Rain rain go away, sunshine I hope you are here to stay.

Wow we’ve had a fair bit of rain of late. But a few glimpses of sunshine have now arrived and wow the temperature certainly spikes up too. Yipee!!

So it’s that time of year again where the clocks have gone forward and the kids are up early and hesitant to go to bed. Even the baby seems to have cottoned on and is waking way too early for my liking.

Time to get out the trusty Gro Anywhere Travel Blackout Blinds. They definately keep them in bed that little bit longer. We’re on our 7th season with them. I can’t think of many other nursery essentials that have gone that distance.

One of my most enduring childhood memories is getting up in the night (we lived in the US) to watch the Royal wedding of Charles and Diana with my grandmother.

I’m not sure if the appeal of watching it was down to:

1. Being allowed to get up in the night to watch TV.
2. Watching a young lady becoming a real live Princess.
3. My grandmothers excitment, she was a true Royalist.

So when I heard that Her Majesty the Queen would be visiting Ebbw Vale (home of The Flower Stork HQ) as part of her Diamond Jubilee Celebrations I wanted to take my daughters and see if we could catch a glimpse of the Queen.

I must admit the girls were less than a little enthusiastic about the prospect. My eldest declared she would rather go to school. But I felt it might be their only opportunity to glimpse a member of the Royal Family so close to home, especially the Queen. My MIL came with and well the two of use were as excited as children.

The local council got in the spirit and handed out flags to wave. Typically British in that there were showers but we had a fantastic spot and we saw her both arrive and depart from The General Offices. I almost felt like we already knew her because of course she looks just like all the images I’ve grown up with, only more magestic. It was a fantastic day out, one I will always remember and I think the girls might even concede they enjoyed it.

My youngest little lady now shouts there’s the Queen everytime she sees her on the cover of a magazine, newspaper or book. So I guess we can classify the missed day of school as part of her education.

So the Little Man is 7 months old and on the move but sitting up just eludes him. At about 14 weeks he was trying hard to sit himself up and even now he can push himself up into a sitting position but he just wobbles over. He’s a long slim baby so perhaps there just isn’t the bulk to hold him up.

Visiting friends over the weekend she offered me her Widgey Nursing Pillow and it’s brilliant. I have used a non maternity V pillow but it is too wide a V. The Widgey is more like a C pillow so it wraps around him slightly and he can sit for 10 minutes. Chuffed to bits with himself!

Add it to the list of things I wish I had discovered sooner. A definate nursery essential The Widgey can be used during pregnancy, breastfeeding and for baby to toddler. In fact my two big girls have both been found reclining on it.

Once they can crawl, life is not the same. There is a certain comfort in knowing they will be where you left them when you pop off for a few minutes to put the wash on. It’s also one of those baby milestones that mean you’re baby is growing up. I found with No 1 you can’t wait to tick off each milestone, No 2 you are a bit more laid back and with No 3 sometimes you just don’t want them to grow up.

Over Easter weekend he continued to drag himself around, picking up speed and by Sunday we decided yes we have a crawler…time to baby proof!

With No 3 I am big on getting him to eat the same foods as the rest of the family, hence less meal preparation for me! So we always offer fingers foods and usually a bit of what we are having. It does lead to rather a lot of mess though so I was on the look out for a wonder bib and well I found it. The Wonder Bib by Mum2Mum is a waterproof, coverall bib which is nice and soft and comfy for baby whilst keeping him covered and clean.

My husband was so impressed he said you should order 60 of those. Well at £6.00 each I did point out that was a lot of bib but they are certainly worth the money. I bought 1 to try, ordered another 2, then another 2, then another 2 and well I figure we need another 3 to ensure there is always 1 available if the wash hasn’t gone on for a couple of days.

It’s not an easy task photographing two babies under six months in baby clothes.

Eleanor our photographer loves babies and this shows as the babies had a ball. Meaning lots of smiles and giggles.

We look forward to seeing our website and brochures updated with these gorgeous babies and delicious chocolate bouquets.

I can be a bit of an eco warrior(ess) but with my first two I never even considered cloth nappies. When I started shopping for Baby No 3 a friend who has two children and used cloth nappies explained just how easy they are. It all made sense and I decided that when things settled down with No 3 I’d give them a go.

Well I’ve not quite got there but I hate using baby wipes on newborns so I invested in a set of Cheeky Wipes. Cheeky Wipes are reusable baby wipes. I’m such a convert that I now run two sets of Cheeky Wipes, one for bums (white) and one for hands and faces (the new blue wipes). Helen the founder of Cheeky Wipes has a really well thought out product. Everything is included with fantastic instructions. The V3 kit has improved clean and mucky boxes for storing the wipes.

I can thoroughly recommend Cheeky Wipes as a nursery essential. Not just for bums, they are fantastic for little hands and faces when weaning.

We regularly update our product images and we decided now was the time to do some lifestyle shots of real live babies in The Flower Stork clothes. With one model at the ready (my little man) the hunt was on for a baby girl model.

We were delighted to have Eva (a happy Flower Stork bouquet recipient) put forward and the shoot was scheduled. Having recently done some family photos I was a little nervous as it was hard work getting 3 kids happy and smiling at the same time. However would we get on with two young babies.

Eva and Keaton were true professionals on the day. I’m sure they enjoyed watching four grownups jumping around making funny faces to get those all elusive smiles. I love this snap of Eva and Keaton holding hands.

Late last year we were approached by the team at 3VTV. A soon to launch local internet TV station, to create a short film about The Flower Stork. We didn’t need to be asked twice. It’s not often you get offered an opportunity to have a promotional film created and streamed on TV and a local internet station at that. 3VTV is a UK first and as an on-line business that is focused on new technology we are delighted to have had this opportunity to adopt some of the very latest in marketing technology. A big Thank you to the Team at 3VTV.

So without further ado we hope you will stop by and find out a little bit more about The Flower Stork on 3VTV and where it all began.