As BabyBoy and BabyGirl hurtle closer to their third birthday I’ve been wondering…it is time to stop the childproofing?
Our house is a mass of fences and gates. Gates to keep them out of certain rooms. Fences to keep breakables out of reach and to discourage indoor parkour. Continue reading
Ah, the diaper bag. A new mum’s new best friend. An essential piece of equipment, true, but here’s a secret….there is no need to go out and buy a ‘diaper bag’.
What makes a diaper bag a ‘diaper bag’? Is it the teddy bear design? The hundreds of pockets? The ubiquitous included changing mat?
No, it’s simply a bag that you are using to carry baby stuff in. In fact, the only essentials are enough storage, easy clean, looks good and ideally allows you to be hands free. Here’s why…
Coloring is an excellent way to hone your child’s creativity and pre-writing skills. With the right equipment, it can also be high on the list of no-mess, no-fuss arts and crafts.
The thing with coloring in for little ones, is that the drawings have to be simple. Like the one picture above. And the best thing is there is a resource which has such drawings available for free – Sparklebox.
I am not a craft-y person. Paint makes me shudder. Mess brings me out in metaphorical hives. But since BabyBoy and BabyGirl appeared on the scene, I have been taking (baby) steps to make art and craft part of our lives.
Enter a new series of posts – easy crafts. For me, the simpler the better!
These bottle shakers are unbelievably easy to make and provide a new toy for your little ones.
My last post in the Three Great Highchairs series is mainly for those with multiples, and it is not so much for feeding as it is for bottle-feeding and specifically, tandem bottle-feeding.
Even if you exclusively breastfeed your multiples, there will be times when it will be in everyone’s interest for someone other than mum to do a feed. And if your babies are on the same schedule, chances are that either they’ll both be demanding milk at the same time, and/or you will have discovered how much time you can save by tandem feeding. This is where this particular bit of kit can help.
(A future post will deal with tandem breastfeeding.)
This is the second of three posts outlining my top three highchairs. As I said before, highchairs are a weaning essential, and choosing the right one can make your life a lot easier.
My first great highchair was the Stokke Tripp Trapp. My second takes us to the other end of the price spectrum – the Ikea Antilop.
A highchair is an essential piece of equipment while weaning, particularly if you have twins. A good highchair will contain your child(ren) safely, bring them right up to table height, and be easy to clean.
With this is mind, my next three posts will set out my top three highchairs. Continue reading
For the past two years, we have struggled with some pretty shocking tubs to dispense wipes. Then recently, I discovered this gem:
There are so many things we want to give our children. But sometimes, reality makes that really really hard.
‘Expert advice says no screen-time for the under-2s…I’ve got a long plane journey with a wriggly 18 month old.’
‘I’m not supposed to add salt to my baby’s food…all the bread in the supermarket has salt listed on in the ingredients.’
‘Everyone says open-ended natural toys are the way forward…Grandma has just turned up with a piece of battery-powered noise-and-sound-making piece of plastic.’ Continue reading
Week 45 – An Old English Post Box (Photo credit: letscommunicate)
A while ago I wrote about how sometimes the simplest toys are the best ones. One of BabyBoy and BabyGirl’s christmas presents makes this point again.
They received an ELC Wooden Post Box (I’ve attached a link to the ELC webpage as I couldn’t find an exact picture of it, but for those who don’t want to click away, it’s basically a toy version of the picture on the right). This is a very simple toy. A square box, with a slot to post five wooden letters into, and a hinged door at the front that can be opened to retrieve the letters. There is also a hole at the back through which letters can be retrieved too.
I love this toy because I had a similar one when I was a child, but I didn’t seriously think it would entertain BabyBoy and BabyGirl for very long. After all, it has no buttons to press, no flashing lights, no sing-a-long music.
But every day, without fail, they pull it out and play with it. Continue reading
afterninemonths 