Mamas helper

With all of these developmental milestones that Dean has been reaching, he has become a great little helper! He's so happy to be able to understand what your saying, and getting to do something he sees us do, that he wants to do what you say! I know this wont last very long, but it's great while it lasts. Now, how he does things mightn't be very productive, but it is so funny watching him try little things and thinking that he is great!

He loves doing a bit of hoovering or sweeping, and is a professional polisher!  I think I have created the perfect man - watch out in twenty years or so!

Rocking the bandana while sweeping!

A bit of washing won't scare him off either, and he'll even have a go in the kitchen! Lock up your daughters ladies!

Dean is wearing his flower for Daffodil Day!

Stirring the sauce with Nonna

My son, the television star!

Ok maybe less of a star, and more of a prop, but you get the picture! Dean was a "model" for a feature on Xposé this evening, wearing a Creeper Crawlers baby grow.

A few months ago we got the chance for Dean to join in on a group photo for Ollwyn, the lovely lady from Creeper Crawlers, to go in a magazine advertisement. The photo shoot was great fun for all, and the photos turned out great! Then out of the blue I received a message from Ollwyn on Tuesday, asking could Dean lend a hand again yesterday!

The two babies had a great time again, and did a great job of playing up to the camera! It was a lovely feature, and Dean enjoyed watching himself on tv!

The Creeper Crawler suits are just lovely! They are not just your average baby grow, but have little rubber sticky bugs (similar to what's on the bottom of them fuzzy "slipper socks") along the legs, and a big bug on the soles of the feet. The idea behind them, is to help little babies grip the floor more easily when learning to crawl. The design is very cute, and they come in blue, pink and cream. I think   they would make a lovely gift for a new baby! Dean is the lucky owner of two now, since doing the photo shoot and video!

Looking good!

I have created a link above, and here to the Creeper Crawler website if you would like to have a look at the baby grows.  (This is not a sponsored post)

Lotion bars

The end result! 

Me and Dean made some lotion bars today! They were simple to make, and turned out great! Here's a quick run-down on the method that I used;

The beeswax took the longest to melt, so it was a lucky accident  that I cut the coconut oil and Shea butter up so much bigger !

I put equal (ish!) amounts of coconut oil, Shea butter, and beeswax into a glass bowl, and simply melted them together over a saucepan of water, stirring most of the time until the 3 ingredients were completely melted and combined.

Should have thought of these photos when I was getting dressed!

I then added in some essential oil and poured it into a muffin tin to cool and harden. I left them overnight, but they had hardened completely a few hours later. This morning I popped them out of the tin, and put them all into a Kilner jar to store in my bathroom.

This is when they had set

See all of the dribbles that I messily spilt on the tin, I scraped these all off along with what was left in the glass bowl, mashed in a very small amount of almond oil and put in a small glass jar to use as lip balm! The almond oil stops it from going fully solid, so it's easier to take a small bit from the jar using your finger. It works very well as a lip balm, and I'd say it will make a nice cream for Deans bum too (I'll let you know when I try it out!)

They just about fit in!

I haven't had the opportunity to use the lotion bars much yet, but have applied some to my hands a few times and they are silky soft! The oil rubs off on your skin, but it isn't too heavy and absorbs in very quickly and easily. They smell lovely with the essential oils (I made two lemon bars, two lavender bars, and two un scented ones too) and I would imagine 6 bars will last us a good while. The  whole thing took less than 10 minutes to do (apart from setting time that is) from start to finish, while chasing after a crazy toddler at the same time! I will update this post when we have all been using them for a while and let you know how they are working out!

I got this recipe from wellnessmama, her blog has been like my bible lately! For anybody interested in going green, I would highly recommend that you take a look at this blog. Just don't forget to come back to mine!

Sarah xx

Learning

Dean has started to get a grasp on some words, and has reach a whole new level of understanding of language. He understands everything you say to him, and he is making efforts to copy some words we say. "This", "yeah" and "dog" are his favourites at the moment, and he's attempting to say a few more as well. He listens so attentively (when he wants to!), and loves being told how to do things and trying it out.

Today, when we came in from the back garden Dean took his shoes off, and put them in the utility room beside my shoes - all with only a little bit of help! He is using a (small) fork to eat things like spaghetti now, and has pretty much mastered using it. He gives sequences of signs to explain what he wants, and makes enough noise about it to make you notice!

It really is great to get so much more back from this little person. He has a very distinct personality now, and he's so determind to show us exactly what he is thinking, it's so funny seeing him patch things together and discover new things. It's also helpful in a practical way, at bed time for example it's much easier to comfort Dean with words now, instead of feeding or rocking etc. .

I'm having so much fun looking after Dean at the moment. Our days are busy, he is very active and needs to be kept occupied, but it's all just great fun. He enjoys helping me stir things when cooking, or setting the fire (scrunching up newspaper!) or dusting the furniture (hilarious!) and everything he sees any of us do, he copies in an instant!

I hope I don't sound as if I'm gushing here! I'm not, I'm just attempting to capture times in our life, and document Deans growth as much as I can. I'm afraid that one day these memories won't be quite as vivid, and I will wish I had something to help transport me back to this!

What are the moments you never want to forget?

Going green - Homemade personal hygiene products

In an effort to reduce the amount of chemicals we are exposed to daily, I have been busy making simple, natural products for all of our hygiene needs. I'm only getting started, and still have a few more products to switch to natural alternatives, but here is what I've been trying out so far;

• Deodorant
• Shower gel
• Hand wash
• Facial cleanser & makeup remover
• Moisturiser (face and body)

All of the "recipes" I have used are a combination of ideas from a variety of different blogs and sources on the Internet. But I'm very happy with each product so far, there are some things (like shampoo, toothpaste and a few more) that I have either tried and not succeeded on the first go (shampoo!) or just haven't gotten around to making yet, but ill let you know when I do!

I LOVE the natural deodorant I made, it's incredibly easy to make and just as, if not more effective than the deodorant I did use. It's made by mashing coconut oil, baking soda, and cornflour together, then I add in some essential oil (I used lemon and some lavender), how easy is that?! The smell is delicious, and it's extremely effective too. I still feel fresh at the end of the day, and only need to use a very small amount every day. I feel much better knowing that there are no nasty chemicals sinking in to such a sensitive area every day too. This was one of the products I was sceptical about working, but I think it's actually my favourite out of everything that I have tried! I can't see myself ever switching back to my old brand!

For shower gel and hand wash I have just mixed 50:50 water and Castile soap, with some essential oils added to give a nice scent and to add anti bacterial properties (great for the hand wash) . I love the scent of lemon - which is antibacterial - tea tree oil would be very effective too. I ordered some lovely aluminium bottles with pumps from Bomar Aromatherapy, and I'm also using some old plastic hand wash pump bottles. These are fine, but I plan on "upgrading" to glass bottles/jars (to store all of my products) as soon as I can, to eliminate any contact with BPA (bisphenol A) or any other "nasties" that can seep from plastic into your products. Since changing hand wash, my hands are hardly dry at all, before now they were extremely dry, chapped and sore (I have suffered this for years now).

To remove makeup (mostly mascara, I actually haven't been using much more than that lately) I have started using coconut oil and I can't believe how well it works! It works as well as conventional eye make up remover, with out the stingy after feeling that it leaves! I just put a TINY bit on a piece of damp muslin (I cut up some old muslin squares into small squares), give it a squeeze to distribute the oil (coconut oil is solid at room temp) and remove my eye makeup as normal, then throw the muslin into the wash. I then use a mixture of almond oil, witch hazel and water (i put it in a spray bottle) on a bamboo face cloth to cleanse the rest of my face, then rinse. My face is left feeling fresh and clean, and I haven't needed to use a moisturiser since beginning this regime (if I did need an extra moisturising boost I would use some coconut oil) and my skin is much clearer and brighter looking than before.

I like to keep it simple when it comes to facial cleansing, and this seems to be working out great for my skin, but I will probably do some more experimenting in this area soon (it's not that I'm unhappy with the results - I'm very happy with them! - but I'm not sure if I could get even better results using something else.), so I mightn't stick with the witch hazel/almond oil combo,but I will definitly keep using the coconut oil for removing makeup. I also tried a very mild castile solution (about 1 part castile soap to 10 parts water) for this purpose, but it was quite messy and required a lot of rubbing,which obviously isn't great around the delicate eye area, so I wouldn't personally recommend this method.

To use as a body moisturiser I am planning on making some lotion bars (there are TONNES of different recipes for them on Pinterest) but despite having all of the ingredients I haven't got around to actually putting them together yet! So for now coconut oil is working out great. I simply break off a lump after showering and apply every where while my skin is still wet, then dry as usual! My skin used to feel itchy in spots, and tight after showering,but since swapping baby oil for coconut oil (and shower gel for the Castile soap) I haven't experienced this at all.

I also experimented with Castile soap as a base for "shampoo", followed by a vinegar rinse, which I have read of some people having great results with BUT this just did not work for my hair! It's the one disappointment I've had so far, which in itself is pretty good going, but I'm determined to find a natural alternative to shampoo that provides great results, minus the harsh chemical detergents. I have a few other ideas up my sleeve, so will be experimenting more soon, but for now I have been "cheating" with my old shampoo! I will be rectifying this soon, and as soon as I find something that works for me, I will describe what it is as well as anything else that didn't work for me. I think the Castile soap would be suited to somebody with pretty short hair that is less prone to getting greasy than mine. My hair is also very long, and reasonably thick, so I think that the weak Castile soap solution just wasn't able to get through my hair, and cut the grease.

I think that's about all of the changes I've made for now, as I said there are still more things I need to try and come up with practical affordable alternatives to, but as soon as I do I will let you all now how it goes! I am more than happy with everything I have changed already, and everything is just as convenient and hassle free as any products that I used to buy, so I'm giving all of my natural beauty products a MASSIVE thumbs up for now!

If anyone would like any (limited!) advice about anything I've mentioned above please don't hesitate to ask and I will try my best to help you!

What natural products have you tried, or which are your favourite? Have you had any natural product disasters?! Leave a comment below!

Sarah xo

Milky smile

My fondest memory so far of Dean is the moment when breastfeeding your tiny little baby, that they stop feeding to turn and give you the biggest milky smile. Even just thinking back to them moments gives me a warm little buzz.

Breastfeeding Dean when he was about two months old

It's hard work being a baby!

These are the moment that make being a parent worth it all!

More nappies!

More nappies arrived a few weeks ago! These are actually the first that I (attempted to) order, but they took the longest to arrive, so I was delighted to see the Alvababy package coming. The website says that delivery can take between three and four weeks, so they were actually early!

I LOVE the colours and patterns of the nappies I chose. It's nice to have a bit of variety, up until now I have only had solid colours, which are lovely, but the patterns make them look really special. A lot of the nappies also have a "minky" outer layer, which looks and feels so soft. The inside of the minky is PUL (polyurethane laminated fabric), and feels quite good in quality.

I also included 10 bamboo & microfiber nappy inserts in my order. It will be so handy to have spare inserts on hand, I find that these take the longest to dry, because there are so many layers. They are soft and a good size, so I am happy with these too.

I couldn't wait to try out the Alvababies and I have been pleasantly surprised with them! I am now spoilt for choice regarding colours, I can choose between stars and dinosaurs, giraffe print and Spider-Man pattern! I really  they have also been working really well, we have yet to have a leak, and they seem to be a really comfortable fit on Dean. I'm delighted, after all of the trouble I had when ordering, I was worried I had made a mistake ordering from them!

I will do a more detailed review of the Alvababies and the rest of the brands I have purchased to compare all of them to each other. Hopefully I might help some of you to decide on which brands to try out, if you are thinking of trying out cloth nappies. Keep reading for more!