Smiling Mom

A few weeks ago my chil­dren had the oppor­tu­nity to review the Ernie K’nex play set.  My kids, spe­ci­fi­cally, my four year old loved put­ting Ernie together.  He came with a set of pic­ture ins­truc­tions sim­ple enough for my son to follow (a plus!!). And pic­tu­res of other ways to con­nect the Ernie pieces.

My kids loved it.  I think that for $10.99 this is a great toy to buy a child for his birth­day.  I don’t think I’d run out and buy it for my own kids, but as a gift, it was great!!

I think that I enjo­yed this set even more because of the pic­ture direc­tions.  (I did alreay men­tion that, right??!!)  Anything that encou­ra­ges inde­pen­dant play in our house is always appreciated!

Ove­rall:  A great gift to give and receive!–But would not run out and buy it for my kids.

A few weeks ago a doll sho­wed up at my door to review.  Need­less to say, I was thri­lled that it hap­pe­ned to appear at my house the very day that Dr. Rabitz tur­ned to eClaire and said, “eClaire, you must stop suc­king your thumb today.”

Since this blog has basi­cally tur­ned into a photo jour­nal lately…I thought I’d just con­ti­nue the theme for one more post.

“Yes Mom.  I will rise to the occasion.”

The cha­llenge: Five naps and bed­ti­mes without suc­king her thumb.

The result?: Suc­cess!!  eClaire suc­cess­fully put her­self to sleep 10 dif­fe­rent times without suc­king her thumb.  Unfor­tu­na­tely for us, her going to sleep rou­tine which use to take less that 2.5 seconds exten­ded itself to a little more than an hour each night.  Sigh.  All good things must come to an end.

eClaire’s End of Thumb Suc­king Ceremony

“Look at me, Mommy, I did it!!  I don’t suck my thumb any­more. AND I can ‘fake smile’ with the best of them!”

The anti­ci­pa­tion is killing her as Daddy takes the new doll out of it’s box.

Sweet suc­cess.

A proud Daddy with his daugh­ter and her doll.  (Notice the real smile that’s now on eClaire’s face?  Precious..)

I’d like to say that this has been 100% suc­cess­ful, but in all honesty it has not.  eClaire still often sneaks her thumb at night,  Old habits die slowly.  This daugh­ter of mine crea­ted a blis­ter on her fin­ger in utero because she was suc­king on it even then.

But the suc­cess?  Both we and eClaire now know she’s not com­ple­tely depen­dant on her thumb for sleep.  Armed with this know­ledge, I hope that quit­ting the thumb once and for all is just around the corner!

Yup.  Four.  I had four Cab­bage Patch Kids.

Know how I remem­ber??  Each time I broke an arm as a child I got a ‘Kid.

Four.  Four breaks. Four ‘Kids.

Break #1 & Cab­bage Patch Kid #1

My brother dared me to hang by my toes from the mon­key bars at my grandma’s house.  If you know me per­so­nally, you know that I’m up for a challenge.

Yup.  Bro­ken arm.  What can I say, I was four…common sense elu­ded me that day.

Break #2 & Cab­bage Patch Kids #2

I was stan­ding on the balance beam at age five wai­ting for my turn to do my somer­sault when I began to day­dream when whoops, I fell.

Bro­ken arm num­ber two and the second addi­tion to my Cab­bage Patch Family.

Break #3…Cabbage Patch Kid #3

I was rollers­ka­ting in my front yard around the age of seven and trip­ped over a small rock.  At this point my pedia­tri­cian was begin­ning to know me by name… much to my mom’s chagrin.

Break #4…Cabbage Patch Kid #4

Six months later just before I ente­red second grade, on my mom’s birth­day in fact, I was pla­ying soc­cer in my back yard with my brothers and some friends when I trip­ped and fell.  I infor­med my mom that my arm was bro­ken and she reac­ted EXACTLY as I would.  It went something like, “Uh huh, Nette, just rest it for awhile… you’ll be fine.”  Awhile later I was still com­plai­ning about the pain when my mom took me down for another x-ray.  (It’s a won­der that I could even get preg­nant as an adult with the amount of x-rays that I’ve had in my life!) This time I, again, broke my arm.

So it’s clear that I was a fan of Cab­bage Patch Kids!  Hell, if my mom wouldn’t just go out and buy me one I’d up the ante and break my arm!

Hehe, ahem…

About a month ago I recei­ved an email from Team Mom let­ting me know that they’d be sen­ding me an new and very exci­ting NEW item to review.

Ladies and gent­le­men, please wel­come my daughter’s new and very exci­ting authen­tic, limi­ted time release Cab­bage Patch Kid, Jac­que­line Edith.

Kinda cute, right? Looks a bit like eClaire, no?  But really… do you think that I’d hand off a BRAND NEW CABBAGE PATCH KID for nothing in return???  Pu-LEASE!

____________________________

Stay tuned for the next edi­tion where Nette says to eClaire, “In FIVE DAYS Jac­que­line Edith can be yours IF and only if you stop suc­king your thumb.”

Dun-da-dun!

“Hush Little Baby don’t say a word, Momma’s going to buy you a Moc­king Bird. And if that Moc­king Bird won’t sing, Momma’s going to buy you some new Bling Bling.”

Some new bling bling? Seriously!? I wasn’t expec­ting this when I sig­ned up with Team Mom to review new kid’s pro­ducts out on the mar­ket. After hea­ring this song, I was dying to hear how Beyonce’s sis­ter and dad had modi­fied other popu­lar nur­sery rhy­mes. My per­so­nal favo­rite on the CD is, “The Wheels on the Bus”. Ya, it’s pretty funny.

So this new upbeat hip-hop ins­pi­red CD collec­tion is not for ever­yone, but if you are a family who loves the hip-hop style of music, you might want to check it out. BTW, do we even call it hip-hop any­more?? Gosh, I’m so old!

Inc­lu­ded with the CD, I was given this Baby Jamz Key Chain. The 7 1/2 month old boy I watch twice a week loves che­wing on all the keys and pushing its but­tons. It’s a hit!

The last thing I got in my box of goo­dies was a Baby Jamz Music Crew.

Can I be honest here?

I thought it was the dum­best thing I’d ever seen. Unless it were to be inc­lu­ded in a McDonald’s Happy Meal, I would never, under any cir­cums­tan­ces, buy this. The little peo­ple are easily lost, dif­fi­cult to place into the foot holds, and frankly boring to my kids. And the little boom box only pla­yed 30 seconds of a Baby Jamz nur­sery rhyme. Don’t waste your time.

So two out of three ain’t bad, huh? I liked the Baby Jamz Nur­sery Rhy­mes Volume One CD. My friend’s 7 1/2 month old son loves the Baby Jamz Key Chain, but I hated the Music Crew.

There you have it, my review.

Team Mom Out!!