Super Beasts is Serious Fun at The Little Gym #Review #Giveaway

Hannah has a lot of words. Sometimes she forms comprehensible sentences, other times she does not. After we tried our first Super Beasts class at The Little Gym of Vaughan, I thought they must have found a toddler with a flair for the English language who detailed everything the perfect gymnastics class should include - because Super Beasts (a Parent/Child Class) was everything Hannah wanted and more.

The class is 45 minutes long, but time passes by quite quickly. First there is a welcome song, where the children get to use musical shakers and other instruments. Then there is some group play - the first time we went we played with bean bags, the second class brought out balls and the parachute to the absolute joy of my daughter.

Disney Baby encourages creative, fun play

One of my favourite things to do with Hannah is play. Her personality shines through when she is pretending to talk into a phone (really a credit card), not colouring in the lines of her colouring book or attempting to sing Ring-A-Round the Rosie.

She really likes music. She likes to sing. She likes to dance. And she LOVES to play instruments.

We recently introduced her to the Baby Einstein: Discovering Music Activity Table and she’s a big fan. As soon as it came through the door, she was pressing the keys of the keyboard and was impatient as Chris and I got it out of the box and put the legs on (I guess a few minutes to a toddler for their dream toy feels like forever.)

She loves switching the toy from English, to French, to Spanish. There are various “areas” of the toy but her favourite remains the keyboard. (I like this area best too, it plays one of the melodies from her Baby Neptune Ocean Adventure Gym – a toy I HAD to purchase before she was even born.) The way the keys light up keep her attention and she loves hearing the different sounds.

Space Chums! (Review and Giveaway)

Watch out earthlings, there's a new kids band on the planet and they hail from Outer Space.

The Space Chums! consist of Disco-Cosmonaut Nickolai, Space Ninja Linda, Galacto-Fashionista Gussy and Bleep Bloop their robot drummer.

Hannah and I got a chance to listen to their EP Blast Off, and we have become huge fans. When the song "I Love It" comes on, Hannah's face lights up and she starts to clap (her ultimate sign of approval). As for me, I love "Crazy Moves" and have been singing it in my head (and to the annoyance of Chris, out loud) for the past three days. Chris has nothing against the song - he just doesn't like my singing voice.

The songs are fast-beat and popish, daring you not to dance along. They sing about acceptance, support, friendship and being positive. They also teach how to rhyme. And of course, they sing about their space adventures. All of their songs are out of this world!

Check out their YouTube video below.

If you live in the Toronto area, the Space Chums! are touching down on Sunday, November 11 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. for a Dance Party! They will be landing at 3030 Dundas West (the address and name of the venue).

To keep up with the Space Chums!, make sure to visit and like their Spacebook page.

One lucky YYZ Bambina reader can win the Space Chums! CD and a t-shirt. To enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter below!

Open to Canadian Residents only. Valid entries only. Contest ends Sunday, November 11, 2012. For further contest rules, refer to the Terms and Conditions within the Rafflecopter. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I was not compensated to review the Space Chums! CD. As always, all opinions and language are my own.

© 2012 YYZ Bambina. All Rights Reserved.

Baby DVDs - the Good and the Interesting

As I mentioned in a previous post, becoming a mom has renewed my love of Sesame Street.

I've tried not to buy Hannah too many Sesame Street DVDs, but so far I have purchased Big Elmo Fun, Elmo in Grouchland, Elmo's World: The Street We Live On and Let's Eat! Funny Food Songs - all of which were relatively inexpensive at Walmart ($5-$10). Save Elmo in Grouchland (which is a movie), the DVDs are clips already shown on Sesame Street grouped together with a common theme. So you know upfront what it is you're buying to watch.

For her three month birthday Chris bought her a Baby HaHa Music Video Adventures DVD from the TIFF store downtown, for around $10. I haven't watched an actual Baby Einstein DVD but I would imagine it is quite similar from clips I've seen on YouTube.

A CGI baby (or sometimes multiple babies) in just a diaper dances and sings with CGI farm yard animals to the classics. It was a lot different from the Sesame Street DVDs I'm used to. But Hannah seemed to like it, and certain songs even kept the attention of our cat Booyah. And I did like singing along with the subtitles to Hannah and the DVD did jog my memory as to some of the lyrics. In all, it's an OK DVD. I just found it interesting...maybe next time Chris will watch with Hannah and feel forced to sing!