I cannot tell you how excited the toddler was when he received the Fisher Price Wheelies Loops 'n' Swoops Amusement Park to review. It was only the day before that he was glued to the TV as he saw it on a advert, I think WOW was his initial reaction. I bet I'm not the only one who gives the response of 'see what you get for Christmas'. It certainty was like Christmas had come early for him as we were opening the box together, just to see his excitement.

Putting it together wasn't that difficult, it did need the help of a screwdriver to secure parts in place but other then that it was a clip in job. It took my about 10 minutes to put together including popping some stickers on to it, so no need to worry about it taking a while to build come Christmas day and you have a impatient toddler waiting for it to be built.


Like with all the Fisher Price items I own and a big reason why I purchase them for my children is the bright colours. Not only are they fun, but they look fun and inviting. The Wheelies Loops 'n' Swoops Amusement Park from the front looks great and after you add the stickers it helps to bring some life to it but from behind it doesn't look too appealing but then I think that's just me being picky.

Play wise, Oli spent the first few days playing non stop with it and now it's only just played with now and again. I have a suspicion that it has something to do with his age, I'm looking forward to passing it onto Dylan and watching him play with it as he grows. Certaintly will make a great toy to share and play with in the playroom.


I'm not sure I would pay the RRP (£44.99) for it but then I think this may be down to not currently being in the car phrase, he goes through certain stages where it's all about one kind of toy but then returns back to it. So maybe next week, the only toy he might want to know about will be this one. That and the fact I've packed all his little people cars away. It comes with two cars but I wonder if to make it even more exciting for Oli that I should add some more cars to it. Whenever we have other little friends round to play, it's the first toy they head for so it's gone down with his younger friends. I personally think it could make the perfect Christmas present for a 2 year old, that age was the age that Oli really started to get into his cars and the Fisher Price Wheelies Loops 'n' Swoops Amusement Park would be a great way to introduce them.

It's currently available on sale at the time of writing this for £39.99 from , Argos & Tesco.

There's only a few things as a parent which can make you cry, be it a bad night with the baby or a uncontrollable toddler tantrum in the supermarket. They can bring tears to your eyes.

My first parenting fail of the week didn't bring much tear wise other then a 'oh no!' Apparently it was pirate week at Oli's play school and guess which child wasn't sporting a eye patch and a beard? Yes mine. The newsletter had a date mistake where the days were wrong but the dates were wrong. I of course went with the day and not the date! Doh! It wasn't really a biggie as some other kids refused to dress up so he wasn't the only non pirate there.

Today's parenting fail did bring tears, from both Oli & me. He was invited to a Birthday party a while ago for a girl in his school. We've had the invite on our fridge ever since and spent yesterday getting Oli rather excited about it as we picked out some presents and a card for her. We turn up to find not Birthday decorations in the hall but Halloween decorations. I thought we had the wrong venue until the man said aloud the date of the party to which the organiser of the Halloween party said was yesterdays date. So we're only a day late for this Birthday party! Oli was simply gutted, I felt like I needed to be marched straight to the stocks. I really do feel like I've let him down, twice I've failed him this week simply for being all over the place with my dates.

May of missed a party yesterday but he had lots of fun with his new Trunki & Strawberry lolly pop & jam sandwiches!

Are you still looking for some Halloween crafts to do with the youngsters? Then look no further then Baker Ross. We've recently been recruited as Baker Ross ambassadors where we've been receiving some parcels full of lots of craft materials for us to do with what we wish. I've still not got round to blogging about the first box but wanted to do a quick post about the second box that arrived last week. Not only did it have the biggest pots of finger paints I have ever seen, it also had some Halloween crafting supplies as well as some Christmas bits & pieces.

Now what Baker Ross have done apart from introducing crafting supplies to a family who usually shy's away from crafts is to bring out the inner crafter inside of the man. I never knew it but he's actually rather fantastic when it comes to anything art/craft related. So thankfully my children have at least one parent who knows the difference between Van Gogh & Picasso. He obviously payed more attention to Neil Buchanan on Art Attack growing up, then what I did.


We received some goulish characters in finger puppet form to colour in, we actually all joined in with the colouring in of these. I couldnt go wrong with a organe felt tip and a pumpkin scarecrow to colour in. We had fun introducing Oli to these various charatcers and helping him learn the names of them. Our finished characters will be pinned around the house to show off to our guests at our Halloween party. Keep a eye on our twitter feed as we have some fab ideas on what we're going to with some of the other materials we were sent, including the luminous glow in the dark paint which we're planning on painting on to some toilet rolls with cut out eyes to pop into our garden bushes.


It's not to late for you to order some Halloween Craft Essentials for Wedsneday with Baker Ross's next day delivery if you order before noon. I've used the next day service myself when buying Birthday presents for my nephew so can personally recommend it. They're also selling Halloween Themed Treats & Toys as well as blogging some ideas on Halloween themed crafts.

You can also find Baker Ross over on , & .

Quick! Until Sunday 28th October, My Voucher Codes are offering a fantastic discount code for Boden. They are offering you 10% Off All Orders, a Free Gift For New Customers Plus Free Delivery and Returns at Boden!

I know this because they approached me to tell me about this fab offer and ask if I wanted to try it out for myself. Of course I did, I like learning about offers and I'm a huge fan of Boden clothing. Especially the kids clothing but this time around I choose to treat myself to something. With winter around the corner I need a new jacket which I can wear when it's not quite coat weather and something that I can wear indoors. I picked out this Velvet Trim Hoody because it's looks ultra cosy and I'm rather addicted to polka dots.

The order including postage and package would have initially been £63.00 and using the MyVoucherCodes discount make it £53.10 giving of 10% and free delivery or £9.90. The code also includes a free gift for those setting up a new account!

Now this is what I call using your own resources - making popsicles out of your breastmilk. Dylan's teething at the moment and I think it was not long after we started our Breastfeeding journey together that I saw a popsicle over on pinterest. I'm pretty sure it was done with a dummy, anyway I put it to the back of my mind as I thought we were a long way away from teething. I was wrong! Dylan seems to of been teething for the last few months, any day now he'll have his first teeth through. Teething granules/gel don't seem to be hitting the spot so my mind flashed back to those popsicles when I came across these gummy teethers that I use to use with Oli.


I expressed some milk into the lid of them and then stuck them in the freezer, we got it out a few weeks ago to use for the first time and it went down a treat with Dylan. He loved it. Not only did it soothe his teething gums but I think he loved the fact he was getting his milk at the same time. It gets a little messy so make sure you pop a muslin down underneath it to stop you from both getting soaked. Now that we've started weaning, I think I'm to have a go at making him some banana flavoured ones for him.

Bedtime can be a huge source of frustration from a parent’s point of view. If you need any convincing, just ask your mum or dad how long it used to take to get you to sleep when you were a baby! The chances are that they will tell you that at times it felt like a bit of a battle. 

There are loads of ways you can try to make bedtime easier for both you and your baby. For example, you can make sure she has something comfortable to sleep on, like an organic baby mattress. However one of the most important steps is establishing a bedtime routine from a very early stage.  Read through the following tips and try introducing some of them before your baby goes to sleep. You should find that your routine will slowly but surely start to become easier.

Your routine should start about half an hour before bedtime by playing a fun game with your baby to help her relax. This can be a fun way to start off the routine but make sure you play something calming like ‘This Little Piggy’ though because you don’t want her to get too excited!

A nice warm bath is another great way for your baby to unwind before bedtime. The warm water will have a soothing effect on her and adding some Johnsons Baby Bubble Bath can help make it fun. Unfortunately some children don’t enjoy bath time so this step may need to be skipped in some cases.


Another way to help your baby learn that it is nearly bedtime is by having her say goodnight to everyone in the house. This should pretty much guarantee plenty of kisses and cuddles which will help her settle down. You can even make a bit of a game out of it and say good night to her favourite toys or family pets. 
  
Make sure the lighting in your baby’s bedroom is turned down low and the room temperature is comfortable (about 18 degrees Celsius is about right). As well as helping to create a cosy atmosphere which will help her drift off, this will also help her learn that night time is for sleeping.  

A treat before sleep
Your baby will not be able to sleep if she is hungry so make sure you give her a bottle of warm milk before bed. The milk will also give her a nice warm feeling which will help her to settle quickly.


Having a chat with your baby once she is in bed is another great way to help her relax. There are loads of things you can chat about, for instance all the fun things she did today or what exciting things you are going to spend tomorrow doing.

Parents have been telling bedtime stories to help their children fall asleep for centuries. The sound of your voice can be very soothing and will help her relax. Once she is old enough, you can let her choose the story herself but you may well end up reading the same story every night!

Singing lullabies is another really popular way of helping your baby to fall asleep. As with telling a story, the soothing sound of your voice will have a calming effect on her. Quite often, you will notice that she starts to nod off while you sing but make sure you continue until you are sure she is asleep.

One last step that can help is to play some soft music in the background as your baby is falling asleep. This can be especially useful if your singing voice isn’t quite doing the trick! Playing some lullabies can have an incredibly soothing effect and should help her gently drift off.

Don’t feel under pressure to introduce all of these steps at once. Pick one or two that you think your baby will react to and start with those. Slowly introduce the others over a period of time and you will find that bedtime will become less stressful and, if you are really lucky, something you and your baby can look forward to! 

This is a sponsored post

Duracell recently got in contact to chat to us about some new research which revealed that a staggering one third of alkaline batteries thrown away may still have up to 67% of usable power left inside. Have you ever thought to try those batteries in another device before chucking them away? Just because it's not powering the xbox controller anymore might not mean that it wont work in your TV control. I say that because that's my secret frugal tip - well until Duracell found this out and my secret was out.

They want to demonstrate that batteries that have been assumed ‘dead’ can be given a second life by trying them in your low drain household devices such as remote controls, clocks and torches. And as we approach that spooky time of year, they've pulled together a Halloween party challenge for me to enjoy with the boys. But not only have they've given me one, they're offering one of these to giveaway to one of you guys!

The box has all the ingredients for a Halloween party with our little monsters - including decorations, costumes and party games to play in the dark made even spookier by using a torch, run by part-powered batteries that have been rescued from the recycling stream! We're having a party next Wednesday so expect a follow up post with photos of our Duracell Halloween party.

To help prevent future batteries being sent to the recycling bin before their time is up, they will also include a pack of Duracell Ultra with Powercheck™. The unique built-in Powercheck technology is like having x-ray vision, allowing you to see the power left inside so you can squeeze out every last drop of available battery juice.  It’s as simple as pressing the white circles on each side of the battery and the gauge will indicate how much power is left. I dont know about you but I still find these batteries fun to squeeze at my age! Can be a great way of teaching your little one about batteries & power. 

To enter, we would like you to watch the video below and answer the following question - How many LEDs were used to build the Bunny sculpture? See the rafflecopter for T&C's.  



a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Ladies & Gentlemen I present to you, ONE POTTY TRAINED TODDLER!