Glorious Weekend

We had a brilliant weekend as my best friend from university came to stay with her family and now we have moved into a new house we had room to move and spread everyone out.

Although Pop Princess ended up sleeping in with us as her and Ollie, my friends little boy who is 4 just wouldn't settle in the same room and every 10 minutes they were downstairs giggling saying they needed a wee or the last excuse from pop princess was that she wan't feeling very well.

The kids had great fun in the garden and we got some brilliant pictures





Happy Days!

My Absence and Moving House

I have been a little quiet of late, you may have seen me pop up on twitter now and again mostly chatting about work stuff, looking for other bloggers to review things and get involved in campaigns.

But my own blog has been neglected again, I am finding it increasingly hard to find the time to write and when I was off on maternity leave with Rock Baby it was a lifeline and I really enjoyed it.

Life has now gone back to normal, juggling work with family life stretching myself in more ways than one the usual moan. Actually I don't want to moan as life is pretty good at the moment and it is as they say what you make it.

We have just moved to a beautiful house in the country. This is Rock Baby and Pop Princess in our old house, they had just come home from nursery to find pretty much everything gone, which they found very exciting.


I now have my own office over looking fields with sheep and horses. It's very quiet....very quiet! When you are used to living in the middle of a town with the comforting sounds of boy racers whizzing up your road, the occasional drunks falling out of the pubs singing on a Friday and Saturday night and where your next door neighbours are just about the only people you know. Country life will take some getting used to but lets face it that's not a chore!






The Girls will have a much better quality of life, they now have a garden to play in instead of a postage stamp courtyard. Mummy and Daddy can work from home more and hopefully be less stressed and we can spend more quality time together. Pop Princess said again today she wanted to go home to the house with the blue door (she means our old house) but instead of crying this time when I told her there was a new family in our house she simply said 'OK Mummy that's fine'. We had had a few tearful episodes over the last two weeks but we have now turned a corner. Rock Baby couldn't care less and has taken it all in her very laid back style.




Oh and Finnie, yes the dog our other baby is in heaven she patrols the back garden ever night keeping the sheep in line in case they dare to get too close to the fence!

Who knows we may even start growing our own vegetables!

Just need to get myself a nice pair of wellys, size 6 Hunters in Aubergine. Very specific I know.

I'll check in again soon I promise.

Earth Friendly Baby Competition and TePe MiniT Review

Our bed time routine has been made a little more pleasant of recent weeks thanks to the arrival of some new bath time bubbles / hair and body wash from Earth Friendly Baby


We were sent the Earth Friendly Baby Organic Mandarin Shampoo and Body Wash. It smells gorgeous and I really liked it as it instantly lathered up when you put it on the girls hair, it also washed out easily and didn't irritate their eyes. Pop Princess has really long hair and it left her hair shining and in lovely condition. Rock Baby's is still growing but she smelt like a lovely mandarin after her bath!It promises to leave your baby smelling sweet and smiling and it certainly fulfilled these promises. The Shampoo / Body wash is priced at 3.99 for a 250ml bottle and is available at selected Waitrose Stores and good baby and health stores.







We were also lucky enough to be sent some new toothbrushes from TePe MiniT by Molar Ltd all of which are British Dental Health Foundation approved. Rock Baby has not long started having her teeth brushed and Pop Princess is pretty good at brushing her own, obviously supervised and with a little extra help scrubbing them from me!



We had a yellow and pink toothbrush, they have long handles a bit like weaning spoons, which I found brilliant as it is a lot easier to clean Rock Baby's teeth with them, the bristles are also soft and as a first toothbrush I think its probably one of the best I have tried. Pop Princess wanted the yellow one, which had a little teddy design on it, she has a tendency to chew on hers so its looking a little worst for wear now but she is 3 and so it probably isn't as suitable for her as it is Rock Baby. I would thoroughly recommend them as a first tooth brush though. They are good value to at only £1.99 and available from all leading pharmacies.



Competition Time!

If you would like to win some Earth Friendly Baby products, we have 3 chances to win the shampoo and Body Wash:

Go to the Earth Friendly Facebook Page and Like it
Follow me on Twitter @rockbabyworld
Follow my blog
Cut and Paste 'I want to win the Earth Friendly Goodies' in the comments box below

Competition to open to UK entrants Only
Winners will be drawn using random selector
Competition closes on 27th March

A Woofing Fantastic Time at DFS Crufts

Last Sunday I was invited to attend DFS Crufts as a VIP Mum along with my hubby, the girls and my dad and step mum.




We had a brilliant time, a big thank you to the lovely Maria and Holly who organised a stress free and very enjoyable family day out.

We arrived about 11am and had time to walk around the many different stalls, and various dog displays that were happening, Pop Princess had her face painted at the Samsung Stand, whilst Rock Baby was happy to take it all in from the comfort of the buggy! She was also thrilled when a very friendly golden retreiver came and said hello!



I was in my element looking at literally every breed of dog you could think of, many of which I had never heard of before. The breeders were very friendly and willing to answer any questions, we made a bee line for the Griffon Bruxellois Stand as 'Finnie', our 'other' baby is the same breed. It turns out the lady running the stand knew the breeder who we got Finnie from and was actually her mentor.

We knew it may happen and it did and we all fell in love with one little dog, the smooth red haired Griffon which was just like Finnie. She was amazing and she is going to have a litter this summer, so we took details and plan to stay in touch as we would love another addition to the family!




Just before lunch we headed over to the press room, where we met the other lovely bloggers and their families which included Roz from Kin Hodgkins, Fi from Childcare is Fun, Liz from Me and My Shadow and Maria from Mummy's Busy World.


It was so nice to meet some other bloggers in person as you tweet and email all the time and so its great to put a name to a face. We met Holly the head of marketing for The Kennel Club who was so lovely and then we were all taken for lunch which was scrummy and by the time that was finished it was starting to get a bit late.

The queue was already starting to grow for Best In Show and the girls were starting to get grouchy but we wanted to see the arena so we tried to entertain them whilst waiting (thank god for child friendly Apps on the iPhone!). When we got in we had brilliant seats and Pop Princess loved the agility show and the music she was so excited and even Rock Baby joined in for a bit of clapping!




by 6.30 we had to leave as it had been a long but brilliant day for them. DFS Crufts is a great show if you are dog mad like me, it does get very busy though and you need to keep eyes everywhere in case your toddler goes wandering, thankfully we had grandparents on hand to help us with the girls! It was a shame the main shows were in the evening so we couldn't stay so not really great timing for those with really young children like ours. It didn't matter though as we all had a really enjoyable day out and we would definitely go again.




We also recieved a free goody bag crammed with dog treats and toys which Finnie was very grateful for!, key rings, pens, books and leaflets. Thanks so much to The Kennel Club for inviting us!

The Guilt of a Working Mum

Poor little Pop Princess has come down with the sickness bug now, bless her she looks so poorly. Rock Baby on the other hand has bounced back and is happy as Larry now!




My dad who looks after the girls for two days per week has also been struck down, he has been very ill and I feel so bad for him, he is no spring chicken and he recently gave up smoking which I have been so proud of him for, but it has seemed to have had the opposite effect in which he seems to pick up all manner of bugs and his immune system seems so low. You think after kicking a 40 year smoking habit he would be so much healthier. We think it's the years of tar being cleaned out of his system.

One of Rock Baby's little friends who we saw on Thursday has also been sick today, this was after we saw them 48 hours after her last bout and when I believed she was on the mend, but actually she was still infectious obviously.

So it's a waiting game to see if me or my hubby get it! Not something I am looking forward to.

We had to come up with a solution to Pop Princess's distress when it came to Rock Baby screaming when she was ill. PP hated it and would scream at RB to be quiet and was getting herself in a right state as she couldn't handle the noise, she was really sensitive to it. Thankfully one of our friends works in Formula 1 racing and he had got some ear protectors for his little girl for when she went to the races and suggested we borrow them. As you can see from the pictures below they worked a treat and PP was a much happier little girl!





With illness comes all the juggling with trying to get alternative child care sorted out, having to leave work earlier to attend to sick children and some days not being able to go in at all as they are simply too poorly and only want their mummy.

I was supposed to go the The Baby Show last week and also had a big meeting in London, thankfully they understood when I had to rearrange which was great and I have a very understanding boss. Hubby had to take the day off work today to look after the girls as my week was quite disrupted last week so we are trying to share the load, whilst the girls get better and my dad recovers. Nursery is also out for Wednesday but luckily my in laws are helping out.

It's been a usual mix of emotions like it is for many working mums with Guilt being the biggest.

Guilty for leaving them when they are poorly to go to work and feeling that was wrong

Guilty for letting work down and having to rearrange meetings and for not being able to make it into the office

Guilty for my dad getting poorly and Rock Baby's little friend

There is always something to worry about but when they are ill it makes everything that little more stressful!

Win a Family Ticket to DFS Crufts 2011

It's Competition time!

As you know I was very lucky to be selected to attend DFS Crufts 2011 as a VIP MUM by The Kennel Club. The whole family are really excited to be attending and we will be going on Sunday 13th March as its the best in show day! Its also the toy dog day so we are hoping to see lots of other Griffon Bruxellois like our dog Finnie.

Crufts promises to be a great family day out and I will be reporting back with how our Crufts experience goes.

I am very pleased to be in a position to run a competition on my blog and one lucky winner will win:

A family ticket to DFS Crufts and personalised children's shirts. Like the ones below:



The winner can choose the style that they like the most. They have some great limited edition merchandise available this year including this rather lovely hoody which has the 120 years logo on it (can you believe the show has been going for that long!)



To enter this competition all you have to do is answer the following question:

What day and year was the very first Crufts event held on (quick tip go to the DFS Crufts home page for help!). Just put your answer below in the comments box and tweet the following:

I would like to go to #DFSCrufts2011 I've entered with @rockbabyworld

The Competition closes on the 26th February and the winner will be randomly selected.

If you would like to find out more about the event go along to their facebook page here and follow them on twitter @KCLovesDogs

It would also be lovely if you could follow this blog!


Good Luck everybody!!!

Silent Sunday - Poorly Rock Baby

Silent Sunday - Poorly Rock Baby