Its not the terrible two's but the torturous three's!

I had braced myself for the terrible two's - I'd seen enough of Supernanny to know it could be a rough ride when little ones reach this milestone.  But to be honest in our household we were rather smug.  The terrible Two's for Miss G being actually not that terrible! This had to be because we were such wonderful parents with a thoroughly effective approach to behaviour management? or that all those years immersing myself in parenting books, manuals and magazines had not been a waste of time (and money) but had helped me raise a serene two year old?  Oh it would be nice to delude myself! But of course not!

Miss G had perhaps bided her time, gaining knowledge of her world and of her parents weaknesses lulling us into a false state of smugness until finally reaching the age of three.  Then, oh dear, our behaviour management perhaps required a few major tweeks to deal with the sudden change of our happy go lucky toddler to a miniature 'Kevin the teenager'.  This continues to be hard work and I have been keen to research and try out  positive methods of dealing with Miss G's behaviour - to avoid conflicts and to try and keep things as fun and lighthearted as we possibly can! 

During my research I stumbled upon an intriguing CD 'Tunes for toddler tantrums'. 

www.tunes4toddlertantrums.co.uk


On the back of the CD it reads  "Each song includes a game to help draw the toddler in and turn those temper tantrums into fun and giggles whilst parents enjoy a stress free day" - this was exactly the approach I was looking for!  Having the 'naughty step' battle was not fun , I wanted to avoid the tantrum rather than learn to deal with it!  I listened to the CD by myself before introducing it to my brood, and instantly could pick out a handful of songs that would relate to aspects of our daily life that could lead to tantrums - such as tidying up, eating dinner, and for Baby E getting her nappy changed!

It certainly meets its claim, turning activities which my kids tend to rebel against into a game, to give you an example after two listens together of the tidy up song, later that morning I played the song again when it was time to tidy away the toys and Miss G sang the song together with me and happily tidied up - telling me to hurry up and help her before the count of 10 (within the song).  This was a revelation!! And this was also I am very pleased to report not a one off, she has continued to respond well to the tidy up song, last week there was a day when I felt she was becoming immune to its happy tidy up powers, however I let her be in charge of turning on the CD and once again we continue to have cooperative and tantrum free times when having to stop play to tidy up.

My 11month old, Baby E is also responding well to the songs, we have had particular success with the 'Nappy Time' song, were she has to pretend to be a wiggly beetle on her changing mat - lots of giggling, tickling and fun replaces the old experience of desperately trying to contain her on the mat until nappy is changed.

Although the songs are clearly effective and very well thought out (the composer Victoria Arlidge, has composed for childrens tv programmes and has had BAFTA and EMMY nominated tv credits to her name - very impressive stuff!) what has struck me most about the CD is its effect on my behaviour management.  It helps you to remember that bringing up little ones has to be lighthearted and fun, which in turn helps to avoid those challenging tantrum filled conflicts!  To have a song to fall back on when you see a little one ready to 'start' is such a nice way of calming everyone (mum included) rather than that awful tense experience of watching it all erupt!  From this point of view I do think the CD works absolute wonders and is a lovely tool to add in to everyday behaviour management with little ones.

For more information about 'Tunes for toddler tantrums' visit the website www.tunes4toddlertantrums.co.uk , in my opinion well worth having a look!

Best wishes x

Fab Facebook Giveaways

There are no questions to answer and no teasers to solve - you merely have to follow Lila's Party on facebook http://www.facebook.com/LilasParty and as a big thank you, will automatically be included in our giveaway draw!

The draws will be made at 9pm every night until Friday. 
Tonight and tomorrow night the prize is an incredibly cute teddy bear rattle from our website http://www.lilasparty.co.uk/

Friday is the big draw - win all of your party essentials!!
This includes a £50 Lila's Party gift voucher to spend on our website to take care of invitations and party accessories; £10 M&S gift card towards those party cakes and nibbles and of course a teddy bear rattle gift.  As the prizes are vouchers it does not matter whether you will be organising a party next week or next year, they will be valid!

So what are you waiting for, follow now at  http://www.facebook.com/LilasParty for more information and your chance to win!  Good luck xx

Retail therapy on Facebook

The internet for me has opened up a whole new shopping experience.  No longer am I reliant only on the highstreet to fulfill my hunger to shop but there is now a vast array of online businesses available for me to quite literally 'tap' into.  A shopaholics dream - or so you would think, but finding time to search the net and find those little gems of stores among the vast array of online retailers is quite a task, and sometimes can, even for a seasoned pro such as myself, drain the fun out of the shopping experience! 

Since setting up my business and knowing the time, effort and love that is put into such a venture this strengthens my motivation to support smaller online retailers as opposed to their highstreet giant counterparts!  To try and make it easier for others to find and support such 'gems' of online products and sites I hope to frequently report my finds on this blog.

To start the ball rolling what could be better than lovely mum-friendly businesses offering very special promotions next week on Facebook!   (Though remember you must follow the business on Facebook to qualify for their offer)

Best Baby Shower is offering all of their facebook followers a £5 discount - full details on their facebook page 25th October.
‘Best Baby Shower is the brainchild of Jo Fazel, who set up the business back in 2008 whilst on maternity leave with her eldest daughter.  Having seen the baby shower phenomenon travel from over the pond in the US to the UK shores she realised that it was difficult to find themed baby shower decorations & partyware in the shops.  Jo set out to create a true one-stop baby shower shop, sourcing a huge range of baby shower themed party supplies and creating her own baby shower games & unique gifts such as her baby bouquets, nappy cakes & sock cupcakes.  Best Baby Shower supports other business mums and actively sources products and gifts made by other talented work from home mums to offer to their customers to provide something different to shopping on the high street.  Jo loves to connect with her customers and regularly offers discounts and deals exclusively to her twitter and facebook fans.  So if you are going to be hosting a baby shower or just want to find a gorgeous new baby gift head on over to http://www.bestbabyshower.co.uk/ or join her at www.facebook.com/bestbabyshoweruk and www.twitter.com/bestbabyshower1

Photofairytales  http://www.photofairytales.co.uk/
They turn a home snapshot into the most beautiful fairytale image.  Very unique and quirky gift ideas, well worth a look!

For a great Buy One, Get One Free offer you need to BOGOF to www.facebook.com/photofairytales! On Monday 25^th October all PhotoFairytales fans will be getting sent details of how to claim a free extra print worth £5 of their fantasy portrait. Once the page hits 500 fans there will also be a great additional prize giveaway competition!

Ebabee http://www.ebabee.co.uk/

Think Ebay - but auctions only for baby and child products.  Ebabee write a very wonderful blog http://ebabeelikes.wordpress.com/ featuring some of the most unusual and stylish products available online.  This is what they have to say about their facebook offer...
"Shhh... I'm having a secret sale on www.ebabee.co.uk from 25th October.  I'll be selling uber-cool baby & toddler stuff, as seen on my blog.  All the stuff costs many, many pounds but the bidding will open at just 99p!  All you have to do is bid up to your max and keep your fingers crossed.  You'll only pay what you bid and not a penny more.  Even postage will be free.  Good luck!"

Ohana Moments http://www.ohanamoments.co.uk/
"Ohana, means "family" and our company is born with this precise philosophy at it's heart. When founder Arpana was about to become a mum, she realised what it means to cherish memories. From all those "firsts" - first foods, first steps, first words to family holidays and Christmases. Those special moments when your little one is born, are captured but are hardly ever watched again. Through our service of editing and transferring video to DVD, our products make it fun for the whole family to share, enjoy for a lifetime. We also provide baby clothes gifts wrapped up in a unique and novel way that would make any new mum smile! Our gifts also provide the essentials we all need in those first few days of motherhood!" Find on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ohana-Moments/156658747696420 and qualify for a 15% off discount and free P&P next week.

Menus4Mums http://www.menus4mums.co.uk/
Creating easy to follow menu plans and recipes, Menus4mums solve the dilema of what to cook and take you out of the rut of having the same old thing to eat week in week out!  They are offering a Facebook giveaway next week...

“To show our appreciation to our Facebook fans, we’d like to send you all 4 special but dead easy recipe cards for cakes children love.  Perfect for half-term!  Look out for the update we’ll be sending to all our fans on Wednesday 27th October with a link in for downloading the recipes.” Follow at http://www.facebook.com/Menus4mums

Lila's Party, http://www.lilasparty.co.uk/ not to be left out, will also be thanking all of its wonderful Facebook followers on Monday with a week of giveaways not to be missed - join now for a chance to win http://www.facebook.com/LilasParty  Good luck!

Aha so Facebook can be more useful than merely spying on old school friends..maybe a few pennies to be saved too!
Best wishes xx

Nothing ventured.....

Preparing to launch a new range of cards is quite an anxious time for me.  Having put so much time and care into the design process, the characters on the cards begin to 'come to life' for me - they exsist and are endeared!  However forming a bond with a character on a card can have its pitfalls (aside from the obvious of it being perhaps a little odd!).  Such a bond can make you a little over protective and dare I say even a little 'precious' about the two-dimensional form.  Bringing them to life you want to share the characters on the cards with fellow parents and children to engage their cute, quirky charms to make childrens parties extra special. 
But back to reality!  Will everyone else feel the same about my latest treasured character 'Friendship Fairy' and her aim to bring a little sprinkling of fairy magic to little girls parties (and a special bracelet gift to each party guest)?  Will there be ravings and praise or will there be negative comments and contructive yet hurtful criticism?  Only one way to find out, lots of deep breaths, be very brave and introduce my card creations to the world!

I have an instant critic on hand in the form of my three year old daughter Miss G (formerly Little G, but now being as tall as the door handles, with a vocabulary and strong will as high as the sky, seems fitting to move her title up a notch!).   Miss G tends to tell it like it is - no grey areas or sitting on the fence in her critique.  As it was her birthday party being the initial motivation behind creating this Friendship Fairy range, then her feedback was very important to me.  My thought process for the card design was wishing for an invitation to be pretty and reflect Miss G dressing up in fairy/princess outfits, but most importantly to be fitting for a younger girl who was not yet ready for the more 'tweens' inspired fairy princess designs more readily available. 
On presenting Miss G with the Friendship Fairy card there was a lot of furious movement on her part to try to get the invitation out of my hand and into hers.  I explained it was a special card for her from the Friendship Fairy.  When finally the card was in her clutches she sought her 'wendy house' hide out and I could hear her say 'Beautiful fairy you have a special present for me?' ...'Yes I have been a good girl and I will wear the pretty bracelet'.  My heart was melted and my confidence in my Friendship Fairy cards had grown ten-fold - Miss G loved them!

Another avenue I was very interested in and felt was very important for me to pursue, in terms of gaining feedback about my cards was that of 'mummy reviewers'.  I love reading mummy reviews, having had them influence which pushchair and first toys I recently bought Baby E, I hold a lot of faith and value in their words.  Again alot of trepidation, but I contacted a handful of relevant mummy reviewers and sent out a parcel of samples to each.  My attitude was 'nothing ventured, nothing gained!' whether their public response was positive or negative, it was representative of a parent and thus my potential customer - therefore invaluable feedback! 
As their reviews begin to appear I have been overwhelmemed, close to tears and literally walking on air with such positive words about my products and a genuine liking for them.  They have boosted my confidence no end and this experience really does make me realise that it is so true 'nothing ventured, nothing gained!'  I wish to thank each one of them so much for their time and support with the reviews.
Please indulge me and have a read ....
http://thismummyloves.blogspot.com/2010/10/mummy-loves-lilas-party.html

http://mumsjustlove.com/baby/lilas-party-new-products/

http://www.mammamccann.co.uk/mammas-must-haves.html

http://www.mummyreviews.com/wp/2010/10/lilas-party-celebration-invitations-and-accessories/

Miss Contrary goes to nursery

"I need to put my special school clothes on Mammy - I will play in the sand today!"
My 3 year old started nursery a fortnight ago and it has been an absolute emotional roller coaster.  Lots of tears and cries of 'Mammy,mammy,mammy' as I reluctantly pass her into the arms of her new teacher.  Followed by lots of tears and worries from me throughout the two and a half hour eternity until the nursery session ends. 
Last week she came home poorly - high temperature, runny nose and very sleepy.  Was I a bad mother? as I was secretly pleased that although I would never wish for my daughter to be poorly, it did at least have the consequence of us having a break from the cycle of torment that was attending nursery!  Then a truly remarkable thing happened the very next morning.  I made my daughter cosy on the sofa with a snugly blanket, her favourite teds, a CBeebies comic, drink, biscuit, prime view of her favourite DVD and so on - all the luxuries you could bestow on an out-of-sorts 3year old (and perhaps a few extra luxuries on top to make up for the nursery shenanigans!).  To my amazement she began to get upset and to cry stating "I need to put my special school clothes on Mammy, I need  to go to school, I will play in the sand today!"  I checked her temperature - surely she was delirious with fever! She was so upset when |I explained that she had a heavy cold so had to stay at home to have a day of being very well looked after, with lots of treats and special care from mammy.  But no, she WANTED to go to nursery!
Happier mornings are now once again a feature of our household.  Since recovering from her cold, Little G now actively seeks out her nursery uniform (which still I can only liken to a fancy-dress costume, just seems too grown up and I can not yet view it as serious school attire when worn by my baby - though no doubt I will still feel the same when she dons a secondary school uniform!) and she is very impatient, little legs scurrying to reach the nursery gates, which formerly she gripped onto so tightly begging to go home. 
I still find this sudden behaviour change utterly bizarre, though am happy to embrace it and marvel at my little contrary princess! Oh and at my ever increasing grey hairs her highness is steadily coaxing through!

Welcome Indeed!!

Hi I'm Nikki a mum to two little cuties and founder of Lila's Party  http://www.lilasparty.co.uk/ , an online store selling beautifully unique invitations and party bits and bobs for young childrens celebrations.  I'm very nervous but yet very excited to enter the mystical world of blogging and hope to fill this space with lots of fact and fun related to childrens parties and childrens gift ideas!

I also hope along the way to share experiences and snipits of life here, juggling what seems like the 'world' some days - between a business, a home and a baby and toddler.  Looking forward to chatting...speak soon x