Parenting | A Mummy Too

Talking Tom Superstar – a love/hate review

23 May, 2013 By Emily Leary Leave a Comment

Look into my eye, cats they have nine lives, so live life todaaaaaaaay – JD, 5 (singing along to Tom)

We’ve had Talking Tom Superstar for a while now. We accepted him for review because JD likes playing with the Talking Tom app on the iPhone. You know the one. It repeats what you say in a high pitched voice, and you can press buttons to make a dog appear and fart in the background, among other things. It’s juvenile, often irritating stuff, but JD likes it, so who am I to judge?

Now, what the soft toy version of Tom promises to do is bring that character to life – there are buttons on his tummy that make him sing songs, tell jokes and so on, and if you leave him unattended, he starts snoring, which is a pretty good cue to get the kids playing with him again.

Talking Tom Superstar is also supposed to interact with the app version of himself, but this didn’t work at all for us on the iPhone, which is one reason I’ve held off publishing a review. However, I recently reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S4 and with that phone, the promised interaction magically started to happen. Suddenly a fart from the app caused the cuddly version to express his disapproval. Success!

It doesn’t interact perfectly and is often hit and miss, but a toy that has conversations with an app is quite an original idea and the kids so seem to really like it, so if your little one already likes the Talking Tom app, and you think you can put up with the annoying songs and jokes, Talking Tom Superstar is probably a worthwhile purchase.

Talking Tom Superstar is available on Amazon with an RRP £24.95.

Disclosure : We were sent a Talking Tom Superstar toy free of charge. No payment was received for this post. All reviews are 100% honest.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: interactive, review, talking tom, Talking Tom Superstar, toy

Fill ‘n’ Squeeze – making homemade baby meals portable

22 May, 2013 By Emily Leary 2 Comments

Fill, Squeeze, Go…

A quick post today to show you this cool product that allows you to prepare and package homemade baby food into handy pouches – the type that cost a fortune if you buy them pre-made from the supermarket.

In the Fill ‘n’ Squeeze pack (RRP is £19.99) you get a mixing jug with built in stand, a masher, a rubber part that converts it into a plunger, and 4 pouches, which can be washed and reused.

According to the makers, using this system instead of buying pre-made pouches could save parent’s up to £20 a month, so it’s bit of a no brainer really.

Fill ‘n’ Squeeze is available to order online from Jojo Maman.

Disclosure: we were sent a Fill ‘n’ Squeeze pack free of charge for review. No payment was received. All posts are 100% honest.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: baby food, fill n squeeze, fresh, healthy, pouches, puree, vitamins

The Babyzen YOYO pushchair – a review

20 May, 2013 By Emily Leary 2 Comments

Weeeeeeeeeee – Miss J, 19 months

This week we’ve been roadtesting the Babyzen YOYO pushchair – billed as “a featherweight buggy has a one of a kind folding mechanism.”

So what did we make of it? Well, straight out of the box, it’s clear that the Babyzen Yoyo is indeed very, very small (52 x 44 x 18 cm) and exceptionally light (5,8kg). It’s so compact and light, in fact, that Miss J can pick it up!

There’s also a shoulder strap, so you can pick it up and go, and the strap then disappears safely into the under-basket when unfolded – amazing. Apparently the folded buggy falls within carry-on luggage requirements, so you could even take it on a plane in the overhead locker.

Unfolding is super simple – I didn’t even need to read the instructions. You just release a little catch near the foot plate, then grab the handle, lift it upwards with a flick and it unfolds completely. It’s very easy to do one handed.

Once unfolded, there’s a reasonable sized basket area for a small amount of shopping or baby supplies.

Up top, the handle is padded and slim. It’s lower than I’m used to with our Stokke Xplory, but comfortable enough to hold.

Buckling Miss J in was straightforward. The seat is nice and deep so she was well supported, and the five-point harness is easily clipped together, with wide shoulder straps. The only downside is that Miss J quickly worked out how to wriggle her arms free, but to be fair she can do that in most of the buggies and carseats we’ve tried.

To recline, you simply loosen a strap at the back, which Miss J seemed perfectly happy with, although it doesn’t go completely flat (140°), so wouldn’t be suitable for a newborn. The manual says it’s suitable from 6 months.

Round the front, the buggy has a small footplate, but at 19 months, Miss J’s legs aren’t yet long enough to reach it, which is fine as it means there’s room to grow.

Overall, the buggy has a small footprint, even when unfolded. It’s narrow (44cm), so great for pushing around supermarket aisles, and it turns very easily with its pivoting front and rear wheels, which means it can be steered with one hand without fuss.

On the downside, the pushchair is front-facing and low, which means we can’t interact in the way I’ve become used to with our current rear-facing buggy, and I did worry that she was more exposed to swinging shopping bags than I was used to. However, as an occasional travel solution, it suits us just fine.

For a pushchair that folds so small, I was pleased with the hood, which is generously sized and kept the sun off Miss J during our road test. There’s also a lightweight, easily fitted rain cover that seems effective, although it didn’t rain during our test.

Collapsing the buggy again is really simple and can be one one handed with a baby on your hip. Before you take your baby out, you push the buttons on either inside edge of the handle and collapse the handle down. Then, you take your little one out, reach underneath and grab a little catch to release. Then you just pick up by the silver bar and the whole thing folds straight back up and click-locks into place. It takes seconds.

Check out the video – it really is as easy as this lady makes it look.

Price-wise, £309 is a fair bit more than you’d pay for a standard umbrella-type buggy, but if you travel around a lot and have to collapse/carry/pack away your buggy often, the price is well worth it for the convenience the Yoyo offers.

Overall, our verdict is very positive. This is a superb travel buggy, and with a few adventures chalked in for our family this Summer, I wish we didn’t have to give the Babyzen Yoyo back.

Disclosure: we were loaned the Babyzen Yoyo for the purposes of this review. No payment was received for this post. All posts are 100% honest.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: baby, babyzen, collapsible, lightweight, pushcair, review, yoyo

Children’s Book Round Up (May)

17 May, 2013 By Emily Leary 1 Comment

What do you want to read tonight? – me

Now that JD can read independently, reading has become even more exciting as he can now choose not only which story to have, but who’ll read it. Here’s what we’ve been reading this month…

Tim, Ted & the Pirates

A short rhyming read by Ian Whybrow that takes you from the story carpet off on a journey of fantasy and back with a splash. It’s packed full of bright, rich illustrations and perfect for preschool pirate fans.

Published by HarperCollins Children’s Books.

The Hueys in It Wasn’t Me

Another piece of genius from Oliver Jeffers, the writer of The Hueys in The New Jumper. I’d class this book as alternative comedy for kids. JD absolutely loves it.

Published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, it’s available in hardback for £12.99.

Mabel and Me Best of Friends

A tale of friendship, misunderstandings and pliéing rodents, this is a lovely book with gorgeous, scribbly illustrations, a touch of metropolitan chic and an underlying plot that helped me talk about feelings and kindness with my two.

Written by by Mark Sperring and Sarah Warburton and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, it’s available for £12.99 in hardback, or £6.99 when it’s released in softback in July 2013.

Splat Says Thank You!

A simple story of friendship by Rob Scotton, this book allows you to talk with your little ones about what makes a friend a friend. Quirky, fun and a little bit silly, the illustrations should engage little ones well.

Published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, it’s available in softback for £6.99.

I Heart Bedtime

A cute book about sibling fun and all the faff and excitement that goes with what should be a simple bedtime routine. It all sounds very familiar to us – the characters are likeable and the illustrations are friendly and distinctive, if (dare I say it?) a touch ‘girly’ for JD’s tastes.

Written and illustrated by Clara Vulliamy and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, it’s available in softback for £6.99.

Disclosure: we were sent all of the books featured free of charge for review. No payment was received for this post. All posts are 100% honest.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: books, children, kids, picture book, reading, review

Roadtesting the Samsung Galaxy S4 at The National Space Centre

5 May, 2013 By Emily Leary 9 Comments

*sung in the style of the Power Rangers song* We’re going to The National Space Centrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre – JD, 5

Last week, Carphone Warehouse got in touch and asked us if we wanted to test out the just-released Samsung Galaxy S4 – naturally we agreed, especially as we were challenged to give it a really decent road test on a family day out. Cue a trip to The National Space Centre in Leicester…

Our journey started with a trip into Nottingham city centre, where a nice man called Michael at Carphone Warehouse helped fit my SIM into the new phone, by way of a converter pack (£4.99).

Next, we stopped to stock up on lunchtime treats and then headed for the train – hurrah! Which we missed – boo!

Cue some waiting…

And more waiting…

Until finally…

Even though it was only 11am, we tucked into lunch as soon as we sat down.

And after a short ride, we arrived in Leicester, to be greeted by the exceptionally talented Red Leicester Choir, singing in aid of The Red Cross.

Next we took a brief bus journey (number 54) and finally arrived!

The underwhelming exterior luckily hid a rather fun interior, full of pieces of rocket, satellite and explorer, many of which had actually been in space (as JD kept telling me in amazement).

As well as some cool mini-models…

JD then persuaded me it was a good idea to go up 4 floors inside a plastic bubble to see the very top of the rocket hidden within. Looking back, it really was quite high.

Once up there, each floor had its own activities to explore. JD was rather keen on the moon.

And we did a spot of art.

Back on the ground floor, JD played spaceman.

Before we hit the cafe, and Miss J squealed with panic as she thought JD was caught under a real rocket’s thrusters.

All in all, a good day and we’d definitely recommend visiting the National Space Centre.

Thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy S4

For those who regularly follow this blog, you’ll know I’m an Apple fan girl at heart, and that I’m also very attached to my Canon DSLR, so photographing and filming entirely on a Samsung for this post was something of a departure.

Here are my thoughts…

The look and feel

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is light, slick and shiny. At just 7.9mm thick, it sits easily in my pocket and doesn’t feel too large overall as there’s very little bevel around the 5 inch screen.

I have had black iPhones continuously since 2009, and really dislike the white models, but it works for the S4 and compliments the fresh feel of the interface.

The interface

It’s a good phone. A great phone, actually. Reception was good throughout the trip, Facebook and Twitter worked like a charm and I’m smitten with the big, bright screen, responsive buttons and intuitive home display.

The touch screen is fast to react, though feels a tad less swift and precise than the iPhone, especially when switching between activities. The ‘air gesture’ function which is supposed to allow you to control certain actions without physically touching the screen is inconsistent. Sometimes it works great, other times you’re left wafting madly at the air to no avail.

Samsung seemed to have nailed their aim of making a phone into a ‘life companion’ – the Android interface with multiple home screens just works great and now that I’ve customised it with the apps and widgets I need, it feels hard to imagine ever going back to an iPhone.

The display

The 5inch Full HD screen (1920 x 1080) is breathtaking and watching videos is a dream, although I found the eye recognition that causes it to pause when it thinks you’re not looking to be insanely annoying and soon deactivated it.

The camera

There are two cameras on board. The main (rear) camera is a generous 13 Mega pixels, with Auto Focus and a built in flash, while the front-facing camera is 2 Mega pixels. Both respond immediately when the shutter is pressed.

In bright light, the rear camera is as good as you’d expect – better, even – but I was disappointed with the quality of the shots in low light. The focus seems to struggle and the shots often came out blurred and over saturated. If you’ve got an iPhone 5 (8 mega pixels), you’ll be expecting a lot more than you get from the S4 in low light.

That said, I’ve since discovered a multitude of manual settings (including metering, ISO and anti-shake) so perhaps that will improve as I learn to use the camera to its full potential.

The video camera

The video camera has a lot of features to love. It records in HD and at the same quality, as far as I can tell, as in photograph mode. The digital zoom is smooth and you can jump straight into video from photo mode at the touch of a button, there’s no delay as it switches over.

The battery

It was 60% charged when we left the house and lasted through 180 photos, 6 videos, 3 phone calls, 6 SMS, 1 MMS, some Facebook and Twittering before finally running out after 6.5 hours on the journey home. Not bad, I’d say.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is a great phone. Thin, light, intuitive and fun to use. The camera needs some work in low light, but unless you’re a budding photographer, it probably isn’t a deal breaker.

If you want to order one for yourself, they’re in stock now at Carphone Warehouse.

Disclosure: Carphone Warehouse sent us the Samsung Galaxy free-of-charge to test out. The image of the phone is an official one from the Carphone Warehouse website. No payment was received for this post. All posts are 100% honest.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: national space centre, review, samsung galaxy s4

Disney on Ice presents Let’s Party! (aka when JD and I had a thoroughly fantastic evening)

29 March, 2013 By Emily Leary 4 Comments

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! – JD, 5

I really can’t begin to describe how happy JD was when we left at the end of an evening watching Disney on Ice presents Let’s Party! He was on cloud nine and seeing his smiling face made me feel the happiest I’ve felt in quite some time.

The show took place at Capital FM Arena Nottingham at 6.30pm, which meant I had to race home from work. My mum had already got JD ready to head out and booked a taxi (I do love you, mum!) so there was just time for hugs with Miss J and a quick round of toast and then we hopped in our cab.

We arrived at the arena 10 minutes before the billed start time and whizzed through the turnstiles. JD had never been to a venue this size and I hadn’t since my pre-children gig-going days, so the bright lights, crowds hopped up on sugar and anticipation, and rows and rows of overpriced confectionery was something of a novelty.

We found our way to our seats and were delighted to find we were really quite close to the ice but just high up enough to get a perfect view. The lights dimmed and character skated out. JD was immediately enthralled and the acoustics were well managed enough for us to follow what was being said (the actors mime along to a prerecorded audio track).

All the Disney favourites were there – some that JD knew and some that he didn’t. The Jack Skellington bit was superb – the actor was extremely skilled and the show really ramped up when lots of other Disney baddies came to join him at his Halloween party.

By far our favourite part was the dancing broom scene from Fantasia. It was wonderfully executed and left JD open mouthed.

I would thoroughly recommend the show to anyone with young children – the whole experience is something we’ll both remember.

Disclosure: we were provided with the tickets free of charge by DB Promotions, who handle group bookings for shows like this one.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: disney, disney on ice, fantasia, let's party, mickey mouse, nottingham, review

Mask decorating – a fun, easy craft activity for kids

24 March, 2013 By Emily Leary

It’s really fun. I’d be more than happy to do it every day. Daddy has really good ideas – JD, 5

Mark picked up a pack of cheap masks in a craft store quite a while ago and we decided to make this snowy weekend the day we finally got round to decorating them.

Armed with pipe cleaners, poster paint, glue and tissue paper, these are our creations.

‘Devil Woman’ by JD

Poster paint detail and tissue paper horns.

‘Electrical ears’ by JD

Poster paint detail and pipe cleaner antennae.

‘Super Lady’ by me

A fat pipe cleaner for her hair, two more for her eye mask and screwed up tissue paper for her mouth.

‘The beardy fireton’ by JD

Pipe cleaners galore and a little tissue paper.

‘The chocolate man’ by me

Painted with dark chocolate, sprinkled strategically with coloured sugar, and finished with a lollypop.

What ever materials you choose to use, I really recommend giving mask decorating a try. It’s loads of fun and we’re going to hang the results on JD’s wall.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: craft, crafting, decorating, fun, kids, mask, paint

Otter Chaos – children’s book review

19 March, 2013 By Emily Leary 1 Comment

I can’t review Otter Chaos! I like everything about it, full stop! – JD, 5

We’ve recently finished reading Otter Chaos (£5.99 from HarperCollins Children’s Books) with JD at bedtime and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

It’s about two otter families who try to move into the same home and end up at war. Well, not really at war, rather a sort of mini-Olympic trials to decide who wins the right to live in the new house.

It’s brilliantly written with some mild peril, light comic moments and some really engaging illustrations. The characters are well developed and the plots takes some predictable but pleasing turns.

I asked JD (5) to tell me what he liked about it, but he just insisted he liked everything about it. A pretty glowing review, huh?

Disclosure: we were sent Otter Chaos free of charge for review. No payment was received. All posts are 100% honest.

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: book, children's book, education, otters, reading together, story

Eight tips to avoid tears (theirs and yours) when starting nursery

15 March, 2013 By Emily Leary 4 Comments

See you soon, sweatpea – me

So Miss J (16 months) is settling well into nursery – in fact she seems to love it – but being away from home so much hasn’t been easy for any of us.

A little while back, I put a call out to the Parent Blogging community for their advice on how parents can support their little ones starting nursery. Here’s what they came back with – every child is different, of course, but there’s some great stuff in here.

If they don’t want to go…make it a game. Missie Lizzie has written a brilliant post on how to create a treasure hunt to make the walk to school or nursery more bearable. If you’re facing problems, it’s well worth a look.
If they’ve started a busy new chapter…remember to have quiet time. 3 Children and It says, “Make sure the afternoons are quiet and not too much activity. I used to make sure that I spent at least 30 minutes every afternoon doing something they enjoy doing just with me eg puzzles or playing games.”
If they’re not used to being without you…ask to stay for the settling in sessions. Chez Maximka says, “I think with my older one they asked me in the nursery if I would like to spend a few days with him, each time leaving earlier. There was another mother, doing the same. And when he changed the nursery and started commuting, I did the same to help him settle in.”
If you’re missing your time together…make the time you do have count. Mummy..Mummy..Mum! says, “Give them something to look forward to on days at home. Like extra one on one time. Or Z and would go for hot chocolate sometimes.”
If starting nursery seems scary and mysterious…try reading about it together. Dorky Mum says, “We read lots of books about it – Maisy goes to Nursery, George Pig goes to Playgroup etc which definitely helped prepare him.”
If they’re not sure how they’ll cope…try role play. Marianne Whooley aka Maris World has a great post on her blog about how ‘playing schools’ help when preparing her twins for preschool.
If they’re feeling insecure…stick to a reliable routine. Dorky Mum says, “We have a routine that we still do, nearly two years after T first started going, where I put a kiss in each of his palms at drop off, and then if he’s missing me during the morning, he’ll put his hand to his cheek so he’ll ‘feel’ my kiss and know that I’ll be back soon.”
If you feel too far apart…start a photo album. HPMcQ says, “When Ronnie started, I made a small photo album with pictures of us in which was kept in his bag. I travel a fair deal with work so they used it lots when I was away. Now he has a giant world map and we have Velcro airplanes which move closer to home as every day passes.”