Pumpuli are having a sale – seriously, you must go see if you’ve never looked at their site before (but be ready to go “ooohhhh….”

Pumpuli® products combine beautiful and high-quality garments, produced so as to put the least possible strain on the environment.

All their knitwear is hand-knitted (not mass-produced in some nasty sweatshop), and made from sustainably-grown organic cotton, which is dyed using only natural colours – wonderful things like rose petals! – or in many cases left completely undyed to show the beautiful natural colour of pure cotton. They even care about the packaging, using recycled, unbleached and otherwise sustainable materials wherever possible.

I personally adore the Diana Monkey Dresses, these adorable yellow Cardinal Cardigans, and the lovely Ridgeway Hawk Tops for the boys.

If only they stocked bigger sizes – stopping at 24mths is just plain mean!

Pumpuli organic knitwear for babies and toddlers

(PS – I was curious too, so I asked about the name:
“Well, curiously enough, Pumpuli is an old Finnish name for cotton. (Not that there’s much cotton being grown in Finland, but we just liked the word!) Guess it also goes to show what a small world it is, after all – and all the more worth protecting for it. The correct pronunciation, incidentally, is such that both the ‘u’s sound similar to the vowel in ‘foot’, and the ‘i’ at the end is as in the word ‘hit’.
So there y’go :)

his is one of the biggest items we’ve ever had to review on LittleStuff, but it’s also one of the most important buys a busy parent will make. As a family of six, to maintain any semblance of control on our own personal laundry mountain I need to do at least one wash a day – more for towels/sheets and the like. When LG asked if we’d like to review the new Steam Direct machine, I had a quick look at the spec and then literally snaffled their hand off. My own machine had started to make scary death-throes whines on the spin, and clothes were coming out with dark marks they hadn’t had when they went in. A new machine was essential – a buying decision I go through every 2 years since having children. And my own personal laundry mountain.

So what’s so supposedly special about this one from LG? Well, first and foremost is the clever-but-dull inside genius in the machine. LG have done away with the drive belt system of old (that has your machine waddling out from its cave when attempting the fast spin, and which whines, wails, and goes pop after a couple of years of intensive use), and instead attached a motor to the drum. And then they top it off by guaranteeing the motor for ten years. So the machine may be expensive (started at £800, now down to around £650), but in ten years I’ll have saved myself the cost of two replacements, and made my money back even without running costs.

Next; it’s HUGE – it takes a 9kg load. Thirdly, they’ve added steam, which should make it better at cleaning and stain removal. Last but not least it’s eco-efficient by clever jiggery-magic-ery which will not only save on my water/fuel bills, but also ease my green conscience.

But, of course, these things don’t always do what they say – so as is the LittleStuff way, one very very large and shiny black monster took up residence in my kitchen, and the trials began. Let’s face it – there can’t be much more daunting to a washing machine than a family of 3 boys, a toddler with pale pink clothes and a love of dirt and strawberries. Fair play to LG, I said. They must be quite confident.

So. Does it work?

Well… yes.
It does.
Perfectly.

The first thing you notice is the size of the door – clever designer LG people not only increased the drumsize, but the door is also a huge porthole to allow a kingsize duvet easy access (and leave room for the sheets too).
Then, the oddly friendly blue LCD panel (a sad little joy for me – it is never annoying and always makes me smile when it sings to tell me the cycle is finished) is huge and easy to navigate, with plenty of very useful but not overwhelming options (a distinct lack of the 6 settings you never touch).

The child lock is brilliant, works faultlessly, and is essential as small marauders will not be able to resist the panel of lit up musical buttons and tactile spin dial.

The first job of every cycle is to weigh your load (I have never yet managed a whole 9kg), and so decide exactly how much water to use.
Which means that it uses 35% less water, and the new drive system uses 21% less energy than traditional machines, bagging it the highest possible A++ energy rating. See? A machine that is kind to All Things Green.

So – small Happy points on the machine now we have the basics covered:

• It runs silently – pure happiness, after my old one, which used to drown out the television in the next room if I foolishly attempted an evening wash.
• The steam works by bringing the wash up to temperature faster – which makes an unbelievably handy 30 minute cycle possible. A total lifesaver on the 7 a.m. no-clean-school-uniform panic.
• It has an allergy care cycle which is not only perfect for parents washing a delicate newborns laundry, but also for any house with allergy sufferers (asthma and eczema would certainly benefit), as it removes practically all trace of dust mites/pollens etc.
• The refresh mode is brilliant too – pop in a wrinkled and/or whiffy boys shirt (or a husbands forgotten-till-he-was-in-the-shower one), and it’ll steam it into fresh, sniffable loveliness that doesn’t even need an iron. That one’s been a bit of a lifesaver too…
• The steam actually makes my whites the whitest I’ve ever had – I do try, but some of us just aren’t blessed with laundry organisation skills and dictatorship control of colours. But my machine forgives me and loves me anyway.
• It isn’t a miracle worker – some stains still refuse to be moved. But there’s very little that hasn’t been shifted and at least made better by the machine (especially in conjunction with a stain remover). And overall it is MUCH better than any washing machine I’ve used at getting rid of day-to-day boy debris, grime and mysterious purple marks.
• It’s a small thing, but I love the timer on the display, telling me exactly how long the machine has left to run.

So. I do less washing because of the enormous drum. What I do wash is done economically and efficiently. It runs quietly, looks beautiful, will rescue me at 7 in the morning and will also iron an emergency shirt for me.
Tell me what’s not to like?

(Well, there is one teeny thing. It will turn you into a bit of a sad soul who gets a gleam in their eye and talks washing machine technology to anyone who pauses for a nanosecond anywhere in its sleek black much-loved vicinity…)

Available all over t’interwebs – the model I reviewed was the F1479FDS, and prices seem to sit around the £600 mark currently.

I said I was going to write about cooking (sorry, to be completely truthful, that should be “cooking”) this week, didn’t I, but first an update.

The pooing may be coming under control. Now we’re looking at once, maybe twice, a day and Joe hasn’t woken up dirty in the night for a few nights. He’s still waking up between 4 and 4.30am which is a pain, but whaddaya gonna do?

I’ll tell you what his father wants to do. He wants Joe to go into his own room. Despite the fact that Harry went into his own room (very happily) at four months, I don’t want Joe to go. Harry was a very noisy sleeper and Joe barely makes a sound. But it’s not just that. I want him to stay with me. He seems much more of a baby to me than [...]

We need another weaning baby who would like to try out the new range of savoury meals from Organix. They are savoury meals for your baby from 6mths – and we just need you to let us know what your baby thinks of the meals you are sent!

Please mail me your name, address and name/age of your baby to info at littlestuff.co.uk (using @ obviously). Soon please!

This week I thought I’d write less about what I’m putting into Joe and more about what’s coming out. Because it’s been a terrible shock to the system. Mine, I mean, not his. Although presumably his too.

You see, Joe has been pretty much exclusively breastfed for six months and, like many breastfed babies, has not bothered much with the pooing, going less than once a week. Apparently this is normal. So my midwife told me anyway.

And that’s been great. We haven’t been overwhelmed with nappies, haven’t had any of those just got him dressed, left the house, exploding nappy, desperate dash home incidents that were so prevalent with his formula-fed older brother (the first time I put Harry in a baby carrier he pooed so extravagantly the carrier had to be binned), that is until I started weaning.

Now he poos all the time. Like five times a day. And during the night. He had been sleeping through (well, until 5am, which I don’t exactly consider through, but theoretically it is), but now he’s waking with a dirty nappy, sometimes more than once (last night it was 1am and 4.30am). And he wakes up in a panic, presumably because he too is unused to the unpleasant sensation of sleeping in his own, er, mess.

But then, because he’s a greedy urchin, he obviously thinks he’s woken up for food and so this panics him too and he can’t decide which need is the more urgent. So it goes something like, “ARGH! MY NAPPY! IT BURNS! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!” I start dealing with the nappy. “WOMAN!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I’M STARVING! FEED ME! FEED ME NOW! NOW, NOW, NOW!”

Woken from a deep sleep, I’m generally still trying to work out which end is up and Joe is melting down. I’ve actually seriously considered waking my husband and getting him to change Joe’s nappy WHILE I feed him. Last night I went for changing him first and his panicked wails woke Harry. (I did indeed wake my husband to go and deal with *him*.)

That aside, Joe is still enjoying scoffing and I’m still trying to get him into some sort of routine and actually cook something for him. So far, I’ve only managed to “make” him banana and kiwi fruit and tried and failed a carrot mash (how can you fail at mashing a carrot? Tune in next week!). He’s still loving the Organix stuff, the Banana Porridge and Summer Pudding being the particular ones he eats the way I eat crispy seaweed or Maltesers (i.e. with abandon. And unpleasant sounds. And mess).

Right. Better go. I’ve got a nappy to change.

by Keris Stainton
www.keris-stainton.com

Slopsville is sponsored by Organix – great taste and simple, honest goodness.

[...]

I’ve read many times that one of the first signs of a baby being ready for solid food is when they watch your fork travelling from meal to mouth. My son, Joe, was doing that in hospital the day after he was born.

After breastfeeding him (almost exclusively) for five months, I started to accept that I probably couldn’t put off weaning for much longer.

I would never have imagined I would feel emotional about weaning, but standing looking at a box of baby porridge, I found myself welling up… and so put it off for another couple of weeks. But when Joe rolled over and lay gnawing on the leg of the coffee table, I realised I couldn’t put it off any longer.

His first meal, like his older brother’s before him, was [...]

We’ve had a message from this film company which we’re ahppy to pass on (please be aware the documentary is nothing to do with us, we’rew simply messengers!):

BBC DOCUMENTARY: THE 7 AGES OF PREGNANCY

Calling all first time mums-to-be – are you due this summer/autumn?

Whatever your age we would love to speak to you about your choices, attitudes and the changes pregnancy is bringing to your lifestyle. The documentary will be a warm, thoughtful look at pregnancy today, in which our expectant presenter will meet 7 women having a baby at different times of [...]

See, quite often we get asked to review products, and we either hand them back, or spend time constructing an amusingly grumpy review that will never see the light of day. But of course, that gives you the impression that we only ever think nice things about products sent to us. Not true!

So, we’ve decided to use our blog to publish the Invisible Reviews – the ones we get asked not to put on the website :)

Here’s the first, a short and to the point one from Keris on [...]

As a family I have to admit we usually stay in the UK for our holiday. Occasionally we say it is for financial reasons, or because its just easier with a young child. But the truth is we all love it – nothing makes us happier than a day started over breakfast all together, packing up a quick picnic and then heading off to the middle of nowhere to spend the day meandering on the moors and splashing in a river. The boys really do just love to do the ‘boy’ thing (though I have a strong feeling the 2yr old Pink One is going to show us its not a ‘boy’ thing at all), and spend their days roaming the countryside and just exploring. We are normal modern parents, and our children rarely get the chance to just ‘go be’ – on holiday they find the independence and freedom extraordinarily liberating. It takes them a day or two to find their feet and understand that here there are no rules or timetables, but then it is an amazing thing to watch them open and relax and learn to enjoy each other. No squabbling over Xbox controls or Go-Go’s or SpongeBob vs Suite Life – all are banned. Instead harmony reigns as they work together to build an immense dam, construct a swing from an old bit of rope, create a fortified sandcastle (with working bridge, of course) or simply race each other to the top of a rocky outcrop.

Research published today suggests they are not alone: Forget expensive family holidays abroad or costly theme parks – British schoolchildren are happiest when visiting the seaside with their parents. The majority of children quizzed in the nationwide poll say the best [...]

Toot! Toot! Read all about it! New product review has been posted for the Silver Cross Halo baby rocker chair! Get your copy here…

Many thanks to Pol, our tireless-about-to-be-Mum-to-3 reviewer!

My Elemis oil arrived in the post amazingly fast, next day delivery. I was 18 weeks pregnant with my third baby and very excited to try out something which could potentially avert any further stretch marks!

It came very well packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with the Elemis logo on, and it was like Christmas when I opened it up and saw the bottle of oil nestled snugly in Elemis tissue paper. The bottle itself is nothing special, plain brown glass with a little spire shaped screw cap which completely belies the gorgeous smelling oil inside. I couldn’t smell the oil in the bottle but once I had rubbed it into my skin and it gently warmed up it gave off the most beautiful exotic smell. I quickly found that I didn’t need much of the oil as it did go a long way, but once it had sunk into my skin it wasn’t at all greasy as I had expected. It left my skin feeling smooth and smelling gorgeously exotic.

I’m now 34 weeks pregnant and I’ve rubbed the oil onto my bump every day so far. My skin feels beautifully soft and smooth and although I can’t see underneath my bump anymore, my husband assures me that not one single new stretch mark has appeared! It has even reduced the appearance of my existing stretch marks, making them slowly fade. My husband has also been begged and cajoled into giving me several massages with the Elemis oil, although I’ve put a stop to them for the moment as they seem to have more effect on him than me! It is reassuring to know that the Elemis oil is specially developed for pregnancy and is safe to use, as I am always unsure which aromatherapy products are safe and which aren’t.

I will continue using the Elemis oil until my baby is born, and even beyond for the odd massage… wishful thinking with a new baby I think! Although the oil is expensive I think it’s definitely worth it for a product that lasts so long, smells so good, works so well, and gives me peace of mind knowing it is safe to use.

When the delivery of my new Silver Cross Halo Rocker arrived, I’ll be honest, I really wasn’t expecting much. Despite being pregnant with baby number three I have never bought a decent rocker chair for either of my children, they both had to make do with cheap bouncy chairs.

First of all I loved the design on the box – it had a photo of two children doing typically what children do with a large box, sitting in it pretending they were pirates on a ship.

I’m 34 weeks pregnant and baby doesn’t even have the luxury of his or her own room this time, so there wasn’t much point me getting the rocker out as I had nowhere to put it yet. I couldn’t resist having a peek though, and opened the box, prepared to have to assemble the rocker and then take it all down again for storage. I was impressed as I dragged out a huge durable silver carry bag, which was very easy to carry and not as heavy as it looked. To my delight I zipped open the bag and was surprised to discover that the rocker needed no complicated assembling – the legs just clicked into place and the hood just clicked up. I thought the hood was a wonderful idea to help nosy babies settle down to sleep.

I have the Parchment design and the colours are gorgeously stylish, with a well padded oh so soft newborn insert. The design is very modern and contemporary, a relief at last to have something that looks good in my living room rather than bright animal or teddy bear prints!

Although I didn’t need the easy to read instructions for putting the rocker up they will come in handy for reference when taking the covers off to wash. Luckily they come in a handy keep-safe folder.

The rocker also features four ‘rock stoppers’ to keep it in a stationary position, a zip-off hood, a well padded secure 5 point harness (very useful when you’re a baby with two rather boisterous elder siblings!), and the hood incorporates a fantastic carry handle to move baby from room to room with you.

I also noticed that the rocker is good size for a growing baby and will last until baby is sitting up unaided.

The Halo rocker rocks beautifully smoothly, it looks gorgeous and comfortable, it comes in modern colours, and is very user (read tired sleep deprived parent!) friendly. The legs and hood just click and fold down again for storage, and the rocker slides easily back into the carry bag.

Having no expectations of the rocker whatsoever, I fell in love with it straightaway and now I have seen and played with it, despite being very expensive I would definitely have spent the extra money to buy it myself. I can’t wait for my baby to arrive and try it out, let’s hope he/she loves it just as much as I do!

Jake is Here! Review Update…

Well, my brand new baby boy Jake is now a week old and I’m emerging from the fog of sleepless nights and dirty nappies to report back on the gorgeous Silver Cross Halo rocker. I initially loved the rocker and was curious as to whether my baby would too. Jake went in the rocker as soon as we got home from hospital – after being passed around his brother and sister for cuddles of course! I found it a little difficult to strap him in properly, but only due to him still being all new and curled up like a frog. Even so he seemed content to be in the rocker.

Jakey is now just over a week old and has been in the rocker for daytime naps and just general awake time, every day. My opinion of the rocker has not changed at all – and Jake loves it too. The newborn insert is so sumptuously soft and cosy, and the straps are well padded too. Jake looks so comfy in there sleeping or watching the world go by. I’ve found the hood and carry handle to be a great features because I can just click the hood up and carry Jake into the garden with me while I hang out the washing and the hood protects him from the sun.

All in all, still a resounding ‘We love it!’ from Jake and I!

£99 from Silver Cross

This article caught my eye today…

The older I get the more I’m learning that “somewhere inbetween” is best.

We are so excited to announce a new feature we are working on with Organix. It was all a bit serendipitous… they have a new range of meals out that needs a decent review (email us ‘info at littlestuff’ if you have a weaning baby and would like to review), we have a reviewer who not only happens to be a writer but also the proud mumma of a 6mth old baby hungry for something other than milk – and us in the middle, passionate about All Things Organic.

(You can see where this is headed, yes?)

So Keris (you can see [...]