My daughter got this as a first birthday present. She is now 15 months old. She loves dolls and loves pushing her fisher price shopping cart, so this seemed like the perfect match. We went with the pram rather than the umbrella stroller model because with limited space I reasoned it could double as a doll bed, and I figured my daughter would enjoy looking at her dolls as she pushed them. In retrospect, I'm not sure how much either of these things mattered: given the angled push bar, the pram DOES double as doll bed and stroller (as well as anything and everything hauler for my older child), but it takes up a lot of space length wise in its own right. Also, the one year old seems less interested in looking at her dolls and more interesting in just piling whatever it is she feels like pushing into both this and her shopping cart with little concern for arranging them nicely (the 5 year old can look over from the top of an umbrella stroller perfectly fine, so while she plays with the dolls more nicely when using this toy, the doll facing child feature would have been unnecessary for her). This may, of course, change as my toddler gets older.All that said, however, the truth of the matter is that both children prefer sitting in the pram THEMSELVES to actually loading dolls or other toys in it. They have been kept entertained for almost a half hour at a time by the 5 year old pushing the 1 year old all over the house in this stroller.
PROS:
Solid, heirloom quality construction.
Can withstand the weight of my 18 lbs toddler riding for a long time with no issues. Withstands the weight of my 35 lbs. 5 year old sitting in it too, though I usually tell her to get out pretty quickly just to be safe.
Came fully assembled, is both cute and sturdy.
When my one year old was still learning to walk, her plastic fisher price shopping cart would not always be well balanced enough to hold her weight and erratic movements. The low center of gravity and slanted bar on the doll pram kept her upright and moving forward beautifully (no skidding and falling over, with the cart toppling as with the fisher price cart toy)
Doubles as doll bed and allows for lots of imaginative play (even the one year old likes feeding her dolls while they lay in the stroller).
CONS:
Wooden wheels are difficult to turn on laminate and carpeting floors (especially with the carpeting). My 5-year-old can manage, but usually either has to make wide turns, "multi-point" turns, or pop a little bit of a wheelie (even I catch myself popping wheelies when turning on the carpet for expedience at times); my 1-year-old can basically only push the pram in a straight line... not sure how long it will take her to be able to manuever it properly, but don't think she'll get it much before she turns 2. In contrast, she is already able to turn and manuever aforementioned plastic shopping cart with relative ease.
Quilt and pillow are not as well made as I would have hoped (for the price!). They are both stuffed with very low quality poly filling, such that the pillow feels understuffed and the blanket feels overstuffed (almost like an additional thiner matress more so than useful in covering up the dolls. The heart is an applique on top of the blanket, not a quilt, so there is nothing holding the front and back layers together, which also creates more of the mattress feel than serving as a useful doll blanket.
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