I know some people are still in denial about the impending arrival of Christmas, but not me. I’ve been ready for festivities since basically October, but now that we are in December I feel like it’s acceptable to start mentioning the Christmas word on the blog without getting too much aggro from any Scrooges out there. As a parent it really helps to be organised for Christmas, but this is where I tend to fall short. I love Christmas and I get so excited in the run up but when it actually comes to getting organised for the big day, I like to just put it off and have the inevitable Christmas Eve breakdown instead. This year once thing I am determined to do is to take Darcie to see Santa, she met him briefly at a baby group last year but this year she is so much more aware so I want to start a tradition of taking her to a proper Grotto to see Saint Nick. Luckily I’m spoilt for choice and Santa seems to be popping up in numerous places around Southampton, what a clever man to be in more than one place at once hey? I’ve listed some of the places you can find Mr Claus in Southampton this year so that we can all be organised parents together! (more…)

Yep, you read that right, I have compiled a list of a hundred of my favourite Elf on the Shelf ideas! I’m not going to ramble on introducing this post because there is enough to be getting on with. So here goes…

Elf’s Arrival
Elf arrives on a parachute
Elf arrives with a note from Santa
Elf arrives on the doorstep with a big Christmas hamper for the family
Elf brings the advent calendars
Elf has put up the Christmas tree
Elf arrives on a hot air balloon
Elf arrives on the kitchen table and has written ‘Did you miss me?’ in Cheerios/Smarties
Elf arrives with a little suitcase
Elf is on the outside of the window and has written ‘help I’m locked out’ in the condensation
Elf is perched in the Christmas Wreath (more…)

We’ve always been a strictly water in the sippy cup kind of family. When Darcie was first weaning and started to have water throughout the day along with her milk, I couldn’t understand why anyone would introduce juice to their baby. Surely if they’ve never had anything other than water, they won’t want anything different? This theory worked for me up until Darcie was just over a year old. Within reason I will always share what I have with Darcie if she expresses an interest in wanting to try whatever it is I’ve got. Unless it is something really outrageously unhealthy, or alcohol, I will let her have a little taste. And so, she has slowly been introduced to some of the more unhealthy finer things in life. She loves cake and juice and can now say both of those words which mean it is frankly downright rude for me to pretend I don’t know what she wants. So, I spend around half the time feeling like a mean mummy and explaining to her that she can’t have cake at 7am, and the other half of the time giving in and letting her have exaclty what she wants. (more…)

Prior to becoming a mum, I really wasn’t that aware of saving money or being frugal in any way, shape or form. As far as I was concerned any money that I earned was there to be spent and looking back now I can see that I was often quite wasteful in my spending habits. Now that we are living on one income and have an extra mouth to feed, I am finding lots of new ways to save money on our biggest expense: food. I thought some of my tips could be handy for some of my readers and so, in no particular order, here are my top tips on ways to save money on food. (more…)

I keep mentioning my new online venture on this blog and I do have a post in the works that will be a full introduction to the business and will also include an exciting giveaway. Although I have been trading for a few months already, It is all still very much a work in progress and one thing that I was still lacking was a logo to represent the brand. It was perfect timing when I was offered to try out LogoJoy’s online logo creator and I have ended up with a logo that I am very happy with for my new business. (more…)

Today I took Darcie to a Halloween themed session of a baby and toddler group that we go to every so often. The class is a structured one with singing, puppets and musical instruments which I first started taking her to when she was around four months old. Sometimes she loves it and wants to go off and get involved, and other times (most times) she just wants to cling to me and will even cry and seem scared when she is shown the puppets or encouraged to get involved. Today was one of those days. She clung to me and got upset if I tried to put her down with the other children, She cried at the ladies fancy dress costume, and she was only really happy again when the class was over. You could say she gets ‘shy’, but I hate that word, because she isn’t a ‘shy’ kid. She is loud and outgoing and will happily play with other children, it is just in these structured classes that she seems out of her comfort zone and for some reason it is difficult for her to get involved. I don’t know why she is like this. The rational side of my brain says that clearly these classes just aren’t her cup of tea. She prefers the freedom of a playgroup where she can do her own thing and interact with other children as and when she wants to. But the doubting, mum guilt ridden side of my brain tells me that I’ve done something wrong. It’s my fault. It questions whether I’ve done enough to socialise her. Would she be more confident in these situations if I’d sent her to nursery?  (more…)