Cor, it’s been a busy time in the Rocknrollerbaby household recently! We have literally been all over London doing various activities with friends and it’s been great but also quite nice that today is the first day in 11 days that we have nothing planned and can just relax a bit. I should really get on with some chores I suppose but instead I think we might amble around, pop to the park and lounge about! Frankly I need the rest! I’ve had two lots of friends staying over the past week and a half, signed with a new agent, moved along slowly with my Tabib business, seen various family members including Florence’s great Grandmother, been to The Princess Diana memorial play ground, The Science and Natural History Museums, seen Wind In The Willows in Brockwell park, been to see some good friends in a play in Blackfriars and yesterday we went to see In the Night Garden Live in Richmond which was utterly fantastic, traffic on the journey there and back aside! Florence’s face just lit up at the sight of her favourite characters and it was so well done and extremely clever! If you’d like to read more about our trips to Wind in the Willows and In the Night Garden Live you can read my two separate reviews on www.kidsfunlondon.co.uk in the blog section. They’re both utterly worth going to see!

On top of all our busy activities I’ve been trying to potty train Florence which is proving easier than I thought it would be. I chose now because she started telling me she needed to go so it wasn’t a conscious decision, more a natural progression. I know she hates having a dirty nappy and it would be great to get her out of them completely. In the beginning I decided not to use reusable nappies on the grounds that you have to use twice as many because they get so wet, I don’t have a garden to hang them after washing and I thought if I got Florence potty trained before she was two then my carbon foot print wouldn’t be any more than if I was putting the washing machine on every five minutes! So I’m really happy that perhaps my plan will come to fruition. We have dirty nappies down I think, it’s just the wet ones I’m struggling with. Florence doesn’t seem to mind so much when she’s wet so there’s not quite the same incentive to ask for a wee wee although she does seem to love shouting as loudly as she can ‘Hello Mummy’s wee wee!’ when I am on the loo. Be that in our home or in a public toilet where everyone can hear… That’s not so bad but sometimes she declares that I’m doing something else which can be a bit embarrassing, especially when I’m not! With a child I suspect you have to get used to being a bit embarrassed as they just say what comes into their heads don’t they! I remember really showing my Mum up by repeating things she’d said and I think I’m going to have to be super careful with Florence! She’s copies everything I say and I’ve always been a bit of a potty mouth so I’m going to have to really curb it and start saying ‘sugar’ and ‘fudge’ where before I may have used something else. I like polite children who are well behaved (don’t we all) so I’m going to be looking to my friend Sam for tips on that one. She came to stay last week and her three boys aged 4, 6 and 9 were impeccable. Such lovely children with wonderful manners that do what their Mum tells them and go to bed no questions asked when told. It was a pleasure having them stay and come and enjoy the Princess Diana Playground and Science museum with us which is this week’s topic for review…

Travelling on the tube with a buggy is just not easy. Unless you can start your journey in Stratford and end it somewhere central on the Jubilee line you really don’t have many lift options which is plain annoying. I mean what about people in wheelchairs? How on earth are they expected to get around on the tube? I’m a big lover of London and our transport system but this it its one flaw and really needs to be addressed because it’s plain embarrassing for our capital city if you ask me! When Sam and her boys came to stay and we decided where we were going to take them it was obvious that we were going to have to use at least two of the most buggy unfriendly stops on the line, which is a shame considering they are near many of the children’s points of interest but there we are… I decided that I would use the sling sent to me by Ergo. It’s the original ERGObaby carrier and I’ve been using it for a couple of months now. It’s an absolute god send on the tube! Also a really good way of keeping Florence close while still having two hands free to carry bags and no wheels to negotiate on escalators and stairs. She loves to be up high and has always enjoyed being carried. The previous sling I’d had and loved is just that bit too difficult with an older child, a wrap around when she was little was lovely but I think as they get older they definitely need their hands free and enjoy the ability to move about more which the Ergo most definitely allows. I mainly use it on my back which you might think would be hard to do on your own but with a small amount of practice it’s actually very easy! What’s really great about it is that you can use it as a hip carrier as well as on your front and back so it really is versatile. She regards it as a real treat which is great, rarely complains when she’s in it and to be honest, when in the back position you barely notice that you’re carrying any extra weight at all. The Ergo distributes the weight so that you are carrying from your hips ensuring your back is looked after and it’s got a handy hood so that when she falls asleep you can flip it up and clip it on to your shoulders ensuring her head is also looked after. We love it and simply wouldn’t be able to travel in central London without it! I’ve not tried it with a tiny baby but having looked at the infant insert I really don’t see why it wouldn’t be great for them too. It’s easy to think a wrap around soft material is best for a new born and while that is great, if you only want to make one outlay the insert certainly seems like it would do its job very well. Coupled with all the health and safety benefits for both parent and baby and the fact that it’s manly enough for my husband to not mind wearing, it’s a real winner for us!

So off the five of us trotted into central London and the first stop was the Princess Diana Memorial Playground, a short walk from Notting Hill Gate tube and in the heart of Hyde Park. Florence and I have been many times to this wonderful playground and we will continue to go back time and time again so brilliant is it! But this was the first trip for my friend and her lovely boys and they all absolutely loved it. Well, actually there’s nothing to not love, this park is superb! Sometimes in busier periods there’s a queue to get in but in my experience this moves rather quickly and children aren’t left hanging around for too long. The system is good and it ensures that the park never feels over run with people and you can explore without feeling like you are being shunted along by the next person. There is something here for children of all ages and capabilities and the beams of children just call out from every corner, nook and cranny (of which there are many)! The main feature is a giant pirate ship on a bed of sand. The little ones can climb up to the crows nest, dive in and out of the many windows and doors and swing from the ropes over head. Surrounding this is a water play area on a rocky mound. It was lovely to see children darting in and out of the splash area in their costumes as if they were on holiday on the beach rather than central London. There is a smaller sanded area with little boats for toddlers and babies which Florence adores and around each bend you find something new. There is of course a section with swings but why swing when you can play in and out of stilted houses and dance over all the giant musical instruments which are around the edge of one half of the park? Another area holds slides and possibly the biggest wooden climbing frame I have ever seen which snakes in and out of the trees. There are tunnels and wigwams, totem poles to climb and quiet sections to sit and read. From everything I have read about Princess Diana I can’t help but think she would have been immensely proud of this park. Every child has a place here and every parent has access to take their little ones because it’s absolutely free and you can stay as long as you like. Make a day of it, take your lunch with you or have it in the reasonably priced café on site or just pop in on the way to the museums like us but whatever you do, if you’re in London, make it a top priority! Your children will thank you for it! We didn’t want to leave but Sam and the boys were only on a flying visit and we had to fit in the Science museum in as well!

A fifteen minute walk from the play ground through Hyde Park and you arrive at the road leading you to three of the capitals best known museums; The Natural History, The V & A and The Science and it was Science that I really wanted to show my friends because there is simply so much to do here! We didn’t have time to look around the whole museum which was a shame because there are so many interesting things on offer from space ships and steam trains to a machine which will take your photo and show you what you will look like at another age! Because I have been many times I chose the three things we like best to introduce to our friends and first stop was the Launch Pad on the third floor. The Launch Pad is an area where your children can experiment with hands on activities. There are things to touch, see, push, pull and climb on and the best bit is that each activity teaches them something! Who said it was a break from schooling?! I’d always thought this area was a little bit old for Florence but actually when she was with the older boys she really got something from it and enjoyed watching all the things on display even if she wasn’t quite big enough to get involved herself. Unfortunately we’d just missed one of the free shows they were having at the Launch Pad, they have things on for free at various different times throughout the day but we made it just in time for the Bubble Show which runs hourly in the basement. Florence absolutely delights in bubbles so the show was great for her cause she got to see giant ones, little ones, ones filled with helium, others filled with carbon dioxide which burst with a dramatic puff of smoke and even people covered in a bubble! The boys enjoyed it too because they got to learn about how all those bubbles are made and as it’s a really interactive show so they got to take part from their seats on the floor. The show lasts around 20 minutes and like most of the great things in the Science museum, is absolutely free!

On such a tight schedule we still hadn’t had our lunch which I think at 1pm the boys were fine with as they were enjoying the excitement so much they probably had adrenalin to keep them going but Florence really needed a little snack before we would have time to find somewhere for lunch. She’s not too keen on me feeding her and prefers to do it herself! I’d like to say this is just because she’s becoming more independent but honestly, she’s always been like it, she was born independent which is why I use my Munchkin Snack Catcher. It’s a little bowl with a handle either side just like a sippy cup and it has a rubber lid designed in such a way that a little hand can poke through it and get access to her snacks but when it’s being waved about the snacks don’t fly out! The perfect accessory for when you’re in an environment where spillage is just not an option! The Science Museum Bubble Show was one of those occasions and at home with my beautiful new cream carpets (toddler and new cream carpets?! I know, I know!) is another. I’d highly recommend The Munchkin Snack Catcher because it’s so easy for a little one to use, retain their independence and also gives you total peace of mind that raisins and biscuits aren’t flying everywhere ready to be ground into the carpet! So, with Florence snacked up and the boys wanting to see just a little bit more before we headed off for lunch and another activity we went into the third area I’d chosen, The Garden. This area, which is also in the basement, is specially designed for children aged 3 to 6 but Florence and I go there often and before she even turned one she loved it! The oldest member of our gang at nine years old thought it was great too as did his younger brothers. It’s another area like the launch pad with hands on activities but these ones are designed with a younger person in mind. There are lots of things to tickle the senses, wellington boots stuck to the wall to squeeze and feel and dangly curtains to run in and out of amongst many others. The experiments are on a lesser scale where you just have to push buttons to see things moving and there is a big climbing area with bricks to build and winch up and down. The best bit by far is the water display with differing heights for different aged children to stand and direct the boats with the lock systems and whirl pools. Florence thinks this is great and thoroughly enjoys removing the plastic bibs which are provided instantly and drenching her clothes! We always take a spare set now!

Like I said, the Science Museum is absolutely jam packed with interesting things to see and do but we only had time to do a small handful of them as my guests were leaving on a train back to Norfolk at 4pm so I chose the three things I like to do the most with children when we go there. You could easily spend a couple of days here and if you have the time, be sure to check out the Baby Daisy vacuum cleaner in the household section! My Grandmother, Florence’s great Grandmother donated this to the museum back in the seventies and it’s always a bit of a kick for us going to see it along with all the other household equipment from eras gone by… If you do fancy a trip to The Science Museum then it’s worth knowing you can do this on a budget of absolutely nothing for entry is absolutely free, all they ask for is a donation if you can afford it. There are often exhibitions which you can pay extra for but there is certainly more than enough to see without opening your purse, so if you do have to look after your pennies then it’s perfect!

The Science Museum is on the move next weekend and is taking part in the event of the season for Children, the Lollibop Festival! I’ve been lucky enough to have been invited with some friends of all different ages to the event this week and will be reporting back straight after the first day of the festival which is on Friday 5^th August. The festival runs on the Saturday and Sunday as well and is THE place to be with children aged ten and under this summer! Everyone who’s anyone in the land of children’s entertainment is going to be there from Rastamouse and da Easy Crew to a bop with Baby Loves Disco and a Roald Dahl museum. Ticket prices start at £20.00 and more information can be found at www.lollibopfestival.com. We can’t wait and I will be writing about it both here on my blog and also for www.kidsfunlondon.co.uk.

To find out more information on the original ERGObaby carrier and their other range of products see www.ergobabycarrier.com they can be purchased from many retailers in the UK including Amazon at prices around £100.

For the Munchkin Snack Catcher see www.munchkin.eu.com for a list of stockists. Prices are around £3.49 but can be bought in packs of four at a cheaper price.