27 November , 20145 May , 2016 - Sarah 2 Comments

Q & A – a meme

I’ve not done one of these kind of posts for a little while so thanks to Donna at Redhead Babyled for tagging me. And without further ado I’m just going to get right down to answering the questions…

Where in the world would you most like to be right now?

I’d like to be in our forever house, somewhere in the north of England, with views of the countryside out of the window and a real wood fire burning, cosy on the sofa cuddling up with Toby and Barry watching White Christmas. Or failing that, I’d be quite happy to stay where I am, with Toby sleeping upstairs in bed and my lovely husband next to me on the sofa….as long as I didn’t have to go to work tomorrow!

What do you love most about having your blog?

I love having somewhere I can just write about whatever I feel like, and even better some people usually read it! I love that I’ve got a record of most of Toby’s life so far, in both words and pictures, which I don’t think I would ever have bothered doing if I wasn’t blogging about it. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I love all the fantastic products we get to try out and review.

Who is the person that you most admire?

This is such a hard question to answer but I’m going to say my dad. My dad has always worked so hard to provide for his family. My whole life he has gone to work all day and then comes home and works some more. He’s 65 now and not looking anywhere near close to retiring. He’s also one of those people who can literally do anything he puts his mind to – he’s super-clever and works with computers (to be honest I’m not entirely sure what he does!) but he’s also the master of DIY, even though he lives 250 miles away and I’m now married with my own family I still get him to come and visit when there are jobs need doing in the house! On top of all that he’s also massively involved with the Scout Association and has been since he was a little kid. He does all sorts of things for Scouts, all for no payment or reward, other than the satisfaction of giving young people opportunities that they wouldn’t get anywhere else. In short, my dad is awesome!

What keeps you awake at night?

Toby! He’s still got a cold and has been teething FOREVER so we still get at least one wake up a night if not more. Apart from that nothing keeps me awake at night, I’ve always been a champion sleeper and I’m asleep within minutes of turning out the light.

What is your all-time favourite breakfast?

It has to be French toast (or eggy bread as we call it) with crispy streaky bacon and maple syrup! We first had this delight on our honeymoon in America and now reserve it as a special treat we only have on holiday. I think there are probably more calories than I’m supposed to eat in a whole day in one serving!

Which song makes you smile every time you hear it?

Up all night by Take That, or in fact pretty much any Take That song really. I’ve been to all the Take That tours since they got back together and I love them (so much I even forked out £95 for a ticket to next year’s tour!)

If you could go back and give one piece of advice to your fifteen year old self, what would it be?

Probably don’t start smoking and don’t drink so much! You’ll spend so much money that would have been better spent on something else and waste half the weekends of your twenties nursing a hangover. (Luckily I did learn these lessons eventually but I would have been easier (and cheaper!) to find this out when I was 15 instead of 25).

And just in case you were interested, here is a bit of a blurry picture of me when I was 15 (I was head girl at school and we had to wear those gowns for assemblies and formal school events!).

So there you have it, a bit more about me – thanks again Donna!

And now I need to tag a few more people, so if you fancy it it’s over to you…

Aby at You Baby Me Mummy

Vicki at Ellie Bear Babi

Kate at Family Fever

Hannah at Budding Smiles

25 November , 201426 February , 2020 - Sarah 1 Comment

Top 5 toddler travel essentials

We’ve done quite a bit of travelling with Toby since he was born. With both sets of Grandparents living 250 miles away we’ve been to stay with them a a fair few times plus a couple of self-catering holidays in the UK and the two weeks we spent in France at the beginning of the summer. Each time we’ve made another trip we’ve refined our list of ‘must-haves’ to take with us so I thought I’d share my top 5 toddler travel essentials with you.

So, in no particular order…

Gro Anywhere Blind

(RRP £29.99)

I originally bought this so we could use it at home and when we travel. It’s been fantastic, especially for naps while we’re away or when travelling in the summer when it’s still very light at bedtime. The blind fits windows up to 130cm x198cm (we’ve never been anywhere with a window bigger than that yet) but also has clever velcro along the edges so you can adjust it to make it smaller. It attaches to the window with suckers and we’ve never had any problems with them coming unstuck. The other great benefit of the Gro Anywhere Blind is that it folds up nice and small and even comes with its own travel bag.

Munchkin Travel Booster Seat

(RRP £20.99)

Depending on where you are going on holiday you maybe able to hire a high chair, or if you know you’re going to be eating out the whole time the high chairs are usually readily available. In our experience though the highchairs which you get in rented holiday accommodation are not always great, either they’re a bit old and tired or just not a great design. When we go and visit our parents we need to take something with us, we don’t really go often enough for it to be worth them keeping a high chair at their houses. At home we love our IKEA Antilop high chair but it takes up quite a bit of room in the car so a booster seat is the perfect option for us. The Muchkin Travel Booster Seat has loads of great features. It is height adjustable with the four feet that fold out of the bottom. The three straps mean it can be fitted safely and securely to most chairs. There is a three-point harness to keep your little one safe in the chair too. When folded there are velcro flaps to keep everything tucked neatly out of the way and there is also a handy pocket inside the seat so you can keep cups, cutlery or bibs handy, or you could even fit a few nappies and wipes in there and do away with the need for your changing bag if you weren’t going to far. We used this booster seat on our recent trip to Butlins and it worked really well for us. We’ll definitely taking it when we go away again, and I can even see us using it at home in the future once Toby is too big for his highchair but not quite big enough to sit at the table with us.

Waterproof floor mat

At home we use a big piece of wipe clean PVC material, that I originally bought to use as a table cloth when we went camping, to put on the floor underneath Toby’s high chair so it’s easy to clean up any spills or dropped food. I’d definitely recommend taking something similar if you are staying in self-catering accommodation, that way you don’t have to worry about anything making a mess or staining the floor – especially if it’s carpet! We also reviewed the Messy Me mat which is perfect for the job.

Cheerios (and Munchkin Deluxe Snack Catcher)

(RRP £4.99)

Cheerios (or actually Tesco Multi-grain hoops!) have been our saviour on many trips! Toby loves them, I think he would live on dry Cheerios if we let him! We usually give him Cheerios in his Munchkin Snack Catcher whether we’re at home or away. They’re easy for him to get at but it takes enough of his concentration to keep him occupied, whether it’s while we’re unpacking or in the car. Using the snack catcher also means mess is limited, and luckily even dropped Cheerios aren’t too hard to clear up. If you do a lot of travelling with your kids it’s definitely worth finding a snack they love that also doesn’t make too much mess!

Grobags

(prices vary)

Toby has used a sleeping bag since he was about six weeks old. We have had several different brands in the past but always come back to the Grobag as they seem to have a bigger selection of togs and also bigger sizes (Toby has been using the 18-36 month size for a while now as he is so tall). When travelling I would always recommend taking whatever bedding and toys/comforters that your child uses at home. They’re already going to be sleeping in a strange place and a different bed or cot so anything you can do to make it as familiar as possible will help them feel settled – and hopefully sleep better, although this doesn’t always seem to work with Toby! I would also recommend taking a couple of sleeping bags of different thicknesses, or togs, as you never know what the temperature is going to be like where you are staying. There’s been a few times when we’ve been using a 2.5 tog bag at home but then gone to stay somewhere which has lots of heating and we’ve only needed the 1 tog. It’s always handy to have a spare anyway in case of any accidents!

WD40

OK, I know this is the sixth thing on the list but Barry wanted me to add this one! WD40 isn’t actually something we have taken away with us before but after our last trip I’ve bought a small can to keep in the car so we always have some when we’re away. I think every single place we have stayed has had creaky, squeaky bedroom doors, guaranteed to wake Toby when we’re trying to go to bed quietly. One of the wheels on our stroller is prone to squeaking too and we always forget to do anything about it when we’re at home as we don’t tend to use the stroller that much so it’s only when we get away that we remember how annoying it is!

There you go, my top 5 toddler travel essentials. Do you have anything you wouldn’t leave home without when travelling with your toddler?

**Disclosure: We were sent the Munchkin Travel Booster Seat and Deluxe Snack Catcher as a part of my role as a Munchkin Lindam blogger. This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own.

24 November , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 3 Comments

Living Arrows 47/52

I can’t believe we’re on week 47 of the year! Only another five weeks to go until the end of 2014 (and that means only five more Monday’s at school too!). We’ve had another tiring week here… Toby’s foot/leg seems to have recovered from whatever was wrong with it. I suppose we’ll never find out what the matter was but I’m glad it’s improved, which also means we have a walking toddler again! Of course life is never plain sailing though so although his foot has recovered Toby has now caught the cough and cold that I had last week and has been really suffering the last few days. He’s had a high temperature (up to 39.5° a few times) for three days now so I had him at the out of hours GP yesterday just to make sure it wasn’t something I should be worrying about. They reckon it’s just viral and as he seems OK in himself just to keep giving Calpol and cuddles. And as if that wasn’t enough his teeth seem to be really bothering him again the last few days! The top canines have finally broken the gum but the bottom ones are still coming. Fingers crossed they come quick and hopefully we all might get a break for Christmas.

So to this week’s Living Arrows photo. With his cold and teeth Toby hasn’t been eating too well the last few days but he seemed to be enjoying his bagel at lunchtime yesterday, and I love how he’s decided he’d rather wear a cape than a bib!

23 November , 20145 December , 2017 - Sarah 32 Comments

Win £50 to spend at Konfidence

We were delighted when we were asked to be Konfidence Swimologists earlier in the year and Toby has loved trying out the Konfidence Babywarma along with his NeoNappy and AquaNappy. We also put the Sun Protection Suit and hat to good use this summer too! After four blocks of Turtle Tots lessons we are giving weekly swimming a bit of a break for the moment. Toby has been having a bit of a wobble lately and has had so many coughs and colds since starting nursery that we’ve had to miss quite a few classes. I’ve really enjoyed taking Toby swimming though, and it has definitely given me much more confidence to take him in the pool by myself. We’re definitely going to keep swimming as often as we can manage and hopefully get Toby back into lessons when he’s a bit bigger.

Along with a break from swimming lessons our time as Konfidence Swimologists is also coming to an end. Konfidence are already looking for some new Swimologists for 2015 and we’d really like to thank everyone at Konfidence for giving us the chance to work with them and try out their fantastic products this year.

And because the people at Konfidence are just plain lovely they’ve also given me a £50 voucher to give away so you can get your hands on some of their lovely swimming gear too!

To enter just complete the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Entries close at midnight on Sunday 14th December.

All entrants must be 18 or over and UK residents.

The winner will be contacted by email.

19 November , 201418 November , 2014 - Sarah 3 Comments

Saying goodbye to the bottle

At 16 months old Toby is now almost bottle-free. I know technically he didn’t really need a bottle after he turned one but we decided to take a relaxed approach and see how things went. At 12 months he was still having three bottles a day (plus more if he woke up in the night) and our little routine was going so well we didn’t really want to rock the boat too much! The other reason I was a bit wary of getting rid of the bottle too soon was that Toby wasn’t very keen on drinking much from a cup and I wanted to make sure he was still getting enough to drink one way or another.

The first bottle to go was the one he had before his afternoon nap. When he started nursery in August he was being fed so much during the day (3 meals and 2 snacks) that he didn’t really need an afternoon bottle, although he still had one at home at the weekends for quite a while.

The next bottle we cut out was the morning one. A month or so ago there were quite few days when Toby had woken up sometime between 4 and 5am and had a bottle so there didn’t seem much point giving him another when we got up at 6:30am. This also coincided with him becoming more comfortable with drinking out of his cup (after trying every sippy cup on the planet we had more success with straw cups as for ages Toby wouldn’t tip a cup to drink) and us switching completely from formula to cow’s milk. So now when I get Toby up in the morning (or he gets us up!) we just give him some milk in his cup and he has that while I’m getting him dressed and ready to go out. He doesn’t always drink very much of it during the week when we don’t have very long to get up and out to nursery but I know he has more milk on his cereal and drinks plenty of water during the day anyway.

I was quite concerned though about stopping the bedtime bottle. A bottle before bed was such an integral part of Toby’s bedtime routine that I just couldn’t imagine how we would get him to bed without it. Especially since after starting nursery he had gone back to having 9oz bottles at bedtime rather than his previous 5 or 6 ounces. But, as usually happens, these things tend to sort themselves out if you let them. A few weeks ago Toby started completely refusing his bedtime bottle. He would maybe have a few mouthfuls but then push it away and get himself worked up if we tried to get him to have any more. And so, we decided to give him milk in his cup, along with some snacks (even after eating three meals and two snacks at nursery he still comes home hungry!) as soon as he gets in from nursery so he has time to drink plenty in the hour or so before bedtime.

This seemed to sort of work for a few weeks – he would go to sleep OK without his bottle but then wake up a few hours later and drain a full bottle. I was willing to persevere though and was hoping that he would eventually make it through the night without needing a bottle. However, last week Toby hurt his foot and was also teething, and I think having another growth spurt. His sleep was awful, he was waking up two or three (or more!) times a night and would only go back to sleep after having loads of milk and in an effort to get him to sleep a bit better the bedtime bottle has made a return.

To be honest I’m still not too worried about this at the moment. If Toby still wants a bottle a bedtime (and during the night) then for now I’m happy for him to have one. I’m confident that at some point he will decide he doesn’t want it any more and hopefully he might even start sleeping through the night again eventually too!

If your little one had bottles at what age did they stop? Did you do anything the wean them off the bottle or just leave it up to them to decide? I’d love to hear how you managed the transition.

17 November , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 2 Comments

Living Arrows 46/52

We’ve had a better week this week, kind of! Toby still won’t put his heel down although he is managing to walk a bit now. We’ve still got no idea what’s wrong with him and it’s showing no sign of improvement so it looks like we’ll be back to the hospital some time next week. Having said that, Toby has been a bit cheerier and we haven’t really had any tantrums this week. His sleep has still been disturbed with at least a couple of wake-ups most nights. He did manage to sleep from 7:30 pm to 6 am on Saturday night though which is the first time he’s made it through the night without waking up in weeks and weeks!

I mentioned last week about Toby wanting to feed himself all the time now and so this week we’ve been giving him a spoon or a fork and just letting him get on with it. And he’s doing a great job! Admittedly he’s still using his fingers more than any cutlery but he’s having a go and is even managing to get food from the plate to his mouth occasionally. He’s certainly much happier feeding himself and he seems to be eating more too (which will hopefully help with the sleeping).

Anyway, to this week’s Living Arrows pictures… Yesterday Santa (why is he Santa everywhere now by the way? What happened to Father Christmas?) arrived at our local garden centre. I won’t be taking Toby to see him this year, call me mean but I don’t see the point in spending money on it when he would have no clue what was going on! However, we were due our monthly visit for our free coffees and the theatre group I’m in were entertaining the crowds with some Christmas songs so we went along to have a look. I joined in with the singing for 10 minutes but I don’t think Toby was quite ready to make his stage debut yet (even if I had put him in his elf Slugs & Snails tights and Frugi Christmas top especially!)…

After our coffee and cake we had a wander round and I took a few photos of Toby in front of Santa’s grotto. It seems Frozen has taken over Christmas everywhere this year. Toby wasn’t that impressed with Olaf at first though.

He was more interested in reading his buggy book I think!

13 November , 20147 October , 2020 - Sarah 7 Comments

The Gift of Giving with Frugi

I love Frugi clothes. They are absolutely fantastic for Toby as they are ‘cut for cloth’ meaning there is plenty of room for his big fluffy bum without having to go up a size. Not only do Frugi clothes fit Toby brilliantly they are also made of lovely soft organic cotton. And on top of that it’s also great to buy clothes from a company that aims to be ethical in everything they do, each year donating 1% of their turnover to three great environmental charities as a member of the 1% For The Planet scheme, as well as supporting an orphanage in India.

This Christmas (all right, I know it’s still only November but Starbucks have got the red cups out so we can officially talk about Christmas!) Frugi decided they wanted to share their ethos of giving back and wanted to give the Gift of Giving. So they asked each of the bloggers in the Frugi Family to choose a blogging friend to send a Frugi gift to.

I was so touched when my lovely blogging buddy Donna over at What the Redhead Said chose us to receive her Frugi gift. And when I saw the top Donna had chosen for Toby I was delighted! I love this stripy reindeer long sleeve t-shirt – perfect for the festive season. The top is made of thick, soft organic cotton and it washes really well. And I think Toby looks super-cute wearing it too!

In these pictures Toby is also wearing his Frugi corduroy trousers that I bought in the January sales. They are 12-18 months (when in all his other clothes we’ve had to go up to 18-24 months) and there is still plenty of room in them. I love that they have an adjustable elastic waist so I can get a great fit on long, skinny Toby. They’re fully lined too so lovely and cosy and perfect for winter.

Thanks so much to Frugi and to Donna for choosing us to receive this gift!

**Disclosure: We were sent this Frugi top as part of the Gift of Giving project. All opinions are my own.

11 November , 2014 - Sarah 5 Comments

The guilt

Being a mum and working full time is hard. During the week I see Toby for about half and hour in the morning when I get him up, dressed and dropped off at nursery. Thirty minutes where he’s often crying because I’ve had to wake him up at 6:30 am and I have to wrestle him into a clean nappy and clothes. Thankfully these days we rarely have tears when I drop him off at nursery but our mornings aren’t exactly enjoyable for either of us.

In the evening Barry picks Toby up at 4:30 pm after he’s had his tea at nursery. I usually get home from work at about 5 pm and have about an hour of play time before we have to put Toby in bed because he’s absolutely exhausted.

So during the week I see Toby for a grand total of seven and a half hours, while other people look after him for forty-seven and a half hours. I know he enjoys nursery, which is something at least, but it doesn’t stop me feeling sad and guilty that he’s not at home with me. Instead, I’m doing a job I don’t even like most of the time, looking after other people’s children, trying to teach them something they have no interest in learning.

And all this is bad enough when it’s going well. But on Thursday last week Toby fell, banging his ear on the edge of a table leaving a cut and a big bruise. The next day he crawled head first into a door stop and bumped his forehead. (And a few weeks ago he fell onto a table again, leaving a straight line bruise right across his cheek.) Then on Friday evening I noticed he wasn’t putting the heel of his right foot down. I thought it was a bit strange but decided to leave it overnight and see if he was still doing it on Saturday morning. Lying in bed that night I realised I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen him walk. He fell on Thursday and I couldn’t remember if I’d seen him walk on Thursday evening. My own child and I can’t even remember if he was walking or not. According to nursery he was walking while he was there on Friday, but if so something must have happened on Friday afternoon because he wasn’t walking by the time I picked him up.

I know all of these falls and injuries could just have easily have happened if he was at home with me. I know toddlers get bumps and bruises. But it doesn’t stop me feeling guilty. It doesn’t stop me thinking that if he had been with me then maybe he would be OK, or maybe at least I would have seen what had happened and we wouldn’t have such a mystery on our hands.

Because despite a trip to our local minor injuries unit on Saturday, a visit to our GP and to A & E today and two lots of x-rays, no-one can tell us what might be wrong with Toby or why he has stopped walking. They can’t see any breaks on the x-rays, he is still crawling and climbing, he is still putting weight on his bad leg and he doesn’t really seem to be in any pain. But he just won’t put his heel down so he has no balance to walk. So all we can do is wait. Give him Calpol and Nurofen and hope it improves on its own and if he’s still not better in a week we have to go back to A & E.

And while we wait I have to try not to let the guilt take over. I feel awful. I don’t want to take Toby to nursery tomorrow, to hand over the care of my child to other people so that in turn I can look after other people’s children. It doesn’t make any sense. And I’m so bloody tired. Toby still doesn’t sleep well. If we’re lucky there might be one wake up during the night, but more often there are two or three. It doesn’t help that he’s going through phase of only wanting me to comfort him so I have to be the one to get up to him. I just feel like I’m not doing anything properly at the moment. I’m being pulled in too many directions so I’m not doing my best at anything; being a mum, a wife, a teacher, a blogger even! I can do them all better than I am right now, but I can’t do better and do them all. But I have to. For the moment at least I have no other option. I just have to take a deep breath and keep on keeping on.

Apologies for the brain dump. I feel a bit better now.

10 November , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 1 Comment

Living Arrows 45/52

Week 45 of the Living Arrows project and I can’t believe we are only seven weeks from the end of the year.

It’s been a mixed week this week. It started off with daily tantrums from Toby, mostly for no apparent reason, and a few nights of broken sleep for all of us. On Thursday he fell at nursery and banged his ear of the edge of a table causing a bit of a cut and a nasty bruise and then on Friday he crawled forehead first in to a door stop! More worrying though is that I noticed on Friday he wasn’t putting the heel of his right foot down and has stopped walking altogether. He’s still standing and walking when he’s holding on to something but seems to have completely lost his balance when trying to stand unaided. I wanted to make sure he hadn’t broken anything when he fell so we spent Saturday afternoon at our local Minor Injuries department. They did an x-ray but nothing showed up so we’ve been told just to give him painkillers and take him to our GP if it doesn’t improve in a couple of days. He was doing so well with his walking too – I really hope whatever it is clears up soon. There’s a chance he’s sprained or strained something or it could be ‘irritable hip’ which is inflammation of the fluid and membranes around the hip which can follow a virus. There’s also the possibility that he has sustained a ‘toddler fracture’ which hasn’t shown up on the x-ray. However, all these things usually get better without treatment so keeping an eye on it is really the only thing we can do at the moment.

Of course this all had to happen while Barry was away for the weekend so I had to deal with it all myself. Toby’s been brilliant all weekend though. No sign of a tantrum and he’s even slept pretty well too. I think part of his tantruming is frustration at not being able to talk and tell us what he wants. He really wants his independence now more than ever as well. This is particularly evident in his eating – he’s been perfectly happy for us to feed him anything that needs a spoon up until recently. Now he wants to do it all himself so it’s time for him to start learning to use a spoon and fork himself. My plan is just to give him things that he can pick up with his hands without making too much mess but give him a spoon or fork too and see how he gets on. We started with porridge this morning and he did actually manage to get some on the spoon and into his mouth, which as you can see in this week’s photo he was enormously pleased about!

8 November , 201411 February , 2018 - Sarah 22 Comments

A holiday disappointment (or why Butlins is not for us)

A couple of weeks ago, during my half-term holiday we loaded up the car and headed to Butlins in Skegness for a holiday. We used our Tesco Clubcard tokens to pay for our 4 night stay in its entirety (apart from a £20 deposit) and I’m so glad…because if we’d paid full price we would have been even more disappointed in our holiday than we were.

The first mistake, I have to admit, was ours. Skegness is a bloody long way from Scotland! We did break up the journey with a two night stay in a luxury wooden lodge near Richmond in Yorkshire (Flowery Dell Lodges) and I actually wish we’d just decided to stay there for the week. It was lovely, very comfortable and had everything we needed (including free wifi – Butlins take note!). The only downside was the glass TV stand which of course Toby was immediately attracted to!

Anyway, after a long and windy drive through the Lincolnshire countryside we eventually arrived at Butlins on the Monday afternoon. We queued briefly to go through the drive through check-in and we’re given a map to find our apartment, wherein we had our first disappointment… (Apologies that this post is quite long (and there aren’t many photos) but we had quite a lot of disappointment and I didn’t want to leave anything out!).

Accommodation

We were booked to stay in a 2 bedroom ‘Gold’ apartment. We were actually given a 3 bedroom on the first floor of a block, about as far away from the centre of the resort as you could get.

The first thing I was worried about was that the two twin rooms were on the front of the apartment, meaning everyone coming and going would be walking right past Toby’s window. Actually I don’t think he was disturbed too much but it would have made more sense to put us in one of the top floor apartments that didn’t have the walkway right outside.

First impressions of the apartment were that it looked a bit tired and worn, particularly the carpet. I don’t know how much of this was due to the time of year, perhaps it would have looked fresher if we had gone in April. There were a few other things that let it down too; the fridge door seal was split and full of crumbs, the remote control for the TV didn’t have a cover over the battery compartment (not ideal with an inquisitive toddler), the shower tray completely filled up when you were having a shower (which meant you had to be really quick or it would overflow)…but by far the biggest problem was the bed.

I don’t think I have ever slept in a bed so uncomfortable, except maybe in a motel we paid $20 a night for in Vermont where I actually ended up sleeping on the floor! All the beds had metal frames with wire mesh supporting the saggiest mattress I have ever known. Barry and I both had to sleep hanging off the edges or we would be unavoidable on top of each other in the middle of the bed.

As it happened, Toby decided he wasn’t going to sleep past 1am unless he was in bed with me anyway, so Barry got kicked out to one of the single beds and Toby was in the double with me. Most of the other issues with the accommodation were minor niggles we could put up with, but the bed actually contributed to our decision to leave a day early.

There were some positives about the apartment – it had two small leather sofas which were in good condition, the kitchen was well stocked and the bed linen was clean and comfortable. Because we had a Gold apartment towels were included too and there was also a daily housekeeping service who came in and made the beds and emptied the bin. The layout of the apartment meant we could use the coffee table to block Toby into the living area so he couldn’t get into too much mischief. In fact his favourite place the whole time we were there was down the side of the sofa!

Facilities

The Skyline Pavilion is more or less in the centre of the resort and it houses a stage, theatre, shops, bars, restaurants, cinema and arcade (with lots of 2p drop machines that we enjoyed spending a pound on one day). Around this are several restaurants, the swimming pool complex ‘Splash Waterworld’, a spa, fairground and ‘Reds’ where the Redcoats put on daily entertainment. There certainly seemed to be lots going on and I liked that you could get everything you needed without leaving the resort.

I did take advantage of the spa on the second day. I had a back massage, which I had booked the day before. The massage was great (just what I needed after the night in the stupidly uncomfortable bed!) and reasonably priced at £35. I didn’t make use of the rest of the spa facilities but it looked very inviting.

Unfortunately we didn’t have chance to visit Splash Waterworld. Toby isn’t overly keen on swimming at the moment and seeing as he was already grumpy and not sleeping well we didn’t really want to waste an hour getting him changed and in the pool only for him to have a meltdown. There are parent and toddler sessions where the slides and waves are turned off to make it calmer for young children but these were only from 4-5pm which seemed like a really daft time for me. That’s right before Toby’s teatime and a hungry baby is not a happy one in my experience. I would have liked to have seen a session in the morning too, especially seeing as it we weren’t there during the school holidays and therefore there must have been more toddlers there.

Food

The first night we chose to eat in The Sun and Moon pub. The menu was what you would expect from a family friendly pub and the food was nice enough and reasonably priced. There was a large play area outside too – but nothing suitable for younger children.

On the second night we ate at Firehouse – the newest restaurant in Butlins Skegness. The easiest way to describe it is that it’s just like Nando’s; chicken with a choice of marinades and different sides. Again the food was good, but I thought a bit on the expensive side for what we got. Alcoholic drinks were also pretty pricey – £5.40 for a glass of wine.

The last night we decided to try one of the buffet restaurants. We had almost bought one of the ‘dining plans’ which allows you to eat in the buffet restaurants more cheaply if you book it in advance. I’m really glad we didn’t! We chose to eat in The Yacht Club, one of the two ‘premium’ buffet restaurants. It cost us £18 each to pay on the night and Toby was free. This includes an unlimited buffet and fruit juice or hot drinks. Alcohol drinks are extra, which I would expect, but I was surprised to see no fizzy drinks were included. The hot buffet was OK but pretty uninspiring (and not very hot). I was most disappointed though that there was no sign of the Annabel Karmel kids dishes which are prominently advertised on the Butlins website and on the menu board outside the restaurant. In fact the only thing I saw was a few lonely looking jars of Heinz baby food and a microwave. I have to say the buffet restaurant was somewhat redeemed by the desserts (so much so that Barry had three!).

We did experience some fairly rubbish customer service in the buffet restaurant too which didn’t help. First of all they seemed very confused that we actually wanted to pay and we had to wait for ages for someone to take our payment. Barry then had to wait another age at the bar to be served, despite there being three members of staff and no other customers!

We also had breakfast on our last morning at one of the other buffet restaurants, which apart from being very busy, was actually quite good and the man who showed us to a table was very helpful in getting us a highchair and explaining where everything was.

Entertainment

Butlins is famous for its Redcoats and their entertainment and there was certainly a lot going on. Again, it was perhaps our mistake, but Toby just wasn’t quite old enough to enjoy most of it. There was a show with Thomas the Tank Engine, dancing with Angelina Ballerina, story time with Billy Bear on the stage in the Skyline Pavilion as well as a tots disco and various evening shows as well. The story time show was enjoyable, and although Toby didn’t join in we saw lots of kids who were loving Angelina Ballerina. Our one big gripe was with the Thomas show. I thought Toby might quite enjoy watching it but we couldn’t actually stay in the Skyline Pavilion while it was going on as it was so deafeningly loud! The pavilion is quite a big place but most of the kids watching the show were gathered in a semi-circle within 5 metres of the stage. The Redcoats had their microphones turned up full and at the same time were shouting at the tops of their voices over incredibly loud music. It was unbearable.

Obviously with having Toby we couldn’t go to any of the evening shows either. I suppose you could if you have a baby who will just sleep in the buggy but Toby needs to be in bed by 8pm at the very latest, even on holiday. The only comment I can make about the shows that were on in ‘Centre Stage’ is that people were queueing out of the building an hour before it was due to start (I believe in order to get a good seat) and that was during term-time in October, I dread to think what it is like in the height of summer! You can pay extra to jump the queue but that just seems a bit money-grabbing on the part of Butlins to me.

We had a look round the fairground too – there wasn’t anything especially exciting I have to say, but it was OK considering you don’t have to pay an extra for it. There are some rides for younger children but again, Toby was just that bit too young to be able to enjoy them.

There was a lot to do for children from about two to three years upwards but there really wasn’t anything for younger children. Unless we missed it there wasn’t even a park with baby swings anywhere. We had to keep Toby in the buggy pretty much the whole time as there was nowhere that had a safe area he could crawl or practice his walking. There is a small soft play but again it was full of older kids, even a dedicated baby area in there would have been an improvement.

Overall I can see why people with older kids would go to Butlins and I’m sure it is much more enjoyable when you can take full advantage of all the entertainment and facilities. But this time Butlins just wasn’t for us. I can’t see that we will be going back again anytime soon though. Even when Toby is older and could enjoy all the activities on offer you couldn’t pay me to sleep in that bed again!!

Toby Goes Bananas

A family lifestyle blog

Author: Sarah