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!!

3 November , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 3 Comments

Living Arrows 44/52

I know it seems to be the refrain of bloggers all over, but I really can’t believe how quickly time passes. I’m sure it was only a day or two ago that I was writing last week’s Living Arrows post! It’s been another fairly normal week, nothing much to report. I’m back at school after half term, which means Toby is back at nursery. I think he’s teeth are still bothering him – his canines are so close to coming through but still haven’t cut his gums yet. It has meant a few disturbed nights for us and on Wednesday I had to leave him crying when I dropped him off at nursery, for the first time since just after he started. He also had a complete meltdown on Saturday evening (which I think was a combination of teeth and no afternoon nap), which led to him refusing to eat his tea or have any milk before bed and then waking up several times in the night. He woke up for I think the third time at 4am and refused to go back to sleep. Luckily for me my wonderful husband sat in his room for two hours before getting him up for breakfast at 6am. Thankfully he went back to bed at 7:30am and we all slept until 11am – I’m so glad it wasn’t a weekday otherwise we would all have been very tired!

This week’s big news of course is that Toby is now properly walking – I posted a video the other day of him looking very pleased with himself about it. He’s so big now too – he’s wearing all 18-24 month clothes now and is nearly growing out of some of those, and he’s not even 16 months yet! It means we barely have any surfaces high enough to put things out of his reach, he can reach all the door handles…and he loves having a nosy out of the front window.

31 October , 201421 December , 2017 - Sarah 2 Comments

Me & Mine: A Family Portrait (October 2014)

October started with a busy few weeks at work and then what was supposed to be a fun and relaxing week off. Unfortunately we decided to go to Butlins in Skegness which, despite not looking too far on the map, took hours and hours to get to. And then Toby decided that he wasn’t really going to eat and wasn’t going to sleep unless he was in bed with me. Which meant not much sleep for anyone. The weather wasn’t great either and we didn’t really get chance to take advantage of everything Butlins had to offer, I’m going to write another post all about our holiday soon but suffice to say no one came home particularly rested!

And now we’re back to work and Toby’s back at nursery and we’re counting down the days until the Christmas holidays (only eight more Mondays at work to go!).

We did manage to get a family photo at Butlins. This was just after breakfast on our last day and we were all ready to go home. You can probably see the tiredness on our faces. But this picture, just like all our Me & Mine family portraits reminds us that although we had a pretty rubbish holiday we got to spend a week together as our little family. And even when things don’t turn out how we hoped we should always make the most of the time do get to spend together.

30 October , 2014 - Sarah 2 Comments

He’s walking!

Toby took his first couple of steps a week or two ago. But it was only a few steps before he would sit down and crawl off. He was still so much faster crawling that I think he wasn’t that motivated to walk. While we were on holiday he was happy to walk holding our hands (something he’s never been interested in doing before). And then last night, at fifteen and a half months, it was like something had clicked – he came home from nursery and hardly sat down! He was toddling around, and if he fell down he just stood right up again and started walking.

I even managed to get a video of him walking this time too. And you have to watch it with the sound on – I love the noise he makes as he disappears out of the frame at the end…

I’m so excited to have a toddler! I think life is going to get so much more fun now Toby can walk, it opens up so many possibilities of things we can do that we couldn’t do before. There’s a whole new world waiting for us out there…

30 October , 201423 January , 2019 - Sarah 2 Comments

Glasgow Blogger Bake Off

A couple of weekends ago I was lucky enough to be invited to go to Glasgow for a blogger bake off in association with Currys and Kenwood. There were around 30 bloggers of all different kinds from parent bloggers, to lifestyle, fashion and beauty, and even a few food bloggers for good measure! The event was held at The Cookery School in central Glasgow who run all sorts of different cookery courses, when they aren’t playing host to a gaggle (what is the collective noun?) of bloggers on a Sunday.

After a coffee and a chat with some of my fellow bloggers we headed through to the kitchen for the first of the day’s demonstrations from chef Danny McArdle. Now I have to admit I was hoping to stretch my baking skills a bit but the event was definitely aimed more towards the non-bakers amongst us. We were shown how to make scones, victoria sponge and cupcakes and chocolate chip muffins, none of which are particularly challenging for someone who bakes regularly. It was also a bit tricky to see the demonstrations given the number of bloggers squeezed into the main kitchen (and everyone trying to get decent blog-worthy photographs didn’t help!).

Having said that I did learn a few new tricks; for example using 00 flour (it’s milled twice don’t you know?) for scones makes them much lighter, and you can flavour sponge cakes by adding some well-beaten jam or marmalade. I definitely enjoyed eating one of the scones we had made and I had fun decorating my cupcakes too – I was particularly pleased with my chocolate piping skills.

Due to the number of bloggers we were working in groups of three. Although this meant I didn’t get chance to do all the baking myself I did make sure I got a go on one of the beautiful Kenwood Patisser mixers! (Both the mixers were given away to two of the bloggers at the end of the day – unfortunately I didn’t win one but the lovely people at Currys and Kenwood did provide us all with an equally lovely kMix hand mixer to take home with us, along with lots of other goodies too, including my very own #currysinthekitchen apron).

We used the mixer to make the batter for the cupcakes and you could totally tell the difference between that and the one we made by hand for the Victoria sponge. The one made in the mixer was so much lighter! I would absolutely love one of these big stand mixers but we’ve got a lot of saving up to do first…not for the mixer but so we can buy a new house with a big enough kitchen to fit one in! I would definitely recommend using a mixer or hand mixer when making cake batter though – especially for the creaming together butter and sugar stage. Unless you’ve got guns like Stallone then I just don’t think you can get it light and fluffy when you’re doing it by hand, and that’s what you need if you want a light and fluffy sponge cake.

It was lovely to meet so many other Scottish bloggers and I have to say a big thanks to Joe Blogs blogger network for organising the event and inviting me along. It was fantastic to have an event like this in Scotland as so many of the things I’m invited to are in London and not always very easy to get to! And even though Barry had to look after Toby for the day while I went off gallivanting again, I more than made up for it with the amount of cake I brought home!

28 October , 20142 August , 2017 - Sarah 3 Comments

Review: Bioskin Junior

Toby started suffering from eczema when he was a few months old. It’s always been relatively mild and he hasn’t had a flair up for a while now. I still have to be careful what I use on his skin though and make sure I moisturise his legs every day to avoid them getting dry and sore. We have mostly been using Doublebase from the doctor to moisturise but when the people at Salcura Natural Skin Therapy got in touch to ask if we’d like to try any of their new Bioskin Junior range which are designed specifically for babies and children with eczema and severe dryness I was happy to give them a try.

The Details

We were sent the Bioskin Junior Daily Nourishing Spray and Bath Milk to try. The Daily Nourishing Spray is 92% natural origin and retails at £19.99 for a 250ml bottle. The Bath Milk is 98% natural origin and retails at £9.99 for 300ml. All Bioskin Junior products (there is also an Outbreak Rescue Cream, Shampoo and Face & Body wash) are suitable for babies from 3 months up.

The Pros

The Daily Nourishing Spray is very easy to apply, especially to a very wriggly baby! All it takes is a couple of sprays and it is absorbed very easily without the need for a lot of rubbing in.
The spray smells pleasant and I really like its light, non-greasy consistency.
For the last couple of weeks I have been using the spray on Toby’s legs twice a day and they have stayed soft and smooth without the flair ups or dry, rough skin that he sometimes gets.
I have also tried the spray on the eczema inside my elbow and I was pleased that it doesn’t sting at all, even on broken and damaged skin.
The Bath Milk also smells very nice (it contains lavender and chamomile) and it isn’t greasy like some of the emollients we have used in the bath previously.
Toby hasn’t had any reaction or complaints about the Bath Milk and it seems to be helping to keep his skin hydrated.
The Bioskin Junior products natural ingredients mean I have no worries about what I am putting on Toby’s skin.

The Cons

The only downside for me with Bioskin Junior is the price. I don’t think these products are overly expensive, especially given how well they work, but I was also happy with the cream and bath additive that we get on prescription for free from the doctor.

The Verdict

I do like the Bioskin Junior products and have found the Daily Nourishing Spray very easy to apply. It does a great job at keeping Toby’s skin moisturised and I am always happy when I can use natural products on his skin. I would also be interested in trying the Outbreak Rescue Cream – if it is as effective as the other products it could be a great alternative to using steroid creams as we have had to in the past. I would definitely recommend Bioskin Junior products to anyone whose baby or child suffers from dry skin or eczema.

**Disclosure: I was sent these Bioskin Junior products in return for this review. All opinions are my own.

27 October , 201427 March , 2015 - Sarah 2 Comments

Living Arrows 43/52

I love how much Toby is learning and changing every day – he’s such a little adventurer! I bought him this play tunnel from IKEA a couple of months ago but when we first got it he had no interest in crawling through it all. I got it out again last week though and he absolutely loved it! Crawling backwards and forwards, chasing his ball through it, crawling through one way then round the outside and back through the same way – he was just having so much fun and that’s what I have hopefully captured in this week’s Living Arrows pictures.

Toby Goes Bananas

A family lifestyle blog