Dr. Seuss always has the BEST quotes! I found this one a couple weeks ago on Pinterest and it made me smile. My son absolutely loves to read, either looking at books on his own or having me or my husband read a book to him, and not only is it rewarding to make him laugh and smile at the story, but it’s fun for us too. Reading is a great bedtime routine. My son absolutely loves books like Little Blue Truck and Five Little Ladybugs. The fun rhymes and rhythms are captivating!

what are your children’s favorite books?

I was chatting on Twitter today with another mom who was letting her little boy have M&M’s as a treat for potty training. I told her that I was very wary of giving little kids candy like M&M’s until they’re a bit older. It’s not because they might choke on them (though there’s a possibility they could, for sure… they are hard, round candies that need to be chewed and don’t REALLY melt in the mouth)… but it’s because they look too much like pills.

Put a red M&M and an extra-strength Tylenol side by side. Sure, YOU can tell them apart. You’re an adult. But your toddler? I’m betting your toddler would reach for the Tylenol just as frequently as he or she reaches for the M&M. Lots of pills have “sweet” coatings on them too, because people are lame-o and can’t just suck it up and swallow a pill the old fashioned way.

I’m sure you know as well as I do that kids are crafty, too. I clearly remember climbing up on to the bathroom counter when I was about 6 years old, finding a pill bottle in the medicine cabine, and figuring out how to open a “child safe” container — I guess I was just curious — but thankfully my mother taught me about medicine very early on, and that it’s only to be taken when given by a parent. I’ve seen so many pictures on the internet of kids even smaller — three, four, five years old — climbing up on kitchen or bathroom counters. Can you imagine a child opening a pill bottle and thinking it looks like candy because they are used to eating food like M&Ms? The idea of that is very, very scary – if a child were to eat a bottle of Tylenol, the results would be devastating.

Giving your toddler small, round candies is very dangerous. I definitely will not be giving them to Zachary until he’s at least 5 years old and able to understand the difference between candy and medicine.

Edited to add ~ here are a few links which describe how dangerous the “is it candy or medicine?” issue is when dealing with toddlers: Candy or Medicine (Parents Magazine) / Medicine Cabinet Candy / Candy or Medicine Poster / 7 Drugs that can Kill Kids in a Single Pill

Just in case you don’t have the time to read all of the articles listed above, one of them (I believe the last one) discusses that many toddlers/babies ingest pills found in hotel rooms while families are on vacation and are brought to the hospital without even knowing what they’ve swallowed. Please be careful when you travel with your kids this summer and if you stay in a hotel with your young child, do a full sweep of the room/floor before allowing your baby to crawl around — and try to have at least one adult keep an eye on him/her at all times!

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Zachary has had a fascination with buckles as long as I can remember. Even when he was tiny, he was always very interested in the way his car seat and high chair snapped together and tried to figure out how to un-buckle himself! He loves to play with all the buckles and now that he can walk, he will often just walk up to his car seat and stand there for a few minutes trying to figure out how the whole thing works.

For a while I’ve been wanting to find him a buckle toy, and I took a few minutes to google it this morning and found a few different options. This one, made by The Buckle Toy, is the nicest (with pinch proof buckles, even) and definitely the cutest and most colorful (thus, most appealing to Zachary). The next time I buy Zachary a gift, I might even buy two, so I can keep, say, the turtle toy at home and the small pillow toy in my diaper bag.

I still remember the song – “My name is Zoom and I live on the Moon! I came down to Earth just to sing you this tune! Hey Karen – it’s your birthday – today!!!”

Every year, my dad played my Captain Zoom record on my birthday. I remember coming out of my room on my birthday morning, walking into the kitchen, and my dad turning on the record player and hearing Captain Zoom as he blasted his special birthday song just for me! Of course back then when I was a kid, I thought that the song was really just for me, not some commercially produced product, lol.

Anyway, I’ve always had great memories of Captain Zoom and long before I had a baby or even thought about getting pregnant, I knew I would be buying a Captain Zoom song for my future child. Of course, times have changed, and now instead of a record, the birthday song comes as an MP3 which is emailed to you upon purchase. They also now offer songs for pretty much every milestone in your life – anniversary, wedding, and even Christmas. It’s a little crazy. I think I’ll just stick with the birthday favorite.

Zachary’s first birthday is eight months away, so I still have some time, but I’ll be picking up that MP3 soon to add to his collection.

I can’t believe it – PDN (Photo District News) reports today that the classic ViewMaster toy is being discontinued! The ViewMaster, while simple, was a favorite toy of mine growing up, and I remember looking at my favorite reels over and over and over.

I guess I can see why it’s going extinct – kids today have so many fun digital games and toys that they can play with. Just the other day my mother-in-law took me and Zachary shopping for some good toys and things for him while she is in town visiting, and the array of interesting light-up and musical toys are astounding. The ViewMaster just can’t compete. Still, I plan to buy Zachary the same classic red ViewMaster that I had as a little kid, as well as some great educational reels (and some fun ones too)!

ETA: My mom found my old ViewMaster as well as the collector’s case with all of my reels! I am so excited to see it! My mom says she thinks that my ViewMaster was actually the one that she kept from her own childhood. If it is the same, how cool that Zachary will be one day be using a toy that his Grandma and his Mommy both used and loved!