Little E helping me prepare the Sunday roast for the first time. I'm loving having a little helper and can't wait to pass on all my kitchen knowledge to her and her Little Sister!

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The Chicco range is extensive and focuses on it's products growing with your baby from birth to 3yrs. New products in the range include new colours for the ingenious and incredibly good value Next 2 Me cot and a new portable crib the LullaGo which can be easily folded down so you can take your baby's nest anywhere. I love these two products and wish we had known about the Next 2 Me crib before Little I was born as we would have purchased it instead of our wooden bedside crib. It is even adjustable so baby can lie on an incline - perfect for refluxy babies like Little I.

The new colour Summer and Winter edition packs for the Urban did not disappoint. The Summer edition has a part removable leg cover revealing a mesh to facilitate ventilation and a revealable mesh window in the hood. Perfect when you want to keep the sun off baby but allow airflow through the pram. The Winter edition has extra padding in the seat reducer and leg cover plus an AMAZING feature - hand warming pads for either mum or baby! This is beyond exciting, possibly the best thing I have ever seen on a pram.

While I was salivating over hand warmers, Little E was decimating the buffet. It continued the Summer and Winter theme with delicious canapés and cocktails. She preferred the summer side, in particular the quails eggs. Everything was presented beautifully and tasted fab. I may have tried a few too purely for research purposes..

Now for the toys! Chicco toys really are amazing. The Baby Senses line for the little ones focuses on their development with different toys to stimulate different senses. For bigger kids the Fit & Fun range helps their motor development and social play. The Fishing Island and Goal League in particular are great fun and got the thumbs up from Little E.

Both of the girls were particularly drawn to the Musical Tales Singing Bear; a big soft teddy bear who talks with a moving mouth. He tells stories of his adventures through songs, phrases and sounds and children can interact with him by pressing his hands and feet. Little E loved the stories and Little I liked playing with (eating) the story cards! The girls had so much fun and Little E didn't want to leave. Her quote of the day: 'I want to stay here forever!'

Other highlights included the new 123 Activity Centre which grows with your baby from a baby walker, to first steps to a little bike. Great value as you get such longevity from the product. The Twist armchair which can be an armchair, chaise longue or a little day bed. I so wish we had bought one of these when Litte E was small instead of the useless beanbag chair we have. And the new Close to You baby carrier which allows you to carry baby on your back like a backpack up to 15kgs! That is roughly a 3yr old! The back support looked fantastic. Oh and the range of Boppy feeding pillows and the Hoopla baby chair... Honestly I could go on and on!

We had a great afternoon and it was fantastic to meet the people at Chicco and HROC. Little E has not stopped talking about the bear so I think it'll be in her Christmas stocking this year! Coming up between now and Christmas I will be featuring reviews of the Pocket Lunch highchair, Echo stroller and Oasys 2.3 car seat all from Chicco so keep your eyes peeled!

I am part of the Chicco Tested for Happiness blogger programme but all opinions are my own.

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Super happy baby! Little I has been lovely and smiley now her tooth is fully through.

She made the cutest Halloween monkey but was somewhat bemused during the trick or treating. Little E insisted we collect sweeties for her then ate them all herself!

She still isn't crawling properly but she is desperate! Maybe next week...

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Night feeds are well and truly over so my reading has lapsed back to half an hour when I get into bed. But despite this I managed to finish a few books I have had on the go for a while during September and October

The Alchemist's Secret by Scott Mariani

Former SAS agent turned kidnap rescue specialist Ben Hope is a tortured soul devoting his life to saving children all over the world. But when he accepts a mission to find a lost manuscript, which could help save the life of a child, Ben finds himself tangled in the deadliest quest of his life. 

This book is a really fast paced thriller, reminiscent of The Da Vinci Code but better written with deeper, fuller characters. I really enjoyed the story. Yes, it is completely far fetched but it has just enough historical references and plot points to make it believable in the world of fiction. I liked the characters and the romantic overtones didn't annoy me as they usually do in thrillers. Certainly a recommended read

Overall 4/5

The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

'The statistical probability that an illiterate in 1970s Soweto will grow up and one day find herself confined in a potato truck with the Swedish King and prime minister is 1 in 45,766,212,810. According to the calculations of the aforementioned illiterate herself.'

This book was my choice for our mummy book club. I enjoyed The 100 year old man who Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared so much it was an easy choice to pick Jonasson's next novel. Whilst it did not quite live up to The 100 year old Man, it did not disappoint. An illiterate sewage worker, chinese sisters, twins which don't exist, a potato farmer and the King of Sweden (plus the Prime Minister) are all thrown together in the oddest of tales. The farcical, deadpan style is perfectly executed as expected but the story isn't quite as gripping. Possibly because The 100 year old Man is set over a few days, this book covered a whole lifetime making it a much slower, somewhat clunkier read. The real jewel in this book is the main character Nombeko. It is impossible not to like and respect her. The storyline had a nuclear weapons theme again which surprised me as I did now expect Jonasson to return to the same subject so soon but it created the pivotal storyline and showcased Nombeko's talents.

Book club was divided over this book. Half really enjoyed it and half despised it, mainly due to the writing style. I think this is personal preference. If you don't like farce you are never going to like a Jonasson book.

Overall 3.5/4

Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

Author Cassandra Fallows has found success through publishing memoirs of her life with an eccentric father and ex husbands. But when her latest book, a stab at writing fiction, flops Cassandra turns back to her past to find her next bestseller. The tragic, intriguing story of an old school friend seems the perfect hook but she soon finds obstacles thrown in her path and questions surrounding the validity of her memoirs raised.

Whilst this book is very well written, the subject matter is a bit mundane making it a little flat. Despite this I liked the writing style and felt pulled through the book at a good pace so it has intrigued me to read more of her novels. In fact they are all already downloaded on my Kindle!

Overall 3/5

On the Kindle app I am reading A Reason to Kill by Michael Kerr (I'm considering giving up on this one)

In paperback I am reading I'll Be Watching You by Beverley Barton

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Husband and I had another child free day yesterday (that's 2 weekends in a row) at a gorgeous family wedding. It was a humanist wedding, the first I've been to and the ceremony was focused around the story of how the couple met. So personal and incredibly funny. It was much longer than the usual standard civil ceremony. One element that I loved was the readings. The Bride and Groom had no idea what readings had been chosen. It was a testament to how well their friends know them as they fitted the ceremony perfectly.

Now, I'm a stickler for attention to detail and this wedding did not let me down. It themed around music as the couple are huge musos. The tables were album covers presented in CD cases, our name places were printed on cassettes (I'm desperately hoping a mix tape of the wedding music is on there rather than it being blank but have no way of checking...) all the stationery had song lyrics printed on and even the quiz was about their favourite artists and albums. Needless to say my table (The Toni Braxton table) won. The £50 tab went down well. So it was a lot of fun mixed with beautiful pink delicate flowers and a gorgeous stately home setting. Pretty near perfect wedding I must admit.

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