Florence sometimes needs a bit of incentive and with all the lovely things we are sent to review I often decide to give them to her when she’s been particularly well-behaved. Before my friend’s wedding I showed her the new Baby born Interactive dolly by Zapf which I just know she has been itching to get her paws on for some time now! Basically Florence has been after a dolly which can cry, wee, be fed with a spoon, go in the bath and has a nappy which she can change. BABY born Interactive couldn’t have fitted the bill better if she’d tried and proved the perfect incentive for her to be the best behaved bridesmaid ever! My girl walked down the aisle beautifully and spent the day looking and acting like a fairy from ‘A Mid Summer Night’s Dream’ so it seemed only fair that she got her prize at the end of it and she has been thrilled with the dolly ever since.
As soon as Florence got her out of the packaging she needed to feed her with a spoon from her bowl. BABY born Interactive comes with one sachet of special food which is to be mixed with water and means she will do a poo. I kid you not! She then had to feed her with the bottle, give her a dummy, change her nappy and eventually take her in the bath for a long old soak! The new dolly, which is named Baby Eve after my friend who got married, has had her clothes whipped on and off more times than I’ve had hot dinners (or indeed than she herself has had dinners because like I said, this one EATS and POOS)! It’s great then that the baby vest and hat are easy for Florence to get on and off herself. I’m utterly sick sometimes of being asked to put clothes on a baby doll; Florence usually manages to get them off ok but getting them on again is usually trickier than with BABY born Interactive who has clothes which are fairly stretchy and do up with velcro! The first plus then!
The second plus, in a long line, is that unlike I had envisaged, the dolly dries out very easily after a bath! I had thought I’m afraid, that she would end up being a bath time dolly only or otherwise my carpets would be water-logged but once she’s full of water from the spoon, bottle or just from a dunking it’s easy to push her belly button and make her ‘wee’ it all out! It’s also very easy to make her cry by squeezing her right arm. I had a crying doll when I was little but couldn’t squeeze her hard enough to make it work and my Mum had to do it for me. This one is easy enough for Florence to do and she’s not quite three yet (the recommended age).
BABY born Interactive immediately has her nappy changed and gets fed!
BABY born Interactive comes with a number of accessories which most of which are fab! Florence loves the potty and making her do a wee wee. The spoon, bowl, dummy and bottle are other faves and of course she loves the nappy changing (BABY born Interactive is wearing one nappy and comes with a spare)! For her age a couple of them are a bit useless though. There is a bracelet for the dolly and a matching one for the child. Florence liked them but because she has insisted on taking the dolly out with us we have already lost the bracelet for the dolly which was inevitable. I’m sure an older girl of 5 or 6 could be careful with such little delicate things but for Florence it was never going to be something she’d managed not to lose! There is also an identity card which has a personal web link for the Zapf webpage , again this is something which doesn’t interest my little girl but will probably delight older ones. I think this dolly has everything Florence wanted though and she can’t quite believe her luck!
I like the fact that she won’t go to the toilet after a ‘porridge feed’ unless her legs are in the correct position for sitting on the potty – this means no spills! Florence loves that you can feed her water, put a nappy on and then she will do a wee at some point just like a real baby! Absolutely brilliant isn’t she! Now I said she was interactive and that’s because she interacts with a number of accessories which can be bought separately. There’s a scooter, car and kitchen and BABY born Interactive can make them work by being near them. (BABY born Interactive does not need batteries). The doll comes with 2 nappies as I mentioned and one sachet of food. You can buy additional nappies and food which for me I can see both the good and bad. I don’t like the fact that I will have to buy these things extra but then I can buy them as little treats that aren’t sweets as they are not that expensive. With the nappies I have also been drying them on the radiator and re-using them. At some point the sticky will wear off and we’ll buy some more but it’s worth noting that they don’t have to be used just the once. Lastly, I think that despite her all singing and all dancing features, she just looks like an old-fashioned dolly that I used to play with, she has move-able arms and legs and her eyes close when you lay her down. We love her!
Follow