Cheers all for the comments: -
Mixture, I wanted the D300 but being my first forray into DSLR and having a steep learning curve there is no way I could justify the money.
As for taking the camera to the playground - it was not really what I bought it for but comparing the pics of it with the BenQ makes me want to take the SLR each time - I just feel I get funny looks sometimes being its a tad on the larger side. Putting the playground aside just taking the odd pic of my boy around the house with the 18-200 means I have to be across the other side of the room which is another reason to get a shorter lens.
I actually bought the camera to take to outside events e.g. air shows etc not for what I have been using it for recently - I have been using it alot to play with mainly so when I do go to an event I will be familiar with the camera and its functions.
Loose Rivets:
$600 is way too expensive for the 18-200, I paid £169 out of curry's of all places (a bit of an impulse buy to try the camera body out).