A Tablet for Christmas and Happy New Year from Me

Aaron only wrote his letters to Santa in the fortnight before Christmas and he asked for a train track and tablet. You can even see him writing it here (he also did an "independent writing" one at school which really impressed me).

I'm so very glad he asked for a tablet as he is getting so much out of it and he didn't yet have one (other than a leap pad type thingy).

We Santa got him a Kindle Fire and it turned out to be the right decision. Obviously he had a few smaller presents and stocking fillers too, but to be honest they didn't get a look in.

The Kindle Fire comes with Amazon Fire for Kids which is £3.99 a month, but you  get a free month to trial it.

To go on it, he is his own "user" so he only has a deck with "books" "videos" "apps" and "characters" and they are all child friendly. So the whole Christmas he hasn't been on You Tube as he's totally satisfied in there (apart from at night when he watches an episode of Horrid Henry on my phone every night).

Two days ago he discovered a Star Wars game on there and is now already at level 15. So despite being on it daily since 25th December as recently as Saturday he found a new game as there's enough on there that he didn't get bored.

I am yet to discover if the apps/games rotate or refresh monthly to justfiy the monthly subscription but so far I am MORE than satisfied. It was a delight and a pleasure on Christmas Day that I didn't have to worry about what to download for him or choose games/apps as I know you end up getting ones you regret sometimes and not many of them are free. Everything I have seen him play with has been educational and/or fun and age appropriate. BUT, the games did have to download once I registered the Kindle online and it took me a while to realise that's what it was doing. They were visible as buttons but you could not click on them straight away, but they all seemed to start working whilst I was in the shower Christmas Day and I could hear Aaron's squeels of excitement. When we got in the car there was no Wifi, but luckily you can continue to play the ones in the carousel offline so it seems.

His cousin has a tablet, which although a different make, is the exact same colour, size and weight, so they were thrilled. They're so so good at sharing they even swapped tablets a fair few times and spent a lot of time sharing Aarons. Of course they ran around and played too as they're both too active to limit themselves to screen time.

Do you know, in the fortnight of Christmas I only took 74 photos, which is what I am normally capable of taking in one day. I also can say that I am not in a single one of those. I just never got round to handing the camera to anyone and asking them to take one. At times like that it would be easier if someone just offered but it just so happened nobody did.

So I am quite behind on bump shots and don't have one to share with you. Sadly. BUT I was SO thrilled with a t-shirt my cousin sent me, I do have this selfie:

Thrilled to find Boland's Jam Mallows in the 99p store. All through my childhood my Grandad sold them in his shop in Ireland

A photo posted by Liska (@newmumonline) on Dec 20, 2015 at 10:48am PST

But it is quite literally just my bump, which by the way, is now measuring +2.5, so not only am I huge AND nearly full term, I am measuring large too, but then again, that's exactly how it was with Aaron too. Sorry I have not blogged at all over Christmas but I had a head cold which turned into flu and then panic attacks (partly due to the congestion), so I've not turned on my computer at all through Christmas, literally until yesterday 3rd Jan when I only turned it on for 30 minutes prior to making the dinner.

Aaron's at a school which went back today, so I guess that's what's freed me up to blog now. It's a short sharp end to the Christmas given that I am one of those who keeps the decorations up until 6th Jan. Both of my parents are Irish and despite being born here I consider myself Irish, or of Irish heritage. 6th Jan is what we refer to as Little Christmas and I love it - you can't pay me to take the decorations down before then! There's another aspect to Little Christmas, which is Women's Christmas, which I wish was still alive in other places beyond Kerry and Cork. It's a chance for women to kick their heels back after all the hard work associated with the festive season.

I really need to do a pregnancy update, preferably a Vlog on video, so I must do that in the coming days, once this flu is fully out of my system and I am presentable once again ;-)

I hope you are all very well. Happy New Year everyone.

Lots of love, Liska xx