Nanos

I love well-made, well-designed chidlren's clothing. And the truth is that brands that fit these two categories are getting harder and harder to find. So imagine my delight when I finally walked into one of these few boutiques, one I knew by name and from their website but had never had the chance to see in person: the Spanish company Nanos.

They have a few shops in Europe, and just recently opened a space inside Harrods. They also have an online shop. I visited their Notting Hill, London, shop last week - and I was not disappointed! It was all I had expected, and better!

The boutique itself is BEAUTIFUL - the aesthetic is exactly what I love for children's rooms, and if I didn't do interior decorating myself, I'd hire their shop designer! :-) Understated, refined, chic, a treat to the eyes. The clothing, shoes and accessories as well are absolutely beautiful - and wonderfully made in Spain. The staff were lovely and I particularly enjoyed talking to the manager about the boutiques, and especially hearing they are doing well.

We left with a teddy bear for our daughter (who had stayed with her grandparents in Portugal) - unfortunately there was no room left in the suitcase for much more! A must visit, if you happen to be in the neighbourhood of a Nanos!

And if anyone can tell me the colours they used for their woodwork, I would be very grateful! ;-)

L'Ane Trotro

This is one of my favourite discoveries when it comes to cartoons: L'ane Trotro (Trotro the Donkey). It is based on the Trotro book series by Bénédicte Guettier, whose main audience is toddlers. We first found the German version on YouTube, and I thought it was a German cartoon. 

Our daughter didn't mind not understanding a word, and as my husband is semi-fluent in German, we just let her watch it. Then, looking for more episodes, I found the original French. The graphics are cute, the stories are simple and the theme song is oh so catchy!!!

Babo Botanicals

When I was growing up, my hair would get so tangled and I would cry so much when combing it that my mother decided to cut it short like a boy. I didn't have hair longer than my chin level until I was about 6 or 7.

My daughter has a mix of my wavy, many-layered hair and her father's straw-fine dark blonde hair. The combination is absolutely beautiful ... for the first 10 minutes after the bath. Most of the time she has a knot right in the center back of her head, especially in the morning, and we constantly fight about combing it.  So it was serendipitous when about a month ago, after a particularly difficult morning trying to convince my daughter to get the knot combed,  that I found the Babo Botanicals Hair Detangler while picking up something at my local pharmacy

It smells wonderful, it's organic and made at a farm in upstate New York - and it really works! It makes it easier to comb her hair and she loves to say "mama, I need the de-tan-gler"!

Snobs

We are die-hard fans of Downton Abbey (even though I am a serious anglophile, who isn't obsessed with DA?!). So, anticipating a "grown-up" (= just the husband and I) trip to London next month and, mostly, anticipating the withdrawal symptoms we will have after season 2 ends in a couple of weeks, I purchased Snobs, written by Downton Abbey's author Julian Fellowes.

Since I brought the book home, our daughter has been slightly obsessed with it... she constantly asks me to read it to her (!) and if I don't, she will spend about 5 minutes (which in toddler time is like, an hour!) flipping through the pages and then carrying it around. I'm thinking it's not so much what the story may be (and hopefully not the cover...) as much as it is that she knows it's a "grown-up" book and she likes to carry it around and pretend...

Or maybe she is a nerd-in-training, like her mamma. I do remember loving books like this (you know, old, worn, read paperbacks), flipping through the pages, pretending I could read... ah, a mamma can dream... :-)

Spork Little

We have gone through a few sets of cutlery since our daughter has learnt to use spoons and forks (not there yet on the knives). I usually send a set to school but sometimes they don't come back (lost, thrown out by accident, etc). So, being the anal person that I am, I was starting to despair every time I opened the drawer and saw incomplete sets - get over it, I know. BUT... I found something that is PERFECT!

These are called Spork Little, made by a company called Light My Fire, they are safe, BPA free and made in Sweden! We purchased this set of 3 at an outdoors shop for $6.50! And even better...spoon and fork are always together! Ha!

Charles Dickens

This morning, through a friend on facebook, I saw this little cartoon introduction to Charles Dickens (whose 200th birthday anniversary is today) produced by the BBC. I thought it was so cute that I showed it to our daughter.

She loved it so much that when we got home this evening, she asked me to show her "the one in London, you know, with the peoples". It took me a few minutes to understand she wanted to watch the Charles Dickens story! After watching about six times, she asked if she could see a different one... anyone know if there are any other BBC cartoons on writers, artists, etc? Such a brilliant idea and so well made!

Some Babies Are Wild (and oh so cute)

We love animals and this is something we have tried to pass on to our daughter. As a consequence, most of her toys and books are animals or about animals. And better than animals... baby animals! So imagine the awwws, oohh, ahhhs when we saw this book, Some Babies Are Wild, in the book section of one of our favourite outdoors shop.

Our daughter loves it so much that she spends most of the time "hugging" and "kissing" the babies!! And can you blame her?!