Wednesday, 31 August 2011

Day of the Toddler, Exploring Downham!

I just love seeing the world through the eyes of my two year old and how he finds joy in the most mundane things!

I thought I'd share with you a walk we had ... not my usual countryside style walk such as scadbury park, or knole park... but to the co-op in Downham!

Now, my local readers will need no introduction to Downham, but to those of you from further afield, Downham is not so nice, it's the sort of place that has a million 14 year old boys all wearing black hoodies (even on the sunniest of days) and each one of those 14 year old boys has a dog (and no, not sausage dogs, but staffies, rottweilers, things that looks suspiciously like pitbulls and those really ugly white dogs with the long pink noses) or at least I think the dogs are with the boys but none are on leads, disciplined or cleaned up after so who knows!

Downham also boasts lots of rubbish on the streets, lots of people smoking funny smelling cigarettes and a lot of toddlers who know the "f" word.

Joking aside, it's not all bad, every other person seems normal and we've met some lovely people in the area (we live just on the edge, first home and all that!) and there are some beautiful gardens, a fab leisure centre and library and a good sense of community, even the postie says hello.!

We had a little walk up to the post office and the Co-Op near the leisure centre and my toddler had a great time, first of all we saw a huge big yellow digger - one of his current fave things to spot so we stopped and had a look at it.

Then we saw a Fire engine and a few firefighters (My Mum would be jealous, she has a real thing for firemen!) I love how excited Blake gets when he sees these things! He couldn't stop telling me all about the digger and the Fire engine and to top it all off, we also spotted postman Pat's van and a police car... with sirens! Blake did a great neeenooorrr sound and kept asking for the cat... I'm guessing he was looking for Jess.

Just as we were about to turn the corner towards home, Blake spotted a bus, 2 hours later, Blake is still singing "round and round all day long"

So the me before kids would probably not even given these things a second glance but for a two year old boy, what on a walk could beat a huge yellow muddy digger, a massive fire engine, postman Pat's van, a police car with sirens and flashy lights and a big red bus!

Life is in the little details ... and the words "ohhh wow! look mama"


Emma in Bromley x

Thursday, 25 August 2011

Smooth as a baby's bottom - baby sensory cleanse & protect nappy balm review

I was very lucky to be sent some baby sensory cleanse and protect nappy balm to review recently. I'm a big fan of the baby sensory classes having taken my son to them for three terms and buying the cd which he still loves so I had high expectations of the baby sensory nappy balm. (You can read my post on baby sensory classes if you like?)

I'm rather particular about chemicals and do my best to avoid things such as parabens  (Yep, there's something you should know about parabens) so I was very happy to discover that there are no nasties in this balm, it's all natural and handmade in Scotland just for Baby Sensory.
(I can't help but imagine a small team of people cooking this up in a traditional farmhouse kitchen complete with tea and shortbread biscuits... and a sheep outside the window - I know I'm probably wrong!)
There's no added perfume to the nappy balm and I could only detect a small hint of the scent of cocoa butter. The ingredients list is fantastic all natural and boasts things such as local beeswax and sunflower seed oil.

At first I was worried the balm would be quite greasy, afterall it does need to provide a bit of a barrier but actually it soaks in quite quickly. (I've found other brands to be a bit too greasy and seem to do more harm than good) and it's texture was much smoother and waxy than other nappy creams.

We used it on my 26 month old's sore bottom and it really helped - my son has started sleeping on his tummy and we are having huge issues with night time nappies, every disposable we've tried has leaked in the night - they just don't seem to be able to cope with the concentration of wee in the front and obviously my son wakes up distraught and wet through usually at about 5am so he's left tired but also too awake to go back to sleep.We have found that using a reusable booster in a night time disposable works most nights, however it has left him rather sore - probably from having a soggy booster stuck to him all night.
I've found that the baby sensory balm doesn't make him wince or shout in pain when applied and as it does form a barrier, it has helped to protect him in the nights and I have seen an improvement on the soreness.

I've also been using the balm on dry patches on my face, I had baby2 only 8 weeks ago and once again, I've found myself suffering from dry post natal skin. I've found that if I apply the balm to my dry patches early in the morning, it's soaked in enough by the time we head out (it is quite shiny on your face!) and it helps relieve the tightness and dryness but only for a few hours then I need to reapply but my skin is definitely improving.

It does make a fantastic night time hand/ foot cream too and is great on dry cuticles!

I think I would have loved this product when I was pregnant and my tummy had that prickly "stretch mark developing" feeling. The ingredients and texture make me think this would have been very soothing! I don't believe any product can stop stretch marks but I do think some soothe that horrible prickly feeling and moisturising might help slow down the severity of stretch mark!

It comes in quite a large 50ml pot but some of the pot is wasted empty space below the product. For me, I always prefer a squeeze tube or pump when it comes to nappy creams. I just feel it's more hygienic and harder for the toddler to access it! But that's the only change I'd make to the product. It's performance, ethics and ingredients can't be faulted.

You can buy the balm from the baby sensory website for £5.99 which I think is reasonable as it does last a while, however postage is an extra £3.95 which makes this product £9.94 a tub which in my opinion is more than I would like to pay for a nappy balm, even a good one!






Emma in Bromley x


Wednesday, 17 August 2011

You are what you tweet! Twitter infographic

I love a good app or whatever you want to call them and had a good giggle at this one (I am a tad geeky after all)
"you are what you tweet" twitter infographic by these guys (visual.ly) is just fab!
Have a go yourself if you are a twitterer and post your results in the comment section :-)

Geeky grin is about right! Cupcake obsession is spot on! Gamer - that's a little off, I'm extremely naff at games and haven't been a gamer since sega megadrive was all the rage (Yep! I'm that old!) ! and I thought I tweeted much much more than 0.06 per day ... and I feel a little hurt that I'm only 5.31% interesting! Oh well, at least I'm enthusiastic! ha ha...

If you want to join me on twitter, I tweet as @beachpebble




Emma in Bromley xx

Monday, 15 August 2011

Goodbye naptime - oh how I will miss you!

I guess I've been fairly lucky with naptimes and Blake. Since he was 10 months old, he's had one nap a day, it's always started at some point between 10 and 12noon and has always lasted about an hour (occasionally I was luck enough to get almost 2 hours!) Naptime has recently been a bit odd, maybe 20 mins at the most or it's been slipping later in the day starting at about 2 instead (I don't like him to sleep beyond 3 as it messes with bedtime 8pm to 7am) but now he's nearly 26months old, I fear naptime has disappeared as he has refused naps the last few days.
Might not sound like too big a deal, but unfortunately, without Blake having his nap it means several big changes to our house:
1) I have a very grumpy 2 year old all afternoon who gets to the stage where he flops on the sofa and demands peppa pig and throws mega mega strops.
2) I don't get any 1 on 1 time with my beautiful 7 week old daughter who I feel already doesn't get enough of my sole attention.
3) I don't get any time to do the household jobs I can't do with the toddler around to "help" (By help, I mean chuck all the clean clothes I've just folded on the floor/ try and climb into the dishwasher / empty the dustbin / climb the bookcase or my legs / tip toybox contents all over the floor / put toys or things from the bin into the washing machine / press buttons on dishwasher, washing machine and fridge etc...)
4) There's no chance of a cup of tea (well, a hot one anyway) and 10 mins with my feet up to try and recover from pregnancy and birth and general motherhood duties.
5) Without naptime it's hard to prepare for or tidy up from messy play/painting/craft time so I fear these activities won't happen as much as they should.

Perhaps it's time I consider pre-school in september for a morning or two a week after all! I'd instantly dismissed a september start as I did feel it's too soon but perhaps Blake needs more than a very exhausted me to amuse him all day and Maegan certainly deserves a bit of time with just me too.

I feel very stranded where I live - not quite close enough to pop into town easily and I don't drive so I can't just take the kids somewhere fun for the day, perhaps Blake's lack of nap time is down to a lack of being stimulated, afterall, it's been a little while since we were able to go along to parent and toddler group or baby bounce and rhyme or adventure kingdom and I'm feeling very over tired and stretched.

Goodbye naptimes, I miss you!

Emma in Bromley x



Sunday, 14 August 2011