This was our first extended rear facing car seat, and is permanently in one of our cars until R outgrows it. It is a gorgeous seat, very plush and has tons of fancy features that really make this a luxury car seat – and as such comes with an accordingly high price tag. I think you can get this for around £260 if you shop around.

The main plus points for this seat are:
It is one of the highest scoring ERF out there. With excellent side impact protection as well.
I think the softest, comfiest, most solid rear facing seat money can buy.

Other great points
Has an amazing magnetic belt system, which keeps the straps out of the way so you don’t have to fish them out from under your baby when buckling him in.
Wonderful shoulder/headrest adjustment system. You just grip a bit on the back and pull up, which at the same time moves the shoulder strap height. Really easy.
Multiple reclining positions. This would be a huge plus in most other cars than ours. Our rear seats (7 series BMW) have a very steep angle on them which means that the most reclined position is barely reclined at all, and the most upright position is too upright. But a huge plus in other cars. You just lift a lever under the seat and adjust with your hand.

Negatives
It is huge and weighs a ton.
The first time we installed it was rather fiddly. I have since removed and installed it and it was much easier, although I’d be lying to say it is a piece of cake.
And yeah… once again it is pretty huge. I’m going to see if it fits in the middle soon but I think it probably wont due to how wide it is and how far back my husband needs his seat to drive.
It only rear faces to 18kgs. This is probably ample for some kids but my son is pretty huge and I can imagine we will have to retire this seat at some point unless we have another baby!

My TV watching since being pregnant has exponentially increased and I no longer think I can blame it on little R, I need to admit I am addicted…

Anyway Kourtney & Kim Take New York is my not so secret guilty pleasure – and Kourtney K is my favourite hollywood Mom for sure (see how I used american spelling there). Not only is she a super breastfeeding advocate – she has talked openly about her breast feeding experience and how sad it was for her to stop at 14 months – I spotted her reading one of my favourite baby books – Super Baby Food!

I’ve had Super Baby Food since little R was born and it has been an invaluable resource, especially when we started weaning/eating solids around 6 months. Go buy it if you are pregnant or are weaning, it is a fab book. xx

Our current living arrangement means our high chair is going to be on display a lot of the time. We have no real “dining” area in our flat, just a living room and a kitchen that is really too small to feed a baby in. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit this but all of our meals are consumed on our couch, although we do have a table it is shoved in a corner and lacking the all-important chairs. So I plan on feeding the baby in our living room over a splashmat. We are gonna try and rearrange the room to get a functional table happening but that has yet to happen.

SO – High chairs. Or highchairs. Whatever – most of them are disgusting. Who wants a huge hunk of white plastic cluttering up their house? Not me. Far out the baby sits in it not uses it as a focal point – there is no need for stimulatory colours and half the stuff most high chairs come with. Not to mention how disgustingly dirty they get, I want something simple with no hiding places for little food surprises!! So.. here is my line up for the best high chairs of 2010:

Criteria:

Easily cleanable, fixed support thing between legs (saw a baby slip right down in their harness the other day) and non-hideous.

1. IKEAAntilop – £10.99 + £4 tray

The classic, utilitarian IKEA Antilop. Complete it with the £4 moulded one piece tray (easy cleaning), and now the inflatable cushion £4.99 and you have a winner. Also comes in red and blue. I personally wish it came in black! Our living room is fitted out in IKEA brown black and gloss black and a black highchair would be amazing.

2. Bloom Fresco- £320ish

I suppose if I had endless cash I would probably buy this one. I did get the bloom coco baby lounger but sold it on as I never used it, didn’t really see the point of bouncy chairs for baby. It has a nice one piece tray but the rest of it has real gross baby food covering potential. The gloss black is gorgeous and I love that you can change the seat pad colours. You do pay alot but get some nice features that others don’t have – reclining, rotating, height adjustment etc. A really nice idea to go around the dinner table while you are eating from birth as you can recline it right back. Nothing like getting into good habits early…

3.  Stokke Trip trap in walnut – £130ish

I love the dark wood but despite how popular and trendy these are at the moment I don’t really get the styling. Also I hate hate that it doesn’t have a support between the legs. True you get a chair that lasts until your kid is huge but you have to buy a third party tray which I think looks grosss. Maybe suitable if you are always going to be spoon feeding and eating at the table.

UPDATE – 29/01/11

I have been using the IKEA highchair for a couple of months now and it is fantastic. I have absolutely no criticisms – Reuben is really wriggly and super strong and he loves to pull the highchair along the ground haha I have no fears that it will topple on him. It is so secure and I just dump him in it, and haven’t had to worry about doing up the buckle yet because he can’t escape (I don’t recommend this).  I know he won’t slip down and get hurt… and I don’t mind leaving him experimenting with feeding himself and making a huge mess because the tray is so well designed and easy to clean. I still wish they made it in black.

I have only been in London a few weeks and already I have hunted down two French patisseries for the sole purpose of buying macarons. Last week when we were in Canary Wharf for interviews I stumbled upon Paul and bought a giant macaron. Unfortunately no one was sure what flavour it was, and even after sharing it and eating it neither of us had figured it out. The texture however was devine and it was far richer than the Ladurée ones, but obviously very bland. I think the huge one from Paul was 2 pounds something, and roughly equates to 3 or so of the little Ladurée ones which were 9 pounds 80p for 6 + a pretty box. Ouchie.

After discovering last night that there are two Ladurée shops in London – First stop today was Harrods. Which of course is packed full, mainly with tourists, and looks to have quite a cool food court with people chowing into these amazing looking gelati/sundaes.  But I wasn’t there for any of that and in fact we made it through the ground floor in possibly record time to end up in Ladurée.

Hubby helped me pick out 6 little macarons – here is my verdict. (L-R in pic above)

Orange Blossom – hubby chose this flavour and although I wouldn’t have done so myself I quite like it. The green ganache slightly put me off but it does taste very floral.

Salted butter caramel – Third place? Almost sticky ganache, with a scorched caramel flavour.

Vanilla – rich with vanilla seeds, although tastes slightly pasty almost. On second thoughts the aftertaste is of an amazingly rich vanilla icecream.

Chocolate -Thick and rich with a nice deep ganache. I give second place to this guy. I think this may actually have been bitter chocolate, they didn’t have both available and this is light and not so sweet.. I wonder.

Rose – amazing rose flavour, super fluffy ganache almost like whipped cream, consistency too thin for my liking but still devine, strongly rose scented and tasting like turkish delight.

Pistachio – My favourite, densest and delicious, with a nice texture. Mmmm.

All in all amazing! If you want to make me happy – buy me macarons. Pistachio ones if you are too scared to choose

Is it sad that my goal is to try all the flavours? Haha. The berry ones, and of course lots more pistachio ones And to be fair, I must of course compare with all the ones from Paul and then Pierre Herme when in Paris!!

You probably can’t tell from all of the other posts on my site that I am actually a gym junkie. I love working out/lifting and eating clean, and one has to when on evenings and weekends etc there are piles of caramel brownies and other such evil food lying around at home. Eating clean during the day is my idea of moderation and helps me keep my weight in check.

Anyway to help me in my goal of high protein meals I like to have protein bars lying around in case the urge for chocolate strikes. I was so excited when I drove to work this morning (first day of a new job) and saw that a few doors down from my new workplace was Real Nutrition! I have ordered from them before because they have my favourite protein bars (Doctor’s Carbrite) at the cheapest price I have found in New Zealand.

I was even more excited when I jumped on their website and saw they sell a mixed box. So in my afternoon break I wandered down the road and walked in. What an awesome experience, why can’t every shopping experience be like this one was! They were helpful, friendly, understanding and just amazingly helpful. I picked out my own 12 bars of mixed flavours and a 2 month supply of their multivitamins. I sound like I work for them but really I was just so thankful for a nice shopping experience that seems to be the exception these days.

If you are looking for Protein bars or supplements, or I am pretty sure they even do nutritonal consultations, check them out www.realnutrition.co.nz