This is the Way…To The Garden in the Night!

Now this is where I admit to something that some of you are going to consider a major and epic parenting fail on my part but it is a necessity… my daughter began watching In the Night Garden when she was just 5 months old. I know I know so young but I was desperate and it worked. Picture it. Single mother, barely having slept for 5 months because her baby only wants to sleep on her. I walked into my mothers room with a crying baby and sat down and shed a tear myself. She offered to take her for a moment so I could go to the toilet and whilst I was there the crying stopped. Initially I thought, “Great, my daughter hates me!” until I walked back into the bedroom and spotted her sat up against her Nonna fixated on her tablet which was streaming an episode of In the Night garden. It was from that moment she was hooked. She didn’t (and still doesn’t I might add) watch television all day but we did incorporate a single episode into our bedtime routine as a time for snuggles and to calm down. To be honest I don’t think twenty minutes a day is going to do much harm and she is a fan even now and has all the toys to go with her love of this program and it looks like she is passing on that love to her little cousin Lily too….

A  couple of months ago, when she herself was around 5 months old, Lily came to stay with us for the day – to “play” with Alyssa and have fun and cuddles with her Aunty and Nonna. We happened to put an episode of In the Night Garden on for Alyssa – she had been a goood girl sharing with Lily and had asked for it, so we popped it on. In exactly the same way Alyssa had all those months ago, Lily sat there completely transfixed by the program and afterwards Alyssa brought all her cuddly In the Night Garden toys over for Lily to look at. The excited squeals and giggles between them were absolutely adorable.

It just so happened that a few weeks later, the wonderful people at Golden Bear asked if I would be interested in reviewing the gorgeous new In The Night Garden Baby range toys and sent us a beautiful soft cuddly Upsy Daisy and a tinkling Iggle Piggle chime – well of course I instantly knew which little girl could help me out with this review… you don’t need to be able to talk to have an opinion on something you know!

“The In the Night Garden Baby collection features a selection of adorable multi-sensory soft toys and comforters that are perfect for babies to snuggle and play with. The range is the ideal introduction for little ones to begin their magical adventure into the world of In the Night Garden, and meet familiar characters; Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy and Makka Pakka from the popular pre-school TV series.”

As you can see they were a huge hit – getting them out of their packaging it was immediately apparent how soft they were compared to regular toys which is obviously perfect for delicate little baby hands. They were nice and light and weren’t too thick or wide at all. This meant Lily, even with her limited baby skills, was able to grab, lift, shake and in some cases throw the new toys around. The little chime inside Iggle Piggle is quite a soft sound which means that she didn’t jump at the sudden noise either. The colours of the characters are also much more pastel rather than the normal bright colours of the characters that we are used to which I think is much calmer for young children.

Also available in the range are rattles and comfort blankies featuring Makka Pakka too. Some more good news is that all of these toys are suitable from 0 years meaning that your baby can enjoy these toys right from birth and speaking from experience it can be so bloomin difficult to find toys that are safe for newborns! If you want to have a look at the full Golden Bear In the Night Garden Baby Toy Range take a look at their online store.

Thank you so much to Golden Bear for asking us to try out this gorgeous new range of toys. Lily was over the moon with her little Upsy Daisy and tinkling Iggle Piggle – the squeals of delight and dribble trail said it all. It is so nice that these little cousins have something in common and when wittering on to each other in their own language of mutterings, squeals and raptor noises, I am sure this is exactly what they are talking about. I’m having visions of them in a few months time playing “In the Night Garden” themselves and I can’t wait to watch them take their Garden friends along with them too.

How about you – do your children love In the Night Garden too?!

This is a collaborative post – all opinions are my own