William's new book | Rocket Town

We received the cutest new book for William called Rocket Town by Bob Logan. I took the book out of the package and handed it to him and he immediately said "rocket ship!" Look at that big grin! Lately William has shown a big interest in rockets so I knew this book would be right up his alley.

Rocket Town is a very cute board book that shows the adventures of an astronaut and his dog as they travel through where else~ Rocket Town! They encounter all kinds of rockets: a shark rocket, hot air balloon rocket and even a school bus rocket~ this totally fits in with a little one's imagination. There is a countdown at the end that is a big hit with William and he wants you to go back to it over and over again. It's a simple book great illustration.

William really loves pointing out all of his favorite rockets. I think this book is ideal for a little boy and makes a great gift for any occasion. I still prefer board books at this age since boys tend to be a little destructive!
You can purchase a copy of Rocket Town here.

A little about the Author and illustrator: Bob Logan has worked as a story artist on feature animations such as Madagascar and Open Season, as well as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and is currently working on the upcoming Puss in Boots! Logan’s picture book, The Sea of Bath, charmed readers with fun and sweet illustrations, and Rocket Town will delight parents and children alike with colorful and imaginative rockets.

I received a book to review and no other compensation was received. All opinions are 100% mine as always!

2011 South Carolina Junior Scholar | Briahnna Ismail

Yesterday evening we attended an awards ceremony in honor of the elite group of the 2011 South Carolina Junior Scholars. The recipients of this award perform at the academic top 2% of the state and also had high scores on the Fall PSAT. We are so proud of Briahnna for achieving this top honor and you would not believe the amount of mail we receive from so many colleges and universities from around the country. Go Brie!!

William + School = HAPPY!

William's favorite thing to do these days besides fishing is going to "school". He loves when it is time to practice his alphabet sounds and words on the computer. You would not believe the squeals and excitement that comes out of this kid over lesson time. I hope this love for learning is here to stay.
**Please pardon his tongue chewing!

And why should kids pay attention?

I took this photo yesterday after seeing an adult ditch their shopping cart next to the cart return area. My guess is that it would have taken an additional 8 seconds to have successfully put it up in the right place. Behavior like this astonishes me. It's lazy and inconsiderate. This person had an older child with her. I guess that child will learn that doing things like this is okay. I know that this is a little thing but children learn from little things. It's our job as adults to be a good example!
These same "parents" are the first ones to try to start a fight with teachers when they hear their child is not listening or following directions in class. Sorry, I just had to vent my frustrations~ Thanks for listening, I feel better now!

Math= FREE time!

We went to Chick-fil-a yesterday and William was not interested in the food. He snatched up all the sauces to line them up so he could count them! He would keep rearranging them and had about 20 minutes of uninterrupted fun. This meant 20 minutes of peace for ME! :) I wonder what it would have been like if he had 10 or more sauce packs?

Preschool at home

I take my stay-at-home mom gig quite seriously so I do my best to stay on top of teaching William all I can. I recently started having him sort beans by color and size and then counting them. You would not believe how much enjoyment he gets out of it. He yells out each color and then places it in the correct group. Then he pretends to be me and says "Now count the beans".

Of course I would never leave him unattended for long with the beans~ Not that he would put them in his mouth but he would probably try to throw them all over the place or even at the dog. I think I am going to make a chart of each type of bean by gluing them in groups to help avoid a lot of mess. Of course I am sure he will figure out how to peel them off :)

I am facing facts

I was having a little conversation with the kids yesterday evening and the subject was me. The girls were making comments how young I look and how I am the youngest mom in their group. This is probably why I don't have any friends, I never seem to fit in. Then Chardie informs me that I will probably be one of the oldest moms when William becomes school age. I felt like I was hit in the gut. Wow, to say that I am 37 I really do not feel that way. I think I feel more like a mature 20-something. I can just see all the young mommies in the carpool line in their Hybrid cars and then there will be me in my old lady ride.

The girls had the TLC show on called Four Weddings and started discussing their weddings. I was starting to feel sick. Weddings already? Trust me, I am very happy that they are looking forward to getting married but damn, it will be here before I know it! William turns 3 in March and I am still undecided if I will put him in public school or home school him. Why in the world am I feeling like my kids are going to be gone tomorrow? I guess time does go by way quicker when you are an "experienced" adult. I just know that I enjoy every second of every minute I have with my sweet family.

Beware of the "Repeater"

I am sure many of you are very familiar with the stage that your little ones went through with repeating everything they hear. I listen to William have imaginary telephone conversations and he starts of with hello and you hear him say numerous times "alright and okay". His most commonly used phrases are "oh gosh", "put on shoes and go to Walmop", "take off jacket", "mommy cook food", "mmm, yummy food". Recently we all went on a family car trip and we were having discussion about music and entertainment. Somehow we started talking about the Chris Brown song called Deuces and then about Gucci Mane. First Brie says "Deuces!" and Dwayne follows up by saying "Gucci!" and little Will decides to say "Guccis!" We all tried so hard not to laugh but we all broke down. We realized from that moment that Will is indeed listening to everything we say and we better watch out! We do not want to corrupt him. I have made it a point to only listen to NPR or one of his cd's in the car while we wait in the carpool line or drive around town.

What is the most outrageous or funniest thing your little one has said from overhearing someone in your family?

Buying toys online made easier with Ebeanstalk

Buying toys online can be scary and intimidating since you never know quite what you are going to get. You might wonder, will the toy be fun to play with? What is the quality like? Ebeanstalk wants to make sure their customers are 100% satisfied with all of their toys. Their website is so easy to navigate when shopping for toys. You can shop according to a specific age, gender, category or brand. I am impressed with just how many brands they carry including one of my favorites, Melissa and Doug.

They have moms like me test out their toys to make sure they have the safest baby toys and the most popular kids toys around. They are always looking for more opinions, so head on over to Ebeanstalk and let them know what you think the best learning toys are!

My boy loves Dora and friends

It is amazing how much little William LOVES Dora the Explorer. He is always requesting to watch Dora and Boots. He is lucky that we can watch it On Demand through our digital cable. It's neat when you hear your toddler counting in Spanish from 1-10 and saying words like mountain, crocodile lake, rain forest or even "We did it!"

I think Dora the Explorer is one of the best preschool programs on television and I was thrilled to receive a complimentary copy of the new Dora the Explorer magazine! I love the fact that all of Dora's friends are featured, giving it a more gender neutral feel. The issue is filled with fun activities like coloring pages, matching games, puzzles, stickers and more. William sat down quietly and went through each page thoroughly and I was taken back by how much he knew. I admit, I did remove the stickers and hide them because I don't want to see what he might try to "decorate" with them :)

He was really into this particular page. He loves telling me what all the objects are. He is enjoying his magazine! I think that if he was a year older he would be able to do more of the activities in it. It's a great magazine and I would totally recommend it to any Dora fan.

ABC Genius!

Each and every day our little William is absorbing so much information and is broadening his speech. He has gotten to the point that he can tell you what any letter of the alphabet is without it being in alphabetical order. He loves doing his daily lessons and cheers and claps for himself when he knows he has done a good job. I wish I had a proper video to post but if you have a toddler then you understand how hard it is to get them to sit still for more than 5 seconds. William is thriving and is showing signs of maturity by listening a little better and trying to make better choices. The evil mom "look" is finally working on him. I have to say that he has been really well behaved in the past month and is a lot easier to look after. I know they go through phases so I will enjoy it while I can! Perhaps we are slowly moving out of the terrible two's stage? I guess time will tell.

He finally gets it!

It is really exciting to see how much little William is flourishing with his vocabulary. The neat thing is seeing him interact with others as well as the TV. Yes, I do let him watch TV but only Nick Jr. and PBS Kids. I won't let him watch anything with commercials and of course there are limits to how much he gets to watch. I love seeing him follow the lessons that Moose and Zee teach in between programs. He is really into his letters and numbers and is starting to memorize them in order! He also like to point out everything and tell you 10 times what it is. He is becoming a chatterbox and I love it. It gets me excited to know that all I teach him is sinking in and he really does get it!~

The one thing that can keep my 2 year old still

My boy generally is non-stop as any toddler boy might be. There is one show that he loves so much and it will actually keep him sitting in one spot for the duration of it. Thankfully it's about reading (his favorite activity) called Super Why! What a neat little show and it is full of great lessons in reading and grammar usage. I am so glad my boy loves it! Have you or your little one ever watched this show before?

William has a new toy!

A few weeks ago I was asked to test toys for a company called ebeanstalk. They sent out a number of baby toys and toys for 1 year olds to toy experts (moms) for their review. Through reviews such as mine, this helps ebeanstalk select great learning toys . The toy they sent was First Shapes Jumbo Knob Puzzle from Melissa and Doug who makes lots of wooden toys.

I was really impressed by the quality of this puzzle and really can appreciate the toddler friendly features. I am sure we all can relate to needing something destruction-proof when you have a 16 month old! Since this puzzle is made out of wood I feel there is minimal chance of breaking it. I really love the big knobs that make gripping each piece so much easier.

I also like how basic this puzzle is featuring simple shapes and colors. Another sneaky way to teach a busy toddler! William is really enjoying his new toy and I would certainly recommend it to anyone and I think it would make a great first birthday gift for a boy or girl. The prices are reasonable and there are so many different varieties of puzzles. I think William's next one will be the map of the United States of America.

Do you currently own any toys from Melissa and Doug?