My daughter is now 10 months old and she is a very intelligent and curious little girl. Not that other babies aren't, but she really does need a lot of stimulation. Other parents have remarked on her intense interest in her surroundings, and the way she always closely explores toys before playing with them. So, we have a huge ad varied number of toys just for her, and we rotate them in order to keep them 'fresh'. However, her favourite toys are without question the ones designed to be stimulating in more than one way rather than just the bright rattle that makes one noise, if that makes sense.

Although these ELC balls are listed as for 9 months and over, my little girl was given them at 8 months and has been playing with them ever since. At first we trialled given her just a few balls, and she wasn't sure about them, as they are lightweight but they also have a strange plastic feel to them which adults are accustomed to but babies perhaps are not. Initially she kept dropping the balls on the floor or out of reach and then she would forget about them, but inevitably a few of them slowly made it into the playpen and I noticed that she would happily explore them and kick them and even, it seems, roll them in the pen. They did seem to entertain her for a while. But would it last?

Although it seems like eons ago now we did actually have some lovely summery weather a few weeks ago and I thought it would be a perfect time to do some gardening, so I plonked baby in the pen outside while I busied myself around the garden, and I was in a sunny mood so I thought 'why not?' and I plonked the entire bag of balls- which is quite a lot of balls!- in the pen, and to my surprise my little girl had a fit of happiness as she seemed to think that she had been given a hundred shiny toys that she could kick and bop around with her legs and fist, rather than just many o f the same toy..

Although my daughter is female we actually don't have many pink toys in the house, not purposefully but the baby toys we do have do tend to be vibrant reds, yellows and blues, so my little one was very interested in the shade of pink these balls are as she has not been exposed to it much before. They make a nice (and messy) addition to our house and a few times now I have accidentally kicked a stray ball across the room and thought 'how did that get there? However we don't mind the mess so long as baby's happy, and when they've been outside I usually give them a quick wipe down before baby has them again. They are easy enough to clean this way, just a bit tedious, but I really only do it when they've been out in the garden with baby.

When I saw on dooyoo that these balls actually only cost a tenner I was really surprised as they are well made to withstand kicking and throwing and being half-trodden on and they are also very nice looking, unlike some of the more expensive but gaudy-looking toys my daughter has been given. So, I am giving them 5 stars, because my little one loves playing with them without me needing to rotate them, and I can also envision many years of fun with these balls to come. I recommend them to all mums with little babies, whether they like pink or not!