Huru Humis will be one of the big gifts that everyone is going to want for Christmas this year. They are made for children ten and up. However, my 4 year old and 1 year old love them too. Each Huru Humi has its own name and distinct personality. Their interests range from sports to journalism. We have two of them, and I swear I have teenagers living in my house now. If I don’t check, Madison has been sneaking them into her bed with her at night too.

The reason I like these is that they interact with you. You are able to ask them questions, and they actually will respond to you. The other cool thing is that if you put two Huru Humis next to one another, they start talking to one another! They will have a whole conversation with or without you. These definitely teach your kids many social skills.  It shows them how to have a conversation, not to interrupt, and have differing opinions.  They are fairly easy to use, so kids of all ages will be able to use them.  If you quite talking to them, they even try to get your attention.  Another feature that my kids love is that their hair and outfits are interchangable too.

I have already seen commercials for these on, I think, Nick Jr or one of those kid stations, so you know this is going to be big. Each Huru Humi costs $29.99 and can be purchased at Walmart, Target, Kmart and Toys R Us. However, if you do not want to wait to get one of these, I was able to get not 1, not 2, but 3 of these to giveaway to my lucky readers.  Now, two will be given away randomly.  The third one will be randomly given away among the people who make a Huru Humi video.

Each one of these things will give you one entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know why you want this.
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc.

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

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For ten more entries,

1.  Make a Huru Humi Cartoon here.  Publish your video and add it to your social profile and link to it in a comment.

Good luck! This contest will end Oct. 22, 2008 at 8:00 PM CST and is for both US and Canadian residents.

Do you recognize the two people to the left?  Look very close.  That is what Stephanie and Sportacus from LazyTown really look like!  Hard to believe, I know!  Lazytown is a show on Noggin and Nick Jr. that encourages your kids to get off their butts and be more active!  When asked about the inspiration for the show, Magnus (the shows creator and Sportacus) answered:

Really, when you get down to it, LazyTown is a state of mind. We’ve all been to LazyTown. When we decide to go “veg-out” on the couch, you could say you’re “in LazyTown.” Even me. It’s a place we all go.

In a funny way, LazyTown reflects characteristics that you see in yourself or in people around you. These characteristics are universal: It’s that dynamic of opposites.

For instance, in the show, Sportacus is a driving force. He’s fit, agile, and an amazing athlete who’s patient, kind, and understanding. He encourages kids through example. He doesn’t take the low road. Conversely, his adversary, Robbie Rotten, is all about easy solutions and pulling the group down to his level. Then there’s Stephanie, the lead kid character, a wide-eyed optimist who believes she can make a real difference; while Pixel, a boy character, can conquer every video game, but when the situations are real, he has a harder time.

Just like in real life, nobody’s perfect and LazyTowners are constantly trying to find ways to understand and improve themselves. I guess that you could say that LazyTown explores the opposing forces that we encounter in our own daily lives.

How is that for teaching your children? Most moms and kids that I have talked to like this show. Magnus knows what he is talking about too — he was the Icelandic Men’s Individual Champion in Aerobic Gymnastics in 1992. In 1993, he became the Scandinavian champion, and was the European champion twice in 1994 and 1995. He was voted Athlete of the Year by Iceland in 1994. Adding superhero to that resume just makes it twice as nice (and you know is his shape he doesn’t have to worry about getting term life insurance quotes).

Now, why should you and your children watch this?  It does get them off their butts.  I find Madison and Will dancing and singing with the show when its on.  It has taught my children that there is nothing wrong with going outside and playing.  On top of the activity lessons, there are moral lessons too.  Check your local schedule and see when you can watch it at your place.  You won’t be disappointed!

Brighter Minds Media has now introduced Bob The Builder Can Do Zoo. It has already been awarded three awards — that’s how good it is!  I let my greatest kid tester in my house try it out — that would be Madison who is 4.  Since we have gotten the game in the mail (thanks Family Review Network!), Madison goes around singing “Bob the Builder . . . We can do it  . . . Bob the Builder . . .  Yes we can”.  That has been my house for a week now.  However, I don’t actually mind all the much, because we really like this game.  As soon as I found out the Diner Dash (my favorite computer game ever) was behind this, I knew we had a winner.

Bob The Builder Can Do Zoo has 3 modes of play - Story, Free Play, and Sticker Book.  There is also 6 animal habitats to build,  7 unique learning activities, and hundreds of stickers to collect for building achievements.  There are three levels, so it is quite easy to pick the level that is best for your kids.  You are able to play in both English and Spanish.  There are also many skills taught through this game - problem solving, critical thinking, object classification, planning and time sequencing, pattern, size, and spatial recognition, and shape and color identification.

Why is this game a winner in my house?  That is actually pretty easy.  First, this game works on our desktop that is 8 years old.  Most games won’t work on there, and we actually consider that Madison’s computer.  When a game works on there, we all cheer for joy.  The second thing that I loved was that she was actually learning something while playing.  There are a lot of games out there that are just mindless, and I would much rather have her playing games like this.  Next, the price is right.  It should retail around $19.95 which is very cheap and affordable for a computer game.  Lastly, Madison can play this herself.  I didn’t have to help her at all.  She is only four, but that say a lot about this game.  It is truly simple and age appropriate.  Nothing is more frustrating than to get a game for her, and I have to play it because it is too hard to do and/or navigate.

If you are looking for a great Christmas or birthday present, I highly recommend Bob The Builder Can Do Zoo.  It was a big hit in my house and will be in yours too!

I am always in the market for trying new products.  I also find that now I have kids that we have also been trying to buy more products that are environmentally friendly.  I don’t want to leave a world for my children and my grandchildren to have to clean up.  Green Works Dish Soap is definitely fits what I am looking for.  I can honestly say that this dish soap does its job.  We’ve tried buying several brands of dish soap before, and a lot of them just do not get the dishes clean.  However, this dish soap definitely does!  It passes the stuck on kid foods (which means lots of dried on ketchup among other things).  I am also very sensitive to most detergents and dish soaps (I break out in hives after using them).  However, I had absolutely no problems with this.  It also smells nice.

To quote their site, “All Green Works natural cleaners are made using plant-based ingredients derived from coconuts, as well as essential oils. The products are formulated using biodegradable ingredients, are packaged in bottles that can be recycled and not tested on animals.”  I couldn’t say it better.  Who wouldn’t want to use a product that is both natural and is environmentally friendly in both its ingredients and packaging?

Happy baby colors is a book that gets a lot of use in our house.  Since it is made out of cardboard, both Will (my one year old) and Madison (my four year old) can enjoy it.  Each page of the book lists a color.  Everything on that page is that color and there is a baby dressed in that color.  For example, on the purple page, there is baby dressed in purple pajamas and there is purple on that page too.  Under brown, my husband was a little disappointed to not see home theater seating (though there was chocolate). I had to remind him that this was a little kid book.  This book is a great way to introduce new items to your kids that you may not have in your house.  Its a fun a way to have them learn and they enjoy the book.  Right now, Madison is on the couch across from me reading the book to me!

Summer heat in Chicago has been so hot lately (yes, I am complaining about those 90 degree days with 90% humidity).  With our newly remodeled basement and the Wii we just bought, we are definitely have some fun down there.  Since we have no games for our newly acquired Wii, we headed over to the nearest game store.  I luck out that we live less than five minutes from mall.  I also luck out that we have two Gamestops in our mall (one on each end).  We checked them both out.  One did seem to have more kid games; the other more adult games.  We are not sure if this was on purpose or just happened to be that way when we were there.  I liked that we got to check out the Wii there before buying it.  Madison immediately picked up a controller and started playing a Sonic game, so we knew she would adapt quickly.  The other thing I really liked about Gamestop was that you can buy used games.  You don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on games then.  We don’t care how old the games are as long as they are fun.  I was afraid that they wouldn’t work, but we were assured that they were guaranteed to play.  We were also told that we could bring in some of our old games and get credit to buy some new ones (and we have a stack of games nobody ever plays!).  I found that the workers behind the counter at both stores were extrememly helpful, and they didn’t mind too much that my four year was picking out ten games she wanted us to buy (we settled on Wall-E).  I would highly recommend Gamestop as your one stop game shop (they also have gaming systems and accessories, so you can get those there too!).

Back in April, I wrote a review on the That Baby CD and DVD.  They both are still a huge hit in my house.  The part I love most about the songs that are on there is that they aren’t kid songs.  You won’t find yourself climbing the walls with some sing songy tunes.  These are covers written by some of the best artists of our time:  Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant, The Beatles, and The Pretenders.  You will find yourself singing along with a lot of these songs.  This CD is played every time Will goes to bed (naptime or nighttime).  That is how great I think this is!

Now, they are sure you are going to love this DVD and CD.  If you don’t, they have a money back guarantee.  They also offer free replacement of scratched or damaged discs too.  (This is worth its weight in gold!).  For those of us who want to be enviromentally friendly, they are made in the US with recyclable materials.  If you do purchase them, free shipping and handling in the US (you all know how much I adore free shipping!)  Also, if you need it quickly for a baby shower or birthday that you forgot about, call them.  They will figure something out to get it to you in time!  How awesome is that customer service?

Now, I have kept in touch with the awesome company who makes these unique baby gifts, and the owner agreed to give away a copy of the That Baby DVD and CD away to one of my lucky readers!!!  This contest will be open to all my readers.  To quote the owner:  “Kids around the world need to rock, so we’re open to all of them!”  I am going to run it until the end of the month (July 31st) till 8 PM CST.  So what do you need to do to enter?

Each one of these give you one entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know which song you think you’ll like the best.  You are able to actually listen snippets of each song right on That Baby DVD’s site (I’ve linked the page, so you can easily find it), so that should help you make your decision.  One comment only please and let me know everything you did for your entries in that comment.  If you do not leave which song in your comment, your entry will not count.
2. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
3. Vote for this post on other social media sites. One extra entry for each social media site you vote for this on.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed.

For 5 additional entries, blog about this on your blog or add it to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

Good luck to all!

UPDATE:  The winner has been chosen for this giveaway.  However, if you use the coupon code LISASENTME, you can get 20% off your own copies!