Making Smiles on Faces Award

I am completely delighted that my lovely blogging daughter, Liberty has seen fit to honour me with this award.

Liberty is 22 years old and lives with her boyfriend not far from me. She pops in to visit her old mum quite often, we go to the gym together two or three times a week and this evening, she and her boyfriend are treating me and my husband to a night out at the local curry restaurant. We have exactly the sort of relationship I always hoped I'd have with the chicks that fly the nest and I think her blog about reading, writing and dreaming is beautiful.

Her justification for the "Smiles" award was the videos I post of my two little ones. Baby brother and sister on video are probably much easier to handle than in real life!

Now it is my turn to pass the award to blogging friends that make me smile.

My first award is so easy and obvious, going to my little sister Inside the Wendy House.

We started our blogging adventure at about the same time. We have shared so much together throughout our lives and this sharing continues in cyberspace. I help her with the odd bit of video editing and she explains to me the difference between a sponsored post and a product review. I am a very regular visitor to her blog, always finding something that makes me smile.

My second award goes to Not Met Megan.

My sister might be a bit put out by this one because Megan is her daughter and she almost certainly would want to present her with the award herself. However, Megan knows how proud her mum is of her so I wanted to get this in first so that she might know that her Auntie is proud of her too.

I wouldn't feel right about not presenting the award to my other blogging daughter, Taylor the "not a boy". She doesn't post nearly often enough but when she does it definitely makes me smile.

I seem to have taken a rather nepotistic approach to this awarding lark thus far. To remedy this I would like to suggest that one person deserves this award above all others for her fabulous weekly meme that gets us all thinking of reasons to be cheerful. All that cheerfulness in one place is guaranteed to make you smile. Thank you so much Mummy from the Heart for making me count my blessings and making it easy to bask in the cheeriness of everyone else's. Please accept this very small token of my appreciation.

Qwerty Mum Looking for a CyberMummy Sponsor

You will see from my archives that I only started this blog in September last year but now it is hard to imagine life without it. Blogging has become very important to me. I love how it gives Stay at Home Mums like myself a voice and enables us to connect with each other.

I was lucky enough to win the "Have You Got What it Takes to be a Toyolgist?" competition from Toys R Us by submitting the video below and have thrown myself into the task of reviewing the toys sent to me with great enthusiasm.

I am seeking sponsorship to attend this year's CyberMummy conference as I believe it will give me the tools to develop my blog fully over the coming months.

I am 46 years old. I have four grown up daughters from my first marriage and a son (7 months) and a daughter (nearly 3 yrs) from my second marriage. I am a keen amateur writer and photographer and more recently have developed editing skills that enable me to create videos. I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to  get creative and would work hard to promote your brand should you feel I am the sort of parent blogger that your company could benefit from a partnership with.

In exchange for the cost of the CyberMummy ticket and transport (approximately £200) I would be happy, for the duration of the sponsorship, to 

• display any company Logos or banners on my blog
• publish dedicated blog posts for your company or products
• provide company link in any posts relating to CyberMummy
• review any products on my blog, including publishing videos to my YouTube channel
• host competitions/giveaways
• give mentions on Facebook and Twitter
• wear any promotional clothing etc as you see fit at the CyberMummy conference

If you feel that this Social Media exposure would be of benefit to you and would like to consider sponsoring me, I would love to hear from you.

Please contact Paula Virgo:  hayley_sparkle@hotmail.com

Nuby Review - The No-Spill Easy-Grip Cup and The Flip-It Beaker

The Nuby No-Spill Easy Grip Cup is suitable for babies from 6 months. My little man is very nearly 7 months but has never known anything other than the breast. I could see straight away that this cup would make an easy transition from a bottle but I was keen to see if it was something my son would take to readily.

I used Organic mineral water with a splash of apple in the cup - a brand new taste - it was a day of firsts for a small boy.

He was very interested in the Cup, exploring with hands and mouth. The contoured shape did seem particularly suited to little hands making it easy to manoeuvre. He needed a bit of  help to get the spout to his mouth but he had a very good go by himself before I intervened.

I recently tried to introduce a dummy to my boy because I was having a lot of trouble settling him down at night. He hated it with a passion, spitting it out and shaking his head from side to side to avoid it. There was no such issue with the silicon No-Spill Spout. I could see his little tongue investigating it thoroughly. I have to admit, he didn't actually take a lot of the drink this first time but he did have a few really good mouthfuls. He had to work quite hard for it but that is prefereable to the horrible look of panic as too much liquid rushes down the unsuspecting little throat of a baby who is trying to drink from an ordinary cup.

The other huge advantage of the No-Spill Cup, of course, is the no mess element. I could happily leave the boy with minimal supervision to get on with it without fear of him soaking himself and everything around him.

The No-Spill Spout is astonishingly good. Even when given a good shake in the inverted position (cup that is, not son!), the drink remained safely contained within.

The Cup was dropped onto the tiled kitchen floor several times during this first exploration, to no ill effect.

We also tested the No-Spill Flip-It Beaker. This is recommended for babies from 9 months.

My 2 year old is perfectly capable of drinking out of a regular cup, mug, glass, straw, bottle or can. There isn't anything she can't handle.

This was a non alcoholic, sparkling fruit juice drink!

However, for her safety, my peace of mind and the sake of my carpets and soft furnishings, I prefer her to have a lidded beaker of some description for the times when she is not sat at the table.

She loved having bottled mineral water with sports caps, the same as her older sisters, but it made me cringe when I saw her using her precious little pearly white baby teeth to pull the sports cap top into the drinking position. Not wanting to discourage her from drinking water, I gave her the Flip-It beaker instead.

The Flip-It beaker was received with enthusiasm. The bright colours are appealing, it is lovely to hold and the Flip-It mechanism fascinated her. As well as being interesting to the child, there is a very practical purpose to the Flip-It top in that it protects the straw from contamination.

I am slightly worried that my daughter is prone to chewing on the straw which will cause damage. Replacement straws  are available in that eventuality.

In my previous review I asked the question:

Did Nuby deserve its reputation as "one of the world's leading baby and infant feeding brands" ?

I can now honestly say that for the innovative designs, the attention to detail, the appeal to both parent and child and the extensive range to cover just about every need, my answer to that question is a resounding YES.

You can follow Nuby on Facebook and Twitter

Please mention http://qwertymum.blogspot.com/ 

Thank You