BabaBooty.comFab finds for funky tots

These days, Lollipop is up on her feet almost all of the time. She is a very confident ‘cruiser’ (why oh why do they call it that??) but is not yet fully brave enough to risk too much ‘free walking’ so when it came to choosing a birthday gift for her first birthday, a walker seemed like the obvious choice. As usual, I didn’t just walk into a shop and pick up the first one that I saw…..there was no way I was going to let an opportunity to spend hours scouring the web pass me by.

From my research (and past experience with Mr Moo), I think that the key to a good walker is a mixture of:

• stability (you need one that won’t tip over easily  -  well, not many one year olds understand the law of the lever and baba / walker pile ups on the living room floor ain’t pretty);
• traction (a lot of walkers have no traction whatsoever which causes them to shoot forward too quickly leaving your baba with a face full of floor boards!);
• longevity  (a toy that is just a walker has a short shelf life so the best ones have a life long after the all too short cruising stage is over).

Here are four of the best ones that I found:

Old school – This John Crane walker is full of lovely building blocks which will provide hours of fun – take out the blocks and any favourite toys or teddy bear passengers can be transported:

Girly Girl – This Pintoy walker doubles as a pram so your little lady and her dolls can get out and about:

Activity-a-go-g0 – This EverEarth walker has lots of clever built in activities to entertain your baba  - plus it’s eco friendly and is an award winner (it won the Creative Child Magazine 2009 Preferred Choice Award in the Toddler Toys Activity Center category)

Transformer – The Mishi Design Grow Up is the Madonna of walkers as it can totally reinvent itself each time your baba grows out of it. It starts life as a walker with a basket then transforms into a ride-on bike with a trailer and then for it’s finale it turns into a trolley – fantastically clever!

Many of you will already know about the wonders of Etsy but for those of you who don’t know about its treasures, it is an online maketplace for buying and selling a vast array of handmade (or vintage) goods. You can buy everything from wedding dresses to lampshades, paper weights to fishing lures but for me, the best thing about Etsy is its children’s section, it is amazing. Diverse, divine and (though I hate to admit it) dangerous! It is so hard to resist those fabulous handmade goodies.

I’ve made a lot of  Etsy purchases and it’s difficult to know where to start but to kick off what I suspect will be a long series of posts about Etsy, I thought I would share something that I really love.  Little Alouette makes beautiful wooden toys for babies and children. Their bi-line is ‘Wood for Wee Ones’ and their profile indicates that their products are handmade in a workshop which contains ”cups of tea, laughing children, and disco music so each product will come to you infused with love and bliss!”  Well I’m not sure about the love-bliss infusion but they are truly beautiful toys.  

If you know any babas who are teething and who deserve a little treat then check these out:

 Gigi Girafffe is an organic hardwood teething toy and she is gorgeous (admittedly, I do have a particular soft spot for giraffes). But not only does she look good, she is also fantastic value at just $14 (roughly €10)

The Lil Lark teether is made from organic Maple and I just love this lilttle bird’s shape. Again it’s just $14 and, like all of the Little Alouette toys, it comes in a compostable bag (If I’m honest, that doesn’t really sound like a great idea….what happens if you leave it in its bag…I’m getting visual images of beautiful organic wooden toys covered in mould and odd looking mushrooms !!) and is accompanied by a wood care guide.    

There are so many lovely shapes and silhouettes to chose from that the only problem you’ll have is deciding which one to chose….

As children, building ‘huts’ was a very popular game in our house. My sister and I would hook our duvets on to the picture hooks above our twin beds and spend hours of fun having all kinds of adventures under our makeshift canopies. So it was a real trip down memory lane when I came across Crazy Forts on a US site.

I think they are a fantastic idea, a series of plastic batons which can be inserted into circular sockets to construct pretty much any shaped hut you can think of – check out the igloo, rocket, tunnel and other shapes suggested by the manufacturers:

 Throw a sheet or a blanket over any of these structures and you instantly have a fantastic hut, the potential for fun here is just endless. You can also buy a set of two lights which attach to any of the round sockets so that you can light the interior of your creations….fantastic ! Sick of one shape? simply dismantle it and start again, copy one of the suggested shapes or experiment with your own designs. Best of all, at the end of a long day’s hut-playing, you can take it all apart and store it neatly in its box, so clever!

The great news is that I have found them for sale on a Spanish site for €59.95 (throw in an extra €19.95 and you get the two lights).  Its probably too late to add this to Santa’s list but I reckon that Crazy Forts may make an appearance at Mr Moo’s next birthday !