Lunch Date

At almost 11 months my little monkey is a complete chatterbox and now crawling he never sits still! He's completely exhausting but I am loving every minute. Yesterday we took ourselves out to Bridgemere Garden World. 

It's much more than a garden centre, with other shops attached such as Lakeland and Hobbycraft (two of my favourites!) and lots of lovely gardens to stroll round and check out. They also have a lovely little cafe with a soft play area for the little ones.

Ryan's really good at eating out (he's such an angel that nothing fazes him) and did his best flirting with all the old ladies who stopped to say hello as they passed. I enjoyed a lovely tuna melt toastie and a glass of homemade lemonade, which was delicious, and then we lost our shoes and got into the play area.

It was great to just let him roam around without the worry of him crashing into anything hard, and he loved watching all the other children. Later we strolled around the gardens and he was nice and tired out by the time we got home, all ready for a nap.

I'd definitely recommend Bridgemere for a day out. I'm especially looking forward to their spectacular Christmas event, now that Ryan will understand what's going on this year!

Time off!

The cake I decorated for my folks

Eeeeek! Can't believe I've not blogged for 13 days! Been busy busy busy. Had some amazing news (watch this space) and spent nearly a week down in very sunny Somerset with my family.

My amazing parents celebrated their Ruby Wedding Anniversary (40 years!) at the weekend so we all got together for that. It's lovely to spend time with my family, especially my niece and nephews who I don't get to see as often as I'd like, and Ryan loves seeing them too, and is the complete centre of attention at all times! His only gripe was the constant suncream I had to apply as it's been hot hot hot.

I'm in a glorious mood thanks to the weather and my news, and promise to catch up with some posts soon!

Safety in the sun

So we recently took Ryan on his first holiday, much needed after the dire British summer we've been having! Off we popped to Spain to stay in a lovely villa belonging to the in-laws. At 9 months old we were quite easily able to keep him in one place, so although he was suncreamed up whenever we went for a walk with the pushchair, or in the pool, the rest of the time he was safely tucked away in the shade with his toys.

Next year however, I am envisioning having a nightmare time where he races around in the sun while I fight trying to get cream on him! Luckily I will have a bit of help from good old Cuddledry, as I fully intend to purchase one of these fab Sun Protection Ponchos, as modelled here by Timmy the sheep off Timmy Time!

Obviously I will still have to win the war of the suncream, but this award winning poncho towel will give me that extra reassurance that my little man is as protected as he can be from the sun's harmful rays. This is because the towel cleverly deflects UVA and UVB rays and has an SPF of 50+, which is not depleted by washing or use! Plus with every purchase you get 2-4-1 entry into UK Sea Life Centres, and we love a good day out!

Invisible Children

It's been said in the past and I'm sure it will continue to remain a subject of much discussion, but where have all these invisible children come from?

I'm talking of course about the ones whose parents park in the parent and child spaces at the supermarkets. So many times I have had my eye on one of these spaces when someone whizzes in and dashes out of their car, dragging their invisible child along with them.

The thing about invisible children is that their parents don't really need the wide space that real parents require. I wonder if they've ever tried maneuvering a car seat containing a 9lb 12oz baby out the back of a 3 door car, following the major surgery that is a caesarian? Of course not, because they don't actually have children!

Parent and child spaces are wider to give parents that bit of extra space we need to get our children safely out the car without crashing the doors into another car. They tend to be nearer the shop, but to be fair, I wouldn't mind if they were a bit further away to avoid people parking in them. It's about time something was done about this. Tesco hand out parking passes to members of their baby club, but what's the point of this if they don't police it?

Before I end my rant, I think to top it off, the worst people are the ones who think an empty car seat counts as a child. These are the people who should know better.

Osgood Shclatters

I was really interested to read this blog post by IQ Therapies who provide physio support for my netball club.

I was still in primary school when I was diagnosed with Osgood Shclatters Disease, which I was told at the time was quite young really as it usually affects children in their teens.

I'd always been very active, always outside running around, riding my bike, swimming, and playing netball in my school team. I can't remember now if I did get any aching before the lump appeared on my knee, but as soon as it appeared my parents whisked me off to the doctors. They didn't really give us much information at the time. I was told to rest for six weeks, although I could still swim, and was prescribed Ibuprofen, which I actually found quite exciting as I had to have special permission to take it into school with me to have with my lunch!

I've never read up on it before, but this article was very interesting. I still get flair ups now and again where my knee aches, and will always have the lump, and I do wonder if I had taken the slow route back into activity maybe I wouldn't still suffer now. From what I remember I just went back to my normal boisterous self once I'd had my six weeks off, as I wasn't given any other advice.

I'd love for my son, and any other children I may have to be sporty and full of life as I always was, but this is something I'd look out for now, which I think a lot of parents wouldn't always think of. We're always encouraged to get active but not often warned about overuse.

Flying economy with a baby

We planned Ryan's first holiday back in February. Hubby's parents have a holiday home in Spain where we tend to join them every year. Ryan actually came with us last year when he was just a bump!

Passport sorted we booked some cheap flights with a famous economy airline. Under 2s don't get their own seat, so I knew it would be a bit of a squeeze.

The flight out was booked for the evening, 6.35, which is bedtime. We thought this would be ideal as we could all have tea in the airport and then have a sleep on the plane!

Easyjet allow you to bring two items for your child (for the £20 each way fee). The choice is between a travel cot, car seat and pushchair. Thankfully we could hire a cot in Spain, so just wanted our car seat and pushchair. My parents managed to find me a £10 MaClaren pushchair at a car boot sale so I didn't have to worry about my £500 travel system getting damaged in the hold, and I also have a second hand car seat that was living in my sister's loft from her babies. Having items that I wasn't worried about took some stress off, as my sister in law does a lot of travelling with her baby and has managed to get her car seat lost, delayed and damaged on numerous occasions in the past year!
Boarding all went well, as we had a child we got priority boarding so just walked straight up to the gate and got straight on, leaving the pushchair at the door.

I fed Ryan as we took off to help protect his ears, and then he fell asleep for an hour. Although there's not much room, and I couldn't do it if he was much bigger, it was easy to get him in the right position for breastfeeding, and on the way down I just gave him a bottle of water to suck on. He had no problems, and it was a very peaceful flight. The way back was just as easy. Alicante airport gives special assistance to families with babies, and this time Ryan fell asleep before we even took off.

All in all I found the whole experience quite stress free and would happily do it again!

Grab a bargain on twitter!

Came back from my holiday (more about that later!) to some exciting news from one of my favourite baby brands. Cuddledry are having a half price twitter sale of their ex-display stock, all good as new just without packaging!

Log on to twitter next Tuesday, 3rd July at 8pm to grab a bargain. Follow the link above for instructions on how it all works - I won't try and write them here because I'm not really a big twitterer (as you can see I don't even know the correct term for that) but I plan to figure it all out before Tuesday as would love to get my hands on some more Cuddledry items for my little monkey.

If you haven't got one already, trust me, the apron towel is the BEST baby towel and should be a fixture in every newborn's bathroom. They've also got loads of other great stuff so I can't wait until Tuesday!

Mummy's Day Off!

One of my hubby's many talents is his ability to buy awesome gifts, and it seems Ryan has inherited this talent! On my birthday earlier in the year I got an email from Ryan saying 'as I've been making you really tired lately I thought this might make you feel better' with a voucher for a spa day with full body massage thrown in! (this was a few months back when he was going through his 'I'm going to wake up every 2 hours overnight' phase.)

So last week I decided it was time to redeem my voucher. Leaving hubby with Ryan (and his schedule!) I toddled off to Rookery Hall Hotel and Spa. My massage was booked first thing, so once I'd signed in and had a quick tour I was given a towel, robe and slippers and left to change and asked to wait in the Amber Lounge, where there was free iced water, juice, and herbal teas for guests to enjoy throughout the day.

The massage was amazing. I've never had a professional massage before, and it was heaven to just lie there daydreaming while the therapist worked away my knots! It was 55 minutes in total, and afterwards I was shown to the relaxation room, which is for the use of guests after they've had a treatment. This was very relaxing! It was dimmed lighting, with about 6 beds, and water running down one of the walls. I'd been told to take it easy and drink lots of water for a while after the massage, so I lay in here for nearly an hour reading my book.

The spa day includes full use of the health club facilities, the exercise room, swimming pool, hydrotherapy pool, sauna and steam room. I love swimming, but haven't been on my own since Ryan arrived, so I spent some time in the pool. It is a lovely area, very quiet and clean, and I was able to claim a lounger by the pool side whenever I wanted one. 

I tried out both the sauna and steam room, neither of which I have ever used before. The sauna was way too hot, and I didn't really enjoy it. The steam room overwhelmed me at first as I didn't know what to expect, and struggled to breathe for a minute, but once I got used to it it was lovely, and made me feel really cleansed afterwards. And the hydrotherapy pool was just lovely to lie in amongst the bubbles!

At lunchtime I enjoyed a tuna panini, with a glass of champagne that was included in my voucher, and then went back to chill out by the pool with my book! 

I spent 6 hours there altogether, felt very relaxed, read loads of my book, which I never get to do anymore, and just had a lovely day. The facilities are great, the food was delicious, and I would recommend it to anyone. I'm secretly hoping one of my friends gets married soon so I can suggest a hen do there!

The Olympic Torch

So here's the view I had last Thursday!

To be honest, I'm not really a fan of the Olympics. The only sports I'm really interested in are football, netball and F1. But when I heard the Torch was coming through nearby Crewe, I decided it was a once in a lifetime thing, so I'd get Ryan and I up at the crack of dawn to go and see what all the fuss was about.

The big issue for me was it was travelling through between 8 and 8.30am, which seemed ridiculous - unfair on commuters and just generally difficult for anyone to get there. The trains aren't very regular but that was the only way, so Ryan and I arrived at our local (small) train station at 7am, to find it packed with fellow Torch spotters! There were maybe 150-200 people waiting for a 3 coach train, and with Ryan in a pushchair I wasn't holding out much hope that we'd all fit on. But we did, and once again I was warmed by how helpful random strangers were in helping us get on and off the train, even one previously mentioned commuter, who must have been a bit flummoxed to find his usual quiet journey to work a noisy squashed one! Thankfully it was only a 7 minute trip!

We arrived and found ourselves a spot outside Crewe station, fed my little monkey an al fresco breakfast (we rarely get up before 8am so he'd only had his milk at home) and proceeded to wait for possibly the most anticlimatic thing ever - a man who no one knew running past holding a torch aloft. A postman trundling down the road with his post truck got more cheers! Oh well, it was a morning out, and like I said, at least I can say we were there!

My Cuddledry Monster!

Showing off his Cuddledry stash!

Another of my favourite baby brands has got to be Cuddledry. When I was first buying things for my bump, I picked up a set of hooded towels from a well known baby shop. However, these turned out to be the biggest waste of money for two reasons:

1. At 9lb 12oz Ryan was a big baby, and the towels were hardly big enough to wrap him in
2. As soon as they'd been through one wash, even with fabric softener, they became all scratchy

I'd heard about Cuddledry so decided to invest in one of their apron towels. I've not been disappointed! It's very handy as you wear it around your neck so you can be hands free, making it easy and safe to just scoop your baby out the bath, give him a cuddle and wrap the towel around him. It stops you getting as wet too, and is supersoft, which has stayed the case despite many many washes!

Cuddledry also make other awesome items, such as toddler ponchos and dress up towels (I've got my eye on a dragon one when Ryan gets a little older!) and the Cuddlemat, which I was lucky enough to win in a Facebook caption competition. This is a bathmat which changes colour with body heat. I've certainly had fun making hand and foot prints on it, and I'm sure Ryan will also appreciate it eventually!

I also picked up a gorgeous Cuddleduck at The Baby Show. We have decided to try and collect rubber ducks from anywhere we visit with Ryan, as he loves his bath toys (mostly eating them at the moment!) and already has a Darth Vadar duck, and three little Manchester United ducks. So I made a beeline for the Cuddledry stand at the NEC and collected a lovely gold duck, which is antibacterial and antimould, perfect for something that goes straight in a baby's mouth! It is also soft so easy for little hands to grab, and it squeaks, what more could you want in a rubber duck?

Funky!

My Baby Show Cache

So I wanted to add a few reviews on favourite baby items I have discovered - starting with Funky Giraffe Bibs!

While I was pregnant I noticed a number of babies wearing bandana bibs, which I always assumed were a fashion statement, and actually really disliked and swore I'd never put my baby in one! But Ryan has been a dribbler from the start, so much that we thought he was getting his teeth at 2 months old, and they've only just appeared at 8 months!

To save his clothes getting drenched he was always in bibs, and I often had to 'double-bib' him, a plastic one underneath to protect his clothes and a fabric one on top to absorb the dribble! I hated seeing him in bibs all the time so decided to investigate alternatives. I chose Funky Giraffe Bibs because they were the cheapest - and I love a bargain.

Many people say you get what you pay for, but despite being reasonably priced, these bibs are awesome, and having chatted to other mums about other bandana style bibs, I've come to the conclusion that they are the, if not one of the best brands.

Ryan sporting his favourite football Funky Giraffe Bib

I don't know how they work, because they just seem to consist of a soft cotton top layer and a bottom fleecy type layer, but the dribble doesn't soak through, and they have such a large range of colours and designs to choose from you can pretty much match one to any outfit.

I already have about 15 of these, as Ryan gets through so many they are always in the wash, and I was thrilled to see them at The Baby Show and pick up a few more - they have got bigger and better since my last online order, and I got a lovely giraffe bag to bring them home in!

Teeth!

My little boy is growing up...but it makes me so sad!

Yesterday Ryan reached his 8 month birthday. He is a wonderful chirpy little thing. He's good at sitting up by himself, loves a good roll around, very rarely stops chattering away. He enjoys his toys - and anything that isn't a toy that he can get his hands on. He loves nursery rhymes, especially when we 'row, row, row' our boat and meet a crocodile!

I'm so happy and proud of him, but me and hubby had a little wobble yesterday when we discovered his first tooth. It was surprising as although he's had teething 'symptoms' for the past 5 months, but he's not really made a fuss about it and suddenly one has appeared! For us this symbolises that he really is growing up, and soon the gorgeous gummy smiles will be a thing of the past.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled he's doing so well and reaching his milestones, but can't I just keep my baby a little while longer??

Smart(phone) Shopping

I've got to admit now that I've never really enjoyed shopping. I hate shopping with other people as I prefer to know what I'm going for, go to one shop, get it and be back home. I get especially annoyed when the shops are busy and people get in my way!

So I've always been a big fan of internet shopping, it saves on fuel, and you can easily shop around to get the best price without having to trek back and forth between shops. Yes you have to wait for a delivery, but I don't mind that - plus I love getting post that isn't bills!

My favourite places to shop online are Amazon and eBay, so I was delighted to find they both have apps available for Android. Amazon is great as the vast majority of their items seem to be free delivery these days, and they are often the cheapest places for things. My Amazon app allows me to stay signed in, so when I open it, it comes up with my recommended items straight away, along with the search option, so I can easily type in what I'm looking for.

eBay has been useful not only for shopping, but the app makes it quick and easy to complete a listing to sell an item. You can take photos of what you want to sell using your phone, and upload them directly to the listing. This is great as I've been recently trying to get rid of a number of baby items I've ended up never using, such as soothers and bottles that I acquired while pregnant.

Argos also have their own app which again is user friendly, allowing you to do all that you would on the actual website, such as browse items, and reserve them for collection in store - plus it uses the GPS to find your nearest store, which you can then add to your favourites.

Since Ryan came along we've taken to doing our grocery shopping online too. Not because it's difficult to do it in store, it's not as he is a fab baby and loves to have a nosy round the supermarket. I just find it's much easier to budget, and I'm less likely to buy fattening rubbish I don't need! Therefore I've found the Sainsbury's app very useful, as it means as soon as I realise I'm running low of something, such as tea bags or loo roll, I can add it to my order with a few quick clicks while I remember, rather than my order arriving and finding out I've forgot the few things I needed most.

Loving my shopping apps at the moment!

Thank You!

So, my Baby Show tickets arrived yesterday, and as a little thank you, I wanted to write about the lovely company who have kindly provided them.

I only found them by a fluke, via a link from someone else's facebook page, but they are definately worth checking out.

The Day That... have spent every morning since Midsummer's Day 2005 taking gorgeous photos of the Cornish coastline at dawn. You can view and select the photo from your special date, which is then framed, with a hand-written inscription of your choice, to include the occasion and date the photo was taken.

This is such a fab idea for a truly unique gift. I've already had a look at my son's birthday, a bit of a cloudy day, but the view is out to sea with a couple of boats, and the sun just breaking beneath the clouds. I would really love this picture, as I'm still a bit sad that nobody saved me a newspaper from the day he was born (and I was in too much of a daze to think about it at the time!) and something so lovely that really captures the day would be perfect in his nursery. Also, my wedding day, in Feb 2009, is absolutely beautiful, and may just have to go on my gift wishlist!

I didn't want to infringe any copyright by adding a photo here, but please follow the link above and check them out - you won't regret it!

More Competitions

or...my new hobby!

One of the best things about having a smartphone is that it is small and only takes one hand to catch up on things I previously would have had to lug the computer out for. This is very handy with a baby as it means while he is feeding or sleeping on me I can check my emails, my facebook account, chat forums, and any other internet jobs I need to do.

I've always been a competition lover, but since becoming pregnant and signing up for all the baby clubs I seem to find at least one a day to enter, and they've recently been coming through for me. As well as my lovely new phone since Ryan arrived I've won a menu4mums membership, a Cuddledry bathmat, and today tickets to The Baby Show! It was fab - I was feeding Ryan while using my phone to check facebook, and The Day That...'s status came up - 'email us to get your hands on Baby Show Tickets, first come first served' - so I quickly pulled up my email account and whizzed a message off to them - and now myself, hubby and Ryan will be having a lovely day out in May.

I can't wait to write all about it!

Now while I'm being so lucky I best just go and buy that lottery ticket...

A Dairy Free Review

or...disappointing dairy free apps

I was really looking forward to trying some apps on my new smartphone to help me continue with my dairy free pledge, but having had a good play with the ones that have been added to my phone, I must say I'm disappointed.

Foodwiz
The premise of this is fab - scan a barcode while you're out shopping and it will tell you whether the product contains a particular allergen, in my case, milk. This sounded great to me, and would have been especially handy in the early days of going dairy free, when I had to check absolutely every label to see what was in an item. Nowadays I generally know what I can and can't have, so only need to check the labels if I want to try something new, but this still would have been useful for that. So I was looking forward to using this app, until I discovered that although the app itself is free, you have to sign up to the Foodwiz website, at a cost, for it to work. Well, as my maternity pay is about to stop, I don't want to be spending money on something I don't really need, so I will just have to stick to checking the labels myself.

Dairy Free Fast Food
Another good idea for an app, this lists major fast food chains, and then tells you which foods contain no dairy ingredients, however it does come with the caution that cross contamination may occur. In my early dairy free days, I did miss a McDonald's - until my hubby came up with the idea of checking the nutritional info on their website, which I think they have to provide by law. Thanks to this I have treated myself to the odd sweet chilli chicken wrap meal with fries and an apple pie, which seems about the only thing I can have! However, this app is American-ised, as the fast food chains include Taco Bell, Arby's and Wendy's, and the KFC and McDonald's sections show foods we don't have in the UK. Therefore, this isn't a very good app for use in this country, which is a shame in one way, however, it does mean I won't be too encouraged to eat more fast food to try it out!

Lactose-Free Guide
This app is also American. It contains a few links including lactose free articles, fitness and nutrition podcasts and lactose free videos, as well as a lactose free e-book. The problem is, I am completely dairy free, not just lactose free. Lactose is the sugar found in cow's milk, and it would be simpler if it was this causing Ryan's intolerance as it's easier to avoid, but he is intolerant to the protein in cow's milk, which is why we are dairy free, not just lactose free. The e-book would be useful to a lactose intolerance sufferer, as it explains all about the condition, and advice on preparing to go lactose free, and also includes suitable recipes, including one for lactose free ice cream!

I did try a search for dairy free apps on the play store, but nothing useful came up, so it seems dairy free people just aren't very well catered for in the app world!

In conclusion, there aren't many useful dairy free apps available, but if you're willing to pay a subscription, Foodwiz would be worth it, and I may well have paid for this when I first had to give up dairy as it would have been very handy when I was still trying to get my head around what I could and couldn't have. Dairy Free Fast Food is ok, but I would be worried about the cross contamination aspect, and feel it would be better to rely on the official restaurant websites for up to date nutritional info. Lactose-Free Guide would be useful for sufferers, but not for me!

This has been a disappointing exercise, however I have discovered other apps along the way to help with aspects of being a new(ish) mum, but I'll save them for another post!

World Book Night

or...spreading the joy of books!

As a library assistant I heard of World Book Night last year and was involved in distributing boxes of books to 'givers'. This year, with me being off work on maternity leave, I decided to sign up to be a giver myself.

Looking through this year's 25 chosen books the one I wanted to share immediately jumped out at me - The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I read this a couple of years ago after it was recommended to me by a colleague. It's a bit strange as it's written from the perspective of Death, but is awesome, and I'm looking forward to reading it again.

The idea of WBN is that 20,000 readers across the UK give out 24 copies of their chosen book to people in their community, to encourage those who don't read regularly to fall in love with reading.

I adore books and reading, but since having Ryan finding the time to myself to just curl up with a cup of tea and a book is very difficult. In the first few months after his birth I went from reading on average two books a week, to reading about two in four months! (Although, to be fair, I did read a lot of baby related books which I don't really count as books I've read, if that makes sense!)

Because of this I thought it would be good to share my books with other parents who are probably in the same boat as me. I also decided to share some of my books with fellow ladies who enjoy my other favourite hobby - netball.

I picked my books up from Nantwich Library the week before WBN, and it was like Christmas for me, opening a big box full of lovely fresh books, and I couldn't wait to start handing them out and chatting about them.

My first target - parents! I volunteer at Nantwich Baby Group, so I sent out a message in our weekly 'What's On' email advising members that I had free books to hand out. It was a big success, nearly every parent / grandparent who joined us that morning took a copy home with them, and I had some lovely chats about the book, which led on to talking about other books people have read. I was right that many mums especially don't get time to read often anymore, and had one person tell me the only chance they get to read away from the kids is in the bath!

Target number two - netballers! I am a member of Ladyhawks Netball Club in Crewe, so put up a message on facebook to let them all know about WBN, and that I'd be bringing my books to our training session. This was very popular, and I didn't have enough books left for everyone who wanted to try one! They were all happy with the idea that once they've read it they were to pass it on, and I can't wait to start tracking my books to see where they end up!

Even though it's part of my job, I'm often a bit apprehensive about recommending a book, in case the reader doesn't like it and blames me! The Book Thief is a bit strange, and possible not to everyone's taste, so it reassured me that one of my netball friends put a comment up on facebook to say that she's read it before and loved it too! Here's hoping all the other recipients of my books enjoy it as much as we did.

The Prize

or...my shiny new phone!

Although I'm not a massive gadget fan, unlike hubby who always wants the latest electronics, there's something about a shiny new phone that makes me go all a tingle!

However, I do like to keep things shiny, so before it even came out the box I was on Amazon ordering a screen protector and case for it.

3 had set the phone up ready to use, and downloaded some recommended apps to help with the 'mummy challenge' I wrote about to win the competition. I was also asked to arrange to visit my local 3 store for some training on the phone.

Initially thoughts on the phone:

It looks good, but is quite large. Now smartphones are the in thing, mobile sizes seem to have regressed! It wasn't long ago that smaller was better, but now they're designed to be used for surfing the net, watching videos etc, I suppose bigger screens are necessary.

The camera is really good. 8.0 mega pixels. This is especially important with a baby as it means I can take photos on the go without having to haul a camera around. And it's simple to upload straight to facebook to show him off to my friends. It also records video in HD, and as a HD convert this is fab!

The Play Store used for downloading apps, books and movies is very simple to use, you just type in what you're after and browse the results. A lot of the apps are free so I'm looking forward to having a proper play with that.

It also has the usual useful things such as a calendar and calculator, plus extras such as a sat nav, radio and music.

I'll start having a play with my dairy free apps and post some reviews!