Play Time

Lily was given this toy as a gift at about 7 months old and to be honest back then she couldn't really appreciate it for what it actually was. She saw us pressing the gazebo's top to make it spin, but couldn't do so herself. And when it came to putting the shapes in their respective holes? Well that was a task too much! All Lily was happy to do was chew the life out of the four coloured shapes - to the point at which she worked the stickers on the shapes loose and started eating them.Read more

They are probably one of the cheapest toys you can buy your little un but Lily has had endless fun with hers since she received them on her 1st birthday. She loves trying to put the right ones inside each other, building (but mainly knocking down) cup towers and as her imagination is starting to flourish, she also likes to pretend they are drinking cups.Read more

I don't know how many years this phone has been in production but its retro look and feel continues to prove popular with mums and kids alike. Lily was given hers as a present for Christmas - in fact she was given two (one blue, one pink). Read more

My niece had a similar toy to this when she was younger and had great fun watching the balls magically pop out of the machine all over the room. Of course, it's less about magic and more to do with the design of the toy wherein a battery powered air fan simply blows the balls out of the shoot at regular intervals. Read more

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