Holiday in pictures

Here are a few pictures from our holidays:

This was taken in Speightstown, to the North West of Barbados. Nate loved looking out at the sea and was pointing to another beach.

All cuddled up to daddy. 

Happy to be in his big boy pants

At North Point in Barbados there are lovely picture opportunities. Here you can see an anchor in the distance. 

Enjoying the view from North Point

At The Crane, the lovely hotel in St Phillip Nate enjoyed looking at the fish, there were two ponds for the Koi, one outside one of the hotel blocks 

The other with lovely large Koi outside the Zen restaurant

For daddies birthday we went on a picnic in Barclays Park along the East Coast Road

Nate's favourite thing was airplane spotting so here we are at my favourite beach for the same reason. When I was younger I always thought the planes flew close enough to touch so would jump when the big jets flew over. 

Scratch meals

While wandering around food shopping in a jet lag induced daze. We came across Scratch meals which contain everything necessary to cook a meal and all prepped ready to go. Perfect for me after flying 7 hours. It serves two people, however in our house it also served a little person as well.

It says it'll take 8 minutes which is slightly longer than a ready meal but a lot nicer and more healthy. I think it took us 10 minutes which wasn't a bad time for a nice meal. 

As you can see the instructions are simple to follow. We will be trying another of Scratch's meals again soon. 

Hevea Alfie on holiday

We were lucky enough to be given a Hevea duck called Alfie while at the gTea last month. Nate loved Alfie so much we decided to take it with us on holiday. Here are a few pictures from our travels:

On the beach, Alfie made himself at home in the sand.

Alfie having a little swim

After all the hard work at the beach it was decided Alfie needed a jacuzzi bath.

Nate and Alfie enjoying bathtime.

Alfie gets to have a look at the beautiful Atlantic Sea from The Crane

Yummy, Alfie is tasty.

I'm really impressed with the Hevea duck it stood up to Nate chewing on it (his form of affection for his toys it seems) and it doesn't have that awful hole in the bottom that lets water in and then you're left with a mildewy duck. Plus Nate loves it.

Sunrise on a plane

I normally love flying. I dreaded flying this time as it was going to be just me and Nate with the 5000 things a toddler needs I wasn't sure I had enough hands. Nate was great, it being a night flight probably helped. I thinned out our hand luggage and I have to say I was glad I had as we used the things we had and didn't require anything else.

Packing list

iPad 

Magazines(2 for Nate, 1 for me)

A book (Nate)

Nappies & wipes (3 changes worth)

A change of clothes (for Nate) 

Passport etc
A couple of baby flapjacks

Nate slept for most of the flight, after breakfast Nate woke up walked over to me and asked for a flapjack. This flight was almost dream like. 

Flying checklist part 1

Out of the last four flights we have taken with Nate we have taken a carrier with us three times. The first time we flew with Nate he was 9 months old and it seemed silly not to take a carrier when he spent most of his time in it at home. The next time we were going on a short weekend away with no space for a pushchair and then we flew without it for a short weekend. I can't say I missed it as we were able to wheel the pushchair right up to the plane and pick it up from the same place and Nate is walking which is a help and a hindrance in equal measure at times. 

This trip we know we won't get the pushchair until baggage reclaim so we need something to carry Nate while we have to shuffle papers at customs. 

As we sit at the airport now Nate is strapped to my back in our Ergo carrier fast asleep after refusing to go in the pushchair as he was overtired. The decision to carry another item was worth it in this instance. 

All ready for his adventures. 

Travels with gNappies part 2

I've written a blog about travelling with gNappies before but I thought this time I'd show you how I travel with them. We use the disposable inserts when travelling as we are flying to Barbados, it's an eight hour flight too long for wet cloth for me.

There is a lot of things we have to remember in out hand luggage. The last time we flew to Barbados we ended up doubling our hand luggage after security with all the bits we ended up buying. "Calpol, check, nappies, check, wipes, toys, blanket, dummy etc... The list seems never ending. 

To make nappy changes easy for me, I pack a little nappy change kit which contains a nappy, nappy insert and wipes. 

Then I pack an extra complete gNappy in a nappy bag and in another nappy bag I have pack six extra inserts which should be more than enough. 

I have an emergency Eco disposable packed just in case. 

Organix Paste Pots.

Well, we finally tried the Organix paste pots as we needed a few small meals for Nate for the evenings. We've found that Nate is ready for his dinner after we have eaten as he eats tea just before we pick him up from Nursery. It was a good time to try the paste pots I bought a little while ago.

We decided to use the Red Thai paste pot.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe, I didn't grate the carrot I chopped them up small instead. Also Nate isn't very keen on peppers so I decided to use baby corn, which he loves. So after sweating the onions and red pepper for a few minutes. I then browned the mince.

The desiccated coconut and paste pot go in. At this point I got a little worried as the mixture seemed very dry and I have to say I added a little bit more water than specified in the recipe. I think next time I would probably add some tomato paste along with the water

For the last few minutes the sweetcorn goes in. I portioned them out to four Nate sized portions with pasta instead of rice as stated in the recipe and froze them. I had a little taste and have to say they are quite nice, you get a lovely taste of the lemongrass and it is a perfect introduction to Thai curries for Nate.