It’s a Boy! Baby Annabells little brother doll review

When eye’s were glued to the TV and news for the arrival of the newest Royal baby we were eagerly awaiting our own delivery only we already know it was a boy – as with all baby deliveries you can’t guarantee it’s arrival date (unless you are having a planned C-section like I did with Harry), and ours arrived a little later than the royal baby – our very own Baby Annabell Baby Brother doll from Zapf Creations.

The ‘Dad’ of this new arrival was Harry who has recently became rather attached to his dolls and his iCandy push chair.

Of course, ‘birthing’ dolls are rather different to real ones and there’s a lot more packaging involved, but once we go into the box – with the aid of a pair of scissors, you’ll find included with this doll:

This doll requires 4 AA batteries which are not included (something which always annoys me with toys). Once the batteries are put into the doll he sucks on his dummy making sucking noises.  As he sucks he closes his eyes and after a while can be heard snoring gently.

He also drinks from his bottle, put water in the bottle and it disappears before your eyes. He really sucks and drinks.  He also cries, luckily for me this is a rare occurrence and I’m sure I couldn’t cope with another baby crying often – I done my fair share of crying babies over the years, however unlike my two this has an off button! Always a bonus with toys.  He also babbles and giggles which is very cute.

Since the arrival of baby Alexander (Harry’s choice of name) he has carried him around everywhere with her. He puts him to bed in a dolls cot which he begged me to make him out of a cardboard box – it kind of resembles a prison cell but Harry is happy with it, feeds him in the dolls high chair we already have and pushing him to the shops and back in his iCandy push chair.  He is now almost like another child and has even travelled in the car with us strapped into the middle seat.

Although ‘Baby Alexander’ drifts off to sleep and snores slightly there is an automatic cut off with this doll, if he isn’t played with for a while he stops making a noise conserving the battery life and my sanity.

It’s lovely to watch Harry interacting so nicely with his doll and as well as nurturing his caring side it also helps to teach children a few basic parenting type skills and brings a new level of play to role playing and imaginative games.

I have found myself being on ‘babysitting Nanny’ duties a few times recently so need to put a stop to that one early on as I have found myself rocking and talking to a doll!

A few things to note are the motor is a little noisy on this doll, it can be heard louder than the sucking noises when drinking or sucking on the dummy and it can be difficult to get him to stop crying on the very rare occasions he has done – Harry has passed it across to me after a few minutes frustrated in not being able to stop him, and lastly the dummy is on the small size so can easily become lost – I have solved this problem by sewing on some elasticated cord and tying around the dolls wrist to it stays attached, you can buy these separately to replace lost items.

You can also change the doll’s nappy but it’s worth noting if you keep removing the nappy it will lose it’s stick and just fall off over time.

Do your children play with dolls?