6 Highlights of our Christmas trip to Bluestone
Review: Childs Farm Skin and Bath Products
If you have a baby, chances are you may have heard of Childs Farm. Whilst I’ve tried out other great bathtime products, I’ve been itching to try out these products since Autumn was a newborn. I was delighted when I was approached with a lovely gift hamper to test out.
Autumn loves her bath time, so she’s always more than happy to be my little guinea pig when it comes to trying out bath products!
Meeting the Duchess of Cambridge with Family Action
Last Tuesday, Autumn and I both had what was probably a once in a lifetime experience. We were asked to attend a (non blog related) event with Family Action. The VIP guest was none other than our future Queen, the Duchess of Cambridge!
This was a very exciting prospect for me, as I’ve always followed her in the media and found her very likeable. However, I was also looking forward to helping Family Action to express various perinatal mental health issues and just how necessary their support is.
Our honeymoon and babymoon in Pembrokeshire
I’m so excited to have been invited to visit Bluestone for a midweek break this week! Let’s face it, babies are expensive and statutory maternity pay (SMP) isn’t much. As such, there’s been no way of affording a holiday this year. I thought the closest we were going to get was our three weekends away earlier in the year. In May we went to Birmingham to visit This Morning Live and The Baby Show at the NEC Arena. At the beginning of July, we headed up to Nottingham for me to attend Download Festival (I won tickets!) Then at the end of September we went to Manchester for BlogOn.
It was only the beginning of last week that I was looking longingly at photographs I’d taken of Pembrokeshire the last two years and reminiscing. I’m so excited that I’m able to go back this year! I thought I’d write a post about my visits in 2015 for Dave and I’s honeymoon and our first anniversary holiday/babymoon last year. We’ve visited many of the best attractions and places for tourists to visit in Pembrokeshire.
Review: UltraHeat Radiator from PlumbNation
We’ve finally got around to fitting a new UltraHeat radiator in our living room recently. As you may have read in older blog posts, I am desperately trying to get our living room decorated. My husband and I were lucky to get onto the property ladder at 20. Rather than getting a flat in good condition, we opted to buy a house in not as good a condition. Fast forward five years and the living room is still almost entirely in the state the previous owners (who had the house repossessed) left it in with bad paintwork, shoddy woodwork and laminate flooring in a terrible condition.
We’d probably have sorted it out by now if we hadn’t have got married or had a child, but I didn’t want plans for these important life experiences to be delayed by a room. Losing a few relatives made me realise that those were things I wanted to do sooner rather than later and that decorating could wait. However, we are trying to do things slowly, as time and money allow. One embarrassment has always been the large radiator leaning forwards off of its brackets underneath our windowsill. Not only that, but it was a nightmare to clean and things kept getting stuck down it.
When should you first take baby to the dentist? (+WIN)
So, when should you take your child to the dentist for the first time? There seems to be a lot of misinformation around about when you should take your baby for their first check up. Shortly before Autumn turned 6 months old, I went to a class at one of our local Children’s Centres. As well as learning about weaning, we learnt about dental care too. It turns out that where I’m based in Medway there’s a scheme where babies are given a Medway Smiles passport. It’s encouraged that they first go to the dentist between 6 and 8 months old.
Here’s some more information how to look after your baby’s precious teeth as well as a giveaway! The prizes you’re in with a chance to win will help you to protect those pearly whites.
A family day out at Sheffield Park
Sheffield Park in East Sussex is renowned for its beautiful autumn colours. I’d say it’s definitely one of the best places to see the autumn colours in the South East. A National Trust property, it boasts acres of landscaped gardens with park and woodland. October was a very busy month for us. I went back to work, I was under the weather for most of the month and it just generally seemed to whizz by. When we got to the beginning of this week, I realised that we hadn’t visited Sheffield Park.
Fortunately, I must have expressed this to my husband. On Thursday morning we went to drop off my car to the garage first thing. As he drove me back home through the country lanes, I gazed across the fog on the marshes and the gentle sunlight dancing on the frost in the fields. It was a beautiful morning made better by the fact that he then announced he’d taken the day off and was taking us to Sheffield Park!
Review: Jack N Jill & The Natural Family Co
I’m always worried to some extent about what products we’re using as a family. When I look at the back of packaging, there are always just so many ingredients and chemicals that I don’t recognise. I also worry more and more about the environmental effects of products that we’re using. We’ve recently been trying out some products from The Natural Family Co, including some from their Jack N’ Jill kid’s range.
Autumn’s first 8 words
By the time they reach 13 months old, children usually have a vocabulary of around 3 or 4 words. Of course, this does vary as babies and toddlers develop at different rates. It’s so fun seeing what word they’ll learn to say next, though. I remember when Autumn said her first word it was kind of a “Did that really just happen? Did she say that?” moment and I’m still finding it like that.
Autumn was a little ahead of the curve when it comes to speech development, as she could say 8 words when she reached 13 months. Here they are!
This time last year
This time last year, I was facing the toughest experience of my life. Sometimes it still amazes me that I got through it, but I did. I feel like I’m a completely different person to the one I was before Autumn fell ill and had her operation with Dr. Zahid Mukhtar. I feel different and I look at life somewhat differently. Hopefully one day I might be a stronger person for it all.
I’m certainly stronger than I was this time last year, but I don’t feel completely healed yet.
