Bright Starts Having a Ball Pop and Roll Roadster

We were chosen to review one of Bright Starts' new products from their Having a Ball line of toys: the Pop and Roll Roadster!

Our little girl was so excited for a new toy!  She waited impatiently while Dad put it together.

It only required a small amount of assembly: popping in a couple of pieces, screwing together the gear shift, and putting in the batteries.

It came with three balls, which are designed to look like animals, though it doesn't really show up in the picture.

You just pop the balls in the hole in the "steering" wheel (it doesn't actually turn):

Then you can watch them move around in the hood:

Then you pull on the gear shift, and a ball pops out the front license plate!

It really is an ingenious toy!  Sophia loves it!!  There are so many wonderful sounds for her to enjoy.  She can push two buttons on the dash to get horn noises, car noises, and music; the gear shift makes sounds when pulled, and the balls trigger noises and music when they are dropped into the hole.  I love that the buttons are big and easy to push.  We have a few toys where the buttons are too difficult for her to manage on her own, so I have to push them for her, but these buttons are just perfect for her little hands.

She especially loves the music, and will push buttons until the music plays for her to "dance" to.

Being as small as she is, she can't quite reach the floor to propel it forward on her own, but she has a blast sitting on it and letting me push her around.

And she likes pushing buttons and playing with the balls.

My 10-year old brother even liked this toy when he came to visit!  :)

She will have to grow a little to fully enjoy this toy on her own, but it has already become a favorite.  There are only a couple of small cons to this toy:

-it doesn't come with batteries (but it only takes two AA)

-there is no on/off switch, so there's no way to stop the noise if you have a little button pusher and are annoyed by the constant sounds  (This didn't really bother me.  I think the sounds are cute, not too loud, and varied enough not to be monotonous.)

Overall, I love this toy, and so does Sophia.  I'm excited for her to get a little bigger, so she can handle it on her own.  It will be a much-used, much-loved toy in our house!

And the best part of all??  You could win one of these adorable, fun cars for your own little one!  Use the entry widget below to enter by "liking" Bright Starts on Facebook.  You can also receive an additional entry by "following" @BrightStarts on Twitter.  This giveaway starts May 24, 2012 at 12:01 am EST, and ends June 7, 2012 at 12:01 am EST.  The winner will be announced June 9, 2012.  Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Quiet Book

So, I finished Sophia's quiet book in time to give it to her for Easter.  Our laptop had to be repaired, or I would have posted the pictures sooner.  I know we're not supposed to be prideful, but I am very well-pleased with how it turned out, especially since I did the whole thing from scratch, by hand.  It's by no means perfect, but it works to keep Sophia entertained for small periods of time at church, which is its purpose.

Cover Page

Tassels

String

Carabiners

Counting Beads

Parachute Buckles

Snaps...

...with a hidden giraffe!

Zipper closed...

...and open!

Buttons!  (The plan is to made free-floating button holes to hide in the zipper pouch.)

Straps with velcro

Back page ... the button is to hide the stitching from the edge ties.

The edges are blanket-stitched.

Binder rings

Tie closed

 It took me a LONG time and a LOT of supplies to get this book done, and I'm glad it's finished!  (Except for the button holes.)

Informational Update

So, our little girl is now 15 months old!  At her well-baby visit, she weighed 17 pounds, 5 ounces, and she was just over 28 inches tall.  She is small, but healthy, and so smart!  She can say "kitty," and "cracker," in addition to making the sounds for the kitty, lion, elephant, puppy, and cow (sort of).  She also makes faces for fish, bunny, and lizard.  She can do the actions to Pat-A-Cake, Here is the Church, and The Itsy-Bitsy Spider.  She can do sign language for milk, more, please, thank you (sort of), drink, and hungry.  Next is cookie!  :)  She walks really well now, and often spends her morning walking around her bedroom in circles, carrying various toys with her.  She loves to babble and play Peek-A-Boo.  Her favorite part of the day is her bath.
I just got LASIK surgery on Monday.  It went really well, with no eye pain, just some headaches from my brain trying to adjust.  My vision is rather clear close up, but it still fluctuates further away.  And by the end of the day, everything starts to look a little blurry.  They said it can take a few weeks for everything to settle and fine-tune, so I'm just plugging along until then.  I had glasses for 25 years, and I'm sure it will take a brain-overhaul to get used to focusing my eyes without them.  I am VERY grateful to have this opportunity, and so excited for what it will mean for me!
Tim is the busiest person I know.  He is our Elder's Quorum President, our HOA president, and he basically works for two different companies at his job.  He gets new projects every day, and often has to stay up late to get everything done.  I am so thankful for his hard work to support our family!  I often wish there was more I could do to help him.
So, that's where we are right now.  In about two weeks, we get to fly back to Ohio to visit Tim's parents, who are the Temple President and Matron of the Columbus, Ohio temple.  It will be so fun and wonderful to spend some time with them!
I hope you are all doing well!  Keep smiling!

Sophia has really gotten into "bracelets" lately.

She sure loves her kitty!