PRETTY YOUNG THING

* my visit to the salon was complementary, I have not been paid for this review.

I was talking to my sister the other day about useful gifts. Amelia is such a lucky baby and we are very lucky to have such wonderful people around us who wanted to give us and Amelia gifts. I had a baby shower so was gifted alot of products at that and then we received more gifts when she was born and then even more for Christmas.

I thought i'd share a few nice gift ideas and some useful gifts. Are you someone who usually buys a blanket or a comforter or teddy? Amelia has so many blankets and even more soft toys, it just seems a waste because there are some that she will never play with or use the same with the blankets, she just has so many and we use them alot but we tend to have our favourites that we stick to.

If you want to buy a soft cuddly toy why not opt for a personalised teddy like this bunny from My1stYears, it's abit more personal and will be a lovely keepsake.

These little Enamel Pins from Old English Company are a lovely gift idea for an expecting or new mum. They will look fab on a changing bag or mum can pop them on her favourite jacket! Head over to the Old English Company website to enter their competition to win a set of Enamel Pins including this 'The no sleep gang' one pictured above.

One of my friends bought us some weaning bits for Christmas and it was such a good gift. Weaning just kind of springs up on you and all of a sudden you need to buy bowls, spoons, cups, highchairs, bibs etc and it becomes quite over-whelming and expensive. We have these munchkin spoons and they are really good. We picked up a few bits from Boots, mostly Nuby, Munchkin and Boots own brand bits. They actually have their baby event on right now so you can save yourself some money.

The Lamaze toys are amazing, Amelia loves them. She has a couple of things and my sister has the peacock and Amelia loves that too! I'm going to buy her one on payday. They are really bright and colourful and have lots of sensory bits for baby to play with. I spotted a few of the Lamaze toys on 2 for £15 over on Argos which is a bargain as they usually retail for around £11+ each. Clint's mom actually bought Amelia a Lamaze toy for Christmas and she loves it! We didn't open it right away and it was lovely having it in her room and when I thought she was ready and would appreciate it I got it out of the box and didn't have to worry about popping to the shop or spending money on toys.

We were bought lots and lots of bubble bath, shampoo and baby lotions etc... alot of it was Johnsons and I know there's lots of controversy about Johnsons not being great for baby as it can be drying. I have really sensitive skin so there was a good chance Amelia would too, she actually has eczema so I ended up giving so so much Johnsons stuff away, we were actually told by the HV not to use it on Amelia. I was gifted some bits from Burts Bee's and Child's Farm and i'd really recommended buying something from one of these brands if you wanted to buy skincare bits as a gift.

I'm loving this Print from Old English Company, they have lots of other prints to choose from, it's another nice keepsake gift to receive. The parents can pop them up in the nursery and they will be there for a good few years. It's a nice gift and makes the nursery look more finished and personal.


I hope you liked my gift ideas. I think they would make lovely gifts for a baby shower or to celebrate the arrival of a new baby. You don't need to spend loads of money, all of these gifts are very affordable. I don't want to sound unappreciative but we got so so many useless gifts and I feel bad that people wasted money. I have already donated things that we haven't used so that less fortunate people can benefit from these things.











* Collaborative post

 Amelia is 5 months old today! So I thought i'd share some of her developments and whats been going on! I planned on doing regular updates but time is seriously flying by!

I thought it would be a good time to update you as it's just got hard!!


This month Amelia stopped sleeping through, she had started sleeping through and the health visitor said it was ok for me to leave her to sleep as we were originally waking her to feed. It was lovely getting a little extra sleep and suddenly she started waking up. She's having a bottle and going back to sleep so shes just needing a little extra milk, It's normal. Alot of my friends had talked about 4 month sleep regression and I didn't believe it but it's real! She slept till 6:30 this morning so i'm hoping thats it and shes going to start sleeping through again.

Shes been teething for over a month, her cheeks get red and she gets grumpy. So far we've used dentinox and bonjela. I'm finding these help a little but have just bought the Ashton and Parsons powder after lots of recommendations. She has loads of teething toys but she prefers to much on her hands or her clothes.

Shes got much much bigger shes doing some serious growing now, she's finally in her 0-3 clothing.
I think the extra bottles in the night are helping. She's become quite fussy with her bottles in the day but I think theres just too much going on sometimes and she gets distracted.

Shes trying to roll, she's not quite there just yet but very close. She gets on  to her side easily, her arms just in the way and she hasn't worked out how to move it yet.

Food, we've actually started weaning early. She's been eyeing up our food for a while so we've been giving her some puree's i've been making them myself and shes only had Avocado or Broccoli. I've been spoon feeding her and we're hoping to try some baby led weaning once I feel she can eat more than just a puree but because we've started early i'm happy for her to just have puree for now. She loves her food!!

Amelias been quite difficult over the last two days and i'm hoping its just her teeth bugging her, i've bought the teething powder to see if that soothes her. I will try and do another update next month and i'll share how we're getting on with weaning and her teeth.

Thats everything so far, Thanks for reading!

Going away this half term?  Is your car ready for a long journey? Here's a few things to keep you safe whilst travelling this week. 

When going on long journeys you should always check your car over and make sure that everything is in working order before you get on your way. I thought i'd put together a list of things to check before going on those long journeys. 

*Have your car serviced? Have you got an MOT coming up? If your due to get your car serviced or MOT get this done before you head away for the weekend. There could be a serious problem with your car that you know nothing about. Having your car checked out before you go away could prevent you braking down so it's worth doing. For quick car servicing check out Ossett Tyre House in Wakefield. We went to wales a couple of years ago and Clint's car was due a MOT and we found out he needed 4 new tyres and this could have caused a serious problem if we had left it until we got home and could have cost us a lot more money to have the car fixed if we were in an accident or recovered if we broke down.

*Checking you have enough water in your car. Even if the weather is lovely and you wont be using your windscreen wipers the water in your car the water also keeps the car cool and your engine temperature maintained. Your car could overheat or you could break your engine if you don't have enough water in your car. 

 * Are your lights working? This can be a real hazard whether your driving during the day or night. If your brake light is out or an indicator isn't working you can cause an accident as the driver behind won't know what you are doing. Light bulbs are very inexpensive so replace any broken ones before you go. In the dark a lack of lights can be so so dangerous, especially on little country roads that have no street lights.

* Engine Oil, again this can cause all kinds of problems including your engine could completely seize up and stop working which would leave you pretty much stranded. So make sure this is topped up before you go on your journey. You check the oil using the dipstick. 

*Windscreen Wipers, This is such a simple thing to check but can cause real issues if they are broken. Just test them before you get on your way. In case it starts to rain and you cannot see because they are broken or you could get dust or something else blow onto your windscreen and you cannot clear it because the wipers are broken or just smearing it across the screen. 


* Plan your journey, do you have enough petrol? Do you know where your going? The nearest service station? Do you have tools in the boot should you need 
them. Have you got water and food should you break down. It doesn't hurt to be prepared. 


Enjoy the rest of the week and stay safe on the roads if you are travelling this week!