Holiday Gifts for Toddlers

I'm the first to admit I'm very lucky to get to review products so I thought I'd what I would give a toddler who loves to play but also loves to read! Blondie Boy's books are always all over the floor because he is constantly pulling them out to read but he also loves climbing under and into things as well. What better way to combine two of his loves than with a great book and funky place to read it?


Garden Games WigWam

How freaking cute is this? We'd call it a TeePee in the States and while it is an outdoor toy I think it would be super cute as a reading nook in a toddler/child's room, too. The service from Garden Games was amazing and I got email updates along the way letting me know it had been packed, shipped and was out for delivery. I hate playing the waiting game for something to be delivered so I loved this extra perk! 


If Wigwams aren't your style there are several styles of Playhouses available from a fairy princess castle to some really cool and funky wooden forts! 


Emma, from Me, The Man and The Boy, recently reviewed one as well and Oli loved his! You can see her review of the Wigwam on her blog. Mostly Yummy's girls tried one as well and you can read what they thought on her blog.

The Big Book of My World- Kali Stileman

This book arrived through my letterbox and while I thought the illustrations were pretty I will be honest and say I didn't think much else of it at first but holy cow does Blondie Boy love it!


It is the perfect book for a toddler with an ever growing vocabulary and desire to learn. He loves flipping through the pages and pointing out the shapes or counting or finding colours, etc. He will sit with it for 30 minutes (that's a lot to an almost 2 year old) picking out different things and asking what others are called. 


It is beautifully illustrated and has "lesson plan" type examples in the front so you can continue to read it as your child grows.








Transatlantic Blonde was provided these products to review but the opinions are all their own.

Bossypants

I love Tina Fey and if this is anything to go by I can't wait to get my hand on her new book Bossypants! Here is her "The Mother’s Prayer for Its Daughter” that's been making the rounds.

“First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.

May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.

When the Crystal Meth is offered, may she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer.

Guide her, protect her when crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.

Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels. What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.

May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.

Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen.Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short – a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day – And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.

O Lord, break the Internet forever, that she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.

And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back. “My mother did this for me once,”she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

Amen.”

-Tina Fey

Photo and Words from Write in Colour.

Take a look, it's in a book: A reading rainbow

Blondie Boy loves to read. Every morning after breakfast he holds a book up to me and climbs into my lap for a story. He'll sit and flip through pages by himself laughing and babbling. Both NotBlondeHusband and I are keen readers and it seems we've passed our love of all things literary on to Blondie Boy, too!

We recently got some new children's books for him to review. Blondie Boy can only really read board books on his own (he's not very gentle with pages) so we were more than happy to sit down and read them to him!

Professor Frank Mouse is very clever, very inventive and very ... lonely. Though he loves collecting, making and mending all sorts of things, shy Frank would love to have a friend to help him, so one day he makes Teddy! But Frank doesn't realise that what he really needs is a true friend - someone to teach him that real friendship is all about sharing, and Teddy might be just the fellow to do it.

We loved the bright colours and charming illustrations. The story is easy for children to follow and teaches them what being a friend is about without being overly preachy or sappy. It's a lovely story for younger and older children.

Scruffy Bear meets six terrified white mice in the woods; it's getting dark and the mice are sure they're going to be gobbled up. But Scruffy Bear has a tall tale for each passing predator about what the furry little balls actually are.

This story has a repetitive theme that reminds me of classic tales and nursery rhymes so it feels like a story you read as a child yourself.

Peely Wally was a small bird who lived high up in a tree . One day she laid an egg. This is the story of Peely Wally and the adventure of her egg! Follow the dotted line and see where the egg goes! Spot the animals, find the butterfly on each page, and don't miss the special surprise at the end!

NotBlondeHusband told me that "peely wally" means pale in Scots, but this book is bright and colourful. The illustrations are textured and feel more like art than drawings for a book. The story is simple and the lines and illustrations allow you to help your child learn and you can adapt dependant on their age.

All three books are published by Random House and available at book stores and online.

Transatlantic Blonde was provided these books for review, but opinions are always honest and our own.

18/100

1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read ENTIRELY
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total at the bottom.
5) The "average" person will have read 6 says the BBC.


1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen x
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee x+
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell x
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis x
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens x
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott x+
9. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell x
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck x
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll x
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl x+
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery x
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald x+
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell x
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens x
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett x+
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding x+
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding x+
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce x
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

TOTAL: 18

The list was compiled by the BBC in 2003 as the UK's favorite books. To be honest there are some here I think I maybe read, but I can't remember. I think I need to search out the USA's 100 favorite books, because I'll have probably read a lot more of them.