When you are almost two, you don’t need to carry a lot of stuff around anymore.  OK, maybe a few spare nappies and a pack of wipes.  And maybe a bib.  And maybe a no-spill cup or water bottle.  And maybe some snacks.  Oh, and maybe a toy.  Or two.  And a book.

And when you are almost two, you are also trying to be independent.   If, then, there was a backpack that was cute, was just big enough for everything you need to carry, and had padded adjustable straps to make carrying it comfortable, you’d just have to have it, wouldn’t you?  When the clever people at Skip Hop designed their range of kid’s backpacks, it seems that’s exactly what the came up with.

There was great excitement when we opened our Monkey Zoo Pack - with such an adorable monkey face, you’d be hard pressed to find a cuter bag for your little one.  With tactile corduroy ears and cute banana zip pulls (just big enough for little hands to use) this little backpack has made quite the impression on our almost two year old Charlie, who insists on carrying his ‘monkey’ everywhere.  A mesh pocket on the side for easy access to a water bottle, enough room inside for everything a little kid requires, an insulated pocket, easy clean surfaces and quality manufacturing mean that Charlie will be toting this around for quite some time yet.

And if you just happen to need more than one adorable backpack in your life, well you’re in luck because as well as Monkey, there is also Penguin, Mouse, Owl and Dog to choose from.  Good luck choosing just one! Check out the Skip Hop Monkey Zoo Back Pack here…

Hello again friends,

From the Nation’s Capital I made the long trek down to Hobart, at the very bottom of the country, to visit my next family and boy, did I have fun!  Not as much sightseeing this time (it was a bit cold, and I don’t really like the rain), but I did get to hang out a lot with my new friends.

Thomas and Stella took me to Auskick, which is the Australian Football League’s introductory program for primary school aged kids to football. Nationwide, there are about 160,000 kids who participate, and here where Thomas and Stella attend there are about 40 of those.

I watched them run around and have fun on a chilly Sunday morning, and learnt a bit about how to pass the ball by handballing.  Not that useful to me, however (no hands and all), but definitely fun to watch!

I got to help take Stella to school one day, and she was very excited to introduce me to her friends and her teacher.  Ollie, Charlie and I had a bit of a play on the playground as we left - that slide was the best!

The children also took me to their grandparents house one weekend, and we went for a walk past the Cadbury factory (mmm, mmm!) and had a bit of a play in the surrounding parkland.  Nanna even took our photo with Freddo Frog!

After a farewell tea party, it’s now time to make my way north again - here the leaves have fallen off the trees, and the mountain overlooking the city will soon be dusted with snow, so they tell me.  Hobart was great, but off to my next adventure I go.

See you again soon,

Owl.

“Oh… they are lovely,” I thought as I looked at the Babu Cot Sheet Set, “but how can I review a sheet set?”   As soon as I opened the [water soluble, biodegradable PVA] packaging, however, I knew how.

And it wasn’t just the environmentally friendly 100% jersey cotton that is thick, super soft and luxurious that won me over.  The Babu Cot Sheet Set comes with a fitted bottom sheet, of course, but also a top sheet which is fitted at the two bottom corners.  There are many ways to make a bed, and I would not normally use top sheets - all that tucking in when you make the bed, and with my wriggly children it is hard enough to keep the blanket over their little sleeping bodies without glueing them down, let alone them getting tangled in a top sheet as well - but the idea of a fitted top sheet? Ingenious!  And what’s more, it actually works.

Charlie was the lucky product tester, who was kept covered all night because it was impossible to pull the sheet off, meaning the blanket on top stayed in place - no tangling.   Plus, it was simple to pull up the sheet and make the bed in the morning - no tucking.  Charlie’s happy, I’m happy.

I was able to put the sheets straight on the bed without washing first - after feeling how soft they were and after reading about Babu’s commitment to “absolute quality, safety and attention to detail”, I was sure that there would be no nasty chemical residue (two of my children suffer from eczema, so I would normally choose 100% cotton for its softness against their skin, and then wash everything first).  Aside from the obvious quality of the product, I am also impressed by Babu’s range of contemporary colours and patterns.  Grey marle cot sheets and baby all-in-ones?  Yes please.

Now, how to get Babu to make their lovely sheet sets in larger sizes?

A good book is precious in our house - we treasure it and look at it over and over again.  Books don’t always have to be for reading, either.   Sure we read to our kids, but they also enjoy grabbing a book off the shelf and looking at the pictures (and then leaving them in a pile on the floor. But that’s another story).  Books we read to our kids aren’t to teach our kids to read, but simply to spend some time together. We have many favourites, some which are loved for their tongue-twisting rhymes, some for their inclusion of bottoms and jokes, but most are simply for their wonderful illustrations.  And in the tradition of what goes around comes around, some of our kids favourites were our favourites when we were their age.

Books make great gifts. We choose a special ‘birthday book’ each year for our kids, something that might help them to remember certain times of their lives, or simply a book that includes a favourite of the moment.   But it doesn’t have to be all about the purchase (although we have had some lovely Saturday mornings wandering the aisles of a local bookshop) because we also love going to the library as well.  Our local library has regular story times for toddlers and school holiday events.  It’s also worth checking out your library’s website – ours gives us links to book related children’s programs online like Storyline Online, which is an initiative of the Screen Actors Guild and has videos of actors reading well loved stories.

Don’t like reading aloud?  It helps to make it fun, both for your kids and yourself – put on a funny voice, talk about the pictures.  Wonderful Australian author Mem Fox (of Possum Magic fame) has tips on reading aloud to kids, most of which involve taking the time to enjoy the moment.  We’ve also found that it helps to choose a relaxed time for reading together (bedtime is sometimes not the best choice in our house), and also to keep the stories short. 

What’s your favourite book to read together? Here are a few of ours:

-          Harry the Dirty Dog (Gene Zion)

-          Brown Bear, Brown Bear (Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle)

-          The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle)

-          Spot (Eric Hill)

-          Possum Magic (Mem Fox)

-          Rosie’s Walk (Pat Hutchins)

-          Charley Harper ABC’s

-          The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! (Mo Willems)

-          Whatever (William Bee)

-          Mr McGee and the Biting Flea (Pamela Allen)

Ollie loves aircraft. Jumbo jets, zeppelins, helicopters, gliders, sea planes - mention any of these, and you have his attention. Imagine his surprise then, when on Christmas morning he woke to find he had his very own airport!

The Airport from Plan Toys is a wonderful interpretation of what kids remember most about the real thing - a flight control tower, car parks, elevators and baggage conveyors, and of course a skybridge to walk on board the plane.

This flat pack set was easy to assemble, and came with a cargo truck and trailer, a pilot and airplane, a check-in counter and an airport worker. It also comes with some coordinating luggage, but I have these tucked away for when little things stop going in little mouths. There are two versions of the airport, which appear to only differ in roof shape - we have the earlier version, which although has a superb mid-century butterfly roofline, it also tends to pop the control tower off easily. And don’t worry, the blue roof is made from foam, so no hard edges for your little one to bump.

Plan Toys have a great range of other toys to co-ordinate with this play set, but we have found that everyone is welcome at the airport, from Matchbox car and London double-decker to plastic pirate and the odd roaming stegosaurus. Oh, and don’t forget your passport!

Meet Kim, one of our new resident Road Testers.  Kim  is Mum to four kids aged from one to eight years and from Hobart.  Welcome aboard Kim ! We look forward to reading Kim’s Road Tests and also her Guest Blogs.