FREE colouring book printable!

Hey! So as some of you know, I’ve been working with a company called KidloLand on promoting their app, which is brilliant and free to download, ask me if you want more information, or even a free 3 months trial to the whole app! I have paired up with them to create a FREE printable colouring book! This is hopefully the first of quite a few of these! So here is the full book, please let me know your thoughts on it. Let me know what animals your children like to colour! I’d love to create something that suits everyone! 

Forget the Gender!!

Hey guys I’m back!
Just a quick blog from me whilst sorting through Marty’s books I wanted to talk about a company I subscribed to called Hachette Paperworks. This company send out 2 lovely Disney books a month for the price of £8.95, I pay for this myself; not sponsored! But a big thing with some parents is ‘my daughter can’t read that, it’s for boys!’ Or ‘my son isn’t having that, it’s for girls!’ Why are we being gender specific when it comes to our children?! Let’s stop! Marty has a lovely collection of books, and there are lots of princess’ in there!! Reading isn’t about boys and girls it’s about spending time with your child. We read to our son and it encourages him to learn new words, listen to our voices and also enjoy the brightly coloured pages and pictures that go with the story. It’s fun! Enjoy time reading with your kids before grow up!

Photo printing app

I’ve found a great app that’s free to download and you get 45 FREE* photos! The app is called ’44 free prints’ and I’ve got an invitation code for you all to use! This is brilliant for picking the photos straight from your phone all done online and then posted out to your address, no faff! 

*your photos are free all you pay is postage which is a minimum of £3.99*
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Life changes in SO many ways!

So this little baby comes along and really rocks the boat, even the most planned of pregnancies rock a relationship and household to the max! They turn up confused about when it’s night and when it’s day. They sleep whenever and wherever they are, except at night, that’s when they come to life the most! So you’re sleep deprived, very emotional and totally in love with this new mini human! You find that your days at home are very different, eating 3 meals a day becomes really difficult when you’re alone with a new baby. You can forget housework for the first few weeks that’s for sure! You maybe spent your evenings watching something on TV now you find yourself watching your babies face to make sure he has a poo before bed or you’ll never get a decent nights sleep!! So yeah your carefree days and relaxed nights turn into ‘manic baby milk’ covered days and ‘poo face watch’ evenings!! The entertainment remains, it’s just very different!!

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The health visitor isn’t always right.

My health visitor came out to my house about 2 weeks after the birth of my son, she was actually pretty nice. But a health visitor is just a guideline to follow loosely. They tell you no solids before 6mnths yet baby rice is classed as a solid and can be given at 4mnths according to packaging, but in smaller doses can be given much earlier. My son at 7 weeks, has already had his first few spoonfuls of baby rice. I think you have to remember that you’re mum and you do know best instinctively. You know what your baby can take and what he can’t. My son has a really good appetite and baby rice keeps him satisfied that bit longer ready to drop a daytime feed. You get into your own routine and way of doing things and there is no right or wrong. Well don’t sit your 2 month old down to a roast dinner or full English, use your initiative! So don’t get in a panic about the health visitor and their judgemental ways, listen to what they have to say and then carry on with life the way it works for you. If your child is happy and healthy, you’re not going far wrong!
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I’m on YouTube!

Hi guys just a quick announcement, I’m taking my blog and slowly turning it into videos on YouTube. My first video is part of the Let’s Get Creative series, making fridge magnets. I hope you enjoy my video and channel. It can be found by searching Marty & Mummy. Videos won’t be all the time to start off with but check back to catch up at random intervals. My first video is here: https://youtu.be/Zv6jqk1cPUo
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The ‘Breast is Best’ Brigade!

As soon as you give birth to your beautiful little bundle, and sometimes even before, you will be bombarded with Breast is Best information! Now let’s get this straight from the start, I’m not agreeing or disagreeing with how anyone chooses to feed their baby, my son is currently 7 weeks old and I’m combi feeding him, breast and bottle, and have been since the day he was born but there is a large group of ladies out there on forums and chat groups that are so overpowering with their ‘Breast is Best’ attitude it’s quite intimidating! I think the main thing to concentrate on is simply feeding your baby, no matter how it’s done! My son is a healthy weight and a very happy little boy so having formula hasn’t done him any harm! Just don’t feel pressured into breast feeding, it’s not easy and sometimes it’s not practical, or even possible, to be the only way to feed you baby. So try not to get too wrapped up in it all, do what’s right for you, your body and your baby! 
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It’s ok to say ‘no’

This is really important and something I felt under great pressure about, sometimes still do. It’s ok to say no! That can be to friends and to family! Stop worrying about pleasing everybody, this baby is yours and your partners, your new family and you need time just you. If you don’t say no sometimes, you might miss out on those first few special bonding moments that are so important!! I kept my visitors to family only for the first few days but never said no to anyone. I wish I had a couple of times now! So don’t do things to make other people happy, be a little bit selfish, it’s your right to do that. No one will hold it against you. The same goes for people who hold your baby or feed your baby etc. You don’t want to look rude so you leave people to it, speak up if you’re uncomfortable, you’re well within your right to say no. You don’t need to explain yourself, maybe your family member is very young and you don’t feel comfortable with them holding your newborn, maybe it’s a friend of the family that you’re not very keen on or just simply the baby is your new family, you’re the mother of this beautiful new baby and you have every right to stop anyone for any reason at all from having contact in that moment with your child. Never forget that! 
(This blog is for me, to remind myself that saying no isn’t always a negative thing!)
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Fun app for children!

KidloLand – a truly brilliant app for children from 0-6 maybe even older! This app has got everything you can think of to keep your child occupied whilst educating in a fun way too! From nursery rhymes to learning to count. From puzzles to months and days of the year! It’s a fantastically easy layout, very brightly coloured and interactive. All songs have lyrics on screen which has given us as parents so many more songs and lullabies to sing to our baby. Everything on screen is interactive if you click on it and has lots of moving characters to get the attention of even the youngest baby. My son is only 2 months old yet really enjoyed watching the screen as the brightly coloured characters bounced about in front of his eyes! All the songs and tunes are really catchy and sung beautifully. Counting 1-100 is made easy with a lovely tune to make it fun for children. This app offers so much and I like the fact that the settings part is protected, only with a simple sum but you can leave your young child watching a song knowing that they can’t access anything important. It’s become a go-to app for us and we are all really enjoying it. I will say if you have a tablet then get it on that instead of a phone so you can really enjoy the motion on a larger screen, but if you don’t, don’t be put off, it works equally as well on a phone, I have it on my iPhone 5 and the quality is still amazing. Just a personal thought. 

You can download this app on android or Apple products. 

The iOS link is: https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/kidloland-300+-nursery-rhymes/id533412119?mt=8

The Android link is: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.internetdesignzone.nurseryrhymes&hl=en

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Invest in a gas mask!

So you’re a new mum, or maybe you’ve just had another baby and are just getting used to the baby way of life again. Here’s a few things no one told me about; a babies cry is sometimes so shrieking and high pitched I’m determined only dogs and mothers can hear it!! Babies hold their breath, I was told this, but didn’t realise how heart stoppingly terrifying it is to a new mum. Lastly a babies bum!! Cute to blow raspberries on, if you’re brave enough! Deadly when it’s loading a nappy!!! As if the colour isn’t bad enough, the faces your baby will pull during this delightful time are a real picture, and the smell, the smell, well imagine 5 day old boiled eggs, then times that by 10 and your close to living the life of a new mum! Enjoy your baby!! 💩
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