Witching Hour & Afternoon Tea; It's all a day in the life of LLC

While Halloween festivity seems to be on the rise here, it's certainly all the rage in my native US of States.  I remember some of my early costumes fondly, particularly a bunny suit that matched my dear Floppy-eared Rabbit.  Now that LLC is on the scene I wanted to get in the spooky spirit: Chris carved a pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern, we hung strands of black bats in our window and LLC and I dressed as matching witches to great our trick-or-treaters....of which there was one.   One solitary trick-or-treater.  All my visions of our cackling selves greeting candy-mad children at the door were shattered but we still had a pretty good time making spooky faces at Chris.  Did I say we?  I'm not sure what LLC would have to say about that but she seemed to enjoy my antics..... really, she did.

As if the little lady had not had enough excitement for one week, on Tuesday we joined Huggies and the other Huggies Mums for afternoon tea at The Dorchester in London.   While we chatted about our kids, the Huggies Bundle of Laughs comedy channel and life in general over tasty sandwiches and cakes, LLC scoffed a cucumber sandwich and then enjoyed many cuddles from the Huggies girls and Young Mummy, who didn't even get cross when she knocked her glasses or phone onto the floor.  I'd never been to tea at Dorchester before and fear I may be instilling expensive tastes in LLC from a tender age!

It's been a busy past week in the life of this 9 month-old!

Loving Huggies 'Little Bundle of Laughs'

Colostrum, bump-touching, birth, babies and parenting were the talk of the town at the Huggies ‘Little Bundle of Laughs’ at London’s Leicester Square Theatre last night. My ticket to this pregnancy and parenting comedy extravaganza came compliments of Huggies and it made for a great night out.

We saw a heavily pregnant Lucy Porter share the cookie baking moment when she decided she wanted children even though she is scared of small kids.

Hilarious Kerry Godliman gave her low down on pregnancy insomnia and why to aspire to a kick ass pelvic floor.

Then Father Ted’s Ardal O’Hanlon offered a male take on supporting his pregnant wife, coping with all the pillows that accompany a bump to bed and the awe-inspiring moment when he became a father.

I put on a dress and joined the fray of blooming pregnant ladies, yummy mummies, surprisingly many men, bloggers, journalists and even a few celebs (ohhhh, that chick with the really blonde hair two seats in front of me was Stacy Solomon off the ‘X-Factor’ - apparently Danielle Lloyd was also there looking ravishing one month post birth but I missed her....(sob).....) to hear about the ins and outs of pregnancy and becoming a parent.

Like the magical Harry Potter Marauder’s Map, the pregnancy and parenting chapter of life completely evaded me until we decided to try for a baby. I started to take folic acid, learned new words lke meconium and phrases like quickening, started to think about birth and breastfeeding and lots of other things I never paid an iota of attention to when babies were off my immediate radar and more something I'd like to do one day. Then, pregnant, all of a sudden, I was in “the club.”

And last night's Huggies event really spoke to this "club" in a funny, easy to relate to way that engendered collective laughs, sighs and knowing grins. I wish I’d had the chance to attend something of the like while pregnant, because it really brought to life a lot of the issues that I had on my ten (yes ten!) month journey. So well done Huggies; thanks for a great night for which all proceeds went to Tommys, the charity dedicated to giving babies the best chance of being born healthy.

If you’re pregnant or have a little one and are not a member of the Huggies Club I’d definitely suggest joining so you can easily find out and take advantage of similar events down the line.

(Although Huggies sponsored my ticket to this show, this is my honest, unpaid & independent view, as always!)

Huggies Messy Play Challenge – Get Involved, But Fast!

True to my style of better late than never, I’m finally posting LLC and my contribution to the Huggies Messy Play Challenge. If you’re up for photographing your little one partaking in some type of messy play and getting in the running for some free Huggies kit, act now for this competition closes tomorrow July14th. See the full rules below and get in the running!

As a Huggies Mom I found out about The Messy Play Challenge ages ago but I just wasn’t sure how to get LLC messy. This may sound ridiculous as children and messy play are more or less synonymous, but babies and messy play (for we know they make plenty of poo/wee/puke mess) are a bit more challenging.

LLC rolls around her play-mat like a tornado and grabs at anything and everything but can’t yet hold onto food, paint, pens, sand, etc long enough to really get herself dirty. I should probably savour this time before I’m frantically wiping up trails of food and drink from her wake, but instead I kept plotting how to get her playing messy.

I thought of buying some child friendly paint and dipping her hands in it or taking her to a local pottery studio where children can handprint mugs, etc but I haven’t quite got around to either (though I really do want to print her pottery while she’s still small). I considered photographing her covered in bath bubbles until my until my baby brain recognized this as the antithesis of messy (oh dear). She occasionally possets and starts to play with her sick but to capture this would be both gross and pretty cruel/demented.

Finally I settled on our first dabble in the direction of weaning by giving her a bowl of cut up banana to play with. I have a growing interest in Baby Led Weaning so was interested to see if she might get the banana to her mouth. 

She didn’t. She got her hand in the bowl, smudged some banana on her fist and managed to transfer some of this residue onto herself but we had some happy shrieks and smiles in the process. Messy(ish) Play challenge accomplished.

It may be down to the wire, but it’s so easy to take part in this so definitely go for it if you can. Here are the rule as laid out by Huggies.

1. The messier your baby is in the photo the better. (The challenge is cleaning up!)
2. Post the photo to your blog with The Messy Play by Huggies Wipes challenge. (It can be an old photo or a previous post).
3. Send a link of your blog post featuring your Messy Play photo to @Huggies_UK on Twitter or online.team@Huggies.com to participate.
4. Check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/messyplaybyhuggieswipes/ to see all the blogger submissions and links to their blogs. Submissions will also be shouted out by @Huggies_UK on Twitter.
5. The top 3 messiest entries will receive Huggies® gift packs of Huggies merchandise.

COMPETITION CLOSES JULY 14TH

CyberMummy Here I Come!

I’m excited to be attending the much anticipated CyberMummy blogging conference this Saturday July 3rd. Huggies, who sponsored my ticket, has recently already afforded me the opportunity to meet some fellow bloggers but by and large, this is my first opportunity to meet the people behind the words, which is fantastic and also a little daunting too.

In an effort to get to know each other a bit before the day, Carly at Mummy’s Shoes initiated a ‘Meet & Greet’ so attendees could share a snapshot bio with each other. So here’s a bit on me.

Name: Tanya
Blog: Bump2Basics – Random Musings from an American Mom in London
Twitter ID: @Bump2Basics
Hair: Long brown
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5ft 1, but probably will be wearing some type of heel, though nothing too ambitious
Will be wearing: Something non-breastfeeding friendly; it will make a refreshing change!
Likes: Running, writing, pilates, fine wine with family & friends, long walks, exploring, yoga, salsa dancing and talking (please come say hello on the day!)

I’ve been inspired, surprised, educated and engaged by the UK blogging community once I realized it existed so Saturday promises to be a day to learn a lot, and to remember.

Breaking Bread with Fellow Bloggers

Yesterday LLC and I attended our first “blogging event” a la Huggies to chat about my new role as a Huggies Mum and to meet fellow Huggies mama bloggers.

What does it mean to be a Huggies mum? We’re not paid (aside from travel expenses to meetings), or roped into writing rave reviews of every Huggies product under the sun – Huggies is providing a platform for UK mum bloggers to meet, network and keep up to speed with Huggies products and events. They’ve kindly sponsored our tickets to the much anticipated Cybermummy and occasionally pass on some free goodies for our little ones. I was psyched to be offered the opportunity to get involved.

So bloggers event virgin I am no more! Several members of the very friendly, baby-loving Huggies team (LLC received many cuddles and I even had my nails done!) met us in London and I got the chance to meet some of the bloggers I regularly read along with a number of their adorable kids. Check out their blogs for some great reads:

A Place of My Own
Young & Younger
Glowstars
Me, The Man & The Baby
Babygenie
A Mothers Ramblings
Perfectly Happy Mum
The Alice
Wahm Bam

It was a lovely, laid back meet and greet. We also learned about some cool competitions Huggies has on the cards for bloggers (more on this in a future post). Thanks for a lovely afternoon Huggies.
 

Speaking of blogger love, I felt all warm and fuzzy last week when I received two blogging awards.
First, the Beautiful Blogger Award from the lovely, witty Nappy Valley Girl who currently resides on my native Long Island. This award involves revealing seven things about me and tagging other bloggers to do the same. Hmmmm, what is worth sharing....

• I met Chris in a nightclub in Plymouth, UK while on a high school trip to England. I blogged about this recently but you may have missed that....
• I wrote a small children’s book series as a kid called The Pam & Beth Stories; writing hooked me from an early age
• I bought my wedding dress on Ebay from a girl in Texas –it cost about $200 and looked as good as new. Don’t discount the power of the bay...
• I’ve had a crush on Christian Bale since I saw him sing and dance his heart out in Newsies – I try to ignore his venomous tongue and temper of late and concentrate on the fact he is h-o-t
• I’m a sleep freak – i.e. a very light sleeper who has trouble sleeping in front of other people
• I played soccer for about 10 years as a kid – midfield because of my stamina, heh.... – it’s really popular for girls on Long Island where I grew up

I’d like to learn some fascinating facts about A Mother's Ramblings, Living with Kids and Deer Baby.

Next, the Prolific Blogger Award from the fabulous Michelle at A Mid-Atlantic English, a fellow American Expat.

This award comes with the following rules from originator Advance Booking:

1. Every winner of the Prolific Blogger Award has to pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers. Spread some love!
2. Each Prolific Blogger must link to the blog from which he/she has received the award (see above).
3. Every Prolific Blogger must link back to This Post, which explains the origins and motivation for the award.
4. Every Prolific Blogger must visit this post and add his/her name in the Mr. Linky, so that we all can get to know the other winners.

I’d like to share this award with the following excellent bloggers that always keep me coming back for more, some that I’ve been reading for awhile and some more recently discovered: MWA, A Place of My Own, Glowstars, Angels & Urchins, Readily A Parent, Tiddlyompompom

Whew.....

CyberMummy Here I Come

I didn't understand the massive scope of the blogosphere when I began blogging.  I naively didn't recognize the force that is the parent blogging community on both sides of the Atlantic.

This was probably a good thing to start, as it allowed me to actually start writing and blogging rather than spend hours delving into other blog content.  I re-discovered my writing and established a blogging rhythm of some sort.  And then I stepped off the deep end into the blogosphere.  It's been a thought provoking and inspiring leap. 

The 2010 CyberMummy Conference is a testament to the UK parent blogging tribe that I now mix with.  It's an opportunity to talk blogging, exchange tips with and meet the characters behind my Google Reader.  I really wanted to attend yet at £100.00/ticket the price was a bit steep for my maternity leave budget.  

You can thus imagine my excitement when Huggies contacted me out of the blue and offered to sponsor my pace at CyberMummy.  I've graciously accepted and look forward to this eye and mind opening event.  Thank you Huggies.