Featured Post

Dear Daisy, It is your first day at school...

Taking the LittleLife Adventurer on our travels

We recently (well back in the spring) purchased the LittleLife Adventurer baby/ toddler carrier from GoOutdoors and I thought I would share our thoughts on it with you. Just to clarify that I have in no way been subsidised for this review and we bought the carrier with our own pennies!

We have used it quite a bit over the summer, taking the dog for a walk, camping, on the beach etc. And it has been perfect.

We recently went on a holiday to Italy where we started with a few days in Venice and then moved on to lake Garda where we did some more travelling about seeing beautiful parts of the lake and even went on to Verona for the day. Before we went it was recommended that we ditch the pushchair for Venice and opt for our baby carrier. First of all we were unsure of the rules on taking baby baggage on a flight, but it turns out you can take two pieces - so a pushchair and a car seat or in our case this time the carrier and buggy.

We were so glad we were given this tip because Venice with a buggy could have been a bit of a nightmare, all of those cobbles, uneven streets and steps over tiny bridges, never mind getting on and off the water taxis and all of the tourists ankles we could have chopped off! The baby carrier was so much easier.

I have put together a little video to show you around the carrier and to show you some of our travels with the adventurer:


I honestly would give this carrier a 4.5/5! The only thing that stops me giving that massive 5 is that its quite tall, I am only 5 foot 4 and when I have tried it on I have felt quite swamped by it! Luckily my husband tends to wear ours and finds it fine to use and light. Daisy is 18 months old now and so not so light in herself! His shoulders did ache when we left Venice the 2nd day but only for a few hours, and exactly as you would expect lugging a lump around all day!

We would highly recommend this carrier!

Lots of love,
Hayley & Daisy
xxxx

Dealing with peoples curiosities

This is a topic I always knew I would talk about one day or at least inevitably think about.

People are naturally curious about all kinds of things, things that are unusual or that are different, or perhaps that they are a little surprised by. So it will come as no surprise to you, like it doesn't to us, that questions or looks do come our way when people spot Daisy's hand. This is human behaviour, nothing malicious or mean, just normal human responses.



Even if it is normal it can be difficult to answer or respond to, simply because we have emotions tied in there too. I wouldn't say we forget about her little hand, we are often amazed at some of the things she does in day to day life and are taken aback at times but generally we forget that others don't always know about it, what can cause the condition, etc. Therefore questions will always come our way.

I have mentioned before on my blog that it tends to be children that would ask or notice, adults don't quite know how to behave and pretend to not notice or chose to ignore it, after having a little look of course.

I have been "lucky" in some ways that I haven't really had many questions outside of family and friends and so haven't had to overcome it very often. It would be on our holiday, with people who can't speak or understand our language (and vice versa for me!) that then the questions decide to pop up! I couldn't help but giggle about it after, just my luck!

The first time was a little girl, probably no older then 5/6, German and with the most worried little face you have ever seen! We were waiting for our take away pizza and Daisy was milling around the kids corner watching the bigger children chatting and watching a film when the girl noticed Daisy's hand. We spotted her having a little look for a few minutes before she turned to me to ask about her hand, still looking really worried! I have no idea what she said, but insisted Daisy was OK, it didn't hurt and she was okay. I must have said ok about 10 times, whether she understood or not I don't know but she did seem a tiny bit less worried afterwards. She could have asked me if her hand had fallen off, or been cut off or anything, and there I was saying it's okay!!! But we do what we can :)

The next time we were sat in a square having lunch in Verona and an older man from Israel (Or that is what I translated anyway!!!) started chatting to Daisy, I understood very little of what he said and I am not sure he had a clue what I was saying either! Oh the joys of not knowing other languages! After a little while I saw him catch a glimpse of Daisy's hand as she flung her banana towards me in disgust (toddlers and their food behaviours!!!) and then I thought to myself he will either ask me or pretend he didn't notice and scurry away! well, he said something whilst pointing to his own hand. Again I just answered in the same way, she is okay! Again I did giggle, why now do people ask?!

I may joke about it but asking questions is completely okay, it isn't rude (said in the right manner!!) and it isn't out of order but somehow as a society we avoid it. We simply either scoot around the matter or try our best to ignore it. We all have curiosities and should be brave and polite enough to talk to people. it is the only way we can share awareness and make these beautiful little differences be seen as normal.

I have a good friend who also has a beautiful uniqueness with her daughter and I often chat to her about this. And a chat this week made me think about this a little more. Why people make assumptions or show ignorance I will never know. We all need to be a little more open and warm to these situations, just like children are.

Hayley xxx

Creating memories & recording those precious milestones

I have blogged for some time now and have always done so to keep a record of all the memories and special times we have created. It started during my pregnancy with Daisy when I was struggling with sickness and loneliness when working away but it has now turned into something a little more with Daisy and her milestones. 

I will always have my blog to look back on and hopefully one day will get the key posts printed out as a keepsake memoir thingy, like a little diary. Or that is my hope anyway, I often think these things and never act upon them. ooops. If anyone has any ideas on how I can do this then I would love to hear it! 

Well I started vlogging not so long ago to support my growing blog but also again to record special times as a family. I recently found some footage of Daisy learning to walk earlier on in the summer that I had done nothing with so I decided to pull it together into a small montage of clips so I have those memories forever, if god forbid anything happened to our computer then at least good old YouTube will have it kept safe for me. 

I will pop the video at the end if you wish to see it :)

So back to the content anyway. I have had baby books from when Daisy was born for me to complete and keep for her, and I must admit as lovely as they are it takes some doing, in terms of remembering to do them! My memory is pretty appalling so getting myself into gear to fill it out is a little tricky, then I will sit and do a marathon filling in session. Finding a way to capture all of your baby’s milestones can be a bit overwhelming especially at the start and for sleep deprived new parents it can be a chore. So hopefully I have created our little library to look back on!