Silent Sunday

Early rider Lite balance bike

We got this bike for Nate for Christmas last year but he has only really been interested in it very recently.

It is a beautiful wooden balance bike. There are no pedals so no distractions from balancing. There are two settings for steering (restricted and unrestricted) we currently have it set to restricted although I think Nate would prefer it to be unrestricted as he spends more time picking the front wheel up to steer than anything else. The faux leather seat is height adjustable to can be raised so it lasts longer.

Nate loves his bike and is always asking to go out on it. He has dropped it a couple of times and there isn't a mark on the bike. I loved the look of this bike which is why I chose it in the first place and I'm glad I did as Nate as has stood on it, dropped it, I've been made to sit on it and its not got a mark on it.

Fast Internet?

As a somewhat techie person I have always tried to ensure we have a fast connection to the internet. We had big issues with a previous provider where all of a sudden the connection was dropping out every hour and they couldn't find out why.

We gave them several opportunities to sort the issue out but instead of dealing with it they blamed us for the issues at every opportunity. Firstly they were reluctant to send out an engineer, when they did they reported the engineer had said the fault was at our end. The engineer had said no such thing and actually went to the exchange found a fault at the exchange and asked them for permission to fix it and they told him no. When we told them we knew that the engineer had found no fault our end they said they needed to commission the fix and that will take some time. The engineer was happy to fix the issue there and then. 

That fix finally took place and we were still having issues; the drop outs stopped for a week and then came back with a vengeance and this is the straw that broke the camels' back. They blamed the drop outs on the fact we used Mac's (the drop outs were noted on the routers logs so not an issue with the software on our computers) so I offered to try one of the other computers on the network. Windows pc same issue, PS3 same issue, Linux partition same issue seeing a pattern? They said ahh you have a complex network that's what the issue is. No, we don't, we have two computers we use regularly but there is a redundant PC sitting in a corner that could be turned on that served two purposes for the test as it runs Windows and Ubuntu. 

This leads me to BT Infinity we ran from our previous provider to BT and also got Infinity. I really cannot complain we get a perfect connection and have had no drop outs (touch wood). Having just done a speed test we are getting 60mbps download speeds and 10mbps upload speeds, I'm always happy with these upload speeds after working at sites that have 0.7 mbps upload speeds but really good download speeds. We have an old style box (they recently brought out new routers) and love the fact it has a the admin and wifi password on a tab that is put inside the router. 

BT on the go, recently we were staying at a hotel and we could have paid £7 for a day for internet or log on to the BT hotspot. We chose the BT hotspot. Nate's dad has an app on his Android phone to log him in to BT hotspots and I'm always amazed at the places where there are hotspots. Most of our family use BT for internet and wouldn't change because we have always received good customer service when we have needed to talk to them (not that often).

me&i Nordic Collection

Me&I launched their new collection a couple of weeks ago in London. Nate and I were lucky enough to get the opportunity to go along and have a look and try some lovely Swedish food.

The children's collection uses lovely simple patterns and images, most of the clothes are unisex which I love. The jeans have double thickness knees which are perfect for little people who always seem to go through the knees of their clothes. Everything is practical from the double thickness knees to the ability to easily size up.

My favourite things in the children's range were the hamsters.

Nate enjoying the balloons

I love this little outfit with the Hamster on the bottom of the trousers matched with the bodysuit and hat which Nate is wearing.

Lovely simple imagery

Check out me&i's website for more details on their range.

Garden finds

We are having the decking in our back garden removed and we found a little friend.

It's a frog! Lucky had always been a bit wary of going outside when it had rained and we thought we'd heard a croak once or twice but never did we think there was a frog living under our decking. He's found a home up at Nate's nursery for a few days before they find him a new home. 

Baking Focaccia

This weekend I was looking at Kimberley's (from the Great British Bake Off) website and came across a recipe for Roast garlic and red onion focaccia and I had to try and make it.

As always Nate wanted in on the action so he helped knead it

Poking 

Really kneading it now

Nate really enjoys baking so it was great to try something different from the bread we normally bake or biscuits. I cooked the red onion topping while Nate was kneading. I find getting the dough to the stage where it is starting to lose it's stickiness first before letting little fingers loose is best.

Finished!

This was so lovely we will be making it again and it didn't last at all long. There was a little left for breakfast the next morning. 

Breastfeeding a toddler

I've quietly breastfed Nate for the past 26 months and I've always worried about feeding him in public. That was until a few weeks ago when he wanted to be fed in a relatively quiet train carriage.

I see a cuddly baby, what do you see?

Then I realised how much you could see, in this case how little you can see. I get a weird view because I'm looking down so I see a lot. 

Strange how catching a glimpse of myself breastfeeding has made me feel less self conscious about it.