Remember how I said this week I was going to write about making Helen’s Rice Pudding for Joe? Well, I bought all the ingredients and then David made it. He was sick of waiting for me to do it. It had been three, maybe four, days. He is so turning into his mother. Anyway, I’ve bought more ingredients and will endeavour to make it this week. (David’s version, btw, not so good. He didn’t follow Helen’s recipe and ended up with a kind of giant sticky rice ball. We all ate it though, obviously.)

So I’ve been a bit stuck with what to write about since Joe’s plodding along quite happily. He’s doing really well. Loves Weetabix, is always happy to cram an Organix rice cake into his mouth whole, eats pretty much whatever you put in front of him (although he did reject spinach, spaghetti and tuna at lunch today)… so not much to report.

And then I remembered something. The bear and the owl. [...]

Loooook, doesn’t that look like such a nice place to lay your head,  bat a few dangly cute toys and wriggle around under?

The good people at Coochie Coo are letting us give away one of these Noukie’s Kaya & Pinto baby play gyms in our latest competition to be found here.

G’wan, go enter, do it for the little people…

We’d like you all to join us in saying a big ‘Hello’ followed by a rousing round-of-appause to a fantastic website that has just joined us here at LittleStuff…

Coochie Coo is a modern and chic online store for baby, Mums and Dads inspired by those special moments that we share with our babies – first look, first cuddle, first smile.

Coochie Coo have searched long and hard to source great quality brands such as Noukie’s, Bebe au Lait, Skibz, Itzy Ritzy, Skip Hop and Cuddledry to provide you with innovative products designed for comfort, quality and style.  Each order is handwrapped as a gift, tied with raffia and finished with a signature gift tag for a unique and personal touch.

Go, have a browse at their website here.

What is it about stripes? And blankets? Combine the two with a gorgeously fresh made-of-trees-and-wind-and-sunshine website, and it’s hard to resist these beautiful beautiful bed blankets from the Stripy Company. The thing with blankets is that they last and last… this is one children’s item that will easily outgrow the nursery and still be loved and more importantly used in 20 years time. Go on, we dare you to resist.

Especially ones that look like this…

Absolutely stunning keepsake gift to be won in this competition

The Day That… are letting us give away one of their beautiful framed photographs to one lucky winner in our latest competition.

Click here to see full details.

This weeks Blog Love goes out to ‘Sleep is for the weak‘. The post is ‘it’s hard not to want‘ and is simply a very lovely reminder of how to do a little Blessing counting.

I had a long comment i wanted to add about everyone having ‘wants’ and how important they are… but I’m surrounded by four children, it’s Sunday afternoon, and I’m going to go and enjoy them. Go, read the blog post, and have a think about your own ‘wants vs haves’.

We just LOVE this idea! We have already adopted an ‘odd socks’ policy in this house, and the odd gloves idea is brilliant – and you get to soothe your Green Conscience too! So, go visit Do The Green Thing and splash out a a few pennies to equip your fingers for the winter ahead.  You buy a pair of Glove Love gloves for the insanely inexpensive price of a fiver (yes, just £5!) plus VAT and postage. You can choose your size but not which ‘pair’ you’ll get – pot luck means an extra surprise when they arrive in the post. They come in men’s, women’s and children’s, so a brilliant idea for Those Who Lose Gloves At School.

Our culinary-genius Helen has rustled up another yum-scrum recipe for us…

Bread & Butter Pudding

I have found this to be a great way to fill my daughter up. It can be eaten by the whole family but I blend my daughter’s with a little extra milk. It looks like bland mush but it still tastes great.

50g butter, melted plus extra for greasing
300g bread (I tend to use brioche)
500ml full fat milk
3 eggs
75g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla pod)
1 tbsp soft brown sugar and 1tsp cinnamon for sprinkling on the top

1. Slice the brioche into thin slices and brush with melted butter.
2. Using the extra butter grease the oven dish.
3. Arrange the brioche in layers in the oven dish.
4. Heat the milk in a saucepan until boiling.
5. Whisk the eggs with the sugar and vanilla extract
6. Pour the milk over the eggs whisking continuously.
7. Pour the milk and egg mixture over the bread (you may need to strain the eggy milk mixture through a colander first).
8. Sprinkle over the brown sugar.
9. Allow to soak for half an hour (if you’ve time, if not just put into oven).
10. Place into a pre heated oven (150 fan) for one hour or until the custardy centre is set.

You could also add to the layers of bread some raisins or thinly sliced apples – whatever works for you (I put apples in the one pictured).

You can read Helen’s own blog here – http://www.redders.typepad.com/

We’ve had this zoo light on review from MiniLine – it’s exclusive to them, and just plain gorgeous. But there’s no room on the review for some proper pics, so I thought I’d show them properly here, and really do it some justice:

The zoo light from MiniLine - Lights ON....

And Lights OFF. Pretty, yes?

This time of year, we all start to notice the lights in the house – simply because we’re actually ‘seeing’ them for the first time in months! This ship light from our favourite lighting store MiniLineLights is just wonderful. It comes in pieces that you have to pop together, but they are light and easy to assemble – and once done it looks truly brilliant – and big, measuring 40cm to the top of the sails. Toby didn’t actually notice it hanging in his room until he climbed into bed and looked up –and then his mouth made a perfect ‘O’ of delight before splitting into a big grin. He then had to scramble back out of bed, carefully turn the light off, collect his brothers and demand they come and see, and turn the light back on with a grand flourish. More delighted “ohhh”’s and a “Wicked!” – which is about as good as it gets round here.

Toby sleeps on his back, and he loves looking at this light with his MP3 player on as he’s dropping off to sleep, and he says that once the light is off he can see it in the glow from the hall light and it makes him feel like there’s a sky ship waiting just for him.

It is light and easy to clean, being a frosted-plastic-type material (and yes, that’s the technical term for it), and just brightens the whole room. It does diminish the light slightly, but not enough to make the room too dim to read or play in – and it is so perfect, you can’t help but win a small persons heart with it.

£35 from MiniLineLights

The Heights of Abraham is another great family day out in the Peak District. High above the small town of Matlock Bath, you get to it either by walking (long, hard, hideously steep climb) or by cable car (easy, ‘fun’, and only moderately heebie-jeebie-ish). The full review of our day out is coming soon to a LlittleStuff review near you, but in the meantime here’s a few pics of our visit:

In the cable car going up (and yes that small black snakey thing is the road, all the way down there).

The view from up there really isn't too shabby

[...]

We took our family holiday in the Peak District this year – and one of our top days out was to Chatsworth. The full review is coming over on LittleStuff very shortly, but here’s a sneak preview of our day in pictures:

(NB – the Beyond Limits sculpture exhibition closes on the 1st November, so don’t miss it. Take the children this weekend and make the most of this glorious autumn to spend a day exploring the grounds of Chatsworth – you won’t regret it).

A house that looks like this - yet manages to feel warm and welcoming to a brood of boys.

Toby didn't get the hang of the whole wig thing, but Joe looks scarily authentic, don't you think?

Totally getting the whole period drama thing now. Bunch of hams.

[...]

A rather Halloween’y competition for you…

We’ve 10 copies of the new ‘Room on the Broom’ ePlayBook to be won.

What’s an ePlayBook I hear you cry?!? Go visit the competition page, follow the link from there and all will come clear…

Each week, I get a newsletter about what to expect at each stage of my baby’s development. A couple of weeks ago, it included the following:

“Any day now, if she hasn’t already, your baby may try feeding herself.”

Any day now? Joe’s been doing it for months! Months! Trying, I mean. He’s only actually succeeded in the last couple of weeks, but he’s been failing at it for ages.

I think he sees it as a great way to combine his two favourite things: eating and making a mess. Yes, he’s happy for me to feed him, but I generally manage to get the food into his mouth, whereas, I imagine he thinks that if he does it himself he could shove it in his ear, throw it on the floor… the possibilities are endless!

But he’s not unaware that if he sticks the food in his ear, he’s not actually getting to eat it, so he certainly wouldn’t [...]

I tried a couple of baby carriers with my first son, but found the first (a ‘harness’ style) hot, uncomfortable and impractical (also, the first time I took Harry out in it, he pooed so extravagantly that he burst his nappy and filled the sling, which put me off it a bit) and the second (a wrap) impossible to use with only two hands, so while I was intrigued by the Babasling, I can’t say I had particularly high hopes.

But rather than being tricky to ‘fit’, the Babasling literally just goes over your head and under one arm like a sash. And then you stick the baby in it. That’s it. Oh there are different positions for the baby – lying down, sitting up, facing forward and more – but the gist is still put it over your head, stick the baby in it. Easy.

The first time I used it I found it a little bit tricky manoevring Joe over my shoulder and then pulling the fabric of the sling over him and positioning the bottom part behind his knees, but that was just because he was small and I felt like I needed more hands. Once he was in – curled up against me, his hot breath against my neck – we were both happy and, within minutes, Joe was asleep.

This has happened pretty much every time I’ve used it. I still haven’t tried out the other positions because he likes to be against my shoulder and I like it when he’s asleep. (I like it when he’s awake too, incidentally, but asleep’s so much easier.)

I use the sling on the school run and it’s so much quicker and easier than getting the pram in and out of the car. I wouldn’t want to wear it (and the baby) for hours on end (I think about half an hour is probably my limit), but for short walks I think it’s brilliant.

Plus it’s easy to wash and dry, folds up into its own little bag and will last until Joe’s two. An excellent piece of kit.

There’s a fabulous rainbow of colour options available from the Babasling website, and all are the same snip at £40.

This week’s Blog Love daisy is awarded to Millennium Housewife’s post ‘Things I Have Said To My Two Year Old Today’ because it made me laugh and laugh and then laugh some more.

Then I scrolled down and snort-laughed my way through ‘Things I Have Said To My Husband Today’.

Go, click, but have no beverage in your mouth when you do or your screen-n-keyboard will not forgive you….

The leaves are turning, the nights are drawing in and there is a nippy chill in the air so my thoughts turn to hibernation and…….. slippers.

Last year Laura and I lost a few hours of our lives doing the Annual Slipper Hunt together but as she’s currently away bounding across wide open spaces and my feet really cannot wait for her return I had to go it alone. It did not start well (sigh).

Slippers are funny old things. Essential but usually so darn ugly and uninspiring. Is it really too much to ask for an indoor footcovering to not make you feel so old and frumpy?? Why can’t they invent a slipper that makes you feel as fabulous as those gorgeous 2-inch heels languishing in the bottom of your wardrobe?

Click after disgruntled-click, I ploughed through page after page of dull, dull, dull… but then, just as I was about to give up, I found it – Slipper Heaven – and they call this heaven Ruby+Ed. Ahhhhhh, go, take a little look and I dare you to not fall in love with at least one pair… maybe two….

They do utterly gorgeous children’s ones too….

An enormous stack of goodies, two stacks in fact, to be won in this competition.

A fantastic prize to win for Mums-to-be and those who are now Mums-to-newborn and are yawning from sleep derivation as they read this blog post… ssssshhhhh, she’s nodded off….