A Gift For My Future Grandson

Thank You Graco!

I have come to the end of my time as a Graco Ambassador.  Freddy is now three and uses his Graco UGo stroller when he is tired, but other than that, his need for nursery equipment is pretty much over.

However, my eldest son Joe and his fiance Jade are expecting their first child in December.  As with most young couples these days, money is tight and so they are grateful for any help they can get.  They were thrilled to bits when I was able to get them a Graco Quattro Tour Deluxe Travel System courtesy of Graco as my last ambassador's review product.

The Graco Quattro was the first pushchair we ever bought for Freddy and we loved it.  Even as we begun to review other buggies, we always kept a soft spot for the Quattro.  It was so spacious, sturdy, comfortable and practical.  It didn't need fancy features or gimmicks because it was a good solid travel system that never let us down.  It was good for walking on all surfaces with good steering and a big shopping basket.  The car seat fitted into the buggy making it a very practical and easy to use travel system.  This is why we thought it would be a perfect travel system for our future grandson.

Fred in his Graco Quattro in 2010!

Graco Quattro Tour Deluxe Specifications

• Suitable from birth to approximately 3 years (0-15kg)
• Quality sturdy full size frame provides safety and comfort
• 5 point harness 
• The fully padded seat provides extra comfort 
• Rigid 4 position recline backrest (from 100 to 170°) and adjustable leg rest provide comfort for your baby from lying flat to sitting up
• The spring suspension and rubber wheels provide the child great comfort even on rough terrains
• Large, reversible canopy made with UV tesed fabrics gives sun protection
• Very manoeuvrable pushchair.  Its rubber wheels allow a smooth ride on any surface, and the linked handle enables steering with just one hand
• Freestanding once folded for easy storage
• Ergonomic handling thanks to its height adjustable handle that adapts for both parents
• Graco's one-click travel system enables you to carry your child from the car to the pushchair, or directly in to the house without waking baby
• Easy and practical, Graco's one-hand one-second fold lets you fold your pushchair in just one quick, easy movement.
• Complete with Junior Baby Car Seat 

Junior Baby Car Seat Specifications

• Suitable for Group 0+: From birth to 13 kgs (birth to around 9-12 months)
• Side impact protection
• 3 point harness
• One-click system to correctly fit the seat on Graco pushchairs
• Rapid harness adjustment
• Multi-position handle
• Padded newborn head support
• Ergonomic design thanks to the rubber handle

The Graco Quattro Tour Deluxe is now available in black which looks really smart.  My son will be happy pushing this around with his baby son inside.  He would feel embarrassed by a brightly coloured, funkily designed pushchair!  It is a great value travel system too, retailing at around the £300 mark.

I can't wait to post photos of my baby grandson in his pushchair once he arrives.  As he will also inherit all of Freddy's outgrown nursery equipment, I'm sure we will be adding quite a few new pictures to our Graco Gallery!!

Graco Is Looking For A New Ambassador!!!

Your Chance To Test A Graco Nautilus Elite Car Seat And Become a Graco Ambassador for 2012!

We have an original Nautilus Car Seat and we love it!  If you want any inspiration, check out my Graco Ambassador Page!  Good luck to everyone who enters...I look forward to seeing who the latest addition to the Graco Ambassador team will be!

For full details check out the tab on the Graco Facebook Page!

Connect With Your Baby

On Thursday April 21st  I attended the Graco Press Event in London along with my fellow ambassadors and the new Fusio testers. It was wonderful to put faces to the names and eventually meet my virtual friends in person!  It was an interesting and informative meeting that focused on the interaction of parents with their babies. Experts Emma Kenny and Suzanne Zeedyk gave entertaining and thought provoking presentations.

Psychologist Emma Kenny

Babies are born connected.  They thrive when given the stimuli of attentive, loving parents who communicate with them from birth.  Many years ago, all babies were proudly wheeled around in the high Silvercross prams facing their parent or Nanny.  Over the years, efficiency and engineering took priority over the designs of products for the nursery industry, and pushchairs became the efficient, forward-facing, swivel wheeled  creations we see today.  But in striving for this design, we are neglecting the element of interaction between parent and child.

In the first three years of the baby's life, its brain grows at its most rapid rate.  Interaction plays an enormous part in its growth and development.  Babies are born connected to others.  A newborn baby will instinctively try to mimic us and will respond to familiar stimuli from the womb.  The baby can differentiate between voices and recognise music that was listened to in-utero.  Babies respond to attention and this love and nurturing helps form neural pathways in the brain, helping the baby to make sense of its environment.

It is this interaction that is at the forefront of Graco's latest pushchair designs.  The Fusio and the Symbio both have the rearward facing feature, allowing babies and toddlers to enjoy communicating with their parents when out and about.  Mum and Dad can chat to, sing with and have eye contact with their precious little ones.  This reduces baby's stress levels in the face of life's hectic environments and helps them feel safe and content.   This aids their mental and emotional development and helps the neural pathways develop. It also releases Oxytocin into the bloodstream which is the "feel good" hormone which will help our babies feel happy! Giving our babies this start in life can help them become more confident as they grow up.

Image courtesy of
21-04-11 ©Sam Friedrich
tel: 07977 482 272

I am proud to be an ambassador for Graco, a company at the forefront of innovative designs which help secure the bond between parent and child during these all too important formative years.  Giving children the best start in life, may give rise to the next generation being more secure, loving, empathic, happy and well rounded.  It certainly wouldn't hurt to try and make the world a better place!!

Graco Nautilus Car Seat Review

One of the fabulous things about being a Graco Ambassador is that I get to try out items from their range of baby products.  Our latest product is the Graco Nautilus Car Seat.  The seat is suitable for stages 1,2 and 3 which means it can be used for children from approximately 9 months to 12 years old.  It can be adapted to suit your child's stage of development so it grows with your child making it a cost effective option.

The seat looks very smart with its Blackstone cover.  It has a cup holder which is just perfect for holding a beaker or bottle.  There is a recline handle for the seat if baby nods off, but it only reclines a little way from the upright position.  The five point harness is easy to use and can be adjusted with baby, ideal to tighten or loosen the straps depending on what baby is wearing  The straps are padded and height adjustable.  The mechanism on the harness is not fiddly, which is a real consideration when wrestling a wriggly toddler!  The crotch strap is adjustable and we moved it to the next position making it the perfect fit for Freddy at 20 months.  I liked that the straps were fully adjustable, it gave me confidence that it fitted him perfectly.

The seat is a good size and Freddy seems comfy in the padded seat. It is quite high giving him a good view out of the car window which he enjoys.  He sleeps in it quite happily, resting his head on the padded sides.  The seat fits really securely into the car and I feel very confident with its side impact protection.  It feels very sturdy, strong and safe.

Freddy is definitely testing out the Nautilus fully.  He enjoyed the dregs of my Starbuck's Chocolate Frappuccino seated comfortably in his seat and used the cup holder for his straw. Thank goodness the cover is fully machine washable!

This seat can be used without the harness by using the seat belt when the child weighs 15-18kg.  It will last Freddy for years!  The head rest is height adjustable and having a play with it I can see how it will grow with him.

Ian was really impressed with this seat.  He fitted it easily and it was very intuitive.  He said it felt "solid as a rock" and "would withstand impact". He said it made our former seat look "flimsy by comparison".  He definitely approves of this seat to keep his precious boy safe in the car!!

The Nautilus is available to purchase from Halfords, Toys R Us and Amazon and other good retailers.  Priced at £129.99 it is a really cost effective option that will last until your little one is no longer required to use a car seat!  It has a five star rating on Halfords website and is currently available at the great price of £99 (so be quick!).  So if you want a car seat that will last and is safe, comfy and secure...check out the Graco Nautilus!

Graco Symbio & Fusio Reviewed

As a Graco Ambassador I have been incredibly fortunate to have both the Symbio and the Fusio in my pushchair collection.  I regularly use both of them and genuinely love them both.  Here's an overview of both pushchairs.

Symbio

Positives:

• Flip over handle to allow for interaction with baby at anytime.  I loved this feature!
• Really soft snuggly material for the seat and cosy toes.
• Excellent hand operated braking system.
• Smooth handling with pneumatic tyres, suspension and good size swivel wheels.  The Symbio could handle different terrains with ease.
• Good height for tall parents and lovely to push!
• Really stylish design and has an attachable matching baby bag.

Considerations:

• The storage basket is OK for everyday essentials but you can't fit bulging shopping bags underneath.  Nor can you hang them from the handles, so you need a helper willing to carry your bags for you on a mammoth shopping spree!
• The Symbio pushchair chassis folds down separately from the seat so although this is perfect for transporting it by car, you couldn't carry the folded down Symbio, the seat and your baby singlehandedly.  

Fusio

Positives

• The Fusio is a lightweight stroller with the benefits of a travel system and with the option of fitting the seat in either a forward or backward facing position.
• Big storage basket and separate handles perfect for lightweight bags, which allows for maximum shopping!
• Easy to manoeuvre indoors...perfect for shopping centres.
• Really simple to use raincover...genius!
• Folds down easily and can be carried one handed.
• Excellent for public transport.

Considerations 

• The small wheels make it less adaptable for off roading.  Bumping up kerbs is easy though, if you use your foot on the back to tip the Fusio up.
• It is quite a narrow seat...so may not suit a chunkier toddler until they are 3 years old.

I use both pushchairs regularly.  Both are well designed for functionality and style. The Fusio is great for shopping trips.  It fits well in the car allowing extra space for shopping bags.  It also has the capacity to carry quite a lot of shopping (but remember to take care not to tip the Fusio by overloading it!)  It is easy to use and Freddy is comfy and snug.  I took the Fusio to Central London for the Ideal Home Show and it was a real asset to have it on the trains and tubes and at the show itself.  

The Symbio is a delight to push when out and about.  I love to use it when I'm going for long walks, on the school run or on days out. It handles obstacles with ease and it feels safe and secure.  It is a dream to handle and is ultra comfy for Freddy.   

Graco really have scored top marks on both pushchairs.  Freddy is equally happy in both and sleeps beautifully in either.  I'm glad I don't have to choose between them...they are both brilliant and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be a two pushchair family!

Cybermummy Meet and Greet

I've just seen Metal Mummy post a meet and greet bio and linking it to Mummy's Shoes's blog.  So as I am a Cybermummy 2011 attendee I thought I should copy!!


I'm attending as a Graco Ambassador, thanks to the lovely people at Graco following my win in their Symbio Advocacy Competition.  I'm really excited about learning how to take my blog to the next level, and it'll be amazing to meet many of my blogging inspirations and cyber friends in real life.  What an experience it promises to be!


Name: Wendy McDonald


Blog: Inside the Wendy House


Twitter: @wendymcd83


Height: 5' 11 1/2" (will I be the tallest blogger I wonder??)


Hair: Long dark brown and a little unmanageable (with a smattering of grey that I refuse to dye!)


Eyes: Green (or possibly 'ditch water'??)


Likes: Being a SAHM, horror films, cheese, cake, cheesecake, live music, being a vegetarian, big TVs, Disney, sunshine, family days out, Indian Take Aways, having a good cry at films!


Dislikes: Insects,  Student Finance and other ridiculous bureaucratic idiocies, the fact I can't dance, dried fruit, polystyrene *shudders*.

Got a Graco Symbio...not afraid to use it!!

I've been fortunate enough to have been picked by Graco in their competition to win the chance to review their fabulous new award winning pushchair the Symbio!  Over the next couple of months I'll be putting the Symbio through its paces with help from my one year old son,  Freddy!  We've got lots of ideas up our sleeves we'll be blogging, tweeting, videoing and Facebooking about our adventures!

I hope everyone will get behind us and share in our fun and games as we see how the Symbio copes with life Inside the Wendy House!!!

Fred's ready for action!