Hot Christmas Toys of 2009

Is it ever too early to start thinking of the holidays? Shopping for that perfect gift, planning festivities, writing out your Christmas cards... yikes... there's a lot to do!!

Every year, people starting buzzing about what the hot christmas toy will be. And that's a great question. Many moms, like myself, want to get a head start and perhaps beat the crowds and get that hot christmas toy. So: what ARE the hot Christmas toys of 2009? I've put together a list that I hope will help all you early shoppers!

Fisher Price Elmo Live Encore : What would a hot Christmas toy list be without some mention of an elmo doll. It looks like this toy is currently in stock at most major retailers, but who knows for how long. Black Friday (biggest shopping day of the year - isn't far off.

Zhu Zhu Pets : Wow is all I can say about this toy. Again, there always has to be a toy on the list that makes all adults scratch their heads. I guess you get a hamster without having to feed it and clean up after it. It moves and kids can buy all sorts of accessories for this faux hamster - including a car. Right now, Walmart, Target, and Toys R Us are out of stock - the only place to get it is Amazon - which is fine by me...it's where I do most of my christmas shopping anyway.

Fisher Price Smart Fit: This commercial makes my son go CRAZY. He really wants this and I think for under $45 (@ Amazon), that's not a bad price. It would be great to get him to wear some of his energy off when we're stuck inside all winter!

Fisher-Price Kid Tough Digital Cameras : I'm quite intrigued by this one. It seems like it's about as close to the real thing as you can get, without paying a ton of money. Durability is key as is it's realism. My son received a camera last year as he love taking pictures, but it didn't have the screen on the back to preview the picture. This camera from Fisher-Price does.

Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Learning Farm : I love this one. It's the newest version of their Laugh & Learn Home, which entertained my son for a LONG time. If I already didn't have that one, I would so get this. It's a REALLY great toy and I would highly recommend putting this on your hot toys list this year.

Another use of infant probiotics

My son's reflux seemed to have been helped by the use of Udo's Choice Infant's Blend Probiotic as I've outlined in some previous posts. After I was done pumping, we used the Good Start formula, also with probiotics because the benefits were so great.

On October 6, 2009, an article was published by Medpagetoday stating that

a milk protein supplement, taken alone or in combination with a probiotic, seemed to reduce the incidence of sepsis among the smallest of premature infants

Mayo News also published an article just yesterday (Oct 12, 2009) outlining that eczema could also be helped by both probiotics and prebiotics taken daily.

What I've come to realize is that probiotics can also be used to treat chronic constipation. My eldest son was always constipated. We had tried so many things and just continued to get frustrated. We ate a lot of fruits and vegetables and whole grains. I started giving him wheat bran mixed with applesauce or yogurt and that helped but didn't solve it. I started eating Activia yogurt and he would have his own...eventually his intestines seemed to improve. He was no longer constipated. He has a yogurt every day. When he goes awhile without Activia, he starts getting problems again.

My youngest now, is showing signs of the same chronic constipation. I reached for my Udo's Infant probiotics and started giving him some 2x a day and eventually, his stools became much softer. I'm hoping that I can prevent 2 years of constipation, like my oldest had to endure by being proactive with my probiotics.

Keeping Kids entertained...and keeping yourself sane.

As the weather goes from sunny blue skies and gray, snowy ones, the kids go from playing outside to staying indoors. Indoors means kids running through the house like there is something on fire, all members of household are deaf, and the mountains of toys that fill every corner of your house now seem invisible.

Sigh.

How to keep the kids busy when the weather isn't too friendly for the kids to go outdoors?

I tend to lean toward arts and crafts. My kids tend to LOVE doing all sorts of different things like painting, cutting out paper and glueing... here's a list of some of the arts and crafts we've tried out.

1.
Assorted Animals Puppet Kit By Martha Stewart Create

2.
Zoo Animal Puppet Kit by Martha Stewart Create

3.
The Usborne Book of Art Ideas (Usborne Art Ideas)

4.
Elmer's Fantastic Finger Paint Pack of 32, with Paper, Smock & Table Mat Included

5.
Melissa & Doug Dinosaur Stamp Set

6. Spider-Man 3: Coloring and Activity Book and Sticky Spider


So the last two might be a little boy-centric - but that's what I got. Most of the time, I've seen that if the kids are occupied with something constructive, they tend to not act so much like maniacs. And non-maniacal kids means a happy afternoon for momma.