toddler

Being a big brother

- Stacey 8 Comments

I recently wrote about little man J at 2 years old, and briefly mentioned how he is coping with being a big brother. Since then he has come on a bit more too and is really getting used to it and helping more now. 


He does still get jealous sometimes and I have to make sure that I don’t leave him alone as we have near on had a couple of ‘incidents’ with him! Instead I take the brunt of it, as any Mummy would.


I mentioned that he likes to give him kisses – when he’s given N one and then I ask for one, half the time he won’t give me one now, like N is more worthy than Mummy! I think it’s quite cute actually.


As well as taking his nappies to the bin, he also fetches them now, as well the changing mat and baby wipes. If he could reach his clothes in the wardrobe I think he would fetch those too as when Daddy is here and changing N, I give them to J to take to Daddy and he gets really excited. 


They had their first bath together a couple of weeks ago and he helped to wash him which was really rather sweet.




Very recently he has also started attempted to give him his bottle; he tries shoving it in N’s mouth even when he doesn’t want it, but bless him, he’s only trying to help! When N has been sick or dribbled he wipes it up for him. 


And now he has started to help dress him too, though he tends to actually just place his clothes on top of him…


I didn’t think he would take to him immediately, which he didn’t, but he is slowly getting there and I am very proud of him. He is being a great big brother, as much as he can at his age.




Mumday Monday

Little man J at 2 years old

- Stacey 5 Comments
Well I can’t believe the original little man is now 2 years old. I haven’t updated about his progress as regularly as I should have, but it is my mission for the year for now, for both of them! Since my last update nearly 6 months ago, he has come on so much in lots of areas. 

He has so many new words (lots of them with thanks to Peppa Pig!). I’m not going to list them this time as there are way too many to keep up with nowadays; he’s saying at least one new word every 2 or 3 days. There are lots of animal names and noises; food words; greetings and goodbyes; toilet activities; and he’s starting to recognise body parts. He can also now count to 3! Although sometimes he says 1, 2, 8!…

Although he knows the words for wee & poo, potty training is still a no-go at the minute. He usually uses it as a hat – luckily he has done nothing in it at these times! He has sat on it a couple of times though, but he doesn’t stay there long enough. He doesn’t even tell me when he’s done a wee or a poo so I don’t think he’s quite ready anyway. (After I’d written this I had to come back to edit it as he brought me his potty saying ‘wee wee’ – he sat on it with his nappy off but just played with himself instead! Typical man hey!).

He still doesn’t have all of his teeth! He was a late starter and at 2 years old he still only has 12 – his molars started coming through at 20 months. He does have another two coming through right now though. 

We recently took both of the sides off J’s cot bed after removing one of them a few months ago. He had stopped falling out of the side that had been removed so we thought we would remove the other too, and make it even more like a proper big boys bed. He now falls out of the other side sometimes, but I can’t imagine he hurts himself as I find him laid on the floor asleep! We still have his routine though so this has worked well for us. 

He has started young and has a girlfriend – the next door neighbour! Her grandad asked her one day do you have a boyfriend, and she said “Yes, J” – cute! They have loved playing together ever since we moved in but this was just lovely. They are quite close, whenever they go and call for each other and the other isn’t in, or they have to come in for their tea etc., they always run away crying & upset. Young love, hey?!

He is gradually getting use to being a big brother. He wasn’t so sure at first and would poke N – like he was testing that he was real or something! Although when he first met him he gave him a kiss and kisses him all the time now, as well as tickling his feet. He also helps me with nappy changes and puts nappies in the bin. I think he will be much better when N starts moving and he can play with him! 

Review & Giveaway – Heroes of the City (CLOSED)

- Stacey 43 Comments

Little man J is a big lover of toy cars – well any toy vehicles in fact – and I have lost count of how many he owns. I know that it’s a big box full, at least! He also loves to watch cartoons and films with ‘brum brums’, so when we were invited to review Heroes of the City, I couldn’t say no. 

Heroes of the City is a television cartoon about rescue vehicles in a small town where everyone can be a hero!
 Follow the fantastically exciting adventures along with friends in town.
Meet Pauli Police Car and Fiona Fire Engine as they help the townspeople find thieves, put out fires, and solve one of the many mysteries that happen in the otherwise quiet town.
You will also get to know Calamity Crow, the most unlucky bird in town. Emphasizing friendship, Heroes of the City contains a great deal of warmth and what may be accomplished by helping each other.

We received a book, a DVD, and two toy vehicles – I’ll let you guess what he went for first!




After he’d had a play with the cars, we sat down to watch the DVD and read the book. 




The DVD consisted of 5 short episodes involving all of the fun characters. The animation is really great and the characters are fantastic and fun for little ones to enjoy. The book is the story of The Hot Air Balloon – J isn’t quite at the reading stage yet so I read it to him, but he loves to look at & point out the pictures which are great for his age. The recommended age range is 3-6 years so the book is good to last right through.

There is also a free app for Heroes of the City (available on the Play store too) to go alongside the cartoon series. The app contains more than six hours of movies which can keep them occupied on the go, and nine exciting games for little ones to play. J especially enjoyed the colouring one.



Disclosure
We were sent this product free of charge to review. All thoughts & opinions are honest & our own.

I am happy to tell you that I have a set like the one pictured above (plus a beach ball) to give away to one of my lucky readers – all you have to do is enter via the Rafflecopter below! 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com


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Entries must be received by 11.59pm on 22/04/2014.
The winner will be drawn randomly via Rafflecopter/random.org when the giveaway has ended and will be sent an email informing them they have won.
The winner has 28 days to respond to the email or a new winner will be drawn.
The winner will be required to send their address for me to pass on to get their prize sent to them.

Penwizard personalised Peppa Pig Birthday Party | Book review

- Stacey 1 Comment

In our home we love books, though little man sometimes doesn’t have the attention span to sit and read a full one. I try to a have a mixture of both educational, traditional, modern & fun books. J is slightly obsessed with a certain cartoon pig, so when we were given the chance to review a personalised Peppa Pig book from Penwizard I was very eager – for him, not me, I might add! I was able to choose a softback book so as it was coming up to little man’s 2nd birthday, I went for the “Peppa goes to Your Childs Party!” one. 

It is a very easy process to personalise your book, in just a few steps. The personalisation options include your childs gender, name, skin tone, eye colour, hair style & colour, and whether they wear glasses or not. Also with the party book you can include their age on the balloon. You can even leave a personal message at the front of the book.

Once I had ordered the book it arrived very quickly. I was surprised at the size, though it does say it on the website (but if you read the blog regularly, you will know I rarely pay attention to size, oops!). It arrived in a hardback envelope which is of course a good thing so it doesn’t get bent or damaged in the mail. 

The book itself is of very good quality; very glossy with lovely bright pictures with all of the Peppa Pig characters from the familiar story. J’s character does bear a bit of a resemblance to him in cartoon form! I love the fact there is a print of the letter in there too. 

 
The book is very easy to read, but as J is 2 and just at the beginning of learning to read, I read it for him. He loves sitting and looking at the pictures and telling me who the characters are though. The only thing with it being softback is that if you have a little destroyer like mine, it can be bent easily. For this reason I think I would pay the extra £5 and get the hardback version. 
 
Overall, this is a book that a Peppa Pig fan will never tire of – little man is always bringing it to read! At £14.99 I think it makes a fabulous gift and as it’s personalised it is great to be put in a memory box, as there are many other versions too.
 
Our rating – 4/5
 
Disclosure
We were sent this product free of charge to review. All thoughts & opinions are honest & our own.

Review – Organix Winter Warmers range

- Stacey Leave a comment
Since we started weaning little man we have used the Organix brand – even now he especially loves the cheese & herb puffs; well he loves anything that tastes of cheese really! We have also used the fruit pots and breakfast cereals, but not the meals which we sent to try some of – from the Winter Warmers range (priced at £1.99 RRP, recommended for 1-3 years old). 


On their website Organix state:

Our Unique No Junk Promise guarantees our foods are made with nothing but the best-quality organic ingredients.

When buying ready made meals from brands, I think that this is at the top of most parents’ list as we want to feed our child with top quality healthy foods. Being a stay at home Mum, the majority of the time I cook most meals from scratch, but these Organix meals come in very handy when I just can’t be bothered to cook and hubby & I have a takeaway or a ready made off the shelf meal! They are made from ingredients that would normally be found in a home kitchen, and they only take a couple of minutes in the microwave, or you can even cook them on the hob but they obviously take a little longer.

We were sent three soups (Mighty Soups) – Hearty Root Veg & Beans, Tangy Tomato & Pasta, and Tasty Sweetcorn & Noodles:


And three meals (Mighty Meals) – Pasta Shells & Vegetables in a Tomatoey Sauce, Spaghetti with Pork & Bean Meatballs, and Hearty Veg, Bean & Lamb Hotpot.


The Mighty in the name stays true to form, as the meals are packed with chunky ingredients so there is plenty of texture and goodness in there. The same goes for the soups, they are not just standard ‘liquid’ soups so they are a bit more interesting for little mouths.

Hearty Veg, Bean & Lamb Hotpot


I own up to even having a little taste as they smell yummy, and I would actually eat it myself! The portion sizes are just right and pretty much equivalent to what I would serve up, though little man is a real gannet and I think he would actually eat more if there was more in it! 


Little man is a pasta fan so he especially enjoyed the pasta shells and the spaghetti. He was a bit wary of the soups at first, but I think that’s because he has rarely had soup before so it was a new way of eating for him, but he soon became accustomed to it. 

Overall I think these meals are good value, tasty, and I would use them again if we were in a rush or I was not in a cooking mood. There are also other delicious sounding flavours which we will probably try. 

Our rating – 4/5

Disclosure
We were sent this product free of charge to review. All thoughts & opinions are honest and our own.