Play Time

I take my daughter to a baby and toddler group once a week and the group starts off in the church where we all have a sing along. Little uns are invited to come forward and help themselves to a musical instrument to play along - or just make as much noise as possible as is often the case Lily loves playing with the instruments so it seemed only fair that we got her her very own set.Read more

Most of my mummy chums have invested in mega blocks for their children when they have reached a certain age - generally just after their first birthday - and having seen how much fun they have had with them, I figured they were a must-have for Lily. There are a host of different Mega Blok sets to choose from, many tying into favourite children's tv characters.Read more

From an early age, Lily has loved music and so it made sense for us to buy a few little toys for her that built on this love. We came across this little drum in our local Early Learning Centre and it immediately appealed. The drum has three modes of play, including four demo melodies, three silly sounds and a free play action. Coloured buttons around the side of the drum activate each different mode and the music/sounds are further set off when the top of the drum is tapped (or in Lily's case it's often banged on by whatever toy she has in her hand!).Read more

We bought our daughter this fun train for her first birthday. It appealed to me for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I knew Lily would be attracted by the fact it's a train - she just loves choo choo trains (Chuggington is one of her favourite CBeebies programmes!). Secondly, I liked the fact that pressing the 'funnel' part of the train triggered it to play little melodies, accompanied by the funnel lighting up. Great sensory appeal, therefore.Read more

Some little uns are blessed with sailing through the terrible teething stages and then others, like our darling daughter, have an awful time as each toothy peg cuts through the gum.

The market is swamped with teething solutions and we have tried pretty much all of them in an attempt to ease Lily's suffering. Generally speaking when it comes to traditional teethers, even those that you put in the fridge so that they offer something cool to gnaw on, our little girl is having none of it.Read more

A friend bought these as a baby shower gift and they stayed packaged up until Lily reached the age where she had begun to pick things up and explore them with her hands, fingers - and mouth, of course!

Pooh bear is a firm favourite with most little children and Lily certainly seems to have been taken with these blocks. Right now she seems pretty content with banging them together or using them as teethers. I try and build her all sorts of constructions, but they are soon bulldozed down by Lily's hands!Read more

Lily has two older cousins and her parents have been kind enough to give us a number of baby products that their two children - at 19 months and 9 years old - have outgrown. This baby walker was used by both cousins and isn't looking too bad for being nearly a decade old!Read more

At the time of writing this (Sept 09) this is Lily's latest toy and was an absolute must purchase for me having witnessed the fun she had playing with this toy at her cousin's house.

I'm proud to say that I managed to pick it up at a well known superstore (the one where the advert shows a worker patting his/her back pocket!) for some £12 less than another well known baby store wanted for it! Result!Read more

Nine years ago my darling nephew was born and my husband and I chose to buy him a baby gym as his welcome to the world gift. He loved it and spent many a happy hour laid on the colourful mat, playing with the toys in the arched toy bar. Naturally, then, I hoped our little girl would appreciate such a product too.Read more

If I had to name one baby product that has got the most use out of it would have to be Lily's baby bouncer, made by Bright Starts (and reviewed elsewhere in this section). When we first came home with Lily she seemed so tiny inside the harness but fast forward five months and my husband and I couldn't deny that Lily was starting to look decidedly snug in the chair.Read more