Ever get tired of reading the same old children’s book over and over and over again to your child?  Come on - admit it!!  You can recite the story of “Green Eggs and Ham” in your sleep (actually you do and that is why you are so tired in the morning).  As much as I love reading to my daughters, I was so excited to see this new idea from Eeboo.  Every box is filled with picture cards - without any words - and as you flip through them, your child (with your help sometimes) creates a story to go along with the pictures and actions on the cards.  Ingenious, right?  So every time you take out these cards, a new story gets created.  Love it!  They’re only $10 at www.eeboo.com.  Check them out!

How have I not stumbled upon these workbooks earlier?  I have felt like the slacker mom on many occasions when I hear of mom-friends doing lots of arts and crafts with their kids – even using scissors!  I will admit it publicly – I avoided crafts because it sounded like a lot of time and effort on my part.  Lucky for me, these Kumon workbooks were recommended to me (by a very studious and attentive mom-friend of a very intelligent little boy).  I was instantly drawn to them!  The colors, layout, and simplicity of the workbooks make me want to sit down with my almost 3 year old, and PLAY!  Of course, this gave me my excuse to go out and buy her some kid-friendly scissors (aka: don’t cut very well) and some glue sticks – and here we go, some quality mom and daughter time, AND she’s practicing necessary skills she needs for kindergarten (2 yrs away) – and no, I am not obsessing about what she needs to know before going into kindergarten…
My daughter’s favorite workbook is “Let’s Cut Paper” where she practices cutting in a straight line, a curvy line, through a maze, etc.  My recommendation: start the scissor practice sooner rather than later… it’s not as easy as we adults make it look.  Other books we are having fun with are “Let’s Color“, which helps with color recognition and staying in the lines, “Let’s Sticker and Paste“, and “Let’s Fold“.

OH, did I forget to mention that these are THE BEST distractions to bring to a restaurant or on a long plane flight?   Hours of entertainment – trust me!

One of the things that I find so appealing about some of the baby stuff out there is that they allow me to live vicariously through my toddler.  I like to think of myself as a cool and hip individual, but the reality is that sometimes the parent in me doesn’t let me be as crazy with the fashions as I once was.  Leopard print shoes and a Ramones t-shirt tend to stand out a bit in the local play group.  On the other hand, I can put my kid in the same outfit and it’s totally adorable!

For instance, take these leopard print Vans.  My kid is going to look so freakin cute in these things!  And of course, her fashion sense is a direct reflection of mine, so I’ll look very cool.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?

I found these at a store called Psycho Baby.  If you haven’t been there yet, you really should check them out.  They describe themselves as “your one-stop shop for cool, crazy kids’ stuff” and they really do have some great products.  Of course they have the toddler-sized Ramones tee, in addition to a wide range of other hip rocker style clothes. But they also carry cool shoes, toys, books, and music. And speaking of music, they carry the Rockabye Baby collection of CDs.  Yep, the music of your favorite bands like The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, U2, and Nine Inch Nails, performed as kid-friendly lullabies.  Good stuff.  Check them out.

I wasn’t really sure where to put this one. It’s really more for parents than it is for kids. But then again, there are probably more parents than kids reading this so I guess it’s appropriate. Whatever the case, I just had to share this. I saw it for the first time this morning when a co-worker turned me on to the website of Jason Freeny, an artist/illustrator from New York. This particular piece is called “Anatomie Gummi Bär”, and as you can see, it’s an incredible illustration of the anatomy of a Gummy Bear. Ok, I know that the bears are really just “gummy” all the way through. But considering that this is coming out of his imagination just makes it that much more impressive. This small image doesn’t do it justice. Go to MoistProduction.com to see larger versions of this and his other work. He also has created “Pneumatic Anatomica” (anatomy of a balloon dog), “Immaculate Confection” (the brith of a gummy bear), and many other great pieces. They’re available for purchase as prints on his website. Check them out. Very cool stuff!

“Hullabaloo is farm-fresh, free-range, organic kid-folk in a genre filled with musical Twinkies and Ding-Dongs.” I love that description from their website. This is one of the few kid-friendly bands out there that parents will like as much as their kids. No singing dinosaurs or cartoon characters, but plenty of super fun folk-rock that you and your kids will love. Steve played at our kid’s birthday party and everyone had a blast. The kids were on their feet, clapping their hands, and dancing around. And afterwards, all the adults wanted to know “Who is this? They’re awesome!” Check them out and buy their CD. You’ll be tapping your feet and dancing with your kids in no time!

We received this book as a gift and our two year old absolutely loves it. The author does a fantastic job of creating rhythmic sing along using a bunch of different animal names. The main characters are Tanka the elephant and his friend Skunka. Say their names together and they sound like drums. Tanka, Skunka, Tanka, Skunka, Tanka Tanka Skunk!  $7.37 at Amazon