“Art House Volume 1: Basic Shapes and Animals” review

The Louvre, The Met, the Guggenheim, the … refrigerator door?  The family “gallery” will display the creative genius of budding young artists like never before with the launch of Art House, a charming new DVD series teaching children the fundamentals of drawing.

I recently received the initial title in a new DVD series that introduces children to the basics of art and drawing, Art House Volume 1: Basic Shapes and Animals to review with the boys.

I was very exciting when I received the video. Noah has shown a lot of interest lately in drawing so I figured this would be perfect to try with him if I could get him at a time when he could focus.

Well, today was the day, so after homework Noah, Kiel and I did "art" together. 

I pulled out the big drawing pad and the box of crayons and markers and we set to work.

The DVD starts out by working on the four basic shapes: circles, squares, triangles, and ovals.

I was a little concerned at this point because they spent a couple minutes on each shape and I was afraid it wouldn't keep Noah's attention.  He did some drawing in between, but the video was able to pull him back in with each new shape.

Although Kiel can't draw any of the basic shapes considering he's only 23 months old, he had lots of fun "helping."

The first animal they showed how to draw was a fish, by combining ovals and triangles. Noah did a great job listening to the video, but didn't always watch it when it showed exactly where to put the different shapes. He still drew a pretty awesome fish and wasn't phased by Kiel's "additions." 

They also showed how to draw a dog, a bird, a monkey, and a dinosaur. 

After each animal there was a little music video type break, where they showed the "real" animal for a couple minutes. 

Again I was afraid Noah would lose interest during those breaks, but he just spent them coloring in his animals.


I was very pleased with how interested Noah was during the video. By the last animals he was remembering to listen and look at what the next step was before he started drawing.

He added plenty of personal touches to his drawings, which I was happy to see. I think it's great to teach a kid the basics, but you don't want them to lose their imagination either.

  
Kiel enjoyed helping Noah for a while, then he sat on my lap and just watched the video. 


Overall it was a win for both kids! I'm pretty sure Noah will ask to watch this again, which for a DVD like this is high praise.


I'm looking forward to seeing how he does with Volume 2: Start Your Engines and Volume 3: On the Farm which are due out in 2010.



Here is some information that the PR firm sent me with the DVD:

Developing artistic skills at an early age has proven to promote problem solving, communication, curiosity and perspective.  Created by Amy Wilkes, a USC School of Cinematic Arts graduate and Tiffany Jennings, an elementary school teacher, Art House DVD series teaches children ages 3 and up how to draw using basic shapes – squares, circles, triangles, etc. – as a base to illustrate almost anything. 

“When schools feel the financial crunch, art programs are the first to go,” says Wilkes. “The Art House series nurtures young minds and offers parents a chance to create art with their child even if neither have any experience in drawing. Seeing our children’s faces light up with pride as they complete a drawing makes the whole project worthwhile.”  Adds Jennings, “We’ve seen the confidence that art skills can bring to children.  By simply learning how to draw, they are unlocking a wealth of developmental abilities.”  

In Art House Volume 1: Basic Shapes and Animals, join Teacher Emily and the Art House Gang as they draw fish, dogs, monkeys, birds, dinosaurs and more.  Engaging kids with bright, bold animation by Brad Abelson (The Simpsons); original music by award-winning composer Peter Scaturro; and fun live-action visuals, the program is both interactive and easy-to-follow, providing step-by-step instructions to help young viewers create simple drawings of their very own.  Along with printable coloring book pages, learning to draw has never been easier … or more fun!   

So give your child some crayons and paper and watch their imaginations flow.

Art House Volume 1: Basic Shapes and Animals just received the Dove Family Foundation Seal of Approval  The Dove Family Foundation is a national nonprofit with the goal “To encourage and promote the creation, production, distribution and consumption of wholesome family entertainment.”
Also endorsed by KIDS FIRST!, Art House Volume 1: Basic Shapes and Animals will be  available on DVD  nationwide November 17, 2009 for a suggested retail price of $17.99.

Future titles in the series to be released in 2010 are Volume 2: Start Your Engines, Volume 3: On the Farm and Volume 4: Under the Sea.  Recommended for ages 3 and up, Art House Volume 1: Basic Shapes and Animals is available at www.InTheArtHouse.com and www.amazon.com.

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Tilty Cup giveaway!

***And here I am even tardier in actually picking a winner! Oy... So, I went to Random.org and they laughed at me when I told it to randomly pick an number between 1 and 2. Then I flipped a coin. Heads = comment 1, tails = comment 2. And it was Heads! So, the winner is The House of Sprout! Please send me your mailing address!****


Once again I'm tardy in getting a giveaway up. *sigh* I really do have the best of intentions.

Just to make it worse, somehow I managed to delete a bunch of emails (from my trash too) and I lost all the information I had for this giveaway, so I'm scrambling a bit there too. I'm almost certain though that I got this giveaway from MomSelect.

I was sent a two-pack of the Tilty Cup to try and a two-pack to giveaway! Since I lost the email that had all the information about the Tilty Cup I visited their website and pulled information from there.

• Ergonomic design makes drinking easier and more comfortable.
• Requires less head tilt than any other sippy cup.
• Teaches better mechanics to help babies graduate from a sippy to a regular cup.
• Has a snap on lid without a valve for better dental development, as recommended by the ADA, American Dental Association .

• 9+ months
• 7oz
• Dishwasher Safe (Top Rack)
• Polypropylene
• BPA Free
• Dye Free
• PVC Free
• Easy to use in a car seat or stroller

”When shopping for a training cup, avoid those that have no-spill valves. A useful training cup will have a snap-on or screw-on lid with a spout.”
For the Dental Patient…, JADA, Vol.135, March 2004, ADA


In all truthfulness this was a difficult review for me, and I think mostly it was because Kiel already knows how to drink from a sippy cup. The Tilty Cup doesn't have a valve and therefore isn't leakproof. It took Kiel about 0.2 seconds to figure that piece out and cover the kitchen table and himself drop by drop with water from the cup. He certainly had no problem drinking from it, but he thought making a mess with it was far more fun. The Tilty Cup is designed to help kids learn how to use a sippy cup, and because of that it isn't leak proof for a reason. Their blog about how it was developed is interesting and worth a look if you are at this developmental stage with your baby.

Pro's: BPA and PVC free, great price at two cups for approx. six bucks.

Con's: It leaks, probably not any better than anything else out there for the toddler set (because it leaks).

So, I have a two-pack to giveaway. I'd love to hear how it works for someone with a baby who is just learning to use a sippy cup.

You have until Friday at midnight to enter. Or longer, basically I'll leave it open until sometime next weekend when I get around to randomly choosing one commenter. Make sure there is a way for me to contact you.

There are several ways you can enter this giveaway. You can enter up to five times by doing the following:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me something funny about your own kid(s).
2. Follow the MNT Review blog (click on the FOLLOW button to the right). Leave me a comment here letting me know you are following me.
3. Check out my main blog Mommy Needs Therapy and leave a comment on one of my posts. Leave me a comment here telling me you did so.
   
4. Follow my main blog Mommy Needs Therapy. Leave a comment here telling me you are following me. (If you are already following me, thank you! And leave a comment here anyway!)
   
5. Mommy Needs Therapy has been nominated for Best Local Blog in Nickelodeon's Parents' Picks Awards! Vote for me here and I'll give you another entry. Just leave a comment here and tell me you voted. Pure bribery I know!

Florastor Kids Giveaway!

***and the winner is commenter number 4 - Hopeful Mother!***


If you read my main blog, Mommy Needs Therapy, you might remember when Kiel spent the night in the hospital for dehydration brought on by a stomach virus. His diarrhea lasted for several weeks. Eventually, one of the pediatricians in the practice we use suggested we try probiotics. I happened to have some on hand because I had tried them with Noah several months earlier, as someone had suggested he might have a yeast allergy and that may be impacting his behavior problems. The probiotic didn't appear to improve his behavior, and it was pretty expensive, so we stopped it. But, I had about half of a box of packets left.

So I gave it to Kiel and his diarrhea did gradually improve. The problem I had with the brand we were using though was that the packets contained an adult dose so I had to try and pour out a smaller dose of what I hoped was an appropriate amount for Kiel. It was inconvenient, and even though I was pretty sure I wasn't going to overdose him, I still wasn't happy that I wasn't able to be sure how much I was giving him.

Ironically, just a few weeks after Kiel stopped being Mr. PoopyPants and was back to his old self, MomSelect offered me the chance to try out Florastor Kids, a probiotic made of live freeze dried yeast cells of the species Saccharomyces boulardii lyo.

I wish I'd had this back in January when Kiel's diarrhea first started!

If you don't know anything about probiotics, they are great for diarrhea, especially diarrhea as the result of taking antibiotics.

You can read the fact sheet here to learn more about probiotics and and Florastor Kids.

You can also read a Q&A from Dr. James Sears M.D. here. Dr. James Sears, board-certified pediatrician, author and co-host of the CBS-TV show “The Doctors,” has recommended Florastor Kids to patients for years, first of all because he’s seen its efficacy in pediatric diarrhea, and because it’s backed by scientific studies.

I have two boxes of Florastor Kids (a total of 20 powder packets - a 10 day supply) to give away to one lucky reader! This would be great to have on hand the next time your child has to take antibiotics.

There are several ways you can enter this giveaway. You can enter up to five times by doing the following:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me something special about your own kids.
2. Follow the MNT Review blog (click on the FOLLOW button to the right). Leave me a comment here letting me know you are following me.
3. Check out my main blog Mommy Needs Therapy and leave a comment on one of my posts. Leave me a comment here telling me you did so.
   
4. Follow my main blog Mommy Needs Therapy. Leave a comment here telling me you are following me. (If you are already following me, thank you! And leave a comment here anyway!)
   
5. If you are feeling "wild" read the review I wrote prior to this post (about an adult "toy") and leave a comment on it. Then leave a comment here telling me you did so. *warning, this post is probably not considered safe for work*
   

Again, you can enter up to five times, but you MUST leave a separate comment on this post for each entry.

This contest is open until Friday, May 8, at 5pm eastern time. Or until I get around to closing it and choosing the winner. I'm a lot of things, but punctual is not one of them. I'll notify the winner by email sometime next weekend, so make sure you've left me a way to contact you!

My husband went to see The Boss, and I stayed home and wrote about vibrators.

Once again the wonderful people at Eden Fantasys offered to let me review one of their adult toys!

Who thinks working there must be one of the best jobs ever!?!

This time they sent me Little Paul. I know, Little Paul! If I was Paul I definitely would not want to be referred to as "little." And why Paul? Did Paul design it? These are some of the things I think about late at night. Sad, I know...
Annnyyywayyy.....meet Little Paul. He has eyes, and what looks like a mouth. And he's kind of segmented, like a worm. Cute or creepy? I'm not quite sure yet. Because now all I can think of is him inside my va-jay-jay eying up my cervix. Or knocking on my G-spot. Helllooooo anyone home? And if there's an echo...well, I had a baby peoples, with forceps, and stitches that came out too soon. Just saying...

OK, OK, back to Little Paul.

IM LOOKIN AT UR CERVIX AN KNOCKIN ON UR G-SPOT.

Breathe, Katt, breathe. I'm loosing focus here. 'Cause I'm cracking myself up!

OK, so Little Paul. When I opened up the package my first thought, after I saw he was made in Germany, was that he's really smooth feeling. Soft, smooth feeling. Quite nice actually. I guess that's from the medical grade 100% silicone.

According to the description Little Paul is about half the size of his "colleagues." Since I don't have much to compare him to I'll take their word for it. He's definitely smaller than the real thing (yes honey, I mean you and by more than a "little"!). But he did hit the spot he was intended to hit. So yes, if you've been following the saga, I have indeed located my G-spot. Still working on getting it to perform as I'd like, but that's a post for another day.

Of course Little Paul vibrates, because whats the point if it doesn't, right? There are two push buttons towards the base that control the different vibratory variations. (I kept losing track of where the buttons were though, which was kind of frustrating.) There are increasing levels of intensity, and then a couple options with different pulsing variations. And it's quiet, which I really liked. No worrying you are going to wake someone up. Like a horny husband the kids. And a very smooth vibration, if that makes sense. Ultimately though, I would have liked it more if the intensity had increased a couple more levels. As I've said before, I need the powerz people.

So, the Pros: discreet, very quiet, love the feel of the silicone, multi-speed vibration, definitely felt like a well made, quality item, cute (if you don't think about the eyes)

And the Cons: I didn't like the position of the push-button controls, the vibration wasn't powerful enough for me, moderately pricey at $47.99 (although again, good quality)

If you are looking for a good quality, discreet, G-spot vibe, and you don't require serious power in your vibration, I would say Little Paul is a good choice for you. I you require the powerz though, like I do, well, we'll keep on looking.

Win yogurt and a prize pack!!!

And the winners are: cdziuba, souldolphindream, and Kimberly C.
You should have received an email from me requesting your mailing address, let me know if you did not receive it

Noah has always loved yogurt, and until recently when we couldn't send it to school in his lunch because it was too hard to keep it cold, he had it every day.

And, with all honesty I can tell you that we almost always buy Yoplait Kids yogurt for him because it has 25% less sugar than other leading kids yogurts, and because it has natural food coloring in it, such as beet juice. We learned early on that Noah's behavior was affected by sugar and red food dye. Yoplait Kids met both those requirements, and Noah loved it. Not to mention the vitamin D, calcium and protein he gets in it too. So, we have been long-time Yoplait Kids yogurt lovers. Now if only they made soy yogurt so Kiel could eat it too!

And then I was offered the chance to receive some free yogurt and a Yoplait Get Active Prize Pack.

Noah's has been having fun showing off his jump roping

skills to us all day today!

The best part though! I get to give away three Yoplait Get Active Prize Pack's and some free Yoplait yogurt to my readers! The Yoplait Get Active Prize Pack includes a travel cooler (to take your yogurt on the road), a jump rope, a water bottle and an outdoor game set that includes a beach ball, paddle ball, Jai-Ali and a Frisbee.

All you have to do is leave a comment here and tell me your favorite summertime family activity! I'll randomly choose three winners this Friday April 17 (which also happens to be my birthday, Yo!) or sometime this weekend when I get around to it. You'll have until at least 5pm Friday to enter though!

If you don't win you can still go to the Yoplait website to print a coupon and learn more about Yoplait for Kids!

A Kiss is Just a Kiss...until it vibrates and tickles that is!

I'll admit it, I've been a bit stressed lately. All this shit with my parents, worries about Noah and his new klepto habits, a huge project at work that I was the lead on. It's added up. I've been a bit tense. Perhaps a little terse even. Certainly uptight! Definitely in need of some release!

Until THIS arrived in the mail from Eden Fantasys my favorite new adult toy store!

Oh yeah baby! The Butterfly Kiss!

You see, a couple weeks ago some amazing ladies (including two of my favorite bloggers @AnissaMayhew and@MamaSpohr) hosted a twitter party with Drew G from Eden Fantasys. You can read about the particulars here and see who else hosted!

So, one thing led to another, and I said way too much and gave away far too much information about Old Faithful and what Rich gave me for my 40th birthday last year, and what do you know, Drew G. offered to let me review something from Eden Fantasys. And I was all " oh hell yeh!"

I spent hours looking over the website, contemplating, imagining, asking questions.

Did I want something just for me? Or something to use as a couple?

Something I knew would get the job done? Or something different from anything I've tried before.

Now, I'm no prude, and I have a few toys, as mentioned above. I even have some vivid memories about a HUGE purple rotating, vibrating dildo that suction cupped to the floor and some how ended up in my living room one very drunken night ten or so years ago. Scared the hell out of me when I woke up the next morning. *cringe*

Whew, need to shake off that memory. Give me a sec here.

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OK, back to the interesting stuff.

We are all friends here right? I can lay it on the line, yes? Because if I'm going to be honest with this review, I need to tell you, I warm up rather slowly. And I require lots of umm.. lets just say "focused" stimulation. And my G-spot? Well, I hear its more than an urban myth, but nothing I've experienced has proven that true yet. And that my friends is what led me to the Butterfly Kiss.

I waited anxiously for the package to come. The timing was perfect. I was finishing up that huge project and it would be waiting for me when I got home. I figured I'd get home a couple hours before the boys did and have a little "alone" time to check it out. Unfortunately, getting the project out took a little longer than I had hoped. But still, I beat everyone home, and ripped in to that package. And just as I got it open and was about to head upstairs, in walk the male members of my family. *sigh*

Yeah, yeah, you say. Cut to the chase damnit it! Tell us about the Butterfly Kiss already!

Alright, alright, you guys are so impatient!

So yeah, it scared me a little at first. I admit it. I've never used anything with the two prong approach like this. Or anything with a bug on it! But I'm no coward! In went the batteries.

To be honest I was a little concerned that it wouldn't be powerful enough for me. I require The Powerz people! But surprisingly, it packed quite a punch.

Three speeds of fluttering, vibrating power.

Definitely a different feeling for me, having something inside and out like that. And yes, I liked it!

The vibration was smoother than what I'm used to with Old Faithful though. Different enough that I didn't quite reach that ultimate moment of release the first time. And sadly, I really don't think I found that elusive G-spot.

The next night Rich joined me on my mission. And let me tell you he found that little vibrating butterfly rather intriguing on his nethers.

Still no G-spot, but lets just say I went to sleep happy!

Over all, I give the Butterfly Kiss four out of five "buzz ups." Thanks for that one Oz.

At $16.99 you can't go wrong with this little toy. It will certainly be part of my hopefully growing collection!

I'm still in search of my G-spot though! Any suggestions on what to try next?

Chocolate, coffee, fiber, and a give-a-way!

***And the winners are........Pixiemrrr, Meghan and Stacy. Congrats! You should have received an email from me already.***


Recently like three weeks ago because I suck at doing anything in a timely manner I was given an opportunity to review the new Fiber One Chocolate Mocha Chewy Bars and receive a spa break gift basket. Now, I'm not one to turn down a chance to try something new that involves chocolate, so I jumped right on that offer!

The Fiber One Chocolate Mocha Chewy Bars were described as combination of "a rich chocolate taste and smooth coffee flavor with the benefits of fiber in one delicious snack. Each great tasting, chewy bar provides 35% of the recommended daily fiber intake and also is a good source of calcium."

Now, I'm not a huge coffee fan, so I was a little leery when they arrived and I remembered that mocha was coffee, cause duh, and I guess I didn't read the actual email that clearly said that, because once I read the word "chocolate" and "offer to review" I hit reply and said "yes." But I tried them, because that is what I promised to do. And Oh.My.Gosh! Maybe I do like coffee! Because these were really good. And I'm not just saying that.

They have 140 calories per bar, 9 grams of fiber, 2 grams of protein and 4 grams of fat. And did I mention they taste good?

Risking the TMI category again here, but I just haven't been as regular as I used to be since having Kiel. So adding some extra fiber to my diet should be a good thing. I'm going to get a box and keep at work for that mid-afternoon snack break. I think I'll try one of the peanut butter flavors next.

Noah liked them too, and since we continue to have problems with his encopresis I think we are going to get some for him too instead of regular granola bars.

And the BEST PART of this is that I get to give away THREE, yes THREE spa break baskets to my readers!


You will receive the bath pillow, soap, bath salts, lotion and a candle (all chocolate flavored) plus a coupon for a free box of Fiber One Chewy Bars.

And if you don't win one of the three spa break baskets which would be surprising since I think I only have three readers, you can print out one of these $1.35 off coupons.

I must leave you with one piece of advice though. The cellophane wrapped bar that looks like chocolate? Yeah, not chocolate. Soap! Remember this, Soap!

So, if you would like to win a box of Fiber One Chewy Bars and a spa break basket leave a comment on this post and I'll randomly pick three next Sunday. Just make sure you leave a way for me to contact you in the comment. So many of my commenter's end up showing up as a "no-reply" email because they haven't checked the option to share their email address in their blogger profiles.