
After all that, lying in bed at 4am, I hear a drip-drip-drip, and it's the basin in our en-suite. It's started leaking too (apparently because Keith bumped it). Honestly, you start thinking "what next?".

Calvin carries on regardless. He is incredibly placid and easy-going. The only time he really gets upset is when he's hungry and is being ignored. Unfortunately he's now got conjunctivitis in his right eye. Poor little blighter.
I am not coping at all well with Zack's behaviour at the moment. He is being deliberately VERY naughty, throwing things down the stairs and acting up. It's a very very hard time indeed. I have not had to scream at him so much in a very long time. I feel quite hoarse from all the shouting I've had to do this morning. He is incredibly defiant and stubborn. Everything is "No Mommy", or "I'll tell my Daddy" (obviously a classic that he's picked up at nursery), and the last resort, "You not my friend Mommy!" Please tell me this isn't going to last ? I just hate every minute of it.

You're probably wondering how we're all doing in the snow and sleet ? I think I have more than enough on my plate right now... but I did manage to take Zack out to play in it. He didn't like that it was so cold. I will upload some photos soon.

On top of everything Zack and I baked some snickerdoodles yesterday (type of biscuit) which turned out really well. He took 18 of them to Greg & Charlie as a treat.

out of touch ?

Well, yesterday was the big "packing up" day and all of our worldly possessions are now in a van somewhere on the A12. Zack has been really psyched about the move, jumping around and shouting. He's decided that his bed, and mummy and daddy's bed are going in his room! It's very emotional saying goodbye to everything here in the East of London, after almost 9 years in the area. But we've had a chance to say our farewells to each group of friends, and Zack's nursery friends too, so I don't feel like we're rushing out the door. As luck would have it, I'm back at church tomorrow for a cookery course, Zack has a birthday party in the afternoon, and I have a party in the evening too, so we'll hardly be gone for 20 hours!

Full On
The daunting task of caring for two little people at home 24/7 now lies ahead of me, but I'm hoping that I'll quickly find mum & tot groups to attend, and that going to church on Sunday will open doors to local goings-on and a mum's bible study too. Whew! Big changes.
We are saying goodbye to our nanny, Kelly, who lives in south-east London. It's too far for her to travel on Mondays and Fridays. We are very sad to see her go, but I'm hoping that we'll be able to stay in touch. Zack is very fond of her, and she of him – it's much more than just a job.
I'm not sure at this point in time what the child-care arrangements are going to be. I've looked into the two Montessori schools nearby. There is a nursery over-the-road, so I'll check that out next week. I'll need to start interviewing baby-sitters again, so there's a list of things for me to do in that regard.

at least poo washes off

Today Zack found a permanent marker - yes, I am entirely to blame (packing up house means there are scissors, packing tape and marker pens lying around) - and coloured in his bed linen and his toy monkey. God is very wise and allows time to pass and for you to see the funny side of things. If I'd been writing this at 2:30pm today I would have had to censor the entry - I was fuming. They aren't wrong when they say that you must tackle stains immediately because I did manage to get most of it off monkey's face, but I'm afraid his body and tail are "coloured in" for life.


Blessed relief:
Calvin is now sleeping for more than 6 hours at a stretch! So we are getting more sleep and feeling a little more able. Now all I have to do is get Keith to go to bed before 12:30 and we'll have made progress :(

unhappy puppy

You could say that I am grumpy. I don't think that I've ever had a "cold" (NHS for viral infection) that has been this painful before IN MY LIFE. My throat and sinuses are so sore that I want to just start drinking & sniffing anaesthetic. I feel like the back of my throat is covered in lesions - every swallow is excruciating. The inside of my mouth feels like I've burnt it, which makes me wonder whether I don't have oral thrush - I caught it from Zack when he was very small, so I do have some memory of that experience. The one good thing is that my nose is relatively clear, so I can actually breath. But that's where it stops. I took a good look at myself in the mirror this afternoon and thought, "hell, you look like you're on cortisone" - my throat is so swollen that it looks like the underside of my chin and neck have fused. I can't sniff because it's so sore, but blowing my nose is just as painful.
Hey, did I mention that my ears ache too ?

the news

Hurrah ! We will complete on the new house on the 26th of January. Which means we can move in any time after that.
The sad news is that Kelly, our nanny, has decided not to come with us to North London because of the distance. This is really heart-breaking for me as I had so hoped to have some kind of familiarity in the new environment for Zack. But, I suppose, what will be, will be. Perhaps we can arrange a few trips to see Kelly in the first month.
Thankfully, we only have to get ourselves through 4 weeks and then we'll be off to SA & glorious sunshine, and time with family. That should be enough time for me to at least settle us in, find a few kiddy activities nearby, and look at a nursery for Zee.

Every journey starts with a single step. I've called the removal company, so now we need to decided on a date !

Run Down
I am one sick puppy. I've had an ENT infection for nearly 2 weeks now, and the doctor told me to take paracetamol - $&%@”™ idiot ! I've been having progressively worse and worse night's sleep, so I feel pretty broken right now. I took myself off to the doctor again today, and initially she went the Iboprofen / Paracetamol route, and I just thought, "forget this!"... so I had a jolly good cry and said that it wasn't good enough. That I needed to be healthy to cope with being a mother, and that paracetamol, et al, wasn't cutting it. She said I needed rest. I told here, there is no rest with 2 children. She said I should speak to my health visitor. Yeah, yeah, haven't we heard that one before. In the end she gave in and prescribed some penicillin. I'm hoping it'll make a difference because I could happily cut my head off at the moment, it feels so awful. I'm sure my glands in my throat are the size of plums. Swallowing is an effort. And on top of it all, I still have very swollen eye-lids after 7 days. Thankfully you can't prescribe paracetamol for that too! She said it's probably a viral conjuctivitis so I need to bathe them with distilled water. Watch this space....

backwards is forwards

Zack is now walking backwards with confidence. You may think, "so what?!" but it's a significant developmental milestone. He is still crazy about cars, building roads out of bricks and blocks, and his trainset. His behaviour continues to be up & down: we have the most delightful moments when we giggle together and tell one another 'secrets', and egg each another on to do silly things, but he is struggling to control his feelings of frustration. The latest outlet is spitting and rasberries. I tell myself, it could be worse, but it still needs to be monitored. There is a thin line between a casual rasberry and defiance, disrespect and just plane rude.
Calvin is doing well - he is now lifting his little feet up and kicking his baby gym dangle-doodads. He's interacting more and more, catching your eye across the room and giving you a big smile. He is determined to eat his fingers, which may (or may not) be the early signs of teething.
My neighbour, Huma, came to tea yesterday and we chatted about all things baby. She mentioned that she'd been for a BCG with Aneeq at the Barkantine, and they'd given him an out of date one, and admistered it incorrectly. She is a paediatrician so would notice if someone had pinched the skin or not, etc etc. It made me take a look at Calvin's immunisation chart, and I saw that I haven't had ANY of them (besides the BCG, which is an enormous, swollen, ugly scab on his shoulder right now). What's the matter with me ? He's missed his 8 week, his 12 week and his 16 week jabs. Consequently we have an appointment on Monday morning at 8:15am for the first round! Naughty mummy.

two things...

I've given up the unequal struggle and am now formula-feeding Calvin 100%. Unfortunately there is almost no way of keeping up when bottles are easy to drink from. Now that I've tried to express to chase up the milk production I can see just how little is being produced by moi. Well, 4 months is better than a kick in the pants eh ?!

Having listened to well-meaning mummies, and parenting books, all of whom have their own agendas, I am encouraged by some reading I did in the Good Book last night :
Proverbs 18:18
Discipline your son while there is hope,
And do not desire his death.
Proverbs 22:15
Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;
The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.
Proverbs 23:13
Do not hold back discipline from the child,
Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

Sometimes you get so tired of "drawing the line" and telling them off. But reading this makes me see that I need to just persevere. And.. before you freak out and call the NSPCC try reading these in context - what the themes are, who wrote Proverbs, and why.

Congratulations - London & Mackay!

Huge congratulations to my cousin Christopher, Sarah and little Lucas on safe arrivals on the 29th of Dec. Chris, he looks like a real little bossie. Sarah - hope you're doing OK after the C-section honey. Take things easy if you can.

Congratulations to my mate Kim and her partner Nick on the birth of little Stanley - eagerly anticipated. Well done you two !

we love trains and cars

Zack is a typical boy - he just loves cars. He got a train set for Christmas from us, and is FINALLY learning to play by himself. It is a real help, as we've been trying to encourage it for ages.

chrissy

Calvin is making good progress and the current stage is staring intensely at his hands - "What are these things?" - he goes quite squint with the effort. He is full of smiles and giggles too, which makes for great relief from the toddler tantrums with his older brother. Only frustration in the last 24 hours has been his resistance to breast-feed. He went purple last night, crying, because mummy wanted him to take the breast and he was having none of it. It's annoying because the bottle is obviously easier to feed from, but if I don't keep up the feeding that'll be it. I am too tired to express milk every 3 hours.

For a little Festive Fun, we took Zack on the carousel at the O2 on Saturday night. Initially he wasn't sure about the motion of forward and up & down at the same time - we had just eaten dinner. But by the second or third revolution it was all smiles and waving at mummy and the camera. Of course it was, "Let's do it again!" when they got off.

Pineapple

Granny has gone home and we miss her alot. We had a lovely moment with Zack, when she'd been saying to him, "Zack you are my honey-bun, sugar-lump" and he responded with, "Granny, you are my pineapple". Aren't kids great ! ? !

Calvin is doing well, and getting heavier. His head's still quite wobbly, but he's getting some tummy time and I hope that'll remedy things. He is full of smiles and chatter, it's really cute to see his personality coming through now. He spends alot of time staring at his hands, and clasping them together.


Zack is as "spirited" and "lively" as ever. We had a helluvah weekend with him, and Keith and I were both pretty tired of his tantrums and bad behaviour by the end of it. How many times can a kid go to his room in one day ? But then yesterday (Monday) was great, and we played with his cars on the lounge carpet for most of the day - his current favourite activity - and we went for a haircut which he was very brave doing. He was most upset by the hair in his mouth, but by the end had a lolly in his hand (also with hair on it, but he didn't seem to care) and was marching determinedly out the door. He is putting prepositions into sentences now and it's made for even better conversations and role playing. When it comes to giving instructions (which Zack is very good at! LOL) it has changed things forever. We really do know where we stand now.

way away

Yeah, sorry - no news for two weeks because we've been away in Devon (Dartmoor National Park), and pushing forward on the house-purchase, and juggling balls, and being a mummy, and co-ordinating calendars, and looking for a baby-sitter, hosting visitors, planning Xmas day, etc etc.
Good news is that Christmas came early for me this year in the form of Keith's mum. While we've been away she's faithfully got up each morning at around 4am and fed Calvin so that I can sleep. Wow! I really do feel like a different person. He is thriving and smiling more and more. He can be very chatty and likes to gurgle and coo - it's all very endearing.
Zack has been a little bored being away with no other children to play with, and a limited selection of toys. That said, we made an effort to take him outside and "run him" around - the golf driving range, the trampoline, the grounds of where we were staying. You could say that he is still very spirited, and it certainly kept mummy and daddy on their toes with all the 'acting up' while we were away. Now that we're back in London, in a routine, with all the usual faces and activities, he's like a different child. Yesterday, he was the happiest I've seen him in a long while – rushing around with Kelly, hugging and kissing us all, playing games, singing songs and being the delightful Zack we know so well. Amazing!
Tomorrow is Calvin's follow-up appointment with Dr. Moncado and we'll see what she has to say about a) his weight gain b) his head control c) other concerns she may have thought of in the interim.

He's a genius I tell you !

Zack is totally a genius... take a look at this drawing and tell me he isn't years ahead of his age!

A scarecrow I am told... tho' it may be just a head, eyes and hair.
Still, I'm am way, way, way impressed with my son's drawing ability.

Ah, go 'n boil your 'ed

Whoop-dee-doo! Back at the health visitor again today. Calvin has gained all of 200g since last week - this means that he weighs nearly what Zack did when he was born (3.87kgs). The reason for the visit however, was the doctor's concern over Calvin's head control. As it turns out, they feel things haven't improved at all. That said, she also found fault with his breathing - as I've mentioned before, he has had a cold for sometime (in fact we all have), which makes his breathing quite laboured when he drinks milk. When he's relaxed, his breathing is just fine. She said that what worried her was that he may have a complication with his larynx - a condition she had seen before in slightly prem babies. And then the real gem: he has mottled skin ! She wanted to know if his skin had always been like that. I said yes, and that I had taken it for healthy fat. She did the pressure test to see if his circulation had been affected by the dread-mottled-ness. All fine!
I am completely defensive about all of this. I have a fat rant at Keith after each doctor's appointment. What makes me mad is that it is ALL negative news. Everything that gets discussed is under-this, behind-that, not developed-the next thing. There's not one mention of what's going right. If I wasn't a second time mum, I'd be a bit suicidal by now, in fact, I would've checked myself into the hospital to get this all sorted out - once and for all.
Apparently we'll get a paediatric referral if things haven't improved with his head-control, next time. Maybe that isn't a bad thing.

"Yesterday" – discussing time with Zack
Zack is growing more and more curious about time. He now often asks me "what's the time Mummy?", and when I pick him up from play-school, he'll say "it's not late ?". Our favourite though, is the use of the word "yesterday": Zack uses it for all things past tense. This could mean an hour ago, earlier today, yesterday (for real), last week, or even last month. It's really cute, but can be helluv confusing for anyone who's listening to Zack's story of what's transpired in his recent experience. It seems like yesterday was the busiest day in any human being's life, when in fact, it's just the concertina effect of time.

Breast vs. Bottle
I'm feeling a bit despondent about breast-feeding. I'm trying as hard as I can to keep Calvin on the breast, but he finds the bottle pretty easy to feed from (even tho' I'm using those 0+months teats), and loses interest in the breast after more than 20/25 mins. Sometimes it doesn't feel like he's completely drained it either. I keep thinking I should go back to breast-only, and that way my milk supply will pick up and stay up. In the current situation I feel like my milk production is slowing down as the formula-use continues (with no end in sight because of the weight-gain issues). Hmmm... what to do ?

shattered, but fatter

Hurrah! the child weighs 500g more than last week = 3.7kgs. Our efforts at extra feeding have paid off and the lady at the clinic is pleased too. I still have to go next week for the check-up regarding his neck/shoulder strength, but hey... small victories.
At what price ? Well, we are more sleep deprived than we've been in some time. I'm shedding obligations like a persian cat near a velvet jacket, in an attempt to stay sane. We're taking it in turns to sleep between 5am and 7am. Keith has an awful cough that he can't kick, which is keeping him up. We all have stuffy noses - thankfully, I seem to be getting over mine.

I don't know about you, but there are few things more yuck-O than toddler's green, slimey or crusty noses. If I get the chance I'm shoving a tissue at Zack and telling him to blow. This morning I had, had it, and got out some ear-buds and cleaned Zack's nose. He had a model nose after that for all of 30 minutes, until it started streaming. Tsk tsk... nice one Ruth.