Here are some of my top posts over the previous 12 months. In order of appearance:

1. 10 iPad Apps for Mothers who Blog
Apps fab.

2. Japan: What do we Tell our Kids?
Talking to your children about disaster.

3. British Mummy Bloggers on Happiness
Hosting this carnival was a blast.

4. Potty Training with Shakespeare
To pee or not to pee?

5. A Royal Wedding Bash in Battersea
Wills, Kate and one rocking street party. Watch it on our first vlog!

6. Is London a Breast-Friendly City?
A guide to nursing out and about in the Big Smoke.

7. Is there Sex after Birth?
Discuss.

8. Big Apple Hot Dogs: My Kind of Sausages
A tribute to ‘him outdoors’, the original street food hero.

9. Remembering 9-11
Ten years on.

10. How to Get Around London by Buggy
A primer for pushy parents.

11. The Lies We Tell Ourselves
Did you lie to yourself before having kids? I did!

12. Flashback 2011: Our Year in Photos
Snapshots of the babes in action.

Can’t wait to see what 2012 will bring. Have a great one!

This one is just a chance to showcase some of my favourite photos from the past 12 months (I’ve given some a little touch-up with Camera+, but most were shot simply on my old Blackberry). Enjoy the slideshow and Happy New Year!

Make a photo album

And the winners are…

This beautiful designer teddy bear from Native Belle Boutique
goes to… Dejeniera Pygott

The entire collection of Herve Tullet’s Let’s Play Games series of books goes to… Pippa Ainsworth

This adorable Reindeer baby shoes and 100% cotton onesie Inch Blue goes to… Georgina Machray

Blossom and Jasmine’s at-home massage goes to… Sabrina Fancy

Jennie Maizels’ delightful Bird Print cushion and Clothes Plasters set goes to… Rachel Neill

Amoralia’s Nougatine Bra and Briefs and Nursing PJs worth £130 goes to… Zara Mahdi

1 Guy Fox Children’s Map and Create Your Own London Map set goes to… Elizabeth Burton

The 2nd Guy Fox Children’s Map and Create Your Own London Map set goes to… Louise Robinson

1 Bags of Love Photo Canvas of your favourite print goes to… Clare Thomson

The Time for Mums Photography for Parents and Baby course worth £129 goes to… Anna Tuckett

Runner-up prize of 10% discount for Time for Mums course goes to… Leo Hayden

The Thames RIB Speedboat adventure Canary Wharf Experience for a family of 4 worth £102 goes to… Emma Morgan

The Free Family Meal with lunch for 2 adults and 2 kids at Proud Kids Club Camden goes to… Gina Decio

And our star prize, the Caramel Baby & Child Koala coat worth £168 goes to… Ness Gorton

Congratulations to all our lucky winners! I’ll be sending confirmation emails out so please check your inbox and respond. Please note that if I don’t hear back from a winner before the end of the day, I’ll be forced to redraw.

Thanks to all of you who took part in the competition and a massive thank you to all our amazing sponsors who really blew us away with their generosity.

We’ve already got more fabulous prizes lining up for the New Year so be sure to follow Babes about Town via our email feed (see above) or on Twitter @Babesabouttown or Facebook for more updates!

We’re coming over all Mrs Claus and merry elves here at Babes HQ.

In honour of the season of giving, we’ve put together a Christmas package crammed with fabulous treats for you lucky readers.

Our 12 Days of Xmas Giveaways features some of our favourite finds this year, ranging from kids’ shoes to a luxury treatment for grown-ups, with individual prizes valued up to £150.

Kicking off TOMORROW Friday (Dec 2) and for 11 more days, we will be posting about one of our prizes and updating this post with a link to each prize, so check back daily!

PRIZE LIST

Day 1: Win a designer teddy bear from Native Belle Boutique

Day 2: Win the entire collection of Herve Tullet’s Let’s Play Games series of books

Day 3: Win handmade leather baby shoes and 100% cotton onesie Christmas gift set from Inch Blue

Day 4: Win a Complimentary Massage at home from mobile spa Blossom & Jasmine worth £65

Day 5: Win a gorgeous Bird Print cushion and Clothes Plasters set by designer Jennie Maizels

Day 6: Win Nougatine Bra and Briefs and Nursing PJs worth £130 from luxury maternity brand Amoralia

Day 7: Win 2 Guy Fox Children’s Maps – Guy Fox London Children’s Map and Create Your Own London Map – 2 sets on offer!

Day 8: Win a 30 x 40cm Bags of Love Photo Canvas of your favourite print!

Day 9: Win a Time for Mums Photography for Parents and Baby course worth £129!

Day 10: Win a family of 4 Speedboat adventure on the Thames RIB Canary Wharf Experience worth £102

Day 11: Win a Free Family Meal with lunch for 2 adults and 2 kids at Proud Kids Club Camden worth £61

Day 12: Win a beautiful Koala coat from Caramel Baby & Child worth £168!

How to Enter

Simply email us at editor@babesabouttown.com with Subject: 12 Days of Xmas Giveaways and your full name and address and the answer to this question: What did my true love give to me on the 1st day of Christmas?

Bonus Entries

To increase your chances of winning, you can make up to 5 bonus entries:

Like Babes about Town on Facebook (1 extra entry)

Follow @Babesabouttown on Twitter (1 extra entry)

Subscribe to Babes about Town’s daily RSS feed or email (1 extra entry)

Tweet about the competition: ‘I’ve entered @Babesabouttown’s 12 Days of Xmas Giveaways’ (1 extra entry)

Post a Facebook status: ‘I’ve entered the 12 Days of Xmas Giveaways on babesabouttown.com’ (1 extra entry)

NB: Please let us know about any extra entries in your email.

You will have until 12pm (GMT) on December 15 to enter the contest.

Prize Selection

12 winners (one for each prize) will be drawn at random and announced on the blog by December 17.

Good luck!

My topic? Lies I told Myself Before Having Kids.

It’s astonishing the difference between all the wonderful things you think you’ll do when you have your own offspring, and what actually happens.

I share up to 8 Things I Swore I’d Never Do but in my draft post it was probably about 20!

Did you tell yourself porkies about parenthood before it happened to you? Come on over and compare, and confess!

Read more frank and funny writing daily at Honest Mum’s blog, www.honestmum.com

If you go down to Oxford Street today – to the John Lewis branch, more precisely – you might be in for a nice surprise. Just over half-term, the department store unveiled a £4 million revamp of the children’s floor and it’s a beauty.

We were invited to the launch of Fun on Four (the kids’ department on the 4th Floor) and the babes were literally buzzing from all the eye candy.

The new 31,000 square foot department offers a fully immersive play experience, with toys to jiggle and fiddle with at every turn.

Where do I start? There’s the Nintendo Area where even my 2-year-old took a spin on Mario Kart Wii.

Right next to this section is the Hall of Lego, with giant Lego Star Wars figures and a mind-boggling array of blocks. I suggested they set up a Lego Duplo play table, so the younger ones can get stacking too.

Other highlights include a Reading Room with magnetic ‘make your own story’ wall and a Haberdashery area where they’ll be running crafting sessions for visitors with an itch to stitch.

I would have liked to spend more time on the fashion rails (brands like Fat Face and Polarn O Pyret ) but the boys became glued to Scalextric.

As usual, John Lewis gets top marks for convenience and customer focus. It’s a stunning array all on one floor and if you feel overwhelmed, there are handy information stations where shoppers can browse and buy products in-store at the touch of a button.

I love that you can entertain the bubbas and check off most of your gift list in one go, while stopping for tea breaks in the lovely Coffee Shop.

At the launch, we also got a first peek at John Lewis’s Top 10 Toys for Christmas. Although it was obvious what products my boys couldn’t take their hands off.

Paper Jamz guitars? Rock on.

JOHN LEWIS TOP 10 CHRISTMAS TOYS

1. JOHN LEWIS OWN BRAND Giant piano mat £30
2. EXCLUSIVE Holiday Barbie £34.95
3. EXCLUSIVE Lego Cool Cruiser £34.95
4. EXCLUSIVE Lego Sort and Store head £39.95
5. EXCLUSIVE Sylvanian John Lewis department store £79.95
6. Hexbug Original £10.95
7. Paper Jamz Autotune mic £49.95
8. Fur Real Cookie £69.95
9. V Tech Innotab £79.95
10. Early Rider classic bike £109

Visit www.johnlewis.com

Sex, murder, unwanted pregnancy: it’s all in a day’s work for the characters at the heart of a gripping new saga premiering this weekend (October 16) on Sky.

Meerkats 3D, made by the same crew behind the Meerkat Manor series, focuses on an entirely different family led by tough matriarch Clinky.

The hour-long docudrama spans a year in the Kalahari and it’s funny, sometimes shocking and genuinely moving – like when the runt of the litter gets abandoned or when Clinky’s daughter, Miss Bean, loses her babies.

At times it’s like an episode of Eastenders or even Macbeth, but Meerkats 3D never loses its overall lightness of touch.

What really makes it stand out is the stunning 3D footage. The desert scenes are so vivid that you could almost sink your bare toes into the sand or feel the rush of a bird soaring towards you.

I had a quick chat with producer Caroline Hawkins about what it was like filming over 70 days in the Kalahari. She said it was an immersive shoot and that the heavy 3D cameras posed a major challenge.

‘We had to turn the 3D camera upside down to capture the meerkats at their level.’

I asked if the filmmakers had formed any attachments to the meerkats but she said not really, as the character and story development mostly happened in post-production. However they did get physically close to their subjects.

‘They would climb up and stick their noses right into the camera lens!’

Don’t miss Meerkats 3D – a fascinating insight into the lives of these cuddly, and often deadly, little creatures.

After a preview screening at the zoo, we had a chance to meet some meerkats in the flesh. Read more about our day out at London Zoo here.

Meerkats 3D will be shown on the Sky 3D channel on Oct 16 (Sunday) at 8pm for more information visit www.sky.com/3D

The 2D version of Meerkats will be simulcast on Oct 16 (Sunday) at 8pm on Nat Geo Wild (Sky channel 528).

The real question is: how do we get the ‘Mummy Me Time’ in the first place? I don’t claim to have all the answers but I did come up with a handy checklist in this, my first official BritMums video. Check it out!

We rocked our socks off last weekend at Sainsbury’s Super Saturday, a massive party on Clapham Common to celebrate one year to go until the London Paralympic Games.

It was a snazzy affair, mingling with ‘celebs’ (from Pixie Lott to Eastender Heather Trott) in the VIP area and free food and drinks flowing all day long. I spent much of the time with bloggers Sandy Calico and Maria trying to figure out who was who, in between trips to the bar.

Amelle from the Sugababes went weak at the knees for my 2-year-old. I’m not sure Jed was similiarly impressed.

Of course the real stars of the show were the Paralympians – we watched live demos of sports like wheelchair tennis and wheelchair basketball (serious skills!) and I got goosebumps hearing the athletes’ inspirational stories.

There was fun and games for all ages and abilities and live music from the likes of Will Young, Dappy, The Wanted, Nicola Roberts and Olly Murs.

They’re not exactly my flavour, but I do like The Saturdays and by the time Chipmunk and Taio Cruz whipped the crowd into a frenzy, Maria and I were leaping up and down like teenyboppers.

By the end, it was all a bit Tinie Tempah.

‘Yeah, we bring the stars out’

‘Let’s have a toast or celebration, get your glass out’

‘And we can do this until we pass out’

Thanks to Sainsbury’s for a fantastic day out!
Tickets for the Paralympic Games are on sale here until Sep 26, 2011.

** Shout out to Maria for the extra pics!

I was living in New Jersey at that time and doing graduate studies at NYU. On that morning, there was no class so I was actually just waking up when I got a call from my sister urging me to switch on the news.

Like millions around the globe, I sat in shock watching a replay of the first Tower being hit. Then a plane struck the second Tower and it felt like the world was coming to an end.

Then came the nightmare of jammed phone lines – my mother and brother overseas desperately trying to reach us. Nobody could get through to my cousin who worked in the building right next to the Twin Towers, apparently the next one to crumble (turned out that building was wrongly identified and stayed standing).

Thankfully my cousin made it through, along with several relatives and friends near the scene. Later she described the horror of people leaping out of the burning towers right before her eyes. The long ash-covered walk back home across Brooklyn bridge.

I remember the dense cloud that hung over lower Manhattan for weeks after. That smell you couldn’t describe and couldn’t escape. Walls and street signs and lamp posts papered with photographs of lost ones. Have you seen my brother, my father, my daughter? Are any of you still alive?

It was truly devastating. And yet I feel privileged to have been in New York during that period and to have experienced that bold, beautiful city pulling itself back together from ground zero up.

While the big guns made angry talk of war and retaliation, real people were coming together in the spirit of kindness, faith and looking forward to a better world for all of us.

I hug my babies and my heart goes out to those bereaved on 9-11. Today let us celebrate love and life as we remember the innocent souls that passed on.