Fluffy Friday! Snugglybum

Wooohooo! It arrived in the post this week! We received this gorgeous CAMO print from Snugglybum and I can't wait to tell you what Little Man, Sweetpea and I thought of this fluff!


You'll have to stick round though and come check next week as I've prepped it (washed a few times to make more absorbent) so this weekend will be our testing time! Does it hold up for Little Man's naptime? We'll see.....

Wordless wednesday!

Loooves having his little sister with him!

Tasty Tuesday!

So as a mum of four, three of which seem like they are constantly hungry, snacking is always on the cards!
We try to offer healthy snacks as much as we can and I enjoy being able to occasionally prepare them with my munchkins.

Last week the gang and I made these:

Peanut butter and popped rice covered bananas! These were really easy for the children to make (with my supervision of course, there were plastic knives involved!) and oh so yummy! We used Heartland Rice Popperz (supp not GMOed), peanut butter (Woolies was all out on Organic, but if you can it's even better) and Organic bananas.

It all happened in three easy steps:

* Cut banana in 3
* Spread peanut butter over them
* Dip in Rice Popperz

And then the best part.... GOBBLE them up!

Enjoy!

Mommy must have Monday!

Welcome to our very first "Mommy must have monday"!

This past week Sweetpea was given the opportunity to review the Hevea dummy/pacifier. I only found out after she had taken to another brand of paci that these were available in South Africa so I was quite apprehensive due to the fact that the one she has is silicone and this one is rubber.

We received the star and moon one and it's super soft and oh so cute!

They have a few other cut outs too!

These are it's features:

The Hevea pacifier is made of 100% pure natural rubber from the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis.

• 100% natural rubber latex
• Hygienic one piece design – no joints, cracks or edges
• Soft material and ergonomic shape – soft and gentle against baby’s face
• Doesn’t leave marks, prevents vacuum around the mouth
• Sustainably produced
• Recycled and biodegradable packaging materials
• Meets EU standard EN1400, US regulations CPSIA & AUS regulation AS 2432-1991
• No PVC, no BPA, no phthalates, no artificial colors

So do you want to know what Sweetpea thought of it?

Woohoo! She took to it straight away! In 6 years of parenting I have never seen a baby take to a paci this quick! It was delivered to our door (great attribute of QUECK BABY!) and I was so excited to try it that I ripped the packaging open and put boiling water over it for 5 minutes. Let it cool and what do you know..... she loved it right away! No gagging, no funny, squirmy faces just a happy contented baby (and mamma!)

They come in 3 sizes:

0-3 months

3+ months (3-12 months)

12+ months for toddlers

You can get this great product any many other innovative and award winning products at:

                         http://www.queckbaby.co.za/

I will definitely be ordering again from Queck Baby. Their service is great and their range of products are like no other in South Africa! Go check them out!

Fluffy friday! BAM+BOO BABY

Every friday at MGG we will be spotlighting a nappy. One of my favourite things is a little fluffy butt!

This friday is:

These are all the gorgeous colours! See how you can fold them up.


We have been using these nappies for over 4 years and I really enjoy them.
They aren't bulky and are made of bamboo which not only makes them very absorbent but it also has anti-bacterial properties, so its great for babies that battle with rashes.

It's a OSFA (one size fits all) as you can see from the poppers on the front of the nappy (the rise). It adjusts to fit young or small babies to larger and older babies and toddlers. 

What's a really great feature with this brand is that it has poppers to attach the soaker and booster to the inside of the waterproof cover which means there is no shifting around even with an active toddler!

It also means that if you can't hang it out to dry due to bad weather the soaker can be put in the drier without the cover (PUL fabric which the cover is made of eventually gets destroyed if dried in the dryer to much.)

There is a trifold booster that you can add to this for night time too. What you can't see very well in the pic above is that it has a pocket in the cover where the soaker can be put into. The fabric that the pocket is made of is called Coolmax and is similar to gym gear in that it is designed to keep you dry. This is awesome for night time as the baby doesn't get bothered with feeling wet so it sleeps longer stretches, BONUS! So you can use it 2 ways, ontop of the coolmax fabric or under it!

This is how it fit's Sweetpea. She has it on the first row of poppers which would be the smallest size.
(Little man wears it on the last row. It will be part of our segment on diapering a toddler soon)

This nappy also has double gussets on the legs so no leaks or explosions! Woohoo!

If you are interested in this nappy and want to know more you can contact me through the comments!

HAVE A LOVELY WEEKEND!

Next weeks reviews!

We have a little something special to bring in the SPRING with some colour from AngelLove.

                                                   


                                               
  Some fluffiness from Snugglybum.

And a must have in our home for Sweetpea from Queck Baby that will be revealed on "Mommy Must have Monday's"!

Wordless wednesday!

Need I say more.....zzzzzzz

SOPHIE is in the house!

Yip you heard it right! Sophie the Giraffe is in the house!

Can you see why all the stars love her?! Cuteness factor, let me tell you! But what's even greater is how she stimulates all your baby's senses while being completely safe to chew on! Here are Sophie's bonus points:

- Sophie's body, while soft, has several areas of thicker rubber (the nubs on her head, her ears, and her feet) which are perfect for teething babies to gnaw on for relief.

- Sophie's contrasting colors (spots) are visually stimulating to a baby.
- She is easy to grip given her long, thin neck
.- This toy is made of 100% natural rubber and uses food-grade paint (SAFE!).
- This is a quality baby toy which will last for many years

My favourite point....... it's Phthalates and BPA free! Wooohooo!

She is really super soft and you won't find a baby squeaky toy more pliable than this! Sweetpea isn't yet  3 months but even she was able to hold on to it and stick it in her mouth!

Worth the money if you know your little gem is safe while playing! (In my opinion anyway!)

Want a Sophie:
http://www.sophiegiraffe.co.za/

Earthbabies Fitted Nappy

Earthbabies is a great site to find info on natural parenting, this is what they are about:

"We are a home run business which was created to help inform and support parents seeking a more natural approach to birth and parenting.

When doing research into natural alternatives ourselves we found that there was an abundance of information and support for women in England and America but very little in South Africa.

Our aim is to provide information about some of the natural approaches to birth and parenting. We cover topics like natural birth, waterbirth, attachment parenting, breastfeeding, baby wearing, elimination communication and more. The products we offer give support to parents choosing a more instinctive/attachment parenting lifestyle: cloth nappies/diapers, slings, wraps, belly casts and other products."

 Earthbabies are made of a super soft cotton terry and come in 3 sizes. They are pretty absorbent and have a great fit. Sweetpea is now on the medium size and I love the way it snuggles her so well but the velcro makes it easy to adjust to exactly the right fit. This medium size will fit her for a while still. They have covers that then go over the nappy but I actually like keeping them open in the summer and now with Sweetpea doing EC (Elimination communication) it comes in handy just leaving the cover off to read her signals (see what she was doing just before the nappy got wet).

Snug fit around the leg, especially great with newborn no 2's!

 Little Man (2 yrs)  especially loves these nappies as they are so comfy to wear. He is wearing the large and it fits him really well too. I will be doing a post later on in the month on diapering a toddler and some of our choices. It will have pics with a few brands to demonstrate the different fits.

The covers dry really quickly and you can use them with numerous nappies before putting them in the wash. While the cover isn't attached it makes it easier to dry the nappy in the tumble drier if you really get stuck in the winter and it's been raining for days!

I've been in direct contact with Sally who is part owner in the company and she is really informative and helpful. What's awesome about this company is that it's owned by mothers for mothers. They've tried and used every product they sell. Their service is great and the quality is really good. Mamma Going Green will be reviewing their ring sling soon on our new series of posts called "MOMMY MUST HAVE MONDAY'S!"

These are the covers.

If you would like to read more about cloth nappies, Elimination Communication, baby wearing etc check out:

http://www.earthbabies.co.za/

WOOOOHOOOO! I got mail!

Can you guess what we got in the mail today? Review coming soon!

Actress Isla Fisher (Confessions of a Shopaholic) and baby Olive.

Paint packets!

So who can use a cheap, quick craft for the kiddo's that keeps them busy for ages? Every mom I'm sure! We made these (actually I did while they were sleeping, who needs paint on the floors right?!) and my 3 munchkins loved them!

Really simple to do:

Liquid paint ( we used Tempura)

Cheap ziplock bag (any size)

Pour a 1/4 of the bag full of paint, press the air out and seal.

Give the kiddo's the right to creativity and see what they come up with!

So great to see how each of them explore in different ways. Princess (6 yrs old) decided to use things in the house that have a definite shape to press into the paint. She used things like the bottom of a candle to make a circle and a marker that she rolled to create a rectangle.

Miss Sunshine ( 4 years old) decided to use her wooden alphabet puzzle to mark letters in the paint.

Little Man got clever, it's paint so it needs a brush! He made all types of squiggles and lines with his paintbrush!

Bambino Mio review!

So this is my first of many reviews lined up so please stick around!

(excuse the quality of the pic, tad difficult with squirmy!)

 I've been using cloth nappies since our second baby, Miss Sunshine was 3 months old. Bambino Mio was one of our first nappies and we loooooove them! Infact the size 2's we bought with her have gone onto Little Man and still look great so will be used for Sweetpea when she is big enough to move onto them.

Double gusset and no gaps between the leg and nappy! HUGE plus!

For the moment she is on size 1's and they are my go to nappy with her. They fit her really well and she never has a leak (probably because they have a double gusset cover). We have 3 covers in our stash and just replace the prefold if it's wet or soiled and reuse the cover. 

They are imported from the UK and the quality shows wash after wash. They are made using a three panel construction with 6 layers (size 1) and 8 layers (size 2) in the centre and 4 layers of tightly woven 100 % cotton on the outer panels.

It's considered a prefold nappy and can be tri folded (our favourite at the moment!) and just placed in the cover or folded a variety of different ways to suit a girl or boy or heavy wetter. U- tube has some great tutorials for the various folds.

This is the prefold open, you can see the vertical lines are where I normally fold them.

We use them as our night time nappies very often and they go through the night with Little Man who is now 2. It's an excellent night time option for heavy wetters and additional boosters (Mio Boost)  can be bought to add to them which we haven't even found to be necessary. 

They come in size 1 (up to 7kg) and size 2 ( 7kg to 16kg ) and they have 5 different size covers to get the best fit.

You can purchase them at Baby City, Wellness Warehouse and on line.

If you are looking for any further info on Bambino Mio check out :

www.artemisbrands.co.za and look them up on Facebook!

PJ saturday!

With this gorgeous weather in Cape Town ( rainy, cloudy and gail force winds!) we staying in and watching some movies with the kids!

                                                          Fun in our jammies!

Stick around, next week we have a fun do-it-yourself craft that can be used as a teaching tool for kiddies and a review on a must have baby product (in my books anyway!)

Have a great weekend!

Starting Elimination communication!

So What is Elimination communication? (What I will refer to as EC in the rest of this post)

Elimination Communication is NOT potty training. It is a natural, gentle, non-coercive process where a baby, preferably beginning in the early stages, learns with the loving assistance of parents to communicate about and address his or her elimination needs. This practice makes normal potty training unnecessary.

Believe it or not babies are aware of their elimination needs from birth and communicate those needs through various vocal and bodily signals. From the first few months of life, babies have the ability to consciously release their bladders and bowels when offered appropriate pottying opportunities. When we practice elimination communication (EC), we recognize their signals and enable our babies to maintain a connection with their bodily sensations.

                                                                      Sweetpea at 7 weeks using her potty... 

I started Sweetpea at 6 weeks by sitting on the edge of the toilet and facing towards the lid. I would then cup her legs in a sitting position and rest her back against my chest. We initially started by using timing, so going when she wakes up or after a feed or every hour or so. This helped me notice what her facial expressions or body language was when she was actually going. Now I'm becoming familiar with those signals and use them as cues to offer her the potty or toilet. It's almost 4 weeks on now and she is doing great! Almost all her number 2's or on the potty or loo!

As we go I will be adding more to the blog about EC, different potties, positions etc. 

To all the ladies, HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY!!

Wordless wednesday!

Little smiles to melt a heart...

Butterfly beauties!

Little man taking care of Sweetpea!