Currently Browsing: Reviews
Mar 3, 2013
About two weeks ago, I received a BassBoomz speaker for review. Normally, I limit reviews on this site to items that are specifically parent or child-related. However, lately Little Man has been obsessed with playing musical chairs and musical statues, so I thought why not take advantage of the offer to try out a bluetooth speaker.
When the speaker arrived, it was smaller than I had anticipated. It fits...
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Product Review: BassBoomz Speaker
Feb 3, 2013
We enjoyed a lovely family morning out today, courtesy of Disney. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email inviting us along to the premiere if Wreck-It Ralph. So off we headed to the Savoy this morning to enjoy our treat.
Little Man was very excited. Of course, an offer of popcorn, jellies, and a movie is bound to get a three year old excited.
Wreck-It Ralph is rated for General release. It’s the...
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Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph
Jan 27, 2013
Did any of you use a Dream Genii Pregnancy Pillow while you were pregnant? I didn’t last time around, but this time, I was lucky enough to be sent one for review from Toddlerland.eu. It arrived earlier this week, and I have been so glad of it! I’m at that stage of pregnancy where no matter how many pillows I surround myself with, it’s impossible to get comfortable.
But the Dream Genii...
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Dream Genii Pregnancy Pillow Giveaway
Nov 24, 2012
Early this year, I received a lovely email from Elizabeth Pantley, thanking me for my review of The No-Cry Sleep Solution, and offering me another of her books for review – The No-Cry Discipline Solution: Gentle ways to promote good behaviour and stop the whining, tantrums and tears.
I accepted the book for review, and when it arrived in paperback form, I started reading it. Unfortunately for me, my...
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Book Review: The No-Cry Discipline Solution
Oct 7, 2012
Last month, we were offered the Kiddy City’n Move stroller for review. I have a bit of a thing for buggies, so I was delighted to oblige. Now that Little Man is 3 years old, we don’t need a stroller as much as before. However, since he’s holding on to that mid-day nap for dear life, a good comfortable stroller that he can sleep in when we’re out and about is vital to ensuring we...
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Product Review: Kiddy City’N Move Stroller
Sep 2, 2012
We’ve been big fans of apps from Toca Boca in this house for a long time, but even so I was surprised by just how much Little Man likes our newest find, Toca Doctor. Since I installed it just over a week ago, it has been the go-to game for him.
You start by enlisting the help of the Toca Doctor to diagnose the patient. After a quick scan, the doctor highlights the problem areas, and now it’s...
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App Review: Toca Doctor
Jul 2, 2012
While we were on our holiday in Co. Clare recently, we visited the Aillwee Caves with Little Man. All my years growing up in the county next door to Clare, and to my shame I’d never been to the Aillwee Caves before, so I thought it was about time I changed that. I wasn’t sure if Little Man would enjoy it, however. After all, it’s hard to know how exciting a toddler will find a cave! To be...
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Aillwee Caves with a Toddler
Jun 25, 2012
Last week we had a fantastic holiday in Doolin, Co. Clare. We booked a holiday home through the Supervalu Getaway Breaks, just as we did last year when we went to Youghal.
This year the holiday home that we chose was in the Tir Gan Ean holiday village, which is just behind the Tir Gan Ean hotel. The holiday homes are quiet, and there seemed to be two types – dormer bungalows, and two storey houses....
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Doolin 2012: Where we stayed
Jun 5, 2012
Have you heard of Tayto Park? Have you been? I must admit that when I first saw the advertising for it last year, I had my doubts. First I wondered if it was an elaborate hoax to gain some publicity for Tayto Crisps. And then when I found out that it was in fact real, I was still a bit dubious. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a Tayto-themed park. So despite living just thirty minutes or so from...
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Tayto Park
May 10, 2012
The Vintage Kids Company is an Irish family-run business selling imaginative and creative toys for children. When they offered us a product for review from their summer toys collection on their site VintageKids.ie, we happily agreed. A few days later, a brown paper package tied up with string arrived in the post (and I spent the rest of the afternoon humming “These are a few of my favourite...
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Seaside fun from Vintage Kids
May 7, 2012
A few weeks ago, I was asked if I’d review Baby Bee Multipurpose Ointment from Burt’s Bees. Normally I don’t review skin care products because they’re rarely something I give much thought to.
But on this occasion I accepted because since Easter Little Man’s skin has been a mess. His stomach and back were covered in dry red patches – it looked like eczema to me....
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Review: Burt’s Bees
Apr 19, 2012
For Mother’s Day this year, my brother bought a gift voucher for afternoon tea for two in Adare Manor, Limerick, for my mother and me. We debated making a reservation for Mother’s Day itself but decided that it would be too busy that day, so we waited a few weeks instead.
Was it worth the wait? Absolutely! When we arrived we were the only people having afternoon tea, and we had a table with...
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Afternoon Tea for Two
Apr 5, 2012
If you’ve been a regular reader here, you’ll know that we’re quite fond of iPhone and iPad apps in this house. And we regularly use apps with Little Man – fun apps and educational apps. Over the past 18 or so months, I’ve reviewed many of our favourites, which you can check out here: Mama.ie App Reviews
But today’s post isn’t an app review as such, so much as a...
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iPad app usability for Toddlers
Mar 24, 2012
I’ve been meaning to write a review of Rainbusters waterproof clothing for children for months now. Last November at The Toy Show in the RDS, we picked up a lovely red waterproof jacket and dungarees for Little Man.
We had great plans to make the most of the outdoors despite the Irish rain and I figured good waterproof gear would help us do just that. What I didn’t count on was getting the...
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Rainbusters waterproof clothes
Mar 20, 2012
Late last year, I recommended The Hunger Games trilogy to my friend Carol, when she was looking for something new to read. I had just flown through the trilogy myself and had loved the first book, liked the second, and been left disappointed by the third. And today I’m very glad I did that – because it was that recommendation that meant Carol thought to ask me if I’d like to attend a...
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The Hunger Games movie
Mar 19, 2012
Those of you who visit me here regularly may have noticed that the comments look a little different in the past few days. That’s because I installed a new WordPress comment plugin called Disqus Comment System on Mama.ie.
I read a lot of blogs on a regular basis, and several of my favourites use the Disqus Comments plugin to manage commenting on their posts. I remember the first place I noticed it was...
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Disqus: Now that’s what I call service!
Mar 15, 2012
We’ve been having great fun practicing yoga poses with Little Man over the past few months. Some time before Christmas, I downloaded an app called My First Yoga, which is a free app developed by Atom Group, presenting Flash cards with yoga animal poses for children.
For each pose, the app first displays a Flash card with a simple cartoon picture of the animal in question, and its name beneath the...
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Yoga for Toddlers
Mar 12, 2012
As I mentioned yesterday in writing about Offset 2012, one of the highlights of Friday was getting Chris Haughton to sign his books especially for Little Man. “What’s the big deal? It’s just a signature.” you might say.
Well true – except it was more than a signature. Instead of using my ballpoint pen to sign the books, Chris announced that he had his own pencils that...
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Chris Haughton’s children’s books
Feb 28, 2012
Little Man is currently OBSESSED with trains. Every evening lately, when I ask him what he’d like to play, his first answer is “Wanna play choo choos!” He got his first train set in May of last year – a small set we picked up in Tesco for about €12, with a bridge, some plain wooden trains, and enough track to make a loop with the bridge.
Then for his birthday, Little Man got...
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Product review: Comparing wooden train engines
Feb 16, 2012
The Tessell Play Mat wasn’t the only big hit in our house among our purchases from Toddlerland.eu (which we bought using a voucher for €180 that I won on MollyMoo.ie). We also got Billy Winky’s Child’s Pillow, by Dream Genii. Without a doubt, this was another splurge purchase, as a direct result of winning the voucher. But now we couldn’t do without “Billy the...
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Product Review: Billy Winky Pillow
Jan 18, 2012
This Wednesday is a little wordier than usual thanks to my latest app addiction. Following a recommendation I read for it yesterday, I downloaded a word game app called WELDER. Produced by Ayopa games, this app is a definite must for anyone who likes Scrabble, Boggle, or any similar word games. The premise is simple – slide or swap tiles to make words of four letters or more. When you create a word,...
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Wordy Wednesday: Addicted to WELDER
Jan 15, 2012
Back in November, I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on Mollymoo.ie for a voucher for Toddlerland.eu to the value of €180! Of course, I couldn’t wait to spend it – so… I didn’t! Now, the majority of the products on Toddlerland.eu are geared towards younger children. And we’re past the stage of needing new buggies or weaning utensils, or changing bags. So I didn’t...
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Fantastic Find: Tessell Play Mat
Jan 10, 2012
When I checked my Twitter feed yesterday, every second tweet seemed to be about the launch of Netflix in Ireland and the UK. So of course curiosity got the better of me and I signed right up, wanting to see what all the fuss is about.
Signing up is easy – just log in with your Facebook account, and it prompts you to enter your details, including your credit card details. The first month is free,...
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Netflix: Sign me up!
Jan 7, 2012
Before Christmas, I was delighted to receive a copy of Alphabeast, a new app for the iPad, for review – not just because we always have great fun reviewing children’s apps, but because this is an Irish-developed app.
Alphabeast has been developed by a team of three developers – Chris Judge, James Kelleher, and Simon Judge – and has been released on iPad, but will shortly be...
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App Review: Alphabeast
Nov 27, 2011
We can’t get enough of Sue Hendra’s books in this house at the moment. Our new bedtime routine involves Barry the Fish with Fingers and the Hairy Scary Monster, and during the day, Little Man’s book of choice from the bookcase in the sitting room is Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell.
Norman is a slug who longs for more from life – specifically he longs for the glamorous life of...
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Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell
