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Haba Doctor’s Suitcase

POD is often heard addressing her toys or parents with “I’m a doctor. Okay?”. She takes this role very seriously, even more so since receiving her Haba Doctor’s Suitcase.

It’s metal with a wooden handle and lunchbox size so patients can be treated wherever they are. It’s easy to open and close too which is essential when it’s required all the time!

Inside is a prescription block, pencil, spatula, syringe, tube of ointment, spoon, thermometer, an elastic bandage and plasters. The contents are sturdy yet beautifully made and the attention to detail is spot on.

POD’s first patient was George – he was sicker than Peppa but both had been in an accident. After having his temperature taken, he was provided with medicine and his stomach wound plastered.

Having made him comfortable, POD moved onto her next patient – Peppa Pig “what’s your name?” “what happened to you?” “it’s alright I’ll make you better”.

As you can see, POD takes her doctor role very seriously. She cares for each of her patients and regularly checks to see if they’re alright. Thankfully Peppa and George survived another day.

Many toys have been treated now. You’ll find them strewn across the house donning red plasters until they’re fit enough to enjoy themselves again.

The Haba Doctor’s Suitcase is perfect for pretend play. It’s wonderful to watch POD as she likes to refer to herself in the third person and involve many.

Here she has taken her chair and booster seat into the front room so she can see to her patients – and sing to them like Jo Jingles does at nursery. Being treated on this occasion was a teddy, a cat doorstop and a Christmas reindeer.

POD is happy to relax nervous patients by demonstrating how it’s done, highlighting there is nothing to be afraid of.

If group care is what’s required, that’s what she will provide – keeping everyone informed as she works. You have to admire her multi-tasking and balancing skills.

Mummy and Daddy are also regular patients. POD is able to take a temperature under your armpit in double quick time now with cream and bandaging following afterwards. She also enjoys checking your throat with the spatula and administering medicine to make you feel better.

The Haba Doctor’s Suitcase has been played with more than any other toy since Christmas – a feat in itself given POD’s birthday falls on 25th December. It’s great quality and well worth the £22.60 it costs, it’s available from The Toadstool

Everybody Loves Butterflies

Everybody Loves Butterflies is a great book about a Little Caterpillar that doesn’t want to turn into a butterfly. Although his brothers and sisters had turned into butterflies, and he knew he would too, Little Caterpillar wanted to stay a caterpillar forever.

The Little Caterpillar’s friends try to explain to him that change is good. A dragonfly said butterflies are all the colours of the rainbow but the Little Caterpillar thought that would just make him dizzy.

A bee said the Little Caterpillar would be able to eat “deeeliciious” nectar from flowers but the caterpillar liked the satisfying crunch of leaves. An ant told him he’d see the world but the caterpillar said he was happy where he was.

A robin mentioned butterflies could fly high in the sky but the caterpillar said the sky seemed an awfully long way away. A spider added that everybody loves butterflies. When the spider asked who loves caterpillars, the Little Caterpillar replied “I do”.

The Little Caterpillar went to see the owl as he was the oldest and wisest animal he knew. He asked if he could stay a caterpillar for ever and ever. The wise owl explained the caterpillar would still be him just with wings. That night the Little Caterpillar snuggled down deep and had a long, long sleep.

When he woke, he had wings – glorious wings with red and purple spots! He ate nectar from the flowers, flew loop-the-loop and said “I want to be a butterfly for ever and ever” as he waved to his friends.

We absolutely adored Everyone Loves Butterflies. Not only is it a great story about the life cycle of the butterfly (or “butt-fly”), it’s a wonderful read and beautifully illustrated. Our three year old has enjoyed hearing about the Little Caterpillar but also likes to comment on the other creatures that feature in the book too.

Everybody Loves Butterflies has given her a better understanding of the process from caterpillar to butterfly. Rather handily there is a page explaining the life cycle of a butterfly at the end of the story. This has enabled us to talk through what’s involved in more detail. It’s especially poignant as we saw butterflies in the Glasshouse at RHS Wisley recently.

Everybody Loves Butterflies is written by Tanis Taylor and illustrated by Masumi Furukawa. It’s a fabulous book and available from Amazon (RRP £5.99).

Disclaimer: As a Parragon Book Buddy we received a copy of Everybody Loves Butterflies for the purpose of this review. All opinions are our own.

A slow toy birthday and Christmas

Following our recent visit to see Father Christmas in a crystal grotto, POD did begin to believe he might do more than just fish. She wasn’t convinced though.

With her turning three on Christmas Day, it was a perfect time to step up the magic.

So on Christmas Eve a biscuit and a glass of Baileys were left out for Father Christmas along with carrots for his reindeer.

The following day POD was delighted to see he’d left some presents for her. These included a colouring book and pen set, a finger painting set, Mr Grass Head, a couple of DVD’s and a blue balloon. She‘d asked for a scooter and a blue balloon when she visited Father Christmas in the crystal grotto.

The look on her face when the balloon was blown up was priceless. She didn’t let it out of her sight after that and even held onto it throughout our subsequent car journey.

Christmas presents came once we’d arrived. Daddy looked even more excited than POD when he set eyes on her Bubble Guppies bath toy – he’s yet to see purple streaks in her hair turn pink in water though!

POD also received a TOMY Megasketcher, several books including The Rhyming Rabbit, Paper Dolls and The Snow Queen as well as CD’s for the car and great crafting sets.

On a recent short break to Bruges we purchased a wooden picnic table – already being fully utilised for meals and colouring. We also bought her a small wooden kitchen from Pintoy while we were there. Adopting a few of the little people from a red wooden bus of hers, she’s taken imaginative play to a whole new level!

POD received some fantastic new games too including Peppa Pig Snakes & Ladders and Charades for Kids.

The Haba Sleepy Princess game from The Toadstool, is a great adaptation of the classic Princess and the Pea. The idea being to build a bed for the Princess without it toppling over. It’s a great idea for a game and POD’s already had it out several times so hopefully we can play it together soon.

The Shopping List game from Orchard Toys saw her win her first game – albeit with a little help. She also received Farm Snap although she’s not sharing her cards yet!

She loves her Doctors Suitcase from The Toadstool. POD already enjoys pretending to be a doctor so this set provides the perfect accompaniment.

Once she’d taken out the contents, she set about making her friends better. Peppa, George, a dinosaur, Mummy and Daddy were the first to be treated.

All this activity was a lot to take in so POD was tired by lunchtime. Not that it deterred her from eating a sizable Christmas lunch!

In the afternoon we all sang Happy Birthday while she blew out the candles on her cake.

Among her presents was Baby Annabell, complete with beautifully hand-made clothes, a smart new coat from Monsoon, tickets to see The Gruffalo live, films, her first Cath Kidston bag, clothes, a wooden hobby horse and the scooter she’d asked Father Christmas for!

We’re linking this post up with The Toadstool’s Slow Toys Linky which is open until 31st January 2014.

The Elf on the Shelf

POD will be three on 25th December so she’s old enough now to remember her birthday and the festive period. With this in mind, we had a Christmas themed treasure hunt at the weekend and she met the Doves’ Elf on the Shelf.

We thought it would be nice for POD if she named him. This is quite dangerous given she has dollies called Boadicea, Bob and Rice as well as the aptly named “dolly”, “elephant” and “monkey”.

Initially she decided on “Elf” but having understood “Elf the Elf” wasn’t a name, he became “Ben Elf”. Given she’s a fan of Ben and Holly, we encouraged her to think of another name. Ben Elf then became Jake Elf which was an improvement but Jake Elf quickly became Ben Elf again.

So we will be registering him as Ben Elf.

POD loved the Elf on the Shelf book and its been read several times over. She likes that he has been sent from the North Pole and helps Father Christmas. When she was told he flies back each evening to report on what she’s been doing, her response was “no he doesn’t”.

She enjoys looking for him but mostly believes we put him there rather than he arrived of his own accord.

In an attempt to create a bit of magic, we took Ben Elf away with us at the weekend. Although she was pleasantly surprised he’d joined us, I’m sure she thought we’d just put him in our bag.

We had to work quite hard while we were there to ensure Ben sprung up in the most unlikely of places.

Ben Elf must be spluttering to the North Pole each evening as POD likes to cuddle him. She’s also tried bending his legs backwards and seeing if he can do the splits.

She also likes to turn his head all the way round like an owl. This she finds highly entertaining as she’s tried to do it to me a few times.

Ben Elf may have been touched and moved around which is against the rules but he does have a name at least. Apart from the time he was thrown across the floor, he’s been well loved too. We just need to work on less mauling and encourage POD to believe in magic.

We’re linking this Elf on the Shelf post up with Jocelyn at The Reading Residence. If you’d like to join in with #ElfTakeover, click on the badge below.

Iconic box sets from Paramount

Paramount has a number of iconic box-sets available to purchase for Christmas. These include family favourites such as Shrek and Madagascar along with the likes of Indiana Jones, Transformers, Dexter and Sex in the City.

FAMILY FAVOURITES

Shrek – a magical series of animated films that brings together all parts of the Shrek legend including Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After. Based on the book by William Steig, Shrek tells the story of an ogre whose life is suddenly shattered by an invasion of annoying fairy tale characters. Determined to save his home, he cuts a deal with evil Lord Farquaad and sets out to rescue Princess Fiona.

POD has thoroughly enjoyed what she’s seen of Shrek. She’s fascinated with it although it’s slightly worrying she thinks Shrek is Daddy and Princess Fiona is Mummy!

Madagascar – a tale of a group of New York Central Park zoo animals that find themselves on a trip to Africa. Assisted by four absconding penguins, they end up in Madagascar among a bunch of lemurs. This set includes all three films.

GIFTS FOR HIM

Indiana Jones The Complete Adventures – a Christmas treat for the hero in your life from award-winning duo Steven Speilberg and George Lucas.

Transformers – with Transformers 4 coming to cinemas next year, now is the time to re-cap on the Autobots adventures. The box set contains Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Dexter – after eight seasons of cling-film wrapped kills, heart-stopping near misses and shocking twists, it’s time to mourn the loss of our favourite thriller as Dexter comes to a shocking end.

Under The Dome – the first season centres on a small town that is suddenly sealed off from the rest of the World by an enormous transparent dome. The town’s inhabitants must deal with surviving the post-apocalyptic conditions while searching for answers.

GIFTS FOR HER

Sex in the City (The Essential Collection) – it defined how we wined and dined and made fashion that bonafide best friend. Rarely does a TV series capture a moment but over it’s six seasons, Sex in the City certainly did.

Dynasty – relive the glitz and glamour of this 80’s classic drama. Scandalous love affairs, dirty business deals, power struggles, catfights and bulging shoulder pads add to the drama in a show that epitomised glamour and greed. Box set contains 58 discs.

The Borgias – betrayal, incest, arson, suicide, theft and corruption abound in the Emmy® nominated final season of The Borgias. Catch up on the last 10 episodes or get to know the infamous family from the beginning with seasons 1-3.

Elementary – experience season 1 of this crime solving drama with a box set of all 24 episodes. Stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu.

Disclaimer: We were sent a complimentary copy of the Shrek box set which includes Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After.

Little Learners Finger Puppet Books

Little Learners Five Little Monkeys and Old MacDonald Had a Farm are nursery rhyme board books with a finger puppet built into the story. We’re having so much fun with them!

POD demands Five Little Monkeys be read over and over, each time it ends following up with “again, again, again”. It’s the same for Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

Our toddler has such varied taste when it comes to stories, her range spanning from Julia Donaldson to Beatrix Potter and everything in-between. The finger puppets built into Five Little Monkeys and Old MacDonald Had a Farm have added a whole new dimension to story telling.

She loves it when Mummy wiggles her finger a lot so it looks like the monkey or cow are playing. Sometimes POD likes to try and capture them. As well as encouraging imaginative play, additional sound effects often feature too.

POD knows the words to Old MacDonald Had a Farm and she learnt Five Little Monkeys. She loves to ‘read’ both books to her dollies – something she’s started doing a lot more of recently. It’s great to see.

Five Little Monkeys especially has been repeated everywhere, even Daddy has gone in on the act! We can often be heard chanting the words in the house:

Five Little Monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and banged his head. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, no more monkeys jumping on the bed!

The Little Learners Finger Puppet Books are a great size and even fit in a handbag. This works particularly well if you’re waiting to see a doctor for example. POD shouted “no more monkeys jumping on the bed” at the top of her voice although everyone at the surgery seemed amused!

As you may have established, the Little Learners Finger Puppet Books encourage interactive play and hand-eye co-ordination. For younger children (babies aged 6 months up) they will also help with language development.

The Little Learners Finger Puppet Books are available from Amazon. The range also includes Mary Had a Little Lamb, Incy Wincy Spider and This Little Piggy to name a few. With prices starting at less than £3, they’re great books to have around and will make perfect stocking fillers.

Disclosure: As a Parragon Book Buddy we were sent a copy of both books for the purpose of this review. Opinions are our own.

The Toadstool Christmas wishlist

The Toadstool is running a Big Christmas Wishlist blogger competition with the prize £300 worth of toys. They’re also offering the chance to become a Toy Toad Tester – an opportunity the Doves would relish.

POD loves pretend play and role playing so the first item on our Toadstool Christmas wishlist is the Haba pretend play doctor suitcase. POD has an Aqua Doodle she calls her ‘nurses bag’ and frequently tells her toys she’s a doctor. She’d love to take temperatures, dress wounds and give medicine.

Not only would it be a great gift for Christmas but also for her birthday. She will be three on Christmas Day this year.

She has an incredible imagination, recently I found her collecting dinosaur juice in her laundry basket! She loves dressing up and spent half of last weekend as an Eighties pumpkin witch. This Haba American Indian brave eagle costume would be perfect for role playing and adventures – no doubt her dollies would be enlisted as her tribe!

The Janod giant circus train set and playworld is superb. With acrobats that stand on each other’s heads, train carriages that carry animals and a monkey on a bike, it would add a whole new level to imaginative play. Given POD’s favourite phrase is “hello everybody welcome to my circus”, she’d be over the moon to have her own.

POD is lucky that she has a granny that makes wonderful hand-made dresses and woolens. We spotted the rather lovely Habba doll Little Scamp Mette which is a soft doll the same size as her hard faced dollies. POD’s imaginative play with her dollies includes talking to them, changing their clothes and ensuring they’re wearing a clean nappy.

Pretend play frequently includes “peoples”. At home these often end up in a bag as their fire station home has limited space. Playing with “peoples” is an interactive experience for POD as she talks to them and refers to herself in the third person. This fabulous Plan toys playhouse with furniture has 3 floors and open sides – she’d be beside herself!

She’s reached the stage where she wants to play games. The Sleepy Princess Haba game is great as it’s for all the family. It’s based on an adaptation of the Princess and The Pea – a story she loves. She already has a competitive streak so it would be interesting to see how she’d get on.

The Janod Nutty Squirrel Balancing Game is made of solid wood with the objective to pile up as many hazelnuts as possible on the squirrel without making them fall. This would be a huge help to POD’s motor skills.

POD loves the backpack she has for nursery, often wanting to wear it despite its size. The Lilliputiens Liz Ladybird back pack would be a great accessory for when we’re out. POD is fiercely independent, she’d be ecstatic to have a bag she could carry herself. Not only would she fill it, she’d play with it too. Likely it would be called “ladybird bag”.

The final choice is the rather plump but adorable Worry Eater – Sorgenfresser Schnulli. The idea behind it is that you draw or write down your worries and feed them into Schnulli’s mouth. The mouth is then zipped shut with all the worries banished by morning. POD has had dinosaurs and lions in her room before so Schnulli would be ideal to keep her feeling safe.

You can find photographs of the Doves Toadstool Christmas Wishlist on our Toadstool Pinterest board. We thoroughly enjoyed a rather longer than intended browse of The Toadstool website. They offer a wide range of pre-school toys that are good value, beautiful and kind to the environment which is exactly why we’d love to work with them.

Room on the Broom Live

“How the car purred and how the witch grinned, as they sat on their broomstick and flew through the wind”. Written by Julia Donaldson MBE and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, Room on the Broom is a wonderful tale.

It’s about a witch and her cat who fly around happily on their broomstick until a stormy wind blows away the witch’s hat, bow and wand. Retrieved by a dog, a bird and a frog, each asks for a ride until the weight becomes too much and the broom snaps in two.

POD loves Room on the Broom so we were delighted to hear this fabulous picture book had been adapted for the stage.

Although she is younger than the 3+ recommended age we booked tickets as it seemed too good an opportunity. We’d missed The Gruffalo Live and heard Tall Stories received rave reviews for it. We hoped Room on the Broom would be the same.

POD was confused when her Room on the Broom flag didn’t fly but all was forgotten when we took our seats. The audience was immediately engaged by campers located around the theatre. One camper then became the witch and two the narrators with all four actors bringing amazing dog, bird and frog puppets to life.

As you’d expect there was much excitement when they whooshed through the air! And the songs used to accompany the original story just added to the magic of the show. The story was beautifully told by a hugely talented team who delivered a performance that was bursting with energy. Their improvisation and timing was exceptional.

POD was fascinated by it throughout although she did sit on Daddy’s knee when the dragon appeared. She remained in her seat for the entire 55 minutes. For a toddler that rarely stays in the same place, that’s a huge achievement. Her response when we asked if she enjoyed it was “again?”. Says it all really, just brilliant.

Room on the Broom Live is touring the UK until the end of December.

Photo Credit: Graeme Braidwood

Wonderful Wildlife 123

POD has done brilliantly with learning to count. She’s cracked it to 11 and sometimes she’ll reach 20 albeit without all the numbers. She’s not learnt about values yet so if you ask her how many legs she has, she may still respond with “3 or 4”!

Wonderful Wildlife 123 is a fabulous book designed to teach children to count up to 20. Not only that, everyone in this fun-filled gem is making mischief! We’ve read it every night for two weeks, POD loves it.

It kicks off with “1 lonely badger”, “2 helpful whales” and “3 friendly seabirds singing songs and telling tales”. If you ask POD what the birds are doing, she’ll often finish the sentence for you. With a coy grin of course! We’re then presented with “4 froggy eyes” and “5 buzzy flies”.

The illustrations surrounding “6 little tadpoles watch their mummies with surprise” has taught POD about tadpoles and frogs. And that frogs catch flies with their tongues. She’s adopted an interesting impression of a frog catching a fly.

After we’ve seen “7 hungry birds” and “8 worms that wiggle”, “9 hyenas see a sight that makes them laugh and giggle” follows. POD finds this page entertaining given a bird is attempting to pull a worm out of the ground.

We then reach POD’s favourite section of the book “10 fearful fruitbats” and “11 worried rats” leads nicely into “12 lazy meerkats using rats and bats as mats”. We probably spend more time on the meerkat pages than we do any other. POD likes to identify what animal each meerkat is lying on – whether a bat or a rat.

The conversation goes like this “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whasatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat”.

Following the hilarity of the meerkats, we reach “13 ants encourage 14 naughty moths”. When we read “15 holes in Mrs Panda’s tablecloth”, there is a gasp of horror as POD places her hand over her mouth. She’s not sure about “16 Bigfoot footprints” which is then followed by “17 Yeti tracks” and “18 cheeky chipmunks chucking snowballs at their backs”.

POD loves the “19 wise old owls” particularly those hiding in a tree and there’s much excitement when we reach “20 different dinosaurs”. POD believes at least 3 of them belong to her saying “my dine-saw” as she points to them. She also identifies the type of dinosaur – as in large, small, spikey or smiley.

Wonderful Wildlife 123 is such a great book, it reads really well and it’s beautifully illustrated. If you’re looking for a fun counting book, I’d recommend it as an essential for your toddler’s bookshelf.

Charles Fuge is an award-winning author and illustrator, best known for the Little Wombat series, Bush Vark’s Day Out and many more family favourites.

Wonderful Wildlife 123 is available from Amazon, currently priced £5.82 (RRP £5.99).

Disclaimer: As one of Parragon’s Book Buddies we were provided with a copy of Wonderful Wildlife 123 for the purpose of this review. Opinions are our own.

The Ultimate Summer Driving Playlist

Thank you to One Dad 3 Girls for tagging me in his Ultimate Summer Driving Playlist post. If you’ve not heard about the meme The Boy And Me created, you can read about it and join in here.

To me an ultimate summer driving playlist has to include music with a feel good factor. You know exactly what the song is as soon as you hear the first chord. You’ve already upped the volume. You’re smiling from ear to ear and you’d be singing into your hairbrush if you had one.

My choice of music varies depending on the time of day and my mood. The Eighties was an influential era for me but I also love most musical genres. Below is my ultimate summer driving playlist – just five songs from a long list of many!

This meme is open until the end of August. I’d like to tag the following people to get involved:

The Oliver’s Madhouse

Coombe Mill

The Mummy Scripts

Dragonflypoppy

The Ramblings of a Formerly Rock N’ Roll Mum

Don Henley – The Boys of Summer

Goo Goo Dolls – Iris

Tears for Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World

Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child O’Mine

I met Axl Rose after the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992. All the artists came to a bar I was working in. It was an incredible night.

Train – Drops of Jupiter

Prince – Purple Rain

I saw Prince in concert in the Eighties. He came in via a zip wire from the back of Wembley Arena much to the surprise of the audience. We thought he was on stage but it was in fact a body double in the shape of a beautiful woman!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYOLEF-N3oQ

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