We were lucky enough to be asked to review 'What the Ladybird Heard Next', the latest book by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks. It is the sequel to the bestselling 'What the Ladybird Heard'. The book is due for release on September 10th. I absolutely adore every book I've ever read by Julia Donaldson so I couldn't wait to see what this next one was all about.
The book is a hardback (always a bonus I think for young children) and is a good size. The illustrations by Lydia Monks are very cute and as always eye catching for children. Eva immediately loved the book based on the front cover alone seeing as it was bright, bold and it had a lot of glitter on it. There is actually glitter on every page of the book which Eva loves. She is very drawn to anything sparkly.
The story is written in rhyme which I think children love to hear. It allows them to become more captivated with the story. I suppose this comes from it sounding more song like when it is being read.
The story is about the ladybird overhearing that those pesky robbers Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len are planning to come back to the farm and steal the fat red hen. They have already been stealing its eggs but now they are setting their sights higher and wanting to kidnap the hen. Luckily, the farm animals have a plan of their own thanks to what the ladybird heard and they work together to fool the robbers about a mysterious snuggly snerd bird who is far more superior than all of the other animals. You can view a trailer for the story here, Book Trailer.
The story is fantastic. It had me and Eva laughing from start to finish. It really is quite comical for both an adult and a child. Eva particularly enjoyed the pages that included all the animal sounds.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book for any family. It is destined to be another bestseller for Julia Donaldson. The illustrations are perfectly suitable for young children. The book is sturdy and a good size to hold. The glitter on every page make the book a sensory read. The brilliantly funny story is easy to read all thanks to the very clever rhyming. It will make a perfect addition to any book collection and with christmas around the corner it would be a great present. You can pre-order it here, Book.
There is a great question and answer video with Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks available to watch here, Q&A video
Have you read 'What the Ladybird Heard'? What is your favourite Julia Donaldson book?
The book is a hardback (always a bonus I think for young children) and is a good size. The illustrations by Lydia Monks are very cute and as always eye catching for children. Eva immediately loved the book based on the front cover alone seeing as it was bright, bold and it had a lot of glitter on it. There is actually glitter on every page of the book which Eva loves. She is very drawn to anything sparkly.
The story is written in rhyme which I think children love to hear. It allows them to become more captivated with the story. I suppose this comes from it sounding more song like when it is being read.
The story is about the ladybird overhearing that those pesky robbers Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len are planning to come back to the farm and steal the fat red hen. They have already been stealing its eggs but now they are setting their sights higher and wanting to kidnap the hen. Luckily, the farm animals have a plan of their own thanks to what the ladybird heard and they work together to fool the robbers about a mysterious snuggly snerd bird who is far more superior than all of the other animals. You can view a trailer for the story here, Book Trailer.
The story is fantastic. It had me and Eva laughing from start to finish. It really is quite comical for both an adult and a child. Eva particularly enjoyed the pages that included all the animal sounds.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book for any family. It is destined to be another bestseller for Julia Donaldson. The illustrations are perfectly suitable for young children. The book is sturdy and a good size to hold. The glitter on every page make the book a sensory read. The brilliantly funny story is easy to read all thanks to the very clever rhyming. It will make a perfect addition to any book collection and with christmas around the corner it would be a great present. You can pre-order it here, Book.
There is a great question and answer video with Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks available to watch here, Q&A video
Have you read 'What the Ladybird Heard'? What is your favourite Julia Donaldson book?
16 comments
Today I had an appointment at antenatal clinic which was for new bloods to be taken as i've changed hospitals and also another check up with the midwife there. Now today started as a good day and I can't work out where it all went wrong.
I got to clinic and I had my bloods taken which was all fine. I then got to hear babies heartbeat and I had my bump measured. I was a bit shocked to hear that the head was engaged, in fact I almost had a heart-attack. At 29 weeks and 1 day that is way too early for baby to be making an appearance. However, I was assured by the midwife that this is very common in a second pregnancy and that the head will quite regularly pop in and out. She then started to talk about how I didn't have long left. I had thought this myself already but I suppose it's not until you hear someone else say it that it really sinks in. At this point I was rather quiet and pensive.
We then went to the delivery suite so that I could be shown around. I have swapped hospitals so that I can be consultant led by the person that operated on me after my last birth. He is based at a different hospital to where I had Eva. Up until this point I haven't been on a labour ward since having Eva.
I was first taken to the birthing pool room which all seemed lovely. I was engaging in conversation with the midwife but I was distracted and distant. We then went on to a delivery room and I was shown everything. She started talking about incubators and delivery trolleys, visitors, emergency buttons and all of a sudden I just burst into uncontrollable tears. What an absolute plonker I must have looked. I really couldn't hold it in. The look on this poor midwife's face. She tried to comfort me but I couldn't stop. I felt like a prize idiot.
Once I'd calmed down I realised that I have been hiding a lot of my feelings about experiencing childbirth again. I had a terrible delivery last time and I ended up extremely unwell for months after, resulting in me needing an operation. I think walking on to a delivery suite again brought back memories of labour and delivery with Eva. I became scared, petrified in fact. I was having visions of the terrified look on Arwyn's face when it was going wrong. I was remembering being in a room and within seconds there was about 10 people in there. It made me realise that I wasn't prepared to face it all again.
This all seems very silly as I work in an operating theatre. I am very familiar with hospitals and even with emergency situations. In fact normally I would be very comfortable in these environments. However, when it comes to having a baby, perhaps my previous experience along with my working experience goes against me. I technically know too much information. I know what can go wrong. I understand every word people are talking about. It's getting me all worked up and emotional even writing this.
I'm worried that I won't be physically and emotionally strong enough to do it all again. I don't want to let myself, Arwyn or bump down. I need to overcome this silly fear or I know I will have a terrible time again.
I honestly can't describe or explain what on earth came over me today. Perhaps it was my pregnancy hormones? All I know is that I have got to work out how to control my anxiety about the whole thing and I need to do it quickly. As the midwife said it won't be long. I have an appointment with my consultant in a couple of weeks time so I am hoping he will give me lots of encouragement.
Has anyone else felt this emotional about delivery 2nd time around? Did your hormones make you this emotional during pregnancy?
I got to clinic and I had my bloods taken which was all fine. I then got to hear babies heartbeat and I had my bump measured. I was a bit shocked to hear that the head was engaged, in fact I almost had a heart-attack. At 29 weeks and 1 day that is way too early for baby to be making an appearance. However, I was assured by the midwife that this is very common in a second pregnancy and that the head will quite regularly pop in and out. She then started to talk about how I didn't have long left. I had thought this myself already but I suppose it's not until you hear someone else say it that it really sinks in. At this point I was rather quiet and pensive.
We then went to the delivery suite so that I could be shown around. I have swapped hospitals so that I can be consultant led by the person that operated on me after my last birth. He is based at a different hospital to where I had Eva. Up until this point I haven't been on a labour ward since having Eva.
I was first taken to the birthing pool room which all seemed lovely. I was engaging in conversation with the midwife but I was distracted and distant. We then went on to a delivery room and I was shown everything. She started talking about incubators and delivery trolleys, visitors, emergency buttons and all of a sudden I just burst into uncontrollable tears. What an absolute plonker I must have looked. I really couldn't hold it in. The look on this poor midwife's face. She tried to comfort me but I couldn't stop. I felt like a prize idiot.
Once I'd calmed down I realised that I have been hiding a lot of my feelings about experiencing childbirth again. I had a terrible delivery last time and I ended up extremely unwell for months after, resulting in me needing an operation. I think walking on to a delivery suite again brought back memories of labour and delivery with Eva. I became scared, petrified in fact. I was having visions of the terrified look on Arwyn's face when it was going wrong. I was remembering being in a room and within seconds there was about 10 people in there. It made me realise that I wasn't prepared to face it all again.
This all seems very silly as I work in an operating theatre. I am very familiar with hospitals and even with emergency situations. In fact normally I would be very comfortable in these environments. However, when it comes to having a baby, perhaps my previous experience along with my working experience goes against me. I technically know too much information. I know what can go wrong. I understand every word people are talking about. It's getting me all worked up and emotional even writing this.
I'm worried that I won't be physically and emotionally strong enough to do it all again. I don't want to let myself, Arwyn or bump down. I need to overcome this silly fear or I know I will have a terrible time again.
I honestly can't describe or explain what on earth came over me today. Perhaps it was my pregnancy hormones? All I know is that I have got to work out how to control my anxiety about the whole thing and I need to do it quickly. As the midwife said it won't be long. I have an appointment with my consultant in a couple of weeks time so I am hoping he will give me lots of encouragement.
Has anyone else felt this emotional about delivery 2nd time around? Did your hormones make you this emotional during pregnancy?
If you've been reading my bump updates you will know that I have had all good intentions of exercising this pregnancy but as the weeks go by I just haven't seemed to have the motivation or energy for it. So you may now start laughing at the fact that at 28 weeks pregnant I have decided to exercise.
I was approached to try out and review a new online fitness programme by Joanna Helcke who is a multi award winning pregnancy and post natal fitness expert. You can find out more about her here, Joanna Helcke. It seemed an obvious solution for me due to the fact that it's an online programme and therefore I could do it from the comfort of my own home.
The programme can be started at any point in your pregnancy as it is completely tailored to your needs (which is why i've started at 28 weeks). It is £12 per month (you'll get your first 2 weeks free) and you aren't tied into any contract, so you can cancel your membership whenever. This covers a new video which is unlocked at each week of your pregnancy, meal planning and recipes to help you with your nutritional needs, constant support and access to all of what is available in her online community.
Signing up to the programme is easy and stress free. It's takes about 5-10 minutes. There is a lengthy medical/health questionnaire for you to complete but this is so that your videos can be tailored around any medical issues that you have.
To complete a workout you need a yoga mat and pillow although these are not essential. The workouts are between 20 minutes and half an hour which is a good recommended amount to try and exercise in a day. I have to say that I have found it difficult to get some alone time every day to complete a video. I find I am having to exercise at night and therefore I am quite tired. I am also finding it very difficult to do something every day.
I've only completed the weeks 28 and 29 programmes a handful of times due to chasing around after my toddler and having some very long shifts in work. I am hoping that over the next few weeks I will be able to get more time to exercise as I know it will be beneficial for me.
I have found that the videos are more of a relaxation/stretching exercise routine as opposed to active fitness. I can't decide at the moment whether I think that's a good or bad thing. Before I was pregnant I used to enjoy high intensity forms of exercise such as kettlebells etc so for me I almost don't feel like I am exercising. On the other side of that, I do feel like I am having a very good stretch and I am enjoying how calm and relaxed the videos make me feel. I am having difficulty with my hips at the moment so the workouts are definitely helping me move and stretch those.
I will give you another review in a week or so to let you know how i've been getting on and whether I feel it has been beneficial or not. I will also bring you a post on some tips from Joanna about the do's and don'ts of exercising during pregnancy so keep your eyes peeled for those.
I was approached to try out and review a new online fitness programme by Joanna Helcke who is a multi award winning pregnancy and post natal fitness expert. You can find out more about her here, Joanna Helcke. It seemed an obvious solution for me due to the fact that it's an online programme and therefore I could do it from the comfort of my own home.
The programme can be started at any point in your pregnancy as it is completely tailored to your needs (which is why i've started at 28 weeks). It is £12 per month (you'll get your first 2 weeks free) and you aren't tied into any contract, so you can cancel your membership whenever. This covers a new video which is unlocked at each week of your pregnancy, meal planning and recipes to help you with your nutritional needs, constant support and access to all of what is available in her online community.
Signing up to the programme is easy and stress free. It's takes about 5-10 minutes. There is a lengthy medical/health questionnaire for you to complete but this is so that your videos can be tailored around any medical issues that you have.
To complete a workout you need a yoga mat and pillow although these are not essential. The workouts are between 20 minutes and half an hour which is a good recommended amount to try and exercise in a day. I have to say that I have found it difficult to get some alone time every day to complete a video. I find I am having to exercise at night and therefore I am quite tired. I am also finding it very difficult to do something every day.
I've only completed the weeks 28 and 29 programmes a handful of times due to chasing around after my toddler and having some very long shifts in work. I am hoping that over the next few weeks I will be able to get more time to exercise as I know it will be beneficial for me.
I have found that the videos are more of a relaxation/stretching exercise routine as opposed to active fitness. I can't decide at the moment whether I think that's a good or bad thing. Before I was pregnant I used to enjoy high intensity forms of exercise such as kettlebells etc so for me I almost don't feel like I am exercising. On the other side of that, I do feel like I am having a very good stretch and I am enjoying how calm and relaxed the videos make me feel. I am having difficulty with my hips at the moment so the workouts are definitely helping me move and stretch those.
I will give you another review in a week or so to let you know how i've been getting on and whether I feel it has been beneficial or not. I will also bring you a post on some tips from Joanna about the do's and don'ts of exercising during pregnancy so keep your eyes peeled for those.
This year I turned 30 in April and as a family we decided to celebrate by going on a very big holiday to Dubai and Australia. My mum, sisters and stepdad live in Australia and i'm lucky if I get to see them once a year. I knew with baby number 2 on the way that trips as far as Australia would be very difficult soon so for my 30th I wanted one last big, family holiday, with just the 3 of us. We had a fantastic time. Eva was the happiest i've ever seen her and we have so many wonderful memories. As you can imagine we took hundreds of pictures.
As per usual we were wondering what to do with all the photos that we had taken. We'd decided to redecorate our living room and ended up with an empty wall. Our living room is now beach themed so it seemed the ideal opportunity to do something with our holiday photos.
Snapfish have a new slim canvas range and we were asked if we would like to review some. I jumped at the opportunity as I knew our holiday photos would be perfect. There are lots of different sizes in the canvas range to choose from which make them perfect for a feature wall. It took us a while to decide on which photos to choose but once we had creating the canvases and ordering them were very easy.
They arrived quickly which is always great. We were really happy with how they turned out. Most of the pictures we used were actually taken from a mobile phone and sometimes the quality of the picture isn't as good as an actual camera so I was worried this would effect the way the canvas looked. Luckily it didn't.
I love the fact that every time I look at my beautiful wall, I am reminded of so many cherished memories. I think this is one of the major benefits of actually putting your pictures onto a canvas. I can't stop smiling when I see them. They are also a great talking point for our family and any other members of the family. It allows us to reminisce about happy times and whenever friends and family members comment on them we get to tell them all the wonderful stories behind the images.
Overall, we are extremely happy with these canvases. I can't recommend them enough. I love how easy they are to order and create. I think the slim style allows you to become more creative with how you can display them on a feature wall and I think that they are very reasonably priced. They certainly have made our living room a lot more appealing.
Have you ordered slim canvases before?
As per usual we were wondering what to do with all the photos that we had taken. We'd decided to redecorate our living room and ended up with an empty wall. Our living room is now beach themed so it seemed the ideal opportunity to do something with our holiday photos.
Snapfish have a new slim canvas range and we were asked if we would like to review some. I jumped at the opportunity as I knew our holiday photos would be perfect. There are lots of different sizes in the canvas range to choose from which make them perfect for a feature wall. It took us a while to decide on which photos to choose but once we had creating the canvases and ordering them were very easy.
The slim canvas prints are exactly what they say and are slimmer than normal canvases. I think this allows you to be more creative with the layout and the way you feature them on your wall. We had a few different sizes and therefore we were able to play around with different layouts to find which 'pattern' looked the best. We were spoilt for choice. There are endless ways that you can display these canvases and they still give your wall a modern, clean, look.
I love the fact that every time I look at my beautiful wall, I am reminded of so many cherished memories. I think this is one of the major benefits of actually putting your pictures onto a canvas. I can't stop smiling when I see them. They are also a great talking point for our family and any other members of the family. It allows us to reminisce about happy times and whenever friends and family members comment on them we get to tell them all the wonderful stories behind the images.
Have you ordered slim canvases before?
As soon as I saw Next's new in section online, I knew I had to get this amazing top for Eva. It had her name written all over it. Next has always been a front runner for me when it comes to children's clothes and this type of t-shirt really shows that they are spot on with what the market wants. Being a 'blogger' may be a niche market but I can assure you these tops will fly off the shelves.
The Blogger t-shirt is either £4 or £5 depending on the size you are after and it ranges from 3 months to 6 years. I absolutely love it and as you can see from Eva's face she does too. The colour is fab for autumn/winter and I think the simplicity of it is perfect. I just wish they had it in my size! Next take note, all the mummy bloggers want a matching top.
I'd recently bought some clothes for Eva in H&M which I knew would be an ideal match for the top. They've got some great clothes in there for girls at the moment and some amazing deals (will tell you more at the end of this post).
I bought these pink 'treggings' (trousers/leggings for anyone that doesn't know) which are normally £6.99. They fit really well and tend to look a little bit smarter than leggings but they are still comfy enough for Eva to run around in. View them here, Treggings.
I also bought her this cute alice band from there which cost £1.99, Alice Band. She currently loves the idea of having pretty things in her hair but doesn't seem to tolerate clips and bobbles well so an alice band was a great alternative.
Below is a picture of the mini haul I did at H&M. I could've bought so much more. They had a fantastic deal on their trigging and tops which was buy a top and trousers for £6.99. The trousers are that much on their own so it really is worth buying. Their website shows you more of what's available in the deal.
As you can tell from the pictures Eva was very impressed with her outfit that day. She thought she was absolute chocolate and even though i'm biased I have to say she looked adorable too.
Have you bought any children's clothes from Next or H&M lately?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)