I’ve talked in great depth before about N and his previous love/hate relationship with baths and swimming. Thankfully now he loves both. But we’re still struggling with showers.
He will now agree to sit in the bath at one end while his dad showers in the other, and doesn’t cry when the shower gets put over him briefly. He even laughs and quite likes it when he or I pour water from a bottle over his head. I guess it’s a move on from leaping up and trying to get out of the bath as soon as the shower gets turned on.
He will also (under duress) allow himself to be stood up alongside his dad under the shower….for all of about 10 seconds.
But showers at swimming.
He’ll not go near them.
While all the other toddlers are screaming when they’re told to get out of the showers, N won’t go under them. He’ll be sitting on the benches in his towel eating his snack! He likes to watch and comment that other people are ‘in the shower’, but he’ll not go in.
I’m hoping that he’ll eventually just surprise me and wander under one, decide he loves it, then we can move to alternate baths and showers. It would certainly take a lot less time in the evenings, and waste less water. But it will mean less time for him to play at pouring water and squirting bottles. Maybe that’s why he’s wise to them?
Of course, Tuesdays come round again and I’ve not thought at all about what N’s dressed in in preparation of linking up to Trendy Tuesday. I suppose it shows his usually messy/jumbled put together style.
It does help that most of his wardrobe is based on blues and browns, meaning everything goes with everything else (in theory). Hopefully once he starts wanting to choose his own clothes, it won’t end up being too embarrassing and garish!
The weather’s been really strange recently. Indoors we can be in t-shirt but then outside, it can get quite chilly. Today though, it has been quite muggy although it’s cool outside – definitely makes it hard to dress in the morning.
I’ve given up on vests for him, as I’m sure he gets too hot and is happy running round in a t-shirt. He’s got a few thin jumpers for layering, but I tend to pick him up from childcare to find he’s been running round in a t-shirt. I remember being in shorts and summer gear from earlier in the year when I was young, but at the moment we’re alternating between shorts and trousers which is a bit of a pain.
Anyway, today, he’s been in extremely casual gear. Mostly nearly new stuff bought from NCT sales.
Checking out his new Tractor Ted dvd
Jumper – Nearly new – not sure where it’s from, could be Primark or Matalan, but N always tells me it’s his cousin’s jumper…not convinced, sure his cousin doesn’t have the same jumper!
Trousers – Nearly new Old Navy trousers. Real bargain, although they are quite wide legged for his little legs.
T-shirt underneath – Gap
Dribble Bib – Funky Giraffe as per usual
Cool new (although they no longer look it) Startrite canvas Treasure Island shoes. They do have a small skull on them, which I’m not keen on for little children, but you can’t really see it.
I’m linking up again to Trendy Tuesday so you can check out what everyone else has been wearing over here.
Having had an unplanned c-section with N, I’ve obviously got a scar. I was lucky enough to have one of the best surgeons at doing the op in the area according to a few people I spoke to, and considering N’s size, it was a relatively small cut. The scar was never really bumpy as some people’s are, and the actual scar has faded really well (to be expected after 2 years, but it faded really quickly).
But I was interested to try out the Kelo-cote® scar gel I was sent to see what would happen to my scar. I also have a leg ‘scar’ or gouge that is a different colour to my leg from a trip a few years ago, so I’ll be trying the gel on that as well.
I’m only a couple of days in, but compared to other branded scar oils this is definitely much thicker and easier to put on. I find with the oils they just run off, but with this you rub it over the scar. It does feel thick and although it’s not greasy, it doesn’t seem to soak into the skin but just sit on top as it dries. It will be interesting to see how it improves the appearance after a few weeks.
Kelo-cote® is a clinically proven silicone gel, used with the aim of reducing scars, with best results seen after 3 months. You can use it on new or old scars – any type of scar can benefit. After it’s applied, it dries like a top layer of skin to protect the underlying layers of skin, protecting the scar area as it heals. It’s benefits include:
odourless and transparent
suitable for use on children, pregnant women, and sensitive skin
can be used on scars from c-sections, burns, wounds etc
easy to use, twice daily application recommended
wide usage in the NHS for burns treatment
can be used as soon as stitches have been removed and wound is closed.
It’s available in several different options and formats: spray, gels x2 sizes and a UV protection version. All can be purchased from www.kelo-cote.co.uk.
Kelo-Cote products in the goody bag prize
In addition to trying Kelo-cote® gel out, Kelo-cote® are also offering one of my readers the opportunity to win a limited edition goody bag of Kelo-cote® scar reduction products and Kelo-stretchTM for stretch marks, worth over £85 including:
Kelo-cote® Gel (15g, £29.99) and Kelo-cote® UV(15g, £31.50) to reduce the appearance of scars
Kelo-stretchTM (125ml, £25.99) to help treat and prevent stretch marks
If you fancy trying it out yourself, then you can enter using the Rafflecopter form below. a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Disclosure: I was sent Kelo-cote® to try out. All opinions are my own. You can find their Facebook page here and website here.
N’s been learning much more about the animals on the farm recently. He loves farm books (obviously), and loves playing with his tractors inside and out. As for Tractor Ted…he knows all about pea harvesters (not going to find many of those in our area!), milking, mowing, baling and getting Fudge the (stupid) dog out of a locked stable. Must get a couple more dvds as I’m sick of the two he has.
He also loves to ‘help’ make his lunch. (Stay with me on this one, the link does make sense).
I always ask what he’d like for lunch: sandwiches, toasted sandwiches (or ‘sandwich toast’ in N’s words), crusty bread, what fillings he’d like etc for him to choose from, and the other day I even let him butter his own roll.
However the other day we were looking out of the window at the cows which had just been let out into the field behind the house. They were grazing quite happily, and N told me they were eating.
‘What are they eating?’
‘Sandwich grass’
Hmm, think the sandwich obsession might have gone a bit too far.
Although no-one else believes me when I tell them what he said, because every time he’s been asked what cows eat since then, he’s answered correctly that it’s grass. Grr
(I also tried to trick him into telling me cows drank milk, but he wasn’t having any of that. ‘Cow drink water, baby calf drink milk’).
I hadn’t realised when I agreed to do this Cadbury Dairy Milk sponsored post for Collective Bias®, that today was National Baking Day. My challenge was to make something creative with Cadbury Dairy Milk, and although we didn’t officially ‘bake’, I think we can claim to have been creative with baking.
When I was little, Cadbury chocolate buttons were one of the only ‘sweets’ we were allowed, so it’s the first chocolate I’d go for out of choice. I think your taste in chocolate is informed by what you were given as a child, and you’ll always turn back to that even if you try others.
Having said that I wouldn’t usually cook with Cadbury Dairy Milk (I do have a Cadbury chocolate recipe book though), so after a bit of thought (ok, not much thought really), I decided we’d try some chocolate bark, and maybe a chocolate refrigerator cake. Both would be great for getting N involved, and we’d be able to try some different toppings. I used Pinterest to get some ideas as well as checking out a couple of online searches – Food Network had a few ideas as well.
Once I’d worked out a vague shopping list, N and I went to Sainsbury’s for our normal weekly shop. I don’t usually do the confectionery aisle to try and avoid temptation, so was interested to see what new items were around. I always look at the recipe cards at the entrance and picked up a couple of nice looking recipes to try out.
And before we can get to food, I always check out the clothes in case there’s anything new in I fancy. N enjoys clothing sections as there’s good places to hide amongst the hangers – yesterday he took fancy to a ladies white jacket and a Mike the Knight t-shirt. Might need some guidance on the choices!
Of course Cadbury Dairy milk is now all over the place in stores – chiller cabinet for desserts, biscuits, and not forgetting the ad hoc displays wherever is suitable. You can see the shop we did here. I’d not seen the Cadbury Dairy Milk biscuits before so picked those up as we’d use those in the refrigerator cake (2 didn’t make it and were delicious).
We always Fastscan in Sainsbury’s as it’s quicker to get round the store and through checkout with N in tow; for once there was no queue at the one fast scan till, so we were out in no time at all.
As always N was keen at the beginning of a cooking session, dragging up a chair to stand on and wanting to help mix. I now have a running commentary from him as to what ingredients are going in.
Trying to break up the chocolate to melt it
All the additions for the fridge cake
The refrigerator cake is easy to make and a good way of using up all those odds and sods in the baking cupboard. To the melted Cadbury Dairy Milk we added some melted dark chocolate (the OH prefers dark to milk) and butter, mini marshmallows, digestive biscuits, the Cadbury Dairy Milk biscuits, glace cherries and sultanas. But you could add in whatever you fancy – nuts are also great and make it a little less sweet. Then it was a case of putting it into a greased dish, levelling it out and chilling it in the fridge for as long as required.
They never look particularly great, but taste lovely and are a great treat.
Maybe saying he could try the leftover chocolate biscuits wasn’t a good idea
For the chocolate bark it was more melted Dairy milk with a touch of dark chocolate as we didn’t have quite enough to fill the tin. Spread it over a cling film lined tin. A bit of melted white chocolate drizzled over, then time to sprinkle in whatever you like. N had got bored and wandered off by this stage. I was expecting him to have enjoyed using the sprinkles we bought, but it did mean that I could make the chocolate bark neater and more ordered than it would have been with a 2 year old sprinkling galore.
Decorated in thirds
I did mini chocolate beans with honeycomb sugar pieces, lightly salted pretzels and mixed dried berries. Breaking them up seemed like sacrilege, but they look great and would be great wrapped in a basket as gifts.
So using Cadbury Dairy Milk was a success, and given the promotions that seem to be so widespread for normal branded blocked chocolate, I’d probably buy more of it for cooking than buying proper cooking milk chocolate.
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Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.
