Our Review of Octonauts: Here Come the Octonauts

The Octonauts!

This month Aaron and I were sent Octonauts: Here Come the Octonauts! for review.  Aaron has loved the Octonauts since the first episode he saw so I was pretty sure this would be a hit!

The Octonauts is a group of adorable animals that are underwater explorers!  They have their own submarine and underwater Octopod that they live in and explore the oceans with.  This dvd has 6 underwater adventures full of different creatures like sea snakes and baby penguins.  It also includes bonus features where kids (and adults too!) can learn about marine life in the Octonauts Creature Reports.

Aaron's favorite episode was the Sea Snake one where a mother Sea Snake sneaks on to the Octopod to have her babies in a safe environment.  The Octonauts have to first find all the babies and then safely get them back into the ocean but there is a whirlpool preventing them from doing so!  Eventually the team figures things out and the babies and their mom are freed safely into the ocean. 

Octonauts is great in teaching your kids teamwork and problem solving while also learning about our oceans, underwater animals, habitats, conservation and more!

So join Captain Barnacles and his team for fun filled exploration, rescue adventures and ocean habitat conservation in Octonauts: Here Come the Octonauts!  You can find the dvd at a retailer near you for a SRP of $12.99 or you can also buy it online directly from NCircle Entertainment (where, shhhhh.... it's currently a $1 off!).     

The Cat in the Hat: Show & Tell Sure is Swell! Review

Cat in the Hat Review

This month our review for NCircle Entertainment is for The Cat in the Hat: Show & Tell Sure is Swell!  Aaron and I watched this new release based on the popular show that airs on PBS every morning.  

This dvd had 2 segments that taught us all about the 4 seasons of the year.  We learned about the weather, foliage and environmental changes for each season including what animals might go through in each season!

In 2 more segments we learn about the eyes/vision and hair/fur of different animals.  How different animals see, how their eye shapes are different and how their hair/fur protects them.  Each animal is individual and it taught us how the differences are beneficial to each animal.

And the final segment was, which was Aaron's favorite, taught us again about both the differences and similarities in different animals by showing us baby animals and how they might grow up to be very different than their infant stages (for example: tadpoles & frogs).  Aaron loved learning about the platypus!  

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! is a great series for kids to learn all sorts of things and in case you didn't know -- it has a voice of Martin Short as the Cat -- teaching children through adventure and rhyme!  This dvd gets another 2 thumbs up from Aaron.  Thanks NCircle!

The Cat in the Hat: Show & Tell Sure is Swell! is available at NCircleEntertainment.com, Toys "R" Us and at Target with a SRP of $10.99!  (Bonus!  You can watch it in Espanol too!)

 

These little fish are growing

Eating solids - 6 months

Elizabeth went in for her 6 month check up and boy, is this chick growing!  Elizabeth is 19 lbs (90%), 27 1/2 inches (95%), head circumference of 17 3/4 (98%), wears a size 3 diaper, size 9 month clothing and 12 month in pjs!  Big girl!

We have just started her on solids and are still not quite on a regular schedule with it.  She seems to want it sometimes and then not others.  And sometimes it's just like she has no idea what to do with it.  But we're going to keep trying!  I've only tried the rice cereal once, but have tried a few of the fruit and fruit combo organic baby food and have given her mashed up bananas at home and organic apple sauce.  

Elizabeth's teeth are coming in and her mouth is hurting baaaaaad right now.  She has the bottom two already poked through and I'm pretty sure the top left one is coming through too.  It looks like we might have another Aaron on our hands.  He got all of his teeth super quick and close to each other (time wise).  We having teething toys, rings for the freezer and I give her wet wash clothes (frozen and non) to help her.  We also use the teething tablets and I have a teething bracelet that a cousin gave me.  She pretty much chews up anything she can, including me and Josh!

Even with all this though, she's a pretty happy baby!

Blowing in the wind.

Aaron is also doing pretty well, though extremely bored at home with mama and baby.  We're hoping perhaps he can start at public pre-school this coming school year.  He's happy to have his daddy home these past few days and even that has changed his behavior a little (very little) bit.

Today, separately and without knowing, Josh and I both asked Aaron what he wanted to be when he grew up.  When I asked it was at the dinner table and we were all there.  At first he said he wanted to be an elephant.  So when I explained to him what I meant by the question, and gave him several examples he settled on veterinarian.  After going over it again and again in his head a few times, I think he liked the idea even more and reconfirmed this great idea to us.  When he grows up to be like, 8 yrs old, he wants to be an elephant.  But then after that, a vet for sure!  He says he might even have to live in the forest because he'll have too many animals to take care of.  He loves animals, watches Planet Earth over and over again, knows the names of really strange and random animals and dinosaurs and even knows if they are herbivores, carnivores or omnivores.  I think he'd be a wonderful vet!  Now if only we could get him to stop chasing the dog!!!!

I'm hungry and tired but I'm doing this post, dammit.

So we finally took Aaron to the Woodland Park Zoo.  We had been talking about it and talking about it and we finally found a sunny, warm day with nothing else planned to visit the zoo.  Aaron loved it and he was in total awe of both the giraffe and the elephant but the elephant was definitely his favorite.  He cried when we left the elephants to visit another animal!  And yes, he can now say elephant. :)  We want to visit the aquarium next.


It seems since I posted that last entry with his vocabulary it's grown almost double!  It's like one day they knew a handful of words and the next day there babbling away!  A lot of new animal words and sounds and definitely more compression in general.  I just did a video yesterday but I'm to lazy to upload it here so you can see my YouTube channel and see it there.  


Recently, Aaron's taken to "playing" with the dog Ulrich, though I'm not sure Ulrich has any idea what's going on.  Aaron runs around chasing him and Ulrich just runs around in circles trying to get away from him!  If Aaron catches up to him, he kind of lightly grabs his back or smacks him gently and then laughs and laughs and runs away!  It's pretty adorable and so far there has been no negative reaction from Sir Ulrich!  

I'm also trying to teach Aaron his first chore!!  (Haha!!  It's really more for the dog and Aaron to build a relationship).  When Ulrich's food bowl is empty, I'll say "Oh-uh!  The doggie's food is all gone!  Do you want to feed the doggie more food?" and Aaron will usually answer "YES!".  So I ask him to get the bowl for me and he picks it up, brings it to me where I'm waiting by the bag of dog food, I fill it up and give it back to Aaron.  I taught Aaron to grab it with both hands and he does, then walks it over to the placemat on the floor, squats and places it in the floor.  Then I tell him what a great job he did and I call the dog over and we both show Ulrich his full food bowl.  So far it's working out well.  I figure this will teach both Aaron and Ulrich a few things.  Now if only I could teach Aaron how to vacuum!  Haha!


Now if you'll excuse me, I've got about 20 minutes of nap time I'm guessing so I'm going to make good use of it!