Baby Baby: great toy guide

Showing posts with label great toy guide. Show all posts

5 January 2010

It's All Going On...

The lovely Susanna (A Modern Mother) is hosting the first Best of the British Mummy Bloggers Carnival of 2010. It's a marathon effort and I'm please she found room to include a post from Baby Baby.

Secondly the fabulous Baby Genie is running a Big Mummy Blogger Survey. Please take part, it only takes a couple of minutes. There are some interesting results already.

Finally we were lucky enough to be sent a Vtech Animal Fun Bounce & Ride Giraffe to try. You can read my review at the Great Toy Guide.

3 December 2009

Check It Out!

I've got so much to tell you...

I'll start with the promised update on the

Auction for the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund.

The organisers have been unable to set up a raffle in the time available,

instead all donated items have been added to the auction.

The auction closes at 6pm on Sunday 6th December,

so there's plenty of time to make a bid and grab a bargain!

***

Next up is the Best of the British Mummy Bloggers Carnival.

The lovely Pippa from A Mother's Ramblings is hosting, and

a fine job she's done too. Huge thanks to her for including one of

my posts even though I missed the deadline!

***

I have been writing a series of Blogger Basics lessons over at

New Mummy's Tips. The latest lesson is adding video.

There is also a comprehensive FREE blogging E-course generously written by

Erica at LittleMummy. It's not too late to make a start.

On this course you will find out everything you need to know about blogging.

It is suitable for complete beginners, old hands may also learn a thing or two.

***

Have you done all your Christmas shopping yet?

The Great Toy Guide team have been busy reviewing 100 toys under £10.

Presley personally tested the brilliant My First Lacing Tools and the Bambini beads

There is also an amazing competition. Check out the prizes:

What are you still doing here?! :-)

5 November 2009

Toy Story

This is my life now. Well, not really, this is a pile of toys and books. This is a fairly tidy bit of our lounge.

It is symbolic of how my life has changed forever. Every night I pick my way through the toys on the lounge floor and I feel happy. Two small children live here now.

Most of the time it looks like a mini tornado has ripped through the house, leaving upturned cars and cows in its path.

Burglars beware! If we don't put everything away in the toy box (ahem, most nights), the house is reminiscent of that scene in the film Home Alone. You know, the one where Kevin leaves all of his toys out for the hapless burglars to stand on, slip on or fall on.

I don't know why I don't wear shoes in the house, it would save me from injury and save the toys from going to the toy hospital. We tell the boys it's a toy hospital, but really it's a heap on the kitchen worktop of things Mummy has trodden on and broken. Also there are the well loved books that need a bit of TLC - and sellotape.

We do rotate toys and only leave out a few at a time, this doesn't stop the boys getting everything out of the toy box every day.

I've just had a scary thought.

It will soon be Christmas.

Yikes!

***

Speaking of toys and Christmas - do you see what I did there? Seamless - the Great Toy Guide has your ultimate guide to reusable advent calendars here. We drew the short straw at Baby Baby and got an embroidered bag for life to review. Have a look and see what we thought of it here.

31 October 2009

A Carnival, a Bath, Soup and Pygmies

Firstly, in case you haven't seen it, the best of the British Mummy Bloggers Hallowe'en carnival is being hosted by Hot Cross Mum. Head over there for some parenting horror stories!

In other news the Great Toy Guide just gets bigger and better. We have been testing reusable advent calendars. Those reviews are coming soon. You can now find the GTG on Twitter too.

The Calico household tried some of the Tinti natural bath products, including popping bath candy. You can read my review here.

***

Finally, I mentioned in an earlier post that I had printed out a short story that I had written. I was planning to take it to Word Soup, Preston's live literature night. Well, I took it last week and it stayed in my bag the whole night.

Last night I went to a mini Word Soup event. It was primarily a poetry evening, but other people read prose at the open mic. I plucked up courage during the interval and put my name down for a spot in the second half.

When I was introduced I stood up and made my way to the microphone. I told the audience that this was the first time I had read any of my work in public. I took a deep breath and read my story. Towards the end I struggled to keep my breathing regular. I read the last line and with shaking hands I folded my 750 words. The applause lasted until I sat down.

At the end of the night several people came over to tell me they had enjoyed my story, that they couldn't believe how confidently I read and that I should definitely carry on writing. I was in shock! Complete strangers were so kind and supportive.

I originally called my little story 'Halloween Party', but later changed my mind to 'Playing With Fire'. It is particularly apt for this time of year anyway. I'm delighted to say that it was published today on The Pygmy Giant and you can read it here if you like.

14 October 2009

Proud to be Meme

Thanks to the lovely Linda at You've got your hands full for tagging me with the 'proud to be meme'. You can listen to Heather Small singing 'Proud' while you read if you like. Isn't youtube wonderful?!

I'm proud of so much in my life, but I also have a few not so proud skeletons lurking in the Calico closet. What do you mean you want to hear about those? No!

I' ll stick to listing five things that I'm proud of today:

Presley walked to and from playgroup today. He held on to Cash's pushchair all the way and stopped patiently on the kerb as I taught him the Green Cross Code.
At playgroup the boys were spectacularly well behaved, (if you ignore Presley trying to open the main door - my 'UH UH' cut through the hubbub and he walked sheepishly back). Today was the first time Presley asked to join the craft table. He glued some paper and felt on to a squirrel-shaped piece of paper. It's lovely *wipes away a tear*. Yes, child art work is still a novelty. Yes, it's going on the fridge!
I managed not to pass out with the pain when Cash whacked me round the face with the potty. I saw stars. Unfortunately not the George Clooney/Johnny Depp kind of stars.
We survived day five without CBeebies. I will write a post on this soon. Incidentally, our television was unplugged before the news report about the Aussies banning it for the under-twos. I just couldn't watch another episode of 'Big and Small'.
I'm proud of being involved in all this blogging erm... stuff:

The Best of British Mummy Bloggers Carnival is being held by Antonia at Family Friendly Working.
A Mother's Secrets has a collection of posts on pregnancy lows.
I've written another Blogger Basics post for Carol at New Mummy's Tips, this time on adding images to posts.
I've reviewed the best children's dressing up costume in the world ever on the Great Toy Guide. If you're looking for a Halloween costume you'll find the best twelve here.

Now to pass the meme on to five unsuspecting bloggers, off the top of my head:

Consider yourselves tagged!