Don’t tell everyone but… the grand ELC 50% off sale starts TOMORROW!!!! Go, shop, buy bargainous STUFF :)

We love tea.

We are very happy to learn that tea is really good for you! :-)

Okay, this weeks Blog Love is unashamedly for ME. As a fellow mother of four, I love Four Down, Mum to go?, and often read it with a nod and a warm feeling of sisterhood.

This weeks post, as usual, is warm and insightful, funny, and gave me the familiar nod of the head – but this time I thought I’d share it. [...]

We are in need of some weaning babies please!

Organix have asked us to trial their new savoury meals, which are for both Stage 1 and Stage 2 weaning – so 4mths+ and 7mths+ is the labelling, though of course we don’t recommend you start to wean before 6mths, in line with the Government and WHO recommendations

If you’d like to take part, just email ‘Organix at littlestuff.co.uk’ (trying to fox the junk mail ‘bots, use the usual @ symbol obviously) with your name, address and name/age of your child.

Thanks!

The review is now live over on the main site – you can read it here – but here’s a few more pics from Jackie of their weekend in the apparently ultimate family friendly hotel she’s ever visited (and she’s been to a few).

Woolley Grange near Bath - a true family friendly hotel

[...]

I literally fell into this blog following a trail on facebook (like you do). One of my own friends ‘liked’ one of the posts, so I went to see

what she liked, and found myself lost in a new blog for 30 minutes going ‘ooooh!’ occasionally. Then I realised it was Friday, it is Blog Love day, and I just found me the perfect post! Serendipity.

So, Sea and Wood is the journal of Caroline Wood. It is [...]

Our reviewer Jackie has just returned from a weekend at Woolley Grange, which is part of the Luxury Family Hotel Group.

Her full review is coming shortly in the Family Friendly holidays reviews section – but here’s a sneaky preview of what she thought (and of course some photos of the delicious Sophie taking her reviewing duties VERY seriously). [...]

We currently have these toddler bags on review, and I can promise you that they are gorgeous. My only question was why you couldn’t get a colour choice – and look! They heard me!

Now in new gorgeous colours!

With new offers on the CoCooi range, and free delivery, they are completely worth a visit. Plus of course they are one of the few companies who provide sleeping bags for when your toddler has outgrown their baby bag – and still doesn’t want to move to a duvet!

The good folk at Mookie Toys are letting us giveaway (if you answer the question correctly) TWO of the zoomy-good-fun Smart Trike Plus trikes (worth £69.99 each!).

Gotta be in it to win it! :-)

We’re fixing up a purty new blog… but its a work in progress… it’ll look perfect soon. Honest.

in the meantime – don’t adjust your monitors people, It’s our fault ;)

Always happy to announce a winner! The Halos n Horns competition has been won by Fiona Riddell from Leicester – a complete set of the Halos n Horns range will be landing on a doorstep near her shortly!

Keep your eye on the competitions page for new great prizes!

The Little Taggies Naturals competition is now closed, and the winners are below:

Lisa Hughes, Cleckheaton
Sarah Cooper, Bridgend
Ann Carline, Shrewsbury
Fiona Duale-Jolliffe, Norwich

Congratulations all!
Don’t forget to visit our competitions page – There’s always something to enter, with lots of new competitions lined up for the next few months!

Just wanted to show you this cute photo of Amelia in her O Neill UV sunsuit from The Beach Factory. In April we ran a competition on behalf of The Beach Factory to give away five of these fabulous childrens’ sunsuits. Amelia’s Mum was one of our winners and very kindly wrote to thank us:
“Just wanted to thank you for the O’Neill Sun Suit. Amelia had it on today for the first time and loves it – as you can see!
Anyway, just wanted to say thanks – it will be invaluable this summer.”

From Saturday, 30th May to Sunday, 14th June LEGOLAND are offering a massive 20% discount on all purchases of the MERLIN Annual Pass. This means that prices start from as little as £76.80 per person for an entire year of entertainment.

This is one of the few times LEGOLAND have ever discounted the MERLIN Annual Pass, making this a very exciting opportunity for all families!

Benefits of the Merlin Annual Pass

With a MERLIN Annual Pass everyone can enjoy 12 months unlimited* entry to the UK’s top attractions. This not only includes LEGOLAND Windsor but also Alton Towers, London Eye, Madame Tussauds London, Warwick Castle, Chessington World of Adventures and Zoo, THORPE PARK, London Aquarium, The Dungeons, SEA LIFE centres and SEA LIFE Sanctuaries.

This is a new offering from Silver Cross, and is the step past the big ole changing bag. There comes a point when you have a running around toddler who is almost out of nappies and your baby-bag needs change. No longer do you need a bag that comes with 6,432 pockets and a kitchen sink as standard. But you do often need more a little more than a grown up’s handbag (remember them? I have fond hazy memories of half-empty bags and not a lego brick or stale raisin in sight).

The Buggy Organiser fills that gap perfectly. I wasn’t sure when I first saw it – a bag made of neoprene? And how would I fit in all the ‘stuff’? But of course as it was on review I had to actually use it and try it out. So I did what any sensible Mumma does with a new bag – I filled it.

There is a great storage area for nappies/wipes/sacks. A bottle holder (big enough for a toddler sized bucket) and a couple of handy small pockets. Plenty of room for phone/keys/wallet/lippy and MP3. When you undo the bag, you have an instant change mat which is actually wide enough for a toddler bottom. Best of all, I can hang the fully loaded bag on the back of my ultra light kick-up umbrella stroller. When it has no child in it. And it doesn’t tip! I can now hang the bag on the stroller before I get Pink out of the car – and when I turn to put her in it, the pushchair isn’t lying on its back on the pavement (familiar with that dance?).

The lightweight flat design is perfect for strollers – although designed by and for Silver Cross, it will fit any pushchair. I keep mine fully loaded in the car and simply slip it on the buggy when necessary – I wouldn’t be without it now!

Yup, when you have kids you find that you need dull but necessary things in your life. One such neccessary thing is some sort of mattress protection for all sorts of reasons but especially for when your little person hasn’t quite fully mastered total bladder control, all night long.

We have been asked to review the Aquasolari washable bed pad and our brave little 4 year old reviewer, Maya, has volunteered (well, actually, her Mum has…). We’ll let you know her experience with Aquasolari soon.

The Silver Cross Sleepover is a lot of pram for a fair amount of money.

For the first few months of Joe’s life, we used it as an alternative to a crib (and an alternative to his hammock, which sometimes – for no apparent reason – he wouldn’t settle in). We used it with the rocking stand, but didn’t actually bother with the rocker (you can set it to static) because the rocking motion is minimal and made a bit of a thunk, which wasn’t all that comforting. Joe seemed to love it, though, and it looked great.

Once Joe was a bit bigger, we started to use the pram. The first thing to say is that it’s very impressive-looking. I felt proud pushing it, like a Victorian nanny. The hood is large and can be pulled low enough to keep almost all sun off the baby’s face. The main problem we found was that both the body and the chassis (I had the ‘classic’ are very big and wouldn’t fit in the boot of our smaller car at all (it is very small though, so we weren’t that surprised). What did surprise us was that it pretty much filled the boot of our bigger car. We’d planned to take it on holiday (since Joe would be able to sleep in it at night too), but once we’d put it in the boot, there was no room for our suitcases.

The pram is very easy to put up and down and fairly simple, if a little fiddly, to change the covers, whether that be for washing or to convert from pram to crib.

We’re now using it as a pushchair and Joe and I both love it – it’s roomy, comfortable, and easy to use – but, again, we can only use it for local walks, since it won’t fit in the car.

All-in-all, it’s an impressively versatile pram, and I love the sleepover system – but if you intend to use it with a car  then I would investigate the Linear chassis as probably the better option.

Available Direct from Silver Cross for £575

Just gorgeous. That’s what we say about Freya Design wooden keepsake boxes. We were asked to look at the baby trinket gift boxes; three little boxes (in blue or pink flavours) for keeping baby’s name braclet, first curl and first tooth. These boxes are utterly delightful and very well made (tiny magnetic catches on the lid of each box).

If you are looking for a simply gorgeous gift to celebrate the arrival of a new baby then go, browse their beautiful boxes for babies section. Perhaps you are looking for a wonderful birthday present that’s a bit different from the endless supply of toys many children seem to have these days? Have a good browse at their trinket, jewellery, keepsake and money boxes. I can’t think of a child or parent who wouldn’t be thrilled to receive one of these charming little wooden boxes, just gorgeous.

Set of three keepsake boxes £19