So I am just back from a London weekend by train and I have a pile of things on my desk that I want to blog about so they are going in this post and my desk will be a whole lot clearer!

I have had the more lovely letter from Sam Pointon, Director of Fun at The National Railway Museum, which kind of inspired my decision to take the children to London by train rather than driving. H loved it, of course he did, kids love trains! I must mention that Sam (who in my opinion has the best job title going!) as Director of Fun is a mere 6 years old, bless him he sent me a stick of rock to enjoy while I had a browse through all the fantastic stuff going on at The National Railway Museum over Summer and beyond – I had no idea there was so much going on and most of it for free. This weekend is Wizard Weekend with the flying stars from the Harry Potter movie providing the entertainment – there is tonnes on right the way through to 5th September and beyond so head over to http://www.nrm.org.uk/summer and I bet you will no longer be wondering what to do with the kids for the rest of the Summer holidays.

I went to The Baby Show ages ago and met up with loads of lovely bloggers and tweeters. I bought Lil H this fab icecream/icelolly holder and it rocks! I just wanted to share it my readers as people have stopped me in the park three times now and asked me where I got it and right now there is 30%off over at www.lessmessproducts.co.uk and I shall be ordering some more as presents.

Back in May I went on a First Aid course specifically for parents of babies and children, best £34 I have ever spent whilst I hope I never need to use any of what I learnt I now feel prepared rather than scared. The course I attended is run by www.bumpsandbashes.com

A new childrens play … I’m going to say environment rather than centre as I think its more appropriate. Glo Family has opened in Cheadle. I took my munchkins down there to check it out as they were putting the finishing touches to it. I am looking forward to popping by and seeing it fully up and running, it’s certainly worth a visit.

We continue with our Baby Led Weaning approach as inspired by Nick at My Daddy Cooks who’s support has been fantastic, and by the way he has a book coming out soon! Baby G is a great little eater, cups and drinking she’s less great at – although I know it just a case of perseverance, the Baby Born Free Training cups we have been sent are great because she can’t pour the contents all over the place as much as she does enjoy a good splash! I’m changing her highchair and will be reviewing the new Cosatto Yumi very soon – think Trip Trap but for more like £80 – if you’re after a wooden highchair I can’t think why you wouldn’t check it out. My Lil H has been as bad an eater as Baby G is a great eater but so much better for being involved in shopping and cooking the food, the guys at Little Peoples Plate wrote to me about their new site www.littlepeoplesplates.co.uk it’s all about helping parents feed their toddlers a healthy diet, it had some useful reminders on there and they have just launched a new resource called ‘Ten Steps for healthy Toddlers’.

Baby G now has teeth! Two bottom and four top teeth to be precise and the rest of them seem to be “in progress” we are testing a number of different teething and feeding products that Nuby have sent her, the Bug A Loop and IcyBite Keys are particularly popular!

Baby is G is working her way through teethers and Lil H is working his way through shoes, we are due a re-measure and new shoes for school and Baby G won’t be far behind with her first pair I expect as H was up on his feet by one year old. The lovely people at Clarks have sent me a voucher towards some shoes so I am going to be off to get H measured before holidays, then order the styles I want online, have them delivered and fitted in store – its great service. They have some great boys and girls styles and a big aw to the first shoes.

In other news locally there is a new womens clothes store opening, BlackWhiteDenim, given that is pretty much my wardrobe I am intrigued to see what’s going to be on offer and working hard to lose the baby weight to fit in it!

This week I am hoping to go for my second viewing of Toy Story 3. I was given tickets to one of the regional previews just before its release and it was nothing short of brilliant in my opinion and I am not surprised to see that it has rocketed into the history books to become the UK’s highest grossing animated movie of all time in just three weeks since its release, the movie has passed the previous record holder, ‘Shrek 2’, with four weeks of summer holidays still to go! If you haven’t been yet I’d totally recommend it.

So three weeks down and at least two more solo weeks to go – I love a clicky post – leave me a comment and let me know if if you liked this one or leave a link if you have posts with stuff you recommend too.

Claire x

P.s. This next link is one that of you are only going to click one, click this one – http://bit.ly/aQRRlV its the link to sign a petition for The Body Shop’s “Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People” campaign. The petition calls for the UK Government to offer safety and wellbeing to young victims of trafficking launches specifically calling for greater care and protection to child victims of trafficking by ensuring every child is provided with a guardian to look after them. One last time Here is the link to sign up to the petition http://bit.ly/aQRRlV

Baby G is 8 months old today, Happy “two-thirds” Birthday my gorgeous girl!  Here for extra cute points is a piccie of her with a packet of Plum Baby Spelt Fingers (Disclaimer: Plum Baby sent me some free samples!) 

The lovely folks over at Plum Baby have given me 15 samples of yummy blueberry, banana and vanilla pots to give away to my lovely readers, these were Lil H’s favourite and Baby G loves it too, so keep reading! 

My weaning experience with Lil’ H was frankly hideous, he is a very picky 3 year old eater and mealtimes with him remain stressful.  With Baby G we have taken a Baby Led Weaning approach under the encouragement of my Twitter pals, especially Nick over at My Daddy Cooks and without a doubt it is one of the best parenting decisions we have made. 

Whilst we cook the majority of the childrens food, we are moving to more family meals we all like and eat and mostly Baby G feeds herself there is still a place at Lancaster Towers for bought and pre-prepared baby food.  We have been away on holiday and weekends away, with the best will in the world service stations, tea time arriving and a busy life as a working mum means there are times when a bit of ready to go food is best for everyone! 

Baby G loves the Spelt Fingers and I love the fact they come wrapped in two’s, perfect to keep in the nappy bag for a healthy organic snack, the blueberry, banana and vanilla pots have been thoroughly enjoyed and I have just discovered the sauces which are a perfect fast supper with pasta.  Check out www.Plum-Baby.co.uk and discover more yummy products from the Plum Kitchen.

The lovely folks over at Plum Baby have given me 15 samples of yummy blueberry, banana and vanilla pots to give away to my lovely readers.

Plum Baby is all about real food for babies and not just baby food and all the products are made with the highest quality organic ingredients. They offer babies a taste of what’s to come and are full of nutrients and nothing artificial.

To enter, simply go to the Plum Baby newsletter  (http://www.plum-baby.co.uk/plum-mums/plum-mums-sign-up) and sign up using the code “Cheshire Mum”– and the winners will be chosen at random in 7 days time on Monday 21st June 2010.

This post is the first in what I plan to be a every couple of months or so updates called “Loved and Looking“.  These will be posts about stuff I have loved doing, discovering and buying, a recap if you like.  Any details that have been passed to me by a PR or stuff I have been given is explicitly mentioned.

I don’t have time to keep a full diary but I will find it helpful as and when I sit down to write Baby G’s first year book of the things we’ve loved and whenever anyone asks where did you get that from I will be able to remember and find the links!  If I like it maybe you’ll like it?  Leave a comment and let me know.  Looking is a heads up to what is on the horizon at Lancaster Towers, maybe folks reading this will be able to share useful links and tips to ease us through 2010.  This is all connected to my #themeword for 2010 of ENJOYMENT and trying to stay focussed on the simple, great and good things there are in life.  For me its about sharing – me with you and hopefully you with me, so here goes:

Loved
Unless you are new to my blog I’ve recently been pregnant and then breast feeding.  I wore lots of maternity and nursing clothes the majority of which I bought from Love Maternity which I highly recommend, just got this fab new coat in their sale so if you want a bargain they are there but not for long!  I was also given a dress and vest to try for Wonder Mummy which I really rated too, you can read my review here.  The gospel on maternity fashions can be found at The Bumpwear Project so if you are sporting a bump everything need to know about clothing it is there.

I’m new to this having a daughter thing but everything about baby girls clothes is just fabulous!  I love buying her clothes and choosing her outfits, I have far too many but Baby G’s Sophie 4 Sophie dresses are my favourites.  Current total Sophie 4 Sophie dresses purchased to date are four & counting! If you don’t know about these, well, you do know – *warning they are addictive*  I also love this ladybird outfit by Urban Elk which I bought from Lord and Lady Tantrum (a local Cheshire mum run business).  I am also a HUGE fan of Catimini for both H and G which my mum mostly gets from the lovely Kirsty and Milly at Button Nose in Bramhall – how cute is Baby G’s coat?  I love it so much I also have it in 9-12months size too – eek – I know that is bad!

It’s been a manic few months and if anything only going to get busier.  I was given a months supply of Femibion to try by their lovely PR peeps, I suspect after going on about taking Berocca on Twitter a lot, being honest I was a bit sceptical, a multivitamin is a multivitamin isn’t it?  Well actually it surprised me and I rate it.  I’ve had a couple of nights out and one too many Martini plus we’ve had a few colds & toddler nightmares to increase the sleep deprivation to put it through its paces and it now is on my monthly big shop shopping list.

Adjusting to life with two kids has taken a while but we are getting there, I have realised quite how much I need both my hands which is quite challenging so have bought a baby carrier, from Claire at SnugBaby and as a family we are all really enjoying it.  We now own more buggies and prams than we have children but they all have their purpose and time of use and the baby carrier gives us extra flexibility and I like to think its helping me burn off a few extra calories in my lose the baby weight mission!  Bashfulness never wins any prizes so Baby G has been entered in the competition over at SnugBaby so if you have a second please could you vote for her by clicking on the badge below and then the little heart by us on the page?  Thank you!

Another twitter discovery has been Manuka Baby which is run by the very lovely, of New Zealand origin, Alaina.  I treated Baby G to one of her fabulous SleepSac’s I was feeling bit sad/guilty about the fact that all her sleeping bags had been slept in before by her brother and have a very definite car/boat/pirate/blue thing going on!  Since then we have been tweeting and Alaina has lured me out of maternity leave to help support her with the marketing elements of her business for a few hours a week.  I am loving being back in the marketing saddle and using that part of my brain again.

Looking
We are nearly at the end of February which means we are nearly at the final countdown for the Lego Discovery Centre which opens in March.  The latest from the PR office is that tickets will cost from £7 are now on sale – call 0871 222 2662 to book.  Full details on the site here.

We are looking forward to our first visit to Centre Parcs, we are Elveden Forest bound during a cheap “the kids are back at school” week.  We’re off with our pals who’s toddler is a best friend of H’s so we are all looking forward to that.  Baby G will be getting her first swimming experience too – I really hope she likes swimming ….

… as we are off on a family holiday to Egypt in March – eek – Family Lancaster along with our pals Family P are jetting off to sunnier climes for a week – the last year has been a tough one and after the last six months with a toddler and teeny we deserve it.  Have a HUGE to do & to buy list just to get there!  The kids passports are done – it was easier than expected, did the application online and took their photo’s myself using the PasPic service, you just upload them, they check they will meet the criteria and send you four passport photos back for the bargain price of £3.95 – simples!  It will be the first time on a plane that isn’t the Manchester to Cornwall hop so all suggestions and links on this imminent challenge very welcome.

Lil’ H’s 3rd Birthday in April – we got him a micro scooter & balance bike for Christmas so struggling a bit with the gift ideas list.  It’s building in my head, so far I have fancy dress outfits (especially hats!), a keyboard, a microphone, an easel, crafty things and bigger toy box on list – all suggestions and links on this one again very welcome!

The launch of Love it Love it Love it it is a new venture of one of my Twitter pals, launching in March 2010 and I’m very excited for her, she’s shared with me some of the stock she’s sourced and it rocks!  Not only is the stock going to rock, I have no doubt it won’t be around for long so if you want the heads up on launch date become a Facebook fan or a Twitter follower - you can thank me later!

Not exactly looking forward to this but will start weaning Baby G when she turns 6 months in April *sniffs* my baby is growing up … will be learning about Baby Led Weaning and planning to take that approach, weaning with Lil’ H was one of my many parenting fails so there is plenty of room for improvement for this mummy!   

Christ almighty, baby wearing and baby led weaning I’ll be in tie dye & Birkenstocks next!  Never fear darlings it can all be done in Choo’s of the Jimmy variety!  As you can see the to do list is HUGE so better stop blogging and get cracking!

Love, Claire x