I consider myself a lucky person, I am surrounded by a great family, good friends, a wonderful man and two beautiful daughters but lucky enough to win an award for Inspiring Women, who knows?

As regular blog readers will know, our website has been recognised by Theo Paphitis, we work with Sainsburys, received a MumpreneurUK website award, we were a Gurgle Blog finalist last year, have been nominated for a MAD Blog award but that winning ticket for the blog has always remained elusive. I have never tried to be controversial, more conversational and there are many fantastic bloggers that open their hearts day after day about emotive subjects but the Lilypad blog has always been for parents by parents. Somewhere to hop onto, in this little corner of the internet, its a safe haven for parents to find information, anecdotes, recommendations and sometimes just plain rambling!

Awards are viewed differently by lots of people, some love them, whilst others detest them. I sit somewhere in the middle, being recognised for the work you do is without doubt gratifying but not at the risk of your dignity. This blog post isnt about touting for votes because then becomes a popularity contest which makes me then like the "competitive mum" in the playground, I am not the "slummy mummy" or indeed the "yummy mummy" and I am quite sure that I am not considered a "mummy blogger" but whether I am inspirational or not, I am just an ordinary mum finding my path and sharing it along the way.

So if this blog inspires one person to do something, anything, from engaging with their children, listening to their anecdotes, to trying something I have reviewed and recommended, then that is a accolade I can be proud of.

Thats it, no final link for voting, what will be will be! Fingers crossed.

Fear not, this post isnt about a frenzied crazy duck but there is some definate decapitation, so you have been warned.

Its well documented that my youngest baby daughter is a strong minded little miss but her strength was demonstrated two fold when during an enjoyable splashabout in the bath, the duck sponge quite simply lost its head! She pulled its body one way and its head the other and ultimately, its spongey neck just couldnt cope! I obviously dont condone my children destroying their things but all I could do was laugh at her looking from hand to hand with surprise (and a little delight I think).

This is the before picture .... the after picture is too disturbing :-)

We dont have much luck with ducks in our family. We were in a restaurant one day and my eldest daughter decides that she would quite like to try the duck and as we always encourage her to eat different things, I was delighted that she seemed to be enjoying it. The restaurant wasnt particularly busy and out of nowhere she stopped eating and looked at me and said "mommy, where does this duck come from" I asked her what she meant and she replied "its not from the duck pond is it?" The concern in her eyes left me with a dilemma, do I tell the truth or do I sugar coat it a little, and I could see some of our fellow diners were waiting on my answer too. So I went with "these ducks are born because they want to give you a yummy dinner" She eyed me up suspiciously but I think I got away with it.

In the same restaurant a little later, we were doing some word puzzles whilst we waited for desserts and were finding words that rhymed. We did all the simple ones like cat, bat, hat, rat and for some reason I suggested sock. So we had sock, rock, dock and c*** ....... trust me, I felt like that spongy duck and thought it was going to be me losing my head! My fabulous other half took it all in his stride and said "well done sweetheart, cockrel is another word". Phew!

I think we should maybe stay away from birds in our house!

I was very lucky to be offered a variety of maternity pillows whilst I was pregnant, some recommending benefits for the dreaded SPD, others talking about ease of breastfeeding, so we (and I mean the whole family) have put them to the test. So let the pillow fight commence ...

Theraline Maternity Pillow

The key points noted from Theraline is that this maternity and nursing pillow gives you stable support during your pregnancy, relief for legs, belly and a stressed back, easy to change sleeping positions, safely molds to baby’s body and it gives you amazing back support. I was genuinely surprised at how big this pillow is, it is definately the "daddy" of the nursing pillows and I really wanted to use it in bed at night whilst I was pregnant but dissapointingly my SPD meant that I couldnt get comfortable with anything, including this pillow, it was simply too big. This is not to say that the pillow hasnt been used, my eldest daughter has adopted it in her bedroom and it is great to sit her baby sister in, when we are all reading in the bedroom. It wraps around her easily, leaving her safe and comfortable. Verdict: Big Sisters favourite!For more details go to http://www.theraline.co.uk/ 

Floppeze Support Pillow

The Floppeze is a uniquely designed pillow that has multiple uses throughout the developing years from pregnancy support, feeding, sitting, travel and more.  I was extremely excited that the Floppeze claims to be an especially good support for women who suffer with SPD, so I was ready and raring to try this out! My pelvis however had other ideas and decided that it was going to be a complete pain (!!) and not be eased by anything. I have concluded that this is more a reflection on my body rather than the design or abilities of any of the pillows tested. We all absolutely LOVE the design of this pillow, it appeals to children (young and old) with its "cow" design and has been a godsend as the little one has got bigger as it has been used to support her development through tummy time and learning to sit unaided. I think out of all of the pillows, this is the one that will last after the baby stage, it will be a neck support on long journeys and with its cheeky face, its like having a new pet! Verdict : Daddy's favourite.

For more details go to http://www.bibsandstuff.co.uk/

Boppy Pillow

The use of a maternity or nursing pillow isnt all about asthetics and whether it looks nice in your lounge or your nursery, there is medial research that we have been supplied, courtesy of Boppy Pillow, which explains how the pillow helps with correct positioning for feeding.

Professor Guido Moro, Director at the Neonatology Operating unit and Neonatal Intensive Care unit at the Macedonio Melloni Hospital in Milan, explains: “At the beginning, it’s normal for the strong sucking of the baby to elongate the nipple and the areola tissues, which causes a certain amount of discomfort. When the baby is not positioned correctly, this will cause harsh tugging at the nipples which can lead to severe discomfort and pain to both the nipples and the breasts; over time this can even cause painful cracks and chaps,which take time to heal.” 

Quite recently I was told about "a friend of a friend" who had written their car off swerving to avoid a rabbit in the road. My other half said that unfortunately he would not have swerved for the rabbit because this would be endangering our children in the car and other vehicles on the road. He has a no swerve policy. But what if that rabbit was infact a child in the road? (and I dont mean a child dressed as a rabbit - just to avoid any confusion).

My children are a gift and its my responsibility to keep them safe. It got me thinking and as many parents do, your instinct is always to protect your children but what if the natural instinct is to swerve out of the way and inadvertently put your own children in danger? What then? Where we live, there are very often animals in the road and only last week a Peacock decided to take a stroll out in the road so a blantant no swerve policy would end up at the detriment of many beautiful creatures.

I go round and round in circles with this as my childrens safety is ultimately more precious than the rabbit who is trying to cross the road (I now wait for the animal activists to slate me for this comment) but this is not to say I dont care about the safety and welfare of our local wildlife .... but again, what if this were a child crossing the road?

I once had a holiday in the Isle of Wight and got extremely fed up of their "20 is plenty" speed limit signs but maybe speed is the culprit here, not the driver or the rabbit ...... maybe its about having a lighter foot on the accelerator pedal and rather than swerve out of the way, be in a position to do an emergency stop?

I am sure it is a debate that will generate many differing opinions .... so what is your swerve policy? Would you swerve to save the rabbit?