Liebster Award

"The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. What is a Liebster? The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome."

I received my nomination from Jayme at Young Mum's Guide To Survival. Thank you so much Jayme, I'm so glad you tagged me and I found your blog! Earlier this year I was also awarded the Liebster. I'm very lucky indeed!

The Rules:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the questions that the person who tagged you created and then make 11 questions of your own for the people you tag.

3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them.

5. No tag backs!

Here are 11 things about me;

1. If I won the lotto I'd buy a warehouse to skate in. Ideally with three or four roller derby tracks and my league would have free range to it. It'd be the league's warehouse.
2. I love my children to bits but I don't want any more thank you.
3. I'm addicted to a whole range of TV shows including SVU, Community, The Office, Mob Wives, Criminal Minds, Real Housewives Of New York, New Girl, Once Upon a Time and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Addicted.
4. My favourite animal is an otter. They're so cute. They smell bad but I still like them.
5. I am a car fanatic but I don't drive.
6. I would love to cook when stressed but I hate cooking. When stressed all I want to do is sleep. It's really not helpful.
7. My weakness is junk food especially chips. 
8. I want to get a kitten. I love cats but we aren't allowed to have cats here and the mister is allergic.
9. My least favourite household chore is vacuuming. I hate it.
10. I love musicals. How good would life be if it were like a musical.
11. The best breakfast is good coffee through caramel Tim Tam straws.

Jayme has given me eleven questions to answer;

1. Why do you love blogging? Recording the wonderful (and not so wonderful) memories throughout my life. The community is pretty rad too.

2. If you could bring one person back to life, who would it be and why? I choose not to bring a person back but instead my old dog, Casey. She died ten years ago and I still miss her badly.

3. What is your life long goal/s? My goals change all the time. At the moment my main goal is to become the best skater I can be. I hope to be bouting by November next year (my high school reunion).

4. What is the most embarrassing thing you have done in public? I always do embarrassing things. I honestly cannot think of just one at the moment.

5. What is your all time favourite movie? I can't just pick one. I love many from most genres. 

6. What is the most thrilling thing you have ever done? Learning to skate. Going to the first day of rec league without being able to stand on my skates properly was pretty thrilling. Hard to think that four months ago I couldn't skate.

7. What piece of technology couldn't you live without? My iphone. I use it for almost everything.

8. What is your biggest fear? Death. I'm not so much scared of death as I am of not living.

9. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? New York City in a big apartment or townhouse.
10. Do you have any hobbies other than blogging? Roller derby.
11. Celebrity crush? Nick from New Girl. 

My eleven questions for the tagged people to answer;

1. Who or what got you into blogging?
2. Tomato, ketchup or BBQ sauce?
3. Mac or PC?
4. Where would you go on your dream holiday?
5. Favourite kids movie?
6. What's your favourite way to exercise?
7. What's one lesson you've taken away from blogging?
8. What do you miss from being a kid?
9. What's something you would love to do but are afraid to?
10. Your favourite childhood memory?
11. Do you know how to change a tyre?

I'm going to break the rules and not tag eleven bloggers. If you want to join in the fun please leave your link in the comments and I'll edit this to include a link to your post.

Lufflump is HAPPY!

Blogging and Me.

I'm determined to get back into blogging. I've had enough time off and ignored it all long enough.

I have no real reason why I stopped. I wasn't too busy to blog, too lazy perhaps. I lost motivation. All the energy I used to put into blogging I put into derby - skating, watching, reading, learning. I thought the month long break between rec league rotations would get me blogging again but it didn't, we go back next week and I'm only just blogging now.

I've been bad, ignoring every PR email and not logging onto blogger at all. To all I ignored I apologise. When it came to blogging I wanted to forget about it all, forget that it ever existed. I was sad, angry and tired that I didn't want to blog anymore. After putting so much into blogging and then to wake up one day and not blog was a shock. A sad shock.

I love the community I have from blogging. The memories I've captured, friends I've met and opportunities I've been given are priceless and I'm so grateful for them.

This morning I woke up wanting to blog. I may not find my rhythm for a while yet and may not be consistent but I feel I want to try. It won't be forced.

I think I'm finding my voice again. I like it.

My cat and me. Because I can.

Fisher Price Tracking Lights Musical Gym Winner

The winner for the Fisher Price Tracking Lights Musical Gym has been chosen and notified.

As usual I really wish everyone could be winners and it does make me question doing competitions as I feel stressed out and guilty about not having everyone win. I do love giving away awesome products that I love though.

Anyway, congratulations to Preece who blogs at Bub & Moo for her answer; Laying under the lemon tree watching the wind blow the leaves. Whenever my little ones have been grumpy taking them outside works. I hope it does for the next one due in September too!! 


I loved the thought of doing this with children of all ages and actually found myself dreaming about doing it. I just couldn't get the thought of having a beautiful lemon tree to lay under, dream and connect with the family. Lovely!


Congratulations Preece. I hope your bub enjoys the gym as much as sesame does.

Fisher Price Tracking Lights Musical Gym Review and Giveaway

I've spent all morning reasoning with lufflump. Some may call it arguing but without a raised voice I'm inclined to continue with calling it reasoning.

'No, leave your sister alone.'
'Do not lie on your sister's head.'
'Please do not turn that off.'
'Let me move your sister before you lay down on the mat.'

Hello friend

It would appear that I have a three year old slightly obsessed with a 0-12month play gym.

Lufflump is a tad too big

The four month old is also a fan of the Fisher Price Tracking Lights Musical Gym. Us parents are also fans. Not that we get down and play like the children but any fun activity for them that lets us have a coffee in peace is a friend of ours.

Sesame can easily reach the toys with her hands and feet and the toys can easily be changed around. She's loving using her feet lately and gets such a shock when she kicks the sound and lights on.

Sesame using both her hands and feet to play

The Tracking Lights Musical Gym makes one of three animal noises (monkey, frog and elephant) before launching into music with the four lights 'dancing' to the music. Sesame loves to follow the lights with her eyes which is great for her development. The lights also help to keep her interested that little bit longer than other play gyms.

Lufflump loves to be the animal that makes the sounds; hopping around like a frog, laughing like a monkey or having a long nose like an elephant. I love that the music can either be adjusted, either loud or quiet. That definitely is brilliant if there are lots of other noises going around or if it's quiet time.

The mat is awesome too as it can be used for tummy time as well. Not that sesame stays on her tummy for long now she knows how to roll over. Hopefully she'll start rolling back onto her stomach so more tummy time occurs.

Lufflump loves playing with the lion and elephant that are on the sides of the arches. Well he likes turning their heads around many times until it irritates me. That boy knows how to push buttons and he loves it!

Watching sesame playing on the Tracking Lights Musical Gym right now brings a smile to my face, it's so wonderful to watch her discovering new things including her hands and feet. She's one happy camper which means the rest of the family are too.

Happy sesame

Now for the fun stuff. Mattel have kindly offered one Fisher Price Tracking Lights Musical Gym for a reader.

To enter please leave a comment telling me what is your favourite activity for newborns.

Terms and conditions of entry. 
1. Australian residence only.

2. One entry per household.

3. Competition starts on the 10th July 2012 4:30pm and closes on the 17th of July 2012 at 12:00am (midnight) (AEST).
4. Please leave your email address, Facebook or blog link with your answer so I can contact you.
5. To claim the prize, the winner must reply to the winning email and accept the prize within 7 days of the email. They also must indicate their preferred address for the prize to be sent. If the winner does not respond within 7 days, they will forfeit the prize.

6. The winner will be chosen by myself based on what I deem to be the best answer.

7. The judge’s decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered upon.

8. Mattel will be sending out the prize to the chosen winner who has correctly claimed their prize.
9. Accidental Wonderland (www.tutuames.com) will take no responsibility for any delay, loss or damage to prizes sent to the winner.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me for Mattel. All opinions expressed are my own. 

Speech Therapy

Lufflump has been going to speech therapy once a week for a few months now and has definitely benefited not only his life but everyone around him too.

He started only being able to say gobbly-goo that kind of sounded like proper words and is now talking in sentences with either proper words or very close to it. His personality really shines now and he is even more cheeky.

Making exaggerated sounds

Currently his favourite sentences are;
'your turn' and he gets extremely angry if you don't have a turn at whatever he wants you too.
'no, I don't like it' or 'no, I don't want to', he seems to say this more and more.

Our lovely speech therapist teaches lufflump to sign for certain words and also to say the word. He's on fire with them. 'More' is definitely his favourite, 'finish' is used appropriately and 'milk' is his newest one which we are all still trying to remember to use.

I've noticed his tantrums are less now that he can tell us what he wants, what is wrong or right. It's fantastic how quickly he's cottoned on. He still has a lot of work to do and I think he needs to slow down as when he does the sounds are correct but when he rushes they get mixed up or missed.

I wish we'd done this sooner but now is better than never and maybe earlier wasn't the best time for lufflump like now seems to be.

Check out those lips!