Attraction: National Sea Life Centre, Birmingham

Price: Tickets start at £10

Age Range: n/a

Description: SEA LIFE centres take visitors on a magical journey through the amazing marine world, encountering thousands of remarkable creatures on the way. Breathtaking displays of every conceivable shape and size cleverly recreate a variety of marine habitats, from shoreline rock-pools to the ocean depths, and visitors are immersed in a watery wonderland in order to meet an incredible array of residents from humble shrimps and starfish to sharks and stingrays.

Located in the heart of Birmingham, the National Sea Life Centre Birmingham invites you to take part in the ultimate quest to discover the sunken treasures of the legendary Lost City of Atlantis. A magical mirror maze winds its way around the lairs of some secretive and mysterious sea creatures. An amazing 360 degree acrylic tunnel allows all round viewing of a fantastic collection of marine life including sharks, sea turtles and beautiful colourful tropical fish.

Superbreak is a website which specialises in have helping people book short breaks in UK & Europe. Couples, single travellers, families and friends can book a London theatre break, get attraction tickets for the family, head on a romantic break or simply find somewhere to rest your head for the night. With 30 years experience in providing UK and European short breaks, they can help you find your perfect break.

Rating: (4/5 stars)

Review: We visited the National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham a few weeks ago on a Sunday, and it made a great day out.

Georgie really enjoyed seeing all the different types of fish and sea creatures. She was absolutely entranced by the colourful fish and amazed at the fluorescent jellyfish. The variety of things to sea was astounding, and there were some truly amazing creatures on show. There was plenty of information about the exhibits on display dotted about, and the (reasonably priced) guide book provided an interesting amount of information without being overwhelming, as well as doubling up as a nice souvenir for the trip.

The feeding demonstrations and “interactive rockpool” seemed good – we didn’t manage to see a full feeding demonstration as Georgie wanted to keep moving – she is still a bit young to stay still long enough for that sort of thing, but what we did catch seemed informative and nicely informal. At the rockpool she came really close to stroking a starfish, but chickened out at the last second!

The centre itself was a little shabby in areas and with a couple of empty exhibits dotted about, but the overall impression was positive. Georgie certainly didn’t notice the parts that could use a lick of paint, and ran excitedly from tank to tank, asking to be lifted up whenever she was too short – which, unfortunately, was quite frequently. My arms were aching after a while! As it is a family attraction, it would be nice if the tanks began a bit lower down, or there was a step for younger visitors to stand on to peer in.

There were enough toilets available, and we noticed at least one “refreshment area” where you could buy drinks & snacks from vending machines. The quiz was quite fun, but one or two of the questions were difficult to find, and could be easily missed. They were quite hard to answer sometimes too, and although you’d expect the answer to be fairly easily discoverable nearby on the information boards or from the facts painted on the walls, we ended up having to guess one or two of the answers.

One of the things on offer at the Centre was a “4D Cinema” which was showing a Spongebobs Squarepants adventure. Georgie enjoyed the film, which was quite fun and not too long, but some of the special effects scared her a little and she ended up on my lap. She did like the bubbles floating down from the ceiling though! Lydia looked very fetching in a pair of 3D glasses, but slept through the entire thing in the pushchair!

The exit is through the gift shop, of course, which has a great range of clothes, toys & other souvenirs from your visit. Even the choosiest child is bound to find something they love here, and the prices aren’t too extortionate (just a little bit pricey, as is traditional for these sorts of things!). We let Georgie pick out a small soft toy for Lydia, as well as one for herself, and James spotted a lovely sun hat on sale too, which has been a huge hit with our little girl!

There are no restaurant/cafe facilities at the Sea Life Centre which means that you have to find somewhere to eat elsewhere, but it is well situated in Brindley Place and close to family friendly favourites like handmade burger Co and Pizza Express, so this isn’t too much of an issue. They will even stamp your hand to allow you free re-entry onto the centre, until closing time.

We didn’t have any trouble with accessibility as far as going around the centre with the pushchair was concerned, and the pathways were generally wide enough for people to pass by each other easily. I only ran one thankfully forgiving person over a little bit in the darkened jellyfish discovery area!

We’re going to give the Sea Life Centre 4 out of 5 stars, as we really enjoyed our day out and thought it provides quite good value for the ticket price – especially if you can get a good offer on your tickets, which are frequently available.

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We reviewed a pair of Little Grippers baby socks recently (they really do stay on!), and now I’m offering my readers a chance to win a gift box containing three pairs of Little Grippers baby socks!

Little Grippers baby socks gift boxes come in three different sizes, newborn, 0-6 months & 6-12 months, and are available in baby blue mix, baby pink mix, and white mix. The winner will be able to choose which size & colour they would like to receive.

To be in with a chance of winning a Little Grippers Baby Socks Gift Box, leave me a comment to tell me which colour you would choose – baby blue mix, baby pink mix, or white mix? Then, fill in the rafflecopter widget below. Don’t worry, you’ll be given the opportunity to change your mind if you win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(If the rafflecopter widget is not showing up, try refreshing the page)

Thank you for entering, good luck!

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Terms & Conditions

1. This competition is open to residents of the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland aged 18 years or over, except for those associated with the production company, their families or anyone else associated with this competition.
2. All information detailing how to enter this competition forms part of these terms and conditions.
3. All entries must be received by the advertised closing time date.
4. One entrant shall win a baby gift set in the style/colour/size of their choice
5. The winners may be required to take part in publicity.
6. All prizes are non-transferable and there are no cash alternatives.
7. Events may occur that render the competition itself or the awarding of the prizes impossible due to reasons beyond the control of the Promoter, and accordingly the Promoter may at their absolute discretion vary or amend the promotion and the entrant agrees that no liability shall attach to the Promoter as a result thereof.
8. Mama Geek is responsible for the first part of the promotion, which is the publication and adjudication of the competition. All other facilities connected with the provision of the prize are the responsibility of Little Grippers.
9. English law applies and the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts shall prevail.
10. By entering the competition you agree to the use of your name, address in publicity relating to the competition and you are giving Little Grippers permission to contact you at a future date.

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I can’t wait until we are settled into the new house, and can finally relax. I feel like we haven’t had much chance to since she was born, because we have just been so very busy. July is going to be a very lazy month, I can tell you that.

At least I don’t have to worry too much about the laundry piling up meaning I’m going to run out of clean clothes for Lydia; she has a ridiculously extensive 3-6 month wardrobe! I’m not even sure I will be able to put her in every outfit there is so much stuff. I’m not even joking when I say there are more than 33 sleepsuits, and over 55 vests… I counted! Plus, two drawers full of t-shirts, leggings, jeans and cardigans, and half a rail of dresses & dungarees – just ridiculous! It’s down to us keeping everything that Georgie has ever grown out of, plus the huge eBay bundle I bought a few months ago.

Can time slow down now please??

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Product: Little Grippers Baby Socks

Price: £3

Age Range: 0+

Manufacturer’s Description: Our Baby Socks are designed to Stay On! Gone are the days of losing your babies or toddlers socks while you are out for the day. Our socks are high in cotton content, with a tiny amount of stretch for comfort and fit. Our unique natural, hypoallergenic Stay On Technology is applied inside the top of the socks to help them stay in place. Each sock has its own beautiful Gecko knitted into the sole which is our brand logo.

Rating: (4/5 stars)

Review: We were sent a pair of “baby pink” colour Little Grippers baby socks in newborn size for Lydia to try out, and have been fairly impressed by them.

Lydia wore her Nutmeg romper dress to The Baby Show at the weekend, so she needed socks or booties on too keep her toes warm. We took the opportunity to try out the Little Grippers socks, though I must admit that I packed her booties just in case the socks started falling off! Thankfully, my backup plan wasn’t required, as the socks stayed put all day.

Our little baby girl usually manages to kick off one, or both, of her socks at some point in the day – as all babies do! I was impressed that the socks managed to stay on throughout such a busy day, as Lydia was taken in & out the car seat, in & out the sling, in & out the pushchair, in & out several Cushi Tush seats, in & out her bouncer, breastfed several times, and was quite a wriggly little thing in between! Not once did we have to readjust the socks, and they didn’t budge at all.

The socks themselves feel very soft to the touch and seemed comfortable. There is some sort of sticky tackiness on the inside at the top of the sock, which is how they stay on – the “stay on technology”. I was worried that Lydia’s skin would react to this as it can be a bit sensitive, but she was absolutely fine.

Our only criticism of them is the fit, which didn’t seem quite right for newborn socks. The foot part seemed a little wide at the toe and a touch long, on Lydia’s feet. She is nearly three months now, so I would expect newborn sized socks to be a better fit than these – indeed, most of her other socks fit more snugly to her feet. As a result these looked a little bit baggy, as you can see in the photos.

Babies all have different size and shape feet though, so I appreciate that it is difficult to design a sock that fits all babies! The most important thing is that they stayed on, as promised.

At £3 per pair I think these socks are a fairly reasonable price, although I wouldn’t buy more that a few pairs of each size. Four stars!

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We headed over on the train – the parking is up to £10 now and it’s cheaper for us to buy two return tickets & park and ride from one of the train stations this side of the city. It’s also kinder to the environment, faster, and you don’t have to deal with the NEC traffic stress! We used the buggypod, as I mentioned in my post yesterday, and the journeys to & from the NEC were quick & easy.

There were some interesting products at the show, a few of which I was intrigued by but didn’t need, some of which I lusted after but couldn’t afford (helllooooo gorgeous changing bags and pretty little baby outfits!), and some I could happily dismiss in an instant! I’ll be blogging about one or two of the things that interested me the most over the coming days.

We saved some money by packing a picnic (I say “packing” – we went to Waitrose in Harborne after sorting out the paperwork for the new house), which also meant we could avoid the queues and crammed tables, and instead found a spot at the edge of the hall where I could feed Lydia while we all had a carpet picnic.

Heading into the show, we only had two things on our shopping list; Halos N Horns moisturiser and a little seat for Lydia (similar to a bumbo, but after all the news of cracked skills & recalls, definitely not a bumbo). With such a short list it’s not surprising that we were successful. There was a great deal on the Halos N Horns stand, so we were able to get well stocked up – we reviewed it recently and I don’t dare run out of the stuff Georgie loves it so much.

As far as finding a seat for Lydia goes, we had a look at the various seats on offer around the show, and decided to go for a Cushi Tush after trying one out & chatting to their very helpful & friendly staff. They had various colours in stock on the stand, so we decided to opt for a green one (because, yes, you CAN have too much pink stuff in one house). The design seems really good, with a supportive high back, plenty of space and support for legs & feet.

We also treated Georgie to a matching toy seat and forever friends bear so that she can play mummy to her toys while I play mummy to Lydia! Georgie cottoned on to the concept of her toy chair as soon as she awoke from her nap, and was very quick to pop Lydia’s Lamaze doll into the seat. Since the show she has been carrying it around and putting a variety of her teddies and dolls in there, and even placing smaller toys onto the tray for them to play with.

After doing a few rounds of the show, signing up to the RSPB, making use of the pampers baby changing station, and laughing at James trying out the huge seats that seem to have been a running theme at the show, we took our aching feet and loaded pushchair home! As usual, the show had some good bargains on offer, and it was great to see some of the latest products being launched onto the market.

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Product: Theraline Wynnie Nursing Pillow

Price: £23.95

Age Range: 0+

Manufacturer’s Description: Wynnie is a great product for nursing and to prop up a sitting baby with a lasting stable quality that has just the right grade of fibre filling and a perfectly suited cover, made from quality fabrics, which are washable at 60° C. The inlett is washable at 40° C and can be tumbledried.

• Best quality & best price
• Polyester fibre filling
• Great stabilizer as baby learns to sit

Rating: (5/5 stars)

Review: We have been testing this nursing pillow out for almost three months now, since coming home from hospital with our brand new baby Lydia!

The Wynnie pillow is very comfortable to use, being nicely “squidgey” yet still very supportive of Lydia as she has her feeds.

I have used a Boppy pillow in the past, and found this to be more comfortable for both myself and the baby, feeling less stiff & having a nicer, softer, cover. It also seems a little bigger than the Boppy pillow as well, and is definitely more flexible around the waist – great for us larger mums.

This nursing pillow brings Lydia up to the right height for the nipple & allows you me nurse my baby much easier than just holding her in my arms, especially as I often have to hold my breast to help her nurse – I have even managed to breastfeed Lydia hands free with this pillow.

The cover is super soft & easily removed to allow you to wash it – you can just pop it in the machine with the rest of your baby laundry. I think the design is really attractive & it isn’t something you need to hide away when not in use. It also does a great job of hiding the occasional spot of baby spit up between washes!

The cover has an “invisible zip” so that if you use the pillow with the zip side up, the zip doesn’t irritate your baby – brilliant for those moments when you just need to grab the pillow and get your baby latched on asap and don’t want to be worrying about getting it the right way up!

The Wynnie pillow comes in a reusable carry case which is great if you are going on holiday or similar as you don’t have to worry about it getting dirty. We’ve taken it away with us a few times and the case has been useful, as I didn’t have to fret when squeezing the pillow into the boot next to the pushchair with its dirty wheels.

Overall, it’s 5 stars for this pillow. It is well priced & well designed, and is definitely worth the money if you are planning on breastfeeding your baby, as it makes feeds so much easier, especially in the early days when you might be struggling with positioning and latch issues.

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With the visit to the Baby Show looming, however, we decided to get the Buggypod sorted & try it out for the first time. I didn’t want to baby wear Lydia all day as she runs hot & it is like having a hot water bottle strapped tp you – not ideal for a whole day’s wear! She isn’t keen on me standing still either, so I wouldn’t have been able to stop & look at anything!

So, on Saturday we parked the car at Selly Oak station, popped Lydia in the Maclaren, in lie flat mode, and clipped the Buggypod onto the side. With Georgie on her reins & the Buggypod folded up against the pushchair we made our way to the Birmingham International train station, with a change at New Street. The little sidecar didn’t add too much width or weight to the pushchair, and it still fitted easily through doors & on and off lifts.

Lydia chilling out in the Maclaren

Once we arrived at the train station we unfolded the Buggypod & Georgie clambered up into it excitedly. She absolutely loved it, and was happily peering over the side of the pushchair to check on Lydia, looking around, and waggling her legs around in all sorts of ways.

We used the pushchair + sidecar combo for several hours at the baby show, and got a LOT of comments. One or two people had seen one before but it was mostly completely new to people, and there were loads of compliments on its ingenuity etc. We had plenty of people asking if it was a universal accessory, and wanting to know what it was called. I’m not sure how many times I said “it’s a Buggypod & fits onto loads of pushchairs, there is a lust on their website,” but it was a lot!

It handled very well, just about squeezed into the lifts at the NEC, and Georgie seemed to find it comfortable. She preferred to dangle (or waggle!) her legs or sit crossed legged rather than use the footrest though, much to the amusement of everyone. She refused to get down until she needed a nappy change, that’s a good sign of her approval.

I plan to post a full review of the Buggypod, but want to give it more than one outing first, so watch this space for that!

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We picked up a basic Kiddicare “Deluxe” Potty for a couple of quid a few months ago and have had it hanging around so that Georgie could get used to seeing it since then. We have offered it to her before most bath times but although she has sat on it she has always been too eager to get into her bath to do anything!

Tonight, as I was getting her ready for bed, I asked her if she needed a wee-wee, so when she said yea I told her I’d read her an extra story if she had her wee-wee on her potty, so off she ran to get it at high-speed (butt naked, I might add). Halfway through an In The Night Garden book, and with the funniest concentrated face I have ever seen in my life, Georgie did her first ever wee!

Of course, she was so surprised that she stood up mid-pee and then cried because it ran down her leg instead, oops! Once she got over that she was very proud of herself and I gave her loads of praise so she went to bed smiling.

For now, we will just continue to offer it to her at bath & bed time, and have another one downstairs in the daytime. We won’t bother with knickers or pull-ups yet, as I don’t want to push things, especially with the house move upheaval! After a difficult weekend, this little milestone has put a big smile on this proud mummy’s face!

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However, the downside of the new house is it is quite a bit smaller than where we live now, and with much less storage space. This means step one on our moving plan is a gigantic sort out. We have been accumulating stuff for years now & as we live in a large 3 bed house with plenty of storage, we haven’t got rid of anything for ages!

We have four piles: keep, chuck, recycle & eBay. This move is costing us hundreds of pounds (thanks, ridiculous admin fees!) so every penny from my eBay sales is being put aside for our moving fund. We are being brutal!! We won’t have space for all the bigger toys we have at the moment, so if Georgie is too big for it or we have something similar, it’s being sold. There are a few things we’re keeping for Lydia, as well as our stash of baby toys that Georgie still plays with, but a lot of stuff is having to go. Take a look at our eBay pile!!

To be honest, it’s a great opportunity to have a good weed out, and is acting as swift kick up the bum as we’ve been meaning to do it for ages, albeit a little less dramatically! We’re even going through our wardrobes & donating anything that doesn’t fit or we don’t wear, and selling the occasional item that is good enough to be worth it.

I have bags of baby & toddler clothes to go through yet too. From now on, we’ve decided to only keep favourite items & things that we want to be able to pass on to family or use again if we do have a third baby, so as Lydia grows out of each size we will be selling a lot of our stash on to save space & make a bit of money for new stuff.

Not all of our furniture will fit in the new house, so that’s being sorted too. I’m severely cutting down on bookcases (and getting rid of a LOT of my books) & it’s time to say goodbye to the collection of Britannica encyclopaedias.

We have so much to sort out & pack, so wish us luck. Right then, I’m off to sort another pile…

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While we were down in Cornwall visiting my parents we popped over to meet Fiona who I have been chatting to on twitter for a while now, and to have a nose around the farm – Fiona was kind enough to show us around and even fed us yummy biscuits fresh out the oven! Georgie enjoyed seeing the wide variety of different animals (including deer!) and we even managed a quick play on the pirate ship play area before we had to take our grumpy little madam back to Mum & Dads for lunch and a long nap.

If you’re looking for a UK break with your kids then this place is perfect – we were really impressed. The accommodation is great, and the whole place is tailored to helping kids have great fun and learn about animals & nature. Plus, it’s close to the beach – what more could you want?!

Fiona (who is lovely, by the way) maintains a very active blog over at their website, and there is loads of info about the farm & the accommodation available on the site too – you should definitely check it out if you’re looking for somewhere a bit different to take your kids.

Here are some photos from our tour around the farm…

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Product: Bigjigs Toys Safari Animal Sorting Board Puzzle

Price: £10.99

Age Range: 2 years +

Manufacturer’s Description: Five safari animals…but which shape should each one be carrying? This brightly coloured board encourages young minds to discover different shapes and count from one to five as they work out which piece attaches to which animal. This educational puzzle helps to develop an understanding of shapes and numbers. Made from high quality, responsibly sourced materials. All Bigjigs Toys conform to current European safety standards. Consists of 5 sorting pieces and a board. Ages 2 years and up.

Rating: (4/5 stars)

Review: We were sent the Safari Animal Sorting Board Puzzle to review for our first Bigjigs Toys Play Patrol mission. Georgie was extremely excited about her new t-shirt & backpack, and started her first mission with great enthusiasm.

The puzzle is a fun variation on the normal theme of wooden puzzles; instead of slotting different shapes into holes, the shapes in this puzzle slot onto pegs that raise up out of the board. Georgie was quick to cotton onto the idea and was soon trying the different shapes on all the pegs to see what would fit where.

There are five shapes which slot onto different numbers of pegs, for example the circle goes onto one peg and the rectangle onto two. With the exception of the rectangle, the number of pegs corresponds to the number of sides of the shape, so three for the triangle, four for the square and five for the pentagon.

Each shape is a different colour, and the picture painted on the board base is a lovely safari scene with a different animal for each shape. The shape colour matches the animal below, which helps when working out which shape goes where.

This puzzle is great for early education; we talked about numbers, colours, shapes & animals whilst playing with it. Georgie has now mastered the words “giraffe” and “bear”… We’ll have to keep working on saying elephant, lion & hippo, though she recognises each of the animals.

We counted the pegs on the board as well as the holes in the shapes, and also the sides of each shape (I said that the rectangle had two long sides, and two short sides, so that the numbers still matched nicely). I was encouraging her to repeat the numbers & shape names back to me, and she managed “square” for the first time, as well as repeating one to five back at me.

Georgie was excited to see that we had also been sent special headed paper & a pencil to make notes on whilst completing our mission! She was soon scribbling away (I’m certain her wild scrawling must be some sort of secret code for “this is great fun”), and once her initial findings had been committed to paper we proceeded to draw around the shapes & label each outline. Completely unprompted by myself, Georgie then took each shape from the puzzle & lined it up with its outline on the paper, then moved them all back to the puzzle.

The puzzle itself is solidly constructed & nicely painted. I find wooden toys so wonderfully tactile to play with and this puzzle is no exception to the rule. It’s nice to have some quality wooden toys amongst the “sea of plastic junk” as my dad calls it.

The only problem we found with the puzzle was that one of the five pegs for the pentagon isn’t quite aligned properly so it can be difficult to fit it on & you sometimes need to rotate the shape around to get it to slide all the way down the pegs. It seems like this is probably just a manufacturing fault with this particular (single) puzzle – if I had purchased this & encountered this problem I would probably have asked for a replacement to see if it was a one-off issue, as I suspect it is (suspicions confirmed – see edit below!)

Here is a video of Georgie having some fun with the puzzle, and showing the issue we had with the pentagon piece. Sorry for the focusing problems, the camera was playing up!

This would be an ideal 2nd birthday present, Georgie absolutely loved it & seems the perfect age for it at the moment (we just celebrated her 2nd birthday two weeks ago), as it provides challenge & educates her without being too frustrating for her to do.

Because of the slight problem with one of the pegs, it’s a four star rating for this fun & educational puzzle that is a bit different to the normal peg puzzles out there.

You can find Bigjigs Toys on Facebook, twitter & pinterest!

EDITED TO ADD: We have now been sent a replacement board and I’m pleased to confirm that all the pieces fit perfectly – as we suspected it was a manufacturing fault with our particular board that caused the problems we had with the pentagon not fitting well.

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But today I want to talk about something, or to be more accurate someone, very important from my past. Her name is Sophie.

Sophie experiencing a bit of a facial hair problem several years ago!

I met Sophie when I was in high school. She is the younger sister of the friend of my classmate. The friend was also my boyfriend, at one point. Sophie was one of my very best friends, and although I moved to Cornwall before finishing high school, we have stayed in touch ever since – even after her brother and I broke things off. It’s easy for me to say Sophie is one of the people I have loved in my life (still do!), and she will always be an incredibly important person to me.

We did this to her big brother’s room. He wasn’t very pleased with us!

To say that she saved my life would be an exaggeration, but she certainly saved me from screwing it up in a pretty big way. During my last year of university I became very depressed and was incredibly stressed – I nearly failed out at the last hurdle but Sophie was there for me, even though she was the other side of the country, and she made me admit I needed help, and promise to go to the doctor & my lecturers to sort things out.

On Saturday, James & I took our two girls to watch Sophie marry Chris, who she has been with for years. It was amazing to be there when they got married, and the day was amazing. “The dress” was beautiful, as was Sophie, and everything went perfectly.

Lydia and Georgie both behaved well, and it was nice to have lots of compliments on their good behaviour! Lydia was baby-napped by the mother-of-the-bride for a while and paraded around the room, which was somewhat hilarious – at one point I had absolutely no idea where my baby was (don’t worry, I used to practically live at their house so it was almost like one of her grandmothers taking her for a walk!).

We fuelled Georgie with constant food and she lasted from about 7am to about 10:30pm before crashing out in my arms. Pretty impressive going for a 2 year old! She was especially excited about the chocolate fountain, and the cake. I shudder to think how much sugar she ate, when you include the fact there was a jar of sweets on the table she dipped into whilst waiting for dinner.

It was a wonderful day, and I am very thankful to have been invited to share it

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Whilst now completely exhausted (are we INSANE moving house next month, or what?!), it has been incredibly moving to watch Georgie and Lydia get to see so many of their family, especially whilst Lydia is still so new!

Georgie (and Lydia!) met one of their great-grandparents for the first time, and her great-aunt was there too. My parents, who live 4 hours away in Cornwall, have been able to spend what feels like loads of time with us and the kids, which means a lot to me as I miss them loads!

The next time we’ll be seeing my family will probably be in September, when we’ll be having a meal for Dad’s 60th birthday followed by my brother’s wedding. Hopefully we’ll find time soon to pop over and visit my only (relatively) close family, Mum’s parents, soon – so they can meet their newest great-granddaughter!

Georgie is a social little creature once you get past her initial shyness, and she has been having a whale of a time with her grandparents, great-Norma, cousin, and aunts & uncles. Here are some of the magical moments I’ve been capturing over the last month or so…

(Click on any image to browse the gallery full screen)

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Product: Splash Along Mermaid

Price: £8.49

Age Range: 18 months +

Manufacturer’s Description: For more than 20 years, Munchkin has worked to transform mundane products into clever solutions for many parenting problems. Munchkin knows its the little things in a parent’s life that often make the biggest difference.

• Underwater mermaid adventure!
• Pull crown and watch as her tail flaps and she swims underwater
• Soft rubber head and contoured body, easy for little hands to grasp
• Set includes a fun dolphin squirter friend
• 2 designs (sold separately)

Rating: (4/5 stars)

Review: We were sent a few Munchkin bath toys to try out, including this mermaid & star squirter set.

The plastic mermaid floats in the bath on her back, and you pull the crown (which is on a pull cord) to activate her tail fin, propelling her along in the water. She is quite noisy and producing a satisfying splash!

Georgie’s initial reaction to the mermaid was a little reserved but she was soon cuddling her and asking (demanding!) for her crown to be pulled so that she would swim along in the bath. It would have been nice if Georgie could have pulled it herself; it is quite stiff & therefore hard to pull out – a surprising amount of strength is required for a toddler bath toy! She did quickly learn that handing it over to her Daddy resulting in the mermaid taking a swim though.

Georgie has recently started to really enjoy getting squirted, and squirting everyone and everything else, so the included squirter toy was a success too.

These bath toys were definitely a success; by the end of her first bath with them she was in love, and refused to let go of them while Daddy washed her hair. The mermaid was even kidnapped from the bathroom later in the week and carried around for a good few hours – high praise indeed from an easily distracted toddler!

This bath toy set is lovely and I would certainly recommend it as a gift for a second birthday or similar occasion. I’m giving this four out of five stars rather than the full five, because of the difficult pull cord.

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We had an exciting parcel arrive a few days ago; our first Bigjigs Toys Play Patrol package! Georgie is an official Play Patrol agent, so she will be carrying out a number of top secret missions!

We’ll be posting a full review of the safari puzzle in a few days, but for now here’s a sneak peek of this Play Patrol in action!

The post Putting fun to the test with Bigjigs Toys #PlayPatrol appeared first on Mama Geek.

We have been experimenting with water and sand – Georgie was fascinated by the way the sand changed when you pour water onto it, and how the sand sank into the water. Also, she had a lot of fun sprinkling sand all over the garden!

Even Lydia has been getting in on the action and chilling out in the sunshine…

The only problem with enjoying some outdoor time is that Georgie is now asking to go out constantly, and when I am sat on the sofa feeding Lydia I can’t let her outside or go with her, which she finds frustrating. I’m not sure if you know this, but toddlers don’t deal with frustration very well! I’m not a huge fan of her running in & out on her own, as our garden is one big trip hazard and she is constantly going flying over her own feet at the moment, let alone over the uneven garden. Bring on the lawn, that’s what I say!

The post Finally some good weather! appeared first on Mama Geek.

We checked out the range of items on offer at Kiddicare Merry Hill & Morrisons in Felixstowe, and purchased a swimsuit to use on holiday. As well as this, Georgiana & Lydia were both sent a few outfits from Kiddicare to review (details can be found at my post on the Kiddicare blog soon).

You can read what we thought of the range at the Kiddicare Blog very soon. In the meantime, here are some photos from our miniature at-home Nutmeg fashion show (also featuring Georgie’s new humongous Kiddicare teddy bear)!

Click any photo to browse the gallery full screen

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the Kiddicare blog so you read our thoughts on the range!

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