Author Archives: carol

Looking Over My Shoulder

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I haven’t seen you in a while but I know one day you will be back. You seem to pop up whenever life is looking good, ready to drag me back down again and cover me with your darkness.

I have tried to outrun you but you always catch up and pull me . I know I will never be free from you, you will always be hovering waiting to pounce.

You have been a part of my life for too many years and I wish you would stay away but I know it doesn’t work like that. You will always be there lying dormant waiting patiently to turn my life upside down again.

You’re oppressive and manipulative making me feel empty and useless. You weave your dark magic on my and turn me into someone I don’t to be. You strip me of everything and leave me feeling naked trying to drag myself back to normality.

You are cruel and relentless and I hate you so much when you return. I can never fully relax, enjoy life as I know you will be back one day.

I never know when you will strike again, so I wait looking over my shoulder for you to return.

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Review: Chicco Polly Magic Highchair

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As well as being sent the Chicco Living Smart Trio to test out we have also been sent the Polly Magic Highchair .Of course Little Miss is too young to sit up in a highchair but that’s the beauty of this chair it’s designed to be used from birth until 3 years.

 

You start using the baby reducer cushion and recline the seat so baby is well supported. It comes with a toy bar and toys so baby is occupied (Little Miss is in love with horse that comes with it). The highchair can be adjusted to 6 different heights and several recline positions.

As they get older you can sit the chair more upright and remove the reducer. You can add the tray when they start weaning or you can have the chair at the table such a genius design.

We are using it as a baby seat at the moment. Little Miss is well supported and I can have her at the right height so she is always at eye level with me. It’s perfect for when I am tidying the kitchen or doing other things around the house I just move the chair to where I want it. It also means she can she can join us at the dinner table which is lovely. It folds away easily so it’s not in anybody’s way.

Chicco Polly Magic Highchair

Pros:

  • Can be used from birth to 3 years old
  • Easy to put together
  • 6 height positions
  • Wipe clean
  • The reducer can be hand washed. Little Miss had a nappy explosion on it I put it on a hand wash in the washing machine and it came out perfect
  • Can be used with the tray or up at the table
  • Tray has an inner part you remove for easy cleaning
  • Comes in 3 colours Pink, Lime and Brown
  • Storage basket
  • Toy bar and toys
  • Foot rest is adjustable
  • Well padded

Cons:

  • It’s actually really hard to find a con. It would be nice if it was available in more colours
  • The toy bar creaks when you move it and sometimes it’s a bit loud and scares Little Miss

We really love this highchair. Having the baby seat element has made dinner times total family time and makes my life easier when I am doing the housework as I can chat to her at the right height. It’s a good investment for the home.

The Chicco Polly Magic Highchair RRP £149 is available from Mothercare £119, Boots £99.99 and Amazon £99.99

I will leave you will Little Miss having fun in her Polly Magic Highchair.

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The Gallery: New

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I had a lot to choose from this week. I could have filled the page with pictures of our new baby or our new home but I didn’t.

One of the great things about our new home is the huge garden which has a green house and raised beds already there. We did some planting in our old house but now we have an opportunity to grow more.

We planted some pumpkins, basil, sunflowers and calendula seeds a few weeks back and they have already started to grow. This weekend we planted salad leaves, tomatoes and sweetpeas and planted out the sunflowers which are looking nice and strong. We have some out of the front of our house in an old butler sink which was left behind and some are in the back garden.

We planned to do more but it started raining and we wanted to plant straight out into the soil.

Now I don’t confess to being a a gardening expert but we are doing ok so far. Here are some of our new additions to our garden and kitchen windowsill. 

The Gallery New

Pop over to Sticky Fingers  to see the rest of this week’s Gallery pictures.

Gallery logo

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What Should We Read Next?

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BG loves her bedtime story especially since we moved on her to chapter books. OH tends to do bbbbedtime and BG runs up the stairs ready for her nightly installment.

So far we have read George’s Marvelous Medicine, Fantastic Mr Fox, BFG, Matilda (can you see a pattern forming?) The Witches, The Twits and James and the Giant Peach. We are currently reading reading Dr Doolittle.

I’m not sure what to read next. BG is only 4 1/2 so a bit young still for books like Harry Potter.

Where do we go next?

What books do your children like? I need recommendations please.

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My De-stress Care Package

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A little while ago I was talking to a lovely PR lady about how I had just moved house with a new baby and a sick BG and she kindly sent me a de-stress care package.

De-Stress

It contained:

Aromatherapy Associates De-Stress Muscle Bath & Shower Oil (55ml, £39.00)

 A powerful blend of essential oils such as black pepper, ginger and coconut, created to ease muscle tension and aches

This stuff is amazing! You pop a capful in the bath or rub it on before taking a shower. It smells divine and works wonders on your muscles. Have lugging boxes and babies around it was well needed. You can get 20 applications from the bottle if you use the cap to measure. I use it once a week as a treat and have a long soak.

Aromatherapy Associates Support Breathe Essence (10ml, £17)

A refreshing, antibacterial inhalation essence. Eucalyptus, peppermint and tea-tree lend their soothing properties to maintain clear breathing.

This smells really lovely. You just pop a few drops on a tissue and inhale. It really clears your head and your nose if it’s stuffy. A few sniffs and I felt nice and calm.

Lanolips 101 Ointment (17.5g £11.22)

This ultimate luxuriously creamy ointment contains 100% Ultra Pure Grade Lanolin which literally melts between your fingers. This magical multi-purpose product has multiple uses such as extremely chapped lips, dry cuticles, dry, itchy skin, dry nasal passages and more

I got sent a small tube of this but it goes a long way. You just rub a little between your fingers and then apply. I used on my lips as it got dry getting used to having central heating. It instantly relieves the dryness and lasts for ages.  It’s not greasy at all. I keep it in my bag for when I am out and about.

Lanolips Lovely Lanolin™ Golden Ointment (50g £17.99)

Super Moisturiser forextremely dry skin areas that combines the hyper-moisturisation of Lanolips exclusive Ultra Pure Medical Grade Lanolin with the healing properties of Manuka Honey & Vitamin E. The intensely rich ointment will nourish & soothe extremely dry skin leaving it silky soft, dewy & healthy.

This was a complete lifesaver. I get really chapped hands in the cold weather and when this arrived my hands were crying out for something. The mixture of snowy weather, washing baby bottles and packing and unpacking boxes had left my hands sore and chapped and I even had a small cut. My skin was instantly smoother using the Golden Ointment and after a week was completely healed that has never happened with other hand creams before. Again you only need little bit and its absorbed straight away. Your skin doesn’t feel greasy and its smells divine. I keep this in the kitchen and pop some on after the washing up.

A huge thank you for these products they are all lovely and really helped de-stress me after the more.

You can get the Aromatherapy Associates products from their website www.aromatherapyassociates.com

Lanolips products are available from Boots, Victoria Health and Waitrose.

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Review: Chicco Trio Living Smart Carrycot

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Last time I reviewed the Car Seat that goes with the Trio Smart Living set, this time it’s the Carrycot.

The Carrycot comes as part of the Chicco Trio Living Smart Set which includes

  • Car Seat
  • In Car Base
  • Pushchair
  • Carrycot
  • Bag
  • Rain Cover
  • Leg Cover
  • Handle so you can have a single handle or remove for two handles.
  • Pushchair and car seat comfort set
  • Car Seat Reducer

Chicco Trio Living Smart Carrycot

Pros:

  • Carrycot clicks straight into the chassis
  • Nice and big this is great for my super long baby
  • Decent size hood to protect from the sun/wind
  • Handle to move the carrycot around with ease
  • Comes with a zip cover which you can keep baby warm
  • Comfort System which you turn to adjust the position of back panel so baby can be upright or you can lower down without waking them
  • Well-padded mattress
  • Good sized basket underneath
  • You can fix the front wheels or have them rotating
  • Stop and Go labels on the brakes
  • The chassis has adjustable handles
  • The chassis is really easy to put down
  • The chassis folds down like an umbrella buggy and takes up little room
  • Net window on the hood for when it’s hot to allow air flow
  • Carrtcot has an easy release button to remove it from the base

Cons:

  • No rain cover for it and rain pools on the top cover
  • I do find it a bit wobbly when I push it. It’s not a smooth as I would like.
  • I would prefer tyres rather than solid wheels
  • I find the comfort system sometimes sticks and you have to fiddle to get the panel to rise

Overall I really like the Carrycot and the Trio Living Smart System, it is a bit wobbly but feels safe and Little Miss doesn’t seem that bothered.

I love the size of it, Little Miss is long and she still fits perfectly. The cover on top is great and protects her from the cold.

Overall a big thumbs up from us.

The next item to review is the pushchair but Little Miss isn’t old enough so we will be back with that once she is.  However we have been sent the Polly Magic Highchair to test out and our review will be up next week, there may even be a video!

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Win a Pair of gPants & Inserts to Celebrate gNappies 25% Discount at Ocado

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On the 1st February 2013, gNappies was officially launched in the UK, leading the way as the green pioneers of the industry. Aiming to change nappy changes all across Europe, Kim & Jason Graham-Nye launched gNappies in 2005 after discovering that it can take 500 years for a disposable nappy to decompose in landfill and that disposables are the third largest single contributor to landfill, despite only being used by 5% of the population.

gNappies give parents an eco-friendly option, combining the ease of disposable nappies with the reusable nappy component normally found only in cloth nappies. In fact the only 100% certified fully biodegradable and compostable nappy around.  gNappies wet disposable inserts biodegrade in just 50-150 days in a garden compost.

Ocado have 25% gNappies until the 30th June 2013, to celebrate this I have a pair of gPants (£17.95) and a pack of Disposable inserts(£9.95) to giveaway. Great if you want to try cloth nappies for the first time.

grateful_red_gpant_on_baby.jpg

Just follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Help Us Raise Some Dough for Cancer Research UK

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Brioche Pasquier asked if I wanted to take part in this year’s Race for Life and they would start off my fundraising with a £250 donation and to be honest I couldn’t turn down money for such a great cause. Cancer has affected many people in my life and Cancer Research UK do an amazing job.

I am not doing it on my own BG and Little Miss is joining me and hopefully some more blogging mum’s are joining my team. BG is really excited about taking part and raising money to help poorly people.

BGLM2

My Team Mates

Our Race for Life is at 11am in Stamford on 2nd June and of course we want to raise as much as we can. Our target is £500 and we are half way there already thanks to Brioche Pasquier.

You can sponsor our team Ladies that Blog here, every little helps and even £1 would be amazing.

If you would to join my team email me carol@parentpanel.co.uk.

For its first ever UK fundraising campaign to support Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life, Brioche Pasquier has launched the first of two on-pack promotions to reach its fundraising goal of £15,000.

The ‘Run with Mum’ promotion, now available on the Pitch range, is to encourage you to run with your children by covering a single child’s £10 entry fee for 1,000 pairs of little legs.

Pain au Chocolat

The second promotion, ‘Raise Some Dough’, available throughout June and July across all products, gives you the opportunity to win donations of up to £100 to send to friends or family taking part in a Race for Life event through their JustGiving page – or alternatively you can simply donate to the Brioche Pasquier Race for Life team.

Also keep an eye out for Brioche Pasquier products at the Race for Life events, as every runner will be offered a tasty ‘PITCH’ filled brioche.

To find out how you can get involved and take advantage of these fantastic offers, visit www.briochepasquier.co.uk
JustGiving - Sponsor me now!

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