I love gifts. Who doesn’t? My children certainly love gifts. For weeks after Christmas, Reuben would bound up to Nathan as he got home from work, demanding “what present you bought me today?”. And gifts are even better if they’re personalised. Which is why I’m happy to be linking up with giftsonline4u.com to discuss their rather lovely personalised train.
Now, in case you’re confused this is more of a 3-year-old gift than a baby gift. But Reuben already has one a little similar, so it made sense to get one with Eva’s name on. She’ll appreciate it in a few years. She was excited by the packaging and tried to eat the bubble wrap (which I’m saving to surprise Roo with when he’s bored), but she wasn’t allowed to play with the train itself. The bag it came in was pretty cool though:
The train itself came in several bits, with wooden pin connectors, which I thought would be fiddly to assemble. But it wasn’t bad – even with my cack-handiness and both children “helping” it only took a few minutes. Look, here are me and Roo hard at work:
The track connects with tiny magnets and then the letters sit on the track, each letter attaching to a wooden truck. And they’re all pulled by this magnificent-looking engine:
Pretty, isn’t it? The signal and tree also come as part of the set, so these personalised gifts are good value for money (the train is £20.99+ £0.75 per letter). It’s all painted beautifully and is good quality. The only reservation I would have is that the connectors seem a little flimsy, but once they’re connected it would be hard to snap them. Even with my particularly heavy-handed children.
So, it was all assembled and we let Eva have a look at it before whisking her away from it (it definitely isn’t for bitey babies to play with):
Incidentally, Nathan’s OCD says that the whole thing should be reversed and the engine should be next to the “E”, That’s possible, if all the trucks are turned around but I’m happy with it this way. If he wants to change it, he can.
So, baby safely removed, it was time for Reuben to have a play:
Naturally, the first thing he did was to take it apart. “Oh no, I’ve lost my trucks” said the engine “where are they?” “Here we are” squeaked the trucks….and so on. They were put back together again, rolled up and down the tracks and the magnets investigated. Oh, and he managed to sound out the letters and discern that it was Eva’s name. Educational as well as fun!
So, thanks giftsonline4u.com for the train! We love it and I’m sure Eva will appreciate it in a few years too.
