H&A Squirting Ducks review

During my pregnancy we used to go swimming every week and I thought that the love of water will be passed down to my baby. As any newborn L hated water at first, and the more baths she had the more she started to relax and enjoy. 

Few days ago we were sent a set of 4 squirting ducks for a review and a chance to claim a place in the H&A "Bathtime Fun Squad".

H & A's Bathtime Buddies Squirting Ducks (£2) are four wonderfully coloured squirting ducks, for your little ones bath time (or your own).

                                        
They comprise of four bright and vibrant colours which are guarenteed to add fun to bath times.

The colours are green, purple, orange and the traditional yellow.

They are extremely easy to fill with water, simply place the duck under the water and squeeze the ducks belly. Once full, squeeze the water out and water your little one smile with glee.

It might just be a coincidence, but I have also found the ducks to be useful for teething infants. My little one seems to be interested in chewing the ducks head, which seems to supress the teething pain. Perhaps that could be used as another "unique selling point" ?!

The ducks are slightly smaller than an average rubber duck but bring lots of fun nonetheless.

Ducks are our family favourite bird, so here is our poem dedicated to ducks:

Quacking and drinking 

Settled on the pond 

Playing and flapping 

Chasing everyone 

Peaceful birds 

Lovely and graceful 

Feed them bread chuck the pieces in 

Let them love you from within 

Sitting by the ducks on a clear blue day 

Nothing will affect you, nothing in the way 

Silent yet faint noises of the ducks on the pond 

I am clearly very fond 

My favourite animal I declare 

When they glance, stop and stare 

Ducks will always be special to me 

Thats why I love them so dearly

You can also watch modern duck vs original duck GIF:

Disclaimer: I was sent the above items for the purpose of this review. All thought and opinions are my own.

What Little L wore- Bluezoo baby

When I was pregnant with L I have asked our relatives to buy baby clothes for baby shower rather than something for me. It saved us from buying any clothes for 6 months!

This dress set is one of the outfits my daughter's godmother bought for her. The set i for 3-6 months (height 68 cm, weight 8 kgs). 

The top itself has very cute patches on both elbows:

What do you think yay or nay?)

Our weaning journey

As you know L is a small baby, at around 3 months my husband and I started to discuss when L should start solids. I didn't want to rush and was insisting on 5,5 months on the other hand my husband wanted to start earlier so that L could have Christmas meal with us. 
At around 4 months I've noticed that L shows interest in what I eat and drink, she was literally grabbing my glass of water and pretending to drink, it was so funny to watch!

Even though she was intrigued about food I wanted to be sure that it's the right time for us all to start weaning and went to our local health clinic to speak to a health visitor. 
Health visitor agreed that 5 months could be the right time for us and suggested starting with finger food.

On one of the weigh ins I spoke to a different health visitor actually said that it's too early to give her solids.

On our last weigh in-today third health visitor suggested that she should eat what we eat!

I know for some of you health visitors are not the best advisors, but I thought that if we technically should go by what they say why not to ask exactly the same question every time I see a different person. As you can see so many men, so many minds!

My 5 months I was totally ready to give L solids as she wasn't gaining much weight and I needed something to fix it. I had high hopes that L will be sleeping better, will be eating and gaining weight..wrong! 

I had all sorts of booklets and books about weaning, I liked the idea of 5-step weaning plan from Cow & Gate, looked at the Annabel Karmel's meal plan but wasn't keen on her method and so I came up with the meal plan which my good old friends used.

I decided to start with purified vegetables for lunch, which i was planning to do myself. I wanted L to try purees first as I remember from my childhood how much I loved them. 

Week 1 (Courgette): I boiled courgette without oil and seasoning and purified it in a blender. On a day 1 we started with one teaspoon and the plan was to add one more teaspoon each day so that my day 7 she could have 7 teaspoons.

L's first reaction of her first tastes was recorded on a phone, we had to convince her to eat by singing, making her smile, the best word to describe the way she looked throughout the whole experience- uncertain.
Unfortunately, we only managed 3-4 teaspoons as L was constipated if was given more.

Week 2 (Cauliflower): On day 1 the idea was to give 6 teaspoons of courgette and 1 teaspoon of cauliflower; day 2- 5 teaspoons of courgette and 2 teaspoons of cauliflower, so that each day we give slowly introduce new vegetable by mixing them all together but each day changing the amounts. 
This week L was on and off with vegetables as she was constipated most of the time. I had to stop giving her solids for couple of days and only breastfed her. 
She didn't like cauliflower by itself, she was gagging most of the time, and if only it was mixed with courgette she didn't it.

Week 3 (Sweet potato): the principal of introducing was the same as with cauliflower, only difference each day to give different vegetable mixing with sweet potato. 

We even didn't manage the stage of stating sweet potato properly. L was constipated badly and I had to stop giving her any vegetable until I spoke to the doctor.

I was really gutted that L's constipation didn't allow her to enjoy her first tasted properly. 

To help my poor little girl I had to introduce fruits and buckwheat porridge instead of baby rice (as it rice is starchy food) earlier than I planned. At first she didn't mind porridge but she never manages to finish it all and won' t eat more than 3 teaspoons. She loves fruit purees though, just like me!! I couldn't do fruit purees myself so we are using Organix pots for now and hoping to try other brands as well.

Did you have similar experience to ours? Please share your meal plans or posts.