Very soon afterwards, our baby grew into a toddler and siblings came along. The next travelling dilemma developed – how do we keep someone who never sits down (or stops talking) occupied during long trips? How will I manage? The result – Little Gulliver now has a well stocked ‘Play’ range with products from Magic Pen, magnets, sticker books and even kids headphones! All tested and popular with our 3 children now aged 3, 4 & 5.

A great, all round favourite travel toy that works across different personalities and age groups is the Doodle Pro. We stock a ‘travel’ size and carbonier ’clip on’ size Doodle Pro. Being Fisher-Price, its built tough and has top quality drawing capacity. If you’ve ever used a different brand you will notice the difference immediately – tough casing, sturdy pen and clear writing surface. Its built to last!

Kids love the Doodle Pro for independent play, but parents can become involved when you want (or need!) to occupy the child with some fun games together. You can find them here in our Play/Draw and Colour Category.

Favourite games for families to play on your Doodle Pro Clip On are things like;

• ages 2-3; draw a car and add the wheels, draw heads and fill in the faces and scribbling (fill in the whole cover and wipe clean)
• ages 3-4; draw planes, houses and trees, letters and numbers
• 4+; practise your name, Dots and Boxes (how to play here). And you can’t go past Noughts and Crosses. The possibilities are endless!

Here’s some feedback;

“Little kids love this! It’s just like drawing without the mess of the paper and pencils. It’s easy to wipe out and start all over again. It’s Fisher Price so you know it’s good quality.”

“great idea no paper no mess …this toy is a good investment”

“Less messy than crayons or paint but allows same type of creative ideas.”

And when you get home? You could keep the doodle pro clip on in your luggage so its ready to head off next time OR keep it in the pocket in your car. Doodle Pros love driving too!

Visit http://www.LittleGulliver.com.au today to see our range of travel gear for kids. We’re always happy to help.

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Here’s some suggestions from our ‘Light It Up’ category;

Glow Stick Bracelets 5 pack

1. Glow Bracelets;

Our kids had to best time lighting up their triple bunk, on a recent holiday, with their glow bracelets. Our eldest (proud top bunk occupant) was very impressed that it meant he could easily navigate the steps in the dark if he had to go to the toilet. The connectors mean they are easy to join together to make a bigger glow necklace or join onto backpacks and strollers (or bunk steps)! etc.

Glow Light with Caribiner

2. Smart Glow Light;

We’ve also introduced glow lights with handy carabineer clips. The clips can be used on your own gear and also attach neatly to our 3-in-1 Lanyard. Effectively you can light up anything you like!

The picture shows them in blue, but they also come in pink, red and green. They come in a pack of 1 and have an extra long life of 8 – 10 hours.

Magic Boing Light

3. BOING Magic Light Balls;

If you find yourself at concerts and amusement parks and the kids want to buy every flashy, sparkly souvenir there is, then the Magic Boing Light may be for you. What I love about it is the batteries are replaceable (though it comes with some to start you off). It has its own lanyard and you simply squeeze to change the colours.

Wear it, drape it, play with it and light up those dim spots!

Swivel Night Light

 4. Swivel Night Light;

And for apartments and motels the handy night light is a must-pack for us. Little Gulliver range 2 different styles. This one is directional, meaning you can swivel it to face any direction you like. Face it away from sleeping children or towards a midnight nappy change.

You never know where a power point is going to be located and this night light lets you limit or increase the light a little, based on where its located. You can turn the direction of the light to face toward or away from the kids if you like. And it has an auto sensor!

Auto Sensor Night Light

 5. Auto Sensor LED Night Light;

We like smart things! This light also switches on when its dark and off when its light.

Its a good, small size LED which gives plenty of light to a child or parent in an unfamiliar night environment. We always travel with this night light. It is always handy somewhere – a hallway (navigate the way to a bathroom) or light up an unfamilar bedroom.

Venturing through aquariums and museums – you can be in broad day light and all is well. Then, the next display is in the pitch dark, just as the baby cries in the stroller and the toddler runs…where is everyone? We hope you enjoy our ’Light it up’ range. More to come soon.

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Anyone who has ever travelled with kids has had to consider – will I need the car seat? At Little Gulliver, we’ve been asked about the Go Go Kidz TravelMate many times over the years and we are thrilled that the product is now available in Australia. See all our Go Go Kidz products here. Redesigned and approved for Australian / New Zealand carseats and renamed the ‘Aussie Kidz Travel Mate’, its the same quality and style of product that has been popular in the US and Europe for many years.

When travelling, either being picked up from your destination or hiring a car you will need a car seat for your child. The Aussie Kidz Travel Mate makes your car seat easy to transport and acts as a travel stroller to boot!

And you can accessorise it…the handle pouch makes the Aussie Kidz Travel Mate even more convenient, its attaches easily with velcro and had 3 large compartments to store anything from spare nappies to spare change. It also fits on most extendable luggage handles.

Previously, buying a Go Go Kidz TravelMate meant buying a product from overseas, which was designed to fit overseas car seats. A US mum, after moving to QLD, loved her Go Go Kidz so much she bought the license and had the product redesigned to fit our car seats. Thanks Abby!

Kids love them…

Mum and Dads love them too! Check out this this testimonial, from the Go Go Babyz Website;

“I recently purchased 2 of your gogobabyz travelmates for a trip we took to San Diego from Chicago.  I have two sons, 3 years old and 9 months old.  We hemmed and hawed over whether or not to lug the car seats with us on the trip or to rent them from the car rental place.  I had seen your product in a few different catalogs and thought, why not give it a shot.  The cost of checking the car seats or renting them from Hertz for the week was pretty close to the cost of the actual travelmate plus I could use it over and over again so it would be less expensive in the long run.  I found the travelmate very easy to use (although I did struggle with unlatching it at the first couple of time but I got better at it).   I used them to tote both of them through the airport and then unlatched my 3 year olds car seat to put it on the plane and checked the other one at the gate.  During the trip it was a space saver because we didn’t have to bring a stroller and when we went to the zoo and other places we just attached the car seats again and away we went!  I wanted to tell you how much I loved this product!  I got so many complements and inquiries from people throughout our trip that I wouldn’t be surprised if you get a rush of orders coming in!!  Thank you so much for inventing such a great product!!” 

Wendy Cimino, Chicago, IL, USA

Please contact us at Little Gulliver for any information about this great product.

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Good morning,
I hope this email finds you well. I have a very tall 2 and half year boy and we often try and get away for weekends.I have searched everywhere and I am desperately need some advice on a bed that is off the ground but still has sides to stop them rolling off that I can buy in Australia or get shipped here. Can you please help direct me. Thank you

Donna @ Travel Toddler said: March 6 2011 11:03 AM

Hi Julie-Anne,

thank you for your email.

I’ve been thinking about your query and after some investigation cannot think of a bed which comes with the features you’ve mentioned ie – some are off the ground but have no bed rails and others have bed rails but are not off the ground. I guess this is what you have also found! At Little Gulliver, we’ve put together a range of the best travel bed options for different age groups, so you may like to take a look at our Resting category.

Here’s a couple of our options which may suit you;

Off the ground Have a look at our Regalo Child Bed. It doesn’t have sides but does sort of ‘hug’ the child a little. It folds up to be quite compact and is 18cm off the ground. The video I’ve included shows how easy it is to set up. (It was popular over Christmas, when so many of our customers were heading off camping and caravanning. We also had an excited Nana grab one for the grand-kids coming to visit)!  See my extra info below, talking about bed rails for travel, which may be of interest also.

Sides to stop them rolling off The other thing to consider is the Ready Bed.

The 2+ (Winnie the Pooh) version has side bolsters to prevent the child from rolling out and also has a built-in headboard.

At 2 1/2 and tall, your son may be around a metre tall? So, size wise, this may be a good fit – the bed size is approx: 135cms L x 71cms W x 32cms H.

For other info I’ll include a post I did previously, in case you haven’t seen it; Bed Rails for Travel. It is looking at various options of bed rails which may be easy to use on the road. Don’t forget to scroll down for the comments on the post. I wonder whether the Magic Bumpers or Dream Tubes may be helpful if teamed with a Regalo?

I hope this information helps and please let me know what you decide. Travel beds and bedding is something we all wonder about, so we love to hear what works for different families!

Kind regards,

Donna

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But

While I think it’s amusing, cute, factual, well written and described what it can be like to fly with ‘kid’ (he only has 1), I’m ready for an article which DOESN’T make flying with kids out to be a complete nightmare. Sure it’s tiring and you’re never sure what is going to happen next – but that is what parenting EVEN AT HOME is all about.

The Verdict

I noticed that today there is 121 comments at the bottom of the article online. I haven’t read them….I am assuming that most of them will be single travellers describing the time they heard a child crying on a plane and it really upset them?! And what about the time that noisy child PLAYED the whole flight from Sydney to LA?! Fancy having to tolerate not only crying, but hearing another child making noise too. Give the person a medal please!

Seriously folks, taking the kids to the Supermarket can be hard. Do we really need any more articles telling people how hard it is to fly with kids? Lets see some more about how much fun it is to sit around, play with the kids, cuddle them and have people bring you food…no making beds, no washing machine, no bathing, (OK no sleep either – but there has to be some good)!

And don’t start me on the passenger who had to drink a bottle of duty free Vodka (on a return flight from London) because he had a “really stressful job”. But, he didn’t have kids with him, so…

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