Well I have bought my 5 year old daughter a boostApak for our holiday to Spain this year.  This was recomended to me by a friend who has 2 of them for her girls – she was going on holiday and it was going to cost her £60 per week for car seats for the girls so she bought the boostApack for them instead.  Nifty backpack that turns into a car seat – suitable for over 4 years.  I thought she must have been kidding when she saud that she packed a week worth of clothes in it!!  Well I decided since we will need a seat for Caitlin I will get her one.  I bought it from Halford – got it through Quidco so got cash back on it too!! It cost £32.99 for it which is very expensive for a booster seat but not when you think of how much it costs to hire one!

Since we got it she has been using it in the car – she took it on a trip to Aberdeen we managed to get about 3 days of clothes a couple of books a pair of shoes and another couple of kid bits into it.  This was my girl packing it!!  I reckon that if packed correctly you will get a good 5 days worth of summer clothes into it with maybe a pair of sandles and a book for night time stories!!

Would I recommend it – Totally!  I give it 5* *****

Cons is that it is slightly bulky however the kids dont notice it and they carry it with no problem cause its theres and they are all excitded about it!!!

We all know that little girls grow up way too fast these days. We all know that the dolls, prams and accessories are all getting more and more scarily life like as well. For my little girls’ First Birthday, she got a Baby Wee-Wee (where you fill up a bottle with water, ‘feed’ the bottle to the baby, and then push this HIDEOUS button on the doll’s back and it wees) and a buggy. I’ve had a look through catalogues for buggies for children and I was shocked to see a Quinny Zapp, FOR DOLL’S, being sold at £60 :O shock horror! Especially when I managed to get a Petite Star Zia for my DAUGHTER for just over £50. So, the buggy she got was just the standard, MY FIRST DOLL’S BUGGY. Hasn’t got too many features, brightly coloured, collapsable, and a fabric seat that can (on some) be reomved to be cleaned. It is, in all honesty, exactly what you paid for. It is simply, the best idea for the first buggy for children without breaking the bank. Retailing at £15 in most shops, it really is value for money. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

But, considering we are all looking for bargains for our children, I thought I’d leave the following link on this review too, as I sell many baby, toddler and childrens clothes, shoes, accessories and toys INCLUDING this buggy for just £10 including postage! Feel free to add my shop on Facebook and have a look. www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100003473779004

Im a bit of a pramaholic and been through many different prams/ pushchairs with my eldest (2 yr old) so when we found out I was pregnant I made a promise to my husband that I would choose 1 and only 1 pushchair for our newborn, I always like to have something different to the next mum and chose my Silver Cross Surf travel system and I love it!! Ive had Gracos, Tutti Bambini, Quinny etc and this is the best one Ive had. Takes a bit of getting used to putting it up as it does with any pushchair as they all fold differently but apart from that its great. Its really light and although folds seperate from the seat unit is really compact. My daughter (1 month) looks really cosy in her newborn nest and she looks safe. I was thinking of getting a carrycot for it but the seat unit with the newborn nest is perfect. The frame is nice and bouncy so easy to rock her back to sleep if she does wake whilst we are out and ab The breaks are easy to use, its easy to manouver and easy to take the seat unit on and off as is the car seat. I was looking into getting a buggy board for it as my eldest is still only 2 so will have to see how it goes with that on. If anyone was looking for a pushchair/ travel system I would highly recommend this. Im one very happy mummy

As parents, or parents-to-be, well all love those toys that last a long time, and the one that sticks out for me, is the V-Tech First Steps Push Along Walker. Now, I’ve never been a fan of the walkers that you put your child into and have never bought one for my daughter. This, however, I was aware of LONG before I was pregnant as my younger brothers had one too! I bought this when my daughter was 6 months old as she’s rather advanced and was already way on her way to pulling herself up and attempting to walk. I read somewhere that there’s a chance that Sit-In walkers can stunt the development of walking so I wasn’t taking any chances on that.

• Features of the walker? I adored the fact that you could actually remove to toy itself to put on the floor for before your child is walking. I love the bright colours, the buttons, the different activities that are on it AND the choice between a ‘musical’ theme or an ‘educational’ theme. It also features a removable toy phone, which acts as a rattle or in my daughter’s case, a teether There are actually two different colours available in this toy; a red/yellow design which is unisex or a pink/purple design for a girl. And if you know anything about me from my reviews, it would be that I bought the PINK version for my girlie.
• Price range for the walker? You can usually get it for under £25 although as it is a popular toy, some retailers will take advantage of that around Christmas-time and boost the prices up dramatically.
• Age? As you can take the interative toy from the actual walker itself and place it on the floor, I’d say it’s suitable from when your child is rolling around and/or sitting up. Then you should be able to keep it around until the child reaches three or four because as they get older they begin to understand the games, phrases and interactive features a lot more.
• Negative points? I honestly can’t think of any at all. There’s one point but it’s not really a negative. If you do decide to purchase this walker (which I highly recommend), when your child is learning to walk and pull themselves up on the walker, keep your foot infront of it as when they put their weight on it, chances are, it will roll forwards and the last thing any parent wants is their child face-planting on the floor. OUCH.
• It requires 3 x AA batteries which in all honesty don’t need changing very often at all. I don’t think I’ve changed the batteries in the walker for the past six months, maybe more.

As an overall rating of this, I’d definitely give it a 5 out of 5 stars as it is one of the strongest, most durable, age ranging toys available today. I mean come on, there must be a reason why MY brother had one, and they’re still available for MY daughter years later, right?

Skye just got her walker. Aged 6 months.

So my kids are now 2 1/2 and 5 and have move on from their original travel system to a umbarella fold buggy!  I had bought the Bebe confort lola in oxygen red for my daughter 5 years ago wow man was it really that long ago!  Where has the time gone.  Any who I really like this travel system easy click system Car seat, Pram and buggy all clipped right into the chasis and back out again!  The material cleaned up easy, you know how messy kids can get!  For me I did not require an iso fix for the car.  The car seat fit easily into the car with no problems – you did need to use up all the strain of the seatbelt though!   The chasis pushed well however I found that although the seperate handles were good for putting shopping onto after a few years of not over use but well used there was a lot more play in the chasis from side to side – at this piont I thought it could do with a one peice handle and low and behold this is what they have now a days.  I highly rate this maker and was delighted with my choice in travel system – my sister in law bought the newer version last year for her bambino and again she loved her choice too!  Over all I think the pros of the buggy out weigh the cons.

Easy to use – folds one handed which is a plus at times – seems very comfortable for the kids – wears well – very sturdy (more so now it has the single handle)- fold seperatly and fits compact into your home/boot space

We’re all looking for the right nappy for our children, whether it’s disposable, non-disposable, pull ups, normal, active fit, lock in dry; all children are different and all children have different needs.

My daughter is now coming up 15 months and I’ve given almost every brand, type and style of nappy a chance. I started with Huggies newborn and found they leaked, awfully! So gave up with those, less than one packet in. Then I moved onto the Pampers newborn and I was really pleased. Every child has a leaky nappy every now and then, but they were such a rarity that I was more than happy to buy them. But soon, my daughter was growing again. I bought Pampers Baby-Dry and they were BRILLIANT. I bought those through-out size 3 and 4. Until they started splitting and the nappy crystals started coming out. My daughter has very sensitive skin, and these nappy crystals brought her out in a red, blistered, raw rash around her nappy area so I complained to Pampers and they said to try Active Fit and I was given a voucher to purchase a pack of those. I used about 5 out of the pack and then threw them away too as my daughter’s rash soon came back using them. Then I tried Pampers Simply Dry and they were brilliant and I swore by them for a good few months until THEY started splitting and nappy crystals came out of those too! I even resorted to trying Huggies Pull-Ups but they wouldn’t last a night with my daughter as they didn’t handle a lot.

A friend recommended Pampers Pull-Ups to me so, as they were on special in Wilkinsons, I gave them a shot. They were they best nappy for my daughter. She’s never had any rashes, they’ve never split, they rarely leak at all AND they have a sticky tag on the back so you can wrap them up in a hygenic manner when changing your child. My daughter started wearing these at about 8 months, just after she started walking and is still in them today. I recommend these to every mum out there so you don’t have to go through what I went through trying to find a suitable nappy for a child with sensitive skin. Also, they keep leaks in very well as my daughter is always walking and running around and getting into mischief.

Rating? 5 out of 5.

So everyone’s always looking for the right pram for them as everyone has different needs. I am a single Mum who gets the bus on a regular basis and goes for little walks to the park. I also live on a first floor flat so I also found myself having difficulty lugging a pram up and down a dark and narrow staircase. When my daughter was born, I bought a Babystyle Lux 3 in 1 and although that was good for her being a newborn, I had to make three or four journeys up and down the stairs just to get out of my flat. And then I invested in a Silvercross 3D which was also quite good but still rather heavy. Then I heard about this amazing lightweight buggy called a Petite Star Zia. Weighing in at just 6.3kg, I decided to get one. Prices range from £100 to £150 for just the stroller, however I bought mine second hand for about £50 which I was chuffed at to say the least.

What stuck out for me the most? HOW PINK IT WAS. I decided to purchase a pink one as I have a daughter and I thought it looked gorgeous. Straight away, putting my daughter in it, I decided that it was perfect for what I wanted and found it very easy to collapse and carry both the buggy and my daughter downstairs at the same time. It is not an umbrella fold buggy, it’s one that collapses into itself, and I also noticed that once it was collapsed, it stood on its own. Now, I’m not usually a massive fan of three-wheelers as I’ve seen many tip off a curb and the child end up dangling or worse, toppling out. However, as three-wheelers go, I was comfortable pushing it as there was a bar connecting all three wheels so it was almost impossible to tip. I also liked that it was a very small buggy; I’m only 5’3 and I find normal stroller handles much too high. Another feature was the draw-string style back to allow it to lay down. It not the best mechinism as many times it has got stuck. I did notice it didn’t sit 100% upright, however I found a trick to making it so, by pulling the drawstring in an upwards position rather than outwards, yet you do risk the drawstring getting jammed by doing so. The basket looks a lot smaller than it is, a few people said to me, “Isn’t that small? How do you manage?” Well as long as I have a changing bag, it doesn’t really matter. But, you can’t access the basket whilst the buggy is lying flat. Another downside to the buggy is its tendancy to tip backwards once shopping is hung from the handles. As the seat is fairly deep, the weight isn’t evenly distributed and when you put too much shopping on the buggy, it will tip.

Overall, I would say the buggy is perfect for someone who takes walks, and doesn’t need it when going shopping UNLESS you have a car. It’s very small when folded and would fit in the boot of probably one of the smallest cars. It comes in lots of different colours, which again, is something I like. Pink, purple, blue and black to name a few. It’s been compared to the Quinny Zapp a lot, but I have never tested a Quinny so I wouldn’t know which one is better. Since the release of the Petitie Star Zia, there have been a few newer buggies which I’m guessing focus on the bad things of the Zia, to improve them. These include the Petite Star Zia+ and the Petite Star Zia 4 and 4+ which are both suitable from birth. I have not used any of the newer buggies so I don’t personally know whether the problems have been made better in the newer models.

I would rate this buggy 3 out 5 stars as it does have a few very useful features (weight, compact) but there are a number of negatives too (tipping, drawstring, access to basket).

My son received this for his first birthday. It has been a huge hit for all of my boys. Aged 4, 3 and 1. The dinosaur comes with several roll a rounds each with different animals/features. My son loves the balls particularly and is often rolling them all over the living room. The dinosaur itself is well built and catches a childs imagination. There are 4 different holes on the dinosaur which each one the child can put a ball in. Each hole leads to a different reaction from the ball. Each hole also plays music and lights up when a ball in placed in it. When a ball is put in the left hole it rolls out down a set of ‘stairs’ and turns a butterfly at the bottom. The middle hole is bumps down a set of ramps and knocks a pendulum type thing swinging, the bottom hole it comes out underneath from behind a flap, the best in my sons eyes is the far right, this in our house is the most used hole. He puts the ball in a hole and its rolls down a ramp, the dinosaur opens its mouth and out comes the ball rolling across the room, brings a giggle to him every time. On the top are 2 brightly coloured plastic dinosaurs, these in my opinion are the only downside as they seems quite flimsy and like they might get pulled off by an over excited toddler at any moment, but so far they are still in tact. Lovely colours and well built. Sturdy, my son pulls himself up on the toy and it doesn’t tip over which is fantastic. The music on the dinosaur isn’t very loud and doesn’t go on for a long time which leads to a dissapointed child but of course a very happy mummy, the house is noisy enough without a million toys all singing different songs! The balls are made of very hard plastic so are very durable, but my heart is in my mouth every time one gets thrown across the room, hopefully my TV will survive this stage. 5 out of 5 stars from me and my son

My daughter has LOVED Waybuloo from a young age. She has had most of the toys and accessories in relation to Waybuloo going. However, the one that stuck out the most for me was the Waybuloo Peeka Laptop. In the description, it says that its from 2 years and upwards yet I bought this when my daughter was one and she LOVED it. She still does.

It’s a brilliant toy, theres are two games and 12 brightly coloured buttons. There’s a reflective mirror, that shows up images of the Piplins or common accessories used in the TV programme, when buttons are pressed. Even though I gave this to my daugher below the recommended age, she’ll probably have it for a lot longer as the games are ‘Hide and Seek’ games which children begin to understand over the age of two. The battery life is excellent as well; I put fresh batteries in it, in January this year and they are now slowly dying. The laptop is on all the time when my daughter is awake as its one of her favorite toys. It extremely durable too, as tested by a very boisterous almost-15-month-old girl who thinks all of her toys are for throwing or standing on. It’s still going strong, no chips, no marks, no scuffs.

It is priced at below £20 from various places including Argos and Wilkinsons and I think it is worth the money. Its a definite must-have for all of the Waybuloo-obsessed toddlers out there are and theoretically speaking it could last well over 3 to 4 years!

Rating? 5 out of 5 stars.

I guess we’ve all be there and done that, eh? Bought your child a tshirt from Primark in their size, washed it and been amazed at how much your child has grown? Or, the clothes have shrunk. That seems to be it. I, personally, LOVE Primark for children’s clothes. Cheap, cheerful and if they break/get ruined/stained etc then I can justify replacing it! Perfect for a single mum on a tight budget. HOWEVER, anyone else noticed that they shrink, rather a LOT? My daughter was 3 months old when her Nana bought her a beautiful three-piece set for the hot weather last year, consisting of a beautiful flower patterned top, pink 3/4 length trousers and a head band. Unsure of Primark clothes and sizes at this point, I asked if she’d get her a 3-6m size which fit beautifully. However, in true baby style, it soon had milk down it and needed washing. Needless to say, it was never worn again as it had shrunk to a tiny baby size! I was gutted and yet had to explain to my daughter’s Nana why she never saw my daughter in the outfit.

Lesson learnt? Although Primark DO have beautiful Baby and Toddler clothes, REMEMBER TO BUY THEM A FEW SIZES BIGGER. I bought some clothes for my daughters first birthday and had to buy them all in either 18-24m or 2-3y.

If I was rating the clothes on their designs alone, it would be 4 out of 5 stars.

However, the whole ‘either my child has got bigger or the clothes have got smaller’ conundrum leaves me with having to rate them with a 3 out of 5 stars.