My review i got to do for Halos n Horns

So being asked to do a review on the  Halos n Horns product was news that sparked much excitement in the Bevan household (mostly for me- dont think 21 month old Aidan really cares at this stage...)

Anyway after phoning my husband  to tell him the exciting news, I then played the waiting game as to when we would have time to go and collect the product (we only managed to go a week later)

We get to Knowles Superspar only to find there was only one item left on the shelf... this was promising, it seems many mommies and daddies have cottoned on to what a great brand this is, so with "Halos n Horns Kids Bathtime (mango-melon mayhem) shampoo and conditioner" in hand we trot off to the tills, only to breeze thought the teller( my absolute worst is when you arrive with any kind of voucher the teller either sits there looking at you with saucer eyes and the words "Hawu" come out, or they couldn't care how long they take to put through the item)

Now on the bottle it states that the shampoo is kind to eyes - but honestly now how many times do those "kind to eyes" shampoos leave your child rubbing at them furiously?

But for the first time last night we had a no fuss hair washing experience, in fact Aidan even helped rub the shampoo in... and it smells amazing too (i cant stop sniffing at his hair!!) not only does it smell fantastic his hair is super soft and his hair is more manageable  even his curled ends are more bouncy.

 I can definitely see a difference and Aidan now cant put the bottle down, it keeps getting shoved in my face with a grin and "MORE" shouted at me...

My sister has even noticed a difference in how his hair is sitting now, and cant stop running her fingers through it.

Not only does Mango- Melon mayhem shampoo and conditioner gets attention on how it is for my sons hair, i have to admit i tried it on mine too (I love it)

I also love the fact that Halos n Horns don't test their products on animals, and as a family that adore all furry little creatures its an untold must that our toiletries are not hurting the little fuzzies of the world

Truth be told, it seems we may switch to Halos n Horns from now on... WE LOVE IT!!

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to try them out!

Nappy Cream Nightmare

Well apparently my child is going through the certain "rites of passage" willy nilly, first off was the paint the parquet floors with powder, and then the gel your hair with vicks, ooh and the smear yourself, your bedding and Sheepy silly with your nappy cream effort...

Now for all of you who don't know, powder and wooden flooring do not mix very well, after hoovering, sweeping and mopping three times over the evidence is still clear as daylight! to say that it's difficult to remove is a HUGE understatement, it is virtually impossible...

Evidence sample A...

Look what I did mom...

Sneezy with all the powder everywhere!!

A few days later we decided that nap time was for sissy's and that we would rummage through our nappy bag, pull out our vicks and gel our hair with it... (by the way Aidan, THATS SOOOO NOT COOL!!) after five 'shampoo, rinse repeats' his hair could still stand at attention...And so begins the tedious task again(however this time I shall use dish liquid- as per eHOw.com...)

Hair style Exclusive to Vicks....

Then the "Nappy Cream Nightmare" happened, see now we had Sean and Larine over with Tom and Ben, and after dinner we did our usual bedtime story, the whole say goodnight with the hugs and kisses, milk cup and climb into bed stuff all happened without any fuss(as usual) however, what was to follow was NOT in our usual routine! About half an hour into what we thought was "Dreamland" we hear Aidan crying, so in I go ready to tell him firmly to "SLEEP!" and well... all that managed to come out my lips was an "OH NO" and a roar of laughter, you see because it wasn't the normal sight of him sitting up fighting his sleep, no,no it was like I saw a ghost... he was COVERED from head to toe in nappy cream, and he also managed to do a number on the bedding and his toys too,needless to say I was up soaking and scrubbing the bedding till after 10.30 pm then diligently woke up at 6.30am to continue, with more scrubbing, I have fixed it though and all that remains now are the giggles and memories...( I tried and managed to restrain myself from taking pics of the fateful episode.)

It's just me

Now for those of you who know me, know that im not one of those girls that are into florals, French love stories, or tea and scones type of thing, ok granted I do drink tea but only when i really dont have much else to drink and yes i'll eat a scone but i wont go out of my way for either of these!
I am NOT prim and proper!

I laugh loud, I talk loud and I live loud, and to boot, I'm stubborn as hell!
I tell rude jokes(my family can vouch for that) and find the most daft things hilarious.My mouth should be in the Guinness book of world records because it achieves amazing things, things like working at a much faster rate than what my brain does(it has usually spat out some sort of comment long before my brain has registered what has happened) and for it's greatest feat, it manages to hold my entire foot(this is what follows after the mouth speed surpasses that of my brain)
I'm crazy and kooky and I just don't care!!
But hey it's just me!

I have never been someone to sit at home worrying what someone thinks of me, if you don't like it tough, there is noway I'm going to change the way I live my life to suit you (besides who said your way was the RIGHT way?)

If you want to live in a wallpapered shoe box and behave the way others feel you should behave then be my guest but life is short, way i see it why not Live loud, live proud and don't ever apologise for who you are!

It's the way I live , I just don't care, because its just me!

 

OOOOPPPPPSSS!

Oooopppsss I have been caught out again with this neglecting of the bloggy poo, goodness gracious, cheese and biscuits!! oh well lets get to it then.

Since I haven't blogged in a while it seems there will be some extra news in this one.

First off, we had entered Aidan into a spring tots competition at the beginning of September(voting lasted till the 15th October)anyway the prizes were: 1st- a micro scooter(a slightly overpriced scooter for children(R1500)-my opinion)
2nd- a glow bear(a bedtime bear whose fur glows in the dark-sonder batterye)
3rd- a box frame.

Well Aidan came 2nd(YAY) and got the glow bear, they even had his name embroidered onto the bears little shirt, it is just too cute( mind you that is the prize i wanted him to get)
Now during the voting time period i was feeling kinda like a bad mommy for wanting the Boogs to come second just cause we wanted to win the bear, but then I thought- "No I'm not a bad mommy I'll use this as a learning experience that "Winning isn't everything" , yip that coming first isn't the be all and end all and that sometimes someone else will come first"- Damn I'm pretty smart to turn my guilt of wishing him only 2nd into such a good lesson... (pity he's not old enough to understand it yet)
http://www.oodlesofdoodles.co.za/glowbears.htm

Next thing was we won a 3in1 nappy bag from 4aKid on facebook, you see they run these weekly giveaways where they ask you a question and then pick a few winners out of the emails that they receive, and well this time it was us!! yay how cool is that! here's what it looks like: http://www.4akid.co.za/products/454-nap-sac-3-in-1-baby-bag-backpack-in-camo-or-black


We also had Kyla-Lee's 1st birthday party and the two of them had such fun, Little Harrison(such a cutie with his chubby cheeks) and his mommy(Andrea) and daddy(Phillip) were there (the Aussie imports) that we have befriended through Mommalicious Mommas, a day of sweeties and feasting ensued for all the kids(especially Kyla and Boogie as that evening they went trick or treating in our complex, Kyla was a little pink fairy and Aidan was Spiderman... I think Aidan really loved it, every time someone opened their door he would just invite himself in(my golly I was only a little embarrassed seeing him making himself comfortable in other peoples homes) mind you everyone seemed to find it kind of funny so there was much laughter...



You would think that these two little sausages had had enough sweets for their entire lifetime(so did us mommies and daddies) however they found space for more the very next day when we all went to Ushaka for their Halloween show, Candice, Kyla and i went as the three fairy god mothers from Sleeping Beauty, Kyla was pink, Candice- white and i was blue, Boogie was Spiderman, Andrew was Frankenstein, and Ryan-well we called him gollum because he got this funny(and I mean FUNNY) mask that made him look exactly like gollum! it had us all in stitches! And when Aidan is old enough to understand we will explain the meaning Halloween has for us as Catholics/ Christians!

Aidan playing with daddy's bolts

Tipping out the sweets

Spiderman at Ushaka

Our little fairy princess

When a spiderman shares his sweets

Checking Nemo out

My what big teeth you have!

BOOOOOO!

My Precious.... (Gollum)

Shew and now it's Guy Fawkes (really? the 5th of November already?) and Christmas is just around the corner! and our coming month looks like this: 26th Nov- Derivco Christmas party at Suncoast, 4th Dec- Derivco children's party with father Christmas, then 23rd Dec- is Goompa's birthday, 24th Dec- is Christmas eve with the Hunt/ Quinn Family, 25th Dec- church to visit Jesus and then spend the day together(just mommy, daddy and Boogie) 26th Dec- Boxing day with the Bevan Family, then New years with Candice, Ryan and Kyla at Albert Falls Dam For camping... then its January and only 2 months till Aidan is 2!!! it seems like just yesterday we were planning Aidan's party now with only four months left gotta start thinking what the following one will be!! cant believe how the time has just flown by!


Oh and we will also be starting Aidan at day care one day a week as of January so that he can play with other kids and socialise a little more, he will be going on a Friday and I am sure he is just going to love it!

Well by the way my blogging seems to be going lately see you next month!!

Over and Out

Get a grip and start typing!!

Gee talk about slacking on the blogging front... shew!! but i am now back on the (word) horse... i have been kept very busy with Aidan and other things life has been throwing my way, like aidan getting sick with a non bacterial virus which we had to just wait for it to leave his system as antibiotics would have been pointless...
 
We Have also made Aidan a sand pit (or at least half of it ..) we still need to build the lid for it, so the the complex cats don't think it's a gigantic litter box... and goodness me, Aidan really does love it, it's the first place he makes his way to when mom opens the gate for outside time... 

anyway Kyla and Aidan also had their first sleep over, cos the mommies and daddies had a late evening of poker and joooce....(juice) they thought it was the greatest thing ever, they went to sleep(with much moaning because they were worried the other was allowed to stay up and play, and then woke up to realise their play mate was still there, oh and the fact that instead of porridge they were treated to a chocolate muffin and bacon and egg...

The Durban Mommalicious Mamma's get together is also coming up fast(this Saturday to be exact) and i have been like a kid at Christmas, i have been soooooo excited- now for those of you who know me, know that when i get excited i bounce...yes that's right i bounce, and sometimes let out a little squeal ... so you must know!! anyway there has been some organising and squeals and bouncing all along the road to the get together...

well October is coming up and that means Halloween, now normally we would not do anything for Halloween as we are not Americans, however all the kids in the complex go from house to house, so we thought we couldn't let Aidan miss out on that excitement so we went out and bought him a Spiderman outfit.... and he looks tooo darn cute in it

We have also had Aunty Robyn spending some holiday time with us and has been quiet fun... we have been playing outside by the sandpit, and challenging each other to Wii Fit Plus( Aidan uses the scale as his balance board.) and to Zumba too, wow it has been some hectic challenging but we laughed and wiggled through it... we can safely say that we definitely feel that there are muscles under all this cuddle wrap....


anyway until next time...

Crazy Dog!!

This is the nutty Dachshund x Jack Russell x Cat(??) sitting in Aidan's toy box??? 

Now why would you do that Aimee?

Please excuse Aidan's sticky fingerprints on sliding door...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perched on her throne...

The strange animal in our family!

A rush of blood to the head

Man this dog of Aidan's is driving me nuts, she has now figured out that she can jump over the mesh on the two xpanda gates and goes gallivanting around the complex this sends a rush of blood to the head and makes me almost turn into the Hulk, she is such an escape artist that this morning she jumped over the gate sooo quietly that I thought she had managed to get out the back door and out the garden gate( which goes out onto the road(this gate was open for the gardener)so here i am running up and down the road wondering if this animal has gotten herself run over and after about half and hour up and down in the rain i go inside feeling defeated, but something told me to look out the front, there she was sitting at the gardener/ caretakers door waiting for him to open up for her, what she didn't know was that he was already in our garden... well that made me dilly with anger, here i was soaking wet and tired after running after nothing and she was sitting patiently inside the complex!

It seems I was getting loads of head rushes as we went to the baby expo over the weekend however this was the good kind, as it made me sooo happy to see how Aidan loved the Barney show, and Bob the Builder, the awe and wonder in those little eyes gave me proud mommy emotional rushes of blood to the head, however little Kyla-Lee wasnt as impressed with the purple dinosaur as aidan was and fell fast asleep! and wow the absolute enjoyment of seeing other babies, I mean its not like we keep him cooped up away from people however he is always ecstatic when he sees another "little" person, and how he was interacting with the adults around him he was sweet talking all the people at the stalls we stopped at... They all thought he was super cute,, until he threw the mother of all tantrums, screaming and throwing himself all over the show and creating a huge noise...

 Aidan Watching Barney

Kyla-Lee's 1st impression of Barney!

Having a juice break...

Another thing happened this week! WE FINALLY GOT OUR CAR!!! we are just loving our Tucson it ROCKS!! What an awesome car,with the arrival of the car we decided that we needed to celebrate and went to dinner at Olive & Oil, what a lovely spot, and delish food and the service? Brilliant!! definitely a recommendation is in order!!

All in all an alright week, just hope this week coming also holds out as nicely.

Golly gosh

Oh my golly gosh this past month or so has been an interesting time for us, first off Andrew was in an accident on the way to work (we wont go into the nitty gritty details as to what happened but all that needs to be known was that it was no fault of his and car was a write off)anyway he also got out and helped the injured individual and found that he had a little nick in his skin on his hand and had said persons blood on the same hand, off to the doc he went and got some meds to prevent aids and had his blood pressure tested which came out pretty high, a few weeks later we go back to the doc to have another BP test done and the results were slightly lower but basically we were told that its not high enough to have him on BP meds but he needs to watch what he eats and exercise more, so we have been eating better(-NOT A DIET, just better eating-I'm doing this aswell out of support) to begin Andrew was at 6'4" and 118kgs and after two weeks of this eating change we have both noticed that we have more energy, are more regular and Andrew has lost 2kgs already- I have yet to weigh myself...
We have to go at in the beginning of October to have his blood test results given to us to see whether he is still negative.

After the car was written off we had to start long tedious process of finding finance for a new car and also to decide which vehicle we were going to get as we needed to think about our ever growing child and any future children ( and all the stuff that having a child entails(prams, nappy bags, car seats, etc.)
Thanks to my mom and dad who have two cars we were able to use my moms car over weekends and luckily we have friends that live very near by that actually work with Andrew in Umhlanga (70km's round trip from where we live)with whom they've had a lift club with prior to accident, for during the week.

We have since got finance and found a lovely Tucson that we are purchasing from someone I knew from tech days... so we are pretty excited as we will be getting it in 5 days time!

Now on my side I've been a pretty busy mommy, what with dealing with a sick and grumpy toddler who is cutting all 4 of his last molars all at once, and to say that he isn't taking it too well is a small understatement, in the past two nights I don't think I've managed a full hour sleep at any given time, but I although I have been tired I don't feel drained and its all after the change in eating.

my sister has treated my mother, and myself to permanent eye liner(which rocks because I hardly ever have time to do make up and at least this way I'd at least have the basic staple on already, however my appointment was changed to next Friday and there was talk between the salon ladies that I MIGHT just get a free manicure for changing my appointment time, which too is great because as a mom with a busy little toddler I don't have the time to sit and have my nails done, there is just no time plain and simple, I had also roped in most of the Hunt household to do a straight perm on my hair yesterday, (it was a joint operation, although dad was at work and Shea was sleeping, I managed to get Robyn mom and Garreth (Shea's boyfriend)all fussing over my hair... hee hee hee it's called delegation people!

Anyway we continue to pray and keep our faith and just remain positive for the rest of this crazy year, (not all bad crazy but some good crazy too, CRAZY nonetheless!)

My heart bleeds...

My heart bleeds at the thought of how my teeny tiny boogie has turned into a real little boy, alright he is only seventeen months old and yes he still sounds young but he has really transformed from the little pot plant i sat holding while in hospital.

He is now running and jumping and screaming and throwing tempers, however he isn't crying when hurt anymore, now i know that sounds horrible for a mother to want her child to cry but hey don't you feel like you are needed to come to the rescue when the have their first roastie? i know i did, however when he took that hard tumble he looked at his knee then at the floor then back at his knee, he then proceeded to pat the floor "better" once he had made sure the floor was ok we went off to the bathroom and i wiped his first bloody sore clean for him, he looked at me, took the cotton wool away and then went on to wipe it himself... such a big boy(by the way even with the blood there was not a tear) once he had decided that the "ouch" was sufficiently clean he kissed it better, motioned to get down off the counter and ran off again.
Its not only when he gets hurt and reacts like a big boy and forgets to come to mom for cuddles, but i have also found that shopping for him saddens me too, it's not like i find his clothes in the "baby" section any more its in the young boys department and his shoes... well the difference between my shoe and his shoe... (lets leave the picture to speak for itself)

Yes we have to shop in the boys department for those too, Gone are the days when his feet were smaller and when he was wearing newborn clothes...
Oh and for the record, i am NOT i repeat NOT broody, my hands are way to full with this big boy oh yes and the whole pregnancy thing is still fresh in my mind!

Oh well to big boys and little girls, and little boys and big girls!
So long as he keeps bringing so much joy too my life i am happy... Continue to grow so nicely my angel, BUT just know i will stalk you if i have to and i will call you my baby till the day i die!

Mommy loves you with everything she has.

Food Revolution!

Now we're in for it...

So as most of you know Aidan went through a "I don't need food " stage which freaked both Andrew and I out completely, so much so that we were resorting to sneak food into his mouth, however we had underestimated how smart our child was(not sure how that could happen because he is OUR child and we are kinda smart too) and he would just spit it out again, well we sat panicking about the amount of food that was making it into him that when face to face with his baby clinic nurse I nearly bite her head off because she is telling me not to worry as children are clever and know when they need food and that they would not starve themselves, I mean how can I relax and not worry, my child didn't want to eat...

Anyway Aidan did as he chose and I tried listening to Sister Maureen and not give him sooooo many choices when it came to meal time and tried sticking to one thing, not so easy I tell you! Sister Maureen also told me that all children go through this as they are at the age where their imaginations take over and their need to explore out weighs their need to sit in one spot and gobble the food that you so lovingly prepared for them.

This continued for approximately three months and just all of a sudden did a complete 360, I suppose the fact that Aidan is walking(or running) helps spur the appetite on, I now have a food revolution happening in my house, as Aidan is not only eating more but he is also starting to warm up to eating bits of meat(before he would just chew the flavour out of it then give it to Aimee) I don't think there is enough food in the house anymore...

This appetite has just come from nowhere, I have a little gobble monster on my hands, for example, last nights dinner consisted of 2x medium/large potatoes mashed, 1x purity bottle of roast lamb and veg, a few blocks of cheese, 2x bananas(I was making pizza for Andrew and I and Aidan took the peeled banana off the counter) 2x fish fingers and then when I thought nothing else could fit in his belly he then helped himself to the edges of my pizza! oh and we wont mention the fact that he had 2x cups of milk and a few sips of water...

Hmmm what tells me he has his dads kind of appetite? He will definitely be worth the money spent when taken to and all you can eat buffet!

That's it for now, I think I'm going to go replenish my grocery cupboard now...

Wow why did no one tell me?

Well as you all know by now, I have stopped breast feeding and am now waiting (not so patiently) for my milk to dry up.

Now while I have been "weaning" I did a little research as to what would help it go quicker, and all the baby and breast feeding website suggests crushed, cooled cabbage leaves stuffed into your bra,so I try it, walking around smelling really gross as the cabbage warms and lets off it's wonderful smelly vapours, it seems to soothe the engorgement I admit, but about three or so days of cabbage bra I am feeling very tired and drained(not the kind of drained I was hoping for) also my breast were getting all splotchy and red as if a rash were developing, so I hope onto Google and state my issue, you would never believe it but it states that if you are allergic to sulphurs you should NOT do the cabbage thing...

Wow why did no one tell me this? all this tiredness and slight bouts of nausea were because my system was slowly being poisoned and I didn't even know, thing is you actually have do a search for sulphur allergy and cabbage otherwise you wont find the information very easily...

Just as some are told to drink coca cola and coffee to help increase breastmilk when in actual fact it is really decreasing it, gee talk about misinformation in the information age....

Well needless to say I have stopped with the cabbage and have tried Sudafed decongestants, and although it may take a wee bit longer for the milk to go it certainly isn't making me tired or nauseous and on top of it all its helping my morning blocked nose issues too talk about win win...

A few web pages that help:

Cabbage and sulphur allergy: http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/cabbage.html

Coca cola and breast milk: http://www.birthworks.co.za/articles/breastmilk-peak-production-plan