‘Fraud’ at the Baby Show

Ok, so I don’t have a baby, I’m not pregnant, but we went to The Baby Show anyway.  Maybe there should be a toddler show?  Or an offshoot hall at the baby show?

My main reason for going was to pick up some stock for a stall I’ve got tomorrow and meet Jenny from Gumigem, who I feel I know pretty well although we’d never met til today.  But then a friend was going in the morning so decided to go after work in the afternoon and catch up with both.

We ended up in a car park seemingly miles away, but actually only took about 8 minutes to walk to the halls (they do seem to send you in a random longwinded route though).  Amusing to find that we were parked along with all the built up guys going to the Body building show!

The show was in a different set of halls than normal, and seemed a little smaller than last year’s, although there seemed to be most of the usual exhibitors there (unfortunately blooming EON trying to sign everyone up to their electricity – go away, you’re nothing to do with the baby show, and you’re very annoying, and Club La Costa the most annoying company for spamming you with tonnes of junk mail and phone calls that are impossible to stop even though you know you ticked the ‘no marketing’ box).

I had a list of a few things I was hoping to find good offers on.  I managed to get:

• a limited edition Trunki – maybe if N has luggage, the OH will get the hint that we need a holiday
• A Morrck towelling robe perfect for post swimming and holidays.  I’ve covetted one of these for a while so was pleased to get an offer on these.
• A Pourty potty.  I was actually after a potty seat/step in one, but didn’t see anything like that so will have to have a nosy online or hope I can find one at a nearly new sale or from a friend.  This one will be handy for going out and about if required anyway, and it was a lot cheaper than they were when they first launched which was good.  N’s already unpacked it himself and tried sitting on it (backwards).  I’m not planning on potty training for a while yet so it’s going to go back in the bathroom and maybe if he wants to sit on it while he’s waiting for me during my shower then he can.

What’s great about the Baby Show apart from the shopping, is that everyone expects babies and little ones to be running around, so there’s no panic (well, muted panic) when they go toddling off somewhere to investigate what’s on a stand.  The Happy Hopperz stand was a big success with both N and his friend Elen…maybe he’ll be more excited about his own one we have at home which he’s never been that excited about.

If I’d needed to have a more in depth look round I’d definitely have put N in the creche for an hour.  His friend went in it in the morning and loved it.  Qualified carers in there, lots of immaculate Fisher Price toys, and chance for parents to get some quality shopping time.  It’s definitely hard trying to shop when you’ve got a toddler who can’t decide whether he wants to sit in the buggy or wander round, pushing the buggy into everyone, or trying to go in totally the wrong direction.  All very amusing but probably confuses a lot of pregnant first timers following us who’re having to adjust their walking direction at short notice.

I did get asked by one girl about my buggy (he was in the Baby jogger) as she was thinking about getting one for her baby when it arrived.  Of course I love talking especially about products I like (or dislike) so was happy to share my experience of them.  That’s the second time I’ve been asked about the pushchair I’m using (both the stroller and my Maxi Cosi Mura system), so I’ve obviously got good taste choosing pushchairs that look good/are on short lists!

One long walk back to the car – luckily I’d remembered to take a mental note of which car park and where in it we were (memories of wondering around lost looking for my car years ago at another event at the NEC), and we were done.  Next job, sort through the rubbish and flyers to work out if there’s anything interesting I’ve missed.