Hot day

It's the first time we have had hot weather this year this week. It's been lovely dressing Mia in all her lovely summer dresses and not having to try and match them with tights! 

The funny thing is that in England people moan when it's cold and complain that's its too hot when we get nice weather, haha!

Next week I really want to try and get out more with Mia. Maybe take her to the park or in the garden more. She likes sitting on the grass feeling the new textures. 

I can't believe she's 6 months already and she's going to turn one in less than 6 months now! It seems crazy to me! 

Primark online

It has been long awaited for Primark to start selling online. Thy have teamed up with Asos to start selling their stock online. This is a great thing for those of us who can't get out shopping often however, would I personally buy anything from Primark without trying it on first? Unlikely, but it will be useful to have a browse online in future before going into store. 

What do you all think?

Mia's 6 month update

I didn't know whether I was going to make monthly updates of Mia or not as I wasn't sure how involved she was going to be in my blog. I decided that I will start updates as its a nice way for me to log how she is doing and just because I am doing monthly updates doesn't mean I have to post pictures. I will however post a foot or other picture each month then at least its a snap shot of Mia but you just won't see her face. I know its nice to see proper monthly pictures and see how baby has changed  but I made a decision before Mia was born that I wasn't putting her on YouTube or my blog. I'm not judging anyone who does, its completely individual parents choices, it's just not for us personally.

So lets get started....

Mia turned 6 months on the 23rd May - this is late I know! Sorry! She has changed lots this last month and I'm beginning to see my little baby becoming more independent and mobile everyday!

She can now....

• Sit up unaided! OK so the unaided part isn't completely true, she can sit up on her own and sometimes for a really long time but occasionally she will still flop over onto her side mostly. We are using a baby nest with her which is like a giant rubber ring so that she can play happily while I wash her bottles or prepare the changing bag for the day etc.
• Roll over from front to back! This is a big change this last month. Mia can roll from her front onto her back. I will say she hates tummy time and doesn't enjoy being laid on her tummy so I think that actually helped her learn to roll quickly because she wanted to be laying on her back rather than her front. She can't roll from back to front yet but maybe that's just because she wouldn't want to? 
• Use a sippy cup! Well sort of.....we actually bought her just a cheap basic sippy cup which she was quite good at but she did tend to get water everywhere! So what we have done is buy her one which has a teat on the end to help her learn how to tilt it up to get the water without it going all over the place!
• Talk for England! OK so its not actually speech yet but it's a start. Mia gaggles and babbles for hours and hours. Adam even thinks she said 'dada' the other day. It still counts even if they don't understand that the sound 'dada' is her daddy doesn't it?
• Eat solids! We started Mia on solids when she turned 6 months old. I know lots of people start weaning before this age but Mia just wasn't ready. She eats banana and apple puree, mango puree and strawberry puree. So far she has liked everything apart from melon.

Baby nest review

We bought this the other day because Mia has started to sit up but not confidently. 

It cost us around £20 but was in a 3 for 2 offer at tesco. I actually think this is really good. Mia is quite happy playing in here for ages and I feel like she's safe in there and even though she sometimes flops into the sides she's not going to hurt herself. It has really good textures around the outside like string for the horses tail, the crinkle feeling and noises baby loves and felt material. Mia loves feeling all the textures and I usually put some small toys inside such as a rattle and a material cube. 

Crest 3D whitestrips

A quick review of the Crest 3D whitestrips. 

I actually like these, I don't normally use whitening products but I tried these after my sister suggested them. They are really easy to use, you simply stick one strip to your top teeth as one to the bottom. You have to keep them on for half an hour at a time which can get a little annoying. You are supposed to do this process for 14 days I believe but I only did one treatment an could already see a big difference. My sister had tried it previously and attempted the 14 days but had to give up as after a few days it started to hurt her teeth - this put me off even trying haha! But if I could see a difference after one application I was quite pleased with that. I think if you used them once a month it would make a difference as mine has lasted quite a long time. 

We buy them from eBay as they are from the US. 

They are not that expensive either, around £10 for 14 strips which if like me you are not going to use them all at one will last me a year. 

Let me know what your favourite whitening products are...

Chicco Polly Highchair Review

This was a requested post and I also had decided to start doing lots of reviews because when I am looking to buy new things for Mia I often find myself hunting for independent reviews. 

We bought this highchair after seeing it at The Baby Show. The thing that first attracted me was the seat because it looked so comfortable and I liked the patterns available in the range.

This highchair retails at around £100 but if you wait for deals like we did you can pick it up for less. We paid £70 for ours and I had always expected to spend around £100 so we were happy with the price.

The highchair itself comes with removable seat covers which are plastic material and really easy to just wipe clean. You can remove the top cover as baby grows to make more room within the chair. It also has 7 seat height adjusters so you can use it as a low chair or attach it to your table. The tray has a top plastic cover which you can also easily remove to clean in the sink. The tray itself can be moved towards and away from baby and can be removed completely. The foot rest has different height settings which was perfect for us as Mia is quite small she needs to have it on the highest setting and lots of highchairs don't come with that function. You can also lean the seat back if you like to 3 different positions. It also has a very secure harness which goes over the babies shoulders, around the waist and between the legs. I feel Mia is very safe in the highchair leaving me free to do what I need to do in the kitchen.

It has a small basket at the back which you can keep bibs and sippy cups inside. At the moment we keep the tray that hooks onto the side of the chair legs as it keeps getting knocked off with it being in a small kitchen. The tray that attaches to the side is really good as you can put your drink or babies sippy cup on there safely while you're feeding baby. It also has wheels so you can easily move it around.

The imagine below shows the chair set up with the tray attached and seat upright.

This picture shows the highchair folded down. You can see we have the legs in two halves - one attached to the seat and the second part of the legs has been removed from the main frame and is standing up against the chair. This makes the chair really good for storage.

For our use this highchair is perfect. It folds away small enough and when it's fully assembled it doesn't take up masses of room. What I would comment on though is even though it is not big for a highchair when its assembled it can be a little bulky if you are using it in a small kitchen area. 

So far I have found it easy to clean, easy to feed Mia and she seems to love being in there.

Snaps with the new camera...

I'm learning how to use it slowly but surely....