Kiddy Evo-Lunafix 0+ Infant Car Seat review

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Shortly after LM was born, we were asked if we would like to review the new and innovative car seat from German brand Kiddy. The Kiddy Evo-Lunafix car seat is a 0+ car seat meaning it is suitable from birth – 13kg (approx. 15 mths). It is innovative because it has patented Kiddy Lie Flat Technology and is the first car seat that can be moved into an ergonomic lie-flat position which is best for baby’s spine.

The general rule is that newborn babies should not be in a car seat for more than 30 minutes, and older babies no more than 2 hours, as it is not good for their little backs and because the position of their legs can press on their stomach and lungs, potentially leading to breathing difficulties. With the Evo-Lunafix there is no such time limit as baby can be laying flat, in the car or on the pushchair.

I was really intrigued and excited to take a look at this fantastic new car seat!

image courtesy of kiddy.de

The seat works in conjunction with the Kiddy Isofixbase2 which makes the seat easy to click and lift in and out of the car. We previously had the Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix and isofix base and we love being able to click the car seat in without faffing about with straps. (It is worth noting that the Evo-Lunafix cannot be used in a car without the isofix base. A list of cars compatible with the Isofix base can be found here. The Kiddy Evolution Pro 2 can be used without isofix, I haven’t reviewed it but I understand that while it won’t recline in the car, it can be reclined on the pushchair or flat, i.e once you get home.)

If anything, the Kiddy seat clicks in easier than our Maxi-Cosi seat and is a little lighter. It is fantastic to be able to just click the seat in and go. It is quite long however and in our car (an 08 Honda Civic) it is a bit snug and in order for it to fit in the lie-flat position the front seat has to be pulled quite far forward, which isn’t great for Hub’s long legs! I guess it depends on exact dimensions in the car and the angles of the seats, a smaller car than ours may have more room in the back. With the handle in the recline position the length from handle to the foot of the seat is 76cm, if that helps anyone!

The lie-flat function of the seat is linked with the handle, so by pushing the handle back, the position of the seat changes so that baby is lying flat. There is a great animation of this on the Kiddy website. This is a fantastic feature if you are going on a long journey with your little one as they can happily lie in the back of the car without you having to worry about the effect it has on their back or their breathing. It is also great if, like most babies, your little one tends to fall asleep in the car seat. Often when out for a walk or in the car LM has fallen asleep and when you get home there is the usual dilemma. Do I move her and risk waking her? Or leave her be? How long should I leave her in the car seat for? With the Kiddy Evo-Lunafix there is no dilemma. Because you can have baby in the lie flat position, there is no rush to move her.

LM comfily dozing in the lie-flat position after a trip out

The only downside to the movement being linked to the handle is potentially having to change baby’s position when moving the seat from the car to the buggy – I guess it depends how light a sleeper your baby is, although you can move the seat without using the handle, but it is certainly trickier!

The Kiddy Evo-Lunafix can be used as a travel system, as with many car seats these days. You can get connectors which fit on to a lot of pushchairs. Unfortunately it isn’t compatible with the Phil & Teds Pushchair we have so Kiddy kindly sent us their City’nMove pushchair for the purpose of the review ( separate review on that to follow). It attaches pretty easily and again means that if you are out and about, baby can lie flat in the car seat and be moved indoors still in the flat position. You can find a list of compatible pushchairs on the Kiddy website (if you scroll almost to the bottom, below the video you will see the full list). The buttons to detach the car seat from the travel system adaptor are in a slightly awkward position for lifting the seat off the pushchair, but it is easily do-able.

out and about

The car seat comes in some gorgeous colours and we opted for the lovely teal option, Hawaii. It has a fantastic sunshade which I love as it extends a long way, giving a lot of protection from the sun which can sometimes be very harsh on a little baby staring up at the sky! It also has a slatted design which prevents baby’s back from getting to sweaty. With Monkey being a summer baby I found that he very quickly became uncomfortable sitting in a hot car seat so this definitely appeals to me.

protected from the sun by the fab sunshade

Because the seat is in the 0+ group it adapts as your baby grows. There is a newborn insert, which honestly we never needed for LM, and you can also get an insert for tiny or premature babies too. The height adjust is actually one of my favourite things on this car seat (saddo I know) because it is so easy to do. I admit to dreading changing the height setting on some of our previous car seats as they are just a rigmarole, whereas adjusting the height on this one took seconds.

I do have a couple of slight niggles about the straps on this seat though. The button to lengthen the straps is under the fabric and is in the perfect position with the handle is up, but when the seat is in a lie-flat position it is tricky to locate in order to lengthen the straps if you want to strap baby in once they are in that position. Also, our Maxi-Cosi seat has a some handy places to tuck in the straps while you put the baby in the seat. Without these the straps do have the tendency to fall back and end up under baby. Not a huge issue and certainly not a deal breaker, but being used to having a seat with places to tuck the straps we noticed their absence.

In summary:

Pros

There is no doubt that the Lie-Flat function is fantastic and a huge plus point – giving you peace of mind when baby is in the car seat for extended periods of time.
The maxi sunshade is brilliant and gives a lot of protection from the sun
The slatted back prevents baby’s back from getting too hot and sweaty
It has the easiest height adjust I have seen on an infant car seat
Super easy to click in and out of the car on the Isofix2 base
Compatible with a wide variety of pushchairs
Lovely vibrant colours and designs

Cons

With the lie-flat function attached to the handle, it is tricky to move the seat when in the lie-flat position.
No tie backs for the straps and the button to lengthen the straps is tricky to locate in the lie-back position.
The buttons to detach from the travel system adaptor are in a slightly awkward place when lifting the seat
It is quite long when in the lie-flat position (76cm) so may be snug in smaller cars.

So yes, in order to provide a balanced review there are a couple of things that niggle me a little with the Kiddy Evo-Lunafixcar seat – but I don’t think any car seat is ever going to be perfect and I think the lie-flat function outweighs any cons I have found. None of them inhibit the use of the seat and I found you just got used to them and worked around them after a while.

This car seat really is the first of its’ kind with this ability to recline the seat and make it safer for our babies. It is a lovely style and so easy to use as it clicks so simply in and out of the Isofixbase2. LM is super comfy in it and it has lots of lovely features, such as the slatted back, and the longer than average sunshade, which make it even comfier for her. It really is a great car seat with a great solution to the problem of how long to keep a baby in a car seat.

We received the Kiddy Evo-Lunafix Car Seat or the purpose of this review however all thoughts, opinions and photographs are my own.

The National Railway Museum in York

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Some really good friends of ours live in Newcastle, which is around a 4 hour journey from where we live. In order to see each other a bit more often we are trying to meet in the middle a bit more – making day trips with small children much more manageable. For our first such meet up, my friend suggested the National Railway Museum in York.

We considered going on the train but it was going to be about £100 without a seat for Monkey, plus the added stress of where to put LM and her buggy, so we wimped and out and went in the car. The train would have taken a little over an hour whereas it was nearer 2 hours in the car, but we were comfortable and LM slept both there and back which was brilliant!

The National Railway Museum

The National Railway Museum is the largest railway museum in the UK and home to over a million artefacts showing the history of railway. It is free to enter, though you can make a donation ot purchase a guide book if you wish. A must for any train lover and what little boy doesn’t like trains?

Well, ours, apparently! He had been really excited about going, then as soon as we arrived and walked into the museum.

“I don’t like trains” “I don’t like trains” repeated on loop at least 50 times on the way to the cafe where we headed to feed LM and meet our friends. Ever the contrary toddler eh?

In truth though I can understand why. The building itself is vast, and absolutely filled with trains, including the biggest trains I have ever seen! Hubs is 6’2″ and one of the first trains you can see when you arrive is a Chinese train where the wheels are as tall as hubs… and the whole thing about 3 times his height. Understandably daunting to a 2 year old I think bless him! So in saying “I don’t like trains” I think what he was actually saying was “Hey Mummy I am not sure about this, they are a bit scary! I thought trains were smaller than this!”

Possible the biggest train I have ever seen, difficult to tell scale as hubs is not that close but trust me, it is huge!

After having a snack and meeting our friends we hoped Monkey would feel more enthusastic about the trains and took him to have a look inside them. But no, he was having none if it, typical! This was just him you understand, my friend’s little boy was loving looking at all of the trains and there was lots of other children there enjoying themselves, There was however a model railway which he adored and didn’t want to leave!

One train we did get him interested in was, unsurprisingly, the post train! He seriously loves anything “post” related. We did also manage to persuade him that some of the big trains he saw were like “The Greendale Rocket” form Postman Pat so he did enjoy those a little more.

The post train

Both boys thoroughly enjoyed the great little outdoor playarea, even though it was bitterly cold and so windy that day!

Dining wise, there is a couple of cafes and restaurants to choose from and there is also a lot of benches and picnic tables available to use, both indoors and outdoors. We had a a morning cuppa, and an afternoon break at the cafes but took our own picnic for lunch and there was lots of families who had done the same. It is always nice that there is seating areas provided for this, and that we didn’t have to sit out in the cold to enjoy our picnic.

The museum has great access for pushchairs and wheelchairs and our boys adored running up and down the ramps – it really is the simple things that entertain children isn’t it? The museum is divided across the road and there is a concourse that runs underneath, with lifts at each end.

Our boys loved the sweet playarea, which of course, had lots of trains to play with and even Chuggington dressing up clothes! Though I believe they are renovating it soon which I am sure will only improve it.

There is a variety of exhibitions and so much to see and honestly we barely touched the surface and weren’t really able to take much of it in with small children to entertain. They do demonstrations of trains turning on turntables and we did go to see a show, which sounded great and very entertaining, although we realised it was little above our boys’ level when they started discussing Newton’s laws of motion! I am sure older children would have loved it though.

Waiting for the show, with our wriggly boys!

I think the highlight for our little Monkeys was standing out on the viewing platform watching the trains go in and out of York station. They loved waving at them all as they went by and the train drivers were great, waving back and tooting at them – they must see kids there so much but for them to respond to it is very kind and made their day!

We had a really lovely day out at the National Railway Museum and will defiitely go again when the kids are a little older too and can appreciate it a little more!

Children’s Clothing at House of Fraser

Posted by Caroline Elliott

When I think of House of Fraser, I think of a big department store, the home of designer brands and luxury items. I don’t, I admit, think of children’s clothing. At least none that I could afford. I have written before I can be a bit thrifty, and I don’t like the thought of spending more money on my children’s clothes than I would on my own clothes, especially considering how quickly they grow out of them!

When I was contacted and asked to choose some children’s clothing from them for £30 or under I was intrigued to see what clothes they had, and what I could get for the money. Well I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the options available and the lovely clothes they stock. Luckily for me it was sale time and being the bargain hunter I am I wanted to see how may items I could get.

I think I did pretty well and got some gorgeous bits for both kiddies.

Monkey is wearing a lovely striped Benetton t-shirt and gorgeous cord trousers from Pumpkin Patch. I quite like the Pumpkin Patch brand but had never bought anything from Benetton before. Both are lovely quality and my favourite for baby/toddler clothes – machine washable and tumble dry-able! A must for me 🙂 It’s difficult to get a photo of him standing still but here is a few shots of him in his lovely new outfit.

Little Miss is wearing a gorgeous onesie from Kite, a brand I hadn’t heard of before but will be keeping an eye out for in the future. I couldn’t resist the colours as they are just gorgeous and the material is extremely soft and snuggly. Again machine washable and tumble dryable and I think LM looks just gorgeous in it. She looks pretty happy in it too don’t you think?

I am loving the quality of all of the clothes and they are certainly affordable so will be adding House of Fraser to the shops I consider when looking for children’s clothes.

We received the clothing for free for the purpose of this review, however all thoughts, opinions and photographs are my own.

Monkey’s first day at playgroup!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

This week was a big day for us as it was Monkey’s first day at playgroup! Looking after Monkey, raising him and teaching him about the world has been my job since he was born. It is why I wanted to be a SAHM and I feel privileged that I have been able to do so for this long. However there are many reasons why we think it will be good for him to go to playgroup. One day he will have to go to school and we want to be able to ease him into it, first of all with a couple of days of playgroup, then preschool before he starts school. The local playgroup generally feeds into the local school so our hope is that he will make friends at playgroup and pre-school and that they will move up together to school one day.

Making friends is the biggest reason we have been keen for him to go to playgroup as although he sees my friends’ children, with jobs and other commitments he doesn’t see them quite so often anymore and it would be nice for him to have more time playing with other children. But he has never been left without me, hubs or his grandparents before so we knew it would be a big change for him, and for us, for him to be in someone else’s care.

He was originally due to start in November, when he was 2 1/2, but with LM being born we didn’t want to make such a big change at that time, as we didn’t want him to feel that he was being taken there because she was here. So we delayed his start date until after Christmas as we felt that would be the best time for a new start to the routine, and Friday afternoon was his first day.

We had been trying to prepare him and help him feel enthusiastic and excited about starting playgroup in the run up to the big day. We were recommended a lovely book by a friend who had used it with her son to help him prepare for playgroup, “Lulu Loves Nursery.”* We substituted the word nursery for playgroup but it is a really lovely book and talks about how Lulu is worried about being without her mummy, and feels shy at first, but then decides to be brave and she really loves her day at nursery. It is a great book and also comes with a certificate you can fill out and give to them at the end of their first day.

Monkey absolutely adores this book and we have been reading it over and over since we gave it to him, it has definitely helped Monkey with the concept of me leaving him there but coming back again afterwards. It has also helped that our playgroup provided a little leaflet, which reads like a story, about all of the things you can do there.

The big day dawned and we had a fairly quiet morning at home to make sure he was well rested. Daddy didn’t want to miss it so he came home and we all went off to playgroup together. Monkey had his little backpack on and was dead excited, running basically all the way there and dragging Daddy along! We got there much quicker than I thought we would have actually so had to wait outside for a little while!

When it was time to go in, Monkey was straight in there, playing with puzzles, he didn’t seem bothered about us at all. We decided not to hang about too long so said our goodbyes after a few minutes and headed out. He only gave us cursory hugs and goodbyes, but as we were leaving we did see a bit of a sad fac, though we heard no cries and saw no tears.

We were both a bit on edge that afternoon, though I think because I still had LM to deal with I was a little less anxious than hubs who was back at work, unable to focus! I did keep an eye on my phone though in case they called but we heard nothing. When we went to collect him the staff said that he had been a little upset, and cried a few times, but that they had been able to distract him with books and toys each time and he had got over his tears.

At the end of the session they have all the children sat together to wait for their parents and then call them out one by one to us parents who are waiting in the foyer, though they can’t see us. I didn’t really know how they did it and if I had I would have asked if he could come out first, but I didn’t so they called out 4 or 5 other children before calling him out, so by the time he came out to us he was very unhappy again. I can understand it as from his perspective, sitting there waiting for mummy and daddy, watching other children go out to their parents, wondering if we were coming for him, it must have been pretty scary.

We had big cuddles though and he said he enjoyed himself. He showed us the fab picture he made and was excited about the fact he had been using glue.He was telling us about the books he had read and the friend he had played with (I’m not sure he actually did play with this little boy or just said it because we had talked about him beforehand) and within a few yards he said “I love playgroup” which we took as a very positive sign. In fact he even asked me if he could go playgroup again the next day, which is another very good sign. We stopped for an ice cream on the way home (as they do in “Lulu Loves Nursery“*) and he very pleased with his certificate from his book 🙂

I am expecting more tears on Monday, potentially even when I drop him off, and probably for a few more times, but hopefully he is off to a good start and it well get easier and easier the more he gets used to the playgroup, the staff and the other children. Fingers crossed anyway! But for now I am just a proud mama and think he did so so well for his first day!

Linking up to:

and

with his first ever picture from playgroup 🙂

*Affiliate Links

A Christmas Tree from Pines and Needles

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I love Christmas and I love getting into the festive spirit. This year we are getting started nice and early with this fabulous Christmas tree from Pines and Needles.

I have always been a huge fan of real Christmas trees. I love the smell and there’s just something nice about having a real tree rather than an artificial one. There is also something really nice about going to choose a tree yourself. But, I have to be honest, that part has become more of a challenge now we have small children. Fitting the tree in the car along with said children is a bit interesting for one thing and then there is carving out the time to go and get the tree.

Pines and Needles, with their delivery service, take that hassle factor out of choosing a tree as they deliver them right to your doorstep. We chose a Nordman Fir, as the needles are softer than a “traditional” Christmas tree, and they drop less, which means less hoovering, a huge plus.

Continue reading →

Monkey’s Christmas List – 2 1/2 yrs old

Posted by Caroline Elliott

This year is flying by and it is really not long til Christmas now, eek! Have you started buying presents yet? I have been quite organised and bought a lot of presents already. In January we started putting a bit of money away every month to budget for it, and it has been lovely this year to have a pot ready to use. No paying it off in January, woohoo!

Anyway I digress, Monkey is really excited about Christmas this year. He is loving all of the decorations in the shops and I know we are going to have so much fun with him! So I am really excited to see his excitement on Christmas day and while I am sure he will be happy with pretty much anything he gets, I think we have come up with some lovely idea for him. So if you are stuck for ideas of what to get a toddler in your life, here are some of the things on Monkey’s Christmas List this year! 🙂

Continue reading →

The Nursery is finally finished!

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Over the summer we did really well with transforming our junk room into the baby’s room. #GetGoodSummer hosted by Claire at Clarina’s Contemplations was a great motivator for us and we did really well…. Then the progress sort of tailed off a little. The only thing left for us to do was the wall stickers, but we chose quite a big mural and I’ll admit I was pretty nervous about getting it on the wall, so we kind of put it off!

Last week though we decided to take the bull by the horns and just get on with it! It went really well and now, finally, thankfully, the nursery is finished (with just over a week until baby is born, just in time too!!). So here it is, our lovely nursery and a few of our favourite things in there.
Continue reading →

Disney Cars 3-Wheel Tri Scooter from Suppose.com

Posted by Caroline Elliott

We were recently contacted by the lovely people at Suppose.com and asked if we would like to review a Disney Cars Scooter. We’ve held back on getting Monkey a scooter as, although we have seen lots of kids his age (and younger) having great fun on them, he is not the most coordinated of toddlers and so we weren’t sure how we would get on. As these kinds of toys are generally not very cheap we didn’t want to risk buying something he would not get much enjoyment out of.

Suppose.com is a great way of getting the best price for things, which is so handy with kid’s toys (especially coming up to Christmas), as they track the prices of things for you and let you know when there is a good deal to be had. The Disney Cars Scooter is currently on offer at a just £12.50, you can find out more here.

Continue reading →

Our day out at Sacrewell Farm, Peterborough

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Monkey has a thing about tractors at the moment. He loves playing with them, looking at them and talking about them. While reading one of his tractor books a few days ago he kept asking if he could ride on the tractors… which is slightly difficult when they are in a book! I started thinking about where we could go for tractor rides and thought about a great farm which is really close to where we live – Sacrewell Farm. Perfect!

Both hubs and I remember visiting Sacrewell Farm as kids but it has changed a lot over the years. We took Monkey last year but bless him he was terrified of the noisy sheep so we hadn’t been since. He is of course older now and with his new-found love of Tractors we decided it was worth a visit. Plus I knew they had completely renovated their indoor play barn since we last went so if the weather turned or he was still afraid of sheep, there was still lots to do. So after checking the weather forecast a few times we headed over there on Sunday, which was a glorious day and possibly the last one we will have for a while.
Continue reading →

National Trust Blickling Hall

Posted by Caroline Elliott

On the way to our little holiday in Norfolk last week we decided to take the opportunity to stop off at a fabulous National Trust property I have wanted to visit for a while, Blickling Hall.

The Blickling Estate is huge and has so much to do see and do, with a variety of walks and cycle rides you can do. They even have holiday cottages on the estate as there is so much you can do there, much more than you could do in a day!

Because we were just stopping off for a fairly short visit, and because even with my pelvis support I can’t walk as much as I normally would at the moment, we confined our visit to the lovely gardens and grounds surrounding the house. With one of the prime reasons for the stop off being so that Monkey could run around and burn off some energy, we decided not to go into the house.

When we arrived, a lovely lady asked whether Monkey would like to do a scavenger hunt in the gardens, and of course we jumped at the chance. So he was given a lovely little basket and a list of things to find – which included some different seeds, something fuzzy, something round, etc, etc. So we set off to stretch our legs from the car journey, and see what we could find.

The grounds and gardens are so beautiful and there is so many different paths and directions you can go. Daddy loved showing Monkey the different seeds, such as sweet chustnuts and acorns, and Monkey loved collecting things like sticks and stones and popping them in his basket.

While we hunted for acorns we found a lovely fluffy looking caterpillar on the floor which Monkey was fascinated by!

When it was time for lunch we took the basket back to one of the lovely volunteers and showed her what Monkey had collected, and Monkey got a sticker! We could have get all of our, er…. souvenirs but as we were going to the holiday home we decided to leave them behind 🙂

After a lovely lunch we had a a bit more of a run around and Monkey was very brave, walking the along a huge fallen tree!

WP_20140912_13_16_01_Pro

Soon enough it was time to continue our journey to the holiday cottage. As ever though we had a lovely time at the National Trust house and look forward to visitng Blickling Hall again at some point, hopefully with enough time to see inside the house and see more of the estate!

Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Can I really do this?

Reviews

Kiddy Evo-Lunafix 0+ Infant Car Seat review

The National Railway Museum in York

The National Railway Museum

Children’s Clothing at House of Fraser

Monkey’s first day at playgroup!

A Christmas Tree from Pines and Needles

Monkey’s Christmas List – 2 1/2 yrs old

The Nursery is finally finished!

Disney Cars 3-Wheel Tri Scooter from Suppose.com

Our day out at Sacrewell Farm, Peterborough

National Trust Blickling Hall