Is Anyone Else Being Constantly Punched In The Tit?

Bar two days I've been off work with Finley all over Christmas. Its been lovely, Christmas and all its shenanigans and then just having normal days with him. Taking him to soft play, getting his breakfast, buying a multi pack of Petits Filous because he was actually around long enough to eat them all. We spread his Christmas over our two families, as you already know his upbringing is pretty much a family affair and its been great to be with him and everyone important in our lives. Its been pretty chilled, slow paced, relaxing and well just lovely.
Until I recount all the injuries I have sustained ... Seriously in a ten day period I have been bruised, poked, pinched, slam dunked and quite frankly conquered by my two year old. On the whole its been unintentional, but it all still hurts like a mother fucker. First up, he apparently likes to pinch my fat. If my muffin top is a bulging, he's right there pinching and giggling. Thanks kid, like I need that non so subtle reminder.  He also likes to tickle people, which is really sweet and all good fun in theory. Except his tickles aren't tickles, they are prods and pokes. He gets all his fingers together, comes at you from across the room and shouts "iggle iggle! iggle iggle!". And you have to grin and bear it because you love him and stuff but it really does hurt like a bitch. He's also taken to slam dunking people, this situation arises when he wants you to be a horsey but you haven't figured that out in time. So he launches himself at your back, knees to the kidneys and arms tight around your neck. You either go down and submit or you choke to death in seconds.

What's In A Stocking?

When I was a kid, 'The Stocking' was the most exciting gift of Christmas. Not because of the contents of the stocking but because of the magic of it! We didn't actually have stockings, we had those giant plastic 90s sacks, (none of these personalised hessian bags in those days). Father Christmas left them outside our bedroom doors and we would routinely tip toe across the room to just check on them in the early hours of the morning. I can remember now feeling through the plastic in the dark, trying to figure out what the box shape or the squishy thing was. We would dare each other to take a present out for a thorough investigation but it never occurred to us to open our stockings before we got the parental green light, where would have been the fun in that?

Because Christmas Is A Time For Children And Every Childhood Is Worth Fighting For

Yesterday I spent ten minutes making Finley a letter from Santa on the NSPCC website. Its a really great idea, by creating a cute letter for your child, and donating an amount of your choice, you can also help other children at Christmas. You can choose from a variety of templates, from Baby's 1st Christmas which would make a nice little keepsake, to pictures for older children such Christmas Baking. I picked Magic Stardust for Finley as it looks like a Choo Choo and he'll love that. You then get to personalise the letter with your child's name, likes and a special friend. You can also mention how they have been good or what they have been achieving at this year. A lot of the options were a bit grown up for a two year old so I chose 'playing nicely' and hoped Father Christmas didn't remember about the headlock incident....

The Colourful Bird Print Purse by Lylia Rose

I was recently approached by the company Lylia Rose to review one of their products. Looking at their online boutique I was very excited to be asked, the accessories are exactly my thing. I like unique jewelry and styles and am a bit of magpie for pretty items!

Having made a mental wish list as long as my arm, I stalked the site a bit more and discovered that the owner, Victoria is also a parenting and lifestyle blogger. She is a Mum of two who started up her own business with a great idea, a few quid and a lot of hard work. She's built her online boutique from scratch and has gone on to win awards and help charities. Pretty inspirational huh? 

In the end I selected one item to feature on my site, the colourful bird print purse priced at £14.99 including delivery. I do love it when I'm asked to feature a grown up product just for me! Its the print that caught my eye, I love bird designs on stationary and accessories and I particularly liked how bright and colourful this design is. 

As a working mum I have a lot of stuff in my handbag, from notepads to pens to baby wipes, I've lost count of the number of times I've found a plastic car or a smiley Happy Land figure in the mix. I also have a lot going on in my purse, which is another reason why I love this product. The number of cards I carry is ridiculous - appointment cards, business cards, loyalty cards for supermarkets and soft play centres not to mention the usual bank cards. My fancy pants new purse has ample card holders and sections for notes and coins.

The Eleventh Gift of Christmas : The Love2Read Book

The eleventh gift of Christmas is a personalised story book from Love2Read. All their books are unique because they are custom made by you with your photographs and phrases. There are lots of categories to choose from such as 'Where I Live' or 'My Third Birthday', I chose to create one looking back on what Finley had been up to this year.

I Like This One and This One and This One and...

We were recently invited by Aldi to taste test some of their Christmas range. Being the crazed cake lovers that we are, 'PUDDING!!' was my immediate knee jerk scream response to the enquiry.  Pudding, cake, dessert, heaven on a plate - call it what you like we bloody love it and at Christmas time it only gets better and better!
To ensure we carried out a fair and thorough evaluation of the range, Finley and I chose several products for the taste test. We wanted to make sure that our review was meticulous and we didn't want to leave any stone un-turned, just in case it had pudding under it! We took our pudding haul to my parents for Sunday lunch and everyone had a great fun tasting all the different desserts!

The Return of the Bastard Migraine

Previous to being pregnant I suffered with migraines on what I now realise was a chronic basis. I literally had a migraine, a visual disturbance or a constant headache every day. Every bloody day, for maybe three, four years. I just thought that was the norm for me. What a fucking idiot.
Then the wonder that is pregnancy happened! Yes it was great to be pregnant and have a baby and all that but that's not the point of this article. The point is that pregnancy made my migraines disappear!