14 July , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 6 Comments

Living Arrows 28/52

It’s been a very busy weekend for us – Toby turned one on Friday and on Saturday all his grandparents came to visit for a BBQ party. I’ll be telling you all about that in another post but what with shopping, organising food, baking a cake and generally planning the weekend I’ve not had time for much blogging this week!

We’ve had a very mixed week sleep wise too so everyone has been feeling pretty tired. I think a combination of getting over last week’s cold and teething (possibly a first molar coming through!) has been disturbing Toby’s sleep; he’s been resisting naps and then waking in the night. On Wednesday night he was awake from half past two until nearly five o’clock! I can’t remember ever having a night like that before. There have been nights when he’s woken up a few times but he usually settles again fairly quickly after a cuddle and maybe some milk and medicine if he’s teething but on Wednesday night we tried everything and he was just wailing every time we tried to put him down. He then had two nights of sleeping straight through to eight o’clock but then last night he was awake for ages again. He refused to nap this afternoon and has already woken up once since he went to bed an hour and a half ago so I’m not feeling confident about a quiet night! You never know though, there never seems to be any logic to when he’ll sleep through or when he’ll wake. Fingers crossed for sleep though.

So to this week’s Living Arrows photo – this is Toby on his birthday having his first go on his new SmarTrike. Safe to say he likes it!

9 July , 201429 March , 2021 - Sarah 10 Comments

Weaning // Finding our own way

Toby is now almost one and it’s been just over six months since we first introduced him to solid food. Before we started weaning I’d read a couple of books ‘Weaning Made Easy‘ and ‘Baby-Led Weaning‘. Baby-led weaning made total sense to me – by bypassing purées and giving Toby the same things we ate, and letting him feed himself, he would be in control of what he ate and hopefully would develop a healthy appetite and relationship with food.

The reality, however, turned out a little differently…

In the very beginning Toby simply wasn’t interested in putting anything in his mouth. I know I could have left him to figure it out on his own but if I held something to his mouth then he would happily eat it so it seemed like it was more the putting it in his mouth himself than actually eating that was a problem. I wrote about this at the time in a guest post over on Redhead Babyled which you can read here.

Examining a rice cake at six months old

We carried on putting finger foods (veg sticks, toast, breadsticks etc) on Toby’s highchair tray as well as feeding him other bits and pieces off our plates and eventually he did figure out how to pick things up and eat them himself. We also carried on feeding him as well – either with a spoon or just by popping something in his mouth or holding it for him to take a bite.

I really wanted to embrace baby-led weaning and let Toby feed himself but there was one major stumbling block…

I just couldn’t handle the mess! I don’t know if this makes me a terrible person for letting my own feelings get in the way of something which perhaps would have been better for Toby but every meal was getting me so worked up that I couldn’t carry on. I tried loaded spoons a couple of times but so little food got into Toby’s mouth (and so much food got everywhere else) that I went back to feeding him things like porridge and yogurt myself.

Porridge face (before we gave up loaded spoons!) at seven months

If Toby is having something he can pick up himself without making too much mess (things like breadsticks, sandwiches, fruit and veg, dry cereal, chicken) then I put it on his tray and he feeds himself. He did go through a bit of a phase of just squashing anything we gave him but he seems to be getting over that now. Up until recently if I gave Toby more than one thing, or a big piece of something, he would just try and shove the lot in his mouth in one go – which led to our only proper, out of the highchair, choking incident when he shoved a massive broccoli floret in his mouth in one go (he was fine though!). However, in the last week or so I have been trying to get Toby used to choosing what he wants to eat so I put a few different things on his tray so he can choose what he wants and then I just keep adding more. He usually eats everything eventually but at least he is gaining some control over what he eats when. He’s got much better a picking something up, taking a bite out of it, eating that bite and then having some more. I am also trying to introduce taking things off a plate or out of a bowl, which is going OK as long as I keep a hold of the plate or bowl too!

Getting his own Shreddies out of the bowl at twelve months

I do still spoon feed Toby the messy things like yogurt or spaghetti bolognese and for the moment he seems quite happy to eat these things from a spoon. I am definitely not force feeding him – which is the criticism sometimes levelled at this method of feeding. If Toby doesn’t want something then he will let you know, and there’s no chance of getting him to open his mouth to eat it! We don’t do aeroplanes or play games. Mostly Toby will have his mouth wide open for the next spoonful before I’ve got back to the bowl and when he’s done that’s that.

I’ve read quite a lot of blog posts and articles about weaning and there seems to be a misconception from some proponents of baby-led weaning that if you aren’t following baby-led weaning methods to the letter then you must be spoon feeding your baby purées or mashed food and you are somehow doing something detrimental to your baby’s health and well-being. But that simply isn’t the case. We have found our own way with weaning. Toby eats almost exactly what we eat. He has his meals with us and we all have the same things on our plates. The only purées he has ever had are fruit purée in his porridge or Weetabix, or as a snack when we’re out somewhere. Feeding Toby the way we do means we have happily been able to take him to restaurants and cafés knowing he can share our meals and do so without me having a meltdown about the mess.

I’m sure in the next few months Toby will get even better at feeding himself. We’ll start using plates and cutlery more and I’m sure he’ll get the hang of those too. Weaning seems to be such an emotive subject at the moment but to be honest I don’t think it really matters how you choose to feed your child – as long as you are feeding them and they’re happy (and you’re happy) then I’m sure they’ll be just fine. By they time they’re five no-one is going to care whether they were spoon fed or put every morsel they ever ate in their mouth on their own. As with so many things in the last year, we found a way that works for us and I’m happy with that.

I’d love to hear about your weaning experiences, especially if you did a bit of a combination like us – I’m sure we’re not the only ones who have made it up as we went along!

8 July , 20142 August , 2017 - Sarah 3 Comments

Review: Plum Greek-style yogurt pouches

Toby generally eats whatever we eat but we do use fruit pouches at home and out and about, mostly because they are quick, easy and convenient. Plum have recently introduced some new fruit and Greek-style yogurt pouches and so when they asked if we’d like to try them I was keen to give them a go.

The Details

The Plum Greek-style yogurt pouches come in three flavours – kale and apple, raspberry and spinach, and mango and carrot. They come in a 85g pouch (the bigger size of pouch that you usually see) and retail for 99p each. They are suitable for babies over six months (I presume because of the dairy content). Plum have also introduced their ‘Mighty 4’ range for toddlers which are also fruit and Greek-style yogurt pouches but they also contain different grains so make a more filling snack for older babies.

The Pros

What I really like about these pouches is that they are yogurt that doesn’t have to be kept in the fridge (until they’ve been opened), which means they are great for using out and about. We took them on holiday and they were really handy to give to Toby when stopped for meals during the long journey.
Toby seemed to enjoy them and would happily eat a whole pouch in one sitting. He didn’t really have any preference for one flavour over another.
They were easy to feed to Toby either on a spoon or sucking them straight from the pouch (which is his new preferred method!).
The flavours were all nice (in the interests of a fair review I had to have a try myself!) – I was a bit dubious about the slightly unusual combinations but to be honest the fruit was the predominant flavour in all of them, you couldn’t really taste the vegetable.

The Cons

None really. I’m still not convinced the weird flavour combinations are necessary – they wouldn’t make those combinations for adults so why do it for babies? That said, Toby liked them so I can’t really complain!

The Verdict

I would buy these Plum Greek-style yogurt pouches again. We don’t use them at home because it is cheaper just to by regular yogurt but they are very useful to include in a picnic or lunchbox, or when travelling as they don’t need to be kept cold before use.

**Disclosure: I was sent a selection of Plum Greek-style yogurt pouches in return for this review. All opinions are my own.

7 July , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 5 Comments

Living Arrows 27/52

It’s been another fairly quiet week here at Toby Goes Bananas HQ. It’s the school holidays here in Scotland now so most of Toby’s activities have finished for the summer. We have had some nice weather though so managed to get out for a walk with my friend Claire and her twins (and a had a sneaky McFlurry!) on Tuesday. The end of the week has been mostly about staying in as Toby has come down with a cold. It’s his first proper, snot running down the face, cold but he seems to be feeling OK in himself. He really doesn’t like me wiping his nose though and in his efforts to escape always seems to manage to spread snot all over his face. Lovely! The snot-sucker has had to come out again too and we’ve had some delightful results there… Can someone tell me at what age they learn to sniff (or even wipe) rather than just letting the snot trail down his upper lip into his mouth?!

Moving on, on a slightly less disgusting note, we did manage to get out for a walk this afternoon. There’s a fun fair on the park near us at the moment so we went to have a look. But at £6.99 just to get in (it did give you unlimited rides but we didn’t actually want to go on anything) we decided not to bother. A short stroll in the fresh air and a go on the swings for Toby was more than enough fun for us this afternoon!

And lastly, I’ve just realised that this will be my last Living Arrows post with a baby under one! It’s Toby’s birthday on Friday and with all his grandparents coming to celebrate on Saturday, hopefully we’ll have some party snaps for next week.

6 July , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 6 Comments

Round and round the garden (The Ordinary Moments #25)

You know the rhyme…. Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear, one step, two step, and tickle him under there!

Well, at some point this has become one of our lovely Ordinary Moments. Toby now knows the rhyme so well he starts giggling before I’ve even touched him!

He keeps giggling as he tries to push my hands away. And by the end we are both laughing.

I just love what a happy, smiley, giggly baby I have. The sound of your baby laughing is something to treasure for ever. That pure, unadulterated joy. I hope he keeps hold of that for a long time to come and that to hear him laughing is forever one of our Ordinary Moments.

3 July , 20143 July , 2014 - Sarah 4 Comments

Baby swimming with Konfidence and Turtle Tots

I have been taking Toby to Turtle Tots swimming classes since he was about four months old. We’ve had our ups and downs with it but overall it’s been a great experience. We’ve just finished our Level 3 block of classes (well, there is one more class to go when we go back after the summer holidays) and we’ve signed up for Level 4 which is the last level of baby swimming before moving on to the toddler class. We’ve also been using Toby’s swimming kit from Konfidence for the last couple of months which I reviewed here.

So, after eight months of swimming what has Toby learnt so far? The Turtle Tots classes have been great and our instructor Amanda is fantastic. Each class involves lots of songs and games to keep the babies engaged and interested and each class builds on the previous ones. Since his first lesson when Toby started by getting used to having water splashed on his face he now goes underwater several times a lesson (and swims back up to the surface on his own), he can hold on to the side of the pool on his own (and climb out with a tiny bit of help), he can splash into (and under the water) on his own from the side and we’re working on him being able to turn himself round underwater and get back to the side. He can float on his back with just a little support of his head from me, he can kick his legs as I swim him along, and he’s just starting to get the hang of moving himself along with a short woggle under each arm and no help from me! All pretty impressive for a baby who doesn’t turn one until next week I reckon! We even got chance to have an underwater photo shoot to capture Toby’s baby swimming experience (although somehow the photos came out looking nothing like him!).

The main aim of Turtle Tots baby swimming programme is to teach babies water confidence and essential life-saving skills. Toby is by no means drown-proof but I’m fairly sure if he fell in water he’d manage to get himself back up to the surface at least. For me though, taking Toby to classes with Turtle Tots from such a young age has given me confidence to take him in the water that I perhaps wouldn’t have had on my own. I certainly don’t think I’d be doing submersions with him on my own if I didn’t know what I was doing! Now I would happily take Toby swimming on my own and practice all the things we’ve been doing in class. It was quite funny when we took him in the pool on holiday – there were quite a lot of amazed stares from other people in the pool as I put my eleven month old baby under the water and let go!!

If I’m honest, it’s still a bit hit and miss as to whether Toby actually likes being in the pool or not. I usually count it as a good lesson if we get through it without any crying! I don’t think it’s being in the water that he doesn’t like as such but there are so many things that can affect how he gets on from week to week – if he’s a bit tired or hungry that doesn’t help, if he’s teething then he tends to be a bit unhappy too (especially on his back), or the big one for Toby seems to be if he gets cold. We swim in a warm water pool which is supposed to be heated to 32° but sometimes it’s a bit less than that. Wearing his Konfidence Babywarma makes a big difference too but sometimes my skinny wee boy just gets a bit cold (and actually shivers) and he just doesn’t like it that much! I’m hoping that as he gets bigger he might be able to tolerate the colder water a bit better.

I would totally recommend baby swimming lessons if you have the opportunity to do them – I will say that they are fairly expensive when compared to just taking your baby to the pool on your own but worth every penny for the tuition and support that you get. We’ve been very lucky in that Toby’s grandparents paid for the first two blocks of lessons and then we were able to do the third block as part of our role as Konfidence Swimologists.

I’ll be keeping you updated on Toby’s progress in the pool. I really want to keep him going to swimming lessons until he is able to swim on his own. And with my massively long skinny baby, who knows? Maybe we’ve got the next Michael Phelps on our hands!

30 June , 201421 December , 2017 - Sarah 7 Comments

Me & Mine: A Family Portrait (June 2014)

So, another month gone. Half way through the year. And time for our June Me & Mine photo.

The first two weeks of June we were on holiday in Brittany (and I know I’ve mentioned it a few times but I will get round to writing up a proper post about it eventually). After a week back at home I was away again, off to Britmums Live while my boys had a weekend home alone. This weekend was our first proper weekend at home for the whole month and we made a good start on organising our house. I’d managed to tidy up the garage with a trip to the tip during the week so we could get round to moving my old desk out of the spare room/office and rearranging the furniture to make some more space and to hopefully make it a more appealing place to be so we’ll actually use it! Barry also did some good tidying up in the garden – it was a bit of a jungle after being so busy all month. I really don’t enjoy gardening (and I’m mostly excused due my hayfever!) but I do like to enjoy the fruits of his labour – even if it’s only looking at it out of the kitchen window!

So anyway, to this month’s photo. This one was taken by my dad while we were on holiday. This is in Vannes – a lovely town in south Brittany where we’d just been out for lunch. We’re looking a bit squinty unfortunately (I really must work out where the best place for the light is in a picture to avoid the squinty eye look) but I still like this photo of us on our first family holiday abroad.

30 June , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 5 Comments

Living Arrows 26/52

I can’t believe we’re on week 26 of The Living Arrows – past the half way point in the year! I couldn’t choose just one picture this week so you’re getting three! I’ve noticed that quite a lot of my photos seem to show Toby in his play pen – I promise he’s not in there all the time but it’s often the only way I can get him to stay in one place long enough to take a photo!

His hair is going a bit bonkers again these days – it’s so fine and fly away (just like mine), it just seems to have a life of its own!

That pesky eighth tooth has finally cut through this week so a good chew on Jemina (I refused to called the giraffe Sophie – we do like to be different!) always helps!

And lastly, I had to include this one. Since Toby learnt to pull himself up to standing on holiday at the beginning of the month this is usually the sight that greets me when I go in to get him up in the morning or after his naps. I can’t believe how big he’s getting though – I swear he’s grown another 10cm in the last month. We’ve dropped his cot right down to the bottom but you can see how far above the rail he is – I wonder how long it will be before he starts trying to climb out?!

29 June , 201420 December , 2015 - Sarah 3 Comments

Milky cuddles (The Ordinary Moments #24)

I’ve read so many blog posts about the bond mums have with their babies when they’re breastfeeding. How special those milky cuddles are. And I’m not denying that they are special. But for whatever reason they aren’t something that all mums get to share with their baby. But even though we stopped breastfeeding at six weeks (and even then every breastfeed was topped up with formula) I wanted to write about our milky cuddles. It doesn’t matter that Toby is drinking formula and it is coming out of a bottle – we still get to share some special bonding moments together.

Although Toby is nearly one now(!) he still has three bottles a day; one when he gets up, one before his afternoon nap and one before bed. And no matter how crazy he has been just minutes before, wriggling and crawling and standing and bouncing, as soon as he sees that bottle coming his thumb goes in his mouth and as soon as I pick him up he snuggles in. And then we have a quite few minutes where he actually lies still. Usually he’ll play with my ear, or try and put his fingers in my mouth, or play with the cord on my hoody, basically whatever is within reach.

I love these quiet times we have together (during the week I do the morning and afternoon bottles and daddy gets the bedtime one) and I’ll miss them when they’re gone. You read so many stories about the end of breastfeeding being an emotional time (and I’m not for one minute denying that it is) but I think the end of bottle feeding will be sad for me too. I suppose it just means my little boy isn’t a baby any more. For now though I’m going to enjoy our milky cuddles while we still have them.

Linking up with Katie at Mummy Daddy Me for The Ordinary Moments

26 June , 201425 April , 2019 - Sarah 4 Comments

My Britmums Live experience

So it probably hasn’t escaped your notice that this weekend 700 bloggers descended on The Brewery in London for the year’s biggest blogging conference, and I was lucky enough to be one of them! Lots of people have already written about their experiences at Britmums Live and Britmums have gathered them all together in one handy linky.

I’ve been home a few days now and I’ve been struggling to shape my thoughts about the weekend into a coherent blog post. In fact, although I thought I would come home raring to go with my blog I haven’t put fingertip to keyboard since I came back on Sunday. Don’t get me wrong here though, I had a fantastic weekend meeting lots of lovely people and getting lots of ideas and inspiration on how to make Toby Goes Bananas more of the blog I want it to be. I think the problem might be that I have so many ideas that I don’t know where to start! But also (and from reading some of the other posts I know I’m not the only one feeling this way) going to Britmums Live has actually made me realise that perhaps taking a little step back from my blog, realising that the stats don’t really matter, trying to find a better blog/ life balance and appreciating that my blog doesn’t have to be all consuming wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I’ve sat in front of the laptop a few nights this week but the words just weren’t coming and rather than trying to force it I decided just to wait until I was feeling more inspired.

And so, here it is, my Britmums Live Experience…

The weekend itself was amazing, if very tiring! I had to get up at 5am on the Friday morning to catch my flight from Edinburgh to London City airport. A quick ride on the DLR and I was on the tube heading to Euston. This was because Ed’s Easy Diner had sent me an email for a free birthday milkshake! They send me one every year and I never normally get to use it but seeing as I was in London with a bit of time to kill I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. So after scrambled eggs on toast (my third breakfast of the day, if you count a banana at home and rubbish cooked breakfast on the plane) and a vanilla malt to take away I was back on the tube to Old Street and making my way to my hotel.

I was so pleased there was a room ready so I got an early check in and a 45 minute power snooze before meeting up with the first bloggers of my weekend; Donna from What the Redhead Said (who I had met before at the Munchkin Lindam event) and Kate from Family Fever (whose linky, Tried & Tested, I join in with most weeks). I also met Emma from The Mini Mes and Me and Jade from Late for Reality. We made our way from the hotel to The Brewery where the main event was to be held. As promised by Britmums we were greeted by bowler-hatted doormen, we then waited in the covered outdoor courtyard area for the doors to open. Here I got chance to say hello to a few more people including Mummy Muncher from Life With Munchers and Vicki from Ellie Bear Babi, both of whom I had spoken to online before, as well as Rebecca from Mrs Mumsie and Karen from Let Kids Be Kids.

And then the doors opened and the madness began. There was a huge scrabble to collect badges and then everyone piled into The Hub where all the brands had their stands. Despite me professing my lack of nerves before I went I have to admit this part was a little bit overwhelming! There were people everywhere. There were squeals from every direction as bloggers recognised one another and people seemed to be running round grabbing every freebie they could get their hands on! And, jeez, it was LOUD! 700 excited bloggers in one place make a lot of noise. If I have a tip for those attending Britmums Live for the first time it would be to just take your time at the beginning, have a look around and take it all in, but you don’t need to talk to all the brands and sign up on all their lists in the first 5 minutes. They’ll be there all weekend and you’ll have plenty of time to talk to them when things have quietened down a bit. On that note, I would also recommend trying to find a bit of time on your own to talk to any brands you’re really interested in working with – I found it much easier to chat in a bit more depth to brands on my own than when I was with other people.

I hadn’t really made a plan of which sessions I wanted to go to before I went and that wasn’t really a problem. I will say though, if there is a session you don’t want to miss then try to get there a bit early (easier said than done when you are dashing between sessions) as some of the rooms are quite small and fill up quickly for popular sessions. I’m not going to go into loads of detail about the sessions but there are a few that deserve a mention; The Dos and Don’ts of Blog Giveaways by Di Coke (SuperLucky.co.uk) was very useful, as was the session on Google+ by James Dearsley from The Digital Marketing Bureau – I actually have a vague understanding of how Google+ works now which is a massive improvement! One thing about the sessions is that it’s hard to know from the brief description in the programme what level they will be pitched at – for example I found the blog design tips, SEO and tech knowledge sessions interesting but they didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know, in hindsight my time could perhaps have been spent better elsewhere.

I have to say I found the BiBs party on Friday night a bit underwhelming somehow. By that point everyone was tired and hungry (food, or lack of seems to be one area that a lot of people think could be improved for next year) and the whole thing seemed to be over in a bit of a rush. There was also a bit of controversy as Katy Hill, who was presenting the awards, also won in the Fresh Voice category. I admit I have never read her blog but it does seem a bit off somehow. And anyway, that award should definitely have gone to Katie at Hurrah for Gin, who I also met and she was absolutely lovely!

Saturday was definitely a day for tissues with a very moving and inspiring keynote speech from Benjamin Brooks-Dutton (Life As A Widower) in the morning and the blogger keynotes at the end of the day. I not one for crying usually but even I found myself welling up listening to these brave bloggers standing up in a room full of their peers and speaking out loud some of their most personal blog posts. It was a good job that the event rounded off with a performance from the Good Enough Mums Club giving everyone a good laugh and able to leave with a smile on their face.

After the event I headed, laden with goodies, to my brother’s house in Essex for a relaxing evening of pizza and cider then a good night’s sleep. I spent the day there on Sunday and finally made it home at about midnight. Toby, who had been sleeping through all weekend, woke up as I came in the door, which was a great excuse for a lovely cuddle before bed!

I have to also mention some of the other people I met; it was lovely to see some of my fellow Munchkin Lindam bloggers again – Munchies and Munchkins and Debs from Super Busy Mum. It was also great to meet Emma from Me, The Man & The Baby (baby included!), Lucinda from Teacher 2 Mummy, Donna from The London Mum, Sara from mumturnedmom (over all the way from America!), Aby from You Baby Me Mummy and to get to say a quick hello to Katie from Mummy Daddy Me, Emma from Brummymummyof2, Just a Normal Mummy, and Wry Mummy. I’m sure I’ve missed some (I didn’t write anyone’s names down, or take any photos!) so please accept my apologies if I’ve missed you off. Also, sorry if I confused any of you with my surprisingly very red hair!

Last but not least a quick mention to a few of the brands I spoke to over the weekend; firstly it was fab to see the Munchkin guys again and the lovely ladies from Norton & Co. Thanks to Parragon Books for the very tasty cupcake, to Coca-Cola for my personalised Coke bottle, to Butlins for the chocolate (I may have taken more than one bar!) and to Heinz Baby for the goodies for Toby and for the lovely, and much needed massage.

So there you have it – that was my Britmums Live experience. It was pretty much everything I expected (although I didn’t end up getting drunk like I thought I might!). I think it’ll take a few weeks before I really digest it all and start putting some of my ideas into practice though. I would definitely recommend going if you get the chance and hopefully I’ll be able to go again sometime in the future, although with my return to work fast approaching I’m holding off buying my ticket for 2015 just yet!

P.S. I was really rubbish at taking photos during the weekend hence the lack of pictures in this post – sorry!

Toby Goes Bananas

A family lifestyle blog

Author: Sarah