26 October , 201625 September , 2018 - Sarah 88 Comments

Rockin’ Baby

Back in April we were sent some lovely clothes for Toby and Gabe from the Rockin’ Baby Spring/ Summer collection so when they launched the Autumn/ Winter collection and asked if would like to feature something I jumped at the chance.

Toby is very happy with his new Rockin' Baby coat

This time Toby was sent this brilliant Bug Print rain mac. I love the colours of this coat – mustard is one of my absolute favourites at the moment. The bug print is fabulous – it met with Toby’s approval too which is more important now he’s three and has plenty of his own opinions about his clothes!

Rockin' Baby rain mac

Bug Print rain mac

We decided to head out into the garden for a photoshoot and to see if we could have our own mini-beast adventure.

Toby looking for mini beasts in his Rockin' Baby bug print rain mac

The Rockin' Baby bug print rain mac is great for exploring

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Toby is wearing age 4-5 and I would say it’s pretty true to size – it fits him well and he is a big three year old. The rain mac is really well made – it’s fully fleece lined, even the sleeves, which I really like.

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The seams are all bound to make them really comfy, and the hood is a sensible size and stays up easily. I can’t comment on the waterproof-ness of the rain mac as we haven’t had any rain since we got it but it certainly kept Toby toasty out in the garden. We haven’t used our garden much since we moved but Toby really enjoyed exploring – even if we didn’t actually find any mini-beasts! He did have a go at practising his ‘feelers out, what’s about?’ pose from the CBeebies Mini-Beast Adventure programme.

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The really great thing about all Rockin’ Baby clothing is that for every item that is bought another is given to a child in China or West Africa.

Toby loves his new bug print rain mac and so do I – I’m actually very tempted to get him the matching wellies too!

toby-keeping-warm-in-the-last-of-the-sunlight-in-his-new-bug-print-coat

We also have one Rockin’ Baby Blue Stripe rain mac in age 3-4 to give away.

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To enter just complete the Rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Disclosure: We were sent the featured clothing for the purposes of this post but all opinions are my own.

Linking up with Hannah for Funky Kid Friday

5 October , 20162 November , 2016 - Sarah 5 Comments

The reluctant potty trainer

Toby is three years and almost three months old. Three months ago he would cry and complain if you even suggested he go near a potty. He knew what it was for – if you asked him where wees and poos go he would tell you they go in the toilet (thanks Bing Bunny!) but he still wouldn’t contemplate sitting on the potty or the toilet, even with his clothes on.

As we were moving house in July we weren’t about to start pushing things but did mention to him that perhaps he could start using the potty when we lived in our new house and he seemed fairly open idea. We went out and chose some big boy pants together and we got a chair type of potty (this one if you’re interested) – I realised that because he is so tall sitting on a standard potty was really uncomfortable for him.

He sat on the potty a couple of times but didn’t do anything then seemed to lose all interest so we just put it in the living room and mostly ignored it for a while. We asked occasionally if he would like to use it and about six weeks ago he said yes one night. So, we got into a bit of a routine; Toby would sit on the potty in front of the TV every morning and every evening before bed. But still we didn’t even get a drip. He obviously has good bladder control as he could sit on the potty for half an hour and do nothing but do a massive wee as soon as he got a nappy on.

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We were quite happy carrying on like this and I was confident that Toby would get there in his own time. Near the beginning of September though nursery forced the issue a bit, and I’m still not entirely happy about it. When school started back nursery moved all the kids who will be starting school next year up into the pre-school room. All the kids except Toby. Nobody had mentioned anything about it up to that point but it turned out they didn’t want him to go into the pre-school room while he was still in nappies. However, I spoke to the manager and explained I didn’t want him being held back. I understood that there were no nappy changing facilities in the pre-school room but he’s only changed two or three times a day so it can’t be that much trouble for someone to take him to the other room to do it. I also thought that maybe seeing all the other children using the toilet might encourage Toby to do the same.

Anyway, nursery were actually fine and moved him up to the pre-school room the next week. But a week or two later when I went to pick the boys up they told me Toby had used the toilet and apparently didn’t want his nappy back on after, he wanted big boy pants. They suggested I put some in his bag the next day so if he asked again they could put him in them.

The next day, and the following week he wore his big boy pants at nursery but had lots of accidents. In fact I’m not convinced he did a wee on the toilet at all. We tried to keep up the pants at home but still had quite a few accidents and still no wee on the potty. It seemed to me that Toby was scared of doing a wee anywhere but in a nappy (or in his pants).

So last week we spent a whole day at home. Toby seemed to know when he needed a wee and would sit on the potty but still nothing came. He would start panicking when it felt like he was about to wee…but eventually he did one. A few drips at first and then a full proper wee! He did two more big wees on the potty that day, and didn’t have any accidents. But he did spend pretty much the whole day just sitting on the potty watching CBeebies! And he got a sticker every time he did a wee so that seemed to help too.

Both days at nursery last week he wore pants but still had a few accidents. He did manage a poo in the toilet though which he was very proud of. But by Thursday lunch time he was crying and begging me to put a nappy on him, and he’d woken up crying a couple of nights too, which I think must be related. So I put a nappy back on. On Saturday we tried pants again and although all his wees went in the potty he did two poos in his pants.

Since then he has only been wearing nappies and just doesn’t want to wear his pants. We have made progress though. He will now occasionally tell me he needs a wee (or sometimes just ‘I’m doing a wee!!’) or if I see him doing his ‘need a wee’ jiggle I will get him to sit on the potty and do it. So at home, most wees are going in the potty even though he is still wearing a nappy. We use cloth nappies and for that reason I don’t really want to go down the pull up route.

I had been trying to encourage Toby to wear his pants, and put him off nappies but I realised that if I don’t want to completely put him off I need to go back to listening to him and going with what he wants. And for the moment if he wants to wear nappies but still use the potty most of the time then I’m happy to go with that. I always said I would wait until he was ready and I think in the last couple of weeks I’ve been ignoring my own instincts. It’s come close to really causing an issue but hopefully by letting Toby go at his own pace he’ll get over whatever fear it is that he has and I’m sure it won’t be too long before he decides for himself that he is really ready for his big boy pants.

How old were your little ones when they potty trained? I would love to hear if any of you have had similar experiences to us.

28 September , 20166 August , 2017 - Sarah Leave a comment

Review: Piccolo baby food pouches

Gabe’s weaning journey so far has been quite up and down. Anytime he’s ill or teething he seems to go off his food but I can usually tempt him with a puree pouch when he doesn’t want anything else. So when the lovely people at Piccolo got in touch to ask if we wanted to try some of their new baby food pouches we were happy to give them a try.

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Piccolo products are produced with the idea of Mediterranean Goodness at heart. The flavours of the pouches reflect that too, for example; apple and apricot with a pinch of cinnamon, peach and apple with a hint of basil, spring greens with a hint of mint or squash, red pepper and chickpea with a hint of rosemary to name a few.

Gabe was certainly keen to get his hands on the pouches when they first arrived!

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Gabe is at an age now where he can suck straight from the pouch which is really handy, especially when we’re out and about. It’s hard to tell really but he does seem to like most of the Piccolo pouches. The only thing I will say is that these pouches are quite runny compared to some of the other brands we use. I think this took Gabe by surprise a bit when he first tried them because he managed to squeeze it all over himself!

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To be honest Gabe is a little bit past the puree stage but these Piccolo pouches have been great for adding to Weetabix and porridge and we found a great use for them with Toby.

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One pouch is the perfect amount to fill our ice lolly mould. Toby loves them and thinks he’s getting a big treat and I’m happy knowing everything he’s eating is good for him!

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At the moment Piccolo only produce Stage 1 baby food pouches but they are always developing new products. They are releasing some new flavours soon too which we were also sent to try; mango, pear & kale with a dash of yogurt; banana, strawberry & peach with a hint of mint; sweet potato, beetroot, apple & pear and raspberry & apple with soaked oats. Some of the flavours may seem a bit out there to us as adults but Gabe seems to like them!

Piccolo pouches are currently available from Amazon, Ocado, Booths, Waitrose and a few other retailers. You can find out where to buy them near you on the Piccolo website here.

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

21 September , 201626 September , 2016 - Sarah Leave a comment

Banana and mango smoothies with Nutribaby

The other day we had some bananas hanging about that were a bit past their best and we didn’t have time to make a banana loaf which would be my usual use for them so we decided to whip up some banana and mango smoothies using our Nutribaby from Babymoov.

Toby loves to help in the kitchen and these smoothies were easy enough for him to get really involved in making them.

First he peeled the banana and broke it up into large pieces in the Nutribaby. Next the mango went in (we bought some pre-cut for ease).

On top of the fruit Toby put a couple of big dollops of Greek yogurt and topped it up with some milk. As we were making these smoothies for the kids we used full-fat yogurt and milk but you could easily substitute low-fat alternatives.

Once all the ingredients were in the blender jug of the Nutribaby we clicked on the lid and whizzed the whole lot up together.

I really like the fact that the blender won’t work unless both the jug and lid are fully clicked into place – hands up if you’ve started a blender without the lid on before and sprayed stuff all over the kitchen!

The only trouble we had making the smoothies was that Gabe really didn’t like the noise…

I’d picked up these cute glass milk bottles and paper straws on offer at the garden centre a few days before we made the smoothies. A word of warning though – those paper straws might look cool but they are pretty useless for a toddler and turned to mush in seconds!

And now for my last confession – Gabe had a try of the smoothie and pulled a bit of a face, but then he’s funny about his food anyway.

But unfortunately Toby also declared it ‘yucky’ and wouldn’t drink it either! I thought it was quite nice but I think the problem was that the mango wasn’t quite ripe enough so didn’t blend fully into the smoothie.

Anyway, in an effort to rescue the situation I made Toby another smoothie but I replaced the mango with a couple of spoons of chocolate Nesquik. The verdict? This one was yummy…

Don’t forget to Pin this post for later if you like it…

**Disclosure: We were sent the Nutribaby as a part of our role as Babymoov ambassadors. All opinions are my own.

2 September , 201623 October , 2019 - Sarah Leave a comment

My top 5 weaning essentials

We’re now six months into our weaning journey with Gabe and although we’ve hit a few bumps along the way we are slowing getting there. Having now weaned two babies I thought I’d share my top five weaning essentials with you…

Highchair

Even though we waited until 6 months to start weaning with Toby and Gabe they were both still a bit unsteady when sitting so needed a highchair that would support them. We used the IKEA Antilop with them both which was fab; very cheap and very easy to clean too. My only gripe with it is that it doesn’t fold and so takes up quite a lot of room. The Babymoov Light Wood high chair that we reviewed recently and are using with Gabe is fab in that respect. I also like that it’s the perfect height for Gabe to be able to sit up at the table with the rest of the family but still use the tray of the high chair.

Messy mat

Even if you’re not going full-on baby led weaning there’s no denying that weaning is messy however you do it, and food will end up on the floor. In both our houses we’ve had carpet in the area we eat so a mat to protect the floor has been essential. I know a lot of people use a plastic shower curtain, we’ve had various bits of PVC material bought from the fabric department at Dunelm – this is what we’re using at the moment as it meant I could get one piece big enough to go under both Gabe and Toby’s chairs. You can also get lots of purpose made weaning mats like this one from Messy Me that we reviewed recently.

Spoons

You don’t need lots of fancy equipment for weaning but I would say soft baby spoons are pretty essential. Of course you could just use an ordinary teaspoon but I know both my boys have really liked to chew on their spoons and I would worry about them hurting themselves on a metal one. We like these silicone spoons from Munchkin – Gabe definitely likes giving them a good old chomp!

Bowls

Again you could just use any bowl you happen to have but I’ve found that plastic bowls are great for when they inevitably get thrown on the floor. Lidded bowls are also very handy for storing left overs in the fridge or for when you are out and about. These bowls from Babymoov are the perfect size for babies and toddlers and they’re stackable so easy to store too.

Bibs

A good bib is essential when you are weaning unless you want to spend all your time washing food covered clothes. Even Toby still wears a bib at three when he’s eating cereal or anything that might drip or splash just because it makes my life easier. For babyled weaning a complete coverall bib is fantastic and I really like the Close Parent Coverall bibs and had a couple of them we used on rotation. We also use these from Silly Bibz which are a great size, fold up small for eating out and both boys seems to find them comfortable and don’t try to pull them off which is a bonus!

I also wanted to mention one non-essential but very useful product – especially if you are going down the more traditional puree route with weaning…

Steamer/Blender

Of course you don’t actually need a steamer/blender specifically designed for babies. You can steam things in a pan or in the microwave and use any kind of blender to make your purees. However, we’ve been trying out the Nutribaby from Babymoov and it is a great little piece of kit. It is quite small so doesn’t take up tons of room on the worktop. The steamer can be used to heat and sterilise bottles or warm baby food, as well as actually cooking food. The blender is a really good size and has some great features – for example it’s impossible to turn the blender on without the lid clicked into place…great for those baby brain moments! I’ll be sharing a few ways we’ve been using the Nutribaby over the next couple of months.

So there you have it – my top five weaning essentials (and one non-essential). Is there anything else that you’ve found invaluable when weaning?

**Disclosure: We were sent some of the products featured in this post as a part of our role as Babymoov Ambassadors on the #stresslessweaning program. As always, all opinions are my own.

29 August , 201628 August , 2016 - Sarah 3 Comments

Gabriel is one year old

One year old already! Well actually it was Gabe’s birthday a week and a half ago but you know, life. Seriously though, I don’t know where the time goes. It doesn’t seem two minutes since I was high on gas and air, laughing because the midwife could see my bum, while Barry fed me jelly babies…and then Gabriel was born on our living room floor looking the absolute image of Toby when he was born.

And yet here we are, one year later. In a different house, a long way from the living room where that home birth happened.

I’m not going to pretend it’s been an easy year. With reflux, endless coughs and colds, chicken pox and the inevitable teething, Gabe has not had the easiest first year. There hasn’t been a huge amount of sleep for any one and I reckon I must have spent at least 50% of the last year rocking, pacing, pushing, driving, singing… doing anything I could to get Gabe to go to sleep and stay asleep. Things are slowly improving but he has still only ever slept through the night twice, and one of those was when he was about four months old. I know things will get better eventually – Toby didn’t really sleep well until he was two and a half and now he sleeps from 8 pm until 8 am nearly every night with the odd wake up every couple of weeks for a bad dream.

Apart from the sleep thing though (oh, and the not eating, but we’ll get to that later) Gabe is doing great. He’s developing a proper little personality now, he loves playing peekaboo and has just discovered the hilarious game of hiding under one of Toby’s muslins. He’s not walking or standing unaided yet, but he can crawl super fast, pulls himself up on everything and is cruising like a demon. He’s just like Toby though and won’t walk, or even stay standing if you hold his hands. He wants to do it by himself, his way.

He’s started being much more independent with his play too, and will happily go and get a toy (or all the toys!) out of one of the boxes and sit and play by himself. We’ve even started to get a few moments of Toby and Gabe actually playing together, or at least playing side by side without trying to grab things off each other so that’s a start!

Gabe loves babbling away to himself too, and anyone who is listening – favourite words are still hiya and dada but just this week he has started saying mama too which is very cute. He still has a dummy for sleeping but he’s not that fussed for it the rest of the time and will usually take it out himself if we forget.

Weaning though, is slow going and we seem to have really regressed in the last few weeks. Gabe has always been quite fussy about food, which I think is probably related to his reflux. After seeing the consultant before we left Scotland though his reflux seems to be pretty much under control but still Gabe hardly eats any solid food. He was doing really well with eating for a while – I’ll admit he was mostly eating shop bought pouches, but he would eat some finger foods too. In the last month or so though he has decided he doesn’t really like being spoon fed so I have been giving him bits of what we are eating but he hardly touches that either. He still likes fruit pouches and he sucks it straight from the pouch himself. He’ll usually eat banana, and rice cakes, and bizarrely Linda McCartney sausages, but that’s about the only things he’s guaranteed to eat. He still has three bottles during the day and usually one in the night. I did try reducing his milk a bit but all that seemed to do was make him constipated and grumpy. He’s still growing and putting on weight fine so I guess I just need to keep offering him different things and hope that one day he gets an appetite. He’s just so different to Toby who has always had a massive appetite and when he was one he ate almost anything you put in front of him. I know I shouldn’t really compare them anyway. Gabe is nowhere near as big as Toby was at this age so maybe he just doesn’t need as much food as he did.

We didn’t really have any celebrations for Gabe’s birthday – in fact he went to nursery on his birthday so we just did some present opening when Barry got home from work. My mum and dad are on holiday at the moment and Barry’s mum has just had an operation on her back so we’re planning on having a bit of a house warming/ birthday party for both boys when everybody will be able to come.

Of course Gabe thought the wrapping paper was way more interesting than the presents, and Toby did plenty of helping with the unwrapping too!

So there we are – my baby boy is one. We definitely aren’t planning on any more babies so this will be the last time I write a one year update. I know lots of people feel sad when they realise there aren’t going to be any more babies but I can only be happy we’ve got through the last year and look forward to all the adventures that are still to come. And sleep. I’m looking forward to one day, hopefully one day soon, actually getting a full night’s sleep again.

14 August , 20166 August , 2017 - Sarah 2 Comments

Review: Babymoov Light Wood High Chair

When we started looking for a high chair for Toby when he was weaning we got lots of recommendations for a very cheap one from a well known Swedish furniture store. It served Toby well until he moved into a booster seat at the table when he was nearly two. We used the same high chair with Gabe for the first month or so of weaning until, as part of our role as Babymoov ambassadors, we were sent the Babymoov Light Wood High Chair and matching Comfort Cushion to try out.

I’ll be honest here – coming in at ten times the cost of our old high chair I did wonder if the Babymoov high chair would be worth the extra money. But I have to say it does have loads of great features that really do make it stand out from other high chairs on the market.

As the name would suggest the Babymoov high chair is made from wood and it is really solidly built. It is very sturdy and I’ve never felt worried that Gabe could tip it, whether he’s sat in it or using it to pull himself onto his feet! The slight downside to this is that at 6.5 kg the chair is quite heavy – I wouldn’t want to have to move it around a lot.

What makes the Babymoov Light Wood High Chair different to a lot of other high chairs on the market, and one reason I think the £140 price tag is justified, is that with a movable seat and foot rest, and a removable tray this chair can adapt to be used from around 6 months right up until your child is big enough to use a standard chair, and beyond.

Now I know there are a few other wooden high chairs on the market that are adaptable to be used by both babies, toddlers and children but the thing that makes this Babymoov high chair unique is that it also be folded so it is almost flat. For me this is a massive plus point over our previous high chair, and other chairs of this type. It’s really easy to collapse as well; just release the crotch bar, press two buttons on either side to lower the tray then squeeze the clip on the back of the seat to fold it. Opening it back up is even easier and can be pretty much done one-handed.

The high chair is very easy to wipe clean and I do like that the lip on the edge of the tray doesn’t go right round to the back which makes it even easier to wipe crumbs and other bits off into your hand. The only thing to watch out for when cleaning is that crumbs (and Cheerios in our case) can collect just at the base of the crotch bar and they’re easy to miss when cleaning, especially when you’ve got the cushion over the top.

Looks wise the Babymoov Light Wood high chair is definitely more stylish than our old high chair. I like the dark and light grey of the chair – it’s going to fit in really well when we get our new kitchen soon.

If you are looking for a wooden high chair that will adapt with your child and last them right from weaning through to childhood then this Babymoov high chair is definitely one to consider.

**Disclosure: I was sent the featured product as part of my role as a Babymoov ambassador. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

28 July , 201611 February , 2018 - Sarah 5 Comments

Lions and tigers and dinosaurs at Blackpool Zoo

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for months! Back in May, after we’d been to Center Parcs, we went to stay with my parents in Blackpool so we could look at some houses. While we were there we took the kids to Blackpool Zoo with my mum. I’ve had these photos sitting on my computer ever since and just haven’t had chance to do anything with them until now!

At the entrance to the zoo there is a dinosaur section and after getting over his initial wariness Toby loved them.

Of course there were lots of live animals too…

Gabe slept for most of the time we were there but as you can see he wasn’t too impressed when he woke up!

Toby enjoyed himself though – he definitely liked the flamingos…

If I’m totally honest, although Toby did like looking at the animals he had the most fun walking along these benches in front of the elephant!

Blackpool Zoo is just round the corner from my parents house and my mum is a member so I’m sure we’ll be spending more time here now we live so much closer. Maybe next time we go Toby will be a bit more interested in the animals and perhaps Gabe won’t sleep the whole time!

26 July , 201625 May , 2019 - Sarah 3 Comments

Weaning with Bibetta and Messy Me // #messisbest

I have a confession to make – I love the idea of babyled weaning but I just can’t stand the mess! I will never be one of those mums who posts a picture on Instagram of their baby covered head to toe in spaghetti bolognese or yoghurt. However, I know that getting messy and exploring food is important for Gabe’s development so I do try and rein in my need to clean up every spill and drip whenever I can. Read more

22 July , 2016 - Sarah 1 Comment

Gabriel is eleven months old

I only got round to writing Gabe’s 10 month update a couple of weeks ago so not much has happened since even though this update is slightly late too. Eleven months old seems to have come round very quickly – I can’t believe Gabe is going to be one next month!

We’re still waiting for tooth number eight to appear so there’s been quite a lot of whinging still, and for the about a week he’s being refusing to eat anything much apart from fruit pouches. The last day or two he has started eating again but still no tooth!

Of course the lack of appetite could also be a bit of a reaction to the total disruption to his routine and the heat – since last Thursday we’ve been living with my parents until hopefully we get the keys to our new house next week, so everything has been different for him the last few weeks.

Despite my high hopes for Gabe’s new reflux medication it hasn’t quite been the wonder cure I thought it might be. He does seem marginally more comfortable at night he is still waking up at least a couple of times and often wants to get up around 5 am. Having said that, we have had a couple of nights where I’ve brought him into bed with me sometime in the early hours of the morning and he’s slept until nearly 7 am so maybe the tide is slowly changing…

Gabe is the most active baby I’ve ever seen though so I don’t know how he manages on so little sleep sometimes. He never sits still, he’s always crawling off or pulling himself up. If you try and hold him he’s super-wriggly and often will try and dive out of your arms onto the floor. He is cruising round the furniture like a pro now and doesn’t seem to need to hold on for balance quite as much any more. I don’t think it will be too long before we see him standing on his own and even walking.

He’s loving the bath now too – he’s always quite enjoyed it but up until the last week or too wouldn’t sit in the bath so he couldn’t really do much. He’s decided he’s happy to sit now though so he can play with all the toys and the bubbles. We might even brave trying to give Toby and Gabe a bath together soon.

Apart from the teething and lack of appetite Gabe has actually been much cheerier for the last few weeks. It could have something to do with the fact that we have actually, for the first time in what feels like months, had a couple of weeks where he hasn’t been ill!

That’s about it for this month I think. Gabe is eleven months old and I still can’t believe that next month I’ll be writing that he is one! And hopefully we’ll be all settled in our new house and I’ll be telling you that he’s sleeping through the night…well I can dream right?

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