Turtlemeter Review

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We were kindly sent a 'TurtleMeter' thermometer and bath toy by Ozeri to review. This opportunity came just at the right time as I was looking into getting a new bath thermometer! Eliot has mild eczema so has been prescribed Oilatum to put in his bath, this turns the water a murky milky colour. The bath thermometer we used previously would be submerged under the water which meant I couldn't see the temperature or keep an eye on it whilst Eliot had his bath. I was always worrying whether it had got too cold. Of course I always check the temperature myself before putting Eliot in the water but I do like a thermometer for extra reassurance.  

With the Turtlemeter I didn't have this worry! As you can see the temperature display is not submerged under the water and is very easy to watch especially with the light that indicates the temperature. Just what I was looking for!

Blue = Too cold (Less than 95F)

Green = Just right (Between 95F & 102.2F)

Red = Too hot (over 102.2F)

 Here are the Turtlemeter's Features...

                                                        * Instantly activates in water

* Fun & safe waterproof bath toy

* Floats naturally

* Fully submersible

* Easy-to-read LCD screen

* Checks water temperature every second

* Sensor activated-No buttons or switches

* No annoying alarm sound

* Compliant with safety standards

* Ages 0+ (adult supervision required)

As well as being a great safety tool at bathtime it doubles up as a bath toy! As you can see Eliot enjoys playing with it (and using it as a teether!). The bright light on the temperature display also stimulates Eliot and encourages him to play.

You can purchase the Turtlemeter on Amazon, link here.

*This product was sent to us for the purpose of this review. All opinions & views are my own.

Silent Sunday 29/12/13

                                                       

What was in Eliot's 1st Christmas Stocking

Happy Boxing Day!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas & Santa bought you all you wanted ;)

A few weeks ago wrote I wrote a post about some bits I bought for Eliot's Christmas stocking. I thought I'd share the couple of extra things I bought, what was in his stocking on Christmas morning!

1.             'My First Christmas' teddy.
2.              'Favourite Songs and Rhymes' & 'Animal Songs' CD's.
3.              'Baby's First animals' word & picture book.
4.              Pack of socks.
5.              'World Of Happy Pocket Library'
6.               Soothers.
7.               Personalised clip on soother holder.
8.               Bubbles.

What was in your little ones's stocking?

Silent Sunday 22/12/13

                                           

                                                   

The A-Z of me!

I was tagged by My Petit Canard to do this tag, thank you! So here we go the A-Z of me!

A is for Angel, one of my middle names. My dad wanted to actually name me this! Thank goodness my mum put her foot down :D 

B is for bed, oh how I love my bed and sleeping in it! These days I may get a disturbed sleep or early wake up but I still love getting all cosy! 

C is for chocolate, I hope I don't get too much for Christmas :-/ even though I love it, my waistline does not!

D is for ducks. I used to have pet ducks as a child. They were amazing, so much fun and such characters. Their names were Daffy and Dilly.

E is for engaged. The other half proposed almost a year ago on 23rd December 2012. Unfortunately my ring is still too tight after swelling during pregnancy. We still haven't started planning it, any tips will be greatly appreciated :)

F is for family. This year two became three and I do so want to expand our family in the future.

G is for garden, I want one! We live in a flat but I would like to move to a property with a garden for our boy to play and our cats to roam.

H is for holiday. I really want to sort our first holiday as a family. I think I'd like it to be somewhere here with the amount of  stuff you have to cart with you when you have a baby!

I is for Indian, one of my favourite cuisines. I love a hot curry, rice and naan!

J is for Jonathan Rhys Meyers, I'm a fan of The Tudors and can't wait to see Dracula, the new series he stars in.

K is for kittens, my cats were so adorable when they were kittens!

L is for London, where I currently live and have love/ hate relationship with. I want to move to greener pastures in the near future.

M is for marmite, definitely a 'love' of mine! You can't beat a cheese and marmite sarnie!

N is for  'newbie'. My blog is still fairly new so I'll call myself a 'newbie' :)

O is for other half, how I refer to the fiancé on the blog.

P is for photos. I have loved taking them for as long as I can remember. I used to be that annoying person who would always be taking pictures. These days I don't take enough :(

Q is for  queues. I don't like them, who does?! But I like to think I'm patient when stuck in one.

R is for regret. Recently I experienced something I regretted immediately. It taught me never to do something you are not sure about. Life does have regrets but they shouldn't be big ones.

S is for son. In June I gave birth to our first child who weighed a hefty 9.5lbs. His name is Eliot Jude and I adore him.

T is for teacher. My job. A rewarding profession but like all, has it's downfalls.

U is for underground. I'm sooo glad I don't commute on the London Underground for work. Total nightmare during rush hour!

V is for vile. A word a often use to describe something I dislike.

W is for Winter Wonderland. We made our first visit this year as a family. It's so festive and there's loads to see and do. I def recommend a visit :)

X is for x-factor. Whenever asking children to think of a word that has x in, they will always give this as an example.

Y is for yellow. A colour that doesn't suit me but also an amazing song by Coldplay.

Z is for zip. Anyone else have issues doing the zip up sometimes? My fine motor skills are obviously not the best!

There we have it the A-Z me. I'm tagging Lou Lou and the Boy in Blue, To become mum, Vonnie and all that would like to do this tag :)

Festive Baby OOTD

I couldn't resist sharing Eliot's OOTD, there's no doubt he's my best present :)

All in one £2.70 in the sale F+F at Tesco

Santa hat £5.50 part of set at Next

Christmas Tag

I was tagged by the lovely Emma from Emma and Alfie's World to do this fun festive tag :)

What is your favourite thing about Christmas?

All the festive traditions and songs!

When you were a kid, what did you leave for Santa on Christmas Eve?

Hmm I think a mince pie, milk and a carrot for his reindeer.

Do you and/or your family have any Christmas traditions?

I have started putting up the tree and decorations on the 1st December and intend to do this every year as a tradition.

At my parents it is tradition that I hand round all the presents, I love it!

When decorating, do you go all out or just do a small amount of decorating?

I usually just have the tree and a banner but have bought a couple of extra bits this year as it's Eliot's first Christmas.

What is your favourite Christmas dinner food?

Turkey and all the trimmings on Christmas day! 

What is your favourite Christmas movie?

As a child I adored Santa Claus The Movie and would check for it in the TV guide every December. I do love Love Actually too.

What is your favourite Christmas song?

This is a tough one, there are so many I love. All I Want for Christmas by Mariah Carey  has to be one of the top ones!

What was your favourite gift you've ever received?

I can't think of just one. I've received so many lovely gifts over the years I can't pick a favourite.

What is your favourite memory?

The thrill of excitement when waking up on Christmas morning to see what Santa had left!

Does it snow where you live?

Sometimes but London doesn't always get enough snow to have fun in :(

Do you own an "ugly holiday sweater"?

No I don't but I would like a festive jumper :)

Hot chocolate or eggnog? 

Hot chocolate always! 

Have you ever been kissed under a mistletoe?

Yes.

I tag the following bloggers to do this too :-) 

The London Mum

 Yummy Mummy

Mummy Memories

My Petit Canard

Toby Goes Bananas

Silent Sunday 15/12/13



14th December 2012 was a magical day

This time last year I was 12 weeks and 4 days pregnant, we were due for the 12 week scan. I felt a mixture of emotions, excited, anxious, worried. I'd experienced a couple of bleeds in the two weeks running up to the scan and had thought the worst! We had got hold of the early pregnancy clinic at the hospital and they had done scans which assured us baby was fine.
Still things could have changed by the 12 week scan, I couldn't wait to see my baby again and this time take pictures home but a small cloud loomed with my fears.
We waited ages and must have been the last people of the day to be seen. The sonographer did her job and I was relieved, excited, happy that our little bundle looked all well. We watched as he moved and lifted his hand to his mouth...truly magical.
Now that little grainy image is almost 6 months, absolute madness!

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Today I'm linking up with Magic Moments 

Winter Wonderland attempt 2!

Not looking impressed in his festive gear & waiting patiently

So we had a Winter Wonderland fail the other week, which you can read about here. On Saturday attempt two was made and was successful, yay! Even though the huge queue still dominated the entrance we waited patiently. Luckily the wait wasn't too long and we began our journey through the abundance of stalls. The festive atmosphere is just wonderful, even if it was tricky trying to navigate a pushchair through an endless stream of people! 
Lines of stalls on either side offer everything from food, to booze to goods. Beyond here we took a right turn past the ice rink towards the array of games stalls and rides.


Rides & stalls galore!

The games on the stalls were near impossible to win but all good fun! The selection of rides caters for everyone from tots to white knuckle thrill seekers. There were a fair few rides I was keen to have a go on but didn't want to go on by myself, hopefully the OH and I will take a trip back by ourselves!
There was a substantial range of food on offer, I fancied something sweet so opted for a crepe with Nutella.


Food & festive fun



There is so much to get round and see you don't even need to buy an extra for the other attractions ( ice rink, ice kingdom, Santas Grotto, Circus, observation wheel) unless of course they are one of the things you are going to Winter Wonderland for! I quite fancy the ice kingdom and circus so if we go back as a couple we might do them.



Meeting Santa & having a rest!



Cheeky chappy
 

 All in all we had a lovely day out, even though I was FREEZING cold! Make sure you wrap up warm with lots of layers and hat, scarf, gloves etc! I've lived in London since 2009 and can't believethis is the first time I made it to Winter Wonderland. I definitely recommend!

Have you been to Winter Wonderland? What festive things are you up to?











Thank You Mothercare!

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to win an invite to the launch of the refurbished Mothercare flagship store on Oxford Street. I was looking forward to it as  I've always enjoyed browsing and shopping in Mothercare and couldn't wait to see what the new store had to offer. I actually used to work at Mothercare back in my student days for my part time job and would always imagine what I would buy when I became pregnant!
So the day came and we were getting ready to leave when Eliot was sick everywhere! Ah the joys of having children, he was getting cranky too. I decided it would be best to stay at home and if it was a bug I didn't want him to pass it on to anyone else. I emailed Mothercare to say we wouldn't be coming and to thank them again for their invite. Thankfully by the next day he was ok, I think it could have been another new tooth that had made him a bit poorly.
The evening sounded great, you can read more about it over on The London Mum and  Mummy Memories blogs!
I was thrilled when Abi from Mothercare tweeted that they would send me one of the goody bags so I hadn't missed out completely. I thought this was really thoughtful. A couple of days later I received an email from Emma who got the info needed to send the goody bag. But it wasn't quite as simple as that! The courier couldn't find the address, where we live can be tricky to locate! Emma contacted me a few more times just to clarify delivery details and then voila it arrived yesterday! So I just wanted to post and say thank you again for the invite and for taking time and effort to get the goody bag to me. :)

Thanks Mothercare!

Minimal Mummy Make Up

I thought it was time to throw in a dash of beauty just like it says in my blog description! I love make up but as a mum I find time to put it on is limited! So I thought I'd share my 'minimal mummy make up'.



Bases I like to use

For a light coverage I use Laura Mercier's oil free tinted moisturiser. It gives a natural dewy finish and you can build the coverage.
MUA's BB cream gives a surprisingly good coverage at a bargain price. I recommend trying it if you haven't already!
If I'm having a 'bad skin day' I've been using Rimmels Wake Me Up foundation. I bought it a couple of weeks before my due date in June after reading lots of positive reviews on it.I love the coverage and finish it gives!


Powder & blush

I use MAC Mineralize Skin Finish powder to get rid of any shine and then MAC Mineralize Powder in Star Wonder (limited edition) for blush. One of the make up artists convinced me to buy it when I was picking up some make up for a wedding. It does leave a lovely glow on my cheeks.

Minimal eye make up

For eyes I use Rimmel Scandal eyes eyeliner in Nude on the waterline to hide any redness and to brighten the eye. I'm not too fussy when it comes to mascara and currently use Avon's Super Shocck Max which works well on my lashes.

If I have an important event or night out I'll also slap on eyeshadow, concealer, highlighter, bronzed and fill my brows, the works!

What do you use? Do you have any of this make up in your collection?

Silent Sunday 8/12/13

Being considerate...RANT

After two weekends of experiencing inconsiderate/rude/un-compliant people on the London Underground I feel the need to rant!

What do these notices mean to you?

For the past two weeks on the tubes we've travelled on, they have meant zilch to the general public! It has really wound me up! How much does common courtesy cost these days?
Last weekend we had Eliot in his carrier and not one person offered a seat, this upsets me because on a crowded tube it would have been much safer for one of us to be sat down with him. As the priority sign depicts, if you are holding a baby/small child (along with the other images), you have priority to sit in that seat.
Today we had Eliot in the pram and again the people sat in the fold down seats (spaces for buggys/luggage) didn't fall into the having a pushchair or luggage category, yet they didn't politely offer their seat. So instead, along with another parent we blocked the doors with our pushchairs! It just infuriates me that many people cannot comply with simple requests that affect the safety and well being of all passengers.
Even when I was heavily pregnant there were occasions where people turned a blind eye, and I have to say in 95% of these cases it has been men who have been the offenders! Though saying that I have also come across some very polite males.

Yes we could pipe up and ask politely if we could have the seat/space but we shouldn't have to when there are notices there stating the obvious!

What are you thoughts or experiences ! I would love to hear!

Winter Wonderland fail and Hamleys

So yesterday we thought it would be a nice family day out to take a trip to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. After deliberating the best mode of transport (pram or carrier) for Eliot I thought him being strapped to daddy was the most sensible. Thus avoiding trying to get the pram on to the tightly packed London Underground. Off we went and I was glad we chose the carrier as there was no way we would have got on the platform, never mind the tube! When we changed at Green Park it was such a nightmare we caught the tube back a station just so we could get on!
When arrived at Hyde Park there was a huge back log of people waiting to get inside Winter Wonderland. Poor Eliot had fallen asleep but looked uncomfortable upright in the carrier. As his bottle was due I suggested to the OH we head to a bench I spied in the distance to feed him. Who knew how long we might be stuck in the queue.

Massive queue beyond the leaves

Being fed by daddy

Once E was fed and winded we headed back to the entrance where the ridiculous amount of people waiting to get in had grown. So we decided to come back another day and walked up to Regent Street to visit Hamleys.
I don't know why I thought otherwise but Regent Street was horrendous too. My stress levels were rising! I despise busy London anyway but with Eliot in tow it made  me hate it even more!
Of course hoards of people were flocking to Hamleys and it was chocka! It was not the enjoyable experience I wanted it to be. Eliot was getting cranky, people were barging and I couldn't believe the prices! Yes I know it's Hamleys but how can they charge £40 for a Fisher Price toy I paid £15 for?! Out-bloody-rageous!
 We did buy a couple of books for E and he enjoyed looking at the display of bath toys but I certainly won't be rushing back there anytime soon!

Loving the bath toy display.