I am writing while on holidays in Poland, Krakow. Or shall I say Me and Chloe are on holidays while my husband is working 😂. I am polish living in London so we come to Poland quite often (often for someone with a baby every 4 months or so).I usually go to my home town Wroclaw, and for the past few years it was very busy and hectic. This time my husband was send to Krakow for work and Me and Chloe have came with him. This meant that I had nothing to do except spending time with Chloe! We are having so much quality time together,I am shocked how different it is back at home. You would think that I spend as much time with her her as I do back at home … But back at home I have to cook, clean, sort things out, get on a tube for ages to get somewhere …. Here I only do things with her, sightseeing, swimming, going out for lunch,dinner, coffee … everything is within 10 minutes walk. This has made me realise that though I spent the whole day with Vhloe it’s not a quality time … I need to make sure that I change it as soon as I am back home especially that I have only 2 months of maternity leave left 😕
Tag: baby
NURSERY : PRETTY? PRACTICAL? THINGS TO THINK ABOUT BEFORE DECORATING NURSERY.
My gorgeous girl is now 10 months old. I remember how exciting I got when I was decorating her room… And crazy buying all of those things that you see in the shops, all of those things that you see on the nursery photos on the internet and in the magazines. The reason why I write it is because lots of those things shouldn’t be used in a baby room!!! As Chloe was growing and changing I was finding out more about having baby, her needs, dos and donts and I discovered that I had to remove lots of things out of her room as they were /are dangerous.
Some examples:
– Cot bumper
I was shopping for one for months ! This was such a key accessory in the room, it had to be perfect ! What I discovered is that you shouldn’t use them when baby is little because there is a link between using it and cot death. As they grow a bit bigger it’s dangerous as they start pulling it up, looking underneath it etc. I know that because as soon as I moved Chloe in to her cot at 6months (with the bumpers on) she was pulling it in all directions, getting her head undernight it … I had to remove the bumper straight away.
Cot bar bumpers are a good solutions for babies over 6 months (not recommend before that) as they can’t be pulled off/up.You can also buy breathing cot bumpers.
– Cot conopy
Bought one to go over the cot … Was going for the cute, soft, princess look … Turns out as soon as they can grab things and reach with theirs arms it’s a very big risk … Which doesn’t go away till they are 2 years old ?3 years old?. I had removed my one before Chloe was born and decided to use it later. Recently I used it to create cosy reading corner ….
Uuhhhhgggg bad decision , 9 months old baby will be just pulling it, getting it round herself … which is very dangerous. So I just got rid of it for good.
– Duvet covers
You look at the huge choice of the cutest duvet covers you have seen and you are trying to find one which will compliment your baby’s nursery …. Babies aren’t allowed to sleep under the duve until 1 year old (or even older) because it’s a suffocating risk.
– Accesories to go in to the cot .
Again you never see just plain cot in the display; it’s always dressed up and finished with cute cushions and cuddly toys. The only but is … Your baby shouldn’t have anything in the cot until they are older because it’s a risk. And it is better to be safe than sorry in my opinion.
SAFE DOESNT MEAN BORING OR UGLY! There is so much you can do to make the baby room look great but safe as well. It will also save you lots of money which is handy when you need to buy everything at once !
Instead of buying duve covers just invest in a statement fitted sheets, you can buy pretty printed ones or bold colour ones; baby’s fitted sheets don’t have to (shouldn’t) be white. This is an example of one of Chloe’s fitted sheets. 
You can find very good selection in Mamas & Papas, Marks & Spencer, Nubie.
Instead of Conopy you can just go for a some sort of statement pice hanging over the cot or on the wall above the cot.
– Very popular are Pom poms which come in lots of different colours and textures (paper and tulle). This is an example from Chloe’s room of tulle pom poms which I hanged over her reading/play corner.
– You can get an amazing letters and spell baby name on the wall above the cot. The choice of letteres is very big so you will definitely find something that you like. If not you can even design your own one.
– go with a bold print wallpaper, if you opt for this option you won’t need much more that that, as you need to keep the rest of the room quite simple to make the wallpaper stand out.
– if you not in to the wallpapers or you just not brave enough, the great option is wall stickers. Again there is a very big selection of stickers so you should be able to find something to fit your scheme/taste.
– or you could just paint something yourself? 😀
And then there is an option of just adding lots of Accesories like curtains, ruggs, toys, pictures which can transform a plain room in to a very special nursery.
Do you have any good designer tips? Or want to share your baby’s room photos ? Please feel free to comment / post! Have a wonderful day x
SIT ME UP COSY …. no thanks :-)
I remember looking at it and thinking it’s brilliant ! So we bought it without thinking any more about it.
Turns out it’s not as brilliant as it seemed:
1. The lying position isn’t too good, Chloe would stay in it for 5 minutes and then cry … Looking at it I don’t think that she was comfortable in it.
2. Making it in to a siting upport was another great feature – or that’s what I thought…. When baby needs support when sitting it’s because it goes to the side, fills backwards or forwards …. So having support only on the back doesn’t make any sense.
So we didn’t really use it … Until Chloe was around 4-5 months and when she started learning to sit on her own. I used to put her right inside it and I must say it was great as I could go and do things while she was safety siting secured from every angle.
Would I recommend it? Not for what it’s designed for, but I got my money’s worth of it by using it a baby sit guard …
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL … PASTA WITH COURGETTES
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL ….
PASTA WITH COURGETTES
Ingredients – 1 courgette
– 50ml of single cream
– 1 small chicken breast (cooked)
– 2 tsp of Parmesan
– 1 tsp of basil (chopped)
– 50g of baby pasta
Cooking method:
Grate you courgette.
Cut you cooked chicken in to a very small cubes (I have just friend the chicken breast in a little bit of olive oil). 
Cook your pasta according to cooking instructions.
Fry courgette in a little bit of olive oil for about 5 minutes (until it softens) 
add cream and basil and cook for around 3 minutes. If needs add a little bit of water to the sauce. Add pasta then Parmesan and it’s ready to eat ! 
If your baby is still not eating solids you can blend all of it or blend everything except pasta. Good thing about this recipe is that you can make it in to a grown up version by just adding salt and pepper in to it to season! Hope that you and your baby will enjoy it !
SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR …. SUGAR EVERYWHERE ! Yes even in BABY food!
I love sugar and anything that is sweet … It takes a lot of will power not to eat chocolate all day long every day.
I assumed that baby food, especially the one labeled : heathy, organic, no preservatives added will have no sugar or just minimal amount of it … NEVER assume anything ! I couldn’t be more wrong !
I was shocked to see baby food from 4 months old having over 20g of sugar per 100g. What was even more shocking is that things which shouldn’t have any sugar had lots of it !
Don’t get me wrong I am all for healthy but balanced diet, I give my baby, baby biscuits but I don’t want my baby to be consuming lots of sugar especially not when she is so small ! Also giving then sugar make the weaning and feeding so much more difficult because they refuse to eat things which are not sweet!
I started to check labels very carefully and found product which are nice but don’t have lots of sugar which I will share. Oh and just to clarify product is high in sugar when it has 20g or more of sugar per 100g.
CEREALS
There is a very small selection of cereals that don’t have lots of sugar in it, and only handful of cereals that have little or non sugar. My recommendation will be those 2 :
– Organix Multigrain Porridge (only 2g of sugar per 100g)
– Organic Mutligrain Mini Puffs (only 1g of sugar per 100g). I use the puffs to add to other porridges for the texture. I usually mix it with whatever porridge I make, especially with the flavoured ones. It’s great when you start to introduce texture to your baby’s food.
– Good flavoured porridge is by Ella’s Kitchen (11.7g of sugar per 100g). I usually make it with multigrain mini creel puffs.
– Organix Cereal Bannan & Rospberry (12g of sugar per 100g and believe me this is the smalles amount of sugar that I could find in the stage 3 cereals)
Bad boys:
– Cow&Gate Fruity Porridge – 40g of sugar per 100g !!!!!!! This should be illegal!
TREATS FOR BABIES :
Rice cakes.
It’s a great snack for babies from quite an early age (I have Chloe her first one at 5,5 months). They not high in sugar but even in this one snac the sugar level waries depending on the flavour (those are the Organix rice cakes) :
– Apple rice cakes -14g
– Berry rice cake – 10g
– Banana rice cake – 9,7g
– Strawberry rice cake – 6,7g
Biscuits:
Biscuits naturally have much more sugar than any other snack, but again I thought that because they are for babies the sugar level would be reduced …. Not always the case. There are healthier options like:
-Ella’s Kitchen Apple & Ginger biscuits 16,5g
-Ella’s Kitchen Milk and Vanilla biscuits 16,1g
-Ella’s Kitchen Hello-Copter Oat and spelt cookies 13,4g
A bit less healthier but not too bad :
– Heinz Biscotties Banana 22g
– Heinz Biscotties Apple 20g
– Heinz Biscotties Mango 22g
All of the others I found had 28g of sugar and above which is very very high so should be a treat from time to time only.
CORN SNACKS
– Organix Crunchy Sweetcorn Rings 3,5g
– Ella’s Kitchen Melty Puffs Tomatoes & Leek 0,5g ( the Strawberry and Bannan flavour already has 7,4g which is a lot).
– Ella’s Kitchen Lentil and carrot sticks 0,7g
– Ella’s Kitchen Cheese and Lentil Crunchy Wheels 0,2g
– Kiddylicious Blueberry Wafers 9,6g
– Kiddylicious Cheese flying Saucers 0,5g
Bad boys:
– Kiddylicious Passion Fruit and Peach Yoghurt Melts 45g
– most of the frut snacks like Bear Fruit Paws are high in sugar with 40g and more in 100g
– Organix Goodies Fruit Gummies Strawberry has 67g of sugar !!!!!!!!!
I could probably write a book about contest of sugar in baby food … Don’t want to bore everyone so the only thing I will say is check the back of the package for information ! Don’t be influenced by the colour of the package, marketing etc…. And remember that fruit and vegetables are always best option sometimes just not practical 😀
What is you experience, opinion? Do you have know of a yummy and healthy snacks/foods?
OMG IT HAS HAPPENED !!!!!
I AM SO HAPPY, SO PROUD AND SO EMOTIONAL at this same time. My little baby girl at the age of 9 months and 28 days started walking !!!!! 
She did 1 or 2 steps before but today she just started walking !!!! It’s amazing how something just clicks in baby brain and they just start doing things! Chloe for a while now was walking with the walker, while holding to both of my hands and recently only one hand. She was also standing on her own for 3 seconds but as soon as she realised that no one was holding her/she wasn’t holding anything, she would sit down. And then yesterday she started standing, just like that as if she always did it… Then today she just started walking …. It amazes me how it just happens …. I am such a proud mummy now.
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL …SWEET POTATO FRIES
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL ….
The weather has turned in London to a rainy and chilly so we had to wear more layers. Chloe is wearing:
Jumpsuit from Primark,
Pink top and pink jacket with stars from H&M,
White lace trainers and pink headband from Mother Care
ANOTHER DAY, ANITHER MEAL…
SWEET POTATO FRIES
Great as part of a meal or just as a finger food. It’s healthy and so testy !
Ingredients:
– sweet potato (quantity depends on the amount that you want to make)
– thyme
– maple syrup (optional)
Cooking method:
Just cut your sweet potatoes in to a chips size. You don’t need to peal the skin I did it only because in my head my 10 months old could struggle with eating it.
Put a tiny bit of olive oil in to you baking tray, put your potatoes and cover with a little bit of thyme (you don’t have to use it)
Bake for around 15 min on 180C. You can add 1 tsp of maple syrup and sprinkle it on the top, put back in to the oven for 3 min.
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL, ANOTHER OUTFIT ….
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER OUTFIT …
Chloe is rocking today a casual look in this printed jumpsuit from LINEX. Look is finished with this cute headband from River Island Mini.
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MEAL ….
AUBERGINE CURRY
Ingredients:
– 1 aubergine (sliced)
– 1 small carrot (sliced)
– 1/2 a red pepper (sliced)
– 1 onion
– 1 chicken/turkey breast (sliced or cut in to a small cubes if you don’t give your baby blended food)
– 1 tsp of mild chicken curry
– 100g of rice
– 400ml of coconut milk
– 1 garlick cove
Cooking instruction
Cook your rice fallowing cooking instructions.
Fry aubergine till soft and leave it to the side. Fry onion until gold then the add chicken and curry powder and garlic. Fry for a minute or two then add coconut milk.
Add you aubergine pepper and carrot and simmer fora round 15 minutes (making sure your chicken and carrot is cooked).
If you still introducing texture to your babes main meals blend your curry together and add your cooked rice for texture. If your baby eats solids make sure that all of your veg are cut in to small pieces (cut aubergine after frying it).
What is great about this recipie is that you can eat it as well ! For a grow up version don’t add carrot or pepper, add salt and season depending on how space you like it 🙂
DESSERT :
Fresh fruit selection, today grapes and blueberries . If your baby is smal remember to cut grapes in half as they are chocking hazard.
YOU ALL NEED ONE !
I must say before I got pregnant I didn’t know that nappy bins existed 😂 I have to say they are briliant ! I will advance everyone to get one ! They are handy, look good and what’s the most important locks all of the smelly smells away ! You can gret one in white, pink or blue !
I have the Tommee Tippee Sangenic Nappy Disposal System – Pink. It individually seals each nappy away in seconds offering anti-bacterial protection from germs and odours.
Thank god for Coffeeshops !! 😊
I have never spend so much time in a coffeeshop as I do while on maternity leave. They bring normality in to my life! On the beginning before I meet my Mums gang I would go to one to be round people and so I cant see all of the stuff which need to be done at home. I would buy lots of magasines have a cake (we all deserve it !!!!!) and my decafe (breastfeeding) coffee (lots of it) while Chloe was sleeping (they do sleep a lot of the beginning) .
You know the time when they are still quite small (3 months or so) and you are trying to establish a routine and they don’t want to sleep … Of we went in the pram for a walk and as soon as she would fall asleep I would head to a coffeeshop, we all know that you can’t go home because as soon as you open the door baby is wide awake !!!
Now is all about socialising.Yummy mummies with our perfect prams pushing our perfect baby stroll in to a coffee shop and take it over moving all of the tables and chairs so we can park 8 prams, and fit 8 highchairs on top of all of the space that we mums need – the customers and the owners hate us !
NEW YUMMY MUMMY 