Food Review No. 2!

So Michael has decided he wants me to tell you all about the foods he is enjoying at the moment! 

Heinz Organic Biscoti: He loves these! He has been eating the apple flavoured ones and scoffs them down, however, they do make a mess. 

Heinz Fruit Custard Pots: We have only recently bought him these but he adores them! They come in apple & pear or banana, he's only tried apple & pear so far but he has eaten basically the entire pot... both times!

Chips: I know I know, they aren't the best thing but I want to try him with everything I can to try and get him used to all kinds of taste and textures, and as you can probably guess, he likes them! 

Toast: He has been eating half a slice of toast for breakfast and he loves it, he has been eating Hovis 50/50 with a bit of butter on it and he thinks t's great! 

Fruit Smoothie: I know this is a drink not food but Michael really enjoyed this when we made it. It included strawberries, black grapes, raspberries, 1 banana, 1 pot of Greek style yoghurt (low fat) and a bit of ice cream, just to make it unhealthy!

Green Beans: When (over) cooked, to make them soft he loves them, and they're a great food for him to feed himself, which he loves to do.

Barney Bears: To be perfectly honest I'm not sure if he actually likes to eat these or just crumble them up in his hands, either way they are a good snack and again getting him used to different textures.

Though to be honest, he will eat anything he picks up! It all goes straight into his mouth, unless it's something we want him to eat! Then it has to be inspected, he is a funny baby :)

Birthday Wishlist

So it's my birthday soon and my sister Lauren suggested I do a wish list, because apparently I'm slightly interesting.

1. Acrylic/Gel nail set - I want this because I have decided I want to learn how to do nails, as when I do go back to work I don't want to be limited to the skills I already have, especially as I will have been unemployed for more than 1 year!

2. Manicure Set - I know you're thinking 'how obvious' but if I want to do nails a decent manicure set (to me) is essential.

3. Nail Dryer - This isn't something which is a necessity but I want one because it will make doing nails quicker, especially if I am doing patterns.

4. Perfume - There's no proper reason for this one just that I have run out of perfume and would really like some more.

5. Haircut! - I already know I'm getting this one but I thought I'd include it anyway. I know it doesn't seem like such a big thing to the most of you reading this but I haven't had my hair done for 2 years! Somewhere between being skint and having a baby my hair has been forgotten about. I will do a post showing before and after so you all know I'm not fibbing, though you will have to wait for 2 weeks!

So that's it, I don't really want or need anything else. However, dependent on what I get I will do a review on the products, just in case anyone is interested.

Teething, Tantrums & Clinginess

So as you will be aware I haven't done a post for a couple of weeks, this is due to the fact that Michael has been a poorly little pumpkin.

Me and my partner awoke one morning to see that Michael had developed a weird rash on his tummy and on the back of his neck, we put cream on it and waited to see if it would go. We checked him again the morning after and it was the same (getting worse) so we rang the doctors to get him checked over, he had gotten Scarlet Fever (from god knows where) so we were given antibiotics for him to get rid of it. After one day of him being on antibiotics we noticed a bit of white on his gum and realised it was a tooth coming through! We were both really impressed with him, he were being quite well behaved considering he weren't very well and he had cut a tooth, which we were none the wiser about, and then it started... Constant crying whenever he weren't with me, he could be sat in front of me and would cry until I picked him up, nothing would help, he wouldn't get distracted by toys or the TV, it was driving me insane!

I had sympathy obviously, he is a baby and wasn't very well, but he wouldn't go to anyone without bursting into tears, he wouldn't even go to his daddy, it was exhausting!

Anyway we carried on giving him his medicine (which was a trial in itself) and tried to keep him happy, when it came last few days of him taking his medicine we noticed that he was getting another tooth, right next to the first one, my immediate thought was great, breastfeeding isn't hard enough! Which I was correct about because the little monkey has made it so I need to use cream because my nipples were cracking, which I am guessing was due to the fact my precious son likes to bite when he's decided he's had enough.

Thank god he's better! He's currently sat in his jumperoo screeching like a mad man, I would love to know what he's shouting about.

Food Review Baby Style

So Michael (my son) is now 5 months of age and is eating a lot of food, so I just thought I would give a quick review on what he likes and see if it helps any other mums out when trying to buy there baby food.

Heinz Purées: He loves them, he finds the fruit ones a bit tangy to start off with but he absolutely adored the Apple, Parsnip & Carrot one, he was excited with every spoonful.  He is at the moment eating Peach, Mango & Banana, which he is definitely enjoying. I like giving him these as well because of the way it is packaged , the puree is in a squeezy tube which is resealable, so you can either put it in a bowl or squeeze it straight on to a spoon, we go straight for the spoon because the little lad is very impatient :)

Cow & Gate: He has only ever had the food, never the formula because he is a breastfed baby and I don't see the point in follow on milk when they're breastfed. He has tried many of these, Egg Custard, Banana & Custard, Cottage Pie, etc. He really enjoy them, we fed him from the jar and he wolfed it down, he nearly ate all of his egg custard in one sitting! He also really enjoyed his cottage pie, I do make him my own food and blend it but he doesn't like bits so jarred food at the moment is perfect for him. He also loves the Banana Porridge from Cow & Gate (he seems to have quite a sweet tooth)

Normal Food: He loves anything sweet we will give him, he enjoys brioche, yorkshire pudding, ice cream, banana biscuits and chocolate. I know it sounds bad but he doesn't eat these things on a regular basis it's mainly for a treat or to try him with something new. We have tried him with our food blended, bolognaise for example but he doesn't like having the bits in his mouth so refuses point blank to eat it, hence the reason why he eats proper baby food. He tends to chew things until they are soggy then spits the bits out, he really is one picky child :).

Tasha Rants: Benefits Edition

So I've been watching the programme Benefits Britain and it really pee'd me off! Because of the blatant scroungers they show on it, but not because they're scroungers, but because it is giving a bad name to anyone who is entitled to benefits, we are all being labelled as the same thing and it's not right!

Everyone is so quick to judge those on benefits because it must be an easier way to live... nope! It's difficult, you barely have enough money to live, to be perfectly honest I don't understand why so many people choose it as a lifestyle option, it's ridiculous. As a person under the age of 25 you are entitled to £57.35 p/w and from 25 onward you are entitled to £72.40, now how can anyone live on that? The answer is they can't not properly, though some people are happy to live at the bottom of the barrel which is why people judge but there are people who are not and it is not as simple as saying "well get a job then".

To the people who work and who have worked for many years, times have changed! You can't simply go out and hand your CV in somewhere and get a job no one does it that way anymore. I have qualifications and work experience, I worked 4 jobs in 2 years and I still would struggle to get a full time job, because no one wants to hire someone with little experience, all the jobs I have had were through agencies because I couldn't get a job any other way, I was unemployed for 2 months and must have applied for about 100 jobs and was looking every day I managed to get 1 interview from that, and yet even though I was looking and applying I can guarantee anyone who saw me going to the jobcentre assumed I was a lazy bum just because I'm young. We are taught to not discriminate against people for being different, yet we think it's OK to discriminate against people because they are a different age and aren't living the life society has made us think they should.

People are blaming scroungers for societies downfall but it's not them! If the jobcentre helped people how it used to and should do, and people were told if they didn't accept a job they were offered there payments would be stopped, then there would be more people working, but no, no one wants to help people find jobs they think that everyone will automatically be able to just look for one and get hired straight away, which is not the case.

If people really want to complain about something then it should be about zero hour contracts and long time agency work, that is what is holding the younger generation back! We cannot find full time work adequately because too many employers are far too happy to take on agency workers, most of the time as a replacement for full time staff because no redundancy has to be paid and they don't have to give any warnings regarding termination, even if there only quarm is they don't like you they can get rid of you. Holiday pay and so on are all dealt with by the agency, which is absolutely absurd! I was working with a company for just under 1 year, I had gotten to learn about the company and make new acquaintances with work colleagues, but because I was moved onto another team on which the manager did not like me I was dismissed after 1 day of being late, how can we survive in a society like this? How can the younger generation look to the future when they don't know how long they will be employed for? We are being prevented from buying houses, cars, etc because we don't know when we will have an income which we can rely on.

Down with Agencies!!

Bras

So when you get pregnant your boobs get huge, and then after you give birth they get enormous, and then if you breastfeed they stay a gigantic size until you finish. Now my point is, why do a lot of clothing shops not cater for every bra size? I have big boobs and have an awful time trying to find a bra that fits.

I went round the local shopping centre yesterday and tried different shops, (New Look, Next and even <3 Yours) My size weren't anywhere, I even tried at Sainsbury's, there was nothing! It was like all the bras my size had vanished into the void...

I've also noticed that nice bras are not generally made for women with big breasts, unless you are willing to spend a fortune on one, which for some women just isn't realistic. This was a problem for me before I was pregnant, I remember being in Primark looking at all the different styles and colours, and even though they said they went to D cup you could never find one, which would leave me having to go and settle for a normal T-Shirt bra, either white, black or nude in colour.

I know that sizes in shops have got better because a 32 D is a lot easier to find now, whereas before it was near enough impossible, though I would love for someone to tell me where to find a 36 F without being charged £30, normal shops don't seem to go that big and then the shops for larger women don't do 36 they start from 38 it's absolutely ridiculous.

Sometimes it feels as though I will be stuck shopping at Mother Care for the rest of my life wearing nursing/maternity bras, though I also found trouble finding a bra there!

Has anyone else experienced this problem, especially as a mum? Let me know in the comments :)

Tasha Rants: Paternity

Ok as you can tell by my title this post is going to be one where I am complaining. I have just seen an article on my Facebook which asks whether dads should be able to share paternity leave with the mother's maternity leave, and I think not. However, I do think paternity leave should be a few weeks longer (though not taken off the mother's maternity), it takes a woman about 6 weeks to fully recover (depending on delivery), so logically a man should be able to have that amount of time off so he can ensure his partner is doing ok, because not only is the woman still recovering but giving birth can have a psychological strain as well, so support from a partner is definitely needed.

The main reason a woman has maternity leave is, so she can get better after birth and feed her baby (the natural way), don't get me wrong I have nothing against women who bottle feed it's their choice, but that is the specific reason why maternity is so long.

Why do both parents need to look after the baby together? Not being harsh or funny, but women have been looking after babies on their own for many years now, why all of a sudden has it turned into such a difficult task? Now don't get me wrong I love dropping my son off at my mother's so she can look after him for an hour or two but that is only a couple of days a week, the rest of the time my son is all mine, like he should be.

Also, in the comment section of this post I read, there were loads of women complaining that paternity pay isn't enough and that you can't possibly live off that much money, and the funny thing is, paternity pay is the exact same as maternity pay £138 p/w (the basic amount anyway), no one mentioned how it's disgusting that a woman doesn't get paid the amount she was earning while pregnant, after she's had her baby and lets face it if you're a single mum £138 p/w isn't going to do much is it?

I also think it's wrong these days how both parents are expected to go back to work, and have your child looked after by someone else, especially since looking after a child is a full time job itself. I know some people will say that I must have a medieval view point but, if the dad works and earns enough to support a family, then why should the mum go back to work? Now don't get me wrong I don't think it's a woman's job to be a housewife but surely having one parent at home is going to be a lot more beneficial for the kids, than sending them to a child minder.