Ladybird Love from IKEA

It is of course a well known fact that all households should have a large, inflatable Ladybird – a fact I had previously overlooked and failed to comply with. Luckily for us, IKEA very kindly offered to fill the void and, on our return from holiday, a SAGOSTEN was waiting for us!

As IKEA very kindly offered to donate a SAGOSTEN piece of furniture to our fund-raising efforts, I was only too happy to review it for them 🙂 It makes a change from accidental reviews of our own products at any rate 😆

The Ladybird is a good size, as you can see from the fact that it takes up half our sofa (and it’s a big sofa!) and happily holds 8 year old Amelie on its back. We had an initial difficulty in that it is designed to be inflated by hair-dryer, something we don’t have, but in fact I managed to blow it up by lung power alone. The kids put the rest of it together and from what I saw, the plastic inner looks pretty strong and the kid-proof zip would be handy in a house with toddlers and will stop people getting scratched during play. He’s certainly been a big hit here; we’ve got a decent sized living room so he doesn’t fill up too much space and Josie and Amelie have been bouncing around very boisterously on him. I’m not sure if, with a house of growing up children and a gradual return to more grown up styles, I’d fill my house with them but as a seat for kids to flop on and perch on, I think they’d be a big hit and they do have the advantage over beanbags of being something that can be deflated and put away. And for the princely current sum of £13.27, I think it makes a good value novelty chair/toy that looks like it will stand up to a good bit of use.

IKEA also sent us a selection of their soft toys to take a look at. Now, I’m picky about soft toys, given we sell a fair few of them ourselves in the high end, designer baby toy end of the market but it has to be said that what little people mostly want is something they can fall in love with and snuggle – Fabler Mus is staggeringly good value (you can afford to stock up on replacements for lost toy moments) and machine washable, well stitched and has an adorable removable outfit in attractive fabric. Honestly, I can’t see how they make it at that price! She’s cute and so is her friend  Barnslig Alg an entirely bonkers orange moose in stripy socks. What’s not to like? 😉 We’re delighted to have met them and both will be going off to befriend some siblings of SCBU babies.

IKEA have launched a Facebook page “Make the World Play More” – I’m a home educator/mother who values play and the right to a long and properly spent childhood above almost everything else, so I’m happy to promote the sentiment :)  There is a fun animated story making app to try out at Toy Stories and a weekly competition over at Flickr at their YourFridgeDoor group.