We love SAMi and you will too

SAMi's flip-a- face and flip-a-shape books published by Blue Apple Books are well loved and adored by both L and myself. Their bright colorful hardcover pages are inviting and engaging. The pages are cut out giving you a glimpse of the next page and sparking the imagination to wonder what it could be lurking on the flip side. The books are simple with only one word per page which are great for the littles all the way up to an early reader who may be easily frustrated by too many words on a page. We have quite a few books by the author including Baby Animals, Baby Talk, Big Little, Colors, Play and Yum.



Aside from books SAMi also has other items in their line that are just as wonderful as their books; we also have their cardboard Flip-a-face nesting blocks with familiar pictures of animals and little people from their books. For cardboard they are remarkably sturdy and have held up well to the rough play of my little maniac L.






We also have their Flip-a-Face cards Same? Different? and Look Baby! These large cards, again featuring people and animals from their book series, encourage matching skills and stimulates your babe. The Look Baby! set contains both black and white and color cards. The Same? Different? set contains people with an assorted variety of looks that are all similar but not identical. For example one pair of people may have glasses but one pair of glasses might be purple and the other pair green. Though we haven't completely got the hang of using these cards the intended way yet they are still a huge hit and are played with often.







SAMi's books and other products retail starting at around $10CAD and up. They can be purchased in Canada at Amazon.ca and in the US at Amazon.com.

Watergeeks Bottles

This past school year C was using the WaterGeeks Insulated Stainless Steel 24oz bottle. This bottle is a generous size compared to the other stainless steel water bottles on the market. It has a removable tea strainer that originally confused C but once he realized what it was for and that it was removable all was fine. We both really loved that the bottle is double walled for both hot and cold drinks and that because of this feature there is no need for a cover as you cannot feel the temperature through the bottle. Some other great features;

- available in 4 great colors: stainless, black, pink, blue
- wide mouth for ice cubes, small mouth for drinking
- made with unlined, 18/0, food grade stainless steel
- ergonomic, curved design
- lightweight, easy to carry
- non-leaching and BPA-FREE

Lately I have been using the bottle a lot when I take L and C to a local indoor playground once a week. On these days I always hit up Starbucks before we get there, usually I have a coffee but since I have been pregnant I have been opting for Strawberry Blended Lemonades as I don't think my baby is too fond of coffee. I love that the bottle is big enough to accommodate a Venti and that my drink stays cold all day long. The double size lid option is great as the smaller size is perfect for my straw. The wide mouth easily fits a cleaning brush after in case I forget to clean it out right away so I am not left with a crusty residue that won't wash out. Watergeeks recommend that you wash by hand but ours has gone through the washing machine many a times and is still as good as the day we got it. All in all these are great bottles and I would love to try out some of the others, especially the kids version.

WaterGeeks Insulated Stainless Steel 24oz bottle retails for $19.95 CAD and can be purchased in Canada at O'Baby Organics a Canadian based store in Surrey, BC. They also sell a variety of other Watergeeks products.

Much awaited update

Ok I know it seems as though I have been neglecting my blog but with good reason. As you know I am pregnant, around 23 weeks to be exact. I have been diagnosed by my midwife with extreme exhaustion, not only the blog but most of the other aspects of my daily life have fallen by the waist side. We have also started homeschooling this year so not only am I home all day with 3 year old tester L but now 12 yr old tester C is here all day adding to my daily stress. This has been a great decision for our family but it has changed our daily schedule and has taken some time to smooth out and feel normal for us. But as of lately things have picked up and I am starting to feel back to my old self. My house and family life and finally almost back on track and I need to get back to the blog. The reviews and emails are piling up. So hopefully over the next few weeks I will be back on track. Thanks for understanding.