Being a Mummy

Friday, 27 January 2012

Review: Tommee Tippee closer to nature ® Digital Video Monitor with Movement Sensor Pad

The Tommee Tippee closer to nature ® Digital Video Monitor with Movement Sensor Pad arrived at just the right time for us, with a new addition to the family on New Years Day, I for one didn't fancy digging out our 5 year old Tomy analogue monitor. The cables are an unruly mess and the things have taken a bit of pasting over the years.

I passed the Closer to Nature Video Monitor over to hubby to unbox and set up, in my defence I was slightly distracted by a teeny tiny baby. He reckoned it looked more like a high end gadget than something supposedly as mundane as a baby monitor.

The immediate difference, apart from the obvious addition of a video camera and viewing screen, from any of the previous baby monitors I've seen is how stylish and grown up the units look. As you can see from the video below, the video monitor looks really swish. I personally wish our house was a tidy (and white) as the one in the promotional video.

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I was sceptical of how good the video monitor would actually be, given how ropey video footage shot on even an expensive smartphone can be. At £199 the closer to nature ® Digital Video Monitor with Movement Sensor Pad isn't exactly cheap but at that price, you would be pushed to buy a decent video camera and a pair of walkie talkies. But after charging the receiver for the mandated ten hours, I was really really impressed with the quality of the video footage. Not just in the daylight either, in the dark it slips into infra red night vision mode. It's like its the baby monitor of choice for the SAS or something! The camera cleverly tilts in the base unit, so you can put it above the cot on a chest of drawers or dresser and angle it down.

The audio clarity is as good as the video too, I suppose this is because it's digital but I was very impressed. The quality is actually better than our phone line. I must admit we didn't spend long testing the movement sensor pad because for me, an alarm going off if Ned didn't move for 20 seconds wouldn't give added comfort, it would just put me on edge. I can see how it would be useful for others who don't worry quite so much as me though.

There are loads of other great features too. For the two most useful were the pager to find out where the heck I'd put the monitor unit and the temperature sensor that tells me how hot or not the nursery is.

Overall then, I'd say you definitely get what you pay for and with the Tommee Tippee closer to nature ® Digital Video Monitor with Movement Sensor Pad I think you certainly get good value for money. Considering the version without video is still £99, you're getting an incredibly good video monitor built in for only £100. The great thing is I can see it coming in useful for child surveillance when Ned's a bit older. I have a notion we'll install it in the playroom...

Review: Rayman Origins on Nintendo Wii

When the Glade of Dreams is overrun by “nefurrious”Darktoons, the Fairy Council hastily invokes Rayman to save the day; but the hero of light isn’t quite all there…To help him, Rayman teams up with his best friend, Globox, and two crafty wizards, the Teensies. Together, the world’s most hilarious team of heroes will need to restore peace to the Glade or watch as their beloved home vanishes like a bad dream...

Rayman Origins is a rare thing in today's gaming world- it's a platform game! It makes a refreshing change from playing shooty shooty games but Rayman Origins is a great game for more reasons than that. If you can imagine a particularly well animated cartoon and then imagine that you're controlling the hero from the cartoon, that's Rayman Origins. It is an utterly utterly beautiful game.

What it isn't is easy though. It doesn't start of fiendishly difficult and Rayman Origins certainly isn't unfair but by the time you're an hour or two in, you certainly feel like you're earning your keep. Since the game looks some beautiful though, frustration rarely sets in since each new area has some clever visual tricks to captivate you. There are things to bounce on and flatten, things to swing off, hang off, there is also a fiendishly difficult bit where you have to run along and keep Rayman in a spotlight, or the bats will get him!

If you love great fun games, you simply must get Rayman Origins, its brilliant.

Review: The Philips Man Iron

Just before Christmas I was sent an email which offered to send me a pampering set in exchange for sending my husband an Iron which he was to test out. How could I refuse such an offer? Especially as I absolutely hate ironing and I am keen to train the man up as I seem to spend ages on his work shirts.

The Man Iron is clearly targeted at men, its a sleek black machine with a simple dial which makes it easy to put it on the correct setting, even if you aren't used to ironing and material identification. However I think its a pretty good iron generally. I had a quick go with it and I think its easily as good as my top of the range Bosch iron, if not better. I really liked the weight and the simplicity of it and so I can recommend it from that viewpoint. The other great feature is the quite narrow pointed nose which makes it easy to get into corners of fabric.

In the spirit of the challenge I didn't explain how to use the iron to the husband, I merely pointed him the direction of the ironing board, the pile of washing and the ironing board. Thirty minutes later I checked on the results. I was surprised, he had managed to iron four work shirts (in record time) and seemed quite happy about it.

This iron comes in a sturdy case which to be honest I thought added to the general stuff to store but if your lad was going off to university or leaving home it would be perfect for them as they have a case to store it in. I'm a little bit torn about the idea of making domestic appliances appeal to a particular gender. I have to admit, I'd love a pink iron, but that's not really a great thing to say in this age of equality and the fact that this iron is designed to appeal to men specifically seems to sit uneasily somehow. However, like max strength medicines which clearly appeal to men and encourage them to take them, if this Iron encourages men to do their ironing that can only be a good thing.

All I need now is a manly ironing board, shame mine has flowers on it...

And a word from the Husband:

Contrary to popular belief I do actually do some ironing and I'm not too horrific at it. My problem is mostly I like to stick a long film on and drag it out over an evening. I think the fact I was watching Big Trouble in Little China, which is only 99 minutes long and is pretty good helped the ironing, as did the iron itself which seemed to positively glide over the shirts. It wasn't too heavy either and was in a decent non poncified colour. Shame it was lacking go faster stripes, preferably orange, but aside from that it was spot on.

Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Things you think about whilst night-time feeding babies

Should I have made different comment to a school mum?
I wonder if there is some sort of mathematical formula which gives you quantity of poo resultant of numbers of feeds according to developmental age/ weight
I hope this noise doesn't wake the other kids
I hope this noise wakes that husband up as he seems to sleep through anything
Why am I wet?
Shall I just go and start doing chores as soon as this baby goes to sleep
Why does this baby only ever sleep during daylight or with his head resting at a really uncomfortable angle on me?
I hope the boy isn't going to be bullied again
I hope Fifi and Ned don't get bullied
What shall I wear tomorrow
I wish it was light enough to read my book
What shall I give the kids for breakfast
I must buy some more leggings
I wish I had bought those curtains I saw in the John Lewis sale
Shall I have another baby
Do I want a career?
Shall we convert the garage to a playroom
Do I need a haircut?

Not a lot of sleep happening at the moment...

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Struggling to take a picture of them all!

One of the issues with having three children is trying to find the moment to take a picture of them all. It's also finding the patience to take one where you can see all their faces and no-one is pulling a funny face. Unfortunately this is the best I've managed so far....

Review: Ellos Clothing

Just before Christmas Fifi and myself were asked if we wanted to select an item of clothing from fashion retailer Ellos. As I have never shopped with them before I thought it woul dbe interesting to see what they had to offer.

I selected a lovely cardigan which unfortunately had sold out, so you clearly need to be quick off the mark with the best stuff. My second choice was this cardigan as I thought it was so unusual. When the cardigan came I was not disappointed, the quality was good and it was as I expected. However, I have to say I thought it was a bit on the small side. I have washed it several times and its come up as good as new. It looks great with jeans and I'm slightly disappointed to say that you can now get it for nearly half the price in the Ellos sale! A good bargain...

Fifi chose this really cute little dress its a lovely colour and pattern and one of those comfortable dresses with no frills or bits to stick in her. I thought it was really well priced and now its a total steal at a fiver! My only issue with it is that I ordered an age five and she is only three and it still has very little room in it. I think Ellos are one of those continental shops which are sized for children smaller than the average British child. I think the lesson is that provided you purchase a nice big size their kids clothes offer good value and something different to what you can find on the high street.

All in all, I think its worth checking out Ellos if you like to wear clothes you wont find on the high street which are reasonably priced and good quality. I know I've bookmarked them.

Review: Argos Kids Clothes

Did you know that Argos even sell kids clothes? I was amazed, I know they sell nearly everything but it never occurred to me to look in there for clothes for the kids. When I was asked if we wanted to review some, I thought it would be interesting to see what they had on offer. Fifi had a good look and picked a Tinkerbell Sweatshirt and a selection of Peppa Pig T-shirts. Boy picked a Lego Star Wars Sweatshirt and some Star Wars pyjamas. Frankly these clothes were perfect for my kids as they really like wearing stuff with their favourite characters on them.

When they arrived all the clothes were surprisingly good quality given their price. Fifi has been wearing the Peppa Pig T-shirts over and over again and they have washed up as good as new over the course of a month! What's more the sizing is accurate, rather than on the small side which pleased me as this is becoming a rarity.

I'm honestly impressed with this range for toddlers, it's exactly what they like to wear (as opposed to what I like them to wear- which is another matter). The products we received have washed and washed and they are very good value for money. The range is available for Toddlers to children aged 2- 10 years and you can find it either in the catalogue or at http://www.argos.co.uk/.