The Lab: Nuby Octopus Floating Bath Toy Review

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Welcome to Mommy Prep School’s The Lab.  Where we use the handy dandy Scientific Method to test products and write reviews.

Nuby sent me the Octopus Floating Bath Toy to test out as part of their Nuby Mommy Blogger Program. 

Today we are testing the Nuby Octopus Floathing Bath Toy.

Research Question: 

Will the Nuby Octopus Floating Bath Toy make bath time more enjoyable for my little guy?

Background Research: 

Various reviews from other bloggers such as The Vintage Mom  and Mommy Knows What’s Best have shown that the Nuby Octopus Floating Toy make a great bath time toy.

Hypothesis:

The Nuby Octopus Floating Toy will make bath time more fun while also teaching coordination.  A mommy bonus!

Field Study and Observations:

As you can see from the pictures, my little guy had so much fun with his octopus!  ‘Octopus’ even ended up his new word of the day…

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Five (unspoken) Playground Rules

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I love taking my little guy to the park and playground. While encouraging my little guy to go down slides, run across bridges, and trying to maximize bubble output per dip, I picked up on some (unspoken) playground rules. Take a look at what I think are funny unspoken playground rules and let me know what you think.

5. Always smile when making eye contact with a kid. But don’t smile too long because it then gets creepy.

4. Don’t stare too long when a kid is having a tantrum. It’s ok to judge but don’t make it so obvious.

3. When your kid gets hit by another kid resist the urge to yell ‘hit em back.’

2. It’s normal to ask other parents how old their kid is so you can silently compare them to yours.

1. The bigger the bubble wand the better you are as a parent.

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Green City Market

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Farmers markets are fun aren’t they? Fresh produce, delicious food, samples. Those are just some of the many reasons I like farmers markets. Regrettably, I don’t go a lot. Yesterday’s trip was the first this summer. As the bus stop approached the Green City Market my mouth began to salivate and any form of self control left me.

This photo was taken when my little guy and I first arrived at the Green City Market. He was excited for his first trip to a farmers market. When he saw all the fruit he pointed and squealed.

After saying hi to friends and enjoying some live music, I walked around the market ready to consume and purchase everything in sight. The only thing that actually stopped me was the fact that my little guy and I had a full day at the zoo ahead of us. No way the food, milk…

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Living Social Justice

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Before I was a mom I was a teacher.  As a result, my teacher personality and my mom personality are one.  My teaching philosophy is based on social justice and I hope to instill those same values in my son.  As he gets older I will teach him kindness, fairness, the difference between right and wrong and that the world has injustices we can’t accept.  One of the ways I try to live this in my life is through Kiva.  For those of you unfamiliar with Kiva, it is a ‘non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.’  It’s goal is to connect people like you and I with others around the world.  With a minimum loan of $25 I have been offering people around the world opportunity.  Opportunity to start a business by buying animals and other livestock, to fix…

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My Toddler Summer Bucket List

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1. Complete the Chicago Public Library Summer Reading Challenge
I enrolled my little guy in the Full Steam Ahead a few weeks ago and each night we are reading an average of 15-20 minutes a day. I hope this experience is the foundation for a life long love of reading.

2. Enjoy some live music
My mister and I love live music. Before our little guy our weekends and sometimes weekday evenings would be filled with concerts. I am hoping to share a love of live music with my little one this summer.

3. Hike
I love the outdoors. Although I wish we hiked and biked more, I am glad I have the summer to introduce it to my little guy.

4. Camp
I miss camping and am excited to take our little guy camping this summer. We plan on introducing him to sleeping outdoors with a short weekend…

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A Trip to the Shedd Aquarium

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Chicago has great museums but the museum I would give an A for most engaging for all ages is the Shedd Aquarium.

Our little guy seems to be at the perfect age to start enjoying aquariums. He is fascinated by fish and plants which there are a lot of at the Shedd.

We spent the morning of the Fourth riding the bus (which he LOVES) and exploring the Shedd.

For those of you that live in Illinois you can get into the Shedd for free on Illinois Resident Days. For Chicago residents, a tool we use often is the Kid Pass.  If you have a Chicago Public Library card you can check out Kid Passes which will admit two adults and two kids in for free. For all you educators out there the Shedd allows educators in for free.  For more information on these discounts click here.

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Family, Friends and Fireworks

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A Chicago tradition, our dear friends annually host a Fourth of July BBQ on their gorgeous rooftop deck. There we eat grilled meats, drink, listen to good music and hang out. Over the past four years a lot has changed. The biggest change is having kids. Last night’s BBQ had four little ones in attendance. Last year it was only my little guy and a two week old.

Unlike our previous years conversations which mostly focused on our careers this year we bonded as we talked about our kids, asked each other for advice, and smiled as our little ones drummed on the coffee table together. It was a wonderful way to spend Independence Day.

How did you spend your day?

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New Beginnings: Mommy Prep School

I am excited to announce my new site Mommy Prep School.  To those of you that have been following me as I built Yellow Loves Grey, thank you.  I have appreciated your readership, comments, and our relationship.  I originally started Yellow Loves Grey to be the place I share the research and advice I found as I was going through my experiences as a new mom.  It slowly evolved into a place for me to share what I was doing and what my family was experiencing.  As much as I am myself on Yellow Loves Grey, I kept struggling with finding my voice.  After a lot of thought and much trial and error, I think I have found my blogging voice.  I’m a teacher and that is how I would describe my personality.  As a result, I see the world through teacher eyes.  I am always looking at my experiences as lessons, I am constantly reflecting, I plan, change and adapt as I go, and as annoying as it is, I’m always giving ratings and grades to my experiences.  This realization led to understanding my blogging voice.  Mommy Prep School is my place to show how I look at the world.  It is my journey as a parent from the lens of my teacher personality.  I have been so grateful for your participation in Yellow Loves Grey and I hope you join me as I transition my online self to Mommy Prep School where our motto is Learning how to be a mom by doing mom things.  

Happy 4th of July

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Happy 4th of July everyone!  My family and I will be enjoying these tunes as we eat tasty grilled meats.

How are you spending your 4th of July?

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Seattle 2 of 3: Seattle Outdoors (and giveaway)

We enjoyed Seattle so much, but I must say, it was the last two days we spent hiking that I loved the most.  My husband and I have always been active outdoors people.  When we lived in Southern California we camped, hiked, mountain biked, played tennis, and during the winter snowboarded.  Not sure what the challenges of a kid would bring, we didn’t know what we could and could not do as parents.  I am so happy to now know that we can continue our active lifestyle and share it with our little guy.  He loved loved LOVED our hikes.  He asked us ‘wat dat’ as he pointed at trees, the sky, water, and other hikers.  We loved carrying him on our backs as we hiked an average of a few miles on both trips.  Next weekend we plan to camp locally and in August a family trip to Yosemite.  I can’t wait!  For now, I am going to sit back and look at some of our photos from the trails we hiked in Seattle.

Our first hike was at Discovery Park.

The next day we made our way along the Twin Falls Trail.

I made this short video to try to capture what if felt like exploring the outdoors while carrying my favorite little person on my back.

As you can see the Boba Air made many appearances during our Seattle trip. I am excited to announce in partnership with Boba and kickSprout I am hosting my first giveaway!
Enter to win a Boba Air in your choice of black, blue or white by reading my tips on Traveling with a Toddler and complete the giveaway instructions.  Good luck!

I received the Boba Air as a gift from Boba.  All experiences, thoughts, and opinions are mine and honest.  

All images are property of Yellow Loves Grey and cannot be used without my written consent.