I just received this in an email today, one of those regular ‘Your baby at XX weeks type mails. i know its American, but even so:

Now that your baby is eating some solid foods, fresh is usually best. However, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, beets, carrots, collard greens, and turnips contain large amounts of nitrates in some parts of the country. Nitrates can cause a type of anemia in your baby. Even though you can’t personally test the vegetables in your area, rest assured that baby-food companies take precautions not to use vegetables high in nitrates. So if you want to feed these vegetables to your baby, it is safest to buy commercially prepared jars.

Is this really true? Surely this is manufacturing blurb at its finest, the only ‘safe’ way to feed your baby is with manufacturers jars of food… Yeesh…

This highchair has won a whole pile of awards, so I had expectations of it being good – you don’t really expect much less from a company like Mamas and Papas. But my own last highchair left me with a feeling of mistrust for these big plastic highchairs, so I was ready to give this one a proper run for its money. I was determined that just because Mamas & Papas want to advertise with us I would NOT recommend another tricky, duff highchair. My last one (from another well-respected manufacturer) had been heavy, cumbersome, difficult to clean, the tray sat impossibly far away from the seat, the ‘fold flat’ option was a joke… Oh yes, this Prima Pappa was not going to blind me with its pretty teddy bear design. Pink and I were going to use it daily for four weeks before we decided on the review…

The HUGE box arrived (much to small boys excitement – blow the new highchair for Pink, there’s a BIG box in the offing :D ).

As fast as I could get the wrapping off the parts, they were clicked together. The instructions were clear, the assembly was minimal and simple – and even with two excited boys hanging off my ankles I managed it painlessly, single-handed.

So here we are four weeks later. How has it done?

Well… It’s good! really!

I put the highchair away every night, so the folding and storage was important to me. It folds fairly flat, and the mechanism is simple. Dropping the chair to its lowest position first was a pain in the beginning, but now I don’t even notice it. And unfolding it is a silly moment of gliding fun in my day. :)

The wheels on the bottom make it easy to move – I’d forgotten how often I move the highchair with a resident in it. Pink sits in the kitchen munching while I prepare dinner, then we wheel her to be with us all at the table while we eat. The castors are great for maneouvreability, but the brakes are solid enough to make the castors safe on laminate flooring.

The cushion is really well designed; lots of padding for she-who-won’t-sit-up, and she doesn’t ever do the sideways-slump- wriggle in it.

The tray is still too high to be practical for her to use (as you can see – that’s her sitting up straight), but as she’s not spoon feeding herself for a while yet thats inconsequential. She happily sits back and eats a rusk or toast finger, and I feed her far more easily with no tray in the way.

The height of the chair is the only drawback for me. I’m 6′ tall, and would love the chair to go higher – feeding when I am standing causes me to stoop painfully. But this has made me sit down in a chair beside her and feed her at eye level, which is actually far nicer for us both, so I’m not going to say this is a problem. Just my fault being a busy mumma, trying to feed her on the hoof.

And the last important question – the cleaning. Well, its not better than the rest, but no worse either. None of the big padded plastic highchairs are easy to keep clean, there are too many nooks and crannies and parts of the harness where food can be smeared, stashed or dribble into. But the seat is all in one piece, so there are no awkward seams that hide food. The straps are wide and smooth, and a good firm wipe seems to clean them fine after every meal. Of course, Pink’s not feeding herself yet, so I think this will get worse – but I really don’t think there are any better options available in this type of highchair.

So, in all we’re liking the Prima Pappa Evo very much – WAY more than the last nightmare chair – and are happy to have it living in the playroom for the next couple of years :)

Note the early theft of mummys Magnum. Gotta give the girl points for intiative...

Baby pouches… well. I had used the wilkinet with Boy & Jolly (but the straps ARE a faff). Katy didn’t like slings at ALL, was mildly converted by the wilkinet – but still preferred to pop Ben in the pushchair; him being a big ole bouncing boy she still found him a little heavy while she was walking the nursery run.

Then Sandra at SaSaSlings sent us a Rockin’ Baby Pouch to try out. With a spirit of willingness, but really not convinced, I agreed, and waited for it to land on the doormat.

First impressions were great. The packaging is funky, and the sling itself was beautifully made from gorgeous fabric. The instructions were clear and simple (pretty much bung the sling on, plop the baby in and you’re away), with great diagrams. So I gave it a test run the very next day – the toughest test I could think of. The School Run.

You know how it is. You manage to co-ordinate 3 boys into their uniforms, get them plus the baby into the car with 3 lunchboxes, homework, swimming kit, show-and-tell item, coats (bloody weather) and hats.

You end up leaving 5 minutes later than you really need to, then hit the slow drivers and traffic lights (or tractors in my case) on the way, and you’re running even later by the time you get to school. But if you hurry you might just make it for the Wake and Shake.

Now you have the choice – haul the pushchair out the boot, remove baby from car, strap into pushchair, co-erce other children out of the car and then push the pushchair one-handed whilst carrying rogue lunchbox/kit/small unwilling child with the other.

Or you carry the baby, juggling her with the aforementioned items.

But this time I had my Rockin’ Baby Pouch at the ready. In the time it took for all the boys to exit the car, I had Pink in the pouch and ready to go. And best of all – I had two hands free! Really!

She was secure, comfortable – and smiling like mad, she just loved it.

So – the technical bit. There’s loads of info on the web on the benefits of ‘baby wearing’ (using a sling to you and me), and almost as many types of sling. Thats where SaSa Slings excel – I spoke with Sandra, told her exactly how/where I’d use the sling, and she knew which one would work for me. Sandra is passionate about sling wearing, knows her products inside and out – it’s a font of knowledge which I’d advise you to make use of.

The Rockin Baby Pouch itself is handmade by a Mum somewhere in LA – the company only use local wahm’s to make their products. It’s kind of nice knowing that what you are wearing was made personally by someone, another Mum just like you. The choice of fabrics is amazing, they are reversible with one plain/one pattern side so your man can easily wear them too, and the padded rail that sits under your baby’s legs is a stroke of genius.

Oh, I can’t tell you how amazing this pouch is. Actually, I can. It’s so good, Katy and I have BOTH ordered one.

we really did love the Rockin Baby Pouches THAT much - this is me, sporting my very own rockin baby pouch.

Perfect, it is. The baby girl's not bad either...

Felt guilty that had no plans to do anything with the boys for the fourth Saturday in a row (Penalties of being married to a photographer – Saturdays are just a Wedding Zone in summer). Friend who is around on Saturdays needed to stay in and write an assigment (she got her degree in languages last year, and has now decided to add on another 2 years of study for the top-up – Masters? Something foolish for a single Mum who works, anyhoo…). So I texted her and said that I was happy to take her two off her hands (11 and 8, Cams best friend) for a couple of hours so she could study. She rang back and said yes pleee-e-e-ase! So we trotted over to hers to pick up her two – on the way my boys had a change of heart, and decided to not go to the park, but get the pools out in the garden instead. So her boys came equipped with swimmers for an afternoon on the water slide. Half way home I get a call from a stressed photographer – C’s 2nd battery had failed, and he’s down to the last cell on his first battery. I HAVE to get to Portland (off the coast by weymouth?) with his charger.
Hmmmph.
So I thought ‘I can’t take the two friends back home and disappoint them and their mum. I’ll take them too… But that’s not very fair on them, being as its an hours run’. So I went back home, picked up said charger, and grab some trunks/towels and a bottle of water (all hail the Caboodle, ready and willing by the door with all baby equipment already in stock!).

So we drove off to weymouth with a bunch of very noisy boys (thank goodness for sat nav!). We had to meet C at a sailing academy on the causeway between Weymouth and Portland. The opposite side to the boat quay is a large shingle bank. We stopped there, trudged up and over the bank, and hey presto, the most amazing sight – huge waves crashing down, SO exciting!
We stayed for an hour and a half, the boys playing just in the edge of the water – in over their shins and they got swept off their feet by the waves, they were rolling in a good 5’ high. Interspersed with some throwing-stones-at-a-target games, they just had a complete ball. And because it was too dangerous for them to go in the water, and the shingle prevented any running, and the beach was empty apart from the odd fisherman, I was able to maintain control of six children safely and comfortably.

We went back to the car about 6, got dried and dressed, and then whipped round to Weymouth for a McD’s (Shush, was a treat). All boys happy and content, delivered back to a very surprised and happy Mumma at 7.30, mine home and bedded just after 8.
What a great day! With very little effort I managed to rescue my man and make him muchos grateful, provide friend with 5hrs peace to study, be the bestest person in the world to 5 small boys, and also got myself a truly memorable and perfect afternoon by some really exciting and amazing surf (LOVE the sea I do). On top of all which I feel like a smug mumma for being so bloody perfect… :D :D :D

Just HAD to share a snap of my littlebig lad, Jacob, as The Octopus at his nursery’s summer concert yesterday. It was wonderful, pure magic. Sigh. How they grow so fast, too fast, way too fast…