Posts Tagged "The Great Toy Guide"

Teeny Tiny Tears has surgery

Posted by cafebebemama on Nov 16, 2009 in Little Miss Adventures | 5 comments

We received a Teeny Tiny Tears for review courtesy of The Great Toy Guide a while back.  I was a bit taken aback by the doll and didn’t know what to do with it.  My concern was the age old…”Do I give my daughter a DOLL?”.  Just because she’s a girl, does she HAVE to HAVE a doll?  But then I realised that MY hangups with dolls (I only had one babydoll in my childhood…Baby Tender Love if you must know), shouldn’t be passed down to my daughter and that if she wants to play with a babydoll, then she should play with a babydoll!

Little Miss LOVES her Teeny Tiny Tears.  Thankfully, as the doll is TEENY Tiny Tears, we don’t have to suffer weeing, crying and other bodily functions.  She’s just a baby, albeit a bit of a weird looking baby.  She’s one of the most unfashionable babies that I have seen and she has NO HAIR whatsoever…not even pencilled in hair!  They managed to pencil in the eyebrows but no hair!  I have a bit of an issue with this as you can tell.

The other odd thing about Teeny Tiny Tears (who is just known as BABY in our house), is that she is accessorised with a dummy and bottle BUT there’s no possibility that either is going to go in Teeny Tiny Tears’ mouth as there is no opening!  Her mouth is open but there’s no hole.  Perhaps the Powers That Be at UK Health and Safety have deemed that a hole in the mouth of a Teeny Tiny Tears is a horrible, disfiguring accident waiting to happen?  Not sure!  Yesterday, my husband was entertaining Little Miss whilst I was on the computer (what? you’re never on the computer!) and Little Miss kept shoving Teeny Tiny Tears and the dummy at him so he could continually wedge the dummy in her partially open mouth.  He finally had had enough.  Quietly, without consulting me, he skulked into the kitchen and performed some surgery!  Teeny Tiny Tears came out of the kitchen with the dummy firmly trapped in her mouth!  RESULT!!!

It wasn’t until a bit later, as I was cleaning up the toys before bed time that I noticed Teeny Tiny Tears dummy IN her mouth.  I took the dummy out of Teeny Tiny Tear’s mouth and found… A HOLE!!!  Where there had previously been NOT a hole, there was A HOLE!  Dummy in.  Dummy out!  How the heck did that happen??  I took Teeny Tiny Tears to my husband and said “How did Teeny Tiny Tears get her dummy in her mouth?”.  There was a lot of umm-ing and ahhh-ing and finally I got it out of him.  He had decided it was ridiculous that Teeny Tiny Tears should have a dummy and a bottle and NO HOLE in her mouth in which to put them.  So, when I wasn’t exactly paying attention, he went in the kitchen, took out the CORKSCREW and a CHOPSTICK and proceeded to do a bit of SURGERY on Teen Tiny Tears’ mouth!  Teeny Tiny Tears had a bit of reconstructive surgery…and at such a young age!  I pretended to be a bit appalled but actually, I was rather impressed!  I would never have DRILLED A HOLE in Teeny Tiny Tears’ mouth but Daddy sees a problem and solves it!  Somewhat disturbing but very clever, my husband!  Next time your child’s dolly needs a bit of plastic reconstructive surgery, let us know.  I am sure my husband won’t charge much!

WotWots Mania

Posted by cafebebemama on Oct 8, 2009 in Little Miss Adventures, Travelling Adventures | 2 comments

Tuesday 29 September, Little Miss and I (and two of our best mates) had the immense pleasure of attending a special launch event for the WotWots at London Zoo.  What is a WotWot?  Many people are asking this!  If you have a child under the age of three and follow Channel 5′s Milkshake in the mornings, you will know the answer.  For those of you who don’t, visit this site for more audiovisual information: Channel 5 or WotWots Official Site.  We had a gorgeous day with lots of sun and a lovely visit around the zoo thanks to The Great Toy Guide who we were representing.  Little Miss adores the WotWots and she got to get a taste of what they’re like up close and personal…

On top of meeting the WotWots, Little Miss got to meet the co-creator, Martin Bayton, and the Channel 5′s Milkshake presenters!

The event was a brilliant one, open initially to competition winners and journalists (I’d like to think I was a journalist!) and later to the public.  We were welcomed by event staff and co-creator, Martin Baynton himself!  After a quick nappy change for Little Miss in a makeshift baby-changing room, we entered the room.  There were bean bags all over the floor near the giant video screen and lots of kid-sized tables around the room with colouring pages, Playdoh and other crafty activities to keep the kids occupied.  There was also a face-painter who was painting absolutely gorgeous things on kids faces.  If I thought Little Miss would sit still long enough, I would have let her get her face painted.  Little Miss and her best mate enjoyed the bean bags while the others got their faces painted!  The event itself got underway with a VERY ENERGETIC intro and song from the Milkshake presenters (God, if I had 1/8 of their energy I could get so much more accomplished in a day) and then co-creator Martin Baynton came out to talk about the WotWots.

We also had the immense pleasure of meeting the series narrator, Nicholas Parsons which was quite an honour.  The WotWot’s even made an appearance and amazingly enough, Little Miss readily went to them and gave them some kisses.  This is quite impressive and says a lot for the pull of the WotWots as she won’t always go to people unless she knows them well and is REALLY SURE about them.  After the presenter festivities, we were treated to a new WotWots episode and then were sent out to forage throughout the zoo on a treasure hunt.  The goal was to visit 7 sites around the zoo to figure out a secret word (WotWots was the word…that wasn’t hard to figure out) and accumulate WotWots figurine parts to create our own WotWot.  This was good fun for the adults while the kids had fun seeing all the animals.  Once we completed the scavenger hunt, we finished back at the main stage room, received our little press packs (full of delightful bits and bobs) and were free to enjoy the zoo for the remainder of the day.  The big highlight after the WotWots was feeding time at the penguin exhibit.  The girls thoroughly enjoyed the day and the Mummies had quite the laugh as well.  A great time was had by all with the WotWots and the London Zoo.  Do go to the zoo someday soon, if you can, and check out Channel 5′s The Wot Wots next time you’re up at ridiculous o’clock with your toddler.  You’ll get a good laugh and your child will love it as well.

British Mummy Blogger Love

Posted by cafebebemama on Aug 21, 2009 in Uncategorized | 15 comments

I started Mummy Blogging in May.  I’ve done a few blogs in my time but I needed a creative outlet and something to do during nap times.  I started looking for other Mummies but all I could find, initially, was Mommies, not Mummies.  I’m American, you see and for whatever reason, the only blogs I could find were American Mommies.  They had so many product reviews and seemed to be getting so much STUFF.  And oh, the giveaways!  But they were never offering international entries. (Do you know how much it costs to mail things from the US?  Lots!)  I enjoyed their blogs but was finding the actual blogging difficult to find amongst all the reviews.

So, in June, I googled Mummy Blogs, UK and guess what I stumbled upon?  British Mummy Bloggers!  Ooh…how nice.  I might not be British but I am a Mummy and I was Blogging and I’m as-good-as British so why not?  I sent in my membership request and within a day or so, I was an official member of British Mummy Bloggers!  That was about 200 members ago!  I have found so many wonderful Mummies and friends that I just have to gush for a bit.  And British Mummy Bloggers has given me opportunities that I never dreamed I might have.  Ready for some prime gush?

*Susanna, founder of BMB, author of A Modern Mother, has created a brilliant social networking site that I know a lot of other Mummy Bloggers are extremely grateful for.  She’s given us forums, opportunities to promote any and everything we’re working on, pointed us in the direction of PR’s and journalists, acquired sponsors like Silver Cross and scheduled meet-ups like the one held at the Rainforest Cafe in London in June.  She’s connected some amazing mummies and daddies who have formed friendships and learned a great deal from each other.  Thank you Susanna (a fellow American as well…who knew an American could found a social networking site called BRITISH Mummy Bloggers!).

*I had my first experiences writing product reviews because of BMB and Silver Cross .  I actually received, tested, reviewed and GOT TO KEEP the Silver Cross Halo pushchair and Doodle highchair.  They continue to be staples in our household and I can’t believe that I now am in possession of such amazing products all for the exchange of a review on my wee blog.

*Connections, Connections, Connections- Had I never found BMB, I would never have gotten the chance to write reviews as a “freelance” writer (I like that title) by commission from MadeForMums website (I got PAID!!); I never would have found Liz Jarvis’ LivingWithKids where I’ll be reviewing products in the near future (can’t wait!); Sally Whittle of The Great Toy Guide would not have been the recipient of 4 of my toy reviews and I wouldn’t have been in line to receive a few lovely things to try and review.  I’ve had the great fortune of being in the right place at the right time but were BMB not putting it out there, I’d still be wondering how I could bring in a bit of the “bacon” for our family.

*I’ve become a better observer of my daughter and have been photographing her more so I can continue to share our adventures.  My family all live in the US and they don’t get the day to day joy of Little Miss.  With my blogging, they are able to have a window into our lives and feel better for it. 

*And finally, I’ve met some absolutely amazing people who make me feel better about myself as a mother and a writer, who have helped me to fulfill some dreams and who have brightened my days and nights with their words and laughter.  There are many of these brilliant women but 4 stand out for me: OMG, We’re Pregnant, Violet Posy, Ella Announcements and Bambino Goodies.  These women have made my Café Bébé a successful and lovely reality.  They didn’t need to help me!  They most certainly did not get paid to help me!  They just responded to my techno-dim cries for help and took from their own personal time to help out wee me.  What women!  So, if you like what you see on Café Bébé, a lot of credit goes out to these ladies.  See their sites and you’ll know where their genius lies.

To wrap up…I just want to say thank you…thank you to BMB, thank you to Twitter, thank you to Café Bébé readers/followers/subscribers because you’ve given me a bit of myself back and for that, I am very grateful!  Until next time…