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Walk or Scream?

Written on May 7th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, Good times, May 2011, Relationships, Soap box

Although tomorrow is Mothers’ Day, I’ve already got my presents. I’ve been given a delish cake just the other day, and some cupcakes to munch on tonight. Mr 4 has even proudly presented me with a free magazine from the supermarket and coyly told me, ‘this is for you, Mum’. Missy 10 has told me she can’t wait to give me the present she made for Mothers’ Day.

So, I’m all set. Feeling nice and appreciated. I hope for the same for all mothers everywhere tomorrow. If you’ve been reading, you’ll know I recently got to ring my mother on her birthday. I’ll be ringing her again for Mothers’ Day tomorrow.

A little back story for those of you who don’t know: a few months ago, my mum, who is quite young, had two strokes in one day. (Well, technically, one in the evening, then one later that night). She’s now in rehab, and has been learning to swallow food and fluids again. She’s already mastered this, after a lot of hard work. She’s also been working on getting more movement in her right arm/hand, walking and doing more things for herself.

She needs to spend eight hours a day working on her program. It’s highly intensive work, including time in the gym, having electrodes on her to stimulate her arm and doing many other tasks that would be menial to most of us, over and over again. Constant repetition.

She was admitted into rehab sooner than was expected, because her progress was astounding, even at that point. Everything she’s acheived so far, has happened much, much earlier than is the norm, none of the staff expected any of it.

The result of her putting in so much hard work, has meant that she’s also now walking. Not all the time, but a little more everyday. A few days ago, she was asked to walk down the corridor so everyone could see her do it, since they’d all heard she was now walking, but wanted to see (the staff have been wonderful, and excellent cheerleaders). She walked that corridor, and everyone who saw her cheered and clapped loudly. Her and my Dad were proud enough to burst.

When someone has a stroke, one big problem they can face is depression, which can hinder their progress drastically, if morale isn’t kept up. And yes, my mum does have days like this, but thankfully the good days sound as though they’re outweighing the depressing ones. She has the added bonus of having been given a more intensive program than she would normally have, because the staff know she’s so determined to put in the hard work. This has only made my parents happier.

When I talked to Dad on the phone yesterday, he told me there was another lady in the same situation as my mum. Staff put her in the wheelchair to take her to the gym, and she screamed the hospital down, ‘I don’t want to do it, don’t take me, I don’t want to do it!‘ and putting up quite a fight. The staff knew they couldn’t do anything to help her that day, so they put her back in bed.

My mum looked at Dad, and said, ‘that’s not me. I want to walk out of here.’

Although it’s a very simplistic story, and may not take into account what the other lady might’ve been going through, I still can’t help but be inspired by her attitude. It’s all about strength, knowing what you want, and working hard for it. Accepting the bad days, and trying bloody hard to ensure the good days outweigh them. I have been amazed three times in my life, watching all my children learn to walk over time. But how many of us get, as adults, to watch our own mother learn to walk all over again? That’s amazing.

My mother didn’t ask for a stroke or two. In fact, what’s eery about her stroke, is that a few hours before she had the first one, she and my father were talking about someone they knew who’d had a stroke and ended up being a vegetable for 20 years. My mum said to my dad, ‘I think that’s the worst thing that could ever happen. If that happens to me, please don’t let me be a vegetable!’ So you can imagine how frightened she was when she had hers.

It’s made me realise that when the tough times hit, as they do for all of us, at one time or another, that we have a choice. None of us ask for the tough times that are thrown our way. We can scream that we don’t want to do the things that could help get us out of our situation and refuse to do them, or we can decide what we want, then slowly and painstakingly walk out of it.

So, are you going to walk next time things don’t go your way, or are you going to scream?

Happy Mothers’ Day.

Other reading:

I am woman

Motherhood: cinch or sentence?

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How Can Mums Get the Exercise They Need?

Written on May 5th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, Good times, Gross motor, Health and beauty, May 2011, Parenting, Saving money, School aged, Teens

I’ve been a lover of exercise since my late teens. Not the crappy PE-type exercise we did at school, or team sports. I’m more interested in workouts such as walking, using weights, aerobics and yoga. I’ve tried pilates in the past and enjoyed it, but I haven’t really gotten into it in a big way as yet.

When we lived in Sydney, we had *horrors* no car. We were in a fairly toffee-nosed suburb, and I would be walking to and from school, half an hour each way, twice a day. (Thankfully, I had some wonderful mum friends who’d offered to help me with lifts when I needed it) When my youngest started kindergarten (first year of ‘big’ school in NSW), I sported a pregnant belly. When my son was born, I’d be out pushing the pram, and very soon after, another pregnant belly. Then, I graduated to a double limosine-style pram, and I can tell you honestly, that put me through my paces. Once my fiance got sick and wasn’t working, I would leave the younger two kids with him as I took my eldest child to school, which made it faster, plus reduced the strain on my back, not having to push that heavy thing around so often.

There were only two types of responses I’d get from the other mums: horror (‘I couldn’t survive without a car!!’ Not really what one wants to hear when they’re trying to be stoic) and encouragement. I’m sure you can imagine which group I made a higher number of friends in! Although this regime was a little too extreme for my joints most of the time, I never had to watch my weight. I ate pretty much what I wanted. It was only once I stopped pushing that heavy pram that my metabolism slowed down a little. Once we got a new car a few months before we moved here, man, I got fat fast.

In some ways, I don’t regret taking such a drastic break from exercise for so long. I have a horrible hip injury from giving birth to my eldest daughter, and I find that an hour a day of exercise is perfect to stop it from jamming up. More than that just aggravates it. After so many years of walking two hours per day, five days a week, either pregnant and/or pushing prams, my body honestly needed the rest. I enjoy walking long distances, but the amount I was doing became a bit of a drag.

Since we’ve moved to a remote country town and need to drive to most places, my exercise slipped even more. You guessed it, I kept gaining weight. My hip started getting stuck and sore again. I’m only 5’1, and small-boned, so the slightest weight gain really puts a strain on my joints.

It’s funny; a year ago I wrote this post, about wanting to get into a new exercise routine. I dabbled in walking, but found it not so inspiring. A walk around the block in this town doesn’t take long at all, then once I’ve done that, I don’t know where to walk next! There are no hills, which I’m used to, and everything’s completely flat. I find it hard to raise a sweat at all, walking around the block. Having grown up as a child in a beach town, and now living further inland than I ever have before, has made me homesick for a good ocean walk. I found a walk I enjoyed, walking in the outskirts of town, and I loved it. No oceans of course, but lots of beautiful farms to look at, and dams with ducks swimming in them. Canola fields and sheep.

Being a new habit and a new town, I didn’t get to go walking as often as I would’ve liked. There was also my partner’s anxiety to consider. I couldn’t/can’t just up and leave the house or the kids with him whenever I feel like it. I’m needed here. It’s far too hot in summer for the farm walk, not to mention snaky.

Recently, my partner and I had a group meeting with his and my support workers about his situation. It became rapidly apparent that I had a need for relaxation, and fast! I suggested yoga, and suggestions of classes flew in, thick and fast. Being in a remote area, this would be costly for us in terms of petrol in addition to the cost of the actual class. I was pretty sure the class timetable wouldn’t fit into our schedule and I knew my chances at actually being able to do my yoga was heavily dependent on what sort of day my partner was having.

So, out of a need to bring some relaxation techniques into my life, I’ve stumbled into creating a fully-fledged work out area. We have an office attached to our shop, in which we had stored a tv and coffee table gathering dust until we found a spot for them. We went to Big W and purchased a simple book on yoga with a DVD yoga session attached for roughly $11.

The result evolved into this:

It’s nothing fancy, but hugely practical. I had a floor mat handy, so I used that to define the space (these were moved to the shop), and pad the concrete floor for extra comfort. (As you can see, the tv is quite grotty, but I took this photo soon after setting it up and cleaned up the area soon after)

I had a bunch of exercise dvds and equipment I hadn’t been using. I tried using them in the lounge room, but it was too disruptive with children so close by. Even if I waited until their bedtime, the two younger ones would be too distracted by what I was doing to sleep! So although this area started out solely for yoga, it’s opened up the opportunity to solve my exercise problem also. I can go to this area by myself when I know it suits my partner and do what needs to be done.

Once I started getting back into exercise, I realised how much I’d missed this! The stress release, the adrenaline, the feeling of accomplishment. I’ve had a little break from working out for the past few weeks as I’ve had the flu, but I honestly can’t wait to get back in there.

I know some mums who read this will be thinking, ‘that’s all well and good, but she has a separate shop, not everyone has that!’ and this is true. Trust me, I can relate, having moved from a cramped two-bedroom cottage housing five of us. I also know how it feels to get stuck in a fitness rut, completely willing to exercise, but finding it hard to make it actually happen, due to being a mum.

Here’s some tips I think might be helpful for mums who are truly finding it a challenge to get that much-needed workout time in:

Wear a pedometer during the day and work towards a step-count goal. Incidental exercise is recognised nowadays as being just as effective as time set aside to work out. It’s a good way to ease back into being more active. I did this a few times when we first moved here, and it encouraged me to do a little more, and planted the idea of looking for places to walk. (Admittedly, I was disappointed with the offerings, but just because it didn’t work for me this time, doesn’t mean it wouldn’t for others)

Look at your obstacles to exercise and try to find creative ways to make it happen. If you can see a chunk of time in your day where your kids can be looked after by someone else, make the most of that time. If gyms and classes don’t suit you due to money or clashing timetables, don’t let that be your reason to give up. If you are able to exercise with your kids and are happy to, then that’s great too. I personally prefer to exercise on my own at the moment, because I find the alone time is better for my stress levels.

Think about what you’ve got that could help you. Do you have an exercise bike or dumbells gathering dust? Don’t be put off using them just because you may not have been up until now. Maybe you just need to find a more suitable time/place to use them. Where would be the best place for you to exercise without disruption? What time would that be?

Ask for support. If you have a partner, ask them to help you make this happen. You might need them to look after the kids, or help move your family schedule around a little to ensure you get this time. Although my partner has severe mental illness and needs my help with a lot of things, there are still times in the day when he’s capable of spending time with the kids whilst I disappear to exercise.If you’re a single parent, can you get anyone to help you with the kids? If not, can you make walking to school with the kids your exercise? If your kids are older, you can ask them to respect this time of yours, and to avoid distracting you unless it’s urgent.

Where suitable, get the kids involved. It’s really dangerous to have little kids hanging around your treadmill, but there’s lots of ways kids can be involved. If you have a wii fit, you can play that together for some family fun, or run around together at the park or in your backyard. Sometimes Missy 10 will have a go of my yoga dvd. She loves the relaxation it brings, and I think it’s great that she finds a stress release right before the teen years. It’s also her NAPLAN year again, and usually she gets a little stressed about it. As mentioned, you can also walk together. I’m going to mention bike riding here too, because although I hate bikes with a passion, I know lots of family do this, enjoy it and it works for them.

Talk to other mums and find out what works for them. Often brainstorming and sharing ideas can lead to inspiration, especially if it’s a recommendation for a great gym or walking route. Also, let’s talk to each other here, share our ideas and see if we can add more solutions to this list.

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Aussie Mummy Blogger With the X-Factor

Written on March 30th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Good times, March 2011

Well, if this isn’t enough to cheer a girl up! I’m talking about the Aussie Mummy Blogger With the X-Factor awards. I was pleasantly surprised to be included, albeit a little terrified on finding out that caricatures would be made of us. I’m sure if you’ve read all about See Mum Shine, I won’t need to explain why…

But, you know what? The illustrator did an awesome job! I had a giggle at the cartoons of mine and other great mum bloggers. I was bemused to read that I was described as: ‘the brain behind Hear Mum Roar chooses to remain anonymous’, but hey. We’re not going to have a diva moment when there’s an iPad at stake now, are we? Hehe.

I’m looking at this as not only a pleasant form of recognition and great fun (I mean really, this could be the first and only chance to be immortalized on the back of a dinosaur) but also a fantastic motivator to get in and fix this blog much faster. It’s like being at home, slobbing away in front of the telly. The house stinks of pooey nappies and my shirt stinks of baby spew. Next thing, visitors knock on the door.

So this will be the equivalent of me running around like a mad thing, plumping cushions, hiding the dirty laundry and repeating, ‘it’s not normally like this around here!’ Except I don’t actually plump cushions, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

Anyway, if anyone would like to vote for me, the link is here. You can read the interview, and voting is done by clicking the facebook ‘like’ button under the heading, or the ‘retweet’ button right next to it. The blogger with the most retweets and likes wins the iPad.

I’ve got something fun for you guys tomorrow too, so I hope you’ll be here to check it out.

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What I did on the first day back to school

Written on February 1st, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, February 2011, In the home, Organisation, School aged

There’s something about starting a new school year that makes me want to try to make life easier each year. A few days leading up to the new school term, I began trying a new system to manage my time and get a little more done.

After years of going off and on Flylady with varying levels of success, I’ve started dedicating only two hours per day to cleaning the house. Flylady bangs on about doing fifteen minutes a day for all these different jobs, and I was always frustrated to find that before I knew it, I’d be cleaning all day if I followed her system. Really, that’s not how I want to live my life. Two hours per day is still more time than I usually spend anyway, so it seems to be accomplishing more.

What I do, is I pick out the most disastrous looking areas of the house first, and start with those. As time goes on, the house looks a little bit better everyday, and I’m finding it easier to keep on top of things. Here’s yesterday’s disaster I found after Missy 10 trotted off to school:

Yep, it’s our very own dumping ground, *blush*. That’s where the bills and school notes were getting plonked, then lost. When we needed a bill or note, we had buckley’s of finding it on time. Not to mention how difficult it was to open the microwave, clean it or let the vents on the sides breathe. I thought this was a perfect place to start, as I knew my daughter would be bringing notes home, and I wanted to start out the year having a proper place for them.

Here, I’ve decluttered the area, and created a yellow folder. In the folder, Missy 10 has been instructed that this is where all of her school notes will be placed as soon as she gets home from school. Once they’re out of date, we’ll remove them. We already have an expanding folder for our bills, so it was a matter of just putting them in the right place. All the other clutter simply needed to be put back in its place or thrown out. You can just imagine how much time we wasted with all this junk piling up when we were looking for something, or trying to use the microwave.

Now, obviously, this wasn’t the only job I got done in an hour, but I thought this was a great example of a starting point to better organisation in the new school year.

I’ll be sticking with this system, because I’m amazed at what I can get done in two hours. Once the two hours are finished, I stop for the day. I either let the two younger kids help me as I go, or give them a play activity, or they play together with their own made-up game. The first day I tried doing just two hours a day of cleaning, I got the lounge room floor vacuumed, the kitchen floor swept and mopped, four loads of laundry washed and in varying stages of drying, lots of forgotten laundry put away and a heap of decluttering. By focusing on the jobs in most desperate need of being done, it means that everyone in the house is much calmer. Things are being dealt with that need to be, and our living space is feeling more pleasant again.

And now I want the dirt from you guys: where is YOUR disaster area, that you dump all your crap on? Spill!

Other reading:

Pushing kids to do their best

How to get rid of flies

How to clean carpet naturally

Students’ homework: how much should we help?

Decluttering and recycling at the same time

Home made air freshener

How to unblock your sink without using poisons

Finding the time to do it all – time saving tips

School supplies on a budget

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Inner B Mum Organiser Giveaway

Written on January 31st, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Giveaways, January 2011, Organisation

Are you feeling organised for school, yet? Maybe your kids have gone back already, or if you’re in NSW like me, today’s the big day. I spent all of yesterday, madly running around, making sure everything was ready for my daughter’s first day back at school. Talk about stressful!

To help make life much easier, Inner B is giving one lucky reader the Mum Organiser, in fushia pink.

I’ve actually had a look over this gorgeous diary, and I’m so impressed. It costs $44.95, and can be easily customised according to your family life. You can store your appointments, to do list, birthdays and anniversaries. It has a unique format which allows you to plan all of your family’s activities. It has a section for you to write in all the important things, such as details for your children’s dentist, local pharmacy, GP, local hospital, and whatever else you need regularly.

Inner B always makes sure to remember mum too, though. The Mum Organiser therefore also has a personal well being contacts section for you to keep your physio, hair dresser, massage therapist, and all those other contacts that make our lives more manageable.

Then, it has a household contact information page, for pretty much everything; local council, your accountant, electrician, gas, water, internet providers, and so on. As if that weren’t enough, there’s space for your entertaining contacts, your brilliant ideas (come on, we’re mothers! We have ‘em all the time!), things you want to do and places to visit, your dilemmas, goals, health and fitness ideas, favourite websites and passwords, must read books, must see movies, must listen to music, favourite restaurants, retail stores you like, items borrowed and lent, phew! (This is reminding me of that ‘I’ve been everywhere, man’ song!)

And then, there’s family medical information, current immunisation schedule, dates to remember, (eg, check fire extinguishers, torch batteries, all that practical stuff we all get caught out on), kids’ favourite activities and it even has holiday and party planning sections, with checklists and all. Bloody hell. Pretty much all it doesn’t do is wipe your butt for you!

What I also love about this organiser is that it looks so cool. It comes in four different colours: fushia (shown here), butter, lime green and the most popular colour of them all, turquoise Tiffany Blue. You can also buy refills for it every year too.

So, here’s what you have to do if you want to win this baby:

First entry (both actions mandatory):
- Go to Inner B and tell us which Inner B product would help you to get organised the most, in the comment section.

- Sign up for email updates from Hear Mum Roar. If you already are signed up, that’s fine. And yes, I do check!

Optional entries (one extra entry per action):

- Follow Hear Mum Roar on twitter.

- Subscribe to Hear Mum Roar’s RSS feed.

- Tweet this giveaway.

- Follow Inner B on twitter.

If you have extra entries, please mention in the comments box below what you did, so I can check. Thanks!

The lucky winner will be drawn on Sunday, the 6th of February, 2011 and is open to Australians only.

Good luck, people!

Update:

I ended up deciding to buy some goodies from Inner-B for myself. Since Diminishing Lucy was interested in seeing what the Tiffany blue mum organiser looks like, I thought I’d share the photos of my purchases here, as the Tiffany blue was my favourite colour, too. I also bought the completely AWESOME meal planner. It’s magnetic and fits really well on the fridge. Each meal square is a cute little magnetic tile. The kids have been going stir crazy choosing meals, because they love sticking the pieces on. Valerie was kind enough to send me the planner notepads (meal planner and daily planner) just to be nice. I’ve got to say, I’m very impressed. I’m not the most organised person in the world, and all this stuff has been a godsend.

Other reading:

What I did on the first day back to school

Finding the time to do it all – time saving tips

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Having second thoughts about this caffeine thing

Written on January 24th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, Health and beauty, January 2011, Parenting

Alright, so that looks like a bit of an improvement after yesterday’s, ‘oh my god, do I really look like that all the time??’ photo.

I woke up this morning, clear as a bell. Bluebirds twittered around my shoulders and a butterfly perched itself on my daintily outstretched hand. Well, not really, but that’s how good I felt. No aches, no more stomach cramps, I had a fantastic night’s sleep, and was in a brilliant mood.

I could see this thing working out. I find everyday with this withdrawal process, it gets harder as the day progresses. I try to keep my days slow and quiet (as much as you can imagine given the age of my children!), and that’s helped me get this far. In the afternoon, I started getting irritable, had mild headaches and joint aches. Nothing too major.

So why is it, that last night I began obsessing and fantasizing about binging myself silly on coke zero? Not tea, I wouldn’t bother for tea. This afternoon, I started telling my fiance all the reasons why it’d be ok if I did. We both knew I was trying to justify my addiction! I am considering just allowing myself to have one a day to wean off it slowly. But then, there’s this other, rational side of me that can see the hardest part is almost over. The best is yet to come.

I have to go now, because sitting in front of the computer and the twinkly lights on the screen has triggered a nasty migraine, but I’ll let you know how this god forsaken thing pans out.

Other reading:

Caffeine withdrawal

Still quitting caffeine

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Still Quitting Caffeine

Written on January 23rd, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, Health and beauty, January 2011

So, this is what Day 2 looks like. I know I look like a deer in the headlights, or a train wreck. I think I look quite pale! I still feel quite crappy, but I can feel underneath all the horrible symptoms this ‘sparkle’ trying to creep through. It’s hard to describe, but the easiest way to put it is that I feel I’m much cleaner on the inside.

Last night was a dreadful night. I went to bed, and spent a summer night, under a wool doona, shivering. I felt, and still feel, like a frail old woman. Every joint in my body was throbbing in pain, screaming for caffeine. As my forehead pounded, I kept telling myself that my body was lying to me, and to listen to the truth: the clean feeling underneath it all.

It’s not as tempting to go back to caffeine by now as I thought it’d be. I can see how sick it’s been making me. I can’t allow myself to go back to it. If I do, then all this pain and feeling so sick, will have been a waste.

This morning, I feel as though a migraine is trying to take over, so I won’t be on the computer for very long. I was so stiff in all my joints, that I had to spend a lot of time stretching after getting out of bed. But surely that’s better for me than reaching for a coke or a tea? I feel weak, and I can’t stop sniffling and sneezing.

Thanks for all the encouragement so far. Whenever I’ve thought about doing this in the past, I’ve always dismissed the idea, because there’s this vibe I get from society that it’s too hard, can’t be done, etc. I’ve never really seen a good example of anyone doing it. This is why I thought I’d document this in action, so if anyone is curious about what happens, they can decide for themselves.

As revolting as I feel and look, I know this is going to make me a healthier, better functioning person.

Caffeine Withdrawal

Written on January 22nd, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Challenges, Health and beauty, January 2011

I’ve got this long-standing coke zero addiction. Before zero was invented, it was diet coke. If I can’t get that, I’ll drink black tea. I used to drink it without sugar, but in the past few years, I’ve had to have sugar. I can’t drink coffee, as I’m allergic. Anyway. This addiction is messing up my life. I’m usually dehydrated, because if there is coke in the house I will choose it over water every single time. And I love water.

I have chronic sleep problems, aching joints, headaches and irritability, usually. I’ve been off caffeine for a day now. I’ve been taking it easy as much as I can. I had a mild headache up until the afternoon, then things got a little hard to bear. I’ve been guzzling water all day long, and as much as I feel rotten, I can feel that my body is also thanking me for the hydration.

It’s night time now, I’ve had a big nap, and I still have a cracking headache. My joints hurt more, I have heartburn, nausea, I feel exhausted. I’m starting to feel a little bit of crankiness creeping in. I’m so blessed that my partner is functioning quite well at the moment, as we think we’ve finally found the perfect medication for him. Of course, he’s not cured, but thank god he’s been able to take up the slack as I do this. I figure this is a time to grab this opportunity with both hands.

My partner, worried as partners do, suggested he go get me some caffeine. I was heartily tempted. But despite how lousy I feel, I think I’m get addicted back to hydration. I’m realising if this is how bad I feel coming off, then it’s a problem I want to deal with. Like a good book, I want to see how this ends.

I’ve been googling about the withdrawal stage, and was alarmed to discover that it gets worse; vomitting, flu like symptoms, etc. Oh well. Bring it on…

I decided to document my progress with photos, plus I’m behind on my See Mum Shine Challenge anyway. Here’s how I looked when I was finally able to smile:

I think I look a little better in the skin, thanks to the hydration.

But for the real story, here’s the first photo my partner took:

Frustrated, he said, ‘let’s try to get one of you with your eyes open’. I was gobsmacked! I honestly thought I was smiling.

Please wish me luck, and feel free to share any stories of your attempts to quit this drug.

Other reading:

Still quitting caffeine

Having second thoughts about this caffeine thing

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Smart Trike – the Bike Stroller

Written on December 13th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in Baby, December 2010, Gross motor, Preschool aged, Reviews, Toddler

Sponsored by The Mother Media

I was fortunate enough to receive the Rolls Royce of bikes. And prams. All in one. I’ve seen these tricycles before with the pram handle at the back, and always coveted them.

The model I’m reviewing is the Smart-Trike 3 in 1. There’s already been fights over it between Missy 2 and Mr 4. Luckily, it can be adapted to suit them both!

Some of you would already be familiar with the original Smart-Trike Deluxe. The Zoo 3 in 1 offers all those award winning features, with a unique design that kids love. (Of course, I love the design because it’s in the Hear Mum Roar colour scheme!)

You can use the Zoo 3 in 1 with babies from the age of 10 months, as a baby stroller. Missy 2 below is sitting in the bike, set up the way it would be used for a baby. It’s still very comfortable even for a two year old with this set-up. Set up for babies, you get a quality, padded, washable seat and padded seat belt. It also has padded arm rests. I’m a bit jealous, because it looks more comfy than our lounge…

The seat has long back support, and there are these little side foot rests for when your child might not feel like pedaling. These fold up and out of the way for older children. I love all the special little extras, too. It has a cup holder on the front of the handle bars. I couldn’t believe Smart-Trike even went to the effort of providing a toy mobile phone and a cute little place to clip it onto the back of the handle bars! And the toy phone actually lights up and makes sounds. I’ve made a short video showing the phone in action:

Too damned cute…

When your child is 15 months and older, you can easily remove the padded seat, seat belt and arm rests if you like. Once your child is 24 months and up, you can take the pram handle off, letting your child ride it around like a regular tricycle:

…But it’s much trendier than your average tricycle!

For mums and dads, the steering handle can be adjusted to suit your height (being a short-arse mum, I can’t tell you how grateful I am). It has telescopic, five-point steering and a built-in clutch.I love how when I’m steering the pram, I’m actually moving the handles on the child’s part of the bike, too. This gives your child an excellent sense of steering early on. I find the zip-up pouch on the handle useful for my spare change and keys.

This bike is extremely sturdy, exceeding all European Safety Standards. It has a sun shade which can be adjusted up and down at varying angles, and makes such a cute clicking noise. I took the Smart Trike for spin, walking to the shops and around the block.

Because it has anti-slip resistance and great road performance, I was able to push my daughter along grass, bumpy rocks and tree roots. I also could easily push the bike up our local shop’s steps with no hassles. There is a little brake at the back of the trike, similar to that of a pram.

What I love about the Smart-Trike is the fact that if I’m out shopping with my daughter, she can still have some gross motor exercise as we go. It keeps her busy, what with riding and talking on her little mobile phone. I love knowing that once she grows out of the stage where I push her in the bike, she can take her gross-motor skills and co-ordination to the next level. Also, Mr 4 can ride it as a bike, too.

Now, as some of you may know, we don’t celebrate Christmas. However, if you do, this is a present that would definitely last a child through to the next Christmas, possibly even the one after that, so you’re getting value for money.

Take a look at the Smart-Trike range in this online catalogue. You’ll be able to see that this bike comes in a range of colours.

So, where can you buy the Smart-Trike? You can find it at Toys ‘R’ Us, Target and Big W. The price ranges from $179-$189.

I have received the above product for free courtesy of Smart-Trike

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Me time – what’s yours?

Written on November 7th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in Care, Challenges, Good times, Health and beauty, November 2010, Parenting

Hi! I’d just like to say a big thank you for the support from everyone after my post about OCD the other day. Whether it was via comments, tweets, emails, facebook, it was all appreciated very much by both my partner and I.

Now, that day, I touched on how my counsellor stressed the importance of finding ‘me time’, for the benefit of our family as a whole. I know I’m not the only one who needs this, so I felt it’d be timely to post about the importance of all of us mums getting some down time.

I’ve worked out a couple of things I enjoy doing when I need some down time, but I could really use more suggestions, and you never know, if we can get a little list going, it might help others. So, here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

1) Going for a walk. Sometimes I find this one difficult lately, as my partner can get anxious if I’m not there, but occasionally I get out there, and it’s my favourite thing to do, now I’ve found a walking route I like. Plus, since we bought a car, I’ve gotten fat! So it’s something I want to do for my health and my figure as well.

2) Reading. This is one I really struggle to find the time to do! But I love to read, so much.

3) Having a laugh. There’s so much to laugh at around here. Sometimes it’s the cat teasing the dogs, or running up the chimney. Or it’s the puppies being all cute, silly and lovable. Then, there’s the kids. Hilarious people. Not to be outdone is my fiance, who likes carry on like a silly bugger to get the whole family laughing. Failing that, there’s always funny movies or TV shows. I especially love British comedy.

4) A nice, hot bubble bath. Ok, I know it’s a really cliched, ‘mummyblogger’ thing to say, but I don’t care. I’m comfortable with being labelled that way, I’ll own it and rock it. The last place we lived at in Sydney had no bath. We lived there for five years, and the only bath I had was my water birth . Now, whilst that made the birth awesome, it couldn’t be called a relaxing bath by any stretch of the imagination. So, now we have a bathtub here, I have a hot bath everyday, and honestly, the novelty still hasn’t worn off. And it helps my muscles so much.

5) Blogging or other writing. I love to be writing something, always. Even a list will do, if that’s all I have time for. But the feeling of putting pen to paper, or hands to keyboard is essential to me. I’d be lost without that form of self expression.

6) Crafting. I love to create beautiful things. I love sewing, crochet, patchwork, embroidery, knitting, even dabbling in things I haven’t tried before. You know? This is making me realise that I haven’t made any time for this lately, and I truly miss it! So there’s something else I should do. See? Writing/blogging = therapy.

7) Spending time with friends. Be it on the phone, one-on-one or in a group, I enjoy that time talking to other adults. I don’t always have time to do it in person, but I do try to ensure I can at least do it by phone, email or facebook.

So there’s mine, but I really am open to hearing what other people do when they need some time to themselves. What are your best ‘me time’ tips?

Other reading:

10 stress relief tips for mums

Coping with kids when you’re sick too

Motherhood: cinch or sentence?