Thursday, 28 January 2010

Spinning Around

Life without a computer has moved so fast that I don't think I would have had time to blog even if I could have. I have been spinning around and around, LIVING IN THE REAL WORLD. And a great world it is. Sorry readers, but I haven't even given a thought about any blogger's or twitterer's who I don't know personally. But I have:

  • Made two pinafore dresses
  • Coped with winter vomiting and possible swine flu in the household.
  • Helped re-organise our entire living room (a big project)
  • Felt happy, sad, depressed, ecstatic, love, proud and tired
  • Experienced a first birthday and a thirty fifth
  • Lunched with Jenni and Deborah
  • Survived a new music class
  • Re-discovered cookery
  • Written some reviews for The Great Toy Guide
  • Pondered a theft at pre-school
  • Begun to organise the move of an entire gallery of tools
  • Talked a lot about Natural History collections
  • Begun to read 'The Return' by Victoria Hislop
  • Bought some spacemen fabric
  • Visited Stockwood Discovery Centre
  • Watched television
  • Not had a great deal of sleep

All amongst many other things. I feel like I have LIVED rather than spending time on my PC, so from now on my blogs will be a lot more sporadic, but hopefully a lot more fun and interesting.
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Tuesday, 12 January 2010

Favourite Photo Meme: Stonehenge

I wasn't going to blog here for a few weeks, but the favourite photo meme is such a lovely one that I thought I would briefly provide you with a gem from my archives. Thanks to the lovely Amy for tagging me.

It's hard to find a favourite picture, I have lots. However, this represents a really happy weekend before a momentous change in our lives. On this weekend, we went to Stonehenge (to the inner bit that archaeologists go to) camped nearby and quite literally flew a kite over it as the sun came up. This was to take some aerial photographs of the stones. Really cool.

I pass this one onto:
Housewife Confidential
Who's The Mummy
Daddacool
Little Garden Helpers
Mummy's Learning Curve
Mummy Whisperer
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Thursday, 7 January 2010

I'm Having a Break

Just to let you know I'm having a little blogging holiday to enable me to complete some of my sewing projects. When I have finished them I will post the results.
Those of you that read my private blog may get some updates on progress and what we are doing. Thanks for reading and come back soon.
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Review ; NUK Baby-Feeding Products and Accessories

As mentioned before, there is nothing that baby Fifi doesn’t know about dummies. Good or bad, she will tell you. The proud owner of no less than 19 dummies Fifi goes around the house squirrelling them away.

I asked NUK if we could test their dummies, beakers and bottles, mainly because I have wanted to try them out for a long time, but I haven’t seen them in the shops local to me. They have a wide range of products and many of them are Bisphenol A. free which is a real bonus. One morning a very large box arrived and inside was a veritable feast of dummies, beaker and some bottle teats. But no bottles, so hopefully I will acquire some of these to test shortly. I am very grateful.

Soother (Dummies)

I had been looking for a soother that Fifi would like, but which has a little ring on the front, that’s easier said than done because she is a very picky little girl. The reason that I want ones with a ring, is simply because she keeps throwing them away, literally chucking them. I need to attach them to a soother saver. The lovely looking MAM dummies she has, and with which she squeals with joy when using don’t have this feature. Unfortunately, this has left her with a chapped face.

NUK sell the only soothers approved by the British Dental Health Association. This came as a bit of a surprise to me as I thought several other brands were too. The NUK dummies come in silicone and latex and three different sizes, this provides a lot of flexibility of choice. It may be because Fifi at 11 months, is a bit older and therefore getting a bit more used to sucking different things, but I have to say that she took to them very easily. They came in really neutral colours and I felt that they were well made and at under £4 for 2 extremely reasonably priced. I can recommend them as I simply can’t fault them. If I was to be highly critical, the only thing I could say is that they don’t come with a steriliser pot/ case. That’s hardly essential though.

The NUK Soother Saver
The NUK Soother Saver is without doubt the best I have ever seen, it has a proper clip rather than a fiddly sliding thing and its also 100% plastic, rather than having a fabric length between each end. Quite simply it is the most perfect dummy clip I have come across. The plastic means that it is easy to keep clean and can be used instantly rather than having to wait for it to dry. I wish I had seen these before and I am going to buy a couple more, so I can use them for attaching toys and teethers to the pushchair.

The NUK Learner Bottle with Soft Spout

I am beginning to start to try to get Fifi to have more of her milk feeds from a beaker. This bottle has proved absolutely ideal for the task. It has a nice soft spout which is not dissimilar to the . In fact I would go so far as to say that the beaker is the best one that we have ever used, for the bottle- beaker transition. I think mainly because its teat is quite similar plastic to a bottle. I am acutely aware of the importance of doing this because at 2.5 years old, I still haven't managed to fully wean Toddler boy off his bottle and I would love to be a bottle free household by the New Year. It will save at least half an hour of sterilising and washing up every night. I am actually going to purchase a couple more of these beakers, as I am so impressed with how she is taking to it. You never know, I might even finally manage to wean Toddler Boy off bottles with one of them!

As a final thought, I think I should say that we think that the design of the beaker is really funky. It has become quite sought after by children visiting the house as well as our own two. That’s another sign of a good beaker! At £4.85 it’s a bit more pricey than those ones you buy in the supermarket, but on reflection and with the benefit of experience, I think its well worth the money.

You can find out lots more information about NUK and buy their products here: http://shop.nukbaby.co.uk/
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Snowy Day Resources

Sunny St Albans is once more home to snow. We are housebound. These are some of the resources I will use today and the activities I have planned...


Other ideas include:
  • Bringing a bowl of snow indoor and making miniature snowmen
  • Making paper snowflakes
  • Glue pasta to paper instead of drawing peoples faces
  • Have a mini disco (the activity could lead to sleep!)
  • Indoor snowball fight. This might be an idea for the kitchen or bathroom!
  • Roll out some pastry and get them to press their hands and feet into it- bake it to make footprints which you can then spread with jam for a snack
  • Make a toddler photo album. Get them to pick their favourite photographs and help you stick them into a little booklet they can keep.
  • Making mini rag rugs for the teddy's
I hope you find something here to help your day go a bit more smoothly
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Sunday, 3 January 2010

New Year Sewing Projects

Having gone around a few of the sales I have come to the conclusion that there is not much out there in the way of reasonably priced, nice clothes for little girls. Therefore, this year I will be making a lot more of her clothes. Sewing baby clothes is surprisingly easy to do, I also have been saving up my old clothes in order to re-cycle them. Below are a few free patterns that I intend to use, I'll show the results shortly, but if you have a child of a suitable age why not have a go yourself?

The Pinafore Dress

The T shirt Dress
The Retro Dress
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