Exersaucer Triple Fun Jungle is a developmental wonder for your baby

News For Parents -  As your baby grows and begins to progress through stages of development, one of the hardest tasks as a parent and perhaps source of costliest mistakes is deciding which activity centers and playsets to purchase for your child.

Sometimes you will find yourself buying two products that overlap, sometimes you’ll find yourself in a situation where you might need something extra as your baby enters in between periods of growth.

One item that is a must have for babies is an exersaucer, from Evenflo.  They’re great playsets that encourage lower muscle development, head and neck muscle development, motor skills and basically introduce your baby to a new world of using their bodies in ways they never knew before.

Evenflo makes many exersaucer models, but the one we chose was the Evenflo ExerSaucer Triple Fun – Jungle because it starts out as an activity mat, which then can be converted into a fully functional exersaucer and finally to a creative learning center once your child can walk on their own.

The activity mat setup was simple.  It’s basically a soft green leaf shape mat that attaches to the two activity bars from the exersaucer and a great secondary activity mat for a finished basement or upstairs play area for your baby.  The mat itself is very basic and you probably want a nice activity mat in the begining as your primary play area.

Once your baby can support their head, neck and back, they are ready for mom and dad to conver the matt into the exersaucer.   Setup was not a snap and does require a screwdriver, patience and close attention to the manual.    There are spring loaded legs were the most difficult part of the setup only because you have to match the springs exeactly in the right locations inorder to make sure the legs of the saucer can’t  buckle and move while your child is jumping around.   Other than the spring assembly, installation was  a snap.

Why is this exersaucer better than the rest?  It’ simply has more activities for your child with two overhead activity bars and removable and interchangeable components all around your baby.  Our baby started using his exersaucer this week and has been going absolutely bonkers with it, in fact when his time is up, and we take him out he has a fit because he wants to stay in.   Maybe when his muscles are a bit more developed, he can spend more time, but we can tell that his new favorite place to be is in his 3 in 1 jungle.

Once your baby outgrows the exersaucer, the unit turns into a stationery play center in which the child can move about and play at different areas in S shaped activity desk.  This product will last through the whole first year of your child’s life opposed to other systems that they will outgrow once they start walking.  It’s great for 1-12 month olds.

Our baby playing in the Evenflo Exersaucer Triple Fun Jungle.

NJ Day Trip: Popcorn Park Zoo and Rescue Sanctuary

If you’re looking for a place to bring toddlers and younger children and don’t feel like traveling to the Bronx, Cape May or Philadelphia?  Try the Popcorn Park Zoo and Sanctuary run by the Associated Humane Societies.  This small zoo in New Jersey’s Pinelands was started in 1977 as an animal sanctuary for abandoned and abused animals.   They eventually began taking in exploited farm animals and exotic wildlife and now house the largest collection of animals in Ocean County.

The zoo is home to over 200 rescued animals which range from roosters to bengal tigers.  As you enter the park, you can purchase a box of popcorn which you can feed to all of the animals.  Many of the domestic animals such as the pigs, goats, sheep and horses eagerly await handouts from parkgoers.   As you walk around the park, geese, ducks and squirrels have become so accustomed to human presence that they will usually eat out of your hands.

Some of the more exotic animals in the park include Bengali, a bengal tiger and his three bengal tiger friends, a black bear, african lions, wallabies and monkeys.  You can get close enough to all of the animals for some great picture taking and some great memories without the travel.

Farm animals at Popcorn Park Zoo include horses, cows, sheep, goats and rabbits.  The steer at the park is huge!  If you’ve never been up close and personal with a cow that is nearly eight feet tall, you’re in for a surprise. 

The best thing about Popcorn Park is that these are not show animals purchased for display like at most zoos, they are animals that have been rescued from many different situations in which they were abused, neglected or exploited.  The folks at the Associated Humane Society are offering these animals a second chance at life and the money you spend goes directly towards benefiting and caring for these animals as well as the rescue and placement of future animals at the sanctuary.

Older children might be bored with the lack of “high end” exotics, but if your child has never been to a zoo, Popcorn Park Zoo and Wildlife Sanctuary is a great place to break them in and makes for a great Jersey Shore day trip.

For more information visit: http://www.ahscares.org/default.asp

Robin Hood (Most Wanted Edition) (1973)

A minor classic from Disney, this 1973 all-animal, all-animated musical version of the familiar story is more charming than one might expect. Perhaps it’s the warm, chummy take on key relationships within the legend–the way Robin Hood (Brian Bedford) gets twitterpated whenever the subject of Maid Marian (Monica Evans) comes up or the way best pal Little John (Phil Harris voicing a variation on his own Baloo from The Jungle Book) admonishes the Sherwood Forest hero, “Aw, Rob, why dontcha just marry the girl?” (Then, of course, there’s the canny “casting” of the romantic leads as foxes: Robin the sly one and Marian the, well, foxy one.) The rest of the vocal cast is lively and eclectic: Peter Ustinov, Andy Devine, Terry-Thomas, George Lindsey. Roger Miller provides the songs and voice for the minstrel character Allan-A-Dale. The film is ably directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, whose decades of work in Disney’s animation division helped create the studio’s rich leg (more…)

Brooklyn! The Ultimate Guide to New York’s Most Happening Borough, 3rd Edition (Paperback)

From Library Journal
This second edition of the 1991 guide Brooklyn: Where To Go, What To Do, How To Get There (St. Martin’s) provides thoroughly annotated descriptions of attractions, shopping, and especially restaurants in New York’s “most interesting, most human-scaled borough.” Organized by neighborhood, it also catalogs events, “Best Bets,” and children’s “Best Bets.” The restaurant listings, while more enthusiastic than critical, do reveal the enormous range of ethnic food in Brooklyn, from Cambodian to Mexican to Turkish. The book has depth: a mini-essay on the “Russian Night Club Experience,” another on the emerging artists’ community in Williamsburg, a list of basement stores run by stay-at-home Orthodox Jewish women in Borough Park, and mention of a church whose choir won a 1996 Grammy Award for gospel. While this is a tremendous resource, it is geared more to locals and frequent visitorsAthe author doesn’t lay out, for example, a one-day tour for neophytes (thou (more…)