Dear So and So

Dear Facebook.
You can dress it up however you like but you are not having my mobile number. Or any other number for that matter, as i'm pretty confident you'll just sell it on to your advertisers, like you did with all my other information.




Dear Black Eyed Peas,
 For crimes against music ... i cannot believe how you have ruined one of the best songs ever! The Time Of My Life was a classic, a Classic! And you wrecked it! I cant forgive you. I wont! You have lost a fan, i'll not be buying another of your albums ever again.




Dear Facebook
I feel it may be pertinent to consider changing your name to 'Two Faced Book' while your double standard remains. I have seen (and complained about) nude and lascivious photos on your website, yet some of these remain. But a picture of a feeding baby - not even a hint of areola - gets removed. Id like to ask if you are ashamed of yourself, but im pretty sure id be wasting my breath.




Dear 'Doctor'
 I pray to God you never ever experience the excruciating pain that has been my weekend. I suspected you were unsympathetic when you refused to refer me on, but i had no idea you would go to such depths of pigheadedness! 
 You see, your refusal to make my pain-killer prescription a repeat prescription has meant ive had to go without one third of my pain relief for three days.
Three. Days.
 Thats three days of absolute squirming horror, of sobbing with pain every time i held my baby, of not being able to eat. Three days where very quickly the idea of just stopping breathing is looking like an attractive alternative to the pain i am constantly in.
 I know you dont believe i have a disability, that you think im not really suffering because i chose to continue breastfeeding and stop taking the morphine. It saddens me that as a mother yourself you cannot fathom my choice to endure pain (beyond the power of the tablets) in order to do what i believe is best for my child.


 Rest assured, you will be my doctor no longer.




Thats all folks! Thanks to 3bed for the button, give it a click - see what you find!

New Hair!

Wahoo! Its only been about two years since i managed to get my hair cut (not including my frustration-driven hacking-off-of-ponytail a few months ago!). 
 A lovely friend of mine paid for a nice hairdresser lady to come over.  This is the result...

Oof, its a bit natural but Husband caught me, the bugger. Oh well, im quite pleased with it :)


*dashes to press post before she chickens out*

My baby.

I love that baby of mine, i do. 
The weight of his sleepy head on my shoulder fills me with a contentment previously unknown, my pain such a tiny price. I look into his eyes and i could just fold up with love. When he smiles at me, that wide-mouthed gummy grin, i could burst i am so full of happy. 


He is mine and i am his.
He sleeps on my chest, my breast nourishes him.
My life is richer for his presence. 


With him in my arms no dark cloud dare approach, the sun always resides, strong and bright.
 I know him completely, his every look, every sound. His tiny hand in mine, so precious and fragile. His dependence a gift so fleeting yet one to be enjoyed. His future so full of choice, so much promise and love to cherish.
I love that baby of mine, i do.




(apologies for the all the goo, normal service to resume soon x)

Its all in the definition.

I got told recently that im inspirational.
How should you react to that? 
I dont think im particularly special or unusual, im just...... me. 
Thought id probably best check the meaning...


"in·spi·ra·tion·al
[in-spuh-rey-shuh-nl]
–adjective
1. imparting inspiration.
2. under the influence of inspiration; inspired.
3. of or pertaining to inspiration."


Uh, ok. Not greatly helpful. Lets try again...


"in·spi·ra·tion
[in-spuh-rey-shuhn]
–noun
1. an inspiring or animating action or influence.
2. something inspired, as an idea.
3. a result of inspired activity.
4. a thing or person that inspires.
5. Theology .
    a. a divine influence directly and immediately exerted upon the mind or soul.
    b. the divine quality of the writings or words of a person so influenced.
6. the drawing of air into the lungs; inhalation.
7. the act of inspiring; quality or state of being inspired.


Ok, thats a little better.
Lets see - number 1... i dont think thats going to be it, im not exactly what you would call 'animated' at the moment!
No 2 - I can do organising, i can do planning, i can even do common sense (usually for others) but im not really your ideas person.
What about 3? Seriously, the closest i get to activity is my wobbly, slow trips to the bathroom on my crutches!
4 - I dont see how i am in a position to inspire, unless it is inspiring people to not get pregnant and risk ending up like this! ;)
5 then, maybe this one? My mind is the consistency of wallpaper paste after five pregnancies, and my soul? I cant see it to be able to tell you. My 'writings' are really no great shakes, just somewhere i inflict my ramblings upon those la-la enough to read them.
6, this is more like it, i definitely do this one!
7 - last but not least! Naw, we're back to this again.


I think we had it on six, as breathers go im not bad at it. In fact, ive kept it up for 28 years - hey, thats pretty impressive!


Well look at me, maybe i am inspirational after all ;) 

Ella's Kitchen review

Wandering about on BMB the other day i happened across a post from  Paul (representing Ella's Kitchen) looking for Mummy blogger volunteers to review some of their products. Remembering how impressed i was with their range when Chickin was weaning i jumped at the chance!

 I was very impressed at how speedily my emails were replied to, and soon we had a box of goodies arrive at our door. As soon as the box was opened Chickin squealed in delight - she had spotted the smoothie fruits! Wrestling her off before she could scoff the lot, i arranged both her and the food tastefully in the corner....

(sorry about the quality of the pics, i tried fixing them but then they wouldnt upload *sob*)

The box contained four smoothie fruits - one each of the green, purple, red and yellow, two snack packs - the red chewy one and the green chompy one, and four toddler meal pouches - tomato pasta, salmon risotto, cottage pie and Caribbean chicken. What a generous bounty!


First go - The green 'Chompy one' snack pack.
This bright green pyramid shaped package contains 5 smaller pyramids each filled with a mixture of raisins, chopped apricots and dates, and dried apple and banana. There is also a little sprinkle of rice flour, i think that is to stop it all sticking together. All the ingredients are certified organic and have absolutely nothing added to them.


Id say they went down pretty well...

It didnt take them long to get chomping! Though Chickin (centre) needed help to open hers.

Dreamer (10) liked the 'cool' packaging. He said he would like to see it in his lunchbox or it could replace his after school banana. His only complaint was that the apricot pieces were 'a bit hard'. It soon all disappeared though!

Princess (5) said that it was 'yummy, well except from the wrapper', and she hoped we would 'actually buy some for real for after school'. Spying big bro and his charming mouth-filling antics, her pack soon went bottoms up...

Chicken (2) ate hers happily too, once i opened the packet for her. She declared it to be 'dislishum' (meaning delicious, her current word for food which passes muster) and tipped the lot in too! Im still finding little raisins in the bed - she obviously forgot her mouth isnt quite as large as her brothers and sisters is!


All in all id say it was a resounding success, all three of the testers liked the food and finished their pack (Manic was out at his school play, he'll be joining the fun for the next item we try out). Dreamer and Princess both asked for them to be included in lunches or to be used at snack time.


As a Mum im impressed by Ella's Kitchens organic certification. I love the back story of Ella's father looking out healthy yet tasty alternatives to the high sugar, processed and generally-mucked-about-with snack items aimed at children. Id be happy to use them myself and also to recommend them to other parents too.


I was all set to launch into a complaint about 'pricing for organic vs non-organic' and how 'many of the families i know feel priced out of feeding their children organic foods', but i stopped, and went to check the prices of the snack packs at the three large super-shops which stock them. I was pleasantly surprised! Ocado and Waitrose quote £1.99 per pack (of 5 snacks) which i would say is the upper limit for what you get, but Asda quote them at only £1.50 - a price i find fairer and far more appealing!


Whether you are planning to buy an Ella's kitchen product or not, id suggest taking a wander along to their website http://www.ellaskitchen.co.uk/ which is full of information and has a game, a competition, advice on weaning, free recipes, info on how to recycle their pouches and a fair bit more.

Now..... the all important score.....Im going to give my very first review product..... 10 out of 10! This product is, in my opinion, a fantastic choice representing good value for money, attractive packaging and taste-tester thumbs up!

Go Ella's Kitchen! 

Next review to come - The smoothie fruits.

Heartbreak!

Having been a blogger for oh, all of seven minutes, i am of course horribly heartbroken that my thousands of insightful, touching and humorous posts have not earned me a nomination in the BMB fresh voices (new blogger) category.


Pardon?
I dont seem to have written thousands of posts? Not even hundreds? Not even One hundred?


Oh.


Maybe i should spend less time on my Amazon wish list and a bit more time writing posts?
Well, i suppose it cant hurt! :D 






Psst, while im here, you might want to visit these four lovely ladies, all of whom can be voted for in the BMB blogging awards found here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B3HWHDZ


Imperfect Pages http://imperfectpages.wordpress.com/
Mid 30s Life http://midthirtieslife.blogspot.com/
Making It Up http://www.liveotherwise.co.uk/makingitup
Mocha Beanie Mummy http://www.mochabeaniemummy.com


These ladies, in my opinion, really do deserve their nominations x


(Apologies to anybody ive missed out)

Silent Sunday. Awesome baby.

**************************************************************************

Check out the Silent Sunday button to join in!

Yellow hats and green hats.

Once upon a time (a very long time ago) every single baby that was born was given a yellow hat.
The yellow hat fitted just right, it was made of natural materials and it lasted for as long as the baby needed it.


Sadly, a small percentage of parents found the yellow hat difficult to get used to, or (very rarely) the hat just didn't work and the babies got poorly. To help the parents with the poorly babies, somebody invented a green hat. It was made from man-made materials, and there were a lot of instructions to follow, but it was better than no hat at all - it was a useful back-up plan.


This was how things stayed until some other people realised that selling the green hats (and all the bells and whistles which were needed to make them fit) could make them lots of money. The green hat manufacturers didn't care about what was the best hat for the babies, they just wanted everyone to buy one of their green hats so they could be rich.


So the green hat companies decided to start campaigning for their hats. They were very sneaky in their work. They told people that their hats were better, more convenient and meant less baby-related interruption to their lives. In fact, they even managed to convince some medical professionals with their lies!


Some parents resisted the green hat companies, understanding that the yellow hats were the very best, and they encouraged everyone to try a yellow hat first. They passed on the benefits of yellow hats, how natural they were and so simple to use, how there were no extra things needed to make them fit - unlike the green hats.


The yellow hat parents only wanted the very best for the babies, but some parents had been confused by the green hat companies and the green hat supporting doctors and nurses. These parents started to believe that the yellow hat families were wrong! They got cross with them and tried to make them feel bad! They tried to embarrass the yellow hat families into never letting their babies put their hats on outside the house or anywhere public.


Luckily, some of the Big Importants understood that yellow wasnt just the best type of hat, but the most natural and normal, so they made sure the right to dress your baby in a yellow hat was protected, and noone was allowed to ask a parent to leave a public place for their choice of head-wear for their child.


These things happened over a very long period of time, and many hurtful things were said by both groups of parents. A divide formed and the choice of hat for your child became a very touchy thing to discuss. Even to this day feelings still run high.


What i cant understand is when it became ok for anyone to make you feel bad for your choice. If your choice was a well informed one, which took into account all the possible effects of the decision, you should be allowed to stick by it without being made to feel bad or guilty or wrong. 
 I dont believe that people who are trying to help keep parents informed should be shouted down or called names, so long as all they do is present information, and understand that not everyone will choose their hat.


My personal choice is the yellow hat, and it always has been. Saying that, ive struggled with lack of instruction, at times i knew of noone around me whose child wore a yellow hat, i have even encountered some of the pro-green medical professionals! But i will never feel bad, or be mean to someone whose choice was different, because i am comfortable in the knowledge that i did the best i could with what i had.


And that is how we close the divide and end the bad feeling - informed decisions, support and understanding, and no more name calling (we are parents now, after all!).