Blast off for summer!

I'm a fan of homemade popsicles, but up until now, I haven't been happy with the popsicle molds I've found. But now the search is over, thanks to these blue Tovolo Rocket Pop Molds. 

If you're looking for ideas, it's super easy to make your own popsicles, and sneak some healthy stuff in along the way. Here are some of the ingredients I usually use:

-- any fruit (fresh or frozen; bananas, strawberries and mangoes are the top picks here)

-- avocado

-- flax seed

-- juice

-- yogurt

Whip it all together in the blender, pour it into the molds, and enjoy!

Create your own dragon

Ronan received this cool Bloco set from his Aunt Amye. You use foam pieces and connectors to create all kinds of creatures. He adheres pretty strictly to the instructions, but I think as he gets older he'll be able to dream up his own reptilian designs.

The major downside is tons of very small pieces (eyeballs and connectors), so if you have a little one around, beware.

Made in Canada! And there are a few different themed sets available from Fat Brain.

A Million Words

Photographer Anita Maya. Love her. She's amazing. Isn't my one-year-old son just dreamy?

I spy with my little eye...

Ronan's Nonna gave him one of these Hide and Seek bags over a year ago, and it's suddenly vaulted into the "favorite car toy" category. It's a fleece pillow that's filled with soft pellets and about 40 little trinkets. You choose an item from the attached laminated list, and then manipulate the insides around until the chosen object appears in the "window."  

Unfortunately, it appears that this particular seller is out of business, but quite a few Etsy   stores have them in stock. Search "I spy bag" or "hide and seek bag".

Familiar Voices

You may remember my earlier post about how my son loves to listen to stories on CD. Well, thanks to our relatives, who are both open to my zany suggestions and fairly technologically capable, we took it one step further. For Christmas this year, they purchased picture books, recorded themselves reading them, and then burned CDs. So now my son has a stack of new books, and he can pop in a CD and hear, for instance, Uncle Mike reading Traction Man Is Here (with Aunt Jamie on sound effects). Since we live across the country from our families, it's a nice way for him to feel connected. My older niece and nephew even did some reading for him!

A few longer books that I think work well are Flat Stanley, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, A Bad Case of Stripes, Eloise, How I Became a Pirate, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Make Way for Ducklings, and Fairy Houses.

I've burned all the individual CDs into iTunes and made one master CD. Sometimes Ronan listens to the whole thing before bed, in the dark, without looking at the books.

With a Mac, it's pretty easy to use GarageBand to record (and put in little sound effects as the page-turning notification). Pretend like you're making a podcast. On a PC, download Audacity (which is free).

I'd love to hear suggestions for longer picture books that would work well, so if you have any in mind, please comment.

Thwack!

As a former high school soccer player, I love the feel of the Oball. It's easy to juggle, and then there's the satisfying sound it makes as it hits the garage door again and again. Lightweight, colorful, and good for all ages. I just saw them at Target, although they only had the smaller size (4.5" diameter) and not the larger (7.5" diameter). Happy thwacking!

Happy walls

On a whim this weekend, we finally started putting up these wall decals we bought for Ronan's room almost a year ago. They look fantastic! I'm so thrilled with how easy they were to apply (well, and also thrilled because my husband actually did the applying). We used the regular ones, so you can remove them easily, but not re-stick them.

They really look like they're painted on, and I love the sense of color and whimsy they add to the room. We also put some on his closet doors.

And yes, that's a Delta frequent flyer card JP is using to smooth them on. It was issued to Ronan when he was one. We declined the American Express card, however!