Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Today is Lyons Cub’s 4th birthday!!! He had been watching YouTube videos of kids playing with the Hot Wheels City for a…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Do you have an active kiddo who doesn’t know what to do with his/her hands? To calm down, he/she could play with…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Bowling is one of Germany’s popular indoor sports, often available in restaurants (but you can play it outside, too). My father went…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. As a child of the 80s, I loved to play Tetris (invented 1984 by a Russian software engineer) on my gameboy (invented…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Lyons Cub had this one big wish for Christmas: The “green slime gorilla” from Hot Wheels! He had seen it on his…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Have you jumped on the band wagon yet and gotten matching pajamas for yourself and your kiddos? I have to admit I’m…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Lyons Cub’s first Christmas manger, when he was a year old, was from the Little People nativity scene. It was really cute…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. The Mix and Match-a-Saurus from VTech was a big hit with Lyons Cub last Christmas. It comes with a big, orange egg…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Which mommy doesn’t think her kiddo is the best dressed in the world?!? Well, I was surely proud of the way I…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. There are so many cute porcupine children’s books out there, and guess what they’re teaching about? You’re right: befriending a special person…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Do you also have a kid who loves marble runs of any kind??? Lyons Cub has a marble run made of wood,…
Right next to bristle shapes, I would recommend magnetic building blocks as an educational toy for toddlers and preschoolers. They train the hand and brain, because kiddo has to assemble structures with the understanding of magnetic forces, which is not an easy task. (Although, once your kids find out that the fridge and the range…
Lyons Cub wanted to cut hair today–no, not his or mine, thankfully, but that of a little plastic doll that grandma lion found in an old box of her bigger grandkids’ stored play things. She brought a bag of playdough and utensils for play time yesterday, and my son excitedly stuffed the little dolly with…
Okay, so here’s something for the big builders among you: Feel inclined to spend many hours crafting a super-duper cool wooden marble race track table for your child? The one Lyons Cub and I found was in a Mall, but you can put one together at home with spare building blocks from eBay and an…
Looking for a great educational tool for your toddler builder? Next to Duplo, MegaBloks, and Lego, I discovered bristle shapes. Lyons Cub received a package from a dear friend for his second birthday. I remember them vaguely from my childhood in the 1970s and 80s as “Nopper Steckbausteine.” Curious, I looked them up and found…
Does your toddler also have the problem that the pants slide down his butt all the time? It’s important to me that my kid is well dressed. My son has short legs and is slim around the waist. This means that jeans and most types of trousers without an elastic waistband don’t fit him, since…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Do you also have a kid who loves dinos? In his Montessori kindergarten, Lyons Cub was allowed to wear only uni-colored, character-free…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Duplo and Mega Bloks are great toys to let your little one practice fine motor skills and thinking logically. Lyons Cub loves…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. When Lyons Cub was 1.5 years old, he got his blue, wooden toy kitchen. At that time, he was too young yet…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Lyons Cub has been fascinated with volcanoes, lava, and dinos since he was a year old. To celebrate his first day of…
As a German kid, I had never encountered the inchworm, although I’m a child of the 1970s… It was invented in the early 1970s by Joseph M. Burck and produced by Hasbro. Burck fabricated his model with his old dryer hose and tested it on his own toddler 😉 It apparently worked, and kids love…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Kids love slime. Parents and grandparents probably less so (well, they are the ones left with the clean-up!). But nothing compares to…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. When Lyons Cub was a baby, he used to have a dinosaur rocker, and with the continuous help of Early Intervention and…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. The Trihorse “Marble Run” (“Kugelbahn“) is actually not for marbles, but for big wooden balls and figurines, and it would make a…
Do you have a toddler who hates to lose, too? Lyons Cub definitely needs to win all the time. Also, he didn’t quite understand that the person with the most bananas wins–he gave away his bananas to the other players freely. But dang, if anybody DARED to catch the jumping monkey before he could get…
It’s self-explanatory–playdough is one of the best sensory toys that helps children grasp different shapes, textures, colors, and names of their constructs that I can think of. It exists since the 1930s and was originally a cleaning substance for wallpapers, and its popularity as a children’s toy rose dramatically in the 1950s through television ads….
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. This birthday gift has been an instant hit with Lyons Cub. I don’t care so much about the music and voice parts,…
Do you have a kiddo that likes planes? If he or she loves Minnie Mouse, that’s a plus. Lyons Cub was fascinated with the rotating, color-changing propellers on this little ride-on plane, and although he’s a bit too old and tall for it, he still enjoys zooming through the house on it. One can ride…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. As a mom, you have to get replacements for certain things your toddler loses. Otherwise, there will be big crocodile tears. (Well,…
Lyons Cub has so many marbles now from his marble runs that I was thinking, how could I possibly spice that up a little? Fellow moms, did you play “Kerplunk” in your childhood? I certainly did. I found it intricating to insert the sticks into the tube, pour the marbles over them, and then carefully…