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This time last year…in numbers

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…my waters broke in the kitchen floor, in the 48 hours following I went to one wedding, two hospital check ups, had three hours sleep and four back rubs, five meals eaten from a birthing ball, six showers to ease the back pain, repacked the hospital bag seven or eight times, went to hospital at nine in the morning on the second day arriving at ten cms dilated!

Then this shining star arrived! I vow to post her birth story in the next day or two as I’ve been meaning to for ages, it has been the fastest moving year of my life, can’t wait to give her the sweet little red dolly pram I’ve waited so long to buy!

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One year old next week

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How is she nearly one?! I have no idea, fastest year of my life, ever! I’ve eventually returned to work, pay packet good, missing my girl bad, but needs must and if we want to save to move from a flat to a house then I have to loosen the apron strings a teensy bit!

I’m delighted to have an adventurous little eater, so we’re forgoing the trad kids party for yummy Sardinian food at our favourite restaurant, three days away but I can already taste the olives and fregula gambareda! J is a seasoned professional and already has her ‘usual’ from the lunch menu, I’m so proud of my involtini eating girl :-)

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In other news I got myself a new tattoo for my return to work, strength and love will get me through, so this is a wee reminder to keep on going and remember why I’m working, its in clear view on my right wrist

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My dad will go bat sh*t crazy when he sees it but I love it, was the hardest one yet for healing though so I think I may need to book in a retouch soon.

Back tomorrow with our latest Munchkin Mummy post – teethers! J is one year old next week with NO teeth but is dribbling and chewing like mad!

Real Nappy Week #RNW 2013

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Gosh this time last year I was enormous and used my time on mat leave wisely, looking into cloth nappies. Thanks to Go Real I was sent a free Pop In to try, baby came along, two weeks later I had a whole fluffy stash! I’ve blogged before about fluff love, this year I’ve been getting involved in Clothopoly and The Great British Nappy Hunt and have so far won a Bambino Mio in associated competitions. My big loves are Totsbots Easifits and Fuzzibunz Elites, as seen here in a washing action shot!

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So here’s my five reasons we cloth bum:

1) No car = risk of last minute emergency nappy low stock, now we always have nappies at hand
2) Environmental friendliness – Brits throw away 3bn sposies a year, which would take 500 years to decompose, a legacy I don’t want to pass on
3) Good old money saving – we broke even by ten months, no more paying out for nappies, I try not to have more than I need selling the smaller size to fund the next
4) More breathable for wee bums
5) Supporting UK manufacturing through Totsbots, and wahm with the odd pretty :-)

PS the cloth bum community at large is amazing, we’ve made a LOT of good friends through it!

If in doubt try a trial pack from your local nappy library, or check out a real nappy week event near you, you won’t regret it!

Equating Mother with Cakes

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I feel like a fraud sometimes, mothers should be domestic goddesses right?! I’m not great at housework or baking, I dare say I was made for more academic pursuits, but I’d like to be more rounded so I decided to learn a few basics! Now I have a basic bun mix cracked I decided to move onto more complex things, like savoury buns, scary! These worked so well, a basic bun mix minus the sugar with the addition of cheese and courgette, Joss is happy, I feel like less of a fraud and my home smells, well, homely, if only for an hour or two! Now to try something more complex….

The countdown to back to work begins

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I’m making the most of kissing this cheeky face and playing together before I return to work. It gets me all worked up when people suggest I have a choice in this, I don’t, most of us don’t and for J and I it’s not good timing, we’re moving into a different napping routine, weaning isn’t yet fully established and frankly I don’t feel ready to leave her, but I have to, and we’ll both have to be brave together! On a positive note I believe we’ve found a good childminder, J is an adaptable little thing, and I’m sure a hot cuppa and adult conversation will do me good, I just don’t want to know about it if I miss her first steps, word or tantrum!

Real Nappy Week 2013

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Real Nappy Week 2013

This is my second Real Nappy Week, last year I was heavily pregnant and found I’d perfectly timed the first week of maternity leave with RNW 2012 as I got loads of advice, some freebies and an excellent DVD introducing me to the world I now know as fluff! This year during Real Nappy Week 15th – 22nd April 2013 there’s a huge and growing £7,500 pot of giveaway prizes, you can read more at the press release link below, see also http://www.realnappyweek.org/ to get involved in the fun!

If you’ ve never experienced “fluffy post” before you have no idea what you’re missing!

http://uk.prweb.com/releases/2013/3/prweb10531060.htm

Munchkin Booster Feeding Seat Review

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When I heard we’d been chosen by Munchkin to test their products I crossed everything that the booster seat would be in the product bundle as I’d been feeding Joss on my knee out at other people’s houses for way too long and she’d learned loads of tricks for wriggling away to play!

I was really pleased to see it in the mega box of products and knew we’d test that first! The practical things first – it has two seat heights and two positions for the feeding tray, can be attached to any dining chair but also used on the floor. The seat strapped easily to a large dining chair, the three point harness clipped easily and the first tray setting was a good fit even though Joss is skinny and usually too small for most seats! I was surprised how steady she was without straps over the shoulder but the seat was really robust. Even though we kept the seat on the lower position Joss quickly found she was boosted to a prime view of the TV and can be seen stretching to see here!

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I love the vibrant green and sturdy chair back, Joss seemed really comfy and happily tucked into her cheese and courgette muffin, I think she liked eating with us as she could see our lunch and beg for bits and bobs from our plates!

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You can see here that although she’s a littley she was sat upright and comfortable. I was really impressed with this product, particularly as its priced at under £20 online and if we had dining chairs at home I’d have preferred this to our standard high chair, top marks from us!

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Capturing precious moments

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I take millions of photos of this beautiful child, when she was 4 weeks old I panicked, she was changing too fast and I wanted to capture my memories so we started Sunday Photo, a weekly snap to capture the passing of time. Ten months on now every week captures something different, this week it was sleepy rosy cheeks, early on it was tiny feet and hands, her heart shaped bug face (I just think she looks like Dot from A Bugs Life!) rolling, giggling and now crawling, I think we’ll keep taking them til she doesn’t want us to anymore!

Munchkin Mummies 2013

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Munchkin Mummies 2013

This photo is blurry because I was in a state of shock and excitement! Niffer and I are going to to be testing products for Munchkin throughout 2013 and this is what we received to test today – so much to look at it was like all our Christmases came at once!

I’ll be deciding on what we’ll review first very soon, but here’s a little rundown of what we received, I may have even missed a few bits in all the excitement!

Microwave steriliser and steriliser bags
Spill proof and first cups from the fab Click Lock range
Bowls and plates with fish decorations – I especially love the look of these, they have a lovely sweet little fish peering out when you finish your dinner!
Bottle brush
Bento box – Mammy thinks this will be perfect for taking to the childminder on her return to work
Spoon tips for squeezing pouches
Soft tip spoons, we have one of these, lovely to have more as they’re a great shape
Stacka bowls and the amazing non slip bowls that I’ve heard great things about!
Inflatable bath duck – totally iconic
Nappy disposal system
Nappy storage system
Designer nappy change mat
Adjustable booster seat with tray – my personal favourite and probably soon to be our first review
Bath duck with temperature monitor
Squirter bath toys
Organiser for bath corner – great stuff!
Caterpillar spiller toy for bath
Bath ball
Bath tumble toy
Twisty eight teether
Twisty ball teether
Barbell teether
Super cute monkey teether

As I said on my FB post, just wow!

Huge thanks Munchkin, can’t wait to let you know our thoughts!