It’s no secret that Miss Jossy is a big fan of cuddly toys, she’s a really affectionate, caring girl and takes a lot of time to feed, cuddle and pat her toy animals and bears.

We’ve always loved IKEA’s range of stuffed toys, they’re really innovative in design, affordable and just promote role play and storytelling so well. The TORVA range is a big favourite at babygroup stuffed vegetables, great fun and lots of new words to be learned too!

IKEA’s soft toys don’t just make a brilliant and cuddly gift, for every soft toy and children’s book sold between 20th October 2013 and 4th January 2014 IKEA Foundation will donate €1 to children’s education through UNICEF and Save the Children. Since 2003, the campaign has reached more than 10 million children through 90 projects in 46 different countries, so the impact of this project is brilliant, and there are some great festive toys available too.

We were lucky to be offered a product to review for our gift guide, and Joss chose SOTNOS, a beautiful soft deer suitable for children 12 months and up.

I know he’s going to be another friend for life, and she’s been chattering away about the reindeer (except it sound more like RayMears!) his ears, spotty back and his little top, so once again fun, learning and creative play really come through!

As you can see SOTNOS has made a place in her heart, and found a place on her chair!

Why not spread some Christmas cheer and get behind a great campaign at the same time?

Disclaimer: we received this cuddly toy as a review item, all views are my own

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Spiced biscuits and treats for us tomorrow, I’m half Dutch and like to celebrate Sintaklaas in a small way on 5th December.

Sintaklaas is the festival of St Nicholas, celebrated annually on Saint Nicholas’ eve (5 December), it’s the gift giving day in the festive period, gifts are small but very personalised, I think it’s more about the fun of the occasion, and family time, some of the gifts given to adults might be a ‘surprise’ so it could be a handmade gift or a bit of a joke, my Mam told us that she once made a computer from cardboard boxes as a gift for her brother.

I’m not sure of the roots of this one but on Sintaklaas evening Dutch children put their shoe in front of the fireplace to find it may be filled with sweets the next day, so I do this for my husband as he loves the novelty of it, and am doing this for Joss this year too!

A few years ago I was lucky to be in Holland staying with my family over Sintaklaas, in Holland the presents aren’t under a tree but they ‘arrive’ in all manner of means, and this particular year my Aunt’s neighbour delivered them dressed as Zwartepiet, or Black Peter, Sintaklaas’ helper. It would be remiss of me not to say that there are some issues around stereotyping, that Peter in his Moorish representation, where people paint their faces black, perpetuates a racist stereotype, that Peter was a servant or slave of Sintaklaas, I can understand this and found myself a little shocked to see the tradition continue.

The gifts were presented and there was a lot of fun, my grandfather received a white chocolate carrot as he loved rabbits, I had just moved into my first house and received pretty accessories that I treasure today, there were joke gifts and lots of spiced biscuits and special food, my favourite was presented by my parents on their return from visiting family this year, an Amandelstaf, a pastry staff representing the bishop’s staff carried by Sintaklaas filled with sweet almond paste, divine!

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I thought it would be a good time to capture some of the sentences we’ve been hearing from Jossy recently, reading them back she certainly knows her own mind and we have clearly hit upon the ‘starting to understand boundaries and test boundaries stage’! My favourite is “who wants cake?” a question she may have heard me ask, and an expectation all rolled into one!

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I was at a work event this week, lots of networking – *craning to look at badge* “what’s your name” “so where are you from?” ….Ah sounds interesting.. “And what is it you do there?”

I am really comfortable talking about what I do for a living, and I like to think I do so with passion, I often drop into conversation that I’m also studying at the moment but there’s always this part of me that wants to say “and I spend a really fun part of my week with my little girl.”

It really made me think about my work life balance, about how I compartmentalize time and how Joss is always at the forefront of my thoughts.

It was with this in mind that I raised an old topic of conversation with Mr B, about whether he feels he misses out working full time, and whether we could do anything about this.

In March my course comes to an end, of course I’m really happy to be coming to the end of a long hard slog, but it will also mean I’m no longer spending a chunk of my part time salary on my course fees (it’s a big chunk, huge) and this would potentially mean that Mr B and I could afford to have him drop a day and have a day a week with this gorgeous girl.

Life is too short for regrets, and of course I wish we could’ve done this sooner, and it will make things tighter as it’s money we could have saved.

Still, these are all just things we’re talking about for now, but I think the likelihood is that we will start to make moves to downshift, so that we can both say that we spend part of our week with our darling daughter.

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