14 April , 201614 April , 2016 - Sarah 6 Comments

Exploring the woods

There is a small wood very close to our house. It used to be fairly impenetrable with narrow, muddy footpaths but recently a lot of the trees and undergrowth have been cleared, three colour-coded trails have been put in and there are also lots of sculptures and information to look at (although unfortunately some of it has already been vandalised).

Barry had taken both boys for walks in the woods at different times but I hadn’t been since the work had been done and we hadn’t all been together so on Saturday as the sun was out we put the boys in the buggy and headed off. Gabe was due a nap so the hope was he would sleep and Toby could get out and have a run around. I’m not going to say much more about it and let the photographs speak for themselves…

It’s not far from home, and you can still see houses all around (and the massive Amazon depot across the road) but it really doesn’t matter – Toby had so much fun, and Gabe got his nap under the SnoozeShade…

12 April , 2016 - Sarah 4 Comments

Blog On Ice Breaker

In just a couple of weeks I will be leaving Toby and Gabe in the capable hands of my lovely husband and heading down to Manchester for the Blog On blogging conference. I went to Britmums Live back in 2014 but I haven’t had chance to go to another blogging conference since so I’m very excited. And I am very grateful to Barry for taking on the unenviable task of looking after both boys on his own for two days!

Before I go I thought I would join in with The Great Big Blog On Ice Breaker Linky and share a bit about myself, and hopefully find out a bit about some of the other bloggers who will be attending. I’m really looking forward to meeting up with some of my blogging pals but it would be great to meet some new people too – so if you see me then please do come and say hi!

So, to the questions…

Share a recent picture of you
I’m usually the one behind the camera these days but this is one my husband took when we went for a walk in the woods near our house at the weekend. I think I look knackered but I reckon that’s just my face these days!
If you had to describe yourself in three words…….
Tired mother and teacher
How long have you been blogging and what made you start?
I have been blogging since 2009 but I started Toby Goes Bananas in 2013 when Toby was about three months old. I’d started reading lots of other parenting blogs during the many and long night feeds and thought I’d like to keep a record of Toby’s childhood. Since then I’ve had another baby; Gabriel who was born in August 2015.
What was your favourite TV program as a child?
Ooh, now that depends at what age. As a pre-schooler I loved King Rollo and Button Moon, when I was a bit older it was probably Byker Grove or maybe Neighbours – I’m definitely from the Jason and Kylie era!
Something interesting you might not know about me is . . .
I can tap dance, knit, play the ukulele, speak French and Spanish and say ‘there is a naked man following me everywhere with a butcher’s knife’ in Dutch!
What is the weirdest food you have ever eaten?
I don’t think I’ve eaten anything weird – I’m quite fussy about food, I don’t even like baked beans.
What was your biggest fashion faux pas?
Oh there are too many to mention – I grew up in the 80s and 90s! Not clothes, but I did have a straight bob with a permed fringe when I was about 10!
What are you pet peeves?
Bad driving, inconsiderate neighbours and vegetables that go off before their use by date.
Who would be your 3 perfect dinner party guests (dead or alive) and why?
Michael Mosely because I always really enjoy his documentaries and we’ve recently started following The Fast Diet that he advocates. Jojo Moyes because I love all her books and I think she would be interesting to talk to. And lastly Johnny Depp because, well, Johnny Depp.
If they made a movie of your life, what would it be about and which actor would play the part of you?
Hmm, my 20s and early 30s were pretty busy – I lived and worked in France for six years on and off, and I travelled to America on my own twice. I did spend quite a lot of it drunk though so I don’t know how good a narrator I would make! And I think Carey Mulligan would play me, but mostly because I covet her hair.
If you could live in any sitcom, which one would it be?
I’d have to say Friends. I was in sixth form when it started and I remember the buzz about it. And I probably know all the scripts off by heart the amount of times I’ve seen every episode since!
Name a famous person you have met
I’ve met Tim Minchin quite a few times, I even hung out with him backstage at one of his gigs once. And I met Fatima Whitbread in MacDonalds during the Barcelona Olympics too.
Which social media platform best describes your personality and why?
Probably Twitter – always busy and I’ve forgotten what everyone has said five minutes after they say it.
What picture do you have on lock screen on your phone / computer?
This one…
How many pairs of shoes do you own?
About 20? Not including various dancing shoes. And how many do I wear regularly? Three!
What period of time from the past would you most like to have lived?
1950s – mostly because I love the clothes and those 1950s dresses really suit my body shape.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Oh this is hard. There are so many places I’d like to go… Australia and New Zealand are near the top of the list. I love America though – I’ve been three times (once to New York, once on a West Coast road trip on my own and most recently on an East Coast road trip for my honeymoon) but there is still so much of it I’d like to see. I’d love to go to South America too, especially now I can speak Spanish.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Chocolate and far too much of it.
What is your favourite tipple?
Rose wine or Southern Comfort and Coke although I don’t drink very much these days.
If you had a magic lamp and a Genie, what would be your three wishes?
I would wish that my boys grow up happy and healthy, for a cure for the common cold (then maybe I could help Gabe get rid of the one he’s had for nearly two months now) and lastly on a purely selfish note I would ask to be able to eat whatever I like without getting fat!

I’m really looking forward to meeting up with some of my blogging pals at Blog On but it would be great to meet some new people too – so if you see me then please do come and say hi!

11 April , 20163 May , 2017 - Sarah 22 Comments

To the man who told me I should be enjoying my baby

Dear Man at the crossing,

You probably don’t remember me, just another mother with another pushchair who you made a passing comment to as we both waited for the lights to change so we could cross the road. But let me remind you – as we walked towards each other, approaching the crossing from opposite directions you saw a mum, pushing a buggy with one hand and a mobile phone in the other. I imagine you thought I was texting my pals, or checking Facebook or maybe even taking a selfie like you’ve heard people do these days.

After a minute or two you saw me finish whatever I was doing and put my phone back in my pocket. As we neared the crossing you said ‘Glad to see you put that phone away, you should be enjoying your baby’. In my shock the only response I could come up with was one of those upwards nods of the head and a ‘yeah’.

But as we crossed the road and headed off again in opposite directions I thought ‘how dare you!’ ‘How dare you tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing. How dare you imply that I was somehow neglecting my son’.

Because let me tell you a bit about what had happened that morning, about this baby I should be ‘enjoying’. This baby is poorly. He’s only got a cold but he’s had it for about six weeks now. Oh, and he’s also teething. He’s currently cutting his sixth tooth in as many weeks. So last night he woke roughly every hour after going to bed. And it had taken over an hour to get him to sleep in the first place which meant I didn’t get to put my other son to bed, or to kiss him good night like I usually do. Then, the baby woke crying every hour and I had to settle him back to sleep. That carried on until about 2 am when he ramped it up to every half hour. And when it got to 5:30 and I couldn’t get him to go back to sleep any more my husband got up with him and took him downstairs so I could get a few hours sleep. Normally he wouldn’t be able to do that because he leaves for work at 6:30 but today he’s at home because he’s ill too. Oh I didn’t mention that part yet? As well as the baby being ill my husband and I are too. We’ve got some weird flu virus thing that’s left us exhausted, with temperatures and glands so swollen we can barely swallow. By rights we should both be tucked up in bed with a Lemsip but who would look after the kids then?

So anyway, the baby had been up since 5:30, the toddler got up a couple of hours later and was being mercifully well behaved. We managed to give everyone some breakfast and most of us were wearing clothes that weren’t pyjamas.

It was then time for the baby’s nap – he’d been up for over four hours and crying for most of them after all. I took him upstairs but instead of going to sleep he decided that screaming in my ear and trying to grab fistfuls of my painfully swollen neck is a much more appealing idea. So I brought him out for a walk.

I left the toddler at home with his dad, which I could only do because he’s off work sick and I wrangled a crying baby into the pushchair. I left the house to the sounds of my two and a half year old saying ‘don’t go, I want to go with mummy’.

I have a wonderful little boy who entertains himself while I deal with the baby, a little boy who has watched far too much TV in the last seven months because sometimes I can barely function enough to get him fed and dressed after a few hours sleep so there’s no way I’m going to worry if he watches a bit too much CBeebies if that’s what we need to do to get through the day.

So anyway, my lovely, sweet little boy has been asking to go swimming every day for a week now. He hasn’t been in a swimming pool for over a year so I don’t know where he’s got the idea from but that’s what he wants to do. But he hasn’t got anything to wear to go swimming so as I was walking down the road, pushing the buggy with one hand I was using the other to order my older boy some swimming things so we can take him next week, that is assuming everyone is well again and the baby hasn’t kept us up all night. And when I’d finished my order I put my phone away.

Just in time for your comment that I should be enjoying my baby. My baby who cries for probably half the time he’s awake. My baby who I have to prioritise over my toddler nearly every day. My baby who makes me cry almost every day because I don’t know what’s wrong with him or how I can help him.

My baby who was fast asleep in his buggy and couldn’t give a shit whether I was on my phone or not.

So next time you feel the need to pass judgement on someone’s parenting, sir, I urge you to think about the rest of the story that you can’t see from a two minute encounter in the street.

Yours,

The knackered-looking mum pushing a buggy with one hand and a phone in the other.

11 April , 201610 April , 2016 - Sarah 7 Comments

Living Arrows 15/52 (2016)

In all honesty we’ve had a rotten week and I think probably the less said about it the better. We’ve all been ill (apart from Toby miraculously), Gabe has been miserable all week and none of us has got very much sleep.

On Saturday though the sun shone and we managed to get out of the house for a little walk through the woods just round the corner. Toby had a lovely time running through the trees and jumping in muddy puddles. I just love this action shot…

And Gabe had a nice nap and woke up just as we got home. As you can see his face is probably about 50% snot at the moment. He did manage half a smile at least…

9 April , 20165 August , 2017 - Sarah 5 Comments

Review: Certaslim meal replacement diet

I’ve mentioned before that I have done a few different meal replacement diets and although they’re not for everyone I have always found them a relatively easy way to lose weight, and to lose weight quickly. Of course if you go back to your previous way of eating after then the weight will come back but they are good way to boost your weight loss if you are planning a lifestyle change, and they can also be very useful if you have a lot of weight to lose.

I hadn’t heard of Certaslim until they got in touch and asked if I would like to have a two week trial of their products. Certaslim has several different plans, some of which include ‘real’ food and some don’t. The plans are designed so you can switch between them, rather than coming off the plan altogether so that it is easier to make it fit in with your lifestyle.

I chose the Boost plan which is a complete meal replacement plan. The other plans are Rapid, Flex, For Life and even D2 which is for people with diabetes or who want to control their blood sugar for some other reason.

Unlike some other diets I have tried which only have three meal replacements each day, Certaslim Boost has four meal replacements and one snack. I chose a mixture of shakes, soups and meals, and I also tried some of the Certaslim snacks.

Getting started

I ordered all of my Certaslim products online. It was very easy to do – you just choose which program you want to follow and for how long and the online shopping cart shows you how many products you need to choose. You can also add individual products if you like but it is cheaper to buy several weeks in one go. The products arrived quickly and were well packaged in Certaslim boxes. These were also very handy to store the products while I was following the plan.

As well as the option to order online Certaslim also has consultants who run groups where you can be weighed and get support. You can also purchase the Certaslim products directly from one of these consultants.

What were the Certaslim products like?

I tried all of the shake flavours (of which there are nine) and I liked most of them. I wasn’t keen on the hazelnut, caffé latte or chocolate orange flavours but that’s really just down to my personal taste. I found all the shakes mixed well, some seemed thicker than others but I didn’t have any problems with them. I always use a stick blender to mix my shakes and would definitely recommend it over just using a shaker.

I also tried the tomato, vegetable, chicken and mushroom soups. Again, I liked all of these but I think I the chicken was probably my favourite out of all of them. I tended to have soup at lunch times and accompany it with a small side salad which counted as my snack for the day.

There are also some meal options, although perhaps not so many as with some other diet programs. I tried the Apple and Cinnamon porridge which was OK but more like porridge soup than actual porridge! I also tried the Savoury Cottage Pie which wasn’t too bad – a bit like instant mash with a few bits of soya protein in it. Lastly from the meals I had the Italian Style Carbonara Twist – despite containing real pasta which was reasonably palatable I really wasn’t a fan of the sauce and again the soya pieces. I suppose it is a matter of taste and I guess some people like these product or they wouldn’t make them but whenever I do this kind of diet I always find the meals disappointing and wish I had just stuck to shakes and soups.

For the snacks I tried the Salt & Vinegar and Cheese & Onion Incredi-crisps which were…odd, is the only way I can describe them. They weren’t unpleasant but they just tasted a bit weird as they are made from some sort or soya protein rather than potatoes. To be honest I think if I can’t have actual crisps I’d rather not have something that is pretending to be crisps either!

I did have a couple of the snack bars too – Chocolate, and Lemon Crunch and they were both quite pleasant. However, there is also a list of ‘real’ foods that you can have as snacks (fruit and veg, small portions of meat, eggs, low fat cheese etc) and I think if I were continuing the Certaslim program long term I would stick to snacks from this list.

Did it work?

Of course the big question – did I lose any weight? I did! In the first week I lost 6 lb and then another 2 lb in the second week. It is common with these sort of meal replacement diets to have a big loss in the first week and then for weight loss to slow down. If I were continuing the program I would probably expect to lose 2-4 lbs per week after the initial loss.

Was it hard to stick to the plan?

Not really. Of course I knew I was only going to be following the Certaslim program for two weeks but I think it would be relatively easy to sustain long term. Having four meal replacements and a snack every day means you don’t have time to get hungry. You also have a daily milk allowance and can have one tablespoon of oil and some condiments (handy for making salad dressings). If anything the only problem I had was finding enough time in the day to fit in everything I was supposed to be eating! Since finishing my two week Certaslim trial three weeks ago I have kept this weight off and managed to lose a bit more too. People often think that the weight will go straight back on once you stop this kind of diet but that isn’t necessarily the case.

Would I recommend it?

If you are looking for a meal replacement diet then Certaslim is definitely easy to follow and there are good selection of products available. There also seems to be a good amount of support available, either through the website or one of the local consultants. The Rapid and Boost programs cost around £8 per day depending on how many products you order in one go. This isn’t particularly cheap but I think it is a similar price to most meal replacement diets out there. If you want a pretty much guaranteed way of losing weight without worrying about counting calories or planning meals then Certaslim could be for you.

**Disclosure: I was sent the featured products in return for this review. All opinions are my own.

8 April , 20167 October , 2020 - Sarah Leave a comment

Your questions answered with #SMAnutrition

You may have read my post a few weeks ago in which I shared some information from SMA nutrition about the importance of getting the right nutrition for your baby in their first 1,000 days – from conception to two years old. It’s especially important that your baby gets the right amount of protein – their protein needs decrease as they grow – as this can help to ensure that they grow at a steady rate.

We are now well into our first few weeks of weaning with Gabe and he’s really enjoying trying lots of different foods – even though he’s not actually managing to eat very much yet! I know though that he is still getting all the nutrition he needs from his milk at the moment. There’s a saying that ‘food is for fun until they’re one’ – for now weaning is all about trying new tastes and textures and just getting used to the mechanics of eating. I’m trying to make sure that Gabe gets plenty of chance to try different things and I’m sure it won’t be long until he really gets the hang of it!

In my last post I asked if you had any questions for medic and weekly health columnist Dr Ellie Cannon and below you can find the answers to some of the questions that were asked by some of the other bloggers who wrote about the first 1,000 days too…

I am 5 months pregnant and would love some must have information of how to make sure my baby gets the best start in life.

From the moment of conception, your baby starts growing fast. At this first stage of your 1,000-day journey, make sure your pregnancy diet provides the energy and nutrients you need, by eating a variety of different foods every day, including plenty of protein, dairy products, oily fish, fruit and vegetables. This all helps your baby to get the best start. For the first 6 months of your baby’s life, breast milk is the only food they need. The nutrients and protein in milk your baby drinks are the foundation for their cells, muscles, bones and brain as they develop and grow. At around 6 months you’ll start introducing complementary foods to provide additional nutrients. At this stage, your little one needs the right amount of protein and nutrients to maintain a steady growth and good health.

Have you any tips on how I can factor in bottles of expressed milk too? Do I need to stick to my pregnancy diet during breastfeeding months (no soft cheese etc.)?

Bottles of expressed milk are a popular choice for mums who are breastfeeding. It is also good to have the convenience of both bottle and breastfeeding, for those unexpected mummy absences! A nice time to give a bottle of expressed milk is a dream feed, (a dream feed is a calm, quiet feed around 10.30/11pm. It is called the dream feed as your baby is usually fast asleep and will probably take the feed with her eyes closed), or an evening when dad is at home to join in. Once you have banked up enough breast milk, you could make that a part of your regular routine.

When you are breastfeeding, your diet is really important for nourishing yourself and your little one. A healthy diet includes eating at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables a day, starchy foods, plenty of fibre, protein, dairy foods and drinking plenty of fluids. Eating fish while breastfeeding is good for your health and your baby’s, but while you’re breastfeeding you should have no more than two portions of oily fish a week. Also, caffeine can reach your baby through your breast milk and may keep them awake. It’s advised that pregnant and breastfeeding women restrict their caffeine intake to less than 300mg a day (just over two mugs of filter coffee). While breastfeeding, it’s recommended you take supplements containing 10 micrograms (mcg) of vitamin D each day. You can get all the other vitamins and minerals you need by eating a varied and balanced diet.

My question would be: if mothers do not breastfeed their child does formula contain the same amount of protein as breast milk? Breast milk protein is unique and adapts to your baby’s growth and relative requirements, this means the level of protein can increase or decrease based on the baby’s needs, unlike in baby formula where the level will stay the same.

Feeding your baby, from the early newborn days until they are toddlers telling you what they do and don’t like (and beyond) can seem like such a minefield sometimes but I think as long as you follow your instincts and make sure your child is eating a healthy, balanced diet then you can’t go too far wrong. And if there is anything you aren’t sure about then there is plenty of help and information available from your health visitor and on line in places like the SMA nutrition website.

*This post is in association with SMA nutrition

8 April , 201626 March , 2021 - Sarah 15 Comments

What Gabe Wore // Albababy

Another Scandinavian brand this week – this one is Albababy from Denmark. I’ve only recently discovered Albababy and I love their clothes but they are not cheap so at the moment these crawlers (or dungarees to you and me) are the only item we own. I’m keeping my eye out for sales and hoping I can maybe pick up a few more bits too.

I bought these Gedashy crawlers back in February from Oh Dorothy and they are size 80cm which is roughly 9-12 months. They are still pretty big on Gabe but he can just about get away with wearing them with the leg cuffs turned up and at £29 I wanted to make sure they would last a while!

He is wearing them with a red long sleeve bodysuit by Maxomorra (which is also too big really) and some red socks which were Toby’s and I’ve no idea where they came from!

I think Gabe was mid arm flap in this photo – he’s a very flappy baby!

7 April , 20167 April , 2016 - Sarah 2 Comments

My Wild Ones // First bath together

Our boys only get a bath twice a week and usually I bath Gabe and he’s in and out in five minutes then Barry baths Toby and he gets to have a play while I put Gabe in bed. Yesterday however, the boys were overdue their bath by a couple of days for various reasons including Gabe being ill (again!), Barry getting stuck in traffic on the way home from work for three and a half hours on Tuesday and just a bit of laziness on my part.

Barry and I have both been ill as well with some sort of flu virus thing so yesterday he came home from work at lunch time because I was really struggling with both boys on my own. We decided to make bedtime for ourselves and give Toby and Gabe a bath in the afternoon and thought that maybe it would be a good time to try their first bath together.

Now, Toby has refused to sit down in the bath almost 10 months now. We had a couple of months where he screamed his way through every bath and then he settled down and started to enjoy it again but still refuses to sit down. Up until now Gabe has been bathed lying back on a bath support… so there was always a chance this wasn’t going to go well!

We put the aquapod in the bath (it’s like a bathmat with a built in seat that we used for Toby), and then when I put Gabe in… he cried. And cried. And cried.

We got Toby in in the hope that he could distract his little brother and he did a little bit by showing him some of the bath toys. But Toby still wouldn’t sit down and Gabe still wasn’t happy. Even our old faithful the bubble machine didn’t help.

In the end I gave Gabe a quick wash and got him out and then left Toby with his dad to get his hair washed and have a play. Not the most successful first bath together with our boys but hopefully it won’t be like that forever! Maybe I need to try and get Gabe used to sitting first and when he’s happy with that then get Toby in too. And you never know, maybe Toby will even copy his brother and sit down in the bath again.

5 April , 20164 April , 2016 - Sarah Leave a comment

Nursery ideas for our new home

Before Toby was born we did the whole expectant parent thing of painting the nursery, getting new carpet, choosing the furniture – although actually we just matched the walls to the curtains we already had up in the room and the only new furniture we bought was a cot. For a while his room didn’t have any other decoration but when he was about six months old we decided on a space theme. We added solar system stickers to one wall and a Dr Seuss quote with some rockets on the other wall. My brother and sister-in-law bought him a space rocket rug and when he moved into his big boy bed before Christmas we bought space themed bedding too.

Toby loves his space rocket room and he can tell you all about the planets – Mercury is really, really small, Venus is really, really hot, Jupiter has a big red spot, and Saturn has rings – what more do you need to know?!

Poor old Gabe though, he hasn’t even got a room of his own. He’s heading towards eight months old and is still sleeping in his co-sleeper crib in our room. There are a few reasons for this; we have a three bedroom house but our third bedroom is full of Barry’s computer, bookshelves, the sofa bed for when we have visitors and all the other accumulated junk that doesn’t have anywhere else to live. We were hoping that the boys would be able to share a room but with Gabe still waking in the night, and usually up at between 4 and 5 am I don’t think we’re quite ready for that yet! So for now he’s staying in with us and we’re going to have to try squeezing the cot in our room soon as he’s not got much room left in the co-sleeper.

However, we are hopefully going to be moving house sometime this year to go and live nearer to our parents and we’re hoping the move is going to be sooner rather than later. We’ve been looking at four bedroom houses so that the boys would have a room each and then they can share when they’re a bit older. I’ve been Pinning lots of nursery ideas already. I really love the grey and yellow of this Snuz bedding so I think I might go with those colours as a start and then maybe go with clouds and rainbows. It would need to have lots of storage too – I’m a bit obsessed with buying clothes for the boys at the moment so we would need somewhere for them all to go, and somewhere for all the cloth nappies too! I’m mostly looking forward to him having a room of his own though, at least until he’s a bit older.

I guess then when the boys are older if they want to share a room they can. There are so many cool bunk beds and cabin beds out there – I know I loved having bunk beds with my brother when I was small, until I fell out of the top bunk when I was seven and split my eyebrow open on some Lego at least! I know when they’re a bit older I might not get my own way as easily but I’m hoping we can avoid the cartoon character bedrooms for a good few years yet anyway!

For now I’m just hoping we get our moving plans under way soon – I don’t really want Gabe to still be in our room when he’s one!

**This post is in collaboration with homify

4 April , 2016 - Sarah 6 Comments

Living Arrows 14/52 (2016)

We’ve actually had a couple of days of nice weather this week (although as I write this it’s raining again) and on Wednesday we managed to get out in the garden to take March’s Me & Mine photos. When we were done with the family pictures Toby had a good run around. He’s just discovered shadows so was having a lot of fun chasing his round the garden!

In the second half of this week Gabe has been ill again – another cold, another temperature, gunky eyes again. I feel so sorry for him, but for us too because there have been quite a lot of sleepless nights lately. Anyway, I did take this photo last weekend of Gabe enjoying some homemade pancake for the first time. I know this is a very similar picture to last week’s Living Arrows but when he’s in his high chair enjoying some food Gabe is often at his happiest, and easiest to photograph as he can’t go anywhere!