High Chair Hygiene

There is nothing worse than going into a café or restaurant and plonking your little one into a dirty highchair. They say there are more bacteria growing on a highchair compared to your own toilet seat. Yeah – revolting right.

So let me pose the question to parents who use highchairs in cafes. Do you clean up after your little one has covered the highchair with the daily special? Are you the type of mum or dad that cleans up after them and leaves it nice and clean for the next tiny bottom. Or are you the type of parent who thinks, “l just paid good money for that meal and l believe the staff should clean up after us, we’re paying right”? Then there is also the unknown, do the staff even wipe down the highchairs well or do they just dust it off half-heartedly for the next customer?

Personally l’m a cleaner. I don’t wipe down before we place the bubba in the highchair – l’m not that germ mad but l do clean up afterwards, with a packet of wipes and some elbow grease. Only on one occasion l've totally freaked out about the “hygiene levels” and that was when a large cockroach emerged and crawled over my son’s tray and then disappeared. l did the freak-out-jump –up and down on the spot for 10 seconds following that episode. Cockroaches freak me out!

I understand the café staff are PAID to clean up after us but l just can’t bring myself to walk away from such a devastating mess of bread, fruit, yogurt and god knows what else has been mashed up in my young son’s mouth and then spat back all over the highchair and the floor. And even if the café staff do clean up after l have, at least l know it’s been given a good clean, twice, for the next little bottom.

My husband has been known to give me the ‘hurry up’ on several occasions because l’m down on all fours under the table frantically picking up tiny crumbs and crusts from the floor – slightly a bit obsessive l know but l like to leave things the way l found them. Clean. So next time when you are out and about have a think, are you a squeaky clean mamma or a messy mamma?

All Brunched Out

Well my head was certainly spinning by the time l got home from the Bloggers brunch that l attended on Friday. It was so full of information, inspiration and my throat was sore from so much talking. l had to pull over and pop into my local Japanese restaurant for a quiet lunch afterwards just to take a moment to re-group. (!!)

The lovely Christie from Kids Business certainly out did herself again and put on a spectacular brunch with loads of interesting guest speakers, delicious food and of course some great products for the mums to take home to try.

It was great to catch up with some old friends – Li-Ann from Ham and Pea, Jodie from Muddled up Mamma and Kate from Babysitters and More, l also had the pleasure of meeting some new mums and had a few good laughs with Maria from Mums Word and l met the sweet lady behind Little Sooti – the lovely Thetis.

I actually had the honour of being asked to be filmed for Channel 31 along with some other mums as we checked out all the latest and greatest products by the sponsors. Maria and l took centre stage a few times at various stands throwing questions around like Tony Barber. It was most fun. Some of the great brands we got to experience and learn more about were, Garnier, Million Dollar Woman, Blackmores, Aunty Rozzy, Protect-a-bed and HoMedics, who were all very generous and gave us all fantastic show bags to take home stuffed with products, samples and all sorts of other goodies.

I am particularly excited about trying the Garnier product “Anti-dark Circles Roll on” heaven knows l have enough dark circles to cover up!! I was that excited to try the Garnier products l accidentally picked up another bloggers sample bag in the madness, and not realizing my cheeky error trotted off home. It wasn’t until l was showing Mr Man my “boodle” at home l found the second bag of Garnier goodies, sick to my stomach l immediately phoned Christie to let her know.

Turns out it did belong to someone – the lovely Becky from Becky and James (so sorry for ‘lifting’ your goodie bag!!) I offered to hand deliver it to her house, then Becky explained to me she lives in Bathurst, which is just slightly out of my way! (LOL! It’s in the post my dear!)

All in all it was a great day and lovely to put some faces to blogs and meet the women behind them in the flesh. As always Christie put on a grand event and the generosity of the sponsors didn’t go un-noticed. Thanks for letting Hey Bambini being involved – even if l did grab an extra bag! (Can’t take me anywhere – I’ll blame my “kleptomaniac” evil twin sister!)

L'atelier de Monsieur Truffe

The Monsieur Truffe menu is small & offers
a variety of breakfast & brunch dishes.


For the wee ones they have two menu options, kids raspberry
pancakes with coconut curd & kid’s sausage rolls with sauce.


For the hot chocolate fans they do offer mini hot chocolates
which are served lukewarm to prevent unnecessary burning tongues.


For tiny bottoms they have highchairs & a change table in the toilets.


To read more of this review pop on over to Hey Bambini.


Enjoy!

Malaysia Kitchen Australia

Coffee, cake and brunch are some of the MANY things that the Hey Bambini team gets to dabble in weekly, and when l say 'team' l mean my 2 son's, hubby and myself - huge team hey! My main passion and number one focus is finding child friendly cafes for families to experience and enjoy.

So when l was approached to be a Malaysian Kitchen Ambassador l was immediately intrigued, excited and thrilled that l was asked. You see l know LOADS about cafes but no so much about the Malaysian cuisine. l love eating Asian food (Japanese and Vietnamese are my personal favourites) - in fact they're high on the list of things that l enjoy to eat, but l haven't eaten a lot of Malaysian food. Sure l backpacked around Malaysia 10 years ago and enjoyed the food, but heaven help me if l can remember what l ate! Our diet at that time was mainly a 'liquid' diet if you get my drift...

Monday night was launch night at the Malaysian restaurant Laksa Me in Chinatown. l adore walking into Chinatown, the amazing cooking smells that float down the street get my mouth watering in an instant. At the restaurant l got to met some fellow Malaysian Kitchen Ambassadors which included the lovely Megan, Christine, Carly, Candice and Karen who also have fabulous and inspiring blogs. (Pop on over for a cheeky peek!)

Our delicious banquet had us literally all rolling out the door and Chef Allan Woo was a delightful soul. Allan was only too happy to share with his passion and stories of Malaysian food, which l found fascinating. Allan touched on a brief history about Malaysia as a country and of course all the lovely ingredients that go into traditional Malaysian dishes. I enjoyed seeing his passion for cooking and hearing about all the different cooking processes and the love that goes into his Malaysian food.

It was truly inspiring and l can't WAIT to get out there and try some more Malaysian food. So as a newly appointed Malaysian Kitchen Ambassador l order thee to go forth and experience with me the colourful, the spicy and the delicious world of Malaysian food! Oh wait a moment - l'd love to bring you all along to each and every restaurant l get to try but sadly l cannot. So stay tuned for my adventures, they say you eat with your eyes so l will be bringing to you loads of lovely foodie snaps and details of all the Malaysian restaurants we get to experience and enjoy, hopefully some family friendly!

It's a Small World After All!

A few months back l attended a networking morning tea at Babycinos Garden Cafe.

All the usual suspects were there that l love to run into - Kate from Babysitters and More, Linda from Nifty Mums, Vari from Buttercup Ink and Katrina from Market Angel just to 'name drop' a few.

It's always lovely to catch up to share tips, ideas and get the gossip of what's been happening in the online world.

On this day there were 2 new faces. Laura and Patricia from My Family Deals. You see this was the girls first sort of networking event thingy and we all made them feel welcome (as you do) and we all swapped cards and email details. When l grabbed Laura's cards l noticed see was from Buninyong which is a small town just outside of Ballarat - my old stomping ground.

To cut a long story short turns out Laura and l actually went to the same school in Ballarat and her brother was in the same year as me! It just goes to show what a small world it really is and even though our paths never crossed all those years ago "back" in the day, they have now in a Cafe 100kms from Ballarat, 16 years down the track at a mummy networking event. So without further ado l want to welcome My Family Deals (who have just launched today by the way!) to the little Hey Bambini blog.

Here is a little bit about them....


My Family Deals is a new website launching today offering great deals on family friendly cafe's, children's activities and family accommodation as well as essential products and services your whole family will enjoy.

My Family Deals has been created by two mum's who wanted to offer families great deals at 'child friendly' venues! Our deals are available across 7 days and to celebrate our launch by registering your details on our site you can go in the draw to win $1000.00 worth of deals.

Plus there will be an exclusive launch this Friday on our website for a fabulous Thailand holiday deal - perfect for the WHOLE family! We look forward to providing you with great daily deals across Melbourne and Victoria and shortly in Sydney.

Cubbyhouse Canteen

With plenty of room to move a pram, baby change table
facility, high chairs, toys, colouring pencils & books,
indoor/outdoor/park seating option, great food & service,
this cafe makes for an ideal place for the whole family
& already proving extremely popular with the locals.

To read more of this guest review by Li-Ann from Ham & Pea click HERE

Sydney LOVE

Oh my goodness!

That's all l can say right now.

We have only been in Sydney for four days & our little family has already explored so much of this beautiful city.

{We are dreaming of having an apartment on the water - but yes just dreams...}

We can't wait to share with you all the great child friendly cafes we've already found.

Our jeans are starting to get a little tight so a see-food diet may be on the cards when we get home!! {LOL!!}

So stay tuned for the next exciting "cafe news" installment from Hey Bambini.

{We thought we'd just "check in" to let you all know we are still around!}

Until next time we meet lovelies.

Cheers to Sydney