We were recently asked if we would like to take a swimming course with Anne Hawley who is widely recognised as the pioneer and expert of infant swimming and has been in the profession since 1974. Her reputation and lifelong commitment to safely swimming infants has resulted in her distinct, innovative and unique method of swimming babies being copied all over the world. Anne teaches at locations across London, Surrey and West Sussex. Unfortunately we weren’t able to take up the offer of swimming lessons but luckily for us they have released an iPhone/ iPad app called Swim Baby Swim,…
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Little Man is now 10 months old and I have arranged an interview with my employer to discuss flexible working. Today I went shopping to buy some new work clothes and I came away empty handed. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is struggling to lose their baby weight. I wasn’t too worried about my weight while I was pregnant and happily bought lovely maternity clothes and lots of cake. My weight began to drop off after I gave birth and a couple of months after my son was born I packed away my maternity clothes and slipped…
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Did you know that Ella’s Kitchen food is healthy 100% organic goodness with absolutely nothing else added – NO added sugar or salt, NO additives, NO hydrogenated fat, NO GM and nothing artificial. At 10 months old Edward loves exploring new textures and tastes so I was happy to let him try the new Baby brekkie extension (from 6 months): Blueberries and pears. It’s packed with natural goodness to help give little ones a nutritional boost in the morning. Edward loved the flavours 🙂 It looked and smelled great too. We found it a bit runny but added it to…
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Have you heard of Cuddledry? It was set up in 2007 by two mums – Helen and Polly – after much faffing about cutting up sheets and playing with pretend babies. Helen and Polly went on Dragons’ Den, were offered money, but turned it down. Since then, they have done a fantastic job of building the company up from scratch, and are now a small team of women, all working from home flexibly round their families. The brand has grown from their fantastic towels (we have one!) to bathrobes, poncho towels and very cool looking bath mats. Cuddledry are up…
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When I saw the prompt for Ella’s Friday Carnival was cakes and cookies I knew I had to take part. I love baking and have had an idea for gingerbread cupcakes for a while. Gingerbread cupcakes To make 12 cakes I followed a standard cupcake recipe: 125g butter 125g caster sugar 2 eggs 125g self-raising flour 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence dash of milk Gingerbread Drinking Chocolate (from Hotel Chocolate) Cream the butter and sugar and add the vanilla essence. Beat the eggs and add to the mixture. Fold in the flour and add milk as necessary. The magic ingredient is…
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February 3 marks the start of the Chinese New Year – and this year is the Year of the Rabbit. To celebrate, Miffy’s author Dick Bruna has designed a series of new Miffy images. In a lovely little twist, Dick Bruna was actually born in the Year of the Rabbit, back in 1927! Illustration Dick Bruna © Mercis bv 2011 Miffy is of course one of the most famous rabbits of all time. Just for fun I thought I would list the top ten most famous bunnies (in order of creation): • The White Rabbit – featured in Lewis Carroll’s…
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Whilst I love spending time with my little boy my maternity pay recently came to an end. I’ve been trying to save my pennies until I returning to work in a few weeks. I thought I’d share my 10 top tips for saving money whilst on maternity leave: Buy second hand toys Little ones go through toys quickly so buy second hand where possible. Ebay, NCT sales, charity shops and toy swaps are great places to find new to you toys. The toys are usually in great condition and your little one doesn’t care where they’ve come from. Make your…
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Last week I had a cheeky trip to the West End. I say cheeky because since Edward came along I get little time to myself. Given a couple of hours I decided to go shopping even though I needed to catch up on some sleep and the house needed a clean. Anyway, I hopped on the tube to Covent Garden and I visited two shops, spent all the money I didn’t have, and came home. You can probably guess the two shops – Cath Kidston and Orla Kiely! In Cath Kidston I picked up a new phone case for my…