What will be on your little ones Christmas list?

I know it's only September but I've already started to make a Christmas list for J, my only problem is what to put on it? what do you buy a 6 month old baby?

There are of course sensible items we need like stair gates but not sure it's fair that I put them on the Christmas list for the little man. 

So fair my list contains:

Foam Alphabet mat. My friend has one of these and not only do I think it's great for when they are little but of course it will help as he gets older learning the alphabet.

Personalised blanket: I've had a blanket for the sofa for a few years now. For my birthday this year my Mum and Dad brought me a lovely personalised pink one, I really love the idea of having  one for J so we can both snuggle on the sofa together.

Skip hop Monkey Back pack: a couple of my friends have bags to put their little ones toys in when they go out. When I saw this one I knew it was the one I wanted.

What will be on your little ones Christmas list?

What are those items that every child under 1 should have?

Getting everything in Order

When hubby and I brought our 1st house in 2006 we made sure we had life insurance, this meant that if anything ever happened to either of us that the mortgage would be paid off. I think this was more for me to feel more secure. Hubby works on the railway and even thought he's not out on track every day or week he does go out on it. If anything was ever to happen to him or me then I knew the other could afford to stay in the house as the mortgage would be paid off

Have to say this post is going to get a little bit more morbid so apologies.

Leading on from having life insurance we also changed ours will's. Both of us had wills before, I made my 1st one when I was going through my divorce mainly because I didn't want my ex to have anything of mine if anything was to happen to me before the divorce went through. After hubby and I brought our 1st house together we needed new wills to cover this. We had long conversations then about who we were going to leave everything to if anything happened to both of us, we were lucky we both agreed quite quickly on who would benefit.

Fast forward to the present and now we have our son so it's time to change our wills again, the beneficiary of the wills this time is simpler it will all go to our son but the problem is who to make guardian of him?

When I asked for some advice on twitter the best bit I got was it should be someone with the same parenting views as us, people that would bring our son up the way we would.  

I do have some 2 people in mind but will hubby agree? Then we have to decide who will be executer I would want to make sure it was someone who would have my son's best interests at heart. 

It's so hard. Have you made your will yet?

A letter J for J

Since before J was born and we decided on his name I wanted a letter J for the nursery. After months of searching a random picture on a friends Facebook page lead me to the wonderful page of Wishes 

She creates various wooden items. Looking through her picture I finally found the type of letter I wanted and what mades them more special is she will customise them. 

After lots of toing and froing finally decided I wanted it in claret with blue stars on. She makes little wooden hearts for the letters with a name on. 

For just £9 it makes a perfect addition to J's nursery.  

Check out her facebook page https://www.facebook.com/WishesByLaura to see her other fab items.

Please note this was an item I purchased but was so impressed by it I felt the need to share the page

Water babies

I had been recommend to use Waterbabies by one of my closes friends who took her little boy to the classes. I was so amazed by at 2 1/2 years old he didn't need armbands, I  wanted J to be the same. Also because I love the water so much I want to be able to take him swimming with me.

The main concept is to teach you how to teach your baby to swim. Within our welcome pack was the happy nappy, which every baby needs in order to go swimming, this has to be worn over a waterproof nappy. I went for the huggies little swimmers nappies.

I also brought one the huggies hygiene mats from Sainsburys after being recommend it by Mrs Shilts a fellow blogger. 

J also wore a wetsuit that i had been lent, I would differently recommend one of those. My friend recommended that I waited until we got to the pool to change J into his swim wear. This worked really well as I was ready I just had to get him dressed then we where then ready for our 1st lesson

To start with we were shown the safest way to get into the pool, this involved laying J on the side while I got in next to him before then lifting him in. During the 30 minute lesson we did various things including splashing water over his face and starting to let them get into the swim position which involves them laying stomach down with my hand under his chest.

He also had his 1st experience of going underwater which he loved.

The session lasted a total of 30 minutes which was just long enough for him. After the session Hubby took J and got him changed while I got changed myself. After this we went to the bar in the hotel and had a coffee so I could feed J, though he only took a very small fed before he fell asleep.

It will be more interesting next week trying to get myself and J dry after the session. I already can't wait for the next session!