Lily's First Toddler Swimming Trip

I used to take Lily swimming all the time when she was a baby. It was around when she turned a year old that she started to hate the swimming pool and the pool we was going to was always really cold. So... we stopped going. 

If you are a reader if my blog you may know that Lily has always hated water, she does not like having a bath, won't put her hands in tubs of water for activities such as bath the baby. She really won't put her feet in the sea when we go to the sea side and so I had lost all hope of doing those fun activities with her. 

It was a few weeks ago when on holiday that things started to slightly change. Lily wouldn't go in the sea but she happily would paddle in some of the pools of water that were made on the beach from the tide going out. She also happily played in a paddling pool. (After a lot of convincing though) 

With seeing her improvement with water I decided that it may be time to try swimming again. 

I found a pool that was only a train ride away that as well as having a toddler pool it also had a little splash pool. This would have gone to nearly knee deep for Lily and so was more like a paddling pool than a swimming pool. Perfect for her introduction back to swimming. She was a little unsure at first, and wasn't liking that her bum was getting wet as she slid down the slide, but as soon as she had gotten over the fact that she was going to get wet, she loved playing there. 

It was great for her, there were watering cans for her to play with, a connect 4 game, a water feature where you stop and start the water flowing through the pipes. Little fountains to run through and bubbles. By the end of it she was loving the paddling pool 

I did try her in the toddler pool. She was quite happy lead on a float on her front as I pulled her around. But without the float and even though she was wearing arm bands, she gripped to me for dear life. I did let go of her right at the end to show her that she could float, but her mouth dipped slightly under the water and after a mouthful of pool water it was game over and she wanted to go home. 

But I must say that it was a really successful first trip to the pool. She said she enjoyed herself and she says she would like to go back. I am definetly going to try and make it a more regular thing. 

Do your children enjoy swimming? What age were they comfortable with the pool? 

My Sunday Photo 20/08/17

Review - Learn my ABC by Oskar & Ellen

Lily is now getting to the age where she is starting to learn her ABC's. She currently only recognises A, but she has started to recite the Alphabet and says A,B,C,D. 

When I got the chance to review a toy from the One Hundred Toys Store. I decided that I would love to help Lily with her Alphabet and so chose this Learn my ABC handmade material book from Oskar and Ellen. 

From looking at it on the website, the thing that stood out to me the most was how it opens up and then can be hung up so she can see the alphabet at all times. I also really loved how there was little animals in the pockets which would help Lily to relate the first letter of the animal with the letter she can see on the book. 

When it arrived I was really impressed with the quality. It is really soft and also quite big to say it is handmade. It comes all closed up really neatly like a book and has Learn My ABC hand sewn into it. The colours are also very vibrant. It is closed up by little velcro straps at the top of it. 

As I opened it up the first thing that stood out was how beautiful it was. Each little pocket was a different colour with an animal sewn on the font and a letter. It was all sewn so neatly and up to such a hugh standard. Inside some of the pockets were little animals. These are also created beautifully and were very colourful. They also squeaked when you pressed them. I was a little disappointed to only find 7 animals out of 26 as It would have been nice to have an animal for each so Lily could learn all the alphabet a little better through relating the animals to the letters. But at least there are animals sewn on the front of each letter too. 

Lily started quite interested in the toy, and started to pull the little animals out. But she actually got a little frustrated because the animals were attached to a ribbon and so couldn't be fully pulled out. I think this is perfect for if you have a smaller child more around the age of 18 months, as then they don't get lost and the animal stays with its letter. But for Lily I think it would have been better if she could have fully pulled them out. She did enjoy pointing out the different animals to me and when she did point them out I showed her the letter and said "Yes, L for Lion".

Apart from when I have encouraged Lily to play with the book and we have gone through the letters toggether and animals, she hasn't really taken a huge amount of interest in it. The toy is recommended for children aged 18 to 24 months and so I think Lily may have liked it more when she was younger. But it is up in her bedroom so she can see it, so hopefully she looks upon it and starts to see the alphabet more.

For the benefits of Learning this toy is great. For a child aged 18-24 months its a great way for them to start seeing and recognising the alphabet and the bright colours will encourage them to want to do this. Then when they are a little bit older they should already be recognising some oh the Alphabet. I wish I would of had this a year or so a go when Lily was between the age 18-24 months. 

Over all this is a really special kind of toy and with the quality of it it really will be able to be something you can keep and then pass down. It also makes a beautiful gift that any parent would love to see their child receive. 

This ABC book costs £35.95 and can be bought from Oskar and Ellen section of The One Hundred Toys website. 

Do you think this would help your child and their ABC's? 

Painting Lily's Fairy Door

Todays post is a little more of a diary insert than anything. The weather today has been terrible, one moment rain, then you think it has finally stopped and the sun comes out and suddenly its raining again. But this did give us a great opportunity to get some art done. We haven't really been doing many arts and crafts due to getting to go outside and play more so when I told Lily we was going to be doing some painting she was super excited. 

We put her painting clothes on ready to get messy and got out her paints. Lily chose pinks and purples for todays painting. 

Lily has been wanting to paint her fairy door for a little while now but we have never managed to have the opportunity so today I got it out and said to Lily, "lets paint it!" 

Lily is getting really good at painting now, she is a lot neater and understands about painting different sections of things, such as the door in one colour and frame in another. She also knows to fill in all the gaps and not leave parts un covered. 

Lily chose to paint the door purple and the bottom of the door purple. She painted the frame pink. She then said she wanted to put spots on it and also a smiley face on the door. She did a great job but it didn't come without the mess as she managed to get paint in her hair! It looked like I had died part of her hair purple after it had dried in haha. 

She then painted the other side of the door and frame a pink colour and did purple spots on it. 

We then put it aside to dry.

I have just checked it and it and its dry, It looks brilliant and Lily is going to be really excited to see it in the morning. 

Here is the finished result. 

Do you enjoy painting with your children? What sort of things do you paint? 

Little Live Pets, Lil' Ladybug Garden Review

It was only recently that I found out about these wonderful little toys called Little Live Pets made by Moose Toys. These toys come as a variety of types of pets from cats, to birds, to hedgehogs, to turtles. 

We were sent a different type of pet though, we were sent ladybugs. I must admit, its not a pet I have kept for a long time, but when I was very little I would make little homes with twigs and leaves in and go collecting ladybugs and put them inside. I would always set them free, but they were my little pets for the day. 

I thought the idea to this set was just adorable and it really reminded me of my childhood. We got a set of ladybugs and a garden play set which also comes with a set of ladybugs. As soon as I gave it to Lily she was super happy to see such a colourful play set. Its very unlike all her other toys so she was very excited to play with it. 

This toy is recommended for ages 5+ so I supervised Lily while she was playing with it seen as she is only nearly 3 years old. The ladybugs themselves are very small. The set comes with one adult ladybug and one baby ladybug. The baby one is incredible small and incredibly cute. You attach the baby ladybug to the back of the adult ladybug and the idea is that the adult one pulls it around the garden. They are also both super shiny and you can get lots of them in different colours. 

The garden is set out like a little track, and the ladybug is motorised and has little bristles on the bottom of it which makes it zoom around fast, creating the effect of a real lady bug. 

The great thing about the garden is that it is inside the box in one piece, it was great to not have to assemble anything and perfect as it meant that Lily could play with it straight away. The ladybugs also came with batteries also installed. The only little thing you had to do was join the ladybugs toggether and add 2 little ramps to the bottom. Both which took seconds to do. 

The garden its self is beautiful. It has a little house, a canopy type thing and a big purple flower which is what you use to help the ladybugs get up the ramp. 
The ramp is so easy and simple to use, all you have to do it make sure that the little purple lever is at the bottom which the ladybug ends up moving on top of, you then twist the flower and wind the ladybug to the top. Even Lily found this easy which was great as she can get easily frustrated. There is also little stops you can put in place and a sign post that the ladybird hits to make it move around a different way. 

The ramps create a exit so they can run around but this needs to be on a hard surface. They wont work on carpet as Lily found out. It would be great if the ramps carried onto a track which you could extend and extend. I think that would definetly be something that people would buy. We sure would!

Lily found this toy hilarious. I have never seen her giggle so much at a toy. At times the 2 ladybugs crashed into each other and she thought it was so funny when they did. At one point her daddy was doing a grand pre style commentary for them racing around and Lily was laughing so hard at this. Its not often my partner enjoys playing with one of her toys but I think even he loved this one. 

Overall I am very impressed with this toy and probably not something I would of considered ever buying her so i'm really glad we got to try it out. If this is a toy you haven't thought about buying then I definetly think it is worth a shot. It could be a real hit with your kids. 

You can buy the Garden Play Set for £22.99 and the Extra Ladybug Packs at £5.99.

Would your child enjoy having a Little Live Pet ladybug? 

Mid Month More about Me - August

This month I have been treating myself a little and decided to buy myself lots of new makeup. I am not a huge make up wearing and to tend to stick to the same products. But lately finding myself more adventurous and trying new things. For example I have only just started to darken my eye brows. 

I probably wear makeup about once a week. I am really not one of those people who can't leave the house without it. Firstly, I am no expert when it comes to makeup. I have no clue about what suits me, and i'm really no good at putting it on. Times when I have tried to put on more makeup than usual, I end up looking like a clown and removing it all again. Secondly, I feel claustrophobic with too much make up on, I love letting my skin be able to breathe and so that is another reason I hardly ever wear makeup. I must say though. I hardly ever get spots or greasy skin or dry skin and I put this down to the fact that I don't wear much makeup. 

So I thought I would let you take a look into my make up bag today, to see what a mum who keeps her makeup basic uses. 

Firstly lets talk about concealer. I barely wear any. In fact the only brand I use is MUA and it is very cheap and does the job good enough for my skin. As I said, I don't get spots so I don't really need to cover up to much. 

Next is eye shadow. I usually use a lot of bronzes and golds and reds. I do have a pink that I like which is MAC and that is a dark pink with a shimmer appearance to it. Lately I got sent this palette from Urban Decay which is perfect for me. It has all the colours that I would wear, the one I have been using the most so far is called Dirty Talk. It does go on a lot lighter than I thought it would though, so I sometimes also apply Ember with it. 

Next up its Eyelashes, Eye Liner and Eye Brows. 

I have been using the same Eye Liner pencils for ages and always get them from Avon. My mum works for them so they are easy for her to get them me. I usually use these glimmer stick type ones. They are a lot easier than having to sharpen a pencil all the time and seen as I don't wear makeup often, they do last a while. Mascara I am really not to fussy with. My eyelashes are tiny and so I have never really found that Mascara does much for me. I am currently liking this GOSH one though. Eye brows as I said before I have only just started doing. I hardly have eyebrows as they are very blonde so the first one I tried ended up looking to dark for me, but then I have settled on this benefit one which seems to do a good job. 

Now for Lips. I don't often wear lipstick, BUT I buy lipstick a lot. I seem to have a slight weakness for buying red lipsticks mostly. I am actually on the hunt for a really deep dark red and I have still not found one dark enough. So I actually do own more lipsticks than in the photograph below, and as you can see, some I have never even used. The one I use the most ends up being my Max Factor Matte one, (third from the left) or my Shiseido one. 

That is about it for what I would apply makeup wise. So the last thing is taking my makeup off. I used to go to The Bodyshop and buy expensive facial wipes to remove my makeup. I loved them because they were so refreshing to clear my makeup off with. But £6 a pack was a little to expensive and so I spotted these in Home Bargains for £1 a pack. I have never looked back. They are so refreshing, take off all your makeup and leave your skin feeling great after. 

So that is my usual makeup look and products I use. 

What are your Go To make up products? 

The Positive Birth Book Review

If you were anything like me then when it came to having a baby, then you are really wanting to have an amazing positive birth. I wasn't scared of giving birth, but more scared of things going wrong and me not getting the positive birth I had planned for.

I planned my birth to the best I could and I only wished that at the time I had known about The Positive Birth Movement which started in 2012. It was only when lily was a few months old that I found out all about it. 

Im not going to dive to much into my birth experience. It can be read here on the blog and I plan to do a future post looking a little more closely to my birth experience and how the Positive Birth Movement could have helped. Today I want to tell you a little bit more about The Positive Birth Movement and the brilliant new book that has just been released to help all the pregnant women out there. 

So, The Positive Birth Movement. This was started by Milli Hill and simply started in her living room where she had a meeting with a small group of people. Motivated by her own first birth experience and not having her voice heard she decided to set something up that would help other pregnant women have a better birth experience and a better chance of getting their wishes and own voices heard. 

As well as on social media, there are now over 300 live groups you can attend which all give you support and help on achieving that positive birth that you are really wanting. All run by women who are all concerned about every women getting her best possible birth experience.

But if you are not a group sort of person and you would rather stay home and find out all about how you can have a positive birth, you can now buy Milli Hills the Positive Birth Book. We were sent one to read and although I am not pregnant at the moment, I must say its the most helpful and empowering book I have ever read. Every pregnant women needs this book. 

So one thing you need to know about me. I don't like reading books. I really struggle to keep the concentration on a book and generally drift off deep into thoughts or a daydream. But this book, I read EVERY page, and not just because I was reviewing it, but because I loved reading it. Im not even pregnant or planning my next child any time soon, but I could not stop reading about how I could make my next birth better. 

I didn't read any pregnancy or baby how to books during my pregnancy. I was one of those people who was like, "I don't need to read a book". Let me tell you that there isn't a single pregnant person who doesn't need to read this book. Even if you are 100% sure on how you want your birth to be, even if you are strong minded and just like me and not scared of giving birth, this book has so much that can still help you. Not only that, but as Milli Hill has been through both types of birth, a non positive one and some positive ones, who better than to listen to.

I know that a lot of people think that an advice book may be boring, I must admit that some probably can be when your reading facts and gaining advice, learning new things. But not this book. Milli Hill really captures your attention with the way she has written this book. Rather than feeling like it was a book giving me advice, I really felt like this caring person was sitting talking to me, supporting me and a few times she did have me giggling at some of the comments made about silly little true and untrue facts. The way she breaks down this book, means that you don't miss a thing. Broken down into 13 chapters she talks you all the way through Giving Birth, Helping you with your options, Birth Plan, and then also talks about "what if" for when things don't go to plan and then how to cope with that. There is also a section for about after the baby is born. It really enlightens you on things that you would have never thought about or probably even known about. Reading this book I was very surprised at the amount I didn't even know myself. 

The book isn't all advice, it also has stories from other women who have had positive births, illustrations to help with things like positions and also shows a very different way to make a birth plan by using pictures. I will definetly be using these for my next birth. 

If you wern't ready to have a positive birth before this book. I guarantee you will be after. I finished reading thinking to myself "YES! Im ready to do it! Im ready to give Birth". Just perhaps I will wait until i'm actually pregnant. 

I have been telling all my friends about this book and so if you are a pregnant women reading this review, I urge you to go out and buy it. You can get it from Amazon for £10.49. One brilliant point Milli makes in the book is that you spend thousands of pounds on making things like your wedding day perfect, but what about your birth? Shouldn't that be special enough for you to put money on making it perfect? I think a great place to start is by buying this book! 

Hopefully you are totally sold on this book and are now ready to enter a competition to win one? 

Not only that, but in one months time I will be having a Milli as a guest on the blog answering all your birth related questions. So if you have a Question, concern or need any advice, please post it below! 

Enter on the Gleam app below to win a copy of this book and have your Question Answered. 

Do you think you had a positive Birth? 
Could this be the book for you? or someone you know? 

Win The Positive Birth Book