I am following in the footsteps of some of my very favourite bloggers, and writing my round up of the Noughties.

Wow, what a decade it’s been! A lot has happened, both good and bad, and many things I am very proud of. Here goes:

2000

Having met the man of my dreams just a few months earlier, we spent Millenium Eve together and had a lovely time. Later in the year I graduated from uni with my degree in Ophthalmic Dispensing with Management (sounds a bit grand, doesn’t it?) and moved to Sheffield to be with SnugMan.

2001

SnugMan and I bought our first house, a lovely semi in between Sheffield and Barnsley, and soon afterwards got our lovely cat, who was allegedly the runt of the litter – all I can say is, I wouldn’t like to meet any of his littermates in a dark alley if he is the smallest!

September 11th will stick in my mind forever – I watched it unfold, doing the ironing, thinking I was watching a Bruce Willis film, not realising it was the news!

2002

SnugMan got down on bended knee on the shore of Lake Windermere and asked me to marry him. Clearly I said yes – I would have been a fool to turn him down! In work matters, I was made manager of a large high street branch of an opticians, and worked hard to succeed at it.

2003

I became a married woman, and looked forward to the rest of my life with SnugMan. The wedding was fantastic and the honeymoon in the Maldives and Dubai was magical! I still love him to bits

We had an hilarious weekend away in Oxford, which was so bad we just had to laugh. The hotel was worse than Faulty Towers, and it rained so much that I had to buy more jeans because they got soaked walking around trying to find the Tourist Information (which we were looking for so we could find another hotel – yes it was that bad!)

2004

I fell pregnant with, and gave birth to, our first child – a defining moment in any woman’s life. A steep learning curve was made easier by a relatively mellow baby, whom I utterly dote on.

2005

We went on holiday to Florida with our 10 week old baby, which was less difficult than you might imagine. I swam with dolphins, and later in the year, we relocated to my home town.

2006

We managed to buy a house “Oop North”, and put it back on the market very soon afterwards. I gave birth to SnugBoy#2, who I love dearly. We were lulled into a false sense of security of our parenting abilities the first time around though, and there is no doubt that SnugBoy#2 was a much higher maintenance baby than our firstborn.

2007

I discovered babywearing properly. With SnugBoy#1 we had used a Baby Bjorn carrier donated by my sister in law, and it served its purpose for the few weeks we used it. However with two small children, it became clear that a longer term carrying device was going to be neccessary. It was the year that I learned about the many benefits of babywearing, and about the different baby carriers and slings available – although I didn’t quite find the right one for me. Until I made my own, of course.

We found and bought a house we actually liked, and thankfully still do!

2008

SnugBaby was born! Having been asked about my mei tai whilst wearing SnugBoy#2, I decided to have a bash at it as a business, and lo and behold, it took off!

I broke my arm whilst on holiday in Spain – not something I would recommend.

2009

A mammoth year, with business going from strength to strength. I won Best Online Business at the Mumpreneur Awards, which was fabulous. I am pretty proud of what I have achieved, but the single best thing about what I do, is the amount of people who come back to me and tell me how their SnugBaby has tranformed their lives – they can have a happy baby, enjoy snuggly cuddles and still do everything they need to!

SnugBoy#1 started school, which he loves, and SnugBoy#2 left nursery because he hated it. Both boys have had chicken pox, which as a mother, was horrendous – SnugBoy#1 had it on holiday (I think we should give up holidays, given our success rate, or lack of!)

I bought myself a present of a puppy. I grew up with a menagerie of pets, and have wanted a dog to complete our family for a long time. Finally SnugMan couldn’t find any more excuses, so I brought home my gorgeous poodle, Bonnie.

I have mainly written about the goods, although there have been bads aswell, I prefer not to dwell on those. So, what does 2010 hold? Who knows? You’ll just have to wait and see… I plan to spend more time on growing SnugBaby, and also more time seeing faraway friends (which includes most of our friends, given we live far away from everyone!)

I’d love to hear about your decades, so please leave comments below, and share your New Year’s resolutions too!

Thanks to Violet Posy and Ella Announcements for inspiring me to do this post.

As reported in The Telegraph yesterday, this is the picture that has come under heavy critism after it was displayed in a Rochdale hospital. It shows a littl girl of about 2 or 3 years pretending to breastfeed her dolly.

It is, of course, perfectly natural for little girls to copy their mummy, and many first children will copy the act of breastfeeding when they see their younger sibling being fed. However, although the poster was designed to promote breastfeeding, it has come under fire, with complaints along the lines of it being “innappropriate”, “offensive” and “shocking”.

Personally, I feel it is a good way to highlight how natural breastfeeding is. We all know breast is best, but there are still many areas of the UK where the majority of babies are formula fed, though choice rather than necessity. Although I only managed a couple of weeks feeding my two children, I certainly do not find this image offensive. At the end of the day, it is a photograph of a child playing. If someone chooses to be offended by what they percieve the message to be, then that is their choice.

SnugBaby#2 copies me and his father (and older brother, but let’s not go there!) all the time. Just the other day, he asked me if he could use the SnugBaby sling which I use to carry him in, so that he could carry a dolly around. I am fairly sure that isn’t disgusting.

So let’s be clear here about what is offensive – is it the thought of a child doing a grown up act (my son hoovers – is that wrong too)? is it a child copying their mother? or is it the actual breastfeeding? If it’s the latter, I think it is a sorry state of affairs, and that the breastfeeding counsellors and midwives of the North West really have their work cut out!

As always, let us know what you think…

Thank you to Claire at for inviting me to write an article as guest blogger. Myself and husband Dan are in the children’s toy business near Axminster in East Devon. We have sold beautiful wooden and traditional toys for babies and young children via www.tishtashtoys.com for four years now.

We also run a team of around 150 direct sales agents who sell our toys and gifts. They are mostly Mums who earn extra working from home. Some agents just sell the toys using our lovely catalogue, others get more involved, selling at toy parties, coffee mornings, fairs, fetes, baby shows, carnivals and the like. We are always looking for enthusiastic party plan representatives and you can set up your own Tish Tash Toys home based business for as little as £9.99.

Dan and I are very keen to do what we can to help the environment, especially with two small children who will be inheriting the planet we leave behind. We strive to adapt our business practices to cause the least environmental damage whenever we can. Many of our suppliers use environmentally friendly materials and processes to manufacture their toys and because we wanted to highlight the availability of excellent Eco toys, we set up www.greatgreentoys.co.uk in 2008. Pop along and check out the website if you are looking for an alternative to the high street and would like to explore fair trade toys, organic products and green baby gifts!

Our latest venture is called Party Plan Together and we’re simply using the skills we’ve developed running our own mlm (multi level marketing) or direct sales company for the past few years, to help others. We set up www.partyplantogether.co.uk in early 2009 and are really pleased with how it’s going.

Sharon & Dan Pavey
Tish Tash Toys

What a find! IkeyDoodles is a fabulous, new, web-based company that hand-make personalised nursery furnishings and keepsakes – bunting with a baby’s name on, or a cushion for a chair make fabulous presents for babies and bigger kids alike. Everything is made to order in your choice of fabrics or colours, so you will be virtually guaranteed to get a gift which is utterly unique!

IkeyDoodles is the creation of Rachel, who is full time mum to Isaac, the inspiration behind IkeyDoodles. She began making personalised items in an attempt to stay at home with her son rather than put him in childcare and go out to work! And I have to say, I think she is going decidedly well. The products are not only beautiful, but incredible well made, and will last throughout your little one’s childhood, as they will never date.

I intend to keep an eye out for more fabulous baby and child products, and will be filling you in on all my brilliant finds. If you have come across anything you simply have to share, do let us know by commenting below.