Month: December 2011

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What NOT to feed our pets !!!!

Most of us are guilty of it, and I have many a time scraped the leftover food into our dogs dish, or given her a treat or few from what we are eating.  Apart from a vague knowledge that grapes and chocolate are not that great for dogs, I had not really looked into it in any depth.

I’ve seen a few statements recently about dogs and wolfing down the Christmas candy, and I am guilty of giving the lolloping labrador of the house the odd square of chocolate and she is highly addicted to melon.

I am however, going to change my mind on the chocolate issue as having a look at some of the symptoms of doggie overdose have me utterly convinced that one more square of the cocoa variety is going to have her rolling onto her back with all four paws up in the air for her final breath.

Just to put things into perspective, I had a look for the most poisonous foods I could find for dogs (and other pets).  If your pet shows any of the signs or symptoms of poisoning after eating any of these foods, call your vet urgently.

1 – Cocoa  and Caffeine Treats

Chocolate – say no more, and coffee bean type treats.   Seemingly they overstimulate the heart and the nervous system.

Signs of Poisoning :  Increasing heart beat, agitation, diarrhoea, shaking, very thirsty, restless, seizures

2 – Fruits – Grapes and Raisins 

Thankfully I found no evidence of poisoning with melon as a result, but the possible effect of grapes and raisins opened my eyes as they can damage or cats and dogs precious kidneys.

Signs of Poisoning: Very thirsty, being tired, being sick and needing to pee more often.  As few as 4 – 5 raisins could be poisonous for a dog up to about 10kg.

Fruits – Seeds

Keep away form apple, cheery, peach and plum seeds as they contain cyanide.

It doesn’t take much to realise that a pet ingesting cyanide may become very sick, very soon.

Signs of Poisoning: Sickness, heavy breathing, irregular heartbeat, coma.

Fruits – Avocados

As well as having a high fat content, persin can cause problems in dogs.

Signs of Poisining: Sickness and diarrhoea.

3 – Alcohol and Yeast

I have heard of people laughing at stories of tipsy toms or drunken dachshunds (well, not really, but you get the picture).  It seems that alcohol has a similar effect to chocolate in poisoning our pets.  I think we might have been more aware of the dangers of alcohol in comparison to chocolate, but it is still a bit of a shock to realise that it affects all pets nervous systems.

Bread doughs and uncooked yeasty mixes are attractive to dogs but give the same effect as the yeast turns to methanol.

Signs of Poisoning : Increasing heart beat, agitation, diarrhoea, shaking, very thirsty, restless, seizures

4 – Vegetables – Onions

Any of the onion family can cause problems for our pets, and can also include garlic and chives.   They can destroy blood cells and damage kidneys.

It is difficult to know how much is too much, but effects from these can build up in the system.   Watch table scraps for cooking with onions and garlic in it.

Signs of Poisoning : Increased heart rate, tiredness, lethargy, being sick, diarrhoea, pale gums, blood in pee.

5 – Xylitol

This is a sweetener, used as a sugar free replacement and often used in chewing gum and sweets.  It does not agree with dogs, and causes an increase in insulin leading to low blood sugar, and can cause severe liver damage.

It does not take much to poison a dog so be aware if your four legged friend gets into a pack of your sweeties.

Signs of Poisining: Staggering, collapse and seizures, being weak and could be sick.

6 – Macademia Nuts

Pets in general tend to like nuts, especially dogs and small animals, so I was surprised to see that macademia nuts can cause muscle and nervous system problems for dogs.

Signs of poisoning: Being sick, being lethargic, shaking and body temperature increasing.

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For the future, out goes chocolate for my girl, and thankfully her favourite melon gets to stay.   It is important to remember that not all animals will show all symptoms, so if your animal has overdone one of the things on this list, and begins to show the symptoms – please get good advice from a vet.

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Thank you to Warner Bros. for the lovely Xmas Gift.

Last week, the postman delivered a lovely surprise from the team at Warner Bros.  The box was a little battered and bruised from the long journey to the Scottish Mum Family up in Aberdeen.  I left it sitting until the boys came home from school, as it was addressed to us all as a family.

When my mini people arrived home, the first thing they came across was the box.     There was much excitement and bright lit up eyes about what could possibly be in it for them.

They opened the box, and what was in side was delightful.  A gorgeous hessian sack, tied with ribbon and with a jingly bell attached.  Lifting the sack up gave the jingle jangle that signalled christmas had made it early to the Scottish Mum household with the first seasonally wrapped pressie to hit our home.

Inside was a collection of lovely DVD’s for us to watch.  They pulled them out.  Some of the DVD’s were Yogi’s First Christmas, Polar Express, Scooby-Doo and the Lake Monster, Bugs Bunny Christmas Tales, Happy Feet, Yogi Bear, Ben 10, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

At first, I thought they might think the films were too young for them, but they have been happily working their way through them and discovering some old favourites.   It just goes to show that you never get too old for a good old cosy up on a cold night and putting on a good family film.

The gorgeous Scooby Doo Mystery Machine seemed to be simply a toy car, but on closer inspection, it turned out to also be a holder for all 41 episodes of Scooby Doo in a Limited-Edition Deluxe Set.   They also included 2 bonus live action movies and 4 episodes of the new Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc, Show.

It was a gorgeous gift and considering I was expecting to just see Polar Express arriving, it was a very welcome and unexpected surprise.

Thank you very much Warner Bros.
Kind Regards

Scottish Mum Blog

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Fitting In Nicely With Society

With a special needs child who can’t fit in with crowds, we struggle with the regular family holidays where children were meant to fit in with groups of people.  He was never made to be held in a small apartment, or to sit by a pool, or even to be able to join in with childrens’ clubs that are often a huge feature of mum and dad chilling by the pool and letting someone else look after teenies or tweenies.

The day we discovered caravanning was a total fluke.  After a disastrous trip to Disneyland Paris, we took stock on the way home.  Our trip began with a car breakdown in Glasgow while driving from Aberdeen to Paris.  It didn’t get better while we were away, when middler struggled to cope with any and all queues in Disneyland.

The complex we stayed in was not special needs friendly, and unless you were willing to spend a fortune, there was nowhere to go and play.  It was a disaster.

After a rotten few days, we decided to head for home early using the scenic route.  We stopped off near Le Havre and as it was a lovely day, we settled on the beach for a few hours.

Middler had a whale of a time on the near empty beach and on going to a supermarket, we decided to buy a tent on the spur of the moment.   With much trepidation, we found a local campsite close to the beach.

We pitched our tent.   We had our car, a tent, and two blow up beds.   Nothing to cook on, and nothing to eat off.  All the kids were in seventh heaven and had a whale of a time.   Nobody stared at middler when he did something silly or said something out-of-place.   At the time, I put that down to being a different language and that they had no idea what he was actually saying or doing.

When we got home, I booked us a static caravan up at Grannie’s Heilan Hame to see if the caravan environment was for us.   The man of the house was working, so I drove up from Aberdeen with the three kids and the dog.  They all loved it.

The next week we got home, we decided to just go and “look” at caravans to see if we would prefer a touring caravan as I didn’t fancy going to the same place all the time.

That “look” at second-hand caravans saw us walk away with a van for that year, and the following year we went back for one with a better layout for us.  We chose a triple bunk at the back.  Yes, it’s messy back there at times with three children.

          

Thus began our adventures into Caravanning…..

People on caravan sites are just fabulous.  I have rarely come across anyone who doesn’t show understanding for children with special needs.  We book sites where the childrens’ park is close by, or overlooking where we are parked in the van.  The boys  always find someone to play with, and adventures are always on our doorstep.

River Adventures

I prefer quieter sites to the big commercial ones, and with the boys growing faster than I can believe, I know that we will need to visit more of the big facility sites in the next few years for variety.  In 2012, we’d like to head down to France with the van, but that will depend on how the year goes.

There really is not that much to owning a caravan.  After deciding you want one, it is just the simple mechanics of getting one that your car is able to tow and getting out there and having fun.   My boys friends go on holiday once or twice a year, but we go away as often as we can, and in summer this year, we spent 5 out of the 6 weeks of school holidays on a site.

People buy caravans from upwards of a few hundred pounds, but you do have to try to find one that fits your family and isn’t damp.  It can be done on a budget, or for a fortune.

I loved the camping lark, but I was determined to have my comforts to do it.   If camping / caravanning was going to be our holiday future, I really couldn’t do without my hairdryer, kettle, cooker, bathroom or comfy bed.

Chilling Out Making Shadows on the Roof

Chilling Out Making Shadows on the Roof

Call me soft, but there is nothing better on a cold windy day than to be wrapped up warm and cosy inside the van listening to the rain pitter patter on the roof, and wondering how on earth those hardy campers in tents manage to do it.

Diggerland

We pondered over a motor home v a caravan.  For us, the benefit of a caravan and being able to leave it on a site while we had fun touring in the car won over the prospect of having to pack everything away to take a motor home everywhere we went.    Caravans also have less maintenance, and the prospect of cheap caravan insurance swung the decision for us.

We have had huge adventures in the last three years.   I have shared lots of them on my blog, but I’ve gathered some of the pictures taken while we were away to show you here.   We love the van  If we every had to sell her, we would be devastated.  It really is a second home for us.   We prefer Caravan Club sites to the Independent ones as having the security of wardens appeals to me if I take the boys away on my own.

Cool Dog

Our caravan is my own little corner of adventure.  What’s yours?

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Disclaimer:  This is a featured post.

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Gurgle Baby Milestones – Software License Giveaway – Closes 23rd December 2011

The people at Gurgle Baby Milestones have offered me three licenses to give away for their software.

Let me tell you a little about how it works.

The software can be installed on a PC or a Mac in a few minutes.   Baby milestones helps you to learn about, keep track and organise all your family memories for the future and I have used information from their website to describe it quickly.

You can add all the children that you already have, and you can also keep a trying to conceive.

Many parents use scrapbooks, pieces of paper, photo albums and more to record things for the future, but the Gurgles has turned it into an easy to use permanent reminder.   The software will give you relevant reminders and information to look out for and encourate at age and stages up to age 5.

Babies start to laugh between 2-5 months of age.  So when your baby is 2 months old, a reminder to look out for their first laugh will start to appear in the list.

The first time you see a reminder, you’ll probably want to know more, so just click on the reminder.

Then, one day, your baby will laugh for the first time – a wonderful moment you’ll probably want to capture!  You can open up the reminder again and record exactly when they first laughed.  If you’ve taken photos or video of one of their first laughs you can add these to the reminder, and you can record in the notes what triggered the laugh, where you were…in fact, anything you want to record.  Then click “Turn into record” to permanently record all these things and when they happened.

Now, your baby’s first laugh will be permanently recorded for you to look back on.  You’ll no longer be reminded to look out for their first laugh, but don’t worry, there’ll be plenty more developments to look out for as your baby’s growth proceeds at an amazing pace!

There are hundreds of reminders like this, covering both big and small milestones in your child’s development to 5 years of age.

I didn’t have my children as very young babies, and using software like this might have given me something nice to look back on and remember.

As it was, I faced three toddlers arriving at once.  Sadly, taking pictures and keeping records fell by the wayside while I got to grips with being a mum.  I truly regret that I was not organised enough to record everything, as the precious little time we have when our children are young flies by so quickly.  You really wouldn’t think so, but you blink, and suddenly wake up one morning, ten years older.

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I have three licenses to give away.   You can try the programme for free on the website, but I have licenses for the full software package to give away, each one worth £14.99.    The winner will be chosen by random generator on the 24th December.

All you have to do is:

  • Leave a comment to tell me that you want to enter.
  • Leave me a way to contact you – either email or twitter id.
  • If you want to, you could tweet I want to win Gurgle Baby Milestones software with @scottish_mum at http://wp.me/p1aG8Y-W4.  No pressure, you’ll still be entered if you don’t.
  • For an extra entry, use a separate comment to tell me after you have followed me at Networked Blogs at Facebook.  http://www.networkedblogs.com/blog/scottish_mum/popup

Good luck.

Kind Regards
Scottish Mum

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Christmas Twinkling Tree Lights

When Christmas Trees and Lights asked me to try a set of lights, I just had to say yes.  I like twinkly things you see.  They sent me some lovely Multi Function LED Lights that are for both Outdoor and Indoor use.  There were 120 bulbs on the string and a box that has a switch to toggle the different functions of the lights.

My set are coloured, and they can flash in combination, or in waves, sequential, slo glo chasing, flash, slow fade, twinkle/flash and constantly on.

We had our tree up with the plain white lights that came with it.  We are not a real tree family, but we do like our tree to look nice in the evenings.

These LED lights use little power and last longer than regular lights.   They cost £13.99 at the moment as they are on offer.  They also come in a handy little plastic tub that the lights can go back into for next year.

How did they shape up.   Well, when I added them to our tree with white static light on and switched them on, the kids all shouted coooool in unison.  I think that says it all really.

Christmas Trees and Lights also have some gifts, and THIS ONE is quite cool really.  I remember the one that my grandparents used to have in their hallway which was rented.  I wish I had kept it really, but the pink version looks better than the black.

Some of the effects are in the pictures I took.  I found it really difficult to be able to get an image that shows how well the lights show up the tree.  This is how our tree started off with just the white lights that it comes with.

To get a decent effect, I took pictures in the dark.

Disclaimer:  I was provided a set of LED Lights for this review.

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Teethscapades

The one thing that hasn’t been boring this last month in our house has to be the Dentist.

Dentists are usually one of those things that rarely make a dent in my life.   As a young thing, I chose veneers and a crown in place of expensive jewellery for milestone birthdays as my own chompers were damaged as just a wee thing.

I spent every year of my life from age 8 to about 20 ish with my hand covering my mouth when I smiled.  I used to sort of grimace with my mouth closed when I could, or limit the amount that I laughed.

Granted, it means I don’t have as many smile lines as most people my age (huge benefit to not smiling for over 12 years) and I had no jewellery to show off as I grew up, but I could finally smile without worrying how people would look at my damaged teeth.

Fast forward xx years and I decide that the last Dentist I took my children to was a snotty, freshly out of Aussie Dentistry novice.  He gaily lambasted me in front of my kids for the fact that their teeth had signs of damage.  I guess he never bothered to read the fact that they are adopted, that baby teeth were rotten before they got to me, and adult teeth have come in pretty weak for some reason.  Naa, just complain, complain, complain.

So, off goes I, when a new Dentist opens up and I think I can actually get a NHS Dentist to cut the potential costs for my ageing mouth of chompers.  I happily sign up myself, my husband, mother and three children.

We all have check-ups and they give me an x-ray to see if there is any decay behind my many veneers.  To my dismay, a semi-front tooth needs a filling.

The man of the house goes first and while a wisdom tooth is being extracted, the Dentist slips and spears her finger while her hand is in his mouth.  Cue tests for HIV, hepatitis and other things I can’t even begin to imagine for both of them.  Oh the joys.

I have hidden decay tooth filled, and happily, old veneer doesn’t pop off during the process.   I skip home with glee before coming back the next week with eldest for a filling.

He makes Dentist next customer more than an hour late as he starts to scream the place down every time she came near him with needle to freeze his mouth.  Major sweating from Dentist and I, bribery and corruption – and much holding of head and hands to help get it done.  Afterwards he says “that wasn’t so bad”.

Filled tooth with veneer starts to ache, badly.   I return for a new appointment for the Dentist to tell me that the last filling was close to the nerve and she tried to take out the filling to put a bandage on the nerve.   She froze my mouth, nothing, still felt it.  She added more freeze, and yup, still didn’t work.  After that I was sent packing with antibiotics and a wish and a hope that it starts to calm down over the weekend.  So far, it’s still a wish and a hope, but it’s only coming in excruciating waves every 30- 60 minutes instead of every 20 – 30 minutes.

Yesterday, the man of the house bit on a sweetie from the kids, and his filling from three weeks ago fell out….

Surely our trips to the Dentist will subside soon………… I am hoping they are all sorted out BEFORE Xmas and New Year hit us.    The way things are going, I am not entirely hopeful of a happy ending.

Toothache hurts – end of story.

🙁

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My Kate Benjamin Black Leather Studded Duffel Bag – and a 20% Discount Code for Accessories Direct

I had a lovely offer through my e-mail recently.  Most offers from PR’s that I accept are centred around my children or gifts, but every so often, one comes along that I really can’t resist taking the opportunity to accept for myself.

I was given a document with an option to pick three items that I liked from in order of preference.   I made a quick decision that this campaign was tailored just for me (ok don’t burst my bubble) and eagerly returned my choices to the PR.

I opened my pack to the feel of a lovely designer dust bag covering whatever contents there were inside.  I was immediately impressed and impatient to see what lovely creation that I had been sent.   I had been sent the lovely Kate Benjamin Black Leather Studded Duffel Bag (opens link in new window) and I knew I was in heaven.

I was surprised to see that all three of my choices were from the Kate Benjamin range, so I must have been destined to receive one of her fabulous designs.

REVIEW

Now down to the nitty gritty that all bag lovers want to know.

I have to say I was delighted to receive my first choice from the sheet, and was able to really appreciate the bag.  The Kate Benjamin Black Leather Studded Duffel Bag retails for £175.00 and the attention to detail impresses.

The first thing that struck me was the wonderful smell that emanates from a new leather bag.   The bag is a mixture of suede and leather and with the most exquisite gilt buttons, hoops and fastenings.

Can you tell I am completely besotted by this bag?   Maybe this incredible feeling of elation at a lovely item is something that only an appreciator of bags can understand.  I know that my sister in law, who is a handbag connoisseur is going to be green with envy when she spots it.

Now for the picture of my real, actual bag with its dust bag.  I so love this.  I’ve shown the inside lining which has a lovely shade of  fuchsia and is beautifully finished throughout.

   

The body strap which is detachable makes it the prefect bag for me.  When I am shopping or out with the boys, I like to have my hands free to carry other things.

The outer bag is 100% Leather and the gorgeous Inner is 100% Cotton.  I can see I am going to get a lot of use out of this lovely, lovely piece of perfection.

Accessories Direct also have gorgeous jewellery, hats, purses, umbrellas, fascinators, slippers, gloves, wallets, scarves, gifts for all.  I actually love this Linden French Multi Striped Bunny Rabbit, and I wish we had someone in the family with a child young enough to give it to.

DISCOUNT FOR BLOG READERS

To go with my post reviewing this fabulous bag, Accessories Direct have allowed me to give my readers a huge 20% off non-sale items from the website.  All you have to do to get this discount is to enter this exclusive code when you buy.

“FESTIVE”

The discount code is valid until 9th December 2011 and I would recommend buying early to avoid the Christmas post rush.

And if you sneak over to their website (opens link in new window) you will see they also have a Facebook Promotion going for the 12 Days of Christmas which looks fabulous.

 

Disclaimer:  I was provided with the Kate Benjamin Black Leather Studded Duffel Bag by Accessories Direct to review.