Monday 27 June 2016

#EnjoyMoreWater with Robinsons and Britmums

It can be such a challenge to get James to drink water. When he takes his water bottle to school it comes back most days barely touched. 

In January 2016 Robinsons launched the Enjoying Drinking More Water campaign and I'm thrilled that me and James are getting involved in it this summer! We both need to learn to drink more water and this campaign as given us the incentive! 

We were sent six different flavours of Squash'd to try, plus a packet of fruit stickers and a two week chart to track how much James drank! The pack arrived while he was at school, so once he got it I asked him to chose a flavour and if he wanted a glass to drink. On day one he managed two cups of lemon and lime water, which was brilliant as normally he will only drink milk or hot chocolate. 
Whenever we go out as a family, the first thing I put under the pram is a drinks bottle for James. At the moment he is using a Disney Lightning McQueen drinks bottle from poundland, which he loves. I find if the bottle has his favourite film characters on then he is definitely more likely to use it. He was given a water bottle at his pre school health check and so far has turned his nose up at it. Even though it is a bigger bottle! Compared to his Lightning McQueen bottle it's pretty boring!

The Robinsons Squash'd are brilliant! You get enough in each pack to make twenty drinks! James has tried the orange and peach in the past. The lemon and lime has to be my favourite! I'm always buying bottles of still lemon and lime water at the shop by the school. So this has saved me some money! I didn't think James would like the lemon and lime flavour but he surprised me and loved it! His favourite flavour has to be the citrus as he says it's yummy!

I love the fact I can throw a pack into the changing bag so if we are out and need to refill a bottle I can just get a cheap bottle of water and add flavour to it. This happens pretty often with James, he just cannot get by on the taste of bottled still water. 

At the end of the first week James had gone from a couple of sips of water to drinking at least two beakers a day. 

Week two has been much better and James has finally started using his bigger water bottle! 
He's gone from drinking virtually no water to two or three cups in an afternoon after nursery!

Thank you to Robinsons and Britmums for getting us involved in this challenge! 

This post is an entry for BritMums #EnjoyMoreWater Challenge, sponsored by Robinsons

Sunday 26 June 2016

Freddie at Seven Months

Freddie Bear how can you be seven months old!

You are now in size four nappies. I haven't had you weighed at baby clinic for a few weeks as I haven't been able to get an appointment, but we got the scales out at fun, play and learn last week and you were 17lbs 5oz! You are in all 6-9 clothing with the odd 9-12 top thrown in from primark! You seem to be a size ahead in their clothing! You love your food and are eating three meals a day. You are still having five bottles most days but only having 5oz instead of 7oz. 

You can sit unaided for a few minutes till you get distracted and topple over. You have also discovered rolling from your back to your tummy! Now everytime you are put on your back you flip over, it makes dressing you and changin your nappy very challenging! You can also move yourself around in a circle on your mat or a blanket. You love your baby gym and your infant to toddler rocking chair the most.

This month you have finally moved into your big boy cot in your very own room! The first night you woke at 0230am, so came in with mummy & daddy. The second night you woke up at 0430am and again came in with us. But the third night you slept from half past eight till half past six! Mummy and daddy are so proud of you! 

You experienced the swings at the park for the first time. You were not impressed with the big swings, but you loved the basket swing! You loved it even more when you got to swing on your big brothers knee! 

Your favourite person is definitely your big brother! You save all your best smiles for James! You can never take your eyes off him. 

You love going to our baby groups and are really taking an interest in playing with the other babies! 

You have been to two fairs and slept through most of both! You are not liking your stroller one bit as you can't see mummy to chat with!  So I think we will be sticking with the pram for a while longer!

Love you always my little bear

Mummy xxx



Thursday 9 June 2016

All about James

The last update I did on my big boy was his third birthday last August. He's now three years & nine months old, so we are edging towards the big fourth birthday in three months time! I can't believe in a few short weeks my first born baby is going to be four years old!

So what does James like?
He loves: 
* playing outside
* his nursery
* the park
* his kindle fire
* Man United

We got his primary school place confirmed nearly two months ago & I'm thrilled he's going to be at the school where he is currently at nursery! It's a lovely school right on our doorstep where the head teacher makes it her job to know every child in the school. It's a nursery to year six school so goes from age three to eleven. I'm so glad James won't have to change school till he's in secondary school and again the local one is a short walk from us. I have the reception class parents meeting in a couple of weeks! 

Our local park is just across from his nursery, so if the weather is nice we will sometimes go straight from nursery to the park for a little bit then go home for lunch or we will come home for lunch then go back to the park, Freddie will nap in his pram so I can play with James on the swings! 


He still loves his trains and vehicles, but has developed a love of space and dinosaurs since starting nursery! He forever telling me that we live on the planet earth!

He's still very much a daddy's boy, so mummy does not get a look in when daddy is home. But he still loves a mummy cuddle but only on his terms! 

He has taken am interest in cooking, so he likes to help mummy to bake cakes and biscuits and make jelly! 


He has a habit of getting out of bed on a night and falling asleep in silly places! In the last few weeks he's been on his chair a couple of times, but the oddest has to have been in his wardrobe!

His favourite tv shows are Bob the builder, Thomas and friends, Noddy toyland detective, Ben and Holly the list goes on, but his big favourite is Paw Patrol! His favourite character is Marshal the fire pup! He can sit for hours and watch Paw Patrol over and over on Netflix! 

Like most kids his age he still likes the videos on YouTube of people opening kinder eggs. He also is always finding new shows on YouTube to watch like Tayo the little bus or Robo Car Poli.

This year was the first year James has shown a real interest in the FA Cup I'm guessing because our team, Man Utd, were in the final! He got so excited when we won! He was waving his arms around shouting nited won! 

I can't believe in a few weeks time my big boy will be a four year old and getting ready to start on his educational life at full time school! Where has the time gone! 


Saturday 4 June 2016

Freddie's Firsts with #PetitsFilousFirsts

We are experiencing so many "Firsts" with Freddie at the moment. He's now six months old and well into his weaning journey. Some of his first foods have been mango, apple, sweet potato and courgette. 

My First Petits Filous have come about at just the right time as we are starting to introduce a pudding to Freddie after his evening meal. We always have some sort of fromage frais in the fridge with having a three year old, but these are perfect for introducing to Freddie, plus James is the type of boy who does not like sharing his food! 


Where we live, we have some brilliant groups to go to & this is where Freddie has been experiencing most of his "firsts". In the last few weeks he has experienced gloop (cornflour and water), he's had his hands and feet in jelly, he's had his feet painted, he's sat in cornflakes, the list goes on! Being in a sure start centre I was sadly not allowed to photograph him in the jelly but I will be recreating at home so his daddy can see his reaction! 

The consistency of the My First Petits Filous is brilliant for a baby if Freddie's age! It's not as thin as some fromage frais, which means it does not fall off the spoon! Even when I mixed fruit purée into it, the consistency did not thin down! This has been one of the things Freddie has eaten the most of lately as he's finding it so hard to suck on his bottle with his tooth coming in.



Not only has Freddie experienced his first Petits Filous, but he also had his first Yorkshire Pudding! He sucked on it and loved it! We went for a meal out for his nana's birthday and he had his first broccoli and even more Yorkshire pudding! 


Now he's tried the My First Petits Filous on its own, we have experimented and mixed it with one of his favourite fruits, mango! This went down brilliantly! Freddie gobbled it down! The cool temperature was really soothing on his sore gums.

Freddie has had two really big "Firsts" this last week. He's had his first trip away from home to stay at his nana and gaga's house, which was also first time not in his crib. But the biggest has to be his first tooth starting to cut through his gums. And for Freddie it's one of his top front teeth coming first! 

I love celebrating all the "Firsts" for both my boys, James has a big one come September - his first day of big boy school in reception class! 



This post is an entry for BritMums #PetitsFilousFirsts Linky Challenge, sponsored by Petits Filous