MumsTheWurdUnique finds for hip parents and cool kids

As a mother of a toddler, and another little one following close behind, I’m   always on the lookout for a safe, fun, inspired toys for them. I’ve found just that in the Bugabike. Made from wood it’s right up my alley. I love that down the road, even if it were to end up in a landfill it’s not a huge lump of plastic to sit for all of eternity. I love eco-friendly pieces for my family. I think that this bike could very well end up as a family heirloom.
I could go on about how great this bike is. It’s so sturdy and my boy will be able to use it once my girl has outgrown it. I haven’t mentioned yet that it doens’t have pedals! Yes, you read that right, no pedals! This bike is for little ones to learn balance. No bulky training wheels that stick out and make early bike riding even more difficult. With this balancing system they move the bike with their feet while building confindence.
Besides all of it’s other qualities, the Bugabike is just so darn cute! We can easily bring it into our apartment in the evening, where she gladly sits on it all evening!
Since the year 2000 they have sold about 72,000 Bugabikes throughout the world. The Bugabike has received several awards, and has been tested by specialists.
Check out their website here

IF you’re anything like us (and I think we’re pretty typical with a little “hippy” on the side) your kids get new DVD’s every Christmas. It’s about the only time of year we buy them DVD’s. I’m sure by now they all know that the thin smaller rectangled package is a new movie. Save yourself some money and enter for this amazing giveaway!

We’re giving this bundle to FIVE winners!!

Give your child the ultimate Christmas gift with this collection of holiday favorites – Thomas & Friends: Ultimate Christmas, The Happy Elf, Santa Claus: The Movie and Eloise: Little Miss Christmas.

In Thomas & Friends: Ultimate Christmas, you’ll experience first hand the joy and magic the holiday season brings to Thomas and his friends.

Kids will love The Happy Elf, narrated by Harry Connick, Jr. It’s the fun-filled story of Eubie, the happy little elf out to save Christmas!

Santa Claus: The Movie is the delightful story of Santa’s greatest adventure of all – to save Christmas for the children of the world!

In Eloise: Little Miss Christmas, it’s almost Christmas Eve for Eloise, the Plaza’s most famous six-year old. Don’t miss the fun when she and her friends decide to put on a holiday show like no other!

Enter here and tell us if your children just know they’re getting the same thing every year 5 winners will be randomly drawn Monday November 24th and contacted via email.

My almost 3 year old is getting to the age where she can understand boargames. This is so fun for us because we are a game-playing family. You know that family game night commercial? Yeah, that’s us, except ours is Friday night. We love playing with our kids and listening to their stories, there is just so much you can learn from listening. It’s always an added bonus when the games are educational.

Briarpatch’s strong legacy of stimulating children’s lives through fun and eco-friendly products has earned the company over 280 industry awards (and counting). Since its founding, the company’s cofounders applied environmentally conscious business practices in such innovative ways as using vegetable and soy-based inks and post consumer materials.

Awesome! Just knowing that Briapatch is a “green” company scored major brownie points in my book. What I also loved was that Thomas’ Great RAce is a game that teaches numbers and counting. So much better than sitting at a desk using worksheets. If your children are like me, they learn more from doing, than from being lectured, and this game is just perfect for hands on learning.

Win it! Enter here, and tell us if you have a scheduled family game night. Winner will be chosen randomly and contacted via email next Thursday (November 13th 2008).

If you haven’t heard of smartbargains.com you’ve totally been missing out! This website is awesome, and is your link to brand name shopping at amazing prices. Smart Bargains has you covered, from kids toys to men’s clothing to women’s shoes to bedding. You name it and you can probably find it there, and at a discounted price.

I just purchased these amazing low wedges by Steve Madden, in purple, and my feet have never been happier (seriously, I think this is the first pair of name brand shoes I’ve ever owned!).

The site is so user friendly that even your tech-unsavvy grandma could order from it. And you know I was skeptical. Was I really getting a deal? I had to look into it, so I went to the actual Steve Madden website to check it out. I was so happy to find out that I actually did save money at Smart Bargains!

I know you don’t want me to bring it up this early, but Christmas is just around the corner. Keep smartbargains.com in mind this holiday season!

Win it!

Want a $50 coupon code to Smart Bargains? Enter here and tell us your must-have from the site! Winner will be chosen randomly Monday November 10th and contacted via email.

When you have kids all you want to do is protect them. It’s not always easy within this techy-filled world we live in. Children by the age of 2 are learning how to play online. I’m always on the hunt for safe, child friendly websites.

Well, two amazing Mama’s have come up with a website that you can let your children play on without worry! That’s right parents, you can breathe freely when your kids are playing on the All Star Buddies website. There are seven different Buddies to choose from. Once you purchase a plush Buddy [$14.95], you’ll have the code to access the “Locker Room” where you sign in and customize their features such as eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth, the possibilities are endless! Once they have their Buddy all ready to go, He/She can enter Varsity Heights where it’s game-playing galore. Your child can play games that rack up points, in which they can then buy virtual items for their Buddy. It’s not all games in Varsity Heights though, there are several brain challenging games because being an All-Star isn’t only about playing, it’s about learning too!

Mothers Caryn Burns and Cindy Prince created All Star Buddies from the two things they knew best, kids and sports. Each comes from different career backgrounds: Caryn, the buyer and merchandiser of a family-run pharmacy; and Cindy, a CSW specializing in counseling adolescents and families. Together, they combined their knowledge and enthusiasm to create All Star Buddies, a series of interactive based plush toys that teach kids real-life lessons and healthy living in a fun and imaginative way.

Win it! Enter here and tell us which Buddy is your favorite! Winner will be selected randomly, and contacted via email. Contest ends October 23rd at 10pm (CST).

Scholastic’s Storybook Treasures is a collection of DVDs that will make you feel slightly less guilty about using the TV for a babysitter. All kidding aside, these DVDs are the closest thing you’ll find to reading aloud. The narration is slow and steady and purposeful, which is very useful to try and coax kids into reading along if you happen to have the book that it is based upon. Luckily, the titles available in Scholastic’s Storybook Treasures series are all tried and true classics. In fact, the laid-back pacing of these adaptations reminds me of the old classroom filmstrips from my youth, the ones that required you to hang on every word until the beep told you to advance the frame. Such a difference from the frenetic style of today’s action-packed cartoons!

We recently received Make Way for Ducklings…and more delightful duck stories. Robert McCloskey’s sweet story of nesting ducks always makes me smile. And Jasper especially likes this DVD since “duck” is one of the words he can say understandably. Lucky for my little duck lover, this extra-long (76 minutes!) disc also features The Story of Ping, The Ugly Duckling, and Angus and the Ducks, as well as two stories that have non-duck birds in central roles.

If you have a dog lover, Harry the Dirty Dog…and more playful puppy stories may be more your style. There are six canine-centric tales on this 73 minute DVD. Roo loves the one about Harry trying to lose his new sweater from grandma.

The Storybook Treasures DVD I enjoyed most was Where the Wild Things Are…and 5 more stories. I have long been a Maurice Sendak fan and the title story is one of my all-time favorite childrens books. There is also an adaptation of In the Night Kitchen, and I am pleased to report that Mickey’s nethers are unretouched here. (I can’t believe that some libraries censor or remove this book for full frontal nudity… geez, it’s called a penis and half the world has ‘em, right?) The other fantastic thing about this collection is the inclusion of the Nutshell Library. I love reading these to Roo and Jasper, but I must admit that the Carole King versions pretty much blow me away. Duh. I vaguely remember these songs from my youth; they were part of the Really Rosie LP. I wish I still had that! 

WIN IT!

Where the Wild Things Are…and 5 more stories (four winners!)

Click HERE to enter and tell us which childhood literary classic you would like to see turned into a Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVD. Contest ends Saturday, October 18th at 10 PM CST. Winner will be chosen randomly and notified via email. Good Luck!!

We’ve been Noggin addicts since Roo was about Jasper’s age and we know most of its programming by heart. We were really excited when Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! came on the air. Its simple storylines and drawing style are charming and the episodes wrap up with a catchy song that showcases the moral of the story. When we received a package of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! items to review, I assumed Roo would be the one to go ga-ga over it.

She did immediately latch on to the new DVD (A Tale of Tails) but Jasper claimed the stuffed Wubbzy and electronic board book for himself. I am slightly embarrassed to report that his first recognizable utterance is very clearly “Wow! Wow!”

Roo suggested “maybe Jasper and I can share Wubbzy!” Uh, yeah, you try to wrench the little yellow guy from your baby brother. Let me know how that works for you… I think we might be better off just getting a second Wubbzy doll! Laura informs me that Noel is crazy about Wubbzy and his friends, too! You can enter to win a giant Wubbzy prize pack on YouTube in the Wubbzy Dance Contest. Just film your child’s stylin’ dance moves and upload it for your chance to win a Disco Dancing Wubbzy Doll, Wubbzy, Walden and Widget plush dolls, a collection of 6 Wubbzy books and A Tale of Tails DVD!

Feeling camera shy? Scroll down to win a Wubbzy gift pack, including DVD, books, Kooky Kollectible toy and plush Wubbzy doll!

WIN IT!

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! Prize Pack

Click HERE to enter and tell us which Wubbzy! character is your favorite. Contest ends Friday, October 3rd at 10 PM CST. Winner will be chosen randomly and notified via email. Good Luck!!

This review is also posted at superdumb supervillain! Enter over there for a separate chance to win!

This review has been brought to you by our resident Stay At Home Dad & Father of the Year, Elliott…Read more by Elliott at Father of the Year Award, on Tumblr, and see what he’s got going on at his eBay store, Umbrella Shoppe Collectibles.  He also Twitter’s here.

I was immediately interested in the Bill Harley: Yes to Running DVD, the day it arrived in our mailbox.  (A side note: our mailbox is usually very hot, as it is perpetually 300 degrees in Texas.)  Bill Harley, when he’s not being  a regular commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered,writing books or winning Grammy awards, tours the country telling funny stores and singing funny songs to kids and their parents.  He has a natural wit that is the backbone of his songs and stories.  He also has that gift for being instantly appealing to children and their parents.  This is not The Wiggles. 

Yes To Running! is Harley’s first live DVD.  This should not be his last, if there is any justice in the world.  It appeals on different levels.  My son, who is 2, loved the guitar playing and the music.  He didn’t have a clue when it came to the stories, but older kids will get the stories and jokes.  Parents will enjoy the pop culture references and nostalgia about music from their era.  They will also appreciate the fact that Harley does not dumb down his language for the kids.  He gives them the benefit of the doubt, and it just comes off with warmth and sincerity.

The set includes:

I Like to Sing
Grownups are Strange
Mom and the Radio
The Great Sled Race
Mrs. Ammons and the Boys’ Room
Is Not Is Too
The Ballad of Dirty Joe
The Teachers’ Lounge
You’re in Trouble
Echo

WIN IT!

We have TWO of these DVDs to give away to TWO LUCKY WINNERS!

Email us to enter: mumsthewurd[at]gmail[dot]com with the subject line: Bill Harley & tell us your favorite children’s singer/storyteller.  Contest ends Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 10 PM CST. Winner will be chosen randomly and notified via email. Good Luck!!

If you didn’t hear our interview with Matt Pryor, you missed out…but, don’t be sad.  You can hear it all here!

We wanted to let you all know that the sophomore Terrible Twos album, Jerzy the Giant, came out today!  Be sure to pick it up for your kids AND you!  It’s the sort of music the whole fam can jam to!  We’ll have a give away going on soon…stay tuned!!

A few places you can purchase the Twos CDs: itunes & Amazon.

Enjoy!

One of our favorite shows, The Banana Splits, is coming back with new shorts on Cartoon Network! We can’t wait! We’ll tell you more about it soon, but in the meantime, check out their fun, interactive website! It’s one of the best I’ve seen. The Splits have videos featuring Bingo, Fleegle, Drooper, and Snorky, and much more . It’s a kicky blast!