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What to Buy The Kid Who Has Everything! – Bean Bag Bazaar Review

By Mum's the Word on December 5, 2012 in Christmas, Parenting, Review

This year, Christmas present buying hasn’t been quite so simple. Sausage is getting older now and is at a bit of an in-betweeny phase – lots of stuff seems either too young or too old for her and she has quite a lot of everything already. Plus, don’t you find that you spend a few months caching ideas of what to get your kids for Christmas, only to be asked by lots of relatives what they’d like and you end up giving all of your ideas away?!

One thing that has saved us a bit, in terms of ideas, is that we’re giving Sausage’s bedroom a bit of a makeover to bring it up to her new ‘big-girl-who-goes-to-school-now’ standards so we’ve been thinking of things that we can get her to make it into her very own girl-cave! For one of her big presents, we’ll be getting her her first TV so that she can watch her DVDs in her room and have her Wii console in there too. We had wanted to get her a small armchair to go in there too but all of the ones we liked were astronomically priced, so we looked at beanbags instead and found Bean Bag Bazaar.

Bean Bag Bazaar doesn’t just cater for kids, they sell bean bags for adults too for both indoor and outdoor use, bean bags which are ideal for gaming and some beautiful kids ones to boot. They also have a range of Jacqueline Wilson bean bags which are brightly coloured and perfect for a reading corner or a spot of TV watching, and we’ve been lucky enough to be sent one to review.

The one we chose was the Jacqueline Wilson™ Kids Classic Bean Bag – Bookshelf (£49.99 pictured above) and although we’ve put it away for Sausage to have at Christmas, Husband and I have given it a through once-over and the quality is really very high. The material that the bag is made of is not only bright and beautiful but feels incredibly hard-wearing too and I can imagine it taking a real battering without any problems! The blurb on the site says:

“This Jacqueline Wilson™ style bean bag is officially designed by BeanBagBazaar. It has a pretty bookshelf print and is the perfect accompaniment to the latest Jacqueline Wilson™ book. It is made from strong and sturdy water-resistant fabric and features double zips, to keep all beans secure inside the beanbag.”

It’s suitable for ages 3-10 and the he best part about the beanbag is that it can be used indoors and outdoors, which means it will be perfect for Sausage to sit on in the garden and read her books or do some drawing when the weather starts to improve. We can even imagine taking it camping or to the beach in the summer as a handy seat too!

If you’ve got a kid who’s hard to buy for, I can highly recommend any of the Jacqueline Wilson range and judging by the quality of this beanbag, the rest of the ones on the site would be a great buy too! Oh and all kids beanbags are buy one get one half price at the moment. Two very enthusiastic thumbs up from The Crammonds!

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Some Ideas for (shhhh!) Christmas…

By Mum's the Word on November 15, 2012 in Christmas, Parenting, Review

Okay, okay, I’m sorry to start talking about Chrimbo so early, but I hate to tell you this – it’s not actually that far away now! We’ve started our Christmas shopping already, which is massively early for us, but I know people who have not only finished their shopping but actually got it all wrapped already!

We’ve been sent a few things to review recently, all of which would make fab pressies for the kiddos, especially ones of Sausage’s age, so I thought I’d do a round-up of them all there, just in case you were looking for some ideas for the 4-year-old girl in your life:

Jungle Junction Playsets

A while ago, we reviewed the Jungle Junction Hippo Bus for UKMums.tv and because we loved it so much, as soon as we were asked to review some more Jungle Junction set, we jumped at the chance! We were sent the Taxicrab Boat Play Set and the Race Launcher, both of which we absolutely loved. Both items are really well-built and as with the other Jungle Junction sets, they’re bright, durable, engaging and fun. The Race Launcher is especially good if you have more than one child and we can imagine a whole lot of fun being had on Christmas Day with character races going on!

Moo & Baa

Haba kits are great for so many things, including hand-eye co-ordination, imagination and learning safety, and the Moo and Baa kit is no exception. The farmyard pieces are simply stunning with bright colours and gorgeous illustrations and they have the feel of a really traditional, hard-wearing set about them. Sausage loves being allowed to use the hammer and tacks as it makes her feel really grown up and she also likes to use it to make story scenes.

Minilotta Nici Doll

This doll is intended for use in the bath and comes with a range of accessories all of which can go in the bath too. I must admit, this particular toy has really invigorated Sausage’s interest in bath-time again and the mitt that goes with it has encouraged her to take more of a hand in bath-time and become more independent, all of which can only be good things. Giving a little girl a plush dolly which can be used in the bath is, quite frankly genius, and giving them one that has changeable outfits is off the scale of brilliant, so I can HIGHLY recommend this to little girls of pretty much any age.

Poppy Cat

We received the Poppy Cat Talking Soft Toy and the set of mini figures, both of which Sausage loves. The mini figures are popular as she loves to take a little toy along with her when we go out in the car and these are so perfectly pocket-sized that she tends to choose one of these every time. At the end of her bed, Sausage has a selection of cuddly toys that she calls her ‘Herd’ and only the best toys get a place in her Herd. The plush talking Poppy Cat was inaugurated into the role of Herd Member almost immediately, which should give you a clue as to how great this toy is!

If your little girl is yearning for anything in particular, I’d love to hear about it, all suggestions for Christmas are gratefully received!

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Learning Burn Out?

By Mum's the Word on November 6, 2012 in Education, Happiness, Parenting

Now that Sausage has got past the anxieties that made her first few weeks at school difficult for her, she’s taking to it like the proverbial duck dipping his toes in the pond. She’s already on books with words, she has been for a few weeks in fact, and she’s excelling in just about every area. She’s even becoming more physical, something she’s been apprehensive of in the past because she’s not that confident when it comes to climbing or heights. All in all, it’s been a hugely positive experience for her and it seems only to be getting better.

If you read our review of the Jolly Phonics Home Kit, you’ll know that Sausage has also been coming home and wanting to do more learning. She’s given a new reading book once a week by her teacher, but this isn’t fulfilling her thirst for reading so she’s been attempting to read the books from her Dr. Seuss set too. On top of this, she’s been completing the exercise books that come with the Jolly Phonics kit, insisting on Husband and I holding word flashcards up for her to read, asking to practice writing and doing various things on my laptop and her Dad’s PC such as the Jolly Phonics CD-ROM.

Husband and I are both absolutely thrilled that she’s taking such a keen interest in learning and the increase in her confidence has been phenomenal, but we’re also both worried. The thing is, she’s only four and while we’re happy to encourage education it’s difficult to know when to say ‘enough is enough’.

This evening, Sausage was at her exercises until almost 8pm, having already done writing practice and some number work. She’s done a full days school and then probably up to 2 hours of extra work, which is the same amount of work that I was set to do at home each evening at my very academically focussed secondary grammar school. In saying ‘no’, are we limiting her or at risk of alienating her or putting her off? By letting her fill her boots, are we at risk of letting her burn out or lose interest? I just don’t know.

It’s a real noodle-scratcher, this one, and I fear it’s one of those things that we’ll only know by letting it run its course and adapting as we go. Hey, just like pretty much every other aspect of parenting, then, yeah?!

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Paranorman – Why We Loved ‘THAT’ Joke

By Mum's the Word on November 4, 2012 in Education, Family, Parenting, Personal, Politics

Last Monday, despite Sausage being poorly, we all went to the cinema. We’d had the tickets booked for a while and it was meant to be the first of a list of activities we had planned for Half Term. As it turned out, poor Sausage was too ill for anything else all week, but that’s a different post. The film we’d booked to see was Paranorman. We’d seen a trailer for it when we went to see Ice Age 4 and we all thought it looked great so we were excited to finally see it.

The film didn’t disappoint, the animation was brilliant, the storyline mixed humour, sadness, dark undertones and even sneaked a moral message in there about acceptance, appearances and people who are ‘different’. The characters were likeable and it was one of those films that adults could enjoy just as much as the kids. In short, it was a proper fun family film.

One of the sub-plots of the film revolved around Norman’s sister trying to get the attention of another character in the film, Mitch, a hulking great jock who seems oblivious to her advances. She’s a pretty girl (in the way that animated plasticine can be pretty) and you wonder why Mitch is so resilient to her feminine wiles. I assumed he was either too stupid or too into his muscles/sports/van to notice. Then, right at the end, they chuck in a moment of brilliance.

Courtney finally plucks up the courage to ask Mitch out for a date, to which he replies “Sure. My boyfriend loves chick flicks.”

This makes Mitch the first openly gay character in an animated family film. I found a quote from the scriptwriter who said this:

“I wanted it from the start, absolutely. It seemed like the best bookend to that whole tolerance thing and to do it as a joke, a kind of throwaway thing, but something that has NEVER been done before. I think we’re telling a story about intolerance, so you have to be brave about it.”

As far as I can gather, there’s been a lot of backlash about this from parents who think they’ve been tricked into taking their kids to see a film which is forcing some sort of gay agenda onto their children, but quite honestly, this is exactly how we should be approaching the subject. I’ve seen quotes from people saying that they don’t want to have to explain homosexuality to their kids, but hey, guess what, a fucking cartoon just did your job for you, BE GRATEFUL.

As the old clichéd but true phrase goes, kids are like sponges, if we start normalizing things and referring to them in the nonplussed way they have in this film, it will just become a part of consciousness, rather than a big issue. Did you have to explain to your kids why men and women love each other? I doubt it, and if they see references to gay and lesbian couples they won’t question that either, it’ll just be part of ‘The Way Things Are’. And, if you’re one of those people who think that having gay characters in cartoons will turn your kids gay? Please. Go and get sterilised.

It’s not just brilliant that they’ve managed to slip in into the film, it’s that a throwaway comment which took up two seconds of a 90 minute film has challenged people’s perceptions. Mitch is a big, tough, sporty guy, the stereotypical Mr. America. He’s not a flouncing fairy, or struggling to come to terms with his sexuality, he’s not an acerbic bitch, he’s not the smart, cosmopolitan lawyer, or any of the other ‘types’ of gay guys that the media throws at us. He’s just a guy and he’s open and confident about the fact that he fancies other guys. Which, essentially, is what homosexuality is, right?

I think it’s brilliant that we’re finally starting to see some sort of acceptance in the mainstream media. Between this and Marvel Comics writing the first gay wedding into ‘Astonishing X-Men’, these are the strides we need to be making which will improve things for future generations. I want Sausage to grow up into a world where tolerance is not something that’s debated and argued over, but something that’s a foundation of society and if gay cartoon characters is the way to start, then I doff my cap to Laika.

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My Jolly Phonics – A Review

By Mum's the Word on October 21, 2012 in Education, Family, Opinion, Parenting, Review

Sometimes, I get given items to review that are so overwhelmingly brilliant that I don’t even know where to begin with reviewing them and this is the case with the My Jolly Phonics kit, so instead of procrastinating over it for ages and leaving it miles too long, I thought I’d just dive in and see where this takes me!

A Bit of Background

As you probably know, Sausage started school in September, which means learning to read and write. Husband and I have actually been teaching her for ages and she already knew her alphabet and could write certain words, such as her name, so she had a fairly good base-knowledge going on. Before she even started, I knew she’d be using the phonics system to learn and I started to make enquiries, but struggled to find resources that I thought Sausage would find really engaging.

The Kit

Once she got started at school, she came home with songs she’d been singing to learn her letters and a quick Google of “The snake is in the grass, the snake is in the grass…” and I found that the system she was doing was Jolly Phonics. I found their website and discovered that they actually offer a home learning kit to compliment everything the kids are doing at school. The kit includes 7 activity books, a DVD, a CD of songs, a CD-Rom of games for the computer, a story book, a poster and a set of three-sided pencils.

Our Opinion

I really cannot emphasise enough how brilliant this kit is. At a penny shy of £100, you may think it’s a bit pricey but I can unequivocally say that, had I not been sent the kit for review, I would happily have paid that. The songs are absolutely brilliant, all set to tunes that you’ll already know, such as ‘The Farmer’s in the Den’ and ‘Jingle Bells’, and are so catchy that Husband and I find ourselves singing them at random. Sausage and I also walk to and from school singing the songs, which is a fun thing to do whilst being sneakily educational!

We’ve got the poster up in our lounge and just having it there as a focal point helps Sausage to remember her letters, as well as prompting her to learn, even on a more subliminal level. The CD-Rom is absolutely brilliant, the games are simple yet engaging and Sausage absolutely adores them. Despite having spent all week at school, she actually asks to play the games at the weekend as they’re so enjoyable.

The CD is great fun, especially as it comes with a full song book, allowing us all to sing along and the songs are short and punchy so it never gets boring or feels like a chore. The story book is great too as it has stories to help Sausage learn her letters, as well as giving words for her to read herself and has enough pictures to remain visually engaging too.

With the DVD, I can stick it on for Sausage and happily leave it playing. I’ve noticed she kind of ‘dips’ in and out of it, paying attention to some of it and zoning out on other parts, but I figured she’s soaking it all in, one way or another, which can only be a good thing!

Verdict

Before Sausage started school, I was very much of the opinion that ‘systems’ for learning were pointless – until we started Jolly Phonics (a sentiment which her school teacher shared at our parents afternoon recently). Since we’ve started using the kits alongside Sausage’s schooling, we’ve seen huge improvements in our, already fairly advanced, child but more importantly she finds it fun and engaging enough that she wants to get involved and do the games and activities. The songs stick in her head and have definitely helped her to retain the information she needs.

The fact that Husband and I now understand what her teachers at school are teaching and the way they’re teaching means that we’re able to properly compliment her daily learning and stay abreast of her education in a way that we all enjoy. The kit is good from age 3+, which means you can start this system even before they start school if they’re ready and the exercise books take them all the way through until they’re reading independently.

The whole family can highly, highly recommend this kit!

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Treasured Secrets

By Mum's the Word on October 9, 2012 in Family, Parenting, Personal, Photos, Pregnancy

I discovered something the other day; my Husband is a complete and utter sneak.

I’ve spoken about my pregnancy enough here and in other places for most of you to know that it was utterly miserable, but for those of you who are new here, I found out I was pregnant because I was puking so much that I tore a hole in my oesophagus. The hyperemesis gravidarum continued for near-on five months during which time I also developed SPD, gestational diabetes, polyhydramnia and a number of other oh-so-pleasant things which meant that the famous ‘pregnancy glow’ eluded me completely. I was ill and miserable for 8 and a half months out of the nine that I was pregnant.

Because of all this, I became completely phobic of seeing myself. I banned all photography around me and as far as I knew, not a single photo of me pregnant existed. Four and a bit years on, I felt completely rueful about this, cross at myself for my own stubborness and gutted that I had not a single pregnancy photo.

Until, that is, I discovered my Husband’s sneakery! We were going through some archived photos the other day so that we could show Sausage the pictures of the sharks we saw in the Maldives and we found not one but several photos of me, with-child! I honestly had no idea they existed, convinced that any photos that he did manage to get at the time had been deleted. And because I’m so pleased, I thought I’d share some with you, so you can see how NON-glowing I was, but also how young I looked!

So, for once, I can honestly say that I’m glad my Husband didn’t listen to me and although I was huge, covered in stretch marks, washed out and looking utterly miserable in most of these photos, I’ll treasure them forever.

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Progress…

By Mum's the Word on October 5, 2012 in Education, Family, Parenting

So, I feel like I should probably put paid to a couple of ideas that THIS blog post may have created in my nearest and dearest.

1. I’m not pregnant. I know I’ve said I’d like to be at some point, but I’m far too fat and unhealthy to even consider it at the moment.

2. I’m not moving abroad.

3. I haven’t joined a cult/had a sex change/joined a swingers club

So there.

One of the things that was leaving me feeling rather stymied was Sausage and her reaction to school. I’m not gonna lie to you, people, it’s been a tough couple of weeks.

During the first week, she was only attending for half days and she seemed to get on really well. Then she started to feel poorly and the combination of this and a glib (but hugely irresponsible) comment made to her by one of her TA’s made any confidence that she’d gained completely unravel. We had a week of living with a very unhappy Sausage. She wasn’t herself at all, she had bad dreams, she was tearful from the moment she woke up and dropping her off at school was like untangling myself from a screaming octopus before walking swiftly away. It was breaking all of our hearts but we knew we had to persevere.

However, we seem to have had a breakthrough.

We’ve started walking to school with a couple of Sausages’s friends who are really lovely kids and it’s made her look forward to seeing them in the morning rather than going through the usual anxiety. She’s made some friends in class who she seems to get on very well with, so now, instead of spending her evenings and mornings telling us how much she misses us when she’s at school, she’s happy and excited about things.

I didn’t want to write about all of this at first, it’s been difficult to deal with and if I’m honest, I’ve not felt like a very good Mum at times, worrying that my leaving her when she’s upset will ruin our relationship but I’m glad I listened to Husband and everyone else who said that it’ll just take time. Instead of sitting at home between 9 and 3, feeling like I have a lead ball in my stomach and watching the clock go agonisingly slow, I’m happy to leave her knowing that she’s happy and my days go a lot quicker.

So, that’s a large part of what’s been going on and why I’ve felt so tongue-tied for the past week or so, and hopefully things will gain some semblance of normality from here! As for the rest of it, you’ll just have to wait for the next instalment!

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That’s Enough, Steve Carell

By Mum's the Word on September 22, 2012 in Humour, Parenting, Rant

Let me begin by saying, I really like Steve Carell. He’s a good actor, I tend to like the roles he plays, he seems like an all-round good stick.

But he’s getting on my nerves.

So far this week, we’ve heard him doing voices in Despicable Me, Over the Hedge and Horton Hears a Who. It’s not an over-saturation problem as such, like with certain celebs. Like how, a few years ago, I got genuinely so sick to the back teeth of seeing Johnny Depp in EVERYTHING Tim Burton did. I know he’s good and all that, but I’m bored with him now. No. It’s because I have to try to work out a way to explain to Sausage why Gru, Hammy and Ned McDodd the Mayor of Whoville all sound the bloody same, without ruining the magic for her!

Continue Reading →

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Extreme Makeover – Doll’s House Edition

By Mum's the Word on September 17, 2012 in Family, Happiness, Parenting

Soon to be ‘Sausage’s House’

A few months ago, I wrote about my Nan and Grandad, Rene and John, and about the doll’s house they made for me from scratch. This is what I wrote:

“It was in this shed that Grandad made my doll’s house. This dolls house was better than any that I have ever, to this day, seen in a shop.

The walls were covered with brick-dust and individually pointed with white paint, each brick lovingly created by Grandad’s patient hand. Every room had an electric light with its own light switch, powered by a big battery compartment, hidden under the roof. The roof had individual tiles, cut out of a terracotta coloured lino. The rooms were carpeted and a proper staircase ran through the middle of the house. Then came Nanny Rene’s work, individually made curtains, duvets, light shades and linen, all in coordinating colours.

Continue Reading →

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Running Back to Motherhood

By Mum's the Word on August 28, 2012 in All About ME!, Parenting, Weightloss.

I want another baby.

Anyone who has read this blog over the past 2 years or knows me at all will know that this is a big statement. After having Sausage and the PTSD that followed, I honestly thought I’d never want any more children. The thought of going through a pregnancy and birth as hideous as my first was just too much to bear, let alone the thought of being unable to hold yet another baby for the first week of their life, having to view them through wires and tubes. I told myself I didn’t have enough love in me to share it between Sausage and another baby, I told myself that it would spoil the relationship I have with her, I told myself that I just couldn’t do it.

But, something has changed, be it the passing of time or seeing friends with babies or simply my biological clock, and it’s telling me I’m ready. I almost feel overwhelmed by that single thought, I never thought I’d be in this place or ready to do it all again, but I am.

Mentally, anyway. Physically? Not so much…

When I fell pregnant with Sausage, I was 23, about 3st overweight but generally healthy.

Now, I’m 28, diabetic, have an stupidly under active thyroid and am about 5st overweight.

If I thought the last pregnancy was hard, any future ones will be terrifying in my current physical state. I’ve written plenty of times about my intention to lose weight and nothing has ever come of it, save for dropping half a stone here and there, only to put it back on again. But I need to do this, for many reasons.

The main one is Sausage. She’s been around for 4 years and has witnessed my unhealthy relationship with food, no matter how much I kid myself that I hide it. Yes, she’s four, but that’s still plenty young enough to change my ways and for it to have a really positive impact on her.

Also, while I want my body to be healthy enough to cope with pregnancy, I want to be able to still be Sausage’s Mummy. I don’t want to have to change what we do because of being pregnant, so getting fit and strong will be a real help with that. Last time around I suffered with SPD, hyperemesis gravidarum, high blood pressure, swollen ankles and hands and gestational diabetes, all of which I’m hoping will be improved by being fitter and stronger. It may all still happen, but at least I’ll be able to say that I did everything I could to prevent it.

So, what’s the plan?

I’m going to learn to run.

I realise I already know how to run, but for someone as unhealthy and unfit as me, it’s not as simple as putting on some trainers and pounding the pavement (or maybe it is?) but I’ll have a little help from ‘Get Running’, an iPhone app designed to get you from couch to 5km in nine weeks. That’s right, if I start today I could be running 5k non-stop by 23rd October. Exciting, eh? So I’m going to start later today and will blog about my progress with this program in the hope of inspiring anyone else who wants to give it a go but just doesn’t feel confident enough. I’m going to hit the ‘Thinking Slimmer’ hard again too in the hope that I can sort out my dependence on food.

As well as being fit and healthy, I have a secondary goal, which is being able to do Race for Life in 2013 at a run, rather than a fast walk. In 2011, my time was around 45 minutes, 2012 was about 42 minutes – I want 2013 to be nearer the 25 minute mark.

Wish me luck!