Brother Max Combi bibs - A Review

We reached a point not long ago where it became very clear that some kind of food collection function was required at the end of Alex's bib. To be honest, there wasn't really a wide range to choose from as far as crumb-catching-bibs go, but I decided to give Brother Max a try. 

The basic Brother Max bib set comes with the catcher, and three bib attachments. I did like the look of the bibs; the bib attachments are made of soft white cotton (with a waterproof backing), each with either a red, orange or blue edging, and the orange scoopy attachment looked quite funky also. I was a little put off with paying $23ish for the pack. However the only other bibs with catchers I could find worked out to be marginally more expensive per bib anyway. 

I particularly like having the cloth part around the neck, rather than having the whole bib as plastic. I can't imagine it would be nice having a plastic bib attached to your neck every time you ate. I am also a big fan of being able to put the cotton bib part in the dryer. One of the few pitfalls with these bibs though, is that they seem to stain like nothing else. I guess one should expect that with a white bib, but it is annoying having to constantly soak them to get the stains out. The majority of the time, the stains don't come out anyway. I have a banana stain on Alex's blue-edged bib from the first time I used it that has lasted through several soaking with no signs of going anywhere. 

I am also a huge fan of how "nappy-bag-friendly" these bibs are. You can attach a bib to the catcher, roll it up, do up the buttons, and you end up with this cute little package that fits nicely in your bag. Also great for after use - if there is mess, it can be contained in the catcher. Fantastic for my little Grot-Bag, who manages to smoosh everything he eats.

You can also buy extra bib attachments, should the need arise, however these are still quite pricey. We generally only use this bib for lunch and dinner, so we can usually go through a day or two without running out. I have been known to reuse a cloth attachment for dinner after lunch if Alex hasn't completely covered it in banana, ricotta or avocado. We have run out a few times when I have been a bit lackadaisical with the washing, so I have been tempted to buy the extra cloth bib pack.

So to sum up:

The Good

• fabulous at actually catching food, therefore meeting their purpose
• nappy bag friendly
• easy-to-clean orange catcher attachment 
• very nice looking

The Bad

• The cloth part stains very easily and requires a lot of soaking to keep white
• A little pricey

I would say, though, that they are probably worth the money. In essence, they work. They are great for when you're out and about (see Alex's sushi photo). I wouldn't say I love them, because they're a bib and still largely utilitarian to me, but they are cute and have made eating out with Alex less of a nightmare. I give them a 8.5/10.

Out & About with Alex

Just a few not-great-quality-but-cute photos I've taken on my iPhone while we've been out and about lately...

Enjoying his first babycino from Gloria Jeans. Wasn't a huge fan...

He fell asleep on me right at the start of Read & Rhyme last week - which began a week where he fell asleep at every activity we went to.

His first sushi - loved it!

Loved this car while we were shopping with Alex's Nanna the other day.

Pfft, how wrong one can be...

Okay, so the last time I wrote, I was under the impression that as my son had slept through the night for two whole nights in a row, he was now "fixed". I was wrong. The night I wrote that, he was awake for about three hours, from one until four. It's all very random now. We do occasionally have a night where he sort-of sleeps through the night, but they are few and far between. Most of the time, he wakes at least once. Some nights, he'll wake up three or four times, and for hours at a time. I'm back to being incredibly frustrated.

Breastfeeding is still sort of happening, but we have the approach now that he only gets it when he asks for it. When he wakes during the night, I'll give him a feed to go back to sleep, but that seems to be the only time. I question how much milk he's really getting anyway, but if it gets him to sleep, awesome!

Besides that, we are joining lots of different activities to make sure Alex gets worn out during the day. Every second Monday, we go to Storytime at the ABC shop, one Tuesday a month, we go to Read & Rhyme at the library, every Wednesday, we go to Mainly Music, every Thursday is Kindergym (but we haven't made it to that yet), and music lessons at the Conservatorium every Friday. And in between that, I go to the gym two mornings a week and Alex goes to the creche, which always tires him out. On the odd chance we don't have an activity planned, I take him to the park and make him run off some energy there...

It does seem to help. He always sleeps well during the day now. It's so easy for his midday nap. Give him a quick cuddle, sing a quick song, and his eyes are almost asleep before his head touches the bed. Not like at night time, where it usually takes about an hour of screaming, singing, shh-ing, rocking, stroking, and whatever else we're attempting that week.

Alex is getting ever more confident with his walking now. He was previously only walking from one object to another, but will now walk quite freely on his own. It is a slow process, however, as he feels a need to step on any part of the footpath that is a slightly different colour, or is a different texture. Which means that when we are shopping at Westfield, he has to stand on every red Westfield sticker he sees on the floor. And when we're outside, he has to stand on every leaf. While I'm usually happy to indulge, if we're in a rush, putting him in the Ergo is often the quickest option...

He attempts to say a lot more words these days, and is getting slightly more recognisable with his pronunciation. His favourite words at the moment at "click" and "kick", which sound pretty much the same, but are quite cute. It's actually more of a throat-clearing sound than the words, but at least he's trying.

John has started his second CPA module, although again, his study is fairly minimal thus far. He struggles with the motivation a lot. Plus he think he always knows in the back of his mind that he can pass with minimal effort.

We have had many a car issue lately. John's Fiesta suffered some flash food damage and was written off, so we bought a second-hand Alfa Romeo 159 two weeks ago. 'Tis lovely, and it's nice having two cars that the family can go out in. However, last Friday, John had a bit of a scary incident in the Alfa, where the accelerator got a mind of its own, and started speeding up as John took off from traffic lights. Luckily, he managed to slam the brakes on, which slowed it down enough that he could turn into a side street near his work, then he managed to get it into neutral, and with the motor roaring, turned it off in the middle of the street. My hands go cold thinking what could have happened if there happened to be more traffic on the road, or there wasn't a side street to turn into.

So, the Alfa is currently sitting at his work waiting to be towed back to the dealer in Sydney, and we're back to one car for a while. I hope they can fix it; I was starting to really appreciate the lovely leather seats, and the light that comes on under the passenger door at night so you know what you're stepping into, and the automatic rain-sensing wipers, and just the general Italian craftsmanship.

I can only hope it does work out, I don't think I could handle another car purchasing research adventure like we had with the Alfa...