“I find that consumers (toddlers???) are naturally drawn to foods that are more attractive.  Now it’s easy to make eye-catching brownies, cookies, candies and cupcakes thanks to FunShapes Baking Cups,” said Betty Morton, manager, Reynolds Kitchens. “FunShapes Baking Cups are a fun way to make unique baked goods, and bake sale customers (hungry toddlers) will love the creative treats!”

We just got an amazing kit from the lovely people at Reynolds - it has all sorts of fun shapes in it, a tablecloth (which works great on the floor for messy playtime by the way) and other goodies. Now, it’s really for bake sales, but hey, works great for toddlers too! I can’t wait to actually use it - he’s definitely going to at least taste something that looks that fun, which is a big deal for us! I’ll post photos of the finished product for sure.
I’m thinking that this recipe could be adapted for a healthy but tasty chicken and veggie snack that he would try - check out all the recipes for your own ideas! If you want this kit for yourself, go register to win one in the “Shape Up Your Bake Sale” contest!

After getting our Senseo, I couldn’t imagine enjoying regular coffee as much ever again, that cute little machine just makes my morning! However, Folgers sent me some of their new Gourmet Selections coffee & now my coffee machine is back in business. This line is inspired by life’s simple pleasures, which suits me perfectly. The warm vanilla biscotti taste inspired me to go clean up that disaster that used to be Lil’ Duck’s room, while the Morning Cafe variety was perfectly light and delicate, just the way I like it. The rich flavor of the Lively Columbian version was a little strong for me, but my husband, the strong coffee lover, enjoyed it immensely (perhaps more because he now gets the whole bag ;)).

You can get your own free sample here - perhaps it will make your morning a bit better as well ;).

Well, the little guy loved the box, but Mama loves the machine…. Senseo sent us their new coffee pod system with a bunch of pods included as well. It makes wonderful, frothy coffee in 4 or 8 oz. servings - mmmmm. They even have specialty flavored pods - heaven! You can find out more and sign up for rebates and such at the Senseo web site…

He was convinced that he could put his whole lower half inside the packing carton - he was all curled up in it, rocking back and forth like he was in a boat. Just the idea of getting the box had him running around with baby glee - he loves getting packages! I had a hard time convincing him that the machine wasn’t for his baby pleasure, but after he discovered the cool cartons in which it was packaged, he thought that was his present and all was well! Isn’t it amazing how much they enjoy things that we would consider trash?

Speaking of great birthday presents, Lil’ Duck got a fun product to review this past week. Leapfrog’s PR firm sent us their new product, Little Leaps Grow-with-me Learning System, along with a bunch of DVD learning discs and a few stuffed animals (who were quickly initiated into toddler-land with several markers and some stray Vapo-rub).

Speaking of those stuffed creatures, they ARE washable, as we quickly discovered ;). They are soft and cute, and sturdy enough to withstand flying across the living room and being mashed into trucks with hundreds of other toys.

The main thing itself can best be described as a baby Playstation controller that flips (see the photo). It has cool buttons on the baby side and a nice joystick and buttons on the toddler side. It’s a little back-heavy with the batteries, but if you actually set the thing down on a coffee table rather than trying to balance it on your lap along with a toddler, a duck, a stuffed Clifford, and ten other items of interest, it would certainly refrain from doing back-flips off your knees.

As soon as I got this controller out of the box, Lil’ Duck was yelling at me that, “wow, mama, MINE, wow, wow, WOW!!!” - he wanted it ;). He didn’t even know yet that it controlled something on the TV. Now, trying to pair this thing up with my Playstation 2 (works with almost any DVD player, not just playstations) with Lil’ Duck pushing all the buttons and trying to claim it as his own…..

Honestly, it is easy to pair, it has simple instructions, takes only a few minutes, definitely not hard or anything that any mom couldn’t handle. I’d recommend doing it if your little one ever sleeps though, just for avoidance of that long battle ;). Once you set it up initially, all you have to do is push a button each time you put in a DVD to pair it up again. For an impatient toddler, it’s hard to convince him to WAIT while you hold the thing down, circle it around in the air, and generally convince it to pair, but sometimes it pairs up right away, so who knows.

Now, I did have some technical issues with the DVD’s themselves - one of them refuses to work after about halfway thru the thing, no matter what I do, and another just won’t work, gives me errors, despite them quickly sending me a replacement (thinking it was just the one disc). It’s a brand-new product, so I expect they’ll have those bugs out soon, and it could just be my DVD players too, who knows.

For all the DVD’s that do work, we had a blast! Since he’s never played with a controller before, he does better with the baby games than with the toddler game - the concept of moving the joystick side to side and up and down to select certain animals is just beyond him, but he’s just barely two and it is recommended for 2 and up. I imagine he’ll get the hang of it within a month.

Do beware that for some reason, even though we didn’t pair it with the DVD player in our other room, it is able to control any DVD like a regular controller or remote, so if they are just playing around with the controller while you are trying to watch a movie, you’ll have to remove the batteries or banish it ;).

He loves all the animals and the actors in these, he is always telling me about the bunny or asking to play “bounce” with the mommy and daddy and baby. When he asks to play it instead of watching his beloved Clifford and Backyardigans shows, you know it’s a great thing!

I wish we’d had it sooner, as I know he would have loved watching this from about 6 months on, and he would have gotten the hang of the baby button-pushing DVD’s about a year ago at the latest. It’s definitely something that will last for a few years (still works in spite of being smashed on the concrete outside, actually, altho I didn’t purposely test it for durability and I’m sure that Leapfrog doesn’t recommend doing that ;)), I can’t say that about most of the technological toys on the market, especially at this (affordable, in my opinion) price.

I was just on their website and it looks like they have the live product demo up and running, so go check it out, I’d definitely recommend this and I’m so glad that we got to review it!