Category: Views & Ramblings

1. Date Night!

   Posted on 11:54am Sunday 21st Apr 2013

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   Date Night? It sounds so grown up, like something actual grown up's do when they have small children .... errm hang on, that would be me then! Eeek!! So when we were asked to try the sizzling new menu from Chiquito's, it was as good an excuse as any for a date night.

   Now we personally have a little history with Chiquito's and when I say we, I mean my gorgeous other half. He used to live very close to a Chiquito's and it was part of his staple diet. He has gone as far as to say that if he were on death row, it would be his meal of choice. (I am obviously hoping that he is never even any where close to death row but it kind of tells you how much he loves it!)

   He was intrigued to hear that they have introduced new dishes such as Blackened Salmon and Jambalaya added but happy that some of his favourites such as the Chiquito sharing platter remained. In saying that, he knew what he was having to eat even before we had sat down. Unfortunately when we looked at the new menu, his desired meal was no longer on offer! To their credit, the staff asked the chef if he would add steak to the chicken fajitas meal and he was happy to do so for a small charge, so all was not lost!

    

   I have to admit something here, I am not a huge fan of spicy food and the mexican menu was full of delicious sounding delights but I was worried about selecting something that was going to be too hot, so I tried to play it safe with my starter of chicken wings (but I was grateful for the bottle of water I had ordered) and a fully loaded burrito for my main meal. Guess what? I really enjoyed it and was halfway through it before I remembered to take a picture ......

   

   The menu has a massive selection from salads and sharing platters, to fajitas and steas, so there is something for everyone. Having never eaten at a Chiquito's before I was genuinely pleased to find that the staff were attentive, the food was delicious and the ambience really good. I also loved that my gorgeous man got to indulge in his passion for mexican food, which made him very happy indeed.

   Chiquito's was a great choice for our date night but it would be an ideal place to take the children too. It is not pretentious and the food certainly doesn't leave you feeling like you want more food, as some fine dining establishments can. The only thing my man is wanting now ..... is to know when we are going back!

    

   Disclaimer : We were offered a voucher to go and review the new menu but the recommendation is a natural one based on past and current experience.

2. Is learning to ride a bike important?

   Posted on 8:32pm Sunday 14th Apr 2013

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   I genuinely can't recall learning to ride a bike, it has just been something I have always known how to do isn't it? So why at the grand old age of "almost" 8 years old, can my eldest daughter not ride a bike? I was having this conversation with another mum in the playground last week and we were both talking about how our children have never learnt to ride. My daughter has had a bike of course but never quite confident enough to take the stabilisers off.

   It has made me wonder why she has never learnt, like I did as a child? Riding a bike should be as much part of your childhood as building a den or playing tig, so where in the last 8 years did I go wrong? Should I have persevered more or should she have tried a little harder? On reflection I think I have spent so much time filling our weekends with play dates and day's out, that somewhere along the line, we have forgotten the simple stuff.

   My youngest daughter is definately an adventurer and will, at the grand old age of 19 months, happily hide in a den made of blankets. She is a boistrous little character (which her angelic look belies) and I want to encourage her to enjoy the simple pleasure of riding down a hill with the wind in your face, without a care in the world (but a safety helmet on her head!!). So when is the right time to learn?

   

   After some deliberation, I then made a conscious decision to get them both Strider Balance Bikes from Learning Early. Having looked at what bikes are best, I love the philosophy behind the Strider bikes, in that children learn balance safely. Using a balance bike is now regarded to be the safest way to learn how to ride a bicycle, as stabilisers just teach the child to rock from one side to the other AND the child still needs parents assistance up curbs etc. This totally echos our experience. After the delivery of the little ones bike (suitable from 1 years old!!), I soon ordered the Super Strider for my eldest (designed for children aged 6+)

   The Learning Early experience has been a pleasure before the girls have even sat on their bicycles, as they offer a very personal service and an amazing one hour delivery slot! In this present economic climate, it is genuinely refreshing to find a Company who care about the customer, and not just about the sale.

   The Lilypad blog has always been about our journey as a family, so I have my fingers crossed that the next journey will be the one where we can all ride with the wind in our face, adrenalin in our veins ....... and not a stabiliser in sight!

3. What do you think about gender swaying?

   Posted on 8:25am Sunday 14th Apr 2013

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   If you could choose to influence the gender of your unborn baby, would you?

   I read a blog post this week about gender swaying on The Busy Mummy Diaries and I am delighted that she is pregnant with her much wanted baby daughter. I know that there has been a lot of press about gender selection and to my knowledge, PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) is the only high tech method which can guarantee the gender of your choice with almost 100% accuracy, this is because embryos are tested for gender before being implanted in the mother's womb but what if you could influence it yourself?

   

   Carly from The Busy Mummy Diaries used a "baby girl diet" and The Shettles Theory. Shettles theorised that the two different types of sperm, X-chromosome-bearing sperm and Y-chromosome-bearing sperm, had different properties. 

   Y-Bearing Sperm (Male-Producing) Smaller, round-headed Faster More fragile, shorter-lived

   X-Bearing Sperm (Female-Producing) Larger, oval-headed Slower More resilient, longer-lived

   Shettles hoped that these properties could be used to choose a baby's sex.

   • Under ideal conditions, the Y-sperm's faster speed should prevail, winning the race to the egg and conceiving a boy.
   • Under less than ideal conditions, fewer of the fragile Y-sperm will survive. The X-sperm's resiliance and staying power should win the day, conceiving a girl.

   I am totally conflicted about my thoughts on this whole subject. I can understand that some families would like to choose the sex of their baby for practical reasons, for personal reasons, even for health reasons but are we not defying nature by doing so?

   I have two beautiful daughters and I haven't ruled out having a third but would I really want to choose? What if after doing everything you were advised to do, it didn't work, would you be disappointed? Would that child forever be the "wrong one"?

   I am an old fashioned kind of girl, I never wanted to find out the sex of our baby at the hospital scan, as I genuinely believe conception and child birth is one of life's remaining miracles. Who am I to intervene. Would you?

   Note: Shettles Method reference taken from In Gender, where you can find more methods and information on this subject.

4. If only I'd known .....

   Posted on 9:23pm Thursday 4th Apr 2013

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   Many moms will say "If only I'd known" and having had two children, there are lots of things I wish I had known before the birth of both of my daughters. So whilst reading that LittleStuff had teamed up with Aptaclub, who have launched a brilliant new ‘Preparing for Birth’ app to support Mums through the last trimester of pregnancy, I thought it was a good chance to share my own thoughts and "knowledge" to support other mums on the run up to labour! (disclaimer : running in heels whilst 9 months pregnant is not advisable ... trust me!)

   * Your body is totally designed to do this. Allow it to do its thing.

   * If you continue to tense your body, it will hurt .... more! Try and relax (I am going to ignore the hoards of women laughing across the country at this point)

   * If you tense your muscles throughout labour, it is highly likely that your body will feel like you have run a marathon the day after. (My first labour was a testament to this).

   * Your birth plan may not go to plan, don't get hung up on it. 

   * Whilst enjoying the relief of having no periods for 9 months, you may want to prepare yourself for the aftermath of having a baby. Invest in maternity sanitary towels. You will need them (NO-ONE told me this!!)

   * Sleep is for the weak .... but it is okay to be weak, grab it when you can. Take no prisoners. Sleep!

   * When people offer to help. Accept the help. You will not get a medal for making sure every tiny babygrow is ironed. If someone offers to take a basket of ironing or run the vacuum round let them (and go to sleep while they do it).

   * In the early months, its advisable not to wear dry clean clothes, mainly due to the amount of baby vomit that your clothes have to endure. Unless of course, you get a deal at your local dry cleaners.

   * Babies are an exhausting, engaging, entertaining and beautiful miracle. Take lots of photos. You will forget the labour but photos will mean you never have to forget a single moment.

   This post is Little Lilypad Co's entry into the Aptaclub ‘If Only I’d Known…’ competition”