Bloom

Needless to say, as a SAHM --- I'm always on the lookout for activities to fill our days. I only have so much staminia to play hide & seek, give piggy back rides and play make-believe. And as much as they love Dora, Diego and Little Einsteins; I can and should only allow so much tv time. Looking back, the easy months were definitely when my girls were newborns. I never worried about too much television, too much sugar, temper tantrums and educational value. These are much tougher milestones! (I can only imagine what I'll be saying when they're teenagers...makeup, boys, crying!...AAAAH! Give me back my toddler!)

Anyhow with Olivia understanding the concept of games, I've been on the lookout for activities/toys that are both educational and fun. I'm happy to say, we recently discovered "Bloom", a new series by Cranium. I've only seen it at Target and all products are under $20. Although the products are for 3+, Madeleine loves them just as much as Olivia.

Olivia's favorite is the Seek & Find Park puzzle. It's a 24 piece puzzle of a park bustling with activities. The puzzle includes 2 small flipbooks and 1 dry-erase marker. After the puzzle is put together, the flipbooks direct us to find things...i.e. 3 wagons, 8 fish, something blue, etc.. Both Olivia and Madeleine love finding and circling all the different items. Up to this point, we hadn't really done much with puzzles and now it's a daily activity. (We also own the Zoo puzzle, Let's Go Shopping activity deck and Sounds Bingo --- ALL great!) So for all the moms or anyone who enjoys games, this product definitely gets my stamp of approval. (We also love Word World but that's for another blog.)

Time to go as I hear my girls calling for waterpaints. Happy St. Patricks!