Rainbow Aquadraw

I received this Rainbow Aquadraw mat from ELC and it really is fab!

If you are like me and dread those little words: 'Can we do some painting mummy?' because of the chaos it causes, then this is perfect. It comes with two pens, three stampers and a paint brush and all you need is water to begin creating lovely rainbow pictures. You can get it out on the sitting room floor safe in the knowledge that there will be absolutely no mess. The mat is colourful and attractive, with pictures of butterflies, birds and balloons around the outside.

At £28 I feel that it is a tad expensive for what it is, but it is a great idea and the fact that you can use it over and over again, and that it gets me off the hook of having to clean up paint that normally gets everywhere, probably makes it worth while. This, and Betty really does love it.

Britax FIRST CLASS Plus

Britax have very kindly sent me their FIRST CLASS Plus car seat for Dolly. I am impressed with this seat because I didn't realise you could buy seats that go from newborn up to 18kg (approximately 3 years of age). It has a special newborn insert which you use up until your child reaches around 13 kg and it adapts from being rear facing to front facing. The seat looks comfortable, is well padded, and it is easy to fit.

For me the disadvantage is that when Dolly falls asleep in the car, when we arrive home I now have to wake her by taking her out of the car seat. But on the plus side, Dolly is almost at an age where she doesn't fall asleep at the drop of a hat so this won't be an issue, and because the seat is permanently secured you don't have to fit it every single time you want to go anywhere, as with the usual style baby seat.

I think at £119 it is a great buy, specially as it goes from birth up until around 3 years of age. Visit the Britax website for more info.

Mothercare and ELC - various items

Two large parcels were delivered the other day, and thankfully not by the courier. Much to Tom’s exasperation I had got a bit carried away and ordered numerous items from both Mothercare and ELC.

First up were some items from Mothercare’s fab vintage range which included a wiggle elephant. I love this elephant and so does Dolly. She wrestles with it, chews it, jangles it’s numerous bells, and fiddles with the little star and horse that dangle from it. It’s attractive, colourful and fun and certainly beats the equivalent that Betty had when she was a baby (a large garish and very ugly lion given by a family member).

After a lot of twisting of Tom’s arm I also ordered Mothercare’s Star Walker which I haven’t been able to try out yet as Dolly is only 4 months old and it is recommended from 6 months. I am very excited about it though as I always wanted to get one for Betty when she was a baby but Tom said we already had enough clutter. He felt it would be one of those things that would get used once and then shoved to the back of the garden shed. I put my foot down this time however, and am convinced that Dolly will love it. It will be particularly useful when I am trying to cook lunch/dinner and she can whiz around the kitchen in it. The product looks good and has a lovely colour scheme. I will keep you posted on this one.

Another product that I am not able to use yet is the Aquapod – again this is from 6 months. I plan to dare to put Dolly into Betty’s room to sleep when she reaches 6 months and at this time I would also like them to share their bath-time. Therefore this product will be ideal because it will support Dolly at one end of the bath and Betty can sit opposite her on the non-slip mat. They can splash and play together – in an ideal world any way. Again I will keep you posted.

For the last four months I have been wearing a rather uncomfortable bra in bed to stop excess milk going every where. When I saw these Mothercare sleep bras I had high hopes for them because they looked really comfortable. However, having tried one on it didn’t feel at all comfortable and barely covered my boobs. I wouldn’t recommend this product unfortunately.

Like a lot of people I know, before I had children I was naively against plastic toys. Since having children I have realised that this is ridiculous. Therefore, when I looked through ELC’s Happyland range I was very excited on Betty’s behalf because I knew that she would love it. I picked the funfair set, the school bus and the playmat which then zips up into a fab storage box to keep all that is Happyland together. Each set comes with a selection of individual little people from little girls holding ice-creams, to clowns, to balding men. Betty has had hours of fun driving the people around on the bus along the roads on the playmat, dropping them off for swim in the pond, taking them to the merry-go-round and then taking them to smell the flowers. She becomes completely immersed in imaginary play and it is lovely to watch. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that the people don’t sit securely in the fair rides and tend to coming flying out when they are in motion. However, Betty finds this hilarious.

I also ordered the Rosebud Farm from ELC which is from their new range. This is a fabulous product and for anyone who sticks to the no plastic toys rule, this is ideal. The farm building is made from wood as are the 10 animals and the farmer and his wife. It is beautifully painted with lovely detail. I love it! I haven’t yet unleashed it on Betty because I fear that she has had toy overload so this may have to wait until her birthday which is coming up shortly. I have absolutely no doubt that she too will love it though.

The Buttons do Butlins

Butlins very kindly invited us to the launch of their new Ocean hotel and spa in Bognor Regis, with a couple of nights’ accommodation thrown in too.

They put us up in the Premier Inn in Chichester the night before their launch at Bognor. We arrived after a torturous six hour journey. It took this long because Betty (who is usually a once a day-er) decided to poo all the way down the M4, the A34, the M3 and then the M27.

Tom, Betty, Dolly and I were all in the same rather small room which scared me slightly, but I reasoned with Tom that the experience would toughen us up and be character building.

Three of us had to share a bed (albeit a very large outsized one) whilst Dolly was given the choice of two cots. Betty and Dolly both slept really well but Tom and I did not. It turns out that Betty sleeps like a starfish and so we were both clinging onto each side of the bed for dear life all night long.

The following morning as we were getting dressed, the launch was mentioned on the TV news. I got very excited and texted friends and family saying: ‘The Butlins launch is on the national news, I’m gonna be on TV!’ At breakfast we tried to guess who were bloggers and who were real hotel guests (Single Parent Dad, was that you in the lift with me when baby Dolly was losing the plot?), then we left for the Ocean Hotel.

This £20million, 4 star hotel is pretty impressive: spacious, fun, colourful and clean (so much so that our house now seems embarrassingly filthy in comparison). One of the first things that you experience on entering the hotel are the musical lifts. Seventies disco heroes like ABBA and the Village People serenade you in thirty-second snatches between floors. Much to Tom’s embarrassment Betty would try to get him to dance with her every time we entered them, no matter who else was in there. She also loved chasing the fish on the interactive reception floor and the children’s area in the hotel restaurant, where she tried to get Tom to drink his manly pint of beer sitting in a toy car. Betty also devoured the breakfasts which is a pretty good endorsement as she’s not normally a breakfast person, and she had the staff running around after her, fetching her more orange juice and croissants.

The launch event was great, if surreal – lots of journalists in suits, and bloggers surrounded by children – and the entertainment was fantastic, although the human sized squawking seagulls scared the hell out of Betty.

In the evening, with both girls fast asleep in bed, and Tom babysitting (i.e. reading his book via the changing coloured lights in the bathroom) I went off in search of a glass of wine. I went for a little wander around the camp and saw some of the entertainment but couldn’t help wishing that my secret crush, Shane Ritchie, was still a Redcoat. By the time I got to the hotel bar I was so tired I could hardly put in my order: ‘Wine. White. House. Dry.’ I was also feeling very self-conscious as I still look about 7 months pregnant. The waitress whispered something to her manager which I can only assume was something like ‘Is she safe to serve?’ before handing over the glass of wine. I then went and sat on the terrace and watched the sun setting over Butlins, and looked at the campers in all their finery heading out for the evening’s entertainment and thought: ‘Is this what our holidays have come to? Sitting alone with a glass of wine, staring out at some empty fairground rides.'

However it was nice to be able to have a glass of wine and not have to think about driving home, and that night all four of us had the best night sleep we have had for months. I didn’t hear a peep out of Betty, Dolly and Tom for a solid 12 hours.

On the last day I had my complimentary spa experience where I met some of the other bloggers for the first time whilst freezing our tits off in the snow cave with next to nothing on in minus 16 degree temperatures or sweating like pigs in the steam room. It was quite a surreal setting for meeting ladies that I have only ever chatted to online before.

The hotel was fun, the service was great and it was a real treat to have a holiday paid for by someone else. Thank you Butlins.