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Most of Baby’s family lives interstate, so Baby and I are often on the move, flying and driving to visit family members. Any product that makes plane travel easier with Baby always gets bonus points from me. On our most recent trip to Sydney, Baby and I decided to road test the Valco Baby Stroller Roller Universal Travel Bag to transport our three wheel pram.

The motto found on the label of the Stroller Roller is ‘Fold – Roll – Stroll’ and that pretty much sums up this product. The Stroller Roller allows you to ‘fold’ your pram in a purpose designed cover, utilise two of your strollers own wheels to ‘roll’ your covered pram like a wheelie bag and make travelling a ‘stroll’ in the park for you and your bub!

The Valco Baby Stroller Roller comes in a neat bag for storage. So the night before our plane trip, I remove the Stroller Roller from it’s bag and unroll it on the floor – it was like unrolling a stroller sleeping bag! I remove my stroller’s accessories, like the Valco Baby Universal Cover and Bevi Buddy to fold my stroller as flat as possible on the floor. I remove the front wheel of my stroller too. I place my stroller onto the cover on the floor with the rear wheels protruding. I make sure the rear wheels aren’t locked, as they will become the wheels of my Stroller Roller when it looks like a wheelie bag. I then place the front wheel neatly on top and after some clicking of straps my Stroller Roller is good to go!

So the next morning, I place my stroller which seems much more compact in it’s Stroller Roller in the car boot and once we arrive at the airport, I check it into oversized baggage. There is a luggage label on the Stroller Roller which I’ve filled in and I’ve put some of my stroller’s accessories in the internal pocket. Since the Stroller Roller is strong and padded, I have peace of mind my stroller will remain intact and not in a million pieces when it reaches Sydney. When I unpack my stroller from it’s cosy sleeping bag at my destination, I find it has been well protected and after I secure the front wheel – we’re ready to roll!

The Stroller Roller is compatible with many 3 and 4 wheeler strollers, including the following: Valco Baby Tri Mode, Quad, Rebel Q, Rebel Q AIR, Matrix, Runabout, Ion, Latitude, Navigator, Baby Jogger City Mini, Elite, Classic, Mountain Buggy Swift, Phil&Ted Explorer, Dash, Hammer Head and many more.

The Stroller Roller is available in black with orange trim and the reflective features make it easily seen at night too. To find out more information on the Valco Baby Stroller Roller Universal Travel Bag visit the Valco Baby website. Keep your eyes on the Valco Baby and Babyreview.com.au websites for your chance to win a Valco Baby Stroller Roller….

While on a visit to Sydney a friend loaned me the Valco six sided play yard for Baby. It came highly recommended by my friend who described the playpen as both spacious and sturdy. The play yard is a hexagon shape with a length of 2.0m, width of 1.8m and height of 65cm. So it is a huge play space for Baby!

When I removed the Valco playpen from it’s box, I noticed the frame of the playpen is made of tubular steel with a  mesh fabric finish – resulting in a strong yet lightweight playpen. The frame folds flat and since it is six sided, the three panels fold against each other making it great for easy storage.

The playpen comes with a padded fully washable play mat. So after deciding on a suitable location for Baby’s play area, I lay the quilted play mat down in the perfect spot.

The play mat is big – I measure it as 2 metres across on it’s widest stretch. I simply expand the playpen frame (it stays connected) over the playmat. I secure the feet of the frame to the play mat with good quality clasps. To finish off the assembly, I secure the mesh walls to the frame with zippers and velcro. It took about 15 minutes for myself and Dad to assemble the playpen!

I place Baby and her favourite toys in the Valco Hexagon play yard. She explores her new play space and even plays peek-a-boo with me bobbing up and down. It is the perfect height and such a generous large size for Baby who is now walking.

Not only is the playpen spacious and practical, it looks great – with a snazzy silver theme. Baby seems happy with her play yard too!

The play yard is easily dissassembled too. We just unclipped the frame from the mat, undid the velcro sides and unzipped the mesh which was held in tension on the frame. Folded the frame in half and folded up the play mat giving it back to our friend – too easy!

To find out more about the Valco Hexagonal Playpen visit the Valco website.