MUMMY TO THE MAX

Maxwell will soon be starting playschool and I wanted to make his experience there go as smoothly as possible. When I was at school mistakes over what belonged to who were made. Not only that but when things went missing other children would claim it as theirs. However recently I stumbled across a great company called The Little Giants, who are a great company that sell personalised products.


When looking on The Little Giants Website I was amazed at all the great products they sell from jigsaws to bibs to birthday cards there is something for everyone. The Little Giants has become a company that greatly appeals to all families.

When I recently had a chance to pick something to review from The Little Giants I was ecstatic, there was lots to choose from but in the end I choose a lunchbox to review.
I was told I needed to pick the colour of the lunchbox and a theme and also asked what name I wanted written on it. The great thing about these lunchboxes is you are really able to create something unique.
I first started off the theme of the lunchbox. The Little Giant's have some great ideas from Princess Poppy to Jeremy the Giraffe to Pirate Sam and lots of other characters there is a theme for all children.
I picked Pirate Sam as since Maxwell was small I have always dressed him up as a pirate, we also have a family yacht so the lunchbox reminded me of our time on the high seas.
Next up we has to pick the colour - I picked blue as I believed this would look good with the theme I had chosen and it is a "boyish" colour that would suit Maxwell.
Finally we decided what name we wanted to use. Maxwell is known to us by lots of nicknames however I chose to have the simple name "Max" on the lunchbox.



The delivery was very quick for our lunchbox and we received excellent customer service by The Little Giants who kept in contact with us through out the whole process.
When we received the lunchbox, it was packed well and upon opening I could not believe the quality. It was made very well and I could tell that the plastic material it is made out of is very strong and durable. It is also anti bacterial protected which reduces the levels of surface bacteria by up to 99.9% over a 24 hour period.

The lunch box itself is a triangle shape and quite shallow. The lid of the lunch box is very clever and comes with instructions that show you how to open the lunchbox.
I believe a small child would easily be able to open the lunchbox and although the product is recommended for a child no younger than 3 I think Maxwell would be able to use it at a younger age. 
I was slightly worried that the picture on the outside of the lunchbox would be easy to remove especially when washing the lunchbox however it is locked behind a piece of plastic, which means that the lunchbox can be washed in the dishwasher.
The lunchbox also came with a free water bottle which I though was great, although Maxwell is to young to use this at the present moment, I'm sure he would be able to next summer.



Overall I would rate The Little Giants Lunchbox a brilliant 5/5

The lunchboxes would make the perfect gift for a child for any occasion, and would be brilliant not to only use whilst at school but also on days out. It is priced at a brilliant £14.99 which I personally think is a great price for such a well designed product that your child can grow with and get a lot of use out of it.

You are able to follow The Little Giants over on Facebook or Twitter.
You can also visit their website where you are able to find more info on there great range of products.

Recently we were sent the new Hello Baby Gift set which was launched this month. We were thrilled to be reviewing the brand new set.
When we received our set I was impressed at the well presented box it was in. It was a simple but a very clever design.
The Gift set is a plain box decorated by different coloured sleeves, there are 3 to choose from; unisex, boy and girl, so they are perfect for baby shower gifts or with Christmas coming up would make a brilliant Christmas present.
The Hello Baby Gift set comes with a trio of perfectly pure bath and skincare products that are expertly blended making them suitable for new arrivals but also older babies.
Inside you will find: 100ml Lavender Baby Wash & Shampoo, 30ml Dry Skin Baby Lotion, 30ml Lavender Baby Salve. All three products are made with gentle organic ingredients.


When using the baby wash and shampoo whilst bathing Maxwell, I found that it was a lovely scent of lavender. I liked the fact that it was two things in one as it means there is less clutter in the bathroom.
It was gentle on Maxwell's skin and hair and we found that a little went a long way.
I do not normally use baby lotion on Maxwell however recently as he has been crawling so much his legs have knees have got a bit dry so I applied the lotion on to them.
The lotion was scent free and very easy to apply, it was not to runny and after using it for a few days i found Maxwell's legs were no longer dry.
Finally i used the soothing baby salve on Maxwell's bottom as he had a small patch of nappy rash. Again the baby salve was scented a lovely lavender smell and was very easy to apply. The baby salve could also be used on dry skin and on the scalp.

Hello Baby is made without SLS, SLES, parabens, alcohol (ethyl alcohol/ethanol) artificial fragrances, petrochemicals, lanolin, harsh foaming agents and artificial colourants to offer you the purest gift for mums that nature can offer.

I would rate Hello Baby 4.5/5

You can follow Green People on Twitter
You can like Green People on Facebook

You are also able to visit there website where you are able to find lots more info about their products.

Recently me and Maxwell were sent a lovey pack of personalised thank you cards to review. We were sent the cards by Nessie, a working mum of four who is looking to launch her new website soon. However she still has her old website which you are able to access here.


We were very happy to receive them as being Christmas soon we love to review products that may interest others as the countdown starts to such a big time of the year. There is a lot to prepare. 
When we received the cards I was extremely surprised at their wonderful quality. Before receiving them I thought they would be quite plain and small however I was very impressed when opening them.
The thank you card doesn't actually open instead it works like a post card. The post card is made out of thick card and is big enough for a design as well as enough writing room which either a child could write on or a adult. There is also a blank side on the back where the child could perhaps continue writing but could personalise it a little more by drawing a picture or you could even attach a photo.

The design I received was of a row of reindeer's however these were illustrated in quite bright Christmas colours. The coloured card was plain white which meant the reindeer's stood out well.
The personalised thank you reads “Max, this was placed at the top of the card and under were the reindeer's, we choose just to add use the word "Max" as when opening people would know who they were from.
The postcards we received are priced at £7.50 per pack of 10 and include matching envelopes. Our envelopes are red so go with the Christmas theme.


I would rate thisisnessie cards a brilliant 5/5

Overall we loved the cards that we were sent, They are priced reasonably baring in mind that they are great quality and being personalised means they are very unique to someone.
I can strongly recommend visiting thisisnessie, as she has many beautiful products to offer. One of our favourites is her 12 days of Christmas cards which you are able to personalised to suit - they come in packs of 12. Also very thoughtfully thisisnessie will donate £1 to Alzheimers Research Uk for every pack sold.

Appliance Online have launched a new blog, and to celebrate they are hosting a new competition for bloggers. One lucky blogger will bag £400 of treats including spa break voucher, Benefit makeup, champagne and a family photo shoot.


Today me and Maxwell decided we will make cakes - what a clever 10 month old i have!
Our task was to bake some fantastic creepy Halloween cakes!
I'm not the best at making cakes and i haven't tried to make any since i was pregnant.

You will need:
65G of caster sugar
60g Light Soft Brown Sugar
125g Self Raising Flour
2 Eggs
125g Margarine
2 tbsp Milk
25g Chocolate chips - Optional!
Icing - Black, White, Purple, Orange

Maxwell licking the wooden spoon

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Empty the Caster Sugar, Brown Sugar, Self Raising flour and the chocolate chips to the
mixing bowl.

Add the egg bit by bit and then the butter and mix well and then add the milk.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases evenly.

Bake the cupcakes for 15 mins until they are golden brown - make sure you do not keep opening the oven door when baking.

Remove the cakes from the oven and let them cool.

We then decorated the cupcakes with icingg. We used the Icing to make Halloween shapes, Spiders, Witch, Ghost and a pumpkin.

We used black, orange, purple and white icing.

With the spider we rolled 2 black balls into round shapes and joined them together to make the head and body, we then rolled 8 long lines and attached these to the body to make the legs. We then used 2 small orange balls to make the eyes and a purple ball to make its nose.

The pumpkin is made of a orange ball with 2 black balls to make the eyes the smile is made out of long lines of black icing - you can shape the smile as you wish and the 2 leafs on the top of the pumpkin are made with purple icing shaped into leafs and attached to the top of the pumpkin with one leaf pointing upwards.

 The Witch is made up off 2 black balls and one white ball attached to the cake to make a face. The hat is made out of a purple long shape with the hat flicking up and has icing to add to the decoration.

The ghost is made of white icing and was shaped into a ghost shape, i then attached the 2 arms to its body and used black icing small balls to make the face.




We really enjoyed baking and although Maxwell is young he still managed to help mix the mix and helped weigh out the ingredients.

This Competition can be found on ThePrizeFinder.com







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When I was younger I was bullied a lot, the way I looked, the colour of my hair - I just didn't fit in.
Today we are still facing bullying in playgrounds, in the workplace. I personally think everyone either knows someone who has been bullied at one point in there life or has witnessed bullying so when i saw Bekl's smile campaign over on Twitter i knew i wanted to be a part of it.

The Smile Campaign is an anti-bullying campaign which started on the 12th October and has been launched by Bekl. They are aiming to raise awareness and money for anti-bullying charity Beat Bullying, a charity which helps many people in the UK fight through bullying.
The Campaign is easy to join, just head to the Bekl website (http://www.bekl.co.uk) and purchase your bracelet. They cost just £2.99. At least £1 per bracelet will be donated to Beat Bullying.
Wear your bracelet with pride and spread a smile.

Spread a smile and help raise money for anti-bullying charity Beat Bullying. Every penny counts and the work they do shouldn’t be underestimated.
For example, just £22 can help an emergency online counsellor reach out to a suicidal child before it’s too late.
So please help support such a great cause, and wear a smile with pride… and if you’re on Twitter use the hashtag #spreadasmile.
You can find out more about Beat Bullying from their website http://www.beatbullying.org

I know I will be purchasing one. Will you?

Maxwell has always been very lucky and has never developed  nappy rash but to my surprise earlier on this week I was greeted by a very red and inflamed bottom, it was very sore and had started to blister. 
I started panicking, and actually cried. Then I thought how stupid I was actually being and how common it is for babies to get it. I think it just came as a shock to me that Maxwell had it as he never had, had it before.
I had in my mind that I must treat it as soon as possible otherwise it could become more serious. If left untreated Maxwell could develop a yeast infection or even a bacterial infection, and this was definitely not going to happen to my baby.

I started treated Maxwell's nappy rash by:

• I kept Maxwell's bottom clean and dry by changing his nappy frequently. I kept a eye on him to make sure he had not filled his nappy it made it wet.
• When cleaning Maxwell's bottom, I used plain water and cotton wool, I then would pat it dry with more cotton wool.
• I tried to give Maxwell some nappy-free time as this can help heal the sore area. I would only suggest this though if you have a floor that is easy to clean and don't have carpets.
• Apply a thin layer of barrier cream - I personally use Sudocrem before putting on a clean nappy. I just use a small amount each time I applied it and rubbed it in enough so I could see Maxwell's skin. The cream is a protective layer between your baby's skin and any wee and poo.
• I bathed Maxwell every day and added nothing to his bath water. I made sure I cleaned well around his bottom.  

After 2 days Maxwell's rash had completely cleared up. I was so happy and I could finally stop worrying, however I have put some precautions in place to stop it happening again.

Have you started to think about Christmas yet?
Since we have moved out into our own little family home money has been tight. I have started to think about Christmas early and have made it my mission this year to have a great Christmas on a very tight budget. I will be not paying for Christmas next year.

My Budget is - £200

In the budget i am looking to buy a selection of food and drink for Christmas Day and Boxing Day for ourselves to enjoy a lovely meal, and nibbles incase we have visitors or if we visit anyone, i don't like to go empty handed.
I aim to keep this expenditure low, by collecting vouchers and stocking up on stuff when i see them cheap before Christmas. We already have some cider which i won which i am going to put aside for Christmas.

I am aiming to spend no more than £30 per person on gifts and will be buying for:

My Parents
My Sister and Partner
My Partner
Maxwell
Pets
Nan and Grandad
My Uncle


For Xmas cards, wrapping paper and thank you cards i will be looking for big deals. However i have been sent some thank you cards already for Max to send to everyone.
For decorations and a tree i have been lucky as my Mum and Dad have a tree and decorations to give us.

 

 What i have managed to already put a side for Christmas:

 

Winnings:

Cans of cider, for celebrations.
A selection of gifts for Maxwell including toys, DVDs.
Earplugs for Ben.
Toys and treats for pets.
Some beauty products.
£20 worth of Argos vouchers
£50 worth of Staples vouchers

I have collected:

£20 worth of Tesco clubcard Vouchers
Vouchers towards our shopping bill.
Small freebies to make small fillers - chocolate bars
£25 worth of  Boots advantage points

I have pretty got Maxwell's presents sorted, however i need to get into shape and instead of giving people gifts i need to use them to contribute towards their Xmas.
I think so far i am definitely on budget, however i will keep you updated on how we are doing!

I recently was approached to be told I had the opportunity to review a Zaggora Viva HotPants . Since Maxwell was about 3 months old I have been worried about my weight. I went from a size 6 to a size 14 whilst pregnant with Maxwell, so have been interested in ways of helping me loose weight.
I was excited to test The hot pants out, but scared as I wasn't sure if they would actually work.

When I received the HotPants I was told that -

Women lose weight 4x faster with HotPants!
Specially designed with Celu-Lite technology fabric lining, HotPants™ enhance your natural body temperature to warm you up in the areas you want to target most (thighs, bum, and legs).
Tested at the Chelsea School at Brighton University, HotPants™ are proven to use your body heat to increase energy expenditure before and after exercise by raising your core body temperature by up to 18%. Since you’re heating up and your body is using more energy, you are burning more calories; calorie burn increases by 26% in the hour after exercise with HotPants™ too.  As we all know, as you burn calories, you lose weight.
The lab tests also demonstrated that in just 30 minutes of exercise, women lost 4x more weight with HotPants™ than they did when doing the same exercise in standard workout clothes.

When I received the HotPants I was surprised at how bright they were - I picked the pink ones.
I had in my mind they were suitable for being used in the house, but I would be very self conscience to use them out in public such as the gym or going for a walk in as they would draw a lot of attention.
The fabric reminded me of a wet suit, and I thought I wouldn't be able to squeeze myself into them. After they were removed from the packaging, i tried them on and after a slight squeeze they went on and fitted very well. The material felt soft on me and they were very comfortable.
One of the other main things i liked about them is the length, I hate wearing shorts so these were a great length on me.



I decide I would do the cleaning in them, and I definitely agree that these make you sweat more. I then decided to do a exercise session using my exercise DVD and I felt as if the sweat was pouring off me.
Once i decided to take the Hotpants off they were easy to remove and they had seemed to absorb the moisture, after I had got them off I didn't feel sweaty at all.


The Viva Hotpants come in size small, medium, large and extra large and come in 5 different colours:

• Pink
• Orange
• Green
• Blue
• Yellow

I would rate these Viva Hotpants at a fantastic 5/5

You can like Zaggora on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. They have a lot of Competitions going on right now and you don’t want to miss out!

As Maxwell grows, he's been eager to taste lots of different food. I have been happy to introduce new foods as this gives a variety in his diet. Maxwell is a very good eater and has never had problems with choking on anything neither has he had any reactions however for some babies this is not the case. I have always been clear on what is safe for Maxwell to eat. Some foods are not good for your baby's developing digestive system and some pose a choking hazard.

From 4 - 12 months I was advised by my health visitor not to give Maxwell:

Honey: Honey can harbor spores of Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism. A baby's intestinal tract can not prevent the growth of these spores and produce life threatening toxins.

Cow's milk and soy milk: Avoid cow's milk and soy milk until your child's first birthday. Your baby can't digest the protein in cow's milk and soy milk for the first year, they don't have all the nutrients he needs like breast milk has or formula, and they contain minerals in amounts that can damage his kidneys.

There are foods that have choking hazards in which are best to avoid. Always remember - A chunk of food larger than a pea is able to get stuck in your child's throat.

• Vegetables such as Carrots and Cauliflower should be mushed down and cooked so they are are soft and easy to eat. Cut fruits like grapes, banana and melon in to small peas sized pieces. 

• Seeds may be too small to choke on but they can get stuck in babies airway and cause an infection.

• Soft foods like marshmallows and jelly can get lodged in your baby's throat. Try and avoid.

• Make sure if giving baby's fish, that all bones have been removed. 

It's a good idea to introduce new foods gradually, waiting several days after you introduce something new to make sure your baby doesn't react badly to it. If you believe that your baby is likely to have food allergies – if allergies run in your family or your baby has moderate to severe eczema – check with your doctor to determine the best way to introduce foods like eggs, milk, peanuts, wheat, soy, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish.

Recently we were contacted by Garden Games to ask if we would like to review a Wigwam Play Tent. Of course I jumped at the chance, I mean who do you know that owns a Wigwam?
My plan was to make it something for all the family to enjoy, so being my Dads birthday i thought it would be great time to do it.
It came in a handy box, with instructions located on the side. I was surprised at how small the box actually was and how compact the Wigwam was when in pieces.
With the help of my Mum and Dad we managed to put the tent up easily, taking no longer than 10 mins, Maxwell sat in his pushchair and observed, it was a very easy process and the instructions were helpful and very easy to follow.
To put it together you join two sets of six poles in the middle with six plastic connector pieces, you then lay the canvas out on the floor and thread the poles through elastic loops inside the canvas cover and slot into the holders at the bottom. A rope is then threaded through holes in the top poles which are separated by wooden beads which you tie and  the Wigwam is ready to be erected.


We found the quality of the canvas to be great. It was very thick, hard wearing material which i can not see ripping or tearing. It can also be used in outside weather conditions or inside.
The canvas has bright colours on it lots of thick bright designs made up of shapes, and animals. I think this grabbed Maxwell's attention and as he grows older he will be able to learn colours and animals using it. The Wigwam is suitable for both girls and boys.
There was plenty of space inside the wigwam and both me and Maxwell could fit easily in there, my idea is to use it as a place he can go and read his books - like a special book corner in wetter winter months and in the summer take it outside.
When i put Maxwell in tent he sat and played with his toys in there, although the tent is for age 3+, you could see Maxwell was enjoying himself. The tent is something that a child can easily grow up with and continue enjoying.
 When we took the tent down we found that it again was a very quick and easy process. The tent is easy to store due to its slim box and compact peices.
 

I would rate this amazing Wigwam Play Tent at a fantastic 5/5

This has been one of my favourite products that we been sent. It is a great unique idea and i haven't come across any of these on the market.
We were sent the Wigwam by Garden Games Ltd, please visit there site for more information about there fantastic products.
You are also able to follow them over on Twitter.