The V&A Museum of Childhood is hosting an exhibition From The Tiger Who Came to Tea to Mog and Pink Rabbit, which runs from 28 May – 2 September 2011. The exhibition offers a retrospective of Judith Kerr, whose vast body of work includes the popular Mog series and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, as well as her autobiographical novel When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, which charts her childhood fleeing Hitler’s Germany in 1933 with her family.

… which is all quite fabulous but what BrazenMom are really interested in is the exciting range of products produced in conjunction with the exhibition, from masks and stickers for children to enjoy to mounted prints to be hung on the wall, greeting cards and tiger tea and biscuits.

See below for some of the funky stuff on offer:

Kids Tiger Mittens

Tiger Umbrella

Tiger Food Toffee & Fudge Biscuits

The Tiger Who Came to Tea – Mounted Print

Knitted Tiger

Tiger Torch

Mog Paper Mask

For more info on the exhibition, CLICK HERE.

BrazenMom says that every funky baby needs a funky cat shirt. And Hello Kitty does not cut it on this occasion. Quirky, random, strange, offbeat, unconventional comprise the laws of ‘Funky’ – and exclusivity is not an essential. Street style is whatever you want it to be – it’s taking what is mass produced and wearing it with ATTITUDE. And believe me; even those with minimal hair and an appreciation for breast milk have plenty of A-TTI-TUDE to go around. A pair of skinny jeans and a ‘Jay-Z cat’ from NYC speak volumes!

The cat in the pic comes from Primark at the spectacular price of (drum roll please) £2. Who cares about quality when coolness is at stake?

So this Christmas we are hanging out in some random little town in the south west, called Lymington. As with all random towns, Lymington required some exploration – mostly in aid of satisfying my obsessive craving for small-town preserves. Instead of preserves, I found a gorgeous treasure that is now in the possession of my one-year-old daughter.

I’ll end the nail-biting suspense right about now. It’s a Little Red Riding Hood Rag Doll. She is just lovely. I am not really a dolly kind of gal… well, the plastic kind at least. But I do have a thing for Little Red, and this dolly could not be resisted.

In fact, every cool baby girl needs one.

She has brown woolly hair, big black eyes, a pretty checked dress and a matching red cape. Upon opening Madame Red my little girl cuddled her boisterously (as is her manner) and then abruptly discarded her in favour of some brightly coloured wrapping that rudely invaded her line of sight, distracting her from my precious purchase. Nonetheless, I know that Little Red is beloved… by mommy more than daughter I think.

One of the coolest things in Amelia’s rather sparse toy box is a maracas with a beautiful face pained on it. I spotted it in Covent Garden’s Octopus shop a while back and Molly Maracas has been Amelia’s friend for the last eight months. Molly has kept Amelia company in Italy and Holland and forms an integral part of my one-year-old’s playtime in her London home. When Amelia notices Molly her little face lights up and beams with a happy smile. And, of course, Molly will always hold a special place in my heart because it was one of the first objects her little fingers learnt to grasp – the sentimental musings of a mushy mommy. I give myself permission.

Today I stumbled upon the most brilliant bargain; a Care Bear book priced at only 49p. OH THE JOY! Care Bears, launched in 1981 by American Greetings, are only a year older than I am, and as we were both made in the ’80s I feel a special affinity with the cuddly creatures that form a memorable part of my childhood.

With a goofy smile on my face, I took my treasured find to the till and noticed the cashier – a grey haired, hippy looking, metal music loving guy – handled the Care Bear book with interest. So I grabbed the opportunity to tell him that I was purchasing the the book for sentimental reasons. He nodded in genuine appreciation, which incited a further revelation on my behalf; I told the gentleman that I had recently discovered a Care Bear teddy in a charity shop. Over share? Too late. To which the man replied that, judging by the expression on my face, he imagined that I had skipped down the street in joyous delight with my purchase in hand – and he was absolutely right.

From Care Bears the conversation moved on to Teddy Ruxpin… what?… someone other than me, and my two brothers, knows about Teddy Ruxpin. My hero. The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin was a TV show I watched as a child, but also an animatronic talking bear. Somehow the conversation with Mr Hippy cashier ended with an imagining of a Teddy Ruxpin bear singing Metallica renditions – and we both agreed that the thought of any bear emitting James Hetfield vocals was too horrific for further contemplation.

I exited the shop with a big smile on my face and a plan in mind: I intend to indoctrinate my 11 month old baby girl in the awesomeness of Care Bear love by inflicting upon her as much Care Bear paraphernalia as possible, and brainwashing her with the Care Bears Count Down.

It is my daughter’s first birthday in a month, and at the risk of sounding like a broken parental record; I can’t believe it! Time is speeding by at an alarming rate.

Anyway.

I am totally excited for my Amelia’s birthday. I know that she will not remember it but we will. Not that we are planning an elaborate affair but there will be cake, friends and fun. While I was making birthday invitations I found a poem by Dr Seuss that made my laugh hysterically. The man’s writing is pure genius and I had to share:

If we didn’t have birthdays,
you wouldn’t be you.
If you’d never been born,
well then what would you do?
If you’d never been born,
well then what would you be?
You might be a fish!
Or a toad in a tree!
You might be a doorknob!
Or three baked potatoes!
You might be a bag full of
hard green tomatoes.

…who is you-er than you!
Shout loud, “I am lucky
to be what I am!
Thank goodness I’m not
just a clam or a ham
Or a dusty old jar of
sour gooseberry jam!
I am what I am! That’s a
great thing to be!
If I say so myself,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!”

This year was my daughter’s first Halloween. I was totally excited to dress her up as a fat orange pumpkin but when perusing this year’s costumes, my hubby fell in love with a cute kitty dress that would show our daughter off as ‘daddy’s little princess’. And who am I to deny a smitten daddy?

At the end of a full day as kitty princess, the boisterous antics of an 11-month-old had taken their doll on my baby’s dress; Amelia looked more like mommy’s little ragamuffin than daddy’s darling. The Halloween dress had transformed into a Camden inspired punk/grunge get-up boasting some stylish rips and tears. All she needed was a little pair of Dr Martins to match… and I have been eyeing a pair of turquoise pretties – got to take the chance to play dress-up while you’re still the boss. Bring on 2011! But first, Christmas…

One of my most favourite things to do is dress my now six-week-old daughter in animal suits. She has two reindeer outfits (that she wears even though Christmas is over) and my favourite is a gorgeous cat suit. She also has a cow snow suit and a pink sheep suit, both of which I am dying to dress her in when she has grown to fit them. One day, my child will either thank me for adding to the cute-factor when she was a baba or she will grow up with an identity crisis and end up in a zoo. At least we will never be short of costumes come halloween. Most costumes appear in stores on special occasions and I simply cannot wait for Valentine’s Day or Easter to get my costume fix. So I consulted Mr Google who came up with a most fabulous solution: Annie’s Costumes, which boasts a range of the cutest (halloween) costumes for newborns and up. Halloween-shmalloween – what’s the point in having babies if you can’t dress them up whenever and wherever? Here are a couple of must haves:

Costumes range from $29.95 – $39.95 (£18 – £24).

What could possibly cooler for a literature enthusiast like myself than Macbeth Finger Puppets? Nothing – that’s what. The set, available online from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, includes Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, a witch, Banquo and Macduff. My fingers tingle at the thought of doing a ‘finger-play’ for my baba as an introduction to the awesomeness of Shakespeare. These finger puppets are also fabulous for those who think that Shakespeare is overdone and overrated: my husband cannot wait to bastardise Macbeth in a ‘finger play’ that will undoubtedly serve as an ode to the lameness of Shakespeare. Either way, entertainment is guaranteed. Once hubby and I have had our fun with these little felt darlings, we will pass them on to our daughter who will hopefully enact her own little plays using the puppets. Or, most likely, she will use them as proof that her parents are embarrassingly insane: justification for any ensuing psychological problems.

Attention alternative moms: hold on to your platforms, piercings and corsets! I am OVERWHELMINGLY eager to share an awesome discovery that I know is going to make you as excited as it made me. The company is called Rockabye Baby! and the site is Rockabyebabymusic.com. You may wonder how I discovered this delicious beauty of a commercial enterprise. Well, my baby girl was the lucky recipient of a Lullaby Renditions of The Cure album; purchased for her from the Rockabye Baby! site by her very wise Aunty ‘F-dawg’, who couldn’t have chosen a more perfect gift. The treasured CD was delivered in black wrapping adorned with a lime-green ribbon, making my baby girl squirm with glee inside my bulging belly. If the wrapping was able to elicit such excitement I can’t wait to see how she will react to the music when I play it to her.

Rockabye Baby!, headquartered in Los Angeles, aims to make children’s music cool – not only for babies but for their parents too. The company specialises in lullaby renditions inspired by punk, metal and classic rock acts including the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Nirvana, U2, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Queen.The possible launch of a lullaby rendition of Slayer is sure to send fans with babies into some kind of frenzy (be sure to check out the site and vote for the next Rockabye album). The company also provides gift packaging and wrapping options that will make your gifts all the more special.