Hello Baby Review - Brio Magnetic Stacking Train

Initial thoughts: I knew that Brio made wooden trains and tracks for children but I didn't realise that they had such a wide range of toys available. When we were sent the magnetic stacking train for review I was really interested to see what our first Brio toy would be be like.


We liked: The train is made up of 11 brightly coloured pieces. They are shiny and tactile. Piran seemed interested straight away. Anything with wheels is a hit in this house and the bottom of the train is played with a lot.

We didn't like: The toy is for 12 months plus which is Piran's age! However, he plays with the bricks but I have not yet seem him work out that the blocks stack onto the train. I have played with it too, and it took me a little while to work out that the blocks need to go on a certain way for the magnets to be strong so the blocks don't fall off when you try and use the train!


Overall: This is a well made, good looking toy. I think that it will be better for Piran as he gets older, at the moment he just likes to play with the bricks!

Further information:
The Brio Magnetic Stacking Train is available from online nursery and baby shop Hello Baby priced £12.99

Disclaimer: We were provided with a Brio Magnetic Train free of change for the purpose of this review.

Nutella - not chocolate spread, halzelnut spread!

The week before last I was thrilled to be invited to a Nutella breakfast briefing at Legoland. It didn't take me long to say yes, nutella and lego, what more could a girl want?

We set off early and arrived nice and early at Legoland. We parked in the hospitality car park and I could see quite a few other people hanging around in their cars. I checked twitter and spotted a couple people tweeting they were there already. Then I embarrassed myself by leaning on the horn by accident. How to draw attention to myself! Finally everyone seemed to be moving so we got out of the car and followed the bloggers! After settling the children in with the lovely childminders and clowns in  a room full of balloons we all went upstairs for breakfast.

After introductions and a quick hello from Ferrero UK's Marketing Director, Mauro de Felip, we had two very interesting discussions. The first was from Professor Karen Pine, a psychologist who spoke to us about food and children. I found it all very interesting, and there were some great discussions round the table afterward. Karen told us the key to developing a good relationship with food is EAT!
Example: lead by example, we should sit down and share meals together eating the same food.
Attention: don't draw too much attention to their eating habits. Do not use food as a bargaining tool, try and be relaxed about the whole process.
Try, try, try again: I was interested to here that research has shown that you may need to offer a child a food more than 10 times for them to try and like it. Which is a good thing to know while we are weaning, I have noticed that some foods Piran has rejected in the past he now likes (bananas in particular) so perseverance is the key!

Then Sian Porter, a consultant dietitian spoke to us about the importance of breakfast. I have never been a fan of breakfast, although since starting my maternity leave last year I have made myself have breakfast every day and I definitely feel better for it. It was the last meal Piran seemed to get the hang of, but now at times he has so much to eat that he then doesn't want lunch! Sian explained that children should get 20% of their food intake at breakfast and it should be varied and balanced. There were a niumber of people there who didn't feel that a chocolate spread was a great breakfast option but we learned that Nutella is a hazelnut spread (it just has 7% cocoa in it) and that like for like a portion (15g, 2 teaspoons) of Nutella has less fat and sugar than the equivalent of butter and jam.

They gave us some information on the new Nutella Website Wake up to Nutella and some interesting recipies to try (including Nutella obviously). 

I really enjoyed the breakfast briefing, not just because of the nutella, beautiful bread and plenty of tea! Afterwards we had a cookery demonstration from Alan Coxon, who was a font of interesting food facts! He made some breakfast treats including Nutella and then we had a go in teams. I am not really a fan of all this but here was our entry!

I was glad to go and find Piran and then we went off to Legoland, thank you to Nutella for paying for our entry! There wasn't really any rides that were good for just the two of us, but he liked watching the pirate show and was completely mesmerised by Goldilocks and the Three Bears at the Duplo Theatre. We didn't stay long, just had a wander about for a couple hours, and then headed home. I love looking at all the Lego models, I wanted to take lots of pictures but sadly my camera battery ran out. We had a nice day and it was great to meet some new bloggers and catch up with those that are becoming old friends!

The Gallery: A photo I'm proud of

This week Tara picked a hard prompt. A photo that you are proud of. I think I found it the hardest because our computer is a year old and has a year of photos on them, but that is a small fraction of all of the photographs that I have taken in my lifetime. I am sure that some of them are on discs, but the problem is I am not sure where, and they are scattered all around. I should be better at organising them.

So, I had only a year of photos to choose from. Most of the photos have one subject, Piran! And I am so very proud of him, but I wanted to be true to the prompt and pick a photo that I am really proud of taking.

Then I remembered this day, and the photos I took. It was the longest day of the year and after Piran's bedtime we left my mum in charge and spent one of our last evenings in Cornwall at the end of our holiday having a walk in the evening light on our favourite beach. There was hand holding and laughing and paddling and a whole lot of love. We have been to that place at different times in our life together, and each time has marked a new chapter in our life.

My husband works very hard, to make sure that we have a nice place to live, and everything that we need. He looks after me, and our baby. He grows us food, and pretty flowers. He is a superstar. He also finds it hard to relax, hard to switch off from work. He worries, he gets wound up and stressed.

I am proud of these photographs, because for me they captured two things. One the rare sight of my wonderful man relaxed, and content. Two, the feeling of that evening. It felt magical to me, and when I look at these photographs I immediately remember that feeling.

Make it Monday: Beanbags

I made these on Friday as a present for a 3 year old whose birthday party we attended on Saturday. I believe they have gone down quite well. They were so simple to make that I put together a set of three as a thank you for someone else and also three for Piran. We had great fun with them, playing catch and resting them on various parts of me (shoulders and head) and encouraging him to pull himself up and grab at them.

I thought that I would share a quick tutorial on how I made them. It is a great project for using up small bits of fabric. I made both sides match but you could also do different fabric on each side. Please excuse the photos, I took them on my iPhone and the lighting wasn't brilliant.

I started by cutting two 5" squares of my chosen fabric. You could make smaller or bigger versions but these came out a good size for small hands.

Place the two pieces of fabric right side together and then stitch round the edge - you need to make sure you leave a 1.5" gap so you can turn it inside out. I stitch the four sides and then just turn it round and go back over the stitching so that it is double which should make it nice and secure.

Once you have finished sewing turn your little fabric pocket inside out, using a knitting needle or similar to poke the corners out. Then you fill with dried beans. I used cannellini beans, but get whatever you can find cheaply. Different beans would make different weights and textures so it might be fun to try lots of different versions. A 500g packet of cannellini beans filled about 4 of these beanbags but that would depend on how full you want them. I made a paper funnel to help me fill, and I filled them about two thirds full.

Once they are filled you need to sew up the little gap. I just top stitched it, you can see the sewing but I don't think that matters. I went up and down twice to make sure that the hole was very secure, you don't want beans everywhere.

And that's it. Really simple. I made space themed ones for the presents and duck ones for Piran. I think 3 is a good number as a present, as they can be used for juggling and throwing and catching.

The finished article! I hope that Piran enjoys playing with these for a long time.

A small world

Quite possibly the only time some of you have met me I stood up in front of a room of 200 people and opened my heart, soul and mind to you by reading one of the most honest and personal blog posts that I have ever written. I think that I did okay, despite a nervous wobble at the beginning and a few tears along the way. I couldn't believe I could make a room full of people laugh but I did. 

So, it might come as a bit of a surprise if I tell you that throughout my whole adult life I have suffered with social anxiety, depression and panic attacks. When I was 18/19 I was living with friends and had a full time job. I had a nice boyfriend, a great social life and brilliant friends. But without any warning I started to get anxious and have panic attacks when we went out clubbing. So after a while I stopped going. Then I started panicking when we were in a restaurant or pub. So I stopped going. Then it started at people's houses, then when shopping and bit by bit my life got smaller and smaller until the only places I could handle being were at home or work.

I cannot remember what made me finally admit that something was wrong and go to see my GP but I went thinking he would just tell me that nothing was wrong and I should just get on with it. So I was shocked when I walked out that day with antidepressants, a sick note from work and an appointment to see a therapist. I guess it is not until you stop, and look at your life that you really see the extent of the problem.

I went for my first visit to my therapist, her name was Elizabeth and she drank herbal tea. We talked about how I felt in social situations, what I could (very short list) and couldn't do (very long list). Together we rated them in terms of difficulty. Going to Tesco to do the shopping at a quiet time of day, going into town for an hour on a Saturday, going to the pub, the cinema, a nightclub. Off I went the first week to try and achieve one small thing. I had to write a diary every day and bring it with me each week. I don't really remember much more from the therapy apart from one thing. I was struggling with the whole process when we suddenly had a breakthrough. I remembered a night, one that I had pushed to the back of my mind. Not a horrible memory but one I wasn't happy with or proud of. Turns out, this was one of the most significant nights of my life considering the implications it has had over the years.

I was 18. I had passed my A-Levels and gone off to University in Cheltenham. I was young, it was my first time away from home. I couldn't get a place in halls so I lived the other side of town from my campus, in a room in a family home. One night during Freshers Week there was a comedy event at the SU bar and then I tagged along with some people that I had met to a nightclub in town. Once there I don't remember a lot. I had been drinking but not excessively as I had to get myself home. I remember being standing by a railing looking at people dancing and feeling hot and hemmed in and panicky. The next thing I remember is coming to as a bouncer carried me down some back stairs, and dumped me on some steps in a side alley. I was alone and scared. I guess he just assumed I was drunk but I have no idea why he thought it was okay to just leave me there. Thankfully I remembered how to get home from there, and following large groups of people as much as possible so people didn't know I was on my own, I made my way back to my room. Within 5 weeks I was back home, although I didn't think that this incident was even part of the reason I left it definitely knocked my confidence and I found it harder to make friends.

Discovering there was a root cause to my anxiety definitely helped me deal with how I felt and to understand what happened and why. I had three months off work, and bit by bit I reclaimed bits of my life. I learned to recognise the signs of a panic attack, to know how to diffuse how I felt before it ramped up into a full blown attack. I learned that a panic attack was never going to make me throw up in public (my biggest fear). I ended up being signed off work for three months, on antidepressants for over a year.

I am not 'fixed'. I never will be. Funnily enough I am happier standing up in front of a room of strangers than I am going to a friends house for a party. I know that I will never be the life and soul of the party again. I know I probably spend too much time at home in my comfort zone. I came to terms with my new smaller, but happier and more comfortable life. The day I moved to Brighton was a high like I had never imagined. I felt that I had done it, beaten it. I soon found out that was not exactly the case, that I still have limits. I hate going for a meal with lots of people, a combination of worrying about the bill and I tend to end up in a conversation vacuum, where the people either side of me are both talking to other people and I just sit there like a plum. I don't do house parties anywhere other than my home (and I can only invite close friends). I get freaked by crowds. I don't like to be hemmed in, I will always be somewhere on the edge. I still have dark, black days where I just want to stay in bed, although having a baby means you just can't do that anymore.

I read Rebecca's post on two-become-four and I started to leave a very long comment so I decided to tell my story here. I just want to say that yes, it can feel like life is small and these things will never get better. But that sometimes they do, and perhaps if there is someone out there that feels like I did, you might be stood on a stage one day overcoming all of your fears and feeling like you are on top of the world.

The Gallery: A Memory

The prompt for this week's gallery is 'A Memory'. I have always thought the link between photographs and memories to be a funny one. I think I remember my third birthday party, but realistically I probably just think I do because I have seen photographs and I know I got a goldfish as a present that year so my mind has done the rest for me. The earliest childhood memories that I think are real tend to be the ones for which there are no photographs, so I believe the pictures in my head are true. For this reason I didn't want to pick an old photo.

The past two weeks have been good for me. I thought this time would be hard for me, as each day bought a new milestone. The day Piran was born, the night that he was taken away from me, the longest most scary hours of my life, the morning of letting my husband know what was wrong, the days in special care, the day the tubes came out, the first day I held him without wires anchoring us to a place, the first time we spent a night together, the day we were allowed to bring him home. For the past year I have tried to bury these memories deep inside of me, to try and forget what it was like, how I shut down inside. But as a year since each of these milestones has past I have spent time thinking, remembering and trying to understand what happened. And now, as I look at our gorgeous boy I don't want to forget what happened, I want to remember and be grateful that we all made it through it. What I felt was distance on my part was strength. We had a rough start but we have come so far. So instead of removing all of the pictures we have of Piran for the first few days I am putting them in my album and cherishing each and every one of them for the precious memory that they are.

We are so very lucky that our baby has the best medical care. There are many children in other parts of the world that are not as lucky as we were. Every year, NINE MILLION children in Bangladesh die, for no other reason than their parents simply cannot afford basic medical attention to deal with entirely cureable diseases.

Please, take five minutes if you haven't already and find out more about the three bloggers going to Bangladesh with Save the Children. Then read Josie's post to find out what YOU can do.

Together we can make a difference.

Date Night

Last night Piran went off to his Grandparent's house and Mr C and I had a rare night off. Last time it happened we were so tired we just stayed home and had a takeaway but this time I was determined that we would make the most of it. We put on clean clothes, I did my hair and put on makeup. We drove to Brighton Marina and after a quick stop at the cinema to buy tickets for a later showing we went for a lovely meal, I stuffed myself silly with prawn cocktail, full rack of ribs and fries and a banoffee sundae. Nothing fancy but one of the best meals out I have had in ages. After eating all that I needed to digest so we had time for a stroll along the boardwalk to the marina walls and back again. The starlings were roosting, the sun was setting and it was perfect. We got to the cinema in good time to get decent seats to see Inception. Home afterwards (late! Well past my bedtime) for a lovely cuppa and some TV watching in bed followed by an uninterrupted night of sleep and waking naturally at 8am this morning. Utter bliss.

Sun setting over Brighton Marina

During our meal I enlisted Mr C to help me think of who I would put on the naughty step, I was tagged weeks ago but for the life of me I couldn't decide who I would pick. He came up with a suggestion right away, and knowing my brain and its inability to retain information these days I added it as a note on my iPhone. This resulted in a conversation about how we both have random notes on our phones as when we sync them we get each others notes. I was flicking through them and found this one that I had never seen before:


Dear Piran

It has been just over six months since the day you were born.  My how you have brought such love and happiness into my and your mum's life.  Your mum and I got together 4 years and just over 1 month ago.  This has been the happiest time of my life.

I am sure we have told you the story of your first week many times but for me it was a time of joy and fear.  When I first saw you my heart jumped with joy, your mum and me spent the first hours holding you and telling all the family about you.  How big you were and that you and your mum were well.  When I left the hospital to go home I was the happiest I had been since your mum and I got married.  The next day when your mum text me to come in early I knew something was not right.  You know the story but what I may never have told you is how much love and hope I felt every time I came to visit you in the special care unit. I don't know why but I knew you would be ok, although I still worried.

When the day came to take you home I walked through the hospital the proudest father in the world.

Over the last six months I have watched you fall asleep on my chest, smile, cry, smile, giggle, start to laugh, cough, sneeze, turn yourself over onto you front, eat food (or at least suck it and throw it on the floor!!), play with toys, sit up on your own and many other wonderful things.  You truly are a marvel.  Every time I look at you I cannot believe you are part of me.

I love you son and I hope this is the first of many letters I write to you. 

Love, Dad.

Well, the next thing I know I am in tears, it was so lovely and such an unexpected and wonderful thing to read. We were having a great night, but that just made me realise how much I love my two men, and how lucky I am.

Mr C said I could record it here, with my letters to Piran, what a wonderful addition to our story so far.

Make it Monday: Gingerbread cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

The rather lovely @EnglishGrandma has kindly reminded me that I promised this recipe. So I decided it was the perfect post for a resurrection of Make it Monday. I might keep it up!

Makes 12 cupcakes

Gingerbread cupcakes

Ingredients
½ cup self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tspground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
3½ oz butter, softened
¼ cup milk
2 tbsp golden syrup

Method
Preheat the oven to 330°F (170°C).
I use a muffin tin and muffin papers, these are proper big cupcakes. (If you are making smaller buns then there will be more of them and the cooking time will be less)
Sift the flours, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg into a large bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients.
Using an electric mixer, beat until combined and lightens in color (about 2 minutes).
Divide the mixture evenly between the cake cases. (I use an ice cream scoop. One slightly heaped scoop in each muffin case.)
Bake for 30 minutes. >>> Care! I check after 20 to see how they are getting on, usually take approx 25 minutes in my oven.
Remove tin from the oven, transfer cupcakes to rack and cool.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients
1oz softened butter
3oz cream cheese
1 ½ cups icing sugar
Grated zest of a lemon

Method
Put all ingredients into a bowl and beat together until smooth and combined.

When cool ice your cupcakes. I like to decorate mine with one of those lemon slice cake decorations.
Eat.
Nom nom.

Sunday ramblings

It seems to be happening again. There is something that is on my mind, that I would like to write about but I am not sure if I know how or even should. Because of this I haven't really blogged about a lot, as the post that could be is clogging my channels. Something like that anyway.

I feel a bit that way at the moment anyway. Birthdays are done, Piran is one and it is 5 weeks until we go on holiday. Lots of Piran's usual activities are off for the summer, or we can't go anymore because of my work days. It is the summer holiday so places like the zoo would be so busy. I'm just at a bit of a loss.

I think Piran needs more interaction from me but I struggle for ideas of things we can do other than play with his toys. What did you do with your one year old? (if you have ever had one!) He is nowhere near even trying to walk, but is a super speedy crawler.

Part of the reason I went back to work was loneliness, but sadly don't feel that has changed much at all. Adult conversation is nice but I don't feel like I connect to many people at all. Friday was better, had lunch with a friend which made me happy. I don't know, I probably am expecting more than is possible.

What I want is a nice neighbour with one or more young child who wants to be my friend and share tea and cake and share advice, help each other. I have these people in my life, but distance is the issue, I can't seem to find one closer than 30 minutes away! Perhaps I need to put an advert in the paper?

The Gallery: Playtime

A flying visit today, I was hoping to get a new photo this week, as playing with Piran is so much fun now, but he moves so fast it is hard to get a photo that isn't his bum or his back! So I have found this photo from my archives, it is one of my favourites from the last year.

The swings are so cool!

And the winner is...

Well I am very excited to announce that the winner of the Merlin Annual pass was someone who entered via my blog!

Here is the picture, no longer blurry, and definitely Alton Towers as many people guessed correctly.

So, out of the 200 correct entries across all of the blogs that took part the winner pulled out of the hat was....

....Marg Farmer.

Congratulations, Marg. I have sent you an email today.

Piran's first year.

I know, two posts in one day but you will have to indulge me as I couldn't resist making this. It is only a couple of minutes long, I have watched it over and over. That is where the last year went!



Soundtrack: As You Are Now by Susanne Vega.

One year

Dear Piran,

Wow. One year. I have felt this day coming for weeks but I cannot believe that it is here already. You have been the centre of our universe for one whole year, twelve months. It is hard to get my head around but on the flip side it is hard to remember what life was like before you came along. I think we were probably just waiting around for you. Although the past week I have had vivid memories of the last couple of weeks before you arrived, and the days after you did. It was a rough ride but we got through it, and we are all here in one piece, a year later.

So much has happened in the last three months that I am not sure that I can capture it all here. I am sure that there will be loads that I will forget. You change every day. Perhaps now these letters should be written more often. They might be shorter then! The first thing is that you started nursery in May. After your first visit when you cried for twenty minutes, you settled in almost immediately and you seem to like going there. It is so strange knowing that you are spending time with and playing with people I do not know. I hope that you are making friends. I love the fact you bring back paintings for me, our kitchen wall is full already. Perhaps we will decorate the whole house? I go to work on Monday and on Friday and you go off with your Nanny for the morning and play at nursery in the afternoon and it all seems alright. I have been back at work for a few weeks and you seem to have accepted it, after a couple of clingy weeks.

We went on our first summer holiday, to Grandma and Grandad's house in Cornwall. You had a lovely time, being spoilt rotten, Grandma took you to the park every morning and for a walk around the village to show you off. A lot seemed to change in the two weeks we were there. Your sleep was brilliant, night after night of sleeping through. I got a really good rest which was nice. You dropped your morning bottle of milk and started eating more and more. You now have three meals a day, and soon I will stop your afternoon bottle too. Not just yet though. One of the best things about being in Cornwall on holiday was getting to see you play so nicely with your cousins. I wish you could spend more time with them.

 For the whole two weeks you were there everyone kept saying how close you were to learning to crawl, but after a week you learned to sit up from lying down, and then six days later, one hour before we were due to come home with a little encouragement from your dad you crawled across Grandma's front room. You've got great timing I will give you that. Since that day you have not looked back and now we have stairgates and you follow us around the house. I love hearing the slap-slap-slap sound of your hands coming nearer, and seeing your face pop round the corner and grin.

You are talking a lot more. If I say "Ready, Steady" you will say "GO" most times. It is so cute. You say "Hello" and "Bye Bye" sometimes even at the right time. You shout DAAAAAA when you want your Daddy and very occasionally you have said a quiet "Mummy". You babble away all the time. Your sleep is better but now you can move about even more you get yourself caught up and stuck on your front and all sorts of weird and wonderful positions that we have to come and untangle. Most times you go back to sleep before I've even put you back right. You still don't like cuddles at night anymore, so you ahve your milk and cry until you are in the cot with your rabbit. Then you make your lodle-lodel-lodel (I will never be able to do justice to the sound you make, it's like yodelling and everyone loves to mimic it) sound until you drop off to sleep.

You love your cars. You love books and music. You want anything that we are using (laptop, phone, remote) and can create if I won't let you have it. You spend hours playing with the Mega Bloks and love to put things on shelves and tables. You like us to hold you up on your feet but you do not use the furniture to get up at all yet. You kneel up, with your bum on your feet and you can see so much because you are tall. You look like a little meercat!

I am so proud of myself, and of your Dad. We did it. We have survived the first year of being parents. We have had our ups and downs but I really feel that it has made us a better, stronger couple. Before you came along we were very much in love, and didn't really argue much at all. Now we have been through sleepless nights and illness and worries. We have learned that the occasional disagreement is not a bad thing. We have learned that honesty is best and that we can do anything as long as we just keep talking, and don't bottle things up and stay mad at each other. It works. Having him around to share being a parent makes it all even more amazing.

This is you today, on your birthday (while Grandma sings you Happy Birthday over the phone, I'd have that expression too!). Three months ago I said that you were now a baby. Already I see flashes of the toddler you will become. A boy, with your mischievous grin and sparkling eyes. You have a great laugh, which I can always get from you by kissing your belly. Always keep laughing my baby. Remember that we love you so very much. Thank you for the last year. We are very much looking forward to the next one. Be kind to us, we are all learning together.

I love you.

Mum x