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June 2017

Mamma Reviews

Oblumi Tapp Thermometer Review

Oblumi Tapp

Oblumi Tapp – More than just a thermometer….

The Oblumi Tapp is an innovative approach to mixing a medical device with everyday technology. Its a small device that when connected to your smart phone enables your phone to become a infrared digital thermometer. Incredibly handy for on the go or travelling.

The Oblumi Tapp is so much more than a themometer though  its key features include:

 

  • Temperatures can be taken either in ear or forehead. It also has the ability to take the temparate of liquids. Very handy!
  • It calculates the accurate medicine dosage based on the information submitted to the app for each child at the outset
  • You can create alarms to remind you when the next dose of medicaiton is due
  • Each family member can have a profile set up that records the key data for each person
  • It also registers the history for each patient,  very handy if you had any follow up for example in a hospital situation where you can let the medical professional know the temperatures recorded and any medication given. My littlest man ended up in hospital following his 6 month injection and I was in such a fluster I could barly tell the Doctor the childs name. Had I had the Oblumi this would not have arose. The required information would have been available on my phone in an instant.

Mamma Fairy Verdict – the Oblumi Tapp

Oblumi Tapp App

We really love to travel in the Mamma Fairy house so products that make life easy when travelling get a big thumbs up from our house.  Very handy due to its small size plus it comes with a little durable pouch to store it in.  Its very easy to use and the app is free to download. It took me a couple of attempts to get the hang of using it so do try before you need it in an emergency.

My bench mark when testing a product is would I buy this for a pregnant friend or family member as a gift.  Without hesitation yes I would. The compact size, the easy of use, the app which stores key data are huge plus points over a traditional thermometer.

It costs  €49.95 from Bubblebum  in Ireland. For further information on the product see also Oblumi

 

Note: We were sent the Oblumi Tapp for review this in no way impacts our views on the product.

Family Fever
Reviews for Mama & Babas

Spinmaster Air Hogs E Charger Review

Spin Master

Pic Credit: Spin Master

The boys love being outdoors so we are always up for trying out toys we can use in the garden or the park.  The Air Hogs E-Charger from Spin Master fits the bill perfectly.  Rumour has it Air Hogs will be big this year on Christmas lists!!!

Air Hogs E-Charger

Air hogs E-Charger

The kit comes with the E-Charger or plane, the charger and an instruction manaul.   The product requires 3 AAA batteries which are not included.  It is so simple to use. You literally plug the E-Charger into the charger device for 30 seconds! Yep only 30 seconds and you are ready to go.  This in itself is ideal for kids especially mine who are not the most patient!

The e-charger itself can travel up to 100 yards which definitley impressed the boys. Its so light they werent overly hopeful at the outset but after a few attempts they managed to figure out how to gain good distance with it. The competitive nature wasnt long coming out in them and they try to see who can make it go the furthest distance.

One note of cation is to open it from the box with care. The boys were a little over zealous trying to get it out of the box and damaged the wing a little. It didnt seem to impact the flying thankfully.

The Verdict

Air Hogs E-Charger

Air Hogs E-Charger

Thumbs up from the biggest boy, especially the fact it only took 30 seconds to be able to make it fly. Its also very portable when out and about as im normally the one left carrying the toys after they are tired in the park!

Priced around €13 this is very reasonable for the amount of play it has got in this house to date.

 

Note: We were sent the E-Charger to review however as always opinions are my own or the boys where appropriate.

Reviews for Mama & Babas

Stikbot Zanimation Studio Review

My kids had Stikbots before this fab product landed through our letterbox to review.  I hadn’t heard of these guys before but my oldest did and was really happy to add to his collection.

What are they?!

Stikbots are little posable figures, approx 3 inches high with suction cups on their hands and feet to enable them to stay in position.  How they work is that you download an app which enables you then to make stop start top animations with your phone or tablet.

The “Zanimation” studio contains all the elements needed to get started straight away.  It comes with 2 Stikbots, a green back drop (and 2 prop boxes) and a handy tripod to prop up your phone.  The app itself is available for free download (both iOS and Android) and very easy to use and follow. You will find plenty You Tube videos to assist if you are experiencing difficulty with it, or just ask the kids! Mine are far more tech savvy than me!

What we thought?

Kids were already fans of Stikbots so this was always going to be a hit.  It’s the kind of toy I would have enjoyed myself as a child and a lovely introduction for young kids to the world of animation and how it works.  Picture opposite of an epic battle about to start. (disclaimer the pink and green we already owned they did not come with it).

Be warned though the animation can be slow progress to make anything any length of time so younger kids may not have the patience for it as each teeny move adds up to make the animation video.

This is priced around €20 and in my mind very good value  for hours of fun and a nice way to incorporate some old fashioned play with technology.  Toys that engage the brain are a hit in my book and Stikbots do tick that box.  The boys actually spend more time making up scenes and battles (!!) than actually doing the animation itself. Individually they are priced around €5 so its not too expensive to add to your collection.  I can see this getting lots of play in our house and the requests have already started for more figures!!

 

Note: We were sent the Zanimation studio but we were already fans. The fact we were sent this doens’t impact our view as quick frankly the kids don’t care how it arrived to the house!!!

 

Features

Fathers Day ideas – Gift Guide

Fathers Day tends to get a lot more air time in our house than Mothers Day for some reason! The boys love to treat the hard working Dada Fairy for Fathers Day so we decided to pick out some of our favourites below.  I am very much in favour of pracitcal gifts or gifts that mean something. I loathe spending unnecceasarily, so with that in mind the Mamma Fairy house has picked a couple bits that are well worth checking out and wont break the bank either:

Handy cheap and cheerful gifts

While not the cheapest in the gift guide I think this from Lidl is well worth checking out. With the advent of contactless payments the security of cards has certainly become an issue.  It is so easy now to pay or perhaps even accidently pay with your card therefore a wallet like this from Lidl would be well worth considering. Its aluminum which protects the card itself and has in built technology which blocks the abiltiy to be able to use the contactless function in your pocket etc.  (pic credit: Lidl) At €24.99 is at a good price point too. Availble in Lidl at the moment.

Lidl also have a huge range of cheap gifts from aftershaves to novely golf balls, to mugs to insulated cups to superhero tshirts.  Safe to say most budgets are covered here with prices starting at €2.99. The kids wanted to buy the Dada Fairy the golf balls pitcured opposite! They thought they were hilarious! However the Dada Fairy doesnt even play golf!! (Pic credit: lidl).

I was in my local lidl today and picked up some great beer glasses, they had loads of types like the tulip style ones or the 300ml sampler type ones. Another good option for Fathers Day and at €4.99 per set great value and practical too!

Sentimental Gift

The Dada Fairy lives for his boys and he loves nothing more than filling the house with pictures of the boys or mementos to mark occassions. I totally fell in love with these personalised gifts from Makeitwithwords.com.  The pencil style portraits are amazing and can be personlised with any text and framed. Love love love them.

For any musical dads I love the mix tape picture where you can add the name of songs or bands that mean something.  You can also add personalised text to it too.  There is something about a personalised  gift.  Make it Words are a family business and my love of supporting local and small business is well known. They make a whole range of amazing personalised gifts from all occasions not just Fathers Day.

Or what about a real throw back once in a life time gift? How about a trip of a lifetime on a spitfire flight or even a simulator experience? I know in this house the Dada Fairy and his own father would go wild for this!

Snuggly Gifts

Dads deserve to be pampered too! These snuggly pajamas with cute prints are the perfect gifts to spoil your dad on Father’s Day. They’re made from the softest eco-friendly bamboo viscose, a material that’s naturally hypoallergenic and thermoregulating. Bamboo fabric may also have antibacterial properties, which is a huge plus. Most importantly, there’s an entire line of pajamas for dads, moms, and babies so the entire family can all get snuggly in bed together!

Special Hobby Set

Got a dad who enjoys acquiring all sorts of handy skills? Give him something new to learn with this bump key set. Bump keys are specially designed to open certain kinds of locks through a process called lock bumping. Lock bumping is one of the many techniques locksmiths and locksport enthusiasts use to open locks. If your dad is fond of tinkering and fixing things, he’ll love lock picking and learning how to use different lock picking tools. Get him started on that path by giving a whole set of beginner’s tools!

Grooming!!

I was having a nosey in Dealz last week and and I saw a card suitable for the Dada Fairy – “Bearded Dads make the best dads”.  I know its totally tounge in cheek and yes I did buy it as the beard is a long running joke in our house.  This lead me to our next option! See here from Top Men Shavers   which has some great articles on types of razors ( I havent a clue about anything like that) and some gift ideas for the bearded men in our lives!

I love this old school shaving kit pictured opposite. (Pic Credit: Top Men Shavers)

Lild and Dealz have some great very reasonably priced cards too.

 

Mamma Musings

Lost in translation – its the holiday season

School is almost out, the holidays are booked, the bags packed and the sun cream is bought.  According to a study commissioned by Holiday Autos the average adult is able to rattle off up to 15 words with French being the most common language.

Ill admit (sorry Dada Fairy) my husband is one of those holiday makers who loves to learn a few words before we depart what amuses me also is the kids get in on it too. Now don’t get me wrong in an increasingly multicultural world we live it this is something I absolutely encourage. One funny episode springs to mind. We were in Italy for a family weeding and when we finished a beautiful meal in a restaurant in Lake Como my son departed with a wave calling “ ciao” to the waiter. The poor guys was speechless this teeny tot speaking to him in his own language. He knew we were Irish holiday makers over for a wedding. To make it even funnier he insisted we all come back to the table and gave us a round of limocello (obviously not to the kid!!).

Lovely gesture by the restaurant who im sure still remembers the teeny tot, who is now 5 who greeted him in his native language.

I laughed at some of the findings of the survey which reveals, the average holidaymaker has experienced three ‘lost in translation’ moments when on holiday.

According to the poll…

  • One man asked for directions and kept being told the price of a chicken.
  • A holidaymaker thought he was asking a waiter where the toilet was, but was actually repeatedly asking where the man’s wife was.
  • Another asked for egg on his pancake and got a raw egg.
  • One respondent asked for a lemonade and ended up buying a newspaper.
  • Another respondent regularly got the French words for rabbit and bread around the wrong way.
  • A gentleman got a surprise in France when he asked for jam to go with his croissant and got a condom.
  • One respondent ended up with a slap around the face. To this day he doesn’t know what he said

For anybody who wants to prevent the ‘lost in translation’ moments Holiday Auto have produced handy language guides that are available online and include top foreign phrases to help avoid any of the above.

I recall another episode long before we had kids when we visited China. My husband got food positioning and a quick call to his mother revealed a brandy and port should to do the trick. I was swiftly dispatched down the hotel bar for this miracle cure however I spoke no Mandarin and the bar man had little English. He duly poured what I though was a Bandy and Port however he told me that would be the equivalent of €500. I almost fainted. Queue frantic drawing and pointing at menus and we seem to have found a middle ground and he charged me what I though I was paying around €10 interestingly enough I still walked away with the same drink. I can also happily report it seemed to do the trick!!!

Note:  This post is collaborative post, content created by myself with thanks to Holiday Autos