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Today's guest post is from one of my closest friends. She was sitting at home with a poorly son a week or so ago and she asked if she could write a post, so here it is .....

What is love ?

Is it that my husband never asks how I get on at my weekly weigh in on a Monday night....as he doesn't believe I need to lose weight.(even though the scales say I do)

Is it my 11 year old face timing his girlfriend every night and insisting i take him out at the weekend to buy her a valentines gift. (They have been together for several months now).

Is it my 14 year old tiding her room even though for once I haven't asked her. (And believe me I ask her at least 4 times a day!!!).

Love means many different things for everyone...

I know that I love my husband, children and family more each day.

I am thankful for the love I share with some great friends, new and old.

I saw a quote on a picture the other day that just said


"When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew. ~ William Shakespeare.


Love just is......

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Today's guest post is from Victoria Knowles who blogs at http://www.workitmamma.com and she is asking, what does love mean to me?

Love is more than words.

When I was a child my dad never said: ‘ I love you’ - something we’re told we should be doing all the time but because of him I know love isn’t about those three words. I never doubted he loved me more than anything and I never felt anything other than love from him and here’s why:

When I was a little girl he patiently taught me to ride a bike. As a teenager he took me on my first driving lessons. He built us a treehouse and a swing and completely rebuilt our little bungalow until we lived in the best place he could make.

He did this because he loved us and no one in our home ever doubted it for a second – despite never saying it.

When I left for University and he dropped me off in the roughest part of Nottingham. He turned the car round and came to stay with me until my housemates turned up a couple of days later. He cooked me eggs and bacon and loved me. When I made a silly mistake at 21 he just cuddled me and stood by me.

When he’s with Arthur I see him ploughing the same values, the same rules and the same sense of patience and love into it all. Hammering a piece of wood on Papap’s workbench is about love – more so than vacant ‘I love yous’.

Still to this day he’s the person I call when something needs ‘doing’. Because doing is what he does; without question and without a second thought.

It’s absolutely textbook but absolutely true. My dad is the first man who made me feel safe and loved without a single word. The first man who showed me how women should be treated.

The first man to whom all others need to measure.

So breaking with tradition – I love you dad, but just so you know, you never have to tell me. I already know. x

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Today's Love Is .... guest post is from Helen who blogs at  http://www.allthebeautifulthings.co.uk/

When I volunteered to write a post with the theme 'love is' for the Little Lily Pad I couldn't wait to get started. It then dawned on me that actually I didn't know where to start! 

Can you really describe what love is?  

Is to love the same as to be in love? What is love?? I was surprised that when I thought about this how much the cogs turned, if you could have seen inside my mind at this point I expect it would have looked like the London Underground!!  

Of course thinking about love and what it means is going to be different for everyone and there are so many ways that you can love. I 'love' my best friend but this love is different to that of my parents or husband say. Then there is the unconditional, deepest love for your children that nothing else comes close to. Love is so many things, it can be walking in the countryside on a warm spring day, holding hands with your husband, going on holiday and relaxing, feeding the ducks, waking up on a sunny morning or spending time with friends when they need you.

I think there a few defining 'love is' moments for me. Here are some of them:  

Love is my Dad falling seriously ill a few years ago. He wasn't supposed to make it. My love for him as a daughter was redefined at that moment. That father/daughter bond is stronger now than it was before. 

Love is my husband seeing me through 32+ hours of labour and him supporting me (mentally and physically!!) through one of the toughest times of my life.

Love is seeing my best friends marrying the ones they love and being part of their special day. 

Love is all the precious moments I spend with Alfie. I didn't have that initial rush of love that people talk about, that moment for me came when he gripped my finger for the first time and I realised that this incredible little life that we had made is solely dependent on me. 

Love is hearing bad news and then re-evaluating your life, realising that you should cherish every single second, time spent with parents is precious, time spent with friends you've known for years is precious and life itself it is precious.  

I have of course had the obvious 'love is' moments which I am sure you can all guess what they are but I think that for me love is defined by those unexpected moments that creep up on you when you're least expecting them. 

Forgive me if this post seems all over the place. I think it gives a reflection of my mind, in my line of work we reflect everyday, it's a necessity as a Nurse, I think that's why my mind is so scrambled at times! Hopefully you'll see what I'm trying to get at, that love is something that manifests itself in so many different ways that it is truly difficult to sum it up.

 I leave you with this quote:

“They say a good love is one that sits you down, gives you a drink of water, and pats you on top of the head. But I say a good love is one that casts you into the wind, sets you ablaze, makes you burn through the skies and ignite the night like a phoenix; the kind that cuts you loose like a wildfire and you can't stop running simply because you keep on burning everything that you touch! I say that's a good love; one that burns and flies, and you run with it!”  - C. Joybell

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Love Is ..... learning a life skill.

I talk alot about baby swimming. We are huge advocates of Water Babies and both my girls love being in the water so when I was asked by Konfidence to review one of their Warma Wetsuits, I jumped (or is it dived) at the chance.

I say it regularly but learning to swim is a life skill.

It makes holiday's more enjoyable.

It makes my girls more confident.

It stops me worrying about them (less) when we are around water.

But wearing the right thing in the water isn't always easy with two particularly fussy young ladies. My eldest has had about 4 swimming costumes in the last 6 months, they have been too tight, too baggy, too itchy, too strappy (I kid you not). The little one is much easier to keep happy, although one thing we have found is that she is happiest when she is warm, so a wet suit is perfect for her.

I love that Konfidence are a family business who started trading in the UK in back in 1998 with the plan to design, manufacture and distribute the Konfidence Jacket buoyant swimming aid for children. Since then, they have grown their range of products with children in mind and I can honestly say, their vision totally translates into great design.

I am sure that there are the cynics that will say a wet suit is just a wet suit surely? Trust me, this is not always true when there is a toddler and swim nappies involved! We have tried a few different styles, from the velcro wraps that make nappy changing easier to the high street versions but when you have a potty trained toddler, you don't need that option any more.

The Warma Wetsuit is perfect for us, the 2.5mm flexible neoprene was specifically chosen to provide necessary warmth in and out of the water whilst still allowing great freedom of movement for swimming. The little one needs to fill out a bit as the legs are a little bit baggy at the moment, which causes hilarious waterfalls out of her wetsuit as she gets out of the pool, but it is so easy to get on and off (which is super helpful when trying to undress a 2 year old).

We are thrilled with the wetsuit and at £19.99 (although it is currently on offer) it is affordable too. However, we are delighted to be able to offer one of our readers the chance to win one of these fabulous Konfidence Warma Wetsuits.

All you need to do, is enter below .....

 a Rafflecopter giveaway