Penguin Bowling. Strange but true.

*product review*

We were asked by a wonderful online nursery shop called Hello Baby (www.hellobabydirect.co.uk) to review one of their toys.  We said yes, that is me, Eliza and Tilly, after much consultation on the subject (clearly my 14 month baby can talk don't you know).

The nice man suggested we try 'Penguin Bowling' which, given the name, was a no brainer.  How cool is that?  It appeals to my traditional toy sort of values and also the fact that it's just so silly.

Needless to say the baby instantly adored the penguins.  Not so sure she quite got the idea of rolling ball and knocking them over, but as you can see from this picture she certainly got involved.

They apparently tasted rather good too...

Eliza LOVES it.  Slightly worrying since it's meant for 6 months plus, but hey even me and him indoors got into it (well he did, since he's a man and is therefore programmed to get into ANY sport, even Penguin Bowling).

The thing I love about this game is that it is so simple, but the attention to detail on the penguins is so lovely.  They each have a different coloured bowling jacket on, and are made with different fabrics.  They are numbered too so that you can start to teach babies numbers.  Eliza loves this.  They all have some hard plastic bits on their arms (hands I guess?) that are great for babies to chew, as you can see Tilly liked doing that.  Some of them rattle and some of them crinkle.  So there's endless amusement to be had when you're 14 months old.

They both had lots of fun with this game, which for me was very special to see.  They have just started to play together, sort of, Tilly basically thinks Eliza's the best thing in the world and Eliza is intrigued by what Tilly can and can't do.  She has also taken to saying 'I'm just looking after my baby sister' a lot, which makes my heart melt.  Eliza trying to teach Tilly how to roll the ball provided my amusement for the morning.

Apparently Eliza told Daddy that penguins can't fly.  She knows this because he told her when they were playing penguin bowling.  Well I never, educational too.

The website has some lovely traditional toys and lots of other useful things for babies and toddlers.  Definitely worth a visit.

In other news we all went swimming today.  Eliza's getting really confident now which is lovely given she was screaming consistently for the three times I braved it with her when she was a baby.  Tilly's taken to it brilliantly, the proverbial duck to water.  It's a shame it means I have to inflict my swimsuited self on others, but there's a downside to everything.