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Here in the Rocknrollerbaby household we’ve been thoroughly getting into the Christmas spirit and we’re loving it! I totally appreciate that it’s only just past the middle of November but you know what, I don’t care! The Christmas lights are up on my high street and every shop is playing Christmas music! What with the supermarkets promoting their mince pies and festive adverts in between all the most popular programmes it’s hard not to get involved! I have to say though, regarding the mince pies, Heston’s idea of a sprinkling to make them smell of pine trees??? What??? Why would I want my mince pies to smell of anything other than mince pies? Strange choices at Waitrose me thinks!
 
I think another reason I am so, uncharacteristically for me, getting into the festive cheer early is because I was invited to come and see Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland and try out all of it’s delights; there are so many it would be hard to describe! Think of the most twinkly fun-fair you’ve ever seen in a movie, times it by about 12 and add gallons and gallons of Christmassy decorations and you might be somewhere near. It was literally like walking into Christmas and thanks to all the yummy food outlets it smelt amazing too! From spiced doughnuts, chocolate waffles and sweet churros to springbok burgers, German sausages and gourmet char grills. You name it and they were probably serving it; one restaurant was even doing so on a slowly rotating carousel complete with horses! It was all terribly exciting and not at all for some reason, tacky?! I’m not usually a big fan of the ‘fun-fair’, preferring big theme parks as I feel safer and always assume the rides will be much better cared for. However, at Winter Wonderland I felt safe and the rides, although some of them more terrifying than any theme park I’ve ever been to, looked very substantially well cared for and security guards patrolling were around in their droves.
 
I, obviously, couldn’t have a go on many of the attractions and my husband, never a ‘ride’ fan, didn’t want to go on his own as I would have done were it that he was the pregnant one but I really don’t feel we missed out. True we didn’t get to go on the terrifying drop ride, the Blizzard (looked horrendous), or the bumper cars but we did get to take Florence on all the little rides of which there were absolutely hundreds it seemed! As well as a dedicated area, ‘Santa Land’, there were little people rides all over the Winter Wonderland and Florence was spoilt for choice. We took her on carousels, little trains, reindeer rides, we even took her to meet Father Christmas for the very first time. I thought she might be a little dubious but no, she said hello and told him what she’d like him to bring her for Christmas (a kitchen no less! – wouldn’t we all)! We also got to take her in a ‘fun house’ and a ‘pirate experience’ which were probably a little old for her but they were suitable for us to carry her through and for her not to mind. The highlight of the evening had to be the ride on the giant observation wheel, a mini London Eye if you will! I say mini, but really it’s huge! The views over London at night were breathtakingly awesome and as something we could all do together it was an absolutely beautiful experience. At £6 for an adult to ride it’s really not very expensive at all, you are taken slowly round three times and it lasts fifteen minutes so quite good value really.
 
The star attraction for them, is of course the Galaxy Ice Rink which looked just gorgeous! With a band stand in the middle complete with band playing Christmassy tunes it really is the idyllic ice rink from a Christmas card. It was such a shame they didn’t have those little pods for small children to be pushed around it because it meant that we couldn’t have a go… I didn’t want to risk it in my condition but had I had a pod to push around it would have given me something to hold onto and Florence would of course been able to sit in it and enjoy, still, you can’t have everything and it really is very pretty even if you don’t go on it but just stand a watch for a few minutes!
 
With lovely places to stop and have a glass of mulled wine (around £4.00 a glass), yummy eats, delicious stalls selling all types of special gifts, a circus and all the attractions, I really do think Winter Wonderland is a lovely place to visit. There’s even a talking tree! The rides are between around £1 and £4 per person and it’s free to just enter and take a look at all that’s going on including some olde worlde type fun-fair attractions. Christmas has hit the beautiful streets of London people and there’s no better place to see it than from the top of the giant observation wheel in Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland!
 
Winter Wonderland’s nearest tube is Hyde Park Corner on the Piccadilly Line and for more information on it’s attractions and location please visit www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com.
 

 
While we were out and about this week, including at Winter Wonderland, we’ve been using a new drinks bottle for Florence made by ECOtanka. The ECOtanka is a stainless steel bottle which was designed in New Zealand by two people who wanted to try and eradicate the need for chucking away plastic bottles. You can of course use the ECOtanker bottle, which comes in various sizes, over and over again; stainless steel has a life expectancy of over 100 years and will stay safe and clean for years upon years. The best part is, you won’t be chucking away any plastic bottles and polluting the environment. Now, we all do what we can, some of us use cloth nappies and others choose to walk to the supermarket instead of drive, we can’t all do everything but we can all drink from an ECOtanka bottle and make it so that fewer plastic bottles are needed to be produced. This is a bottle for the whole family to use but especially good for little ones because of the materials used. The plastic parts (lid, silicon seal and sipper) are BPA FREE and the bottles themselves are Extractable Heavy Metals FREE while all materials meet FDA food grade certifications. What’s more, stainless steel is one of the most hygienic surfaces available; it’s unique surface has no pores or cracks to harbour dirt, grime or bacteria and it’s incredibly easy to clean. It’s clean, it’s green, the whole family can use it and it looks pretty good too! You can also buy different accessories to go with your ECOtanka such as a KOOLA cover to keep your drinks cold or choose a special lid that suits you. Like I said, there are many different sizes and options, even an adaptor for an ‘Avent’ easy sip toddler spout but the Teeny Tanka starts at just £9.99 and I can offer you an exclusive 15% discount off all orders! For all information and to buy your own ECOtanka visit their website www.evolutionlife.co.uk where at the moment you can take advantage of the special Rocknrollerbaby discount of 15%!!!!!!!! Just type in ‘ROCKNROLLER’ as your special discount code at the checkout and receive this exclusive discount! Just in time for Christmas, it’d make great stocking filler present for anyone!
 

 
Talking of Christmas presents, that’s the other thing we’ve been doing to get us in the festive spirit; this week we have been officially toy testing! It’s a tough job but someone’s gotta do it I guess! We’ve been really lucky and were sent some of this year’s toy must haves for under the tree and next week, when we’ve played with them all a bit more, I’ll bring you some reviews on the ones we think were absolutely tip top best! We have discovered two things we thought were absolutely superb for the lead up to the big day though and this is them:
 
‘ADVENT CALENDAR TO COLOUR’ By Usborne Publishing (www.usborne.com) priced at £5.99.
 
I’ve looked at lots of advent calendars this year including reusable ones, ones you can make yourself and the ever popular chocolate ones but I this one has to be the most charming of the lot. It’s a book which opens up to reveal a busy Christmassy Street scene with lots of mouse characters in the windows, having hot chocolate in a café and carrying presents home to their families. It’s sectioned out so that there are 25 different numbered areas with doors to open on each day of December just like any other advent calendar but the picture is however, in black and white with just the odd sprinkling of a coloured tree bauble here and there. This allows for your child to colour each section daily before opening the doors to find what’s behind. Eventually on Christmas morning the picture will be complete and in full radiant colour courtesy of your little ones artistic skills and is a treasure to keep forever. We loved it and it’s definitely the one for us!
 

 
‘MY FIRST CHRISTMAS ACTIVITY BOOK’ By Usborne Publishing (www.usborne.com) priced at £7.99
 
I was speaking to a friend recently who wanted a book to help her little one understand what happens at Christmas. There seem to be plenty on the market to highlight the religious aspect but nothing much to explain to a tiny one why there is a strange man coming down their chimney with presents. While it’s important to understand the religious aspect, Christian or not, I also think it’s quite a hard concept to fathom the rest of it as well. All the little traditions like hanging a stocking, decorating a tree, why we have presents and build snowmen. If you’re tiny and this is all totally new then it must seem very odd that suddenly Mummy and Daddy have brought a live tree into the living room, splashed it with glitter and lights and are stacking presents up underneath it! This book explains it all with a hands on activity approach. Each page tackles a different tradition and there are stickers to stick, dot-to-dots to complete, colouring, doodles and much more! It’s a really sweet and simple book which you can enjoy together and keep forever.
 

 
Christmas to one side for a second, I must wish my friends at ‘Mindshapes’ a very Happy First Birthday!!!!!!!! Mindshapes make some wonderful applications which not only encourage children to learn and provide a great education aid but are also really fun and engaging! We like to use their apps on journeys and at the moment, to celebrate their birthday, they are offering their fans the opportunity to download their award winning Jack and the Beanstalk app absolutely FREE! Suitable for children aged 6+, this modern adaptation of the classic story includes humorous episodes, memorable characters, several mini-games and hidden items that will keep children coming back time after time to improve their reading skills. Simply follow this link http://bit.ly/qkgGQ2 to download the app! You can also see Mindshapes full range off applications and download them on iTunes or check out their website www.mindshapes.com.
 
MY PREGNANCY WEEK 16
 
I’ve finally recovered from my water infection and subsequent cold and Florence is sleeping much more and feeding much less so all round it’s been quite a positive week! It’s been a busy one, as I am back home and therefore back to doing all my jobs and running around but I feel so well rested from the fortnight at my Mum’s that it really doesn’t matter. I’ve been catching up with friends and the lovely part of that is that a few of them have just had their second babies and I’ve got to have a few squeezes with some gorgeous babies, getting me in the mood for May! I’ve been feeling great this week and I think I may have finally left the first trimester rubbishness and moved into the glorious second trimester pregnancy best bit! It really is the best bit of pregnancy because most people don’t feel sick any more and the tiredness fades but you’re not yet really big! I’ve even managed to stay up and watch TV past the watershed which is a real treat!
 
I’ve also had another treat in the form of an invite to try out the services of Baby Concierge. Baby Concierge is a consultancy service which helps you find the best things for you and your baby to fit with your life style, so that you don’t end up buying a whole heap of things you don’t need. Something which is very, very easy to do! I have to admit that I went in without much of an open mind. I thought why would you pay someone £120 to tell you what you need to buy, I know loads about baby products and what I don’t know I’m sure I can research myself thank you very much; but in actual fact, having been and had my two hour consultation with the lovely Jaimee in their Islington show room, I’ve realised that I don’t really know as much as I thought I did, (her knowledge was second to none) and that £120, although a fair bit of money, isn’t all that much when you break down exactly what they offer you for that!
 
So you start with a chat about yourself, you describe your lifestyle, the house you live in including measurements of rooms and doorways if you can, the car you drive and your predictions on how you want to bring your baby up etc. Your consultant then talks you through the bits you will need and more importantly the bits you won’t. She asks what’s important to you and some of the questions she asks will make you realise that even if you are a second time Mum, you probably haven’t thought of everything! Jaimee went through a comprehensive checklist with me and took me around their showroom which pretty much had one of everything for you to try before you buy. She also knew how to fold, turn into a double, connect to car seat adapters, every single buggy in the room and believe me, there were enough buggies in there to carry an army of babies around! I literally couldn’t find a brand or buggy that they didn’t have and along with all the other baby things, cots, bouncy chairs, sterilisers, everything really, it was the best shopping experience ever. Everything under one roof! No trawling round the shops, no waiting for shop assistants who may or may not know a lot or a little about what you are asking them, no other people taking the attention away from you, not any of that! I sat on an opulent sofa and ate delicious chocolates while I enjoyed a glass of sparkling water and Florence played with some of the toys and Jaimee and I decided on the products that would suit me best.
 
For a second time Mum it’s not a must have service but it’s certainly a lovely one. I learned about which double would be best for me, my car and my lifestyle and we found one, eventually, that I like. I am such a buggy snob and had never even considered the option that we decided upon, but with the help of Baby Concierge, I can see now why it would be the best one for me. For most of the other things I do already pretty much have everything but she was also able to help me with some breast pump advice as I do hope to get this new baby onto a bottle (with breast milk only) as soon as I can and try to avoid the booby obsession I had with Florence. For a first time Mum, I think it’s just superb, especially if you are busy and/or don’t have the inclination to trawl the shops and internet. Baby Concierge will literally do it all for you. After the service they send you your bespoke shopping list which is not at all mandatory for you to purchase and you can call them at any time to discuss further. Jaimee invited me to come along any time with my car just so that they could have a look at the boot and make certain we had the right buggy choice. They also welcome you to contact them again in the future with any questions you might have and they in turn will contact you with the answers to any questions you had that they didn’t have an immediate answer for.
 
Here’s the nitty gritty then. So the service costs £120 for your 2 hour consultation. Baby Concierge are not tied to any particular brand which means they are completely neutral when it comes to advice but you can then buy your bespoke list in part or in full from them, if you wish. If you do make a purchase and it is over £500 (Very easy to do when you think about the cost of a buggy) you immediately get given half of your consultation fee towards the purchase making the fee drop to just £60. Then, everything you order is delivered to you, when you choose for FREE. When you consider everything comes from one place, with someone else doing all the ordering and researching for you and you know that you won’t pay over the odds for anything (everything is sold at the RRP and nothing more) then it is possible to have everything delivered to your door, for £60, that’s pretty good value! It also means you can have a free consultation for any subsequent children you may have. They also give you a copy of the book ‘What to buy for your baby’ by Liat Hughes Joshi and Caroline Cosgrove, who is the founder of the service, to take home with you and guide you through all your baby purchases when you’re on your own. I went in thinking it was a service for the rich, famous and can’t be bothered and came away realising it’s an invaluable, affordable and luxury service that makes you feel special, for everyone. I’m glad I went and I will be recommending it to all my first time Mummy friends! That is why Baby Concierge is my ‘Pregnancy product’, or service if you will, of the week! I actually think it’d be a great present for colleagues or friends to club together and buy for the new expectant Mummy!
 
For more information on Baby Concierge please see their website www.babyconcierge.co.uk