Teach My Toddler

Teach My™ Toddler was created by (Canadian) mom, Christy Cook. When she was looking for items to help her toddler with the alphabet, numbers, colours and shapes she had a hard time finding things, especially pieces that worked together.

So....Teach My™ Toddler was created.

In a portable tote lies everything you need to help your toddler learn basic numbers, letters, colours and shapes. Each of the four sections comes with

• a fully coordinated puzzle
• board book
• teaching chart
  
• and flash cards

We've been using our Teach My™ Toddler kit with my 2 1/2 year old for about 2 weeks, for the recommended 20 minutes a day and we are more than impressed. Before, using the Teach My™ Toddler kit our toddler could identify about 50% of the alphabet and he is now pretty close to 100%. The other day we started using the letters in the puzzle to spell words, like cat, dog and other simple ones. He loves doing the puzzles and reading the books and you can tell the sense of pride and accomplishment he feels when he is playing.

Other than the clear learning advantages Teach My™ Toddler has helped make our toddler feel special. Since we have a new baby in the house, it's easy sometimes to forget that your toddler needs as much attention as the new baby. The 20 minutes a day have become a special time for him with Mommy or Daddy and he asks to play with his Teach My™ Toddler kit. In fact, in the morning it is the first toy he grabs and he insists that we play 'school' and he becomes the teacher -- the imaginative play aspect is a bonus!

I really like the fact that it's an all-in-one solution and that everything colour coordinates, as well I love seeing my little one's eyes light up when he goes "to work with his briefcase!"

Smart Choices

I was lucky enough to receive a Mom's First Day Kit from Smart Choices. The Mom's First Day Kit is packed with everything you need that provides comfort during those first days after childbirth and when nursing, and it's all contained in a handy canvas tote!

Included in the kit are

• Hipster style Single-Use panty
• femé Pad® (which provides cooling relief from vaginal irritations or inflamed hemorrhoids that may be caused by pregnancy or childbirth)
• Single-Use Nursing Pads
• SmartChoices breast soother (which provides warming therapy for blocked milk ducts, mastitis, or weaning and cooling therapy for engorgement)
• Lanolin Plus

Mom's First Day Kit from Smart Choices really does have everything that a new mom needs in the first few days after birth and onwards. The nursing pads are amazingly thin as well as absorbent and the Lanolin Plus is perfect for a new nursing mother. This is by far on my Top 10 Favourite products that I've been able to test. The price of $50 for the entire kit is outstanding and would make a great shower gift for an expectant mom. The quality of the products from Smart Choices is really exceptional and made my first few weeks with my new baby all the better, as I had everything I needed to help with pain and discomfort, as well as nursing.

Babyproofing Your Marriage: How to Laugh More, Argue Less & Communicate Better as Your Family Grows

Product Name: Babyproofing Your Marriage: How to Laugh More, Argue Less & Communicate Better as Your Family Grows by Stacie Cockrell, Cathy O'Neill & Julia Stone

Description: From Amazon.ca The Babyproofers are three women who wouldn't trade their roles as mothers for anything, and they love their husbands deeply. But after living through it and hearing the stories of hundreds of other couples, they know that with young children in the house, you need to block the stairs with baby gates, put plastic covers over the outlets, AND take the necessary steps to safeguard your marriage.

Babyproofing Your Marriage is the warts-and-all truth about how having children can affect your relationship. The authors explore the transition to parenthood in light of their own experiences, with input from their husbands and commentary from men and women across the country. Their evenhanded approach to both sides of the marital equation allows spouses to understand each other in a whole new way.

With loads of humor and practical advice, the Babyproofers will guide first-time parents and veterans alike around the rocky shores of the early parenting years. Don't fall prey to common relationship pitfalls: Babyproof Your Marriage!

Review: Babyproofing Your Marriage is the book that every parent and expectant parent should read -- on top of course of all the books about pregnancy & child birth. Babyproofing Your Marriage is different, it's all the information you need about how having a baby changes your relationship with your partner. It tackles the postpartum period, where many of go from having leisurely weekends to no free time at all and how that puts a strain on relationships.

The chapter on "What's the Score?" is an eye-opener, as partner a states all the things they did this week for the family and partner b retorts back with all the things that they did this week -- and in the end with attitudes like this everyone loses. The Babyproofers tell us why both sexes keep score (this book is based around mainly heterosexual couples) and how we can stop keeping score and be happier!

It really is a fun book to read and you'll find your head shaking "yes!" a lot and the Babyproofers give parents some great tools and tips on how to be happy with baby, and your marriage.