What I used to save for

I was talking to a friend who's 4 year old daughter received so much birthday money, she opened her a bank account and she's now stocking up those savings to use redecorate her bedroom in a years time. I  thought this was such a lovely idea, I still remember opening my first bank account and how much I enjoyed saving those pennies.

This got me reminiscing about all the things I've saved up for along the way. It makes for a lovely list of memories, in particular the memory of the pride and excitement I felt when I reached my goals! Here's my savings memory list:

Ice cream and souvenir money for holidays

A Sindy doll kitchen

Bermuda shorts from the market

Getting my ears pierced

DMs and an army surplus bag for school

Tickets to see REM at my first solo concert with friends

A velvet jacket

Floorboards for my bedroom

An ultra classy holiday with friends to Benidorm (after a long summer working for £2.90 per hour!)

The end of school girl's holiday to Tenerife

University

Inter-railing around Europe

An amazing New York art trip

Glastonbury tickets

My first car (I still have it!)

A deposit on a house with my future husband

Our magical honeymoon

Maternity leave

... And then we hit babies and spending lol, I guess that's a whole other post! Do you remember what you used to save for before every penny started to count for so much? What is the first big thing you remember saving up for?

Please note this is a sponsored post but all the ideas and words are my own

'Baby Annabell doll' and 'Baby Annabell Bed with Lullaby' Toyologist reviews

Why we've been going gaga for her!

We have been busy playing again... This time with baby Annabell and the baby Annabell bed with Lullaby.

When I pulled these toys out of the box Squiggle was very excited, the pressure was on me to get them out of their packaging as she stood over me demanding I do it faster!!

We got the cot out first and she absolutely loved helping me put it together. It's really easy to assemble - no screwing needed! She loved the little bedding set which consists of a blanket, sheet and pillow, and she was giggling that everything had sheep on. She was most excited though by the fact the cot had it's own mobile (you will need a screwdriver here to add the batteries). She was over the moon pushing the button and playing the little tune on it (which has sheep baaing through it!).

Then we got Baby Annabelle out, I was really interested to see how she'd go down with my little girl as she's never really shown much interest in her baby dolls. She has always refused to put them in her pram, opting to take penguin or giraffe for a walk instead! Straight away she was a lot more taken by this doll and I think it's mainly down to the interactivity of it. I find some dolls slightly freaky but she's actually got a really nice little face!

She's a very clever little doll, when you give her the dummy or her sheep bottle (both included in the set) her cheeks actually move along with the sounds so it really looks like she is sucking or drinking. My little girl loved this, she spent a long time running back and forward to the cloakroom sink to fill the bottle with water and give her another drink. It was very cute to watch, she was tucking her up in her cot, giving her a bottle and then turning the mobile on to get her off to sleep. Baby Annabell laughs, cries and sleeps and I have spotted my little girl singing her little lullabies along with the music to help her drift of to lullaby land.

I have four nieces who are all older than my little girl and have all gone through phases of baby Annabell obsession. I think from this I was a bit of an Annabell sceptic and wasn't sure why she was any different from any other dolls... but now we know! She is well made, lovable, has features that bring out the caring side of my little girl, and most of all she is actually getting played with! She had a 4 year old friend round to play recently and she absolutely fell in love with both the cot and the doll and kept wishing she had one herself. It's great that it's suitable for older children and so will hopefully stand the test of time!

If you are on the look out for a baby doll for your little one to love and take care of I would really recommend this toy. Have a little look at our video to get an idea of some of the features and see the smile on my daughter's face!

No messing, just fun! Princess Aquadoodle review

So we've opened possibly the most exciting box to ever land on our doorstep and it's time to start our Toyologist reviews!

I was delighted to be sent an Aquadoodle to review, and what could be even better, a Cinderella one! My little girl does have a very girly streak in her and loves a princess so I knew this would go down well. In her own words when I showed it to her she said... "my new toy is magnificent"... that's a bit of a tongue twister for a toddler. 

The set comes with an Aquadoodle mat, a Cinderella print maker and a water pen. You simply fill the pen with water and place Cinderella under the tap to get going, so simple! If you add water to the mat it turns pink, just like magic. Squiggle loved drawing her pictures and then watching them dry in the sun, ready to start again. She overloaded Cinderella with water the first time but when we got used to it you roll her along and she makes a little heart pattern.

The box says 'no mess' so I was interested to see if it was true. I've tried no mess arty options before and tried leaving her with a water colouring book once – it was a disaster as there was blue water everywhere. This is not the case with the Princess Aquadoodle, I can honestly say it is 100% mess free, hurrah, perfect for silly mums like me who have cream carpets! It also requires no batteries or assembling and won't run out, you just add more water... this is the kind of easy toy I love.

The fun continued with the Aquadoodle today – the sun was shining so we had the paddling pool out  – my little artist was dipping her toys in the water and then using them to make prints on the mat, this soon turned into footprints and was great fun. I think the only thing for us that could have made it even more fun would have been a larger mat, but saying that this smaller size makes it really neat to fold away and store.

My little girl loves her new Aquadoodle and very sweetly asked if she could keep it, it's a fantastic addition to the toy box. It also makes a great guilt free gift as you know your not sending any mess and chaos into anyone's house!

If you'd like to see the Aquadoodle at work take a look at our little video. I am so sorry it is on it's side but you get the idea... I promise future videos will be the right way up!!

From cot to bed and how to remove a head

We have finally plucked up the courage and turned Squiggle's cot into a bed and taken off the sides. She turns 3 in a few months and I know most people would be surprised we hadn't done it sooner! She has always been happy in her cot but it was getting to the point where she was becoming too heavy for me to lift in. Also when going away or staying at people's houses she is really a bit too big to sleep in a travel cot now so we wanted to get her used to beds.

She's been very excited about it all which has meant some long evenings for us! After about 5 minutes we usually hear the light turn on, then the door creaking, followed by footsteps and then a little face peeking round the door with the biggest pleased as punch grin you have ever seen. We are averaging about a 9pm sleep time at the moment, but we'll get there!

The biggest stress came last night... of all the bed related things I had worried about, this wasn't one. I heard her calling me at about 3am, weird I thought because she normally just jumps straight out of her room and shouts up the stairs if she wakes up. Maybe she's really tired and will just go back to sleep I thought. I decided I better check on her and thank goodness because the poor little thing had rolled out of bed, then half under it and got her head stuck. I had to twist it on its side and pull it out. I was surprised she wasn't a bit traumatised but she just told me quite matter of factly what had happened and happily got back in bed. I was really worried and couldn't sleep after that, what If I hadn't heard her and she'd been unable to breathe?

These things are so scary, the whole bed thing has scared me quite a lot in general, I go to sleep every night with that feeling that my little girl is vulnerable. Am I neurotic?

I stuffed some giant floor cushions under the bed last night which have jammed the gap but I'll have to come up with a better solution!

Has anyone else find the swap hard, everyone seemed to tell me it was easy peasey before we did it!!