Epilepsy, Kids and Cannabis

Lenny and Amy’s 5-year-old son has epilepsy. When conventional medications caused terrible side effects, they started giving him a daily drop of cannabis oil, with dramatic results. But it’s a calculated risk: While there is anecdotal evidence of cannabis’ effectiveness, scientists face research roadblocks because it’s a schedule 1 controlled substance. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports

Hardcore music, the Children’s Tumor Foundation & Jiujitsu?

A few weeks ago I was asked to put together a video documenting a fundraiser for the Children’s Tumor Foundation. The mix of people involved was just fantastic and a reminder to never judge a book by it’s cover.

Please take a moment to watch the video below and see hardcore music Legends John “Bloodclot” Joseph, Hoya de la Roc and the Brazilian Jiujitsu Community put on a great event to benefit the Children’s Tumor Foundation.

These guys may be “scary” with tattoos and gruff language but they have hearts of gold and what they are doing to help this family is inspiring.

 

Learn more about John Joseph here:
http://www.purepma.com

Learn more about Hoya and Madball here:
https://www.facebook.com/madballNYC/

Learn more about Clockwork Jiujitsu at:
http://clockworkbjj.com/

VTech Go! Go! Smart Wheels Songs & Sounds

Looking to get any of the VTech Go! Go! Smart Wheels cars as part of a play-set or individually? Then you should have an idea of what songs and sounds they make. I took 4 of the 6 cars we have and turned them all on at once so you can get an Idea of the noise generated when your kid plays with these. The sounds trigger when the cars roll, the button is pressed or when the cars interact with any of the coordinating play-sets. It can get noisy! Luckily each car has a switch on the bottom to turn the sounds off. 🙂

Free Movies Coming to Amazon Prime in June

Some great kids programming is coming to Amazon Prime this June.

  • The Black Stallion (1979)
  • Wayne’s World (1992) …Perhaps this one is best for teens!
  • Lego Ninjago: Season 1

If you don’t already have a Amazon Prime subscription you can sign up for a free trial.  We love our Prime subscription.  Besides tons of great video content, you get free 2 day shipping on thousands of items.  We buy a LOT of diapers and wipes this way.  🙂

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/2016/05/coming_to_amazon_prime_in_june.html

Coming to Netflix this June: Dinosaurs

Attention Mom and Dad, June 2016 will see the addition of three movies super popular with young adults and kids: JURASSIC PARK!

Available June 1:

  • Jurassic Park (1993)
  • The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
  • Jurassic Park III (2001)

Other kid friendly series hitting Netflix are:

  • LEGO Friends: The Power of Friendship – Season 2 (June 10th)
  • All Hail King Julien – Season 3 (June 17) This is based of the hit movie franchise Madagascar.

SOURCE: http://www.whats-on-netflix.com/coming-soon/june-2016-new-netflix-releases/

7 Educational Toddlers Toys. [w/ video review]

It seems like all the kids we know are all turning 2.  With that in mind, here are 7 educational toy ideas for toddlers.  Most of the age ranges on these toys fall within 1-3 years. We worked to keep these gender neutral as well.

Sesame Street Elmo’s On the Go Letters
24 months – 4 years

This toy is a great option for little ones to help them learn their letters.  The toy is a puzzle where the letters fit into their designated slot, and below each is the image of a word that starts with the corresponding letter.  At the bottom of the board is a slot that can fit 3-4 letters to spell simple words.  All of the letters fit back into their spots and the whole case fold closed with handles for easy on-the-go transport.

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Smart Stages Chair
12 month – 3 years

This is a very interactive toy for ages as young as 12 months.  The chair can be programmed to match the age of your child, from the simple concept of “up and Down” at 12 months, to more imaginative play from 24 months and up.  It has songs, a remote, says phrases, and includes a book to flip the pages.  The fact that this chair grows with the child and adapts to their new abilities, makes it a great option for any toddler.

VTech Little Apps Tablet, Black
24 months – 5 years

This toy tablet offers 8 activities for your toddler to play with.  From a keyboard for playing music, to learning letters, numbers, and matching this toy packs a lot of options into a smaller package.  We always have mixed feelings on these digital noise making button pushing toys – but this has always proven to be a popular best seller so we wanted to include it.

Melissa & Doug Deluxe Pounding Bench
24 months – 4 years

All toddlers love to hammer (our little boy does, at least!) This toy offers them endless hammering fun, teaching coordination and colors.  As you hammer down one peg the opposite peg begins to rise. I love this idea as it helps to avoid the meltdowns we have encountered on similar toys that need to be manually reset.

Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Crawl Around Car
6 month – 3 years

This car is a great toy that grows with your child.  Starting out early at 6 months it teaches the most simple of concepts (open/close) and grows to pretend play (let’s drive to the zoo!) From sitting/crawling, to walking/climbing, this toy really is fun for all ages.  We wrote a full review of this when our tyke hit one year and it’s still a winner now that he’s two.

First 100 Words (Board Book)
by Roger Priddy
1 to 3 years

This is a fun book with 10 pictures on each page for you to teach and then quiz your child.  Photos are of everyday items that they would see outside (animals, vehicles) to inside (bath time, mealtime, toys.) Something your child will have fun flipping through and pointing out the pictures they know.

Make sure to also check out Roger’s other bestseller books in this series: First 100 AnimalsNumbers Colors Shapes.

 

Fisher-Price See ‘n Say The Farmer Says Toy
18 months – 4 years

The good Ol’ See ‘n Say.  This toy has been around for ages and stays a great classic.  Kids love to pull the lever handle and see the cause and effect of arrow spinning in the center.  Which animal will it land on? What sound does the animal make? Tons of fun for toddlers and nostalgic for adults.

Green Toys Review [VIDEO]

My son has three of the Green Toys brand vehicles in his ever expanding toy collection. As he’s becoming more and more interested in cars, trucks, and planes, these toys are becoming a bigger hit in our house.  The construction is really solid with no sharp burs or ragged slicing edges.  They had held up extremely well to drops, smashes, silly ride-on attempts, sticky fingers, angry meltdown hail Mary passes and more.

Airplane
The Green Toys Air Plane is so much fun. My son walks (or runs) around the house with this toy, making it fly through the air. He sticks one of his animal figurines in the pilot seat (although not always successfully) and flies it around the house. He’s only 21 months old right now so the play is limited, but this is a favorite and I can see him playing with this for many years.  Watching him awkwardly pilot it is adorable as our the whooshing sound effects he makes.

Tug Boat Bath Toy
The Green Toys My First Tug Boat bath toy is something we use in the bathtub occasionally. It’s fun to fill it with water and let it sink, then dump the water and let it float. My son hasn’t quite gotten into playing pretend with this one just yet, but I’m sure as he grows up this will be more fun. Right now he just ignores it. It also doesn’t help that we don’t have a tub, so baths consist of about 1-2 inches of water in the bottom of our shower. We got this boat thinking it wouldn’t need a deep bathtub and it doesn’t really, but ultimately baths aren’t baths without a tub!! Someday, I hope!

Truck and Race Car
The Green Toys Truck and Race Car are lots of fun for my son. I will admit that these weren’t as popular as the plane at first but he’s recently been playing with them more. Technically he doesn’t play with them together much yet. The car he drives around the floor and the truck he tends to sit on and tries to ride. This is rarely successful but leads to lots of entertaining tumbles! Recently his animal figurines have been hitching a ride on the back of the truck.  One of the things we love about this set is that you get TWO toys for the price of one. Vroom-Vroom!

The Green Toys are great fun. They are well made and they have so many different options. It’s hard to resist the Space Rocket we saw at the store a few weeks ago, but it can wait… his birthday will be here soon enough!

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Car Review [VIDEO]

We purchased the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Car for my son at the Holidays when he was just about six months old.  He is now 12 months and he has loved playing with this toy from day one.  It was delivered in frustration free packaging and we found it very easy to assemble.  As our son has developed over the past 6 months this toy has grown with him and gets plenty of use! Even the cat plays with it… But only when we are trying to sleep.

Cat playing with toy car

Every aspect of the toy has been explored from the shape sorting to the spinning back wheels, and the rotating dashboard.  It was even tested by a slightly older friend (at 15 months, he is the mature friend of our group) and was given a high approval rating by the car loving boy!  As with most children’s toys, the songs can get repetitive, but that’s what we get for purchasing battery operated toys in the first place, right?!

Fisher-Price Laugh & Learn Car Review-p4

I give the Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Car 5 out of 5 stars for its ability to grow with the child and provide plenty of entertainment.  I expect my son to continue playing with this toy for many months (maybe years??) to come, making it a worthwhile purchase!

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