If you hadn't noticed, it has gone a little chilly outside recently. More than a little chilly and for some reason, 9 year old girls insist that they don't feel the cold. If you are the proud owner of one of those 9 year old girls, you will surely know what I am talking about.

They know best.

They don't "need" to wear a coat.

They certainly don't need a new one with a hood!

We have spent the whole of January trying on new coats, they have been too big, too fluffy, too long, too green (!!) and I had a reality check about who was actually the decision maker in our parent / child relationship, so when Vertbaudet asked us to review one of this seasons Parka's from their children's range, I said yes.

You can see her reaction to this removal of her choice....

The coat is well made, it is shower proof and despite it's rain proofing qualities, it is warm and cozy with its fur lining. We love the selection of winter warmers that Vertbaudet has and we *may* have lost an hour of life browsing round the site. 

There is a great selection online and colours for every picky 9 year old to choose from.

My word of advice when buying, is to pick a colour you know they like (or get ready for a battle every single morning) and in the case of this particular design, buy a bigger size. It does come up a little snug, so when the cold chill really does hit, it may be more than a little cozy if she is wearing a jumper underneath.

So if you are the proud owner of one of those choosy, particular and down right adorable 9 year olds, have a little look at Vertbaudet, it might just make one of those parenting battles a little easier today!

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This may sound a strange blog post for our usually fluffly and "nice" blog, especially when the thought of nits, or head lice as they prefer to be known, sends most people into an itchy and scratching frenzy.

I remember the nit nurse at school.

I remember the stigma of those who were found with lice in their hair.

I remember all the parents saying "don't be upset, they only like clean hair".

All of this came flooding back to me last week when my daughter started scratching her head after her shower and  I started combing it through to find this ......

I was mortified, we always tied her hair back for school, we regularly used tea tree oil repellent but still they found her!

She was upset.

I was upset. But I was also a little bit miffed that no one had said anything at school. I immediately got in touch with all her little friends parents to get them to check their children's hair.

Needless to say, I spent an hour and a half combing through her hair but it was late at night and we had nothing to treat her hair with so we googled natural home remedies for the removal of lice. Here are the top three ;

• Coat the hair with Olive Oil to suffocate the little mites. Some people suggested Vaseline but lets be honest, that is going to be unnecessarily messy, and is going to be difficult to wash out. It was recommended that you could try coating the comb instead of the hair and re-applying the oil as needed. You may have to try both methods to see which works best for you. Work under a good light so you can see what you’re doing. Rinse out the comb often under running hot water as you go. 

• Tea tree essential oil is a natural insecticide, making it an effective treatment for head lice - they REALLY don't like it. So all you need to do is mix together one teaspoon of tea tree oil, one ounce of natural shampoo and three tablespoons of coconut or olive oil. Apply the solution to the whole head of hair and then cover your head with a shower cap or towel. Leave the hair covered for a half an hour and then rinse thoroughly with hot water.  It is important to remember NOT to apply tea tree oil directly to the scalp.

• Garlic - lice apparently detest it and abandon ship. I have read that one mom gives her children a garlic tablet on a regular basis just to keep them at bay!

We chose the "suffocate them with oil" option and the poor little thing had a shower cap on her head for about 18 hours! It definitely helped with the lice but we chose an over the counter treatment to ensure that the eggs were eradicated too!

I am pleased to report that they have gone but it doesn't stop me from itching when I think about it.

So are you sitting there scratching your head yet?

Do you think that schools should bring back the nit nurse? Would this have helped?

I just wonder if our weekend drama could have been avoided before an outbreak began. The social stigma of "nits" is what makes people avoid talking about it but we need to share the problems, the ideas for remedies and above all, make sure that the children know that it is something that can be dealt with and not scorned.

Am I asking too much?

Rant over!

I had a blog post scheduled up for today, something about a minor family crisis that happened over the weekend on the Lilypad that I was going to share on the blog, but then an email dropped into my inbox from Team Honk. An email that talks about their visit to the Mothers 2 Mothers project in Kisumu, Kenya. An email that makes you want to do something.

Kenya has the fourth-largest HIV epidemic in the world. An estimated 1.6 million people are living with HIV and 1.1 million children have been orphaned after losing one or both parents to the disease.

Thanks to Comic Relief funding, Mothers2Mothers is helping pregnant women living with HIV to access the life-saving health services they need to prevent mother-to-child transmission. The project is targeting Nyanza province where prevalence of the disease is almost three times higher than the national average.

Women often discover they are HIV positive during ante-natal care and mentoring helps them to come to terms with this, to deal with the side effects on antiretroviral drugs, to eat well and to deliver babies with the best chance of being HIV negative. Women also learn to breastfeed safely, and to avoid stigma.

Team Honk are finding out more about these projects and through blogging, are sharing them with a wider audience. They met with Elizabeth who says: “HIV is just a condition, you can go further, you can make wonders, you can help others” #lastingchange . The project exudes positivity but continues to need help with funding.

Breastfeeding is something close to my heart and the World Health Organisation recommends exclusive breastfeeding while taking HIV antiretroviral drugs. Mentoring enables women to breastfeed safely #lastingchange

So you can see that I changed my blog post for today, it was a small change in my world but the work being done by Comic Relief is making big changes across the world, let's see what else we can change?

#lastingchange

@RedNoseDay launches today for 2015. Let’s celebrate the difference donations to @ComicRelief make to lives across the world.

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We have been talking a lot lately about the new year and how that brings a fresh approach to things whether that is your lifestyle choices, your eating habits or just the push to have a spring clean but what about when you know something needs changing but you don't really want to change it?

My husband has been talking about getting a new sofa and I even went as far as making a mood board on the styles I like ...

Now I appreciate that this may be of no consequence whatsoever to the readers of our blog, but the reasoning behind this may make you smile. I talked about my birth story some little time ago and it remains without doubt one of the most empowering things I have ever experienced. The short version is that I sat on my birthing ball and breathed through the surprisingly strong initial surges while my husband was busy downstairs (we had opted for a home hypnobirth) preparing the mood with candles and inflating the birthing pool and had tried to call my mom and the midwife but no one answered! Unfortunately for me when baby decided she was going to make an early appearance, the rather large pool was no where near filled and I was forced to make my self comfortable on the sofa (you can now see where I am going with this post can't you?) and continue to practice my hypnobirthing techniques despite the deviation to the ‘plan’!   

The little one arrived safely, in the comfort of our own home ..... on our own sofa (thank goodness it is leather) but there are still friends of ours that look a little uncomfortable sitting there when they visit. In fact we have one male friend who pointedly refuses to sit on it. (It is clean I promise .... the photo below confirms it).

So you can see my dilemma, the truth is we probably do need a new sofa and let's be honest, I don't usually need much persuasion to go shopping but this sofa is where our daughter was born. How many people can tell their children that they were born right there <points to sofa>.

So what would you do? Select a gorgeous new hardwearing sofa (although it is highly unlikely I shall be giving birth on this one) and throw away the old one (and the memories) or do we keep the birthing sofa forever?

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