Once again we have batted our eyelashes at some lovely people, and they have responded magnificently.

PedalPushers (you’ve seen their site, yes? Fabulous outdoor toys, gorgeous dressing up stuff and some really rather special rainy play days items too?) have offered you an exclusive 10% discount on Dressing Up, Rainy days and Early Years items until the end of November. This is the place Christmas presents are made, so get you over there and make the most of the bargains.

OFFER: 10% off everything in Dressing Up, Rainy Days, and Early Years

CODE: LSTUFFNOV

EXPIRES: 30th November 2010

If you’re a parent, I find you’re in one of three camps. Loved lego as a child but a) your children aren’t old enough yet b) you can’t bear the thought of all those BITS c) you’ve been ‘got’, and can wince in sympathetic agony if someone whipers “lego knee” at you.

But I have never met anyone who doesn’t like Lego. I mean really – what’s not to like? It’s universally adored for all sorts of reasons (except maybe the price of the new sets… but that’s what Grandparents are for, and 2nd hand lego is JUST as good, yes?).

But did you know that your child can be a member of the Lego club, and receive the magazine – totally for free? It’s brilliant – not just packed with adverts to help your child build an unattainable wish list. It’s full of stories, quizzes, Building tips, pictures from other modellers, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes news – it’s honestly a fab read (I have been known to sneak a read myself – I love the interviews with ‘real’ lego Masters, I somehow imagine them all to be secret squirrels in funny hats…)

Andthere’s even two versions, the usual one (click the green banner on the right) and the Junior version for under sixes (image on the left). It says for under sixes, but actually my tender-natured practically-8-yr-old is far happier with the Junior version still.

And no, Lego doesn’t pay us for advertising. We just love these, and know you will too. Or more importantly, you’ll gain yourself a free 15 minutes with a hot mug of tea and Google Reader whilst your child loves the magazine for you.

This weeks Blog Love is swooshing it’s way to The Contented? Maybe – a blog I’m really rather fond of. It’s just so lovely – the writing is a gentle meandering wander around the thoughts of “a white English 31-year-old married woman who writes, reads, bakes, plays golf, loves karaoke, has a crush on Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs and is scared of pigeons.”

Accompanying these lovely mooches around her brain are really sweet sketches – the design of this blog is such a refreshing change. No heavy, complex, or over-prettied templates – just a simple clean page with the authors words, decorated by her oh-so-charming drawings.

I’m waiting with baited breath for the news of the imminent arrival of the baby (7 days late now)… click on the daisy and come send get-on-with-it thoughts to the baby with me. And don’t forget a wave to Rambo.

When we had our first baby, I found the transition from bottle to solids incredibly stressful. After asking friends for advice, and spending way too long scraping boiled courgettes through a sieve, we bought a hand blender.

It wasn’t very good. It didn’t seem to blend the food,  just rearranged it in the pan, livening up only to splatter the kitchen.

When I had my second baby, Joe, I was sent the Breville Baby Meal Times Set for review. I don’t know what the difference is between our old blender and the one included in this set, but this one was a revelation – from ‘proper’ grown-up food to baby slop in seconds. Completely brilliant. (It’s also very easy to clean.)

As Joe got older, we graduated to the slower blending speed so food was ‘blended’ rather than ‘pureed’ and then we moved on to using the chopper attachment. Basically, completely foolproof.

Also included in this set is 4 pots, a spoon and a recipe book. I must admit to not using the recipe book a great deal. The blender was so great that we generally just blended up whatever adult meal we were eating. The pots, however, were great. We’re still using them now and Joe’s 19 months old. They’re the perfect size for baby meals (and can go from freezer to microwave) and now they’re the perfect size for snacks in the car.

–
Keris Stainton

Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” - Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and Girl Meets Cake

http://www.fiveminutespeace.co.uk

What a totally brilliant idea this is – a dress designed for your labour and birth! I scoured the shops for  a button-up nightie to give birth in, which allowed ‘access all areas’ (*ahem*) but kept me decent on my moaning, huffing, getthisbabymoving walks of the maternity unit.

But how much nicer is this ‘Birth Wrap’? (on top of which it’s a versatile look that you can use for more than just your Big Day). And the rather lovely Ann at Happy Tiny Babies has it on an amazing 50% discount for just a few days – get over there quick and snaffle one up for yourself at the bargain price of just £30.

“This beautifully light, practical wrap is made from super soft cotton and allows for quick easy access for skin-to-skin contact as soon as your baby is born.

Easy to move and be monitored in, you’ll feel feminine at home or in hospital, knowing you are fully covered when you want to be.”

OFFER: 50% off Womama Birth Wrap dress

CODE: none needed

EXPIRES: 31st October 2010

Wheely Bugs go wheeeeeeeeee!

The very nice people at Pedal Pushers Ltd. are letting us give away an awesome ladybird Wheely Bug to one lucky winner.

Wheeeeeeeeeee!!

This weeks Blog Love is a rather convoluted one – it’s a fab post on the British Mummy Bloggers Blog, which is passing forward a fab post from Holly Buchanan originally posted back in February. It’s all about her research into “Why do women blog?“; please do click on the daisy, and watch the video all the way to the end – it’s a very powerful 6 minutes you won’t regret spending.

Before the cars went kaput, we’d got into a routine of going swimming every Sunday. It had been a long time coming – we’d tried various local swimming pools with little success (too dirty, too inconvenient, too crowded, too small changing rooms) and had finally discovered a brand new leisure centre with family changing rooms and free family swimming on Sundays. Brilliant. But a 15 minute drive away.

Harry was keen to keep going and we didn’t want to disappoint him, so it would have to be the bus. I decided to stay at home with Joe (who was usually at the end of his tether post-swim anyway, without adding two bus trips to the schedule – and what would we do with the pram?) and David and Harry set off on the 15 minute walk to the correct bus stop. It was a great success, but between walking to and from the bus stop, waiting for the buses and then the journeys, they were away for four hours. That’s a pretty big chunk out of a weekend that we like to spend as a family.

Another family routine is Kids AM at Vue Cinema. We don’t go every week, but we do love it. That was one thing that’s totally doable on the bus. Harry is actually a very entertaining bus companion. He chatters away and actually enjoys the novelty of a bus journey. It was that novelty that made me think going without a car could actually be a good thing, for Harry at least. New experiences and all that. And when he’s complained about the car situation, I’ve done the ‘you’re very lucky to have had a car! Lots of families don’t have cars!’ thing. I got a bus when I was his age, what’s the problem?

Well one problem is the other people on the bus. On the way there, a man started talking to us about the next town along and made a racist remark, which thankfully went over Harry’s head, but which I could still do without him being subjected to. On the way back – bearing in mind it was about noon – there was an extremely drunk bloke yelling and telling dodgy stories.

“He’s very loud,” Harry said. “I hope he gets off soon.”

He did. He got off at the pub.

I resisted the urge to join him.

–
Keris Stainton

(you can read more in the Carless Whispers series by clickety clicking on the image above)

Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” - Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and Girl Meets Cake

http://www.twitter.com/keris

http://www.keris-stainton.com

http://www.fiveminutespeace.co.uk

Those really very lovely people at the really very lovely Gifted Penguin site have given us an exclusive discount offer for you. You can get 15% off all items in the Childrens Gifts department by using the code LS10, throughout October!

May I personally point you at the incredibly perfect Gruffalo tin lunchbox, the Moomin Hot water bottle, and the brilliant Cath Kidston Cowboy Bath Robe.

OFFER: 15% discount in Children’s Gift Department

CODE: LS10

EXPIRES: 31st October 2010

There are some weeks when  the blogosphere doesn’t hand me a single ‘whoompf’ moment. I read a lot of blogs, but I need a post that makes me react emotionally or intellectually for me to mark it down in the Blog Love list.

But then there are weeks like this week – when by the time Friday comes round I have a few contenders I feel deserve shouting about. So I’ve decided on a Wild West Round up, and show you them all…

First was Readily A Parent, with her thought=provoking essay in what Genuine Activism really is – her blog is always an interesting read, but this post led to a great discussion between myself and some friends.

Next came Mummy Mania – who happened to be my first ever Blog Love. I adore her writing – but what a heart-stopping, fist clenching read her last few posts have been. A new baby, and then within a couple of days her mother suffering a major stroke. Please  start reading back in September, and send your thoughts and love to her and her family right now. She needs them.

Lastly, was the always-lovely Chez Spud, on the coming of Autumn. She gave me a little oooh! moment over her conkers. She made me snort at her brilliant Seasonal narkiness… And then I read her glum anticipation of Christmas. Then I read it again. Then I read it out to The Husband (who reacted exactly as I expected with a very loud cheer).

So – a collective ‘Hooyah!’, all – we’re taking Christmas in hand this year. And we’re bloody well going to enjoy it. AND January too.

(don’t forget to leave a comment and some blog love of your own, all three of these ladies deserve it this week – and an extra big gentle one for Mummy Mania).

You can see more of our Blog Love choices here…

I love peanut butter. I’ve been known to eat it direct from the jar. Not lately, obviously, I’m much too mature and sensible for that (*cough*) but it’s definitely one of my favourite foods. I particularly love it with jam, like the fake-American I am. Over the years, I think I’ve tried every brand. Some are too oily. Some are too salty. Some aren’t salty enough. Whole Earth peanut butter is, as Goldilocks would say, just right. So when they offered to send me two jars – one crunchy, one smooth – I did a little happy dance.

I would have been perfectly happy keeping it all for myself, but since it was sent to me as a “mummy blogger”, I thought I’d better let my kids eat some. But my 6-year-old wouldn’t even countenance it. This may be because I spent probably the first half of his life yelling at him to keep away from anything with a suggestion of ‘nut’. So I tricked him. I gave him toast with a very thin layer of smooth peanut butter and he ate some happily… before squinting at me and asking if there was peanuts in it. When I told him there was, he refused to touch it again. Foiled.

Fortunately, not everyone in this house is quite so suspicious. But I must admit I was a bit nervous about introducing 20-month-old Joe to peanut butter. What if he had a reaction? We currently have no car – how would I get him to the hospital? When I started thinking that the only safe way to introduce peanuts was to do it standing outside A&E just in case, I got a grip and put a thin layer of smooth peanut butter on some toast. Joe isn’t a big fan of toast so I hoped it might encourage him. And he loved the peanut butter – he licked it all off and threw the soggy toast on the floor.

(And he was fine, of course.)

–
Keris Stainton

Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” - Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and Girl Meets Cake

http://www.twitter.com/keris

http://www.keris-stainton.com

http://www.fiveminutespeace.co.uk

As we suspected, David’s car was done for. Not completely beyond repair, but bad (and expensive) enough that the mechanic suggested it wouldn’t be worth doing. And when a mechanic is telling you not to bother, you don’t bother.

We’re lucky in that David only works 20 minutes away and can get a bus there from the end of our road (the buses back are a little trickier, but still doable). The fare is pretty steep – £25 per week – but we’d be saving that on petrol anyway, so fine. In fact, at first I was so blinded by the savings I couldn’t think of anything else. I felt giddy with the prospect of all the spare money.

And then I thought, “But how will we GO anywhere?!”

Getting to school and work is one thing, but what about weekends? Holidays? My family lives an hour’s drive away, but it’s a right pain to get to on the bus.

What about shopping? There aren’t really any supermarkets within reasonable walking distance and there are certainly no independent shops.

Walking home from school with Harry one day, he mentioned Williamson Park in Lancaster. We love it there. We drive over the Trough of Bowland, go to the park and then drive to Morecombe for fish and chips.

Which we eat sitting in the car.

Realising we would no longer be able to head off for days out, I felt bereft.

“What are we going to do about a car?” I asked David.

He shrugged, “What can we do?”

Right.

Okay.

It’ll be… an adventure.

–
Keris Stainton

Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” - Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and Girl Meets Cake

http://www.twitter.com/keris

http://www.keris-stainton.com

http://www.fiveminutespeace.co.uk

To celebrate the launch of Garfield’s latest film, ‘Pet Force 3D‘ (in cinemas from 1st Oct 2010 and on DVD from 18th Oct 2010) we’re giving away five copies of his previous DVD adventure ‘Fun Fest‘!

Click here for full details and entry form.

We are giving away three fantastically funky children’s t-shirts from Junior Mafia in our latest competition. The winners will be able to choose either the ‘Bad Boy for Life’ design or the ‘Naughty Nature’ design.

Click here for full details and entry form.

Gotta be in it to win it!

In a new series from the little-bit-brilliant Keris Stainton (she of the weaning diary ‘Slopsville‘ fame… and rather less importantly a small amount of minor stardom as a much-touted fabulous YA author of course), Carless Whispers is a record of her family’s experience of Life Minus Car…

Once upon a time, we had two cars. Well, I say once upon a time – it was about a month ago. The MOT was due on my car (a titchy Daewoo Matiz) and my husband David said it would certainly fail. With petrol prices as they are and my insurance being pretty high since I only passed my test a few years ago, running two cars was expensive and, we decided, unnecessary. We could manage with one, we said. We’d managed with one up until a year ago when my dad found he could no longer drive for health reasons and gave us his Rover. It would mean doing the school run on foot, but I could do with the exercise. It’d be fine.

So we scrapped my car. I was surprised at how emotional it was. I felt guilty, thinking I should have tried the MOT – maybe the car wasn’t as bad as we thought. Maybe it would have passed. I should at least have given it a chance! As it was put on the back of the scrap merchant’s truck, I actually cried. It had taken me a LONG time to learn to drive and it was my first car. I was going to miss it.

I started doing the school run on foot – me, my 6-year-old son Harry and 20-month-old Joe in his buggy. It’s about a half hour walk each way, but it was good. We had fun. A few times when I picked Harry up, it was raining heavily so I phoned David, who works just 20 minutes drive away and finishes at 4, and we waited in the library for him to pick us up. We were saving money on insurance and petrol, had got £60 back on the Road Tax and £80 scrap for the car. It was all working out very well. (Did you just hear the “sod’s law” alarm going off?)

After a couple of weeks, we were driving up to David’s parents to drop the boys off for the night. David was going out with work colleagues and I’d planned an indulgent evening of Friends repeats and a Chinese takeaway. As we headed up quite a steep hill to their house, the car started making a strange rattling sound.

“That’s not a happy sound,” I said.

“Nope,” David agreed. He seemed to be having trouble changing gear.

“Has it been doing that for a while?” I asked.

“Just started,” David said.

We made it up the hill, but the rattling continued on the flat. We turned a corner and headed up another, smaller hill. We got to the top, stopped at the junction and… the car died.

“Great,” David said.

“Is that smoke?” I asked, pointing at the front of the car.

David rolled the car back to the kerb and parked it. I hauled the boys and their bags out of the back. We walked the last five minutes to the in-laws’ house.

“Maybe it’s nothing,” I said.

But we knew.

We all knew.

Even Harry said, “What are we going to do about a car NOW?”

Good question.

–
Keris Stainton

Debut novel DELLA SAYS: OMG! out now
“Confidence-boosty sex-positive first love goodness. This could be the Forever of the 21st century, girls…” - Susie Day, author of Big Woo! and Girl Meets Cake

http://www.twitter.com/keris

http://www.keris-stainton.com

http://www.fiveminutespeace.co.uk

I know we usually do a Blog Love on a Friday, but this is an extra; Rosie Scribble’s is a blog deserving a very special mention right now.

A few weeks ago, Rosie travelled with the Pampers and UNICEF teams to witness the progress of their “1 pack = 1 life-saving vaccine” campaign which is helping to eliminate maternal and newborn tetanus (MNT).

Clicking on the daisy will take you to the start of her story – if you haven’t already been following, then please do take ten minutes to go and read, and please make sure you have added your own Big Kiss to the campaign.

Oh,how I’m a sucker for something soft and cosy. But this blanket… it’s not just me, we ALL love it. And not only is it soft and pretty, but it’s oh so very practical too. It was early this year we welcomed the Stripy Blanket into our fold. And I don’t think a day has gone by with it remaining unused since. So deliciously wonderful, it will be loved and cherished for many many years.

It has been a picnic blanket in the garden, dragged around as a ghost, curled up with on the sofa, and included on the first camping trip – sitting round the fire by the river and getting smoky (and a teeny bit marshmallowy) was just a bit special.

It has been washed and dried more often than I would like – and it still looks gorgeous. It’s actually a bit of a Mary Poppins blanket – Practically Perfect in Every Way. WasItAnyGood? Oh my, yes it absolutely was.

More pics here, the review is here, and you can nab your own version from The Stripy Company – we have the Lambswool multistripe Cotbed size.

Sometimes, just sometimes, you need a little whimsy in your day, yes?

I actually tried not to like Mila’s Daydreams. I did. I mean, it’s silly, isn’t it? And smacks of all that I don’t like about staged, dated dressed-up-baby photography.

But actually, it’s nothing of the sort.

It’s charming, sweet, funny and just makes me smile a little.

Because at the very heart of the images is Mila. Sound asleep in that arms-flung-out-fists-clenched way babies do.

And I can’t even imagine the time and effort Mila’s Mumma Adele goes to every few days to imagine and capture a daydream whilst Mila snoozes peacefully on the carpet. My personal favourite is The Paperdoll – but do click the daisy and have a meander through Mila’s dreams, see which one you love best.

Clever and gorgeous.

(if you want to see our other Blog Love posts, just click on the link on the cloud over there on the right. We guarantee a worth-your-while read for every single one of them)