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Aww, man... Boog is growing up so fast. I can't believe how smart he is. Up until a few weeks ago, when Baby Bee really started picking up in words, he was at the same academic level she was and she's in Kindergarten. SO I'm pretty excited, you might say.
He turns 3 in a couple months. He can identify all his letters, shapes, colors, numbers 1-19 and can write all the letters as well as spell a couple words. He writes the word "MOM" everywhere. *HEART* He also has a huge vocabulary. He's always saying things that I wouldn't expect, like "Whoop! 'Cuse me.", or "You didn't do that, Sumyr did!". He's also a fairly exceptional artist for his age. He's pretty amazing.
I just enrolled him into an online preschool program so he can learn even more. And along with that, I'm keeping some tools for around the house. One of them is some alphabet magnets. I've gotten alphabet magnets before and swore off ever getting them again because they always slid down the fridge if they stayed on at all... but I caved.
These ones are great. They stay, the magnets are strong enough to hold them in place. It's a first of all the magnets I've owned. They have one magnet each too, which made it that much more surprising.
These magnets come with Uppercase, Lowercase, and numbers 0-9. The possibilities are endless! He instantly grew a liking to them, it actually got him to take his focus off a screen and onto something tactile. He ADORES letters, I knew it would be a hit.
The magnets aren't quite as small as other I've had either, not that they're too much bigger. But they are slightly bigger and their colors are varied and bold. They are the main primary and secondary colors. There really is no rhyme or reason to which letters get which color. Upper and lowercase colors don't always match up, they are pretty random.
My favorite feature of this set is that it comes wit upper and lower, I think that's great for learning how to spell names. This whole set is pretty great and I would recommend it for young children.
To learn more, check out SomaSix on Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, or on their website at SomaSix.com.
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
This is Gandalf. He's our little adopted treasure. We recently went to the Humane Society and got Broofy a dog for his birthday. And we loved him so much that we decided to also get a cat. Thing is... our new dog, Blue, has a problem. He barks. A LOT. He actually is healing from a shock collar injury because I think he barked so much that his owners put a collar on him and then he probably also barked at the shock collar. Gandalf isn't so much a fan of his barking. Or of him. He's not a big fan of Rosco either, so he hides away. I'm trying to break him out of his shell, but it's not working so well.
I love him anyway though and I'm celebrating my new buddy by sharing a special deal with you. How does 50% off a cat tunnel sound? If you have cats, I bet it sounds pretty nice! Okay, so here's how you get it. Just click that blue link above, then add it to your Amazon shopping cart. Next, add the code CO6TFCFC at checkout and voila! It brings the price down to under $10. Enjoy!
Boog is getting to be a very good artist. A few weeks ago, he was just starting to draw things. He started with faces, then moved onto spiders, foxes, and dinosaurs. Now he's tracing super complicated pictures and you can tell what they are! It's insane. He's my little prodigy.
I think it's awesome that one of his first drawings was a dinosaur. It had bumps all down it's back and everything. It was pretty detailed for a two year old who just started drawing. It made me think, I've definitely got to get the movie The Good Dinosaur. I think he'd love it.
I think he'll also definitely love these toy dinosaurs from Kids Imaginative, it's a 12 piece dinosaur toy set. What's cool about these is that they differ so much. No two dinosaurs were the same kind or the same coloring.
The set ranged from two legged carnivores to two legged herbivores, four legged carnivores, to four legged herbivores, in varying heights and postures.
They aren't perfect, you can see the glue in some of them where the two halves were put together. But the details are great. Just look at the veiny areas and the wrinkles and such.
I just love their little faces. On some of them, the eyes pop, like this guy. Then on some, maybe not so much. So they do differ and they aren't flaw free, like this guy's tongue. But they are perfect for kids.
Look at the skin creases! I can't wait til Boogie sees these. Maybe it will be enough to get Gummy Bear out of his head.
I most definitely recommend these dinosaurs to anyone with small kids who could benefit from having them. To learn more, check out Kids Imaginative on Amazon.
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
We don't have a bath tub in our house. I consider it a good thing. When I was growing up, I fell asleep face down in the bathtub. When my mom knocked on the door, I didn't answer. In a panic, she yelled at me and I woke just in time. I had breathed in a whole bunch of water. Even as an adult, I know that I could very easily fall asleep in the bath tub if we had one. I sure do miss a good soak and I know my kids would have loved having bath time, but it is what it is and it is that way to be safe.
But "bath-time" can be boring here. We can plug the drain, but it only allows for an inch or so of water before it threatens to flood the bathroom floor. We do have a removable shower head, so that's not quite so boring. But we can't really use bubble bath or anything. So toys are pretty essential. Without them, I'd have to fight kids to get the kids clean. Problem is, it means more things taking up space in the shower. We use baskets, but the baskets take space and we have so much in the shower already between razors, loofahs, soaps, shampoos, etc.
The obvious solution would be wall storage. I happen to be a big fan of the hanging mesh bags and have tried them before. My last one came up missing a suction cup mysteriously, so I haven't had one for a while. I did keep the bag in case I found the suction cup. But I think I will throw it away now because I have a new bath toy organizer from MoriBerry. Look at the difference in size:
So while it would hold small squirt toys, it wouldn't hold barbies to well or bath books, or any other larger toy that the kids would want in the shower. The Moriberry bag is 13.5"x 17.5" and has been tested to hold up to a pound of toys. That's a good amount of toys!
While trying it out, I had a smidge but of trouble getting the suction cups to stay. However, my tiles do have a very slight ripply texture and that makes any suction cup stick hard. I feel like these suction cups are as good as any. When I did get them to stay, they stayed. I can put things in and take things out and the bag stays.
I think the squirt toys are cute. I know that there is always concern about mold growing inside squirt toys, but as long as you suck bleach into them every so often and rinse out well with water, mold doesn't get a chance to grow. I think these squirters are great toys as long as you take care of them. We've never had a problem with these type water toys. As a bonus, the bag is easily dried, washable, and mold resistant, so as not to contaminate the toys.
Boogie is obsessed with them. He loves the turtle and the "quack quack" best. The colors are vivid, the animals are all water-loving animals, the seal has a cute face, the turtle has sweet hearts, and the octopus even has ink on it. Those type details create great teaching moments. Did you know that octopi, squid, and cuttlefish all have different colored inks? So black is fully appropriate for an octopus' ink splat. Just for future reference. And in case you aren't full of useless octopus knowledge, Moriberry gives a list of fun bath time activities.
All-in-all, I love the bag. I wouldn't mind having a bag like this on all three walls of my shower for different things. I would use one for loofahs and one for accessories, like our bath visor or rinse cup. It's a good basic color that will match almost any decor as well. Hopefully it will last for a long time.
How do you store bath toys? Do you keep them in the bath?
To learn more, check out Moriberry on Facebook, Amazon, and on their website.
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
Remember the Superdisc from a couple days ago that I was telling you about? The flying disc that lets pretty much anyone be a part of the fun and won't hurt to catch it? Well, Aerobie was kind enough to offer one to a reader of JTMM?. Let me just go over what the disc is one more time:
It's got the soft spoiler shape on the top to help stabilize the disc as it flies and a lower edge that doesn't catch on the fingers as it's released. The soft outer rim is designed to prevent rough scratches as it hits the ground over time. It is by far our favorite "frisbee" to date.
So, here is how to win it. Just do any or all of the following. The only mandatory entry is to visit me on Facebook (no following required), the rest are optional for extra entries. I always look forward to feedback, so if you have any ideas for entries, please let me know!
What do you do for fun in the summer?
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
This has been the best summer ever. We go to the beach almost every single day and the kids have been getting lunch at the beach when we go. We've taken advantage of all the free movies and the library reading programs. We've also taken advantage of the new $0.69 fountain drink station in town and the free summer camp up the road... we've had sooo much fun!
We've also gotten more beach toys than usual this year. We've stuffed our van so much with floaties that they come spilling out when we open the doors. We also got one floatie that's not a typical floatie. It's a flying disc that floats on the water, so it's a perfect beach toy. It's called the Aerobie Superdisc. It's designed to be so easy to throw that pretty much anyone can do it. It's also designed to be easy to catch.
We tested that theory, both at the beach and at home. At the beach, it actually had to be put away shortly after being taken out because everyone wanted it and not many of the kids wanted to share. So I guess it was a big hit. It was a pretty windy day at the beach, as you can see by the waves, but there wasn't too much trouble getting it where they wanted it to go.
We then took it home and tried it out with just our kids. It was pretty awesome to watch, actually. Baby Bee, who just turned five, was able to throw it right where she wanted it to go and it stayed level and was caught easily. It was a nice thing to see that even she could be a part of the game when usually she's just too small to join in.
The Superdisc's spoiler shaped top helps the disc to fly flat and even instead of rolling to one side of the other. Have you ever tossed a "frisbee" just to have the edge of the disc catch on your fingers and fumble or fly too much in one direction? This one doesn't do that because the rubber edge doesn't have a lip on it. The rubber is designed to be soft for both people and also for dogs. It is ideal for keeping the disc's edges soft even after repeated landings on tar or other hard or rocky surfaces that would normally make discs rough and scratched.
What's cool is that you can get your business or event's name "imprinted" onto the disc. So if you are taking pledges for an upcoming event, you could give your donors a disc with the event name on it as a thank you for their pledge. Being that it's a sports item, I can especially see this being used for a Special Olympics fundraiser.
Overall, I really like this disc, much better than other discs we have tried in the past. I love that I can throw it and not feel incompetent. I love that I'm not afraid to catch it because it is soft. Most of all, I love that my baby girl can be a part of the game.
What's your favorite summer game?
To learn more, visit Aerobie's Facebook and website.
Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.
