We’ve all been there, it’s evening time and you’re busy trying to prepare dinner, sort the laundry, answer the phone and check emails – taking multi-tasking motherhood to new levels. As you’re dashing about the house, baby emits an ear-piercing cry from the cot. Luckily daddy has just arrived home and scoops her up. He talks to her soothingly and swaddles her in a soft blanket. As he rocks her.

In one of our PlayLabs recently a mum was saying how her football-mad husband sometimes dashes home from work for “kick-off time” – and no, this doesn’t mean watching his team playing in the Premiership, rather their three-month-old boy on his playmat. Dad puts baby on the mat and oohs and aaahs as his son reaches out with his arms and legs, usually with a baby gym overhead. To mum.

You’ve probably realised by now that your new baby is your No 1 fan as he gazes intently at your face when you cradle him or during feeding time. For the first month, he can focus only about 20cm to 30cm away. That’s just far enough to clearly make out the face of the person holding him. If you hold him close, he will find your face and expressions so.

Ask mums the clearest memory they have of giving birth and – apart from the pain – most will say it’s those precious moments when they got to hold their little bundle of joy for the first time. In those wondrous seconds when you have skin-to-skin contact with baby, you begin to realise that baby is comforted by being close to you, your voice, your scent and your warmth. This.

After the first few months of broken sleep, endless feeding, changing and settling baby before you have to get up almost immediately again to soothe her, the ‘baby fog’ slowly begins to lift. You’ve gotten into a routine; you and your partner share the baby duties. At last, you’re getting out to meet friends for a coffee. Then Granny mentions the W word. She thinks the baby is big enough.

A few months back, when baby was a bump, you had that dream of spending Christmas with your loved ones as they gaze adoringly at your little one and insist that you sit by the log fire while they take care of everything. Then the bump becomes your little bundle of joy, bringing sleepless nights, lots of laundry, a wardrobe full of clothes that don’t fit anymore. You begin to.

You know when your baby bangs her spoon non-stop on the high chair, she’s not just doing it to give you a headache (no, really!), she’s energetically exploring cause and effect. Good to know about your baby’s understanding of cause and effect From the moment your baby is born she’s learning and after a little while will begin to realise that her actions can affect the environment around her. For.

It’s a sunny day and you’re feeling a sense of achievement that you’ve made it around the supermarket without too much baby drama. As you’re placing baby back in her car seat, a sudden hand swipe catches you by surprise and your favourite sunglasses clatter to the ground. Yes, your baby’s hand-eye coordination has really come on – as you pick up the bits of your designer glasses! As baby.

There is always an air of excitement in our PlayLabs in June and July as our mums and dads chat about their plans for the summer – where they’re going and what they’ll be doing. Whether you are going on holidays abroad, planning a staycation or a short trip out of town to visit friends, here are some travel tips that we’ve gathered from ClapHandies parents over the last few.