Review of A Little Something For You

Review of A Little Something For You:

We were super excited to have a big parcel delivered yesterday. What was inside was even more exciting! A gift from their Aunty and Uncle to fill lockdown with some fun, purchased from a great business that started out selling brilliant party bags. With parties being a big no-no these days, A Little Something for You has come up with the brilliant idea to sell Keep Em Busy Boxes. (https://alittlesomethingforyou.co.uk/shop)

The Surprise Boxes come in four sizes and are made up individually, based on the age and interests of the child you’re buying for.

We were so impressed with the obvious care and thought put into each of the kids’ back packs. There were games, toys, activities, crafts, and even the dreaded slime!

The kids were utterly delighted by everything they discovered in their bags. (You can see their “unboxing” video over on my Facebook page.) And I was particularly pleased and surprised when I went into the lounge later to see why everyone was so quiet, only to discover that the TV was playing to an empty room and they’d all gone outside to have an adventure with theirr new backpacks!

If you’re looking for a gift for a child you love, then I would definitely recommend sending one of these Keep Em Busy Boxes. Great value for money, thoughtful, and entertaining.

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Review: ToddlerCalm by Sarah Ockwell-Smith

Disclaimer: This book was gifted to me, free of charge, by Sarah Ockwell-Smith, to be reviewed. However, this review is my unbiased and  honest opinion of the book.

Book: ToddlerCalm: A Guide for Calmer Toddlers and Happier Parents
Price: R.R.P. £13.99, but currently available for £9.72 at The Book Depository.
Blurb: Sarah Ockwell-Smith, founder of BabyCalm and ToddlerCalm, is passionate about ‘gentle’ parenting. Her mission is to let parents know that there are other ways to cope with a toddler apart from putting him or her on the naughty step or resorting to controlled crying. This book will fill a gap in the market, helping parents enjoy their toddlers, understand the limitations of current popular toddler parenting methods such as sticker charts and time out, and to have the confidence to ignore the current mainstream ‘experts’ and parent their own child with trust and empathy. Chapters include: Why toddlers are not mini-adults; the importance of night-time parenting; coping with a picky eater; communication – toddler style; avoiding difficult situations; the importance of unconditional love and why you don’t need to be permissive to parent respectfully.
Rating: (5/5 stars)

When I pick up a parenting book (and actually have time to read!), I have to be careful to open my mind. I tend to go into them thinking that I'm either going to disagree with everything, or that I'll just be told what I already know. I read a few books before B was born, but they were mainly theoretical ones or about breastfeeding. I like to think that I have instinctively parented B as a baby, but the toddler years have sort of crept up on me and I have struggled at times. B is strong-willed - which I am pleased about, but this can be hard work too. I have a copy of Sarah Ockwell-Smith's BabyCalm, which I never got around to reading, but I have read a lot of what she puts on her blog and found that I agreed with much of it. So, when I got the opportunity to get a copy of ToddlerCalm to review, I jumped at the chance, figuring that it would either give me lots of tips to try or that it would just confirm that what I'm doing already is fine.

Well, I can tell you that I was pleasantly surprised by ToddlerCalm. I didn't find it patronising or prescriptive. It was an easy read and very supportive of our parenting style. What I liked the most was the scientific slant. There are three chapters that deal specifically with science: Why toddlers are not mini adults; The science of toddler sleep; and The science of picky eating. I tend to parent in a way that feels right to me, trusting my mother's instincts and my gut. If I wouldn't want to be treated in a particular way, then I try not to treat B in that way. So to read a great deal of scientific fact that backs up my instinct and existing knowledge is very encouraging and helpful. It also comes in handy when responding to the questions and criticisms of those who don't understand or approve of our parenting style. To have the words of a psychologist reinforcing my instincts adds weight to my choices. To have the information about brain development to explain why my toddler behaves in a certain way is a brilliant reminder to me to be more patient and understanding, and is useful in explaining to others why we are dealing with her behaviours in a way that they may disagree with. Instincts and nature can be easy to dismiss; science is much harder to argue with.

I found ToddlerCalm to be very supportive of the attachment parenting style, though I am aware that Sarah Ockwell-Smith doesn't approve of the AP label. (Check out this excellent blog post on the topic.) In fact, the reason for this is because Attachment Parenting as a movement grew out of the attachment theory, which Ockwell-Smith advocates, having studied it as part of psychology. The book is also supportive of parental choice. She doesn't like to be referred to as a parenting expert, as she maintains that parents are the experts on their own children, and should be able to trust their own instincts and parent children as individuals. The book encourages parents to think for themselves, and to choose a gentle, positive parenting style. It is very helpful in that it gives the words and explanations that help in clarifying our own ideas and in explaining to others why we've chosen to parent that way.

The book isn't prescriptive. There is none of the strict routine and expectations that most mainstream parenting guides advocate. ToddlerCalm provides lots of real life stories and examples of parenting style, whilst Ockwell-Smith's CRUCIAL™ method allows space for our own parenting to come in. The success of this lies in having individual plans for individual families and individual children. There is no specific way of parenting your toddler, short of being gentle and understanding; rather, the book will empower parents to know that they can parent in the way that is right for their family, instead of feeling that they must do what friends/relatives have done, or failing to keep to a specific schedule or routine.

I love how honest Sarah is throughout the book. She writes frankly of mistakes she made with her own children and of how she could have done better. And that's where this books goes another step above and beyond other parenting books. She's a mum!! She's not some childless, self-proclaimed expert who believes they know the best way for children to be brought up. She's not writing from a hypothetical standpoint. We can learn from her mistakes - real things, not what she thinks children ought to do.

I found ToddlerCalm to be very much about changing and taking charge of our own behaviour as adults, in order to model and guide to our children. We are the grown up, mature ones - they have lots to learn. We can't expect them to be perfect members of society yet.

ToddlerCalm is a parenting book that I would definitely recommend. I need to go and read BabyCalm now!!
 

Review: Pregnancy Planner App by Sanoma Media Netherlands B.V.

Disclaimer: This app was gifted to me, free of charge, by the people at Pregnancy Planner, to be reviewed. However, this review is my unbiased and  honest opinion of the product.

Product: Pregnancy Planner iPhone App
Price: £1.49 - Available from the iTunes App Store
Age Range:
Manufacturer’s Description: Pregnancy Planner is a comprehensive pregnancy app for soon-to-be parents. Be informed and entertained during the pregnancy and share your baby's development with friends & family over Facebook or Twitter. Extensive tips, daily & weekly tips and information and high quality 3d imagery make this the complete package!
Features include extensive information on the baby's development daily & weekly, pregnancy time tips for sports, sex, nutrition, travel and more, and a list of baby names to pick & share to your family & friends.
Rating:   (3/5 stars)


Review: I'm currently about 34 weeks into my second pregnancy, and so, while I consider myself to be somewhat experienced in the art of surviving pregnancy and all it entails, I was still keen to try another app that would take me through the joys and trials of growing a small human being inside me.

When you first open the app, there is a quick tutorial that takes you through what each section of the app does. And you can easily access the tutorial again by tapping the 'i' button. Inputting your due date is very straightforward.

As you can see, your pregnancy's progress is shown at the top of the page, not only in weeks and days, but also showing how many weeks, days, hours and seconds are left until your due date. I found it very easy to remain in denial about how quickly this pregnancy was progressing until I saw the scrolling countdown! Not sure whether that's a positive or a negative though, I'm afraid.

 Beneath that you will see the average size and weight of your baby, and it is this information that is sent if you choose to email your progress to daddy//grandma/friend. So, not a huge amount of detail in the progress sharing function, but enough to satisfy a bit of curiosity.

Tapping the size/weight area takes you to the weekly update on the baby and you. Last time around I used some free pregnancy apps - I'm always reluctant to pay for apps, when there are free ones available! I've reinstalled them onto my iPhone this time, but have very rarely looked at them, due to the amount of time they take to read. With an active, no-nap toddler to run around after, I just don't have the time for the detail they provide. Therefore, it has been a pleasant experience to use Pregnancy Planner, as for a second-time pregnancy I have found it both quick and simple to use. There is just enough information to reassure and remind me, and because the development status is refreshed weekly, rather than daily, there is no need for me to feel bad or behind if I don't manage to open it up each week. I have found some interesting information in this section, and some that I already knew, and there have been a few helpful weekly tips in there too.

Each week has an artist's representation of a baby at your current gestation would look like, accompanied by a weekly tip or piece of information about the baby's development, just a sentence long.

The daily tips do change daily, but these too are only a sentence long. As a second-timer, I appreciate the brevity of these, but if this was my first pregnancy I would be a bit miffed, as some of the weekly tips require a bit more independent research, and others seem a bit irrelevant or even unhelpful at times. As someone who is supposed to be keeping an eye on their blood sugars, I didn't relish the tip that stated, 'Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate'! Also, some of them are a bit odd. One day I was told to 'Check your papers' expiry dates.' No idea what papers it was referring to, so I can only assume the app was originally intended for users outside of the UK.

In addition to the tips and information on the Calendar page, there is a Tips & Questions section, providing answers on various subjects:
Nutrition - useful if you can't remember what types of cheese are banned, but not particularly detailed. So, again, not highly useful for a first time pregnancy.
Sports - a bit more detail here, including lists of sports/exercise that are suitable and unsuitable during pregnancy.
Health - information on various pregnancy related ailments and tips for dealing with them. I haven't found the Heartburn section to help me in any way, but the tips in there are the sensible, normal ways of dealing with it!
Travel - Some helpful tips in here.
Sex - One of the more helpful sections, as it's less embarrassing to read the information in an app than to have to go Googling! Again though, if you've been pregnant before, it's likely you managed to alter your sex life the previous time and I haven't found any new information or tips in this section.

The most helpful section in the Tips & Questions area is the Checklist, which I've found to be a helpful reminder of things I need to locate or buy before the baby comes. It's also been useful just to read through to reminisce about what I bought last time and didn't use!

There is also a list of baby names to browse through. They are easy to add to a list of names you like, and you can also manually add names that don't appear on the lists, but I was disappointed that they didn't provide meanings to go with the names.

This app is quick and simple to use. It has an uncluttered layout and it's easy to navigate. For a second timer, I've found Pregnancy Planner helpful and I've enjoyed the brevity of the information provided. I already know what I'm going through, and the odd reminder here and there has been useful. It's also been handy for checking how many weeks I am, as I haven't been keeping such a close check on dates this time around. However, I don't feel there is enough information in here for a first pregnancy, when you're full of questions and worry.

Although this isn't an expensive app, I would have been disappointed if I'd paid for it, as there is much more information available in many of the free apps available on the App Store. I think if I'd bought it for my previous pregnancy I would have been much more disappointed though.

Kiddicare Review

In search of a back carrier for the hubby to transport B around the Greenbelt Festival this weekend, we headed off to our nearest Kiddicare. I think I was anticipating it being a bit like a big Mothercare, but I was really pleasantly surprised by what we found.

The carriers were easy to find, and when a sales assistant spotted us looking a bit confused, she came straight over and offered assistance. She was helpful, thoughtful and explained really clearly. First, she demonstrated how to put on the carrier we were interested in, and then she helped the hubby to put B into it, before assisting him in getting it onto his back. She was also amazingly patient and considerate with B who had a bit of a meltdown about not wanting to get off Daddy's back!

When we'd decided to get the carrier - the Phil&Ted's Escape, which we'll be reviewing soon, hopefully - I spotted the Close Caboo carrier, which I'd recently purchased via Zulily in preparation for incoming baby 2. Despite me informing her that we already had one, and so would not be purchasing it in store, the assistant offered to show us how to use it properly, with a demonstration doll. The hubby is delighted to have a clear idea of what to do with it now, and I was really grateful that she was so helpful and generous with her time.

There are some fantastic discounts on pretty much everything in the store, which makes it an even better place to shop. And the restaurant served tasty and healthy options, with child-friendly options, for reasonable prices.

Verdict? We'll be shopping at Kiddicare again if and when we need more kid stuff.