This week was supposed to be a nice little "holiday" between Mr C leaving one job and starting a new one. We acknowledged that there were likely to be some little jobs left to finish off in our new loft conversion, but the reality is that we've actually been running round like headless chickens all week trying to make decisions, but things and get everything sorted. Today we've made quite an effort to make the day a bit calmer and fun. A spot of baking - mainly prompted by the need to use up some bananas that were going very brown in the fruit bowl - a pub lunch and a wander ... read more
There!
After posting hopefully last week I'm delighted to say that we're there! The last couple of nights have been spent in our new bedroom, sleeping in our bed, not surrounded by boxes and boxes of stuff. OK so the curtains aren't yet up and there were a few problems like our chest of drawers not actually fitting up the stairs, but the fantastic news is that our new room was ready to move into before Baby C arrived - a miracle. If it's possible things seem to have got even more manic since the builders finished as we're now able to do all the jobs that we'd had ... read more
Review: Jingle Puzzle – Old MacDonald Had A Farm
Just the day after blogging about Little Miss C's love of jigsaw puzzles I was thrilled to be asked to review a Jingle Puzzle. What freaked me out slightly was that as soon as we arrived at the local sorting office to collect the parcel LMC somehow knew that it was a jigsaw for her without either of us even opening the package. She happily carried it to the car telling everyone we walked past that it was a jigsaw for her to do. More than "just" a jigsaw Jingle Puzzles are based on well known children's nursery rhymes and songs and each box contains a floor puzzle, a CD of music (with track ... read more
Review: Miniland Lacing Buttons
I've always been a big fan of educational toys and games and I was therefore really pleased to hear about a range of educational toys that I hadn't come across before - Miniland Educational. We were sent a couple of things from the range to review and I have honestly never seen Little Miss C jump on anything as quickly as she did the Lacing Buttons. Within mere seconds of me opening the big brown box they came in LMC had them out and had spread them across the living room floor as she excitedly started threading them onto the laces provided. For half an hour she sat there ... read more
Cussons Mum & Me Bump Range: Relax and Unwind Bath Soak
With everything going on here at the moment there's no doubt that relaxing and unwinding should be top of my to do list, but finding time to do so can be a bit problematic. I was rather pleased to be asked to review the Relax and Unwind Bath Soak from Cussons Mum and Me Bump Range as I figured that I could then justify having a relaxing bubble bath as being "work related"! The thing I particularly like about this bath soak is that it does actually seem to lead to a better night's sleep if I use if just before bedtime. Made with camomile to help you relax it's not overly scented (a good thing ... read more
Mothercare’s new store
When pregnant with Little Miss C Mothercare was my first port of call to look at baby things. I'm guessing the simple reason why was because I remember going there with my mum as a small child to buy things either for myself or for my younger sister. Nowadays there are also other stores selling things for babies and toddlers, and supermarkets also have a wide range for this market, but Mothercare is still there and they're making some changes to their stores to make sure that they meet the needs of modern parents and their offspring. I was delighted to be invited along to see the new-style ... read more
Nearly there
The end might finally be in sight. The major building work is complete. The majority of the decorating is done. The bathroom is installed. The new tiles are up. OK, so there are still a load of little jobs to complete and the small matter of changing goalposts with the building inspecting people meaning that today there are electricians all over the place installing extra smoke detectors, but, if all goes according to plan this time next week we might have just spent the first night in our new bedroom. Little Miss C has already moved into her new bigger bedroom and is taking great delight in ... read more
Please don’t apologise Team GB
Just in case you haven't noticed I should probably point out that there's a bit of a sporting event going on in London at the moment. Although technically it's not just in London as there are Olympic football matches all over the country and sailing down on the coast and probably a few other events in other places that technically don't fall within the London postcode district. As long as you're aware of Lord Coe's "sports day" then you must also be aware of how amazingly well Team GB are doing at the moment. Gold medals have been coming in thick and ... read more
Olympics with a large bump
Back in April last year (16 months ago) I joined in the frenzy of applying for as many Olympic tickets as I could through the ballot. At the time I obviously had no idea that by the time the games came to London I would be nearly eight months pregnant with a rather large bump. I went for the cheapest tickets in all the obvious events - opening and closing ceremony, 100m final, swimming etc and also added on the canoe sessions that are local to us in Hertfordshire and a few odd-ball ones - mainly the tennis as I figured it might be the cheapest way to see some WImbledon Centre Court ... read more
BigJigs Rail – Record Breakers!
When I wrote about the planned BigJigs World Record attempt I was looking forward to going along with Little Miss C, but I have to admit that I had absolutely no idea what a fantastic day we were going to have, or just how much I was about to completely fall even more in love with the BigJigs brand. LMC and I have already seen two Guinness World Records broken this year thanks to this blog and as soon as we arrived and met the BigJigs team I was pretty sure that this was going to make it three. Having taken over one of the slips at Chatham Dockyard the BigJigs team started laying ... read more