I recently got some of these Brother Max combi bibs. My baby has just started weaning - she's 6 months old now, so it was a perfect opportunity to test them out.

The package comes with 3 plastic-backed cotton bibs, and a plastic crumb catcher (the orange part in the image above). The 3 bibs conveniently fold up and can be stored inside the plastic crumb catcher which studs shut, for when I am out and about.

The bibs themselves are made from 100% cotton, and plastic backed. The cotton is nice and soft against my baby's face and neck. This is quite important for me actually, as baby has very sensitive skin on her face and has bouts of eczema on her cheeks. The plastic backing is totally essential too, as baby is just learning to use a sippy cup, and that's pretty messy!

When I first used the Brother Max bibs, all seemed to go according to plan. While my baby is a very tidy eater, there is always escaping food! The little bits of mashed carrot fell into the catcher instead of baby's lap - job's a good'un!

I can't really say much more about these bibs, other than that they did the job they were made for!

If you'd like to buy some yourself, they're currently selling on Amazon for £5.95 for a set of 3.

P.S. They won a best buy award from Practical Parenting.

When I heard about the game My First Songs for the Wii I was immediately entranced. My daughter utterly loves singing. I had to get this game. It comes with a Logitech microphone and it takes about three seconds to set everything up.

You can use the Options screen to fine tune the microphone to your child’s voice and set the volume, or turn off the lyrics. Or you can just dive straight in and go to Karaoke.

There are about five screens to flip through with songs on each screen that animate and start singing when you hover the cursor over them. I must admit that my daughter did find it a little tough at first. The scrolling lyrics and bars distracted her from the song. I think they made it look more difficult than it actually was. This is not a design flaw, there is no other way you could do it really.

When you start a song, the lyrics scroll from right to left and highlight as you are to start singing them. The bars that run across the screen above the lyrics change colour as they hit the singing point – if you hit the note they can change colour and you get points, if you miss the note they turn red.

At the end of the song you get a score. It says it’s for kids aged 3-6, but I think those who can read would have more fun really, and the animations are fabulous, especially for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. My daughter adores My First Songs and I have to say, so do I. I have about ten videos of her singing away happily into the microphone with a huge smile on her face. Awesome Christmas present.

I just got a starter pack from CHOC Chick and I am in heaven. This business was started by mum of two, Galia Orme, in 2008 after she realised how easy it was to make raw chocolate. Ohhh yes, raw chocolate. This stuff is all the way from South America and it tastes like heaven.

When you order your starter kit it will cost you £11.99 and it includes a low GL natural sweetener, a pamphlet of funky chocolate recipes, organic raw cacao butter, and organic raw cacao powder. It is beautifully packaged and the instructions are very clear. In fact, my husband, who really isn’t into sweet cooking, was so excited when he read the recipe for the Decadent Truffles he RACED to the shops to get all the missing ingredients.

Even a mild cooking idiot like me can’t screw this up. Well, I did a little bit. We made the decadent truffles with rum and coconut and almonds. The mistake I made was that I didn’t whisk it enough before putting it in the freezer.

After melting the chocolate butter and whisking the ingredients and plonking them in the freezer, we had to scoop out teaspoon sized blobs and roll them into balls. Then we had to roll them in the coconut and cocoa mix and put them back in the fridge for a bit. This bit was MESSY. The chocolate melts fast and our hands were covered in it.

I loved this kit. It made so much chocolate and the chocolate is so rich and tasty that you can’t eat a lot of it at once. It really does kick the bum of normal chocolate, I honestly don’t know how I am going to go back to ye olde bland chocolate after this. I don’t.

P.S. If you want to buy something yourself, there's an exclusive PlayPennies Choc Chick voucher code here.

Imagine being so young that almost everything you see and do is a new experience. I sometimes put myself in the mind of my 6 month old daughter and try to think about how she feels when she sees all these new things.

It's what I was thinking about when I received one of the Bondie Bird playwraps to test out with my little baby girl. It's a sensory toy that is pretty versatile. The Bondie Bird Playwrap is designed so that you can wear it, drape it, stick it to a window, all the while enabling the child to play with all the attached bits and pieces.

Some of the features of the playwrap: there are lots of labels round the edge, all with a different texture. There's a pretty butterfly that rustles delightfully, which my little baby girl really loves feeling. There's a strange spotty furry beanbag, which is decidedly odd. There's a cute cuddly cow with a mirrored base. There is a string of tinkly bells and wooden rings. All of these items can be detached from the playwrap, as they have little stud fasteners.

There are extra loops at the side which you can attach other toys to, such as your buggy books. And finally, there's a peekaboo mirror on the back of the toy.

I put the Bondie Bird playwrap round my neck, and sat baby on my knee for her to play in front of me. I felt pretty silly when the doorbell rang and I had to rush to the door, complete with toys hanging off my neck! But baby liked it, so that's all that matters.

I also use it when she is sitting in her Bumbo chair, it wraps nicely round that.

I have to say that my baby girl really likes this toy. She's just at the age where all these colours, sounds and textures are completely fascinating to her, and the playwrap stimulates a lot of the senses.

Though I haven't had the need to clean it yet, the base of the Bondie Bird Playwrap is machine washable, so I'm sure that will come in handy.

The picture at the top of this review is of my baby girl, sitting in her Bumbo chair, playing with the playwrap. Isn't she a cutie!

The Bondie Bird playwrap is due for UK release on the 15th of November 2010, so isn't available to buy in the shops just yet. But it will be out in time for Christmas!

The popular Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature Electric Breast Pump offers reasonable value considering it is frequently on sale, but it does come with a few drawbacks too.

The sleek design makes it a 'pretty' pumping system, and the four speed control is simple to operate. Compared to other pumps I have tried, it's relatively quiet too, allowing for discreet, although not secret, pumping.

There are two big disadvantages, though. First, the air pipe connects to the area the milk flows through before dropping into the bottle, and if the pump is held any other way than the one instructed in the manual, milk goes up the pipe and into the electronics. You then have to unplug the air pipe and blow the milk out the other side, which isn't great for hygiene. As a one-off it's no big deal, but having to do it three or four times a session because you're also juggling a child and so aren't holding the pump exactly right quickly becomes annoying.

The second, bigger problem I found was that the silicone shell – which ironically is meant to mimic a baby's natural feeding action – somehow prevents any expressing. After ten minutes of pumping I had dishearteningly less than an ounce of milk. Once I removed the shell and just used the hard plastic cup, I filled almost five ounces in the next ten minutes.

The pump comes with a feeding bottle with a slow flow teat, a milk storage lid, milk storage pots, breast pads and a handy steriliser box that doubles up as a carry case or storage container for all the bits.

If you can work around the issues, this is a great pump – especially at sale prices – and if you're only looking for occasional use it shouldn't be too bothersome. For a daily use pump, however, I'd pay a little more for something needing less workaround.

The Becopotty is one of those things that I bought for a reason – it is environmentally friendly - and only realised later that I got more than I bargained for.

Becopotty is produced by the company Becothings. Although they have nice dog bowls and eco-friendly coat hangers, it's their potties that I am in love with.

Becopotties are made using natural plant materials, so it's BPA and nasties-free. It also means that even though it will last for years in the home, it will begin to break down as soon as it is planted in the ground.

The idea with the Becopotty is to plant the no longer needed chamberpot in your garden, pop seeds in the bowl and cover with ground. Over the next couple of years the potty will break down, nourishing the flowers you've planted, consistently reminding you to be grateful that you're no longer changing nappies. It could also be symbolic for your little one – moving on to the big boy/girl toilet.

Sentimentality aside, however, how practical is it? Well, we've never tried anything else, so it's hard to make a comparison, but the high back means little ones don't slip off, and the large splash guard in the front does what it's meant to and keeps little hands out of the bowl!

The only negative thing about Becopotties comes out of the very thing that makes them so desirable – they are a plant material and therefore rather fragile. Kick a badly placed Becopotty in the middle of the night and it might well break. Stand in the bowl, and you will go through.

Even so, at less than £8, considerably less than more popular brands, buying a new potty doesn't exactly break the bank.

Becopotties can be found at JoJo MaMan Bebe, John Lewis and Kiddiecare, and selected eco-shops.

Helen Nathan is a leading baking expert and has just written a simply adorable book called The Enchanted Cookie Tree. The book follows the adventures of Flossie Crumbs as she creates gorgeous cookies for the fairies and their new baby princess.

The first half of the book covers the story of Flossie and her family as they meet up with the fairies and find out that the King and the Queen of fairies have just had a little baby. The fairies ask Flossie to create cookies for the enchanted tree as a part of the baby’s welcoming ceremony.

Hidden on every page is a tiny fairy that children have to find. I love that. I have a real thing for books that hide items in the pages and encourage my daughter to explore the pictures. The little fairies are also truly cute, and sometimes really hard to find! My daughter really enjoyed that part of it.

THEN the book has an entire section dedicated to fantastical baking. Yes, you can create each and every one of the cookies from the story. They are laid out with simple and clear instructions, lovely pictures of the finished products, and a complete list of all the ingredients you need.

My personal favourites are the Geoffrey marshmallow spider biscuits (they are super easy to make and fabulously creepy), the mini footprint baby cakes (which would be a stunning pressie for a baby shower), and the various shaped cookies.

Baking with kids is a great way of spending time together, getting nice and messy, and generally having fun while eating scrummy food. I am a terrible cook but a great baker, and I found these recipes easy and almost foolproof. It’s a stunning book and would make a brilliant Christmas present.

Leapfrog's Tag Activity Storybook range brings stories to life by providing interactive reading, questions and games, all through an infrared camera which recognises letters, words and symbols on the page of a Tag book.

When we asked PlayPennies mum-of-one Tara if she'd like to review the Leapfrog Tag Activity Book, she was really excited. She had played around with one at an expo before and thought the whole idea was just brilliant.

We sent her the Scooby Doo Halloween book, for children aged 5-8 and this is what she had to say:

"I love Scooby Doo and this was as much a treat for me as for my tot. The voices are spot on too! Every single page can take anything from 10-20 minutes depending on what you feel like doing (or your child feels like doing). You can read each word, you can get the tag to read the page for you, you can play games, or you can touch the tag to almost every image on the page and it makes a noise/names it."

Tara found the Tag system to be a really good educational tool too. She told us that she used it after school to help her daughter with her letters and with learning how to read by using the tag to read each individual word instead of just letting it read the whole story.

As much as she loved the Leapfrog Tag system, she did have a few fiddly moments. “Firstly”, says Tara, “a problem we had was that my tot didn’t quite grasp that if she touched the tag to something while it was reading out a story, it would stop reading. Also, some of the puzzles were hard. Even I struggled to keep up with the game on the last page where you have to touch different parts of the castle to get Scooby home safely.”

Other problems Tara pointed out were the battery life – she recommends using rechargeable batteries as they will work out much cheaper in the long run, and wonders why a USB charger is not included. “It would be a great way to save money/environment/pennies while still keeping it an ace toy,” says our mum.

Another negative is the initial process to get started. Tara tells us that it takes a long time to load your book and set the system up. “You have to use your PC and it demands that you create an account, download this update and that update, which took me about 30 mins from first inserting it all the way to finally downloading and activating the book. You have to download the voices into the Tag after you’ve bought the book, you see so it is a bit tedious. You have to have a PC on hand to get started.”

So what is Tara's overall impression of the Leapster Tag?

“Overall I would give the book 8/10 for pure Scoobiness and the tag system 7/10 for awesome use of technology. Brilliant educational fun.”

And finally...

The Tag system which costs £39.99, comes with the Tag and a book titled Ozzie and Mack, but additional books based on characters from Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon channels such as Go! Diego, Go! and Sponge Bob Square Pants can also be purchased.

It's a great use of technology, educational to the nth degree, and well worth every penny spent in entertaining the kids at home on cold afternoons, or long trips away over Christmas. As a Christmas present it really does sit at the top of the pile for genius.

I got the Forever Friends Night Night Sweet Dreams book on review the other day and, I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting much at all. I am always a bit sceptical about branded products that move into bedding and furniture, or from bedding and furniture into characters.

This particular book is something of an exception. It made me cry. Yes, yes it did. Now I am aware that ever since I’ve had my child I’ve been a real soft touch. I can cry in adverts, at shopping centres, at puppies, and when my child does something wonderful. If it is touching, lovely, human, full of warmth and feels wonderful, then I will probably get a bit tearful.

This book is all about one little baby bear who refuses to go to sleep so his mummy explains to him why sleep is so important. The thing is, the gorgeous illustrations make you just want to HUG the book, and the story is really well written.

The writer is one talented lady because she swept me away. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read a children’s book and thought, “Wow, that’s horrible. How on Earth did they get published?” This book did not make that happen. Instead it made me want to go to sleep because I wanted to have those dreams.

It’s the rich and vivid descriptions of the adventures you can have while you’re asleep that got me. And Breakfast Bay that beckons with hot buttered toast. YUM. The bit that made me cry was at the end because mummy bear was all about love and cuddles and security. Sniff.

If you do go forth and get this book, I advise you to read it last because it is very calming and relaxing.

The Hippychick Hipseat is, to my mind, the best invention since, well, ever.

A half-moon shaped seat that fastens with velcro and a clip around the waist providing a perch for a child, the concept is so simple to be so ridiculously effective. The Hippychick Hipseat extends the hip so that the child can sit comfortably without causing the parent/carer the uncomfortable hip displacement or back ache that normally comes with carrying a child for an extended period of time.

The spine is kept straight rather than curved so there's less back pain. The Hipseat is endorsed by osteopaths, chiropractors and physiotherapists, and for good reason. It really does take so much of the strain off the carrier.

Since the child is sitting, you only have to have an arm around him,without having to physically hold, meaning your arms take less strain as well, and you still have a free hand.

The Hippychick Hipseat is quickly replacing our favourite sling as a big bonus of the Hippychick for me when we are out and about is that it is easy to put my toddler down and pick her up again. There's no need for strapping up or strapping in – just pick up and put down. The Hipseat also places her at my level, so we can 'talk' about things, look at the world and she can interact with it from an adult perspective, which is much more engaging than the outlook from knee-height!

It also makes negotiating public transport a doddle and there's no struggle getting a pushchair in and out of the car. The only obvious downside is that the Hipseat isn't designed to be slept on, so nap times need to be kept in mind – although we still carry the sling around and pop her in that when she becomes sleepy.

The Hipseat is so effective, even my very small mother uses it when taking my 10kg daughter out.

The Hippychick Hipseat is suitable from 6 months, or when the child is able to hold themselves upright and hold on, till about 3 years. It is available in black, green, burgundy and blue and costs £37.50, although I have seen them cheaper at other retailers.

Canvas prints seem to be very popular these days. Almost everyone I know has one. So I had to have one too! I recently printed a picture of my new baby daughter, using the canvas prints from Photobox. It's a  30x40cm rectangular premium canvas print, a decent size for the wall.

When ordering, you can choose the various sizes, right up to over a metre! I was tempted to order three small square prints to go in a row on the wall, as that seems to be a trend nowadays. However,  I couldn't find three images that I liked as a collection, so I just opted for a slightly larger rectangular canvas print. I choose an image of my daughter in her sola pushchair, as it is nice and bright, with vivid colours. You can see the final product pictured at the bottom of this review.

The ordering process was pretty fast and easy, I only needed to select the quality of canvas, canvas size, and upload my image. You can rotate and crop the image too, if needed.

My photo canvas looks fab! I showed it to my mum and sister, and they were really impressed at the colours and the quality. The image itself is very sharp, even though it is printed on canvas. The frame itself is solid and sturdy, and of a very good quality. The workmanship is of a very high standard, and I would really recommend Photobox to anyone who wants a canvas print made.

I was slightly concerned about one point though - the sides of the frame had a white border, rather than the image wrapping right around to the back of the frame. I had wanted it to be fully wrapped, as you can see in the examples at the top of this review.

Customer services actually gave me a call after I put in a query about the white trimmings. They explained that they use their judgement and if they think that the subject will be adversely affected by such image wrapping, they'll leave a white border on the canvas. I said that I hadn't seen this explained anywhere during the ordering process, but they assured me it was there. Now, going back and doing another test order to see if this is true, there is a line towards the bottom of the canvas prints page, stating this:

Your photo is automatically wrapped around your canvas unless we feel it would work better with a white border.

So, while I feel that the canvas is pretty excellent, I am disappointed in myself for not choosing a better photo, which would have been able to show the image wrapping round the sides of the canvas. I recommend you carefully choose a photo, making sure your subject is well in the centre of the image.

There are of course a lot of options to choose from if you want to get a canvas print done. Another option is Jessops, and Tamsin wrote a review of their canvas prints here.

Have you had canvas prints made? Who did you use, and would you recommend them?

My daughter has quite a severe skin reaction to any products that contain Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) which, for us, cuts out most standard bath and baby products. As a result we spent much of the first months of her life testing new and different product ranges and the best we have found for our needs is without doubt the Organic Babies/Children range from Green People.

Over the summer we used the SPF25 sun lotion which we loved, but for the past year our favourite product has been their Nappy Cream Baby Balm. It has a list of fairly traded organic natural products, and none of the hard to pronounce nasties. Although for sore bottoms, it can also be used on minor cuts and scrapes as it contains the healing herb Calendula.

The nappy cream is quite thick, but spreads easily. A little goes a long way, and the smell is fantastically fresh and floral with a touch of Camomile – and comes from the natural ingredients, rather than added chemicals. I was never unhappy with the commonly available nappy rash products, but since having tried this one, would not go back.

As to its effectiveness, it exceeded my expectations – it works super fast, soothing and removing the redness and rash, and cuts and scrapes heal quickly too.

The 40ml container has an airtight seal so there are no leaks or popped-off lids in the nappy bag.

Green People have great customer service too. Not only are their sales team efficient, but you can have an easy chat with them on Twitter (@greenpeopleUK) – my kind of customer service!

At £9.25 the Green People Nappy Cream Baby Balm is quite a bit more expensive than conventional, mainstream alternatives, but as I’ve said, I feel it is entirely worth it and is certainly what we are and will be using in the future.

My youngest LOVES Bob. So I was greatly relieved when we shipped out the Bob the Builder: Build it with Bob 70-Piece Construction Set we'd been sent to one of our mum reviewers.

These are 'marmite' toys; you're either going to be a lover or a hater!

You see, it comes with REAL bricks, REAL cement (oh yes, real cemet!) and a REAL mini trowel. It also comes with a poseable figure of Bob (that's ok, I can cope with that).

NOW you know why I was quaking in my boots HOPING it wasn't going to be given to me to review; my carpet was terrified for a moment and the cleaner put on standby (that would be me!).

Louise was our chosen mummy victim to experience the delights of authentic brick laying with the Bob the Builder: Build it with Bob 70-piece Construction Set (oooh I'm so glad it wasn't me!).

"The box arrived wrapped securely in a couple of layers of bubble wrap. The box the set is in is quite large, and nicely sturdy. It has a sort of lid that opens up, which I really liked as it means you can store everything for the set in its own box," Louise told us.

But although it was wrapped up nicely on the outside, it wasn't quite so well protected on the inside.

"When I opened the box though everything felt slightly gritty. There wasn't a lot of packaging inside, so all the bits had been moving about loosely within the box," Louise continued.

This meant that some of the real clay bricks were slightly damaged and had little chips on them. This really upset Louise's son as he's used to the shiny perfectness of Lego bricks, this was a whole new world for him and at this stage he wasn't keen!

Along with the 70 bricks the Bob the Builder Construction Set comes with a card roof. It's printed with tiles and Pilchard the cat (such a great name for a cat) who's about to pounce on a bird.

"There's also a board for the floor of the house, a paper bag of cement mix, a bowl for mixing it in, a cloth and a little mortar thingie for applying cement to the bricks, and finally, a mat that I guess is meant to help keep the mess contained," reported Louise.

It was the 'guessing' that the mat was supposed to help keep the mess contained that, at this point, had me fearing for Louises flooring and soft furnishings.

"The instruction phamphlet shows you how to layer the bricks up to build a house. I found this a bit puzzling as there's no instructions for applying the cement. So I just stuck some mix in the bowl with a bit of water and hoped for the best. I didn't know how to apply the cement to the bricks, so I just let my son get on with it. Cue one big almighty mess!"

Poor Louise! Her son also found it difficult to understand why he couldn't change his mind about where he'd put the bricks and just move them, the way he does with Lego.

Eventually, Louise turned the pages of the instructions over to discover that the LAST page has find that the last page has the information she was looking for.

"'First, you need to make the cement!' I was not amused. Surely the first step should be the first instructions! Anyway, I had clearly made the cement wrong, using far too much water. So we made a second batch, and this was much better."

But be warned, once you've unleashed your own little brick-laying expert you can't take your eyes off them for a second!

"I had to leave the room for TWO seconds and came back to discover a cement a-l-l over the floor because he'd decided he wanted a cement base! That was pretty much the end of the cement that I had in the pack," confessed Louise.

But fear not! The instructions say 'when you want to build something else just soak your building in water and the cement dissolves'.

"I'll have to do that and then give it another go," Louise carried on as it doesn't say what to do for more cement. Maybe you can dry out the residue when it falls to the bottom of the water? I don't know, but I guess I'm going to find out!"

And finally...

If you have a child that utterly ADORES Bob the Builder then this is going to have them jumping up and down with joy.

If you're a fearless parent in the face of words like 'real cement' and 'mix with water', it will provide them with a completely different building experience - this is not like fitting lego blocks together, this is REAL building!

Bob the Builder: Build it with Bob 70-piece construction sets retail for £22.99 and is available from Firebox.com, Boots and Mail Order Express.

And about the cement all over the floor?

"It really does dissolve in water and, even after hardening, I was able to get it all off the kitchen lino without leaving any stains or damaging the tiles," Louise concluded; HURRAH!

I don't know any child who doesn't like to play Hide and Seek; I STILL like playing Hide and Seek so there was much excitement in the PlayPennies office when we were sent a JoJo Hide and Seek  interactive electronic bunny!

However, we couldn't keep him so off he went to Kim's for her and her little one to play with - here's what happened.

The parcel containing JoJo arrived just as Kim was heading off to her friend's house for the day, both their children are aged 13 months old and, like us in the PlayPennies office, both Kim and her friend couldn't wait for the kids to play with it.

"It took us about 20 minutes to actually get the toy out of the box. It is fixed into the box with about six of those annoying plastic and wire ties," Kim told us.

I loathe those plastic tie things!

"Not only that," Kim continued, "they have knotted them which means you can't just untwist them as normal, you end up trying to cut them without catching children or JoJo."

JoJo is a blue bunny, full of electronic gadgetry, who will come and find you when you hide from him.  He can do this because you hide with a carrot, also full of electronic bits and pieces, which allows JoJo to locate you.

Having successfully completed the plastic tie challenge, Kim and her friend moved on the next one - batteries!

"Once you've got JoJo out of the box you then have to find (or go out and buy) some AAA batteries for the remote control carrot.  They have supplied the batteries for JoJo but not for the carrot. As you can't play 'hide and seek' with JoJo without the carrot..it seems a bit silly to not supply them in the box."

This struck us as rather strange too and VERY frustrating, especially if you have little kids trying desperately to stay calm and patient when all they want to do is PLAY with their new toy.

All in all it took Kim half an hour to get JoJo out of the box and find suitable batteries for the carrot; now they were ready to play hide and seek, hurrah!

Only, there were no hurrahs being uttered from our intrepid JoJo testers...

"We couldn't wait to play hide and seek with JoJo but the thing is...he hardly seeks you out!  You need to place the carrot remote sensor on your child's waist (via a belt clip) or they can hold it. The carrot needs to be held no higher than 1 metre from the floor and..." and then Kim proceeded to tell us about all the procedures that must be followed to ensure correct carrot holding!

In addition to the not being held higher than one metre from the floor, the pointy end of the carrot must also be pointing down towards the ground at all times otherwise JoJo won't be able to pick up the signal.

"Also the player can only hide within 4 metres distance from JoJo when he is trying to seek, and it mustn't be a complex path for them to be found either.  AND all of this (non)seeking needs to be within the same room, " continued Kim.

Oh dear, so things hadn't gone smoothly up to this point...they didn't get any better either.

It turns out that JoJo isnt a fan of thick carpet; so with the wrong carpet and titchy ones too young to master correct carrot carrying, Kim and her friend took over.

"We followed all the instructions but all JoJo does is roll around a bit whilst talking (in a very annoying voice..sorry but it is true!)  and then he tries to locate you.  Except he couldn't pick up the carrot signal and so he tried detecting us by us shouting and clapping."

Eventually JoJo gave up looking for Kim, would stop over a metre away and declare that he'd found her!  Kim was a little more persistent...

"We played with this a couple more times just so we could make sure we were not doing something wrong...but it seems that JoJo was functioning properly. "

Kim really was very disappointed, "We were expecting more from him. In the leaflet it says that JoJo 'finds you' when he is within 50-70 cm of the carrot...but in our case this didn't seem to be true"

The concept sounds fun - your hide and seek partner is a cute little bunny who waggles his ears. You run away and hide and he comes to find you, saying things like, "I’m getting warmer!" and "I can smell a carrot!" the closer he gets, until he does find you and then all he wants in return is a hug.

JoJo Hide and Seek retails for £39.99 which is a lot of money for something that doesn't do what he's supposed to.  Worried that it was just her, Kim showed JoJo to lots of other people...

"I have shown JoJo to everyone who has visted me, in the hope they'll convince me I'm wrong and that actually he's wonderful, but I'm sorry to say everyone felt the same as me."

Kim didn't find the icons on the packaging very helpful either; there are three of them.

The first logo is of an adult and child, which could be taken to mean that it's for ages one year or older, or more than one player, or parental supervision is needed.

None of us have a clue about the second icon - it's a picture of a clock indicating 30 minutes,

"The instruction leaflet says that each game lasts three minutes and JoJo either finds you and congratulates himself or he doesn't find you and congratulates you for being a good hider," Kim told us, "but JoJo only plays three consecutive games of hide and seek and then he turns himself off, so that second icon can't mean that the game lasts for 30 minutes." Maybe it's telling you how long it's going to take to get out of the box...

Kim has us laughing with the third, less than helpful, icon on the box, "The third icon looks like two people carrying a box and then the number one underneath the icon. This could mean that it takes one person to lift the box...but I think you might have guessed that without the logo!"

And finally...

JoJo Hide and Seek really didn't win over the hearts of Kim and her child.

"JoJo looks cute and appealling for children, the idea is great but it doesn't actually do what it's supposed to, therefore I can't recommend buying it, I'm sorry. If it was cheap, at say £10 or £15 it would be worth it as a novelty present but £40 is too steep."

If you have wooden floors, can absolutely comply with correct carrot procedures and don't mind if JoJo doesn't always find you, then perhaps you won't be as disappointed as they were.

If you want to find out then JoJo Hide and Seek is available from Argos, Play, Amazon, Hamleys and Harrods.

This is a quick review of the Baby Dam, a new product in the UK - it's a bathwater barrier! I had never heard of them before this, I am not sure if there are other brands or other types, this is the only one I have seen so far.

The Baby Dam. The title pretty much tells you what it is -a bathwater barrier, which sits in your bath, just like a dam. I was keen to try out The Baby Dam because my partner is all for energy-saving, including the amount of water we use in the household. Here in Northern Ireland, we don't yet have to pay water bills. But for those of you on the mainland who do, this could be a handy product.

When I took it out of the box, the first thing I thought of was the logistics in my bathtub. We have a sink pedestal at the head of the bath, near the taps, so I was thinking that would get in the way because I'd be making the bath down at that end of the tub. But on glancing at the illustrations on the Baby Dam box, I realised that I could simply position the Baby Dam at the other end of the bath, and use the shower head to fill it up. Genius!

Well, putting this into practice wasn't as easy as I thought. As I moistened the suction cups of the Baby Dam and tried to put it in, I realised that here are little bumps on the bottom of my bath - it's a textured base which helps improve the grip. But this uneven bottom meant that I couldn't place the Baby Dam where I had planned - as the rubber seal wouldn't work there. Eventually, I had to fit it so the taps filled the dammed area. I had been overly worried about my sink pedestal, but it turns out that I did have enough room to move there.

The Baby Dam was quite easy to fit once I knew where I was going to put it. I pushed it down securely, and ran my finger along the rubber seal. The Baby Dam has a little porthole, which is a drainage hole that you can use depending on how deep you want the bathwater to be. I filled it half way and left the porthole open for overflow. I reckon I used about two thirds of the full length of the bath. If you have an older kid and want a deeper bath, you can seal the porthole and fill it higher.

My baby is only 4 months old, so I found it a little awkward bathing her in the big bath (it was the first time I'd done so). I've been using the Flexibath up to now. I was stooped over quite a bit, and straining my back. I popped a pillow under my knees for comfort, as you can see in the picture below. Baby had plenty of room to move though, as you can see in my picture to the right. She really enjoyed the freedom and had a good kicking session!

I hadn't drained the bath while I went off and got baby dried and dressed. When I returned half an hour later, some of the bathwater had leaked into the top end of the bath, so I maybe hadn't sealed the Baby Dam as well as I'd thought.

I can definitely see the Baby Dam being very useful when baby is sitting up on her own and wants to have some fun in the bath. She won't need the full length of the bath, so half a bath will suffice at that stage. I will definitely be using it when she's older.

Before you buy a Baby Dam, I recommend you have a read of this Baby Dam review, take a look at the setup in your bathroom, the features of your bath, and see if the Baby Dam would be appropriate for you. If you have any queries, feel free to ask me in the comments below, and I will do my best to help out.

Jackson Reece wipes are quite expensive at around £2 per pack  of 72 wipes, but they are really the Ferrari of wipes in my opinion. I recently reviewed the Jackson Reece Flushable wipes and felt that they really did cut the mustard, and these are no different.

First off, these smell fantastic which is always a good thing. Have you ever accidentally bought cheap perfumed wipes and almost gagged when you opened the packet? Yeah, these won’t do that to you, they are quite luscious.

The second thing that really impresses me with the Jackson Reece range is the fact that the packaging is degradable. They are packed full of great organic, good-for-the-environment stuff which is a nice change. Usually I’m quite worried about all the bad stuff in children’s products so these really do take a load off my mind.

I know at least one other mother who’s told me she is happier to use them on messy hands and mouths, as well as bums, because of their gentle organic properties and natural ingredients.

Jackson Reece baby wipes are marketed as being gentle on baby’s sensitive skin and there are testimonials to that effect on their website. So these wipes pretty much tick all the boxes for me. There are, however, a couple of practical issues.

They’re not that easy to find if you’re in the mood for stocking up. If you do all your child-related shopping in Boots then you’re going to need to look elsewhere to fix your Jackson Reece addiction. This can be a bit of a pain for a busy mother.

Like the flushable wipes, these also stick together and come out of the packaging in clumps. This is particularly frustrating in light of the cost and when you’re trying to restrain a wriggling child.

I bought the Brothermax Milk Powder Dispenser a few months ago, when my baby was born, and I have been using it ever since. When I was buying it, there seemed to be quite a few to choose from on Amazon, and I really had no idea what made one better than any of the others. I was looking for one with 3 compartments, and this fitted the bill, so I whipped out the credit card and made my purchase.

The Brothermax milk powder dispenser is nice and small, compact, a good size to pop in my baby bag.

It comes in 3 parts - the outer red layer, a twisty orange bit for the milk powder, and the lid. To dispense the milk powder, you rotate the lid (which rotates the inside compartments) to the funnel, and just pour the powder out of the funnel. It's pretty simple.

At the minute, my baby is taking 180ml bottles, so I am putting 6 scoops into each compartment, and they are getting quite full. I tested it out to see how many scoops of milk powder could fit in there, and I could get 8 scoops in comfortably.

The dispenser came with a sort of funnel thingy, which I will admit that I have only used twice. It sits over the top of the open dispenser, and makes sure you don't spill all the powder into the wrong compartments, or on your kitchen worktop. But I found the compartment sizes fine, I didn't really need to use the funnel.

The Brothermax dispenser has never leaked, the lid seals firmly in place.

It's diswasher safe, so I pop it in there from time to time.

You do have to be careful with the powder and the whole spinning thing though. If you are not careful, a little bit of powder may be in the funnel part, and when you swivel the inside, it means you would have your proportions wrong. When I am filling the Brothermax dispenser, I make sure that the funnel is blocked by one of the dispenser walls, so I don't encounter that prodblem.

I've also got some of these Brothermax combi bibs, which I will be reviewing at a later date.

I'm going to do a Baby Banz review, these really cute little sunglasses for babies!

• Click here to see the Baby Banz @ Amazon

In one of my ante-natal classes, they had arranged for an optometrist to come in for a little talk about baby eyes. Some of the things he spoke about were quite frightening! He said that something like 80% of the damage done to your eyes over your whole lifetime, occurs before the age of 18. This thought really stuck with me for months, and made me worried about the health of baby's eyes when she was born. The optometrist had recommend that you have baby sunglasses around when your baby is very young, so they get used to the sight of them and aren't fussy when you eventually try them out.

When I take my little girl out for a walk, she really doesn't like the bright light, and scrunches her face up, so I thought I'd look for a little pair of sunglasses for her. I was only looking for the regular type of sunnies, but when surfing Amazon I found the Baby Banz linked above. They're a great idea, as the velcro strap keep the sunglasses on baby's head.

There are no sharp edges, they're smooth and well-designed, so perfectly safe for baby to use.

They're UV protected, so they keep out all the harmful rays from baby's eyes.

Even though the age range says 0 to 2 years, they are still a little bit on the large side for my 4 month old baby. She's got quite a small build anyway, and the sunglasses are a little bit loose, even on their tightest setting.

There's a good choice of colours to pick, I've opted for pink for my little girl, and you can see her modelling them in the image below.

I was rather intrigued when I saw Brother Max Food Portioners on the review list - what on earth were they!?

Well, food portioners obviously - that bit of the title does give away a BIG clue - but Brother Max? I'd never heard of them before!

A quick visit to their website soon revealed that they are a relatively new company, founded in 2005, as a result of a motorbike, car and washing machine designer turned father who felt there had to be a way to make every day baby tasks easier.

I wish I'd known about these food portioner pots when my youngest was little...

When I think about the faff and fiddle that comes with home-made weaning *shudder*

Ice cube trays just didn't work for me - my freezer is just too busy with two teenagers in the house conducting raids on it every half an hour, and everything ended up everywhere.

I tried other little pots that had lids on, but they were generally round, after being bounced around in a bag for a few hours I discovered that the lids weren't that secure; it was enough to drive me round the bend and THEN, as with socks, over time I ended up with more pots than lids - where did all the other lids go?!

Tamsin and her daughter test-drove the Brother Max Food Portioners for us and took them on a jolly outing to London for the day!

"These pots are really cute! They're brilliant for both weaners and back to schoolers - we're through the weaning stage now but snacks-on-the-go are still an essential part of our going out paraphernalia!" Tamsin told us.

"They fit all my lunchboxes and are just ideal for raisins and snacks at school," she continued.

She's right about the raisins - those  little cardboard boxes of raisins just don't stand up to the rigours of my kids' school bag abuse and neither do little cheapo plastic sandwich bags with a knot tied in them.

"We took ours to London and they SO came in handy for a hungry tot on the train. The lid is really secure too, we know this as the food portioners got bashed around in my bag something fierce!" said Tamsin.

I've seen what Tamsin's bag has to go through every day, anything that can withstand being inside it for a day, let alone on an outing to London, and come out unscathed is tough, and strong, enough to be admitted in to the SAS!

But what about at home?

"The Brother Max Food Portioners are square and can be squidged together so they all join up, but still keeping the food separate, and fit nicely into squareness of fridges, freezers and lunchboxes," revealed Tamsin, "AND if the contents of the pots are hot, then the connector doofers on each side act like little heat proof 'handles' so you don't have to juggle them in your hands when you take them out of the microwave."

Tamsin was very taken with these pots, "I really like that the food portioners come with a pen so you can write what's in each one on the side - the number of times we played 'guess what the baby is having for lunch today' when we were in the weaning phase!"

One of my favourite design features of the Brother Max Food Portioners is their hinged lids (I clearly have a thing about lids)! The thought of not having to relegate perfectly good pots to the back of the cupboard because they've lost their lids is very appealing to me!

And finally...

Freezer safe, microwave safe, dishwasher safe, Tamsin's bag safe - these really are robust little guys that are going to save you time, faff and mess and will withstand the roughest of school, and parent, bag treatment!

They come in two sizes - 6 small pots holding 40ml each or 4 large pots which will hold up to 170ml - and are Phthalate-free, PVC-free and BpA free which, if the current research turns out to be correct, can only be a good thing!

The Brother Max Food Portioners are available from Amazon, Boots, Mothercare and other places (see the Brother Max wesbite for full stockist details) and both retail for a very reasonable £5.99.

A great price for a great product as far as we're concerned!

A few weeks ago, I reviewed the Huggies changing pads which I have been using for a while. I'm now going to review the Pampers change mats too.

The Pampers change mats are disposable waterproof mats, which have a soft top, and a coloured base. When I first took them out of the packet and used them, I unknowingly placed it upside down. Looking closer, they have writing all over the coloured side, saying "other side up." If they hadn't written that... there would have been a few messes in my house!

As I mentioned before, my baby changing station has a cold top, made of plastic coated foam. I used these changing mats on the top of the baby changing station, so baby didn't get cold bits and decide to pee all over everything!

I quite liked the Pampers change pads, though I feel like they are very similar to those large bed pads you get in the hospital, so that had a negative image in my mind.

The Pampers change mats are also quite large - I am cutting them in half and getting double the usage out of them. My baby is only 3 months old, and half a change mat is more than big enough for her. I think each change mat lasts for about a week, before baby makes a mess on it, and it needs to be disposed of.

I also find the Pampers change mats handy when she's getting out of the bath.

Price wise, they're quite costly in my opinion. They come in packs of 12, and these range from £3.74 at Asda to £4.37 at Tesco and Sainsburys (at time of writing).

Out of the Huggies and the Pampers change mats which I have reviewed, I prefer the Huggies, mainly because they don't remind me of the hospital!

On that last thread though, PlayPennies parent Rebecca suggested just putting a hand towel down on the changing surface which can be washed when needed. This is also a good idea :)

What do you use?