Television For Toddlers.

Yes, I'm one of those slightly obnoxious parents that gloats that my child doesn't watch any cartoons. In reality, Noah just didn't show any interest in any form of children's cartoon character, the only channel he would pay any interest too was Baby TV, which I was more than happy with as most of the bits on there are educational. He's always been more of a music baby (curse you uptown funk) and will stop, dance and giggle away at all the latest hits, Sam Smith, Bruno Mars, Meghan Trainor - you name it, he'll stop and dance to it. But he's just never shown any liking to your usual childrens programmes.

So can you imagine my horror when he suddenly starts voicing 'Peppa' 'Peppa' at me? Where on earth did that come from!? Daddy, that's who. In the weekday mornings, as I start work earlier than John & take a little longer to get ready, he often feeds Noah his breakfast, and unknowingly to me has got him very much interested in Peppa Pig. Something I will freely admit I tried to almost enforce onto Noah, so that I could use the programmes to keep him still on our previous holiday - it failed. Now, Daddy seems to have managed to get him hooked. Okay, okay, I might be exaggerating, but he can fully recognise her face and point her out as 'PEPPA', at which my looks could possibly kill John. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the whole thing, it's not really a bad thing I just still feel he is very young. I as a child watched Tots Tv, Pingu and all the other silly cartoons and didn't end up with square eyes. How do you feel about childrens cartoons?

Moving Your Child Into Their Own Room

In some peoples eyes we may have been early or late doing this, and looking back, we definitely could of done this earlier, nonetheless Noah is now in his own room. And guess what, I don't know what I was so worried about!

Noah's cot has always been against the far wall in our bedroom since he moved into it at around 12 weeks old. He's had his own room, just a couple of metres down the hallway from ours, but we've always felt comforted and at ease knowing he was just at the foot of our bed. If he cried, or got hurt, or worse, we weren't too far away and that was always reassuring for me. (Especially after reading a horror story on SIDS at 9 months old that scarred for life) Anyway, as Noah turned one we knew it was something we wanted to do, but then he went through a horrible sleeping phase when he woke every 3 / 4 hours, and selfishly we wanted to be nearby so it didn't disrupt any of us too much in the night. Since then, Noah has slept fine, and we were gradually starting to question if we'd ever move him into his beautifully decorated nursery. But finally, after a sporadic bank holiday weekend tidy up in his room, we just decided to move the cot down and see how he got on.

 (ps. don't freak out, all plug sockets are covered and he can't even nearly reach the wire)

The first night was like an absolute dream, the only hiccup we had was I didn't charge his monitor enough so it scared the s**t out of me when it beeped very loudly at about 4 am. I spent the next 2 hours waking at every little noise in case it was Noah. Lesson learned, on the Monday night we charged everything up and again, he slept absolutely perfectly. I wasn't worried he'd be waking a lot, as he rarely wakes at all any more, I was more worried if he did wake he couldn't resettle himself as he'd feel in a strange place. But now we're well into our third week of Noah in his own bedroom, I'm confident that if he did wake, he'd know exactly where he was and he'd drift right back off to sleep - he probably has even done so, but I've just not noticed.

I do feel a little bit silly for not doing it sooner, but only you can decide when the time feels right. I thought this would be a big event, but it's really not. We just have our bedroom back to ourselves, and Noah can now fully enjoy his own little boys room in peace and private.  What age did you switch your little ones to their own room?

We've Booked Our Holiday (yay!)

As you can guess by the title, we've booked our summer holiday. We're off to a little town in Alicante called Javea, my Dad's parents have a little villa there and they're happy to let us stay there for just short of a couple of weeks in August and we're already counting down the days, we cannot wait.

It will be a whole different ball game to last time we went away, Noah was 7 / 8 months old when we went to Tunisia last summer, and was a completely different person to who he is now. Now he's full of spirit, and full of 'I don't want to sit still for a second', so the plane ride should be fun. Thankfully it's only a couple of hours and we fly at 6:30am so I'm hoping he might sleep? As the flight is only 2 hours, and Noah is under 2, we haven't got him his own seat, it seems a little pointless as he probably wouldn't sit in it even if we got him one, so he will be perched on my lap with one of those silly seat belt thingy-ma-jigs.

I feel in the dark again, as Noah is now a toddler I have absolutely no idea of how to keep him occupied during flight. So far I've picked him up his own carry on suitcase, that will be solely for his stuff, as that way I know if I need something where it will be. I vow not to take one thing of Noahs in neither mine nor John's bag, as it just becomes a huge search effort when we need something silly like a wipe. I will be like a sponge for the next 3 months, soaking up any information I can find on flying with a toddler, so if anyone has any tips please let me know. The holiday side should be a lot easier, last time we went all inclusive and Tunisia didn't really have many of the amenities or brands that we have here in the UK. However travelling in Europe gives us that benefit that we're probably going to be able to find pampers, and weetabix if we need it, so I'm much more relaxed in the event I forget anything. Noahs great granny Pat has even managed to find a company out there that rent baby packages, including a travel cot, car seat, a huge box of toys etc, which is an absolutely saviour. It means we don't have to worry about lugging all of it out there, and it's super handy.

We've even started Noahs swimming lessons up again which he starts on Friday, to get him used to the water again. He loved the pool last year and I'm just hoping he's a bit better in the sea as he was not so happy about being in there.

As you can tell, we are hugely looking forward to our time away, and we welcome any tips on holidays or flying with a toddler, as I could definitely use all the help I can get.

Little Dish Review *

Something that can be a worry as a working parent, is rushing home from work after a very long day and cooking a home cooked meal from scratch. Lets be honest, sometimes we really don't have the time or energy. And I can hold my hands up and say yes, Noah has had beans on toast, spaghetti hoops and probably lots of other crap I vowed I'd never give him. We're fortunate, that whilst we work, Noah is either in nursery, or with my Mother, so each day he gets a good home cooked meal. However there are occasions where let's be honest - it's a bit of a faf to cook a whole separate meal for one child if for example we have a curry or chilli, something I definitely wouldn't want to give to Noah (we like them a little bit too spicy).

It was always a concern that he'd be having too much salt in some of the tinned products mentioned above, and texture was a worry too, I didn't want him to regress to smoother consistency if he was having a can of chicken soup. And then I discovered Little Dish. An absolutely amazing brand, me and my Mum first discovered them in Waitrose, the first thing that grabbed our attention was the fact that; yes they were a childrens meal, but they didn't have garish packaging like most similar on the market. We were amazed to see they offer such a variety of meals, from fish to pasta and curries to hotpots, they looked amazing so we picked up a few to try with Noah. He adored them of course, so I reached out to Little Dish who kindly sent me some samples to try out with him.

 

 Noah's first sample was 'Fishermans Pie with Salmon and Pollock' and oh my word it went down a treat, as you can see, Noah had absolutely no issues gobbling it all. In fact, when I tried to help him steer a bit he missed into his mouth, he went crazy as he thought I was taking the spoon away. Little Dish is a brand I feel comfortable feeding to Noah, as I'm aware they will nourish him just as well as I would. Their meals contain always at least one of your five a day, often more, they are low in salt which is a huge thing for ready meals. They have zero added sugar, and no additives or preservatives. I can't wait for Noah to try the other samples, which included a chilli, they are perfect to wean him onto some gentle spices before he can start to eat what we're eating.

Have you ever tried a ready meal for your toddler? Perhaps from Little Dish?

March Make-Up Favourites

This month I don't think my favourite products have changed once, and as a beauty lover this is definitely a very rare thing. So of course, I had to share them with you all;

1. First is my base, the holy grail of bases, Estee Lauder Double Wear. I don't even need to say much about this, it's amazing. It just buffs into my skin so well, it feels so soft. My skin still feels like skin with this on, and more importantly, it still looks like skin. I notice the biggest difference with using this foundation is it's lasting power, sometimes with others by the end of the day my foundations almost melted off my face. But not double wear, it powers through even the longest days at work.
2. Benefit Boi-ing, again another huge beauty cult because of it's fabulous reputation. This really is industrial strength concealer and when you're a mummy, you certainly need it after nights of teething induced sleep. I feel although it is quite a thick consistency, if I just rub it between my fingers before applying and buff it in, it sits perfectly all day long and covers up just how tired I actually am.
3. Nars Illuminator in the shade Orgasm, this product has lasted me SO long. I've had it for months and without fail use it every single day. It's been amazing for winter as it's given me that radiant glow, when my natural one was left behind in the summer haze. I'm almost at the end of this and I will always repurchase, the finish is subtle yet noticeable and I will forever love this product for exactly that.
   
4. Two mascaras and both yet again, amazing. Roller lash I actually received free in my Birch Box, which I was really happy about as I'd just ran out of my sample from a magazine earlier in the month. I will be repurchasing this when it's ran out as it's definitely working well for curling my lashes. Loreals Miss Manga however, steals the show with it's budget friendly price tag, as well as the volume it provides for my lashes. I think the brush is my favourite kind, it's big but not too big,so it really coats every lash from root to tip.
5. My beloved Nars blusher in the shade Seduction. Now on first impressions it may seem like quite an almost purple shade. But the colour payoff isn't as garish as it may seem, which is a very good thing because I think it suits me perfectly. It just gives a subtle flush but slightly darker than your typical peony pink, which is great for someone with olive skin like me. I've used this again, nearly every single day and it doesn't seem to have budged. 
6. Lastly is another high street favourite, with Soap & Glory Brow Archery. I waited for months for this to be in stock anywhere, and finally it was in November and I grabbed the last one. I haven't looked back since. The thin nib of the brush is perfect for filling in brows. I don't think mine need too much work, so this is an amazing tool just to help them that little bit, I've never really used the crayon end as I haven't needed to, so can't comment on that but the felt tip side is worth the hype all on its own.

What's your favourite products this March?

Maxi Cosi Pearl Review.

As mentioned in my previous post, this car seat is 10000% tried and tested, as it withstood the impact of a Lorry, and thank god, Noah remained completely unharmed. I do believe we owe a lot of that too the Maxi Cosi Pearl, as well as ISOFIX, and I will always recommend it for those reasons.

If you haven't seen the Pearl, it's beautiful, it feels luxurious and I definitely wish they designed one for adults, mainly because it reclines! Yes, reclines! So on those long journeys when Noah drops off to sleep (those oh so rare journeys now, curse you toddler-hood) we simply pull a lever under his seat and he can lay back in comfort. I don't have to worry that he'll strain his neck if it drops forward, or that'll he will feel uncomfortable and stiff when he wakes, because he is just as comfy, if not more so, than he would be if he was sleeping in his pram. The extra padding around the head and neck ensures that in the horrific event of an accident, Noahs' head would stay completely supported which I can completely vouch for as when we had our crash, Noah was asleep. He didn't cry with the impact, he simply woke up and had a nosey around. My mind is completely at ease now I know he's strapped into that, the best thing is he'll be in it for another 3 years, as it's fit for use right up until the age of 4. Another huge and I mean huge plus, if your OH is anything like mine, is that the harness is so easy to clip in. John definitely can't work it out if something needs fifty thousand straps before your child is secure, so the Pearl is perfect, because two sides clip together and wa-la, you're all good to go.

What more could you ask for with a car seat than complete comfort and safety for your child? The pearl comes in a huge variety of colours and designs, so there is always something to suit everyones taste.

Do you have a Maxi-Cosi Pearl?