Last year Darcie was only six months old when advent began, she had only just started weaning and so there was no way I was giving her a chocolate advent calendar. I decided to make her an alternative advent calendar that would contain a small toy or book for each day of advent so that she could still be involved in the festivities. The run up to Christmas is my absolute favourite time of year, especially since becoming a mum and I just love doing all sorts of festive things together. The advent calendar was such a success last year that I have decided to do the same again this year and probably every year, although we will have to see how it evolves as she gets older! One of the good thing about doing an advent calendar like this for younger children is that they get a small gift each day in the lead up to Christmas which means they can play with and enjoy each one separately without being bombarded with them all at once. The items I put in the advent calendar are similar to what you would put in a stocking so she just has a few stocking presents on Christmas day along with a couple of main presents. I think that is more than enough for an eighteen month old, especially seeing as our families are very generous to her as well! (more…)

My daughter has recently turned 18 months old and I really can’t quite believe it. But the thing that actually shocks me more than her ever changing age is the fact that she has finally learnt to self soothe and put herself to sleep. For some people this will seem an odd thing to say. There are the people whose babies have been settling themselves to sleep since day dot, then there are the people who did sleep training to achieve this result and then there are the rest of us. The ‘I can’t bring myself to do sleep training so I’ll just accept a lifetime of little to no sleep and hope for the best’ gang.  (more…)

I know that some people will groan when they see me use the Christmas word on my blog when we’re not even quite in December. However, once you’re a parent I really don’t think there’s such a thing as being too organised for Christmas and what I’ve got to share with you today is definitely going to help you out with getting everything ready for the big day. (more…)

Anyone who knows my daughter in real life or who has read my blog for a long time will know that she is animal mad. There are times when I genuinely feel she prefers animals to humans and will happily spend her time watching cats from the window, chasing them when we go for walks and ‘woofing’ at every dog that we see. I would love more than anything to get her her very own pet but the timing doesn’t quite feel right at the moment. So I was very happy when we received a Little Tikes Swim to Me Puppy to review. I immediately knew that she would absolutely love the toy and we couldn’t wait to try him out. (more…)

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Flip Out to see if I would like to try out their trampoline park with Darcie and to write a review for them. Not being someone to turn down an opportunity to do something different, I of course said yes and so along we went on Friday 10th of November. We took two of our friends along with us because everything is better with friends, and we all had a really good time. When you first arrive at Flip Out you have to sign a waiver basically saying that you will take responsibility for yourself and your children and then there is a short health and safety video to watch. It really is very short so you don’t need to worry about keeping the kids still for very long at all. I think it’s good that they do all of this as it shows that they really care about your safety and enjoyment while using the equipment. We were a bit disappointed though as they don’t allow triple flips which was obviously the main reason we wanted to go (kidding!). You have to purchase non slip socks for jumping which are then yours to keep for any future times that you go, and there are lockers to leave any possessions that you don’t want to take onto the trampolines with you. (more…)

A couple of months ago Darcie and I were playing in the lounge, she was bringing me books and toys and we were throwing her ball around. Then she just randomly came over to me and gave me a cuddle, for just a couple of seconds before toddling off again. That was the first time she had ever done that of her own accord, with no prompting or encouragement. She had done it because she wanted to. In that moment I thought to myself ‘this is what being a parent is all about’, ‘this is what makes it all worth it’. There are so many experiences that we all go through as parents that make us stop and think ‘wow, I really am a parent now’. These rites of passage, as I have decided to call them, come in all shapes and sizes, the good, the bad and the downright embarrassing. I thought it would be fun to list some of them on here and we can all see how many we can tick off. How many levels of parenting have you completed according to this list? Tally up your number and leave it in the comments below. (more…)