The other day I was out with a mummy friend and we both had our babies with us; both of us sat our children on the floor dumped our handbags in front of them, and the party took three seconds to start.

Before five minutes was up, handbag paraphernalia including hand cream, mascara, lip gloss, concealer, nail polish, hair ties, an oyster card and a small hairbrush were littered all over the floor – little hands were grabbing, chewing and investigating with great glee.

Handbags are every baby’s dream toy. Forget teddies, teething rings and rattles – handbags are where it’s at!

There is however a downside to allowing your handbag to be used as a digging fest for an eager baby:

Firstly, your bag has to be baby friendly; meaning nothing small or indigestible – no half eaten packs of chewing gum, small butterfly clips (I love these), throat lozenges, headache pills… you’ll be amazed at the tiny bits of junk that accumulate in your bag.

And don’t think that hiding your ‘unfriendlies’ in a zipped pocket will keep them out of baby’s reach. The little critters are most adept at opening and shutting anything that they are not supposed to, especially when you aren’t looking! It’s a skill.

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My family is mad about Dr Seuss. I love the man, so does my husband, and my children have followed suit – perhaps without much option (let’s just say that there has been a great deal of ‘cat in hat’ indoctrination going down in my home).

“Green Eggs and Ham” goes down a treat and nothing beats “There’s a Wocket in my Pocket”.

And there’s a cool iPad app for children to further my (children’s) fanaticism re the almighty Seuss…A Dr Seuss app!

Named one of the TOP 25 iPAD APPS FOR KIDS by Time Magazine (September 2012), “Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat Colour & Create” app is a must have for not only enthusiasts but children who like to… well, colour and create.

The iPad app for children features include:

• nine tools for little hands to get creative with, including a Confetti Cannon, Magic Hat animated effects, crayons, chalk, paint brushes, tap-to-fill paint bucket, stickers, and patterns.
• two colouring packs, and a total of 16 pages to colour.

• 32 colours, 16 stickers, 11 Seuss patterns, 6 Magic Hat effects, and 3 types of confetti.
• a sharing tool enabling parents to send their child’s masterpieces to friends and family.
• a Design Shop within the app offers additional colouring packs and bonus art supplies for sale.

A new version of the iPad app for children contains a new art tool (chalk) as well as improved social media effort.

The app costs £2.49 on iTunes – CLICK HERE to download.

If you’re looking for a fun family trip in 2013, Legoland is an easy answer. And now with a brand new play zone due to launch in May, there is more incentive to get your family down there for a weekend.

Duplo Valley is the new themed land and it has been designed especially for pre-schoolers.

It’s a water play area with all the fan fair that has come to characterise Legoland. Duplo Valley is to be a cacophony of Duplo’s most popular characters, animals and vehicles as well as toddler friendly rides, creative wet play areas and spectacular water features. To whet your appetites, here are some of the features that you can expect:

• a menagerie of DUPLO animal friends – from lions and giraffes, to zebras and elephants.
• the largest water structure in the UK especially designed for maximum soaking aka the Duplo Drench Towers (WOO HOO!).
• a ‘dodge ‘em type outsized tipping brick.
• River Rapids water slides.

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One of the coolest gifts my girls got for Christmas (by far) was bath play-doh by Lush.

The bath play doh is called Fun and it complies with the Lush philosophy, containing no preservatives or unfriendly elements. It comes in five colours/ fragrances – green (lime & lemon), blue (lavender), pink (jam), red (mandarin & orange) and yellow (vanilla) – and is wrapped in biodegradable wrapping.

But wait…

… not only can you sculpt awesome shapes while you bath; the bath play doh is made for body and hair (just pinch off a small bit and lather from head to toe), it’s a bubble bath and can even be used to hand wash your clothes (by crumbling a small chunk under the hot running tap).

My three-year-old absolutely loves her Fun. She has been waking up and asking to bath just because she wants to play with it.

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I have a three-year-old and a one-year old. And I think that they are ready to share a room.

I know that there are lots of parents have children sharing a room. Sometimes space allows no room for choice. My girls haven’t yet started sharing because, to be honest, it doesn’t really suit me. What I mean is that I haven’t really been ready to deal with the issues involving room share, until now.

My older daughter is a good sleeper but she talks (and shouts) in her sleep and also talks herself to sleep. Certain that she’d wake up her baby sister we made the choice to keep the girls separate.

They also go to bed at different times (night and day) – it just so happens that their routines have worked out a little differently – which makes pre-bed story time and such a little more complicated.

Paediatrician George Cohen says that whether children will be good roommates depends in large part on their ages and temperaments.

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