Blog about being Mum and everything that comes with it.
GRO SNUG is 2 in 1 Swaddle and Newborn Grobag from The Gro Company.
The Gro-snug enables you to swaddle arms in or out for a great night’s sleep. Extremely easy to use with only a long zip that opens from the bottom for nappy changes. Because this snug has a zip instead of folding it makes it impossible for the baby to wriggle out of it. Unique design creates space for hip healthy natural positions!
Remember that you shouldn’t swaddle baby who can turn around.
As our baby grows and develops so has to our imagination to create great games. It’s natural to want to check that our precious baby develops “right”, does the “right” thing at the right time (I must stress in here that each child develops at its own pace and does things at its own time!!! ; Look at Chloe walking at 9 months but still only 2 teeth at 14 months😂)
When Chloe was around 6 months old I started looking for help/inspiration on how I should play with her. We had our games but there is just so much you can play the same repertoire over and over again! I wanted our games to be fun but also to support Chloe’s development.
I came across an App called Baby Sparks and I have been using it ever since! I love this app and would recommend it to everyone.
What I love about it?
– It has a month-by-month Baby development guide. This has helped me to understand baby development and what I should expect to happen in the near future.
– Daily program. This is full of activities for the day. Those change constantly so your play time is never boring. What is great is that all of the activities are divided in to groups :
* Gross motor skills
* Fine motor skills
* Cognitive
* Speech
* Sensory
* Self Care
* Emotional
You can choose what part of your child development you want to concentrate on and practise that day.
Main purpose is to help your child develop but it’s done in a very fun way! It keeps your days versatile and your play time interesting.
– Another great feature is the ability to brows the activities by: Category, Place, Milestone. You don’t have to stick to the daily plan you can just freestyle 😊
You can also mark activities as: Completed, Favorite and Archive.
The App is available for different ages. It’s not a free app but it’s not expensive; at £3.99 in my opinion it is worth every penny!
Photos of few examples of the exercises in the app. Each of the exercises also has a video showing how to do it.
I love this toy!!!!
Chloe has recieved it as a present for Christmas. I must say it’s a brilliant toy and both me and Chloe love it.
Chloe doesn’t like to get messy (I know its very unusual for a toddler; she obviously got OCD from her mum:-) ) and I don’t like mess.
This mat is amazing for big babies (yes I still cannot bring myself to call Chloe a toddler) who just start to learn what drawing is and how to do it. This matt has a pen which you fill with water, kids can draw on the mat with “water”( yes water ! This means no colourful marks on the floor, furniture and walls … for now anyway) and as the water dries up the drawing disappears.
I would highly recommend this !
http://www.elc.co.uk/Mini-Artist-My-First-Aquamagic-Mat/132970,default,pd.html
Kids love bath time, and what’s better to make it more fun than a great toy. Unfortunately a lot of toys designe for a bath don’t work very well in the water. I was shopping for new bath toys for Chloe and decided to share my findings with you.
1. Ocean Explorers Sparkle Bay Fountain.
2.Little Tikes Sparkle Bay Water Spinners
3.Edushape Magic Fish Bath Mirror
4.Munchkin Turtle Shower Bath Toy
5. Nuby Kissy Fishy Bath Toy
6.Lamaze Bathtime dragon
7. Tomy Splashy The Penguin Bath Toy
8.Playgro Bath Sort n Stack Floating Hippo
9. Hamleys Water Fun Musical Blossoms
In principle it’s a great idea. You have something where you can put your baby when you want to use the toilet, tidy up, have a shower … In practice it’s a waste of money !
We bought nice wooden play pen quite quickly because Chloe started crawling at 6 months and also because her grandparents will be looking after her 3 days a week when I go back to work. It mean to be used whenever we need to leave the room and Chloe can’t go with us.
I have managed to have Chloe in it maybe twice without screaming. I have tried everything : putting all her favourite toys in it, leaving her there to cry so she understands that crying won’t change anything, going in to it with her to show how fun it is…. Nothing worked.
I have spend £200 pounds on something what is currently taking up a lot of space in my living room and is collecting dust!
Speaking to other mums I found out that most of them have been faced with exactly this same outcome ( I think that there are only 2 babies who I know of that don’t mind being in a play pen).
Based on that I would not recommend buying one ! Or just buy a travel for which then you can use for traveling / playpen.
What’s is your opinion parents ???
Now that Chloe is becoming a little person, she starts eating like one as well:-) She loves her snacks and she loves to have a nice verity of them. I was on a mission to find a nice way to store those snacks. This is what I found :
1.BOON TRUNK SNACK BOX
2.HAPPY JACKSON LUNCH BOXES
3.LEGO LUNCH BOX
4. JUMBOX CLASSIC SNACK BOX 
5. MONSTER MASH UP SNACKS BOXES
6. ALL CHANGE SNACK BOX
7. CATERPILLARS STACK SNACK BOX
Our babies love to play with toys while having a nice wet splash in the bath ! Those toys keep taking up more space as the baby grows… You start with two tiny yellow ducks ….. By 1 year old those toys are everywhere !
I love my bathroom and I love when it looks a little bit like a grow up bathroom, so I got on a mission to find nice and stylish bath toys storage. There is a selection of quite a cool solution to the toys problem😁
1. MEBBY BATH TOYS STORAGE
2.SPROUTS TOY STORAGE BAG
3. BOON FROG POD
BUG POD 
WHALE POD
4. KIDS KIT PELICAN 
5. BKIDS DEDEE’S BATH ORGANISER
6. MUNCHKIN SQUIRT & STORR BATH SET
A very unusual , fun and stylish dinnerware, all come with anti-slip rubber. Here is a sample of the cool plates and bowls available (www.donebydeer.com)
2. BABY BJORN
What a cute set this is! It has a rubber anti-slip base and the outer rim design makes it harder for baby to pick up the plate and throw it 😊 (www.babybjorn.com)
3. SKIP HOP
This is a stay in place mat with a plate and cutlery.
4. SKIP HOP ANIMAL PLATES
Skip Hop has every animal plate you can think of (www.skiphop.com).
5. PRODIGI KIDS
Adi is a very cool plate which comes in 4 different colours. Its a stay-put plate, which should mean a little bit less mess at dinner time :-). It also comes with a lid! (www.prodigikids.com)
6. DOIY
This is a Landscape dinner set. How cool is it?! Such a fun way to have a dinner!
7. DISNEY
Disney does lots of different dinner sets… You can get one in every Disney character … But nothing can beat these Mickey and Minnie Mouse plate sets.
One of the best toys that Chloe has is VTech crawl and learn ball! Chloe got this toy when she was 3 months old, and from the very beginning she loved it.
This ball has everything going for it:
– music and lots of different noises which baby of any age loves.
– lights which entertain baby from a very young age .
– buttons to press, little ribbons to pull etc
– teaches your baby about basic numbers, colours and animals.
– rolls on its own encouraging crawling.
– lots of different melodies and sayings.
This ball helped us with tummy time when Chloe was little. You know how hard it is to keep your little one lying on the belly for longer than a minute or if you are lucky few minutes. This ball was keeping Chloe entertained during her tummy time for up to 15 minutes. There is lots of lights and pictures on it and with the movement it was mesmerising for Chloe
Then came the crawling time. I must say this is where the ball really came in to action. Because by that time Chloe loved to play with it whenever the ball would roll away from her she would try to get to it …. And she would try very hard…. Once crawling started, she would be chasing the ball all the time…
I would recommend buying it. You will see how much fun your baby will have with it.
Thermometer … We all have one right? But then your baby comes along and you think that your standard thermometer isn’t good enough, so you go and get a new one …. I ended up getting 4 new thermometers so I dare to call myself an expert now and advise you on what you should and shouldn’t buy!
1. Forehead Thermometer
They use an infrared scanner to measure the temperature of the temporal artery in the forehead. Don’t waste your money! Those are the most expensive thermometers that you can buy (we bought the Braun Forehead Thermometer at a price of £65) and in my opinion not reliable at all. Temperature readings are affected by everything : cuddling, breastfeeding, your baby doing any sort of physical activity. In the space of one 1 minute you can have 10 different readings. I also have discovered that NHS (National Health Service) advises against using this type of thermometer as it doesn’t give an accurate reading.
2. Ear Thermometers
Ear thermometers use an infrared ray to measure the temperature inside your child’s ear canal. They’re generally quick, safe, and not at all uncomfortable. They can be a little trickier to use than other thermometers, because they have to be inserted exactly right to get an accurate, consistent reading. I found this one to be the best one. It gives, accurate reedings and it’s quick to use.
3. Digital thermometers
Those read the temperature in your child’s armpit. They’re easy, convenient, and safe, and recommended to be use by NHS They can be tricky to use as your baby has to keep it under the arm or let you do it for a long enough period of time.
4.Pacyfier thermometer
This is a thermometer placed inside the dummy. This seems like a very convenient option, but the readings are not accurate and the advice is not to use them.
Right now I am using an ear thermometer as it gives a quick reading, if the temperatures worries me then I check it with a digital thermometer to double check Chloe’s temperature.
NEW YUMMY MUMMY 