Playpennies

UPDATE - please read this response to Sian To from Mummy-Tips

This week PlayPennies Loves Mummy-Tips.

Normally, with PlayPennies Loves posts, I highlight several posts and ramble on about light and fluffy 'things' - I'm not going to do that today.   Today's PlayPennies Loves is difficult; for many of us it will be impossible to imagine (thankfully) but I want you to read just this one post - it's important and it may just save someone's life.

• Black Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...

Black Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...is about post-natal depression and attempted suicide.  Suicide that went wrong, which subsequently enabled everything to come right...

I cannot comprehend the despair that comes with post-natal depression; when your hopes of 'happy families' are anything but and you feel there's no way out of the dark.

Despite greater awareness of this terrible illness, too many people are still struggling and suffering in silence - only when people are brave enough to share their stories can we even begin to relieve those silences through greater understanding and early detection.

If you know suspect someone you know may be suffering from post-natal depression, please (as the author of Mummy-Tips says at the end of her Black Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday post) reach out to them; if you're worried that person is you then p-l-e-a-s-e talk to someone and ask for help.

Years and years ago I remember when stockings and suspenders were considered to be the height of sexiness - maybe they still are, I've just grown out of that particular stereotype.

Sock suspenders for men, always cause plenty of giggling as they are anything but sexy; however, you can't deny their usefulness if you have socks that keep falling down.

Even less sexy, but even MORE practical and useful than men's sock suspenders, are these Bottoms Up trouser suspenders for preggy mums!   Ohhhh how I could have used these when I was pregnant with my children -  they cost $19.75 and are stretchy bands of fabric that attach to the sides of your bra and skirt/shorts/trousers etc keeping them in place and your modesty intact!

• Click HERE to read more about the Bottoms Up trouser suspenders

Back in the early 90s leggings were the maternity wear of choice - the wonderfulness that is the Isabella Oliver maternity range didn't exist - and towards the end it was tough to keep those things from staying put when you bent over or sat down.

And just before my youngest arrived I was wearing pairs of maternity jeans that, whilst were comfy, just didn't stay up unless their adjustable bands were made so tight they became painful within half an hour.

Unless you know someone in the United States who can order these for you, you're going to have to see if you can make your own version because there's no option for international delivery.

That said, you can set up a virtual USA mailing address which allows you to order items that only dispatch within the US and then have them mailed here, I have one and it's VERY useful when it comes to buying things that are half the price they are in the UK - just Google 'set up USA virtual postal address' and you'll have lots of companies offering this service to choose from.

If you've managed to get the crayons out of your heart shaped mould, here's another lovely and easy rice crispy hearts recipe that you can use it for and I'm sure the kids will love. It's going to get messy... but what fun!

I've been known to say that it's never too soon to introduce kids to learning, I'm not sure I'd go as far as starting my child's education whilst they're still in the womb though!

However, lots of people seem to think it's a good idea and have been exposing their unborn offspring to the BabyPlus 'curriculum' - a series of, and I quote, "...naturally derived sounds that resemble a mother's heartbeat."

Naturally derived...?  What does that mean?!  And, erm, babies are already listening to sounds that actually are their mother's heartbeat.

Apparently the whole BabyPlus 'thing' works by introducing your child to a sequential learning process, built upon the natural rhythms of their own environment.

• Click HERE to read more about BabyPlus

BabyPlus also claim that BabyPlus children have an intellectual, developmental, creative, and emotional advantage from the time they are born - talk about Tiger parenting to the per-birth extreme (you can tell I'm not impressed with this, right?).

You should start using it from 18 weeks gestation, and it will set you back $149 but, you know what?  Isn't this just another way to get parents (to be) to spend money on 'stuff'?

I mean, why not take things a step further and play educational sounds to our eggs and sperm to really get in there early!!!

HA!! I've really amused myself now - I see 'educational pants' for men on the pre-conception road, that play various sounds and rhythms; folic acid for women, 'smart pants' for men -  just remember you heard it here first!

These have to be about the coolest version of cake in a mug I've ever seen! My two year old is going through a loving baking stage, and I can just see this going down a real treat. They'd be fun to make together too. (Click on the image for instructions.)

I'm a Mrs M, so I couldn't resist paying another Mrs M a visit - so this week, PlayPennies loves...At Home with Mrs M!

I'm not usually a fan of lots of reviews on blogs, but the first one I came across from Mrs M was one for Just Dance Kids for the Wii - I have kids and I have a Wii and we (well, me and my 16-year-old daughter) love Just Dance 3.  My youngest likes to try and play but it's all just a bit much for him and, having read Mrs M's review, I think it could be just the thing for him; he'll be thrilled.

The next post caught my eye because, quite frankly, the sausages in the image at the top looked A-MAZ-ING!  They're Nigella's Cranberry and Soy Glazed Sausages and if I wasn't back in serious training and eating then I'd be giving them a go!

Food features rather prominently in Mrs M's blog - whether you're looking for one-off or weekly inspiration then the RECIPES category is the place to look.

Mrs M also needs your help...

"Mr M has just turned 40 and my parents have rather generously offered to take care of the children whilst we go away for a week. We're unrestricted on time of year so the world pretty much is our oyster."

The thing is, when the world truly is your oyster - WHERE do you actually go?!  This is Mrs M's dilemma and she's asked for help - where would you go if you were in her shoes?

For my holiday money I'd go somewhere hot, quiet and as I'd be travelling sans kids, I'd have to go somewhere where it was adults only too - oh and there'd need to be the most amazing beach and warm, WARM sea to swim in.

There'd also need to be a beach-side cocktail bar too - I'm rather partial to the odd cocktail now and again, Mrs M is too as evidenced by the cocktail recipes that pop up here and there when you're At Home with Mrs M.

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Last week I told you about the iPhone app that translates your baby's cries and tells you whether they're hungry, tired, etc - well, it got me thinking:  how many other completely pointless baby inventions are out there?

There has to be LOADS, so I went on a bit of a search and discovered the Wet Nappy Alarm.  Oh yes, this alarm will tell you when your child's nappy is wet just in case you can't figure that out for yourself and the Cry Translator misinterprets the 'alarm' that Mother Nature pre-installed in your child whilst in the womb.

There are various versions out there and the first one (at least the first one that I can track down) was patented in the United States in 1980 - looking at the original patent diagram that was submitted, wet nappy alarms have moved on since then and now come attached to cuddly toys!

I've hunted, trawled and searched the internet to try and find a price for this absolutely useless piece of baby kit but I can't find one - hopefully that means the wet  nappy alarm has died a death and is now just an amusing 'something' on the web.

Stick with your baby's natural alarm - it's free, VERY effective and you'll never have to replace the batteries!

If you come across any utterly absurb baby inventions, drop us a line and tell us about them so we can call have a giggle.

January 23rd is Chinese New Year, and 2012 is the year of the dragon. These fun craft projects for toddlers are just three of loads of fab indoor, and more importantly, simple ideas on Delicious for celebrating Chinese New Year with your little ones.  (Click on the picture for more ideas and instructions.)

Do you remember life before apps, whether they be iPhone or Android?

Apps can be useful, they can be fun (I'm still in love with Angry Birds), they can make life just a little easier and there's an app for just about anything you wish to 'app' - but one that translates your baby's cries...?  Well, I think that has to top the list of the most pointless apps in the world list.

So here's how Cry-Translator works - you download it onto your phone and wait for your baby to cry.  Upon tears and wailing, rather than doing what parents have been doing since the dawn of humanity, and quite successfully I might add, you grab your iPhone and point it at your crying child for 10 seconds.  THEN, and this is the 'exciting' bit, the Cry-Translator app will tell you what, out of five choices, that cry means so you can fix the problem.

Is it just me who's snorting with mild amusement and more than a bit of 'oh PLEASE! Get a life!' derision?

My favourite part of discovering this app though, were the quotes from a quoted pediatrician, "Babies do cry; it's their main form of communication."  NO!!!  REALLY?!!!  WOW, and there was me thinking it was just for kicks!

Extreme sarcasm aside, there were a couple of things I found interesting: apparently, French babies cry with a rising melody pattern whereas German babies have a falling melody due to the natural timbre of their native language which they hear in the womb.

It costs $4.99 from the app store (I can't find a £££s translation - I don't have an app for that *hur hur*) and amazingly, people have bought it!  They're not impressed though, the title of the following/comment was, 'Even a broken clock is right twice a day' - that properly made me laugh.

"This program is correct about 20% of the time; Which doesn't say much when you only have 5 possible options. This is either a scam or the developer has a long way to go. I am very tech savy and this thing didn't help at all. It gives good suggestions for the indicated cause of crying, but rarely indicates the correct cause. Nothing more than a novelty."

Whatever next?  Maybe there's an app for predicting that!

This week PlayPennies loves - Single Parent Dad, again, 18 months on.

There are just a couple of blogs that I really get sucked into and have to stay in touch with - I become 'involved' with the people they're about and I want to know how they're getting on.  I don't read every day, or every month, but every now and again I pop by just to check that their worlds are still turning.

None more so than Single Parent Dad - click HERE if you want to read his first PlayPennies Loves post, it'll give you some brief background (you may want tissues, if you visit the 'I'm in big trouble' post).

I loved reading Ian's posts before and, having gone back, I still do - he still makes me laugh, he still has a lovely easy way with words and humour that makes me smile and most importantly, today, it was comforting to be reminded that getting-kids-to-write-thank-you-notes-trauma is a universal and not exclusively mine (may I just point out that this will continue well into the older end of the teenage spectrum!).

I had to smile (see, I told you - there's lots of smiling when you read Single Parent Dad) when I read about how Max has 'grown' over the last 18 months when it comes to choosing 'friendship over possessions' - that's all I'm going to say about this post because I want you to go and read it and smile this Sunday lunchtime too.

I want to wish Ian well with his intentions for 2012 and putting himself first again, just a little bit, and hope you'll pay him a visit - you'll laugh, you might cry and you'll definitely gain a bit of perspective as far as your own life and worries are concerned.

Are you the owner of the blog above? Click HERE for our resource page for “PlayPennies loves” badges and banners.

OH MY GOODNESS!!

You know, sometimes I come across things that just stop me in my tracks; things that I can't believe I'm seeing and, as a result, am utterly mesmerised by them - the Peekaru is one of these things.

I wish I could tell you how I stumbled across the Peekaru, but I can't - it was just one of those times where I was looking for something COMPLETELY unrelated, saw a picture of it, tracked it down and am now telling you about it.

The idea is great - and if you're into contact parenting/baby wearing then you're going to LOVE IT - it's totally effective but WOW can it look weird, alien and may get you stared at in the street if you wear it forward facing!

So basically, the Peekaru is a fleece vest/tank top/bodywarmer (if you prefer) that has a hole for your head and arms PLUS a hole for your babies head, because you're going to be zipping it over you and your baby who's in a carrier!

SEE, brill' idea - especially when you need your hands and really don't want to be constantly wrestling with blankets in the wind, wearing your coat half around you because you've pulled it round to cover your child in their sling.

Now it doesn't look so freaky when it's worn with your child slung around your back, but at the front - I just can't get films like Alien out of my head!

There are various different versions - the Original (which costs $79.95), the Hoodie ($69.95) and a soft shell version that's weather proof (on sale currently for $149.95 instead of a WHOPPING $249.95) and you can buy them from their original website and have them shipped over from Colorado (they have a big range) but it's going to cost you an additional $35 - $55.

I did come across this place in the UK who sells them too (and offer free shipping on UK orders) and their price for the Original Peekaru is £55, £130 for the soft shell version and if you wanted the hoody, I'm sorry - it doesn't look like they stock that one.

If you have one of these, or buy one, please let us know how you get on with it and send PICTURES - we'd love to see!

I'll do my best to keep this brief because the subject of emptying or loading the dishwasher is, in my house at least, a MASSIVE flash point for parental rage and teenage moodiness!

SO for more years than I care to imagine, sharing the loading and unloading of the dishwasher has been part of family 'law' - I do NOT, contrary to popular belief, have 'slave' tattooed on my forehead (along with mug, skivvy, taxi, please just abuse me in any and every way you see fit! No, honestly, I don't!) but somehow the job still seems to fall to me unless I directly order someone else to do it.

I've heard some fabulous excuses as to why either child hadn't fulfilled their dishwasher duties but, by far, the most common one was/still is, "I didn't know it was clean!" or, "I thought it was clean!" depending on whether the particular child being hauled over the coals was supposed to empty or load it *growl*

And don't EVEN get me started on incorrect stacking technique that means nothing washes properly and has to be done my hand because all the gritty bits and pieces have been baked onto everything during the drying cycle.

The simple answer, of course, would just be to do it myself but that teaches kids nothing other than how to be lazy toads, they are quite proficient in that already without any additional reinforcement from me!

If you're having the same battle then these two dishwasher delegation parent hacks might offer some salvation from years of future madness and nagging (I can only hope):

1. Make a little sign - one half reading clean and the other dirty, attach it to your dishwasher with a magnet and spin it round when dirty dishes are welcome or when clean dishes need to be put away.
2. (I really like this one) Get a small glass jar and put in the front corner of the top basket - when the jar is empty the dishes are still dirty, when it's full of water the dishes are clean

GOOD LUCK if you, too, aren't prepared to be a parent slave and brave enough to enter the world of duty delegation.

This week PlayPennies loves Carrots and Kids.

I. WANT. To go to Deb's house! I've read through lots of her posts but even before then, just reading the 'more of me' page was enough...

"If blogs could transport you literally into the lives of the blogger we'd probably be sitting around my very messy kitchen table (how do people keep stuff off theirs?) and I might possibly be foisting a home-made cake onto you while brewing a lovely cup of coffee."

Combine that with the photos that pop up in lots of Deb's posts and the fact that I take photographs in my offline-away-from-PlayPennies life, then that coffee and cake sounds even more enticing - I'm a sucker for images with a very shallow depth of field!

I like gardening, plotting and planning what I'm going to plant and where - so does Deb.  I didn't see the first series of Downton Abbey but got sucked in to the second series (albeit a few episodes in) - so did Deb, although she's ploughing her way through series one on DVD...I'm not.

I was also glad to discover that it's not just me that's (temporarily) dumped my large beast of a DLSR camera in favour of my much easier to cart around, massively smaller (although not in terms of megapixels) iPhone camera.  You know, there are times when I just don't want to mess around with settings, when I just want to keep it simple and go on a bit of a photography 'holiday'.

So you see, I could spend hours chatting away with Deb over a shop-bought cake with sand on the bottom with chaos happening in the background -

"...as I write, I am sitting at my (messy) kitchen table drinking green tea with apple and pear and eating a shop bought cake which I have discovered has a layer of sand on the bottom. See? Today I have sand on my kitchen table."

- right now that all sounds like a little piece of heavenly peace.

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Whilst my teenagers can be unfathomable alien beings bearing NO resemblance to the once cute and lovely little children I once had, they don't scatter their toys all over the floor.

No longer do I run the risk of treading on a piece of Lego in the dark, no longer do I find marbles under sofas and no longer do we have to fashion Monopoly pieces from tin foil because the originals are missing in action.

When they were small, however, they used to spread everything over the largest possible area and it drove me NUTS!

If your young kids are the same, and you don't have the luxury of a dedicated play room, then you might like this possible solution that I ran into over on ParentHacks - mask off an area of whichever room you want to keep under 'control' with something like masking tape, gaffer tape or similar and make it 'law' that all toys must remain within the taped off zone.

Genius, brilliant, cheap and, I imagine, very effective.

Baby toupees - you've GOT to be kidding me!!

As is part of my PlayPennies remit, I was mooching around cyberspace yesterday looking for something random to tell you about when I stumbled upon babytoupee.com - I've been bemused by them ever since.

Now I know I can be quite traditional when it comes to parenting - I'm not one for giving in to demands for designer this, that and the other and I'm ALL for stashing away embarrassing baby photos for blackmail purposes during the teenage years but ABSOLUTE humiliation of your child...?  I'm really not a fan of that at all and can't see that anything else would come of them wearing a baby toupee.

Help me out here, please!  Have I just lost my sense of humour?  I know people who LOVE dressing up and pull out all the stops when it comes to attending fancy dress parties; I wonder if they'd see these baby toupees as just another prop in their fancy dress arsenal?

There are four styles of baby toupee: Lil' Kim (whoooo?), Donald Trump, Samuel L Jackson and Bob Marley and I'm sorry to say that I have some bad news for you if you were thinking the Bob Marley sounded great - it's SOLD OUT!  I kid you not; crazy!

Aimed at babies aged between one and nine months these baby syrups sell for $21.99  and international shipping from the US will set you back another $24.95 - that should put you off.

But just in case you were seriously considering a baby toupee, I have a request - PLEASE save your money; put it in a trust fund or something or give it to a homeless charity!  Anything but subjecting your child to the indignity of being dressed in one of these baby toupees!

For the first PlayPennies Loves of 2012 (I wonder how many times I'm going to write 2011 before the new date sinks into my brain) we're loving Mellow Mummy.

As you know, we love bargains here on PlayPennies and two-for-one deals are just the sort of thing we like - you get this with Mellow Mummy as she's running two blogs in tandem just now, her normal blog and a pregnancy blog.

Mellow Mummy is 23 weeks pregnant with baby number two and I'm an absolute sucker for pregnancy diaries/blogs/whatever you want to call them.  I'm well and truly done when it comes to producing babies but, wow, do I love reading about other people who still embark on that journey - I think partly to serve to remind me why I never want to do it again *grin*

Welcome to the day after Christmas! I hope the indigestion didn’t keep you up all night, and the kids slept through and are now happily playing with their Christmas presents, which is why you have time to be online on this Monday morning, right? (Yeah, Santa didn’t bring me that one either!)

Well, to save you time before you head off into your day, don’t forget the Boxing Day Sale Dashboard over on HUKD where you can find the best of everything on sale today.

One of the best offers available, in my opinion, is 50% off Merlin Passes, which, let’s face it are pretty expensive on their own!

If you’re wanting something from a specific store – perhaps one that’s near  you or something for instore pickup – then you’ll be thrilled that you can see deals by merchant, and find the best offers on the highstreet right from your sofa.

We think the Dashboard is a fab creation, and we’re sure you will too!

Do you have a young one who LOVES trains?  Do you have a young one who loves trains SO much they can barely tear themselves away from the train tracks to come and eat?  OR, do you have a young one who has trouble sitting at the table for more than 30 seconds?

These train tracks for the table - or Railroad Plate, to use it's official name - may just come to the dining table rescue.

• Click HERE to see what I'm talking about

The rails can be connected to any standard wooden railway -  my youngest had lots of this wooden guage track - and you could build an enormous track around your entire dining room table, if you felt so inclined.

You will need to oil the pieces before you use them for the first time and every now and again after that; they can be washed but by hand only, no putting them in the dishwasher.

Each set costs 29.50 euros and contains four pieces:  a railroad plate, curved saucer, tunnel cup and a dining car with magnets - I think that tunnel cup is genius.

So what do you think?  Are products like this more of a hindrance than help when it comes to kids and eating at the table? Are they just too much of a distraction to be useful?

Have you tried things similar to this and can shed some light on my semi-rhetorical questions? If you have, let us know!

It seems like just a few weeks ago that Tamsin was writing our last Christmas letter, thanking you for being part of our growth in 2010 and looking forward to sharing 2011 with you, and here I am about to do the same but staring down the barrel of 2012!

So, HOHOHO! Santa has come and gone, and I hope he left just what you wanted under the tree!

We’ve had a wonderful time working on PlayPennies this year, and it’s been great seeing the continued growth of the site. We’ve shared over 7,000 deals, reviews and other posts with you and we’ve been thoroughly rewarded by watching our RSS subscriber numbers rise, our Twitter followers increase and our eyes are now glued to Facebook to see how we get on there too – all of which means one thing: you guys have shown us tremendous support, and without you we wouldn’t be here!

This year has seen a major overhaul on PlayPennies, with new bits being added to the site – like the PlayPennies forum, which is still quite new, but we’d love to hear your voices over there too!

Well, if you haven’t ripped open your presents yet, now’s the time to do so. If your turkey’s not in the oven yet… you might be having a late lunch, so I’d best get to it and let you do the same.

Keep an eye out for the best Boxing Day Sale information today though! We’ll be bringing it to you at the usual intervals!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS one and all!

The PlayPennies Team

I don’t know about you, but the thought of leaving the comfort of my sofa to clash elbows with thronging masses and traipse the highstreets and by-streets of my local town centre is about as far from the Christmas Spirit as I can imagine.  I’m definitely a 21^st Century woman, and most – if not all – my Christmas shopping is done online. If Mr.Google can’t find it, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist.

If you’re like me then, you’ll love the Boxing Day Dashboard over at HotUKDeals, with listings of all the Boxing Day Sales as they go live with information on what you can find in each sale – definitely better than clicking from website to website and trawling through virtual bargain bins until you find what you’re looking for. Let’s face it, we all have better things to do on Boxing Day.

The Dashboard is searchable by deals per merchant, the merchant themselves and clicking on the sale description will take you straight to their website. Couldn’t be easier.

Now, bring over that mug of mulled wine, grab a mince pie and start browsing the sales, before everything sells out!