High Maintenance Mom

I recently realized I had stopped posting about the Top Picks until after I had switched the items so today there are two Top Picks posts. The theme for the February Top Picks is Valentines day. I've included a heart-shaped muffin/cake pan, a game my four year-old loves to play with his friends, and some of our all-time favorite bath items that are now available as a set.

Because I am now hooked on cake/muffin pans I've been waiting for Valentine's Day to buy something fun and heart-shaped.

The Snail's Pace Race game is a favorite of B's. The game does not involve any reading and is based entirely on the colors on the dice and the colors of the snails. Each child rolls a die and then moves that color snail one space forward. That means the kids don't fight over which color snail they get to be or get upset when someone wins and others lose because everyone moves the snails and it's the snails that win or lose. I find this game to be a wonderful introduction to the concept of winning and losing since the kids in B's class are very interested in understanding the concepts but none of them want to lose at a game. It's much more fun to try to guess which snail is going to win and which ones will lose than it is to be the one who loses.

This bath set includes some of our all-time favorites. We played with the net and counting fish so much when the kids were younger, we had to buy a second a set for them. We also love the one that looks like a bubble (the bobber). The outside is perfect for teething, the holes on each side of the bubbles make them perfect for fluid dynamics experiments (playing in the bath), and the animal bounces around on springs. As far as I can tell, this is the perfect bath toy. The only problem with this set is that it only comes with one bobber. Now that our kids are a little older, they spend more time spraying each other with the squirters. If you are looking for fun bath toys, this is a great set!