Review: Vtech's 5-in-1 Stroll & Grow and the Tour de Trike

Summer 2012 was one of the best of my life - my journalism job led to track-side seats for some of the London Olympics' most-memorable moments, and then in August, as the athletes left town, Mr ROOW and I got married on a sunny bank holiday weekend. 

So the Olympic park hosts lots of happy memories - but, living in deepest north London, I've rarely ventured back, and never with tiny man. All of which meant, when Vtech got in touch to ask if he (and I) wanted to check out their newest vehicle at the Olympic Velodrome, we were there faster than Usain Bolt (OK the trip involved the north circular, so this is definitely not true..)

The 11 Definitive Steps to a Perfect Sleeping Baby

After canvassing much advice and as mama of two, this is the carefully-honed, definitive guide to how to get a baby to sleep, eat and thrive. Follow these 11 steps, and you will be the perfect parent*.

1. To a newborn, the world is a big, scary place, so it's best to rock them gently to sleep in your arms in the early days. If, however, your baby was born on a day with 'y' in, you'll need to worry about over-attachment and your kid not sleeping solo until they're at uni, so never rock a baby to sleep.

Family travel review: Abama, Tenerife

In holiday-planning, picking Tenerife was the easy part: if you want some winter sun, a not-too-long flight (it's around four hours), budget airlines, all-year sunshine and no risk of Zika virus, then the Canary Islands are the best (only?) option - and Tenerife is one of the most family-friendly around. 

But which hotel/resort/villa to pick? We spent so long trawling websites and Tripadvisor that I thought a full review of the Moorish-style Ritz Carlton Abama, from where we've just returned from a week's break, and its family-friendly credentials would be useful for those looking too. So, here goes:

The Location

The Abama is about a 30-minute drive from South Tenerife airport, and we then prebooked a transfer with Kiwi taxi. The company was cheaper than a hailed one or a hotel transfer, at €47 for a mini van; you can also pre-order a free car seat which normal taxis don't offer. (Although it wasn't the newest/cleanest car seat around, it worked!)

The Abama is quite isolated - there are no villages or shops that you can walk to - but there's a shuttle to a big international mall, and a local village about a five-minute drive away. We, however, (and I'm a bit embarrassed about this) didn't end up leaving the resort - for the first time ever..!

Two under two? This is the hideous advice from strangers that you won't be able to avoid...

 

Something I learnt on the first day I stepped onto the Tube wearing a 'Baby on Board' sign: if you're pregnant, you're the *top* story on the rolling news channel of Joe Public. 

You'll be judged, discussed, interrogated, poked and reprimanded. Previously you could walk down a street and exchange nothing more than a nod with a passer-by or two; as a parent-to-be, you suddenly become public property.  

And never is that more true than when you become pregnant to a second babe, after just a small gap. 

Not just those parenting Irish twins - a pair of siblings born less than 12 months apart, but "anyone with kids who doesn't look like they waited a decade or so before having sex for a second time," according to one mum of two-under-two.

I just escaped that bracket - my toddler was two years and one month when he walked into the hospital to see my newborn - but still, if I had a nappy for everytime Mr. R. Random had quizzed me, "so, it can't have been planned?" then I'd never need buy any Pampers for no. 2. 

Here, some epic mamas of two under two reveal the batshit crazy/downright rude/plain unhelpful things total strangers have said to them...

WIN! Hotel Chocolat goodies worth almost £350.. and the chance to be in a book

'Scuse the small interruption to normal Run Out of Womb services, but who DOESN'T want to finish off a hard day's parenting with an amazing box of Hotel Chocolat Summer Sleekster desserts (36 chocolate petits fours, from patisserie to sorbet via cheesecakes and more...)? 

The 10 Signs You're Turning Into Your Parents

For me, it was when I looked at my car radio and realised the 'Classic FM' preset was getting more use than my old faves Radio X, Absolute, etc. Sure, it's because I hope those instrumental dulcet tones will soothe tiny man and tiniest man to sleep... but it still reminds me of long car journeys as a kid, begging my parents to switch to Capital but being stuck with Beethoven... Yup, I realised, two years a mama and I'm turning into my parents.

Here are some other classic signs that you're mama or papa-ing just like the ones who made you...