Samantha D is the winner of the Pineas and Ferb DVD. Enjoy it!

Children can begin potty training at the age of 12 months all the way up to 4 years. That’s a huge range! How do you know when it’s the right time to start working with your child? Well, you need to watch for certain signs like emotional readiness and the ability to control bladder and bowels, to recognize the need to go, and to communicate the need to go.

Studies have shown there are many benefits to signing with your baby. As young as 9 months old, a baby often knows what she wants but can’t communicate it to mommy and daddy causing lots of frustration on both sides. By teaching your baby very simple signs like eat and drink, she can easily tell you what she wants, long before she can talk, reducing frustration and raising self-esteem and self-confidence.

Baby Signs is leading the efforts to help parents sign with their babies and now they have come up with the Potty Training Kit to help you potty train your baby at an earlier age. Many children are ready to potty train as early as 18 months but just aren’t able to communicate well enough to make potty training a success. That’s where the Baby Signs Potty Training Kit comes in. Each kit includes a book for mom and dad to help guide you through the potty training process and has diagrams of signs you can teach to your baby. There’s also a DVD for baby to watch to teach her 5 potty signs and introduce her to potty training, a lift-the-flap book for baby to read, and stickers to help reinforce what a great job baby is doing. The kit has a cute potty train theme all children will love so it comes with a wooden train whistle for baby to blow when she needs to go potty or successfully goes on the potty! This kit is sure to make potty training your youngster easy and fun!

Win it! Win your own potty training kit. Visit Baby Signs and check out all their great products. Comeback and leave me a comment about your favorite product. Be sure to leave your email so I can contact you if you are the winner. This giveaway will end August 5th at midnight. I will email the winner on August 6th. This giveaway is open to people with mailing addresses in the US and Canada only. Good luck!

This is my first ever Bloggy Giveaway Carnival and I’ve decided to giveaway the new Phineas and Ferb DVD. Actually, it’s so new, it hasn’t been released yet! But Tuesday morning, I’ll be headed to Target to get two copies, one to keep and one for the lucky person who wins this giveaway.

If you’ve never seen Disney Channel’s Phineas and Ferb, you’re missing some good family fun. It’s summer vacation and Phineas and Ferb, two stepbrothers, come up with all kinds of outrageous activities to keep them busy like building a rollercoaster or becoming one hit wonders in a day. Their antics drive their sister, Candace, crazy and she spends her summer trying to bust them but something always happens to clean up all the evidence just before Mom arrives. Then there’s Perry, the family’s pet platypus, who’s secret identity is a secret agent. Perry always manages to thwart the plans of his evil nemesis, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, but in doing so also manages to unwittingly remove any evidence of the boys’ daily adventures.

This series is great for kids and adults alike. Lots of fun for the kids and some humor that will go right over their heads that only the adults will get (like references to things that happened in the “90s). I usually don’t mind the kids shows on TV but this is one I really like and look forward to when it comes on.

Win it!!! Leave only one comment below before 8:00 am eastern time on Friday July 1. Be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced on Friday, Aug. 1. I will only ship to US addresses. Thanks for visiting.

I have an awesome giveaway today! I recently reviewed a personalized name book from Frecklebox which my son and I absolutely loved, er, still love! (Click here to read the review). The My Name is… personalized book isn’t like other name books that just include your child’s name in the story, your child’s name is actually spelled out in each of the beautiful photos. For example, on one page lady bugs spell his/her name and on another page its spelled out by stars in the night sky. This book is so well done! Frecklebox has two other personalized name books as well, Hiphop Howie and his pal, in which your child becomes the main character of this book full of rhymes and …goes to the zoo, which is about a trip to the zoo and includes wonderful photos of zoo animals with you child’s name hidden in the in the photo for them to find. Frecklebox creates lots of other personalized products, too, including their new coloring book, Color Me… Each page has a fun design and your childs name to color.

Win it! Frecklebox is generously giving away one hard cover book of your choice and one coloring book. To win, visit Frecklebox and have a look around. Comeback here and leave a comment telling me your favorite Frecklebox item by Midnight on July 23rd. Make sure you leave your email address so we can contact you if you’re the lucky winner. The winner will be chosen randomly and contacted by email on July 24th. Good luck!

In case you didn’t know, the newest Backyardigans DVD, The Backyardigans: Mighty Match-Up!, was released last week. Its just as good as the other Backyardigans DVDs with four entertaining stories and lots of fun music. My son and I have watched it so many times that I could probably recite it word for word already! The episodes on this DVD are: Match on Mt. Olympus, The Great Dolphin Race, Ranch Hands From Outer Space and Caveman’s Best Friend.

Win it! In case you haven’t rushed out to buy this DVD for your child yet, I’m giving you a chance to get it for free! All you have to do is subscribe to our email newsletter by Midnight on July 23, 2008. If you’ve already subscribed, well, then you’re already entered. We’ll pick a random winner and notify the winner by email. Open to US residents.

Note: You must subscribe to our email newsletter (upper right corner) to enter. Leaving a comment will not get you entered.

Looking for a great gift that toddlers, moms, and dads will all love? Give a My Name is… personalized name book from Frecklebox. My son recently received a My Name is… book and he can’t get enough of it! He was astounded to find his name on every page spelled out by things made by Mother Nature, like the stars in a night time sky or ladybugs on a big green leaf. Now everyday, he asks to read “his” book. We read it so many times the first day that my little Bugaboo learned to spell his name!

The My Name is… book is different than other name books. It doesn’t just include your child’s name in the storyline; the story is your childs’ name. Your child will have so much fun learning to spell his name and you’ll love looking at the stunning photos.

Frecklebox’s books are made to be durable and can handle your toddler’s rough treatment. Ours looks great despite being slept on everynight for the past week (this is how we can gauge if a toy is a hit or not; if he likes it it gets to sleep with him alongside Bear and Panda). You can order your personalized book with either a hard or softcover. We received the softcover book and I was so surprised by the quality. It’s not your ordinary softcover book! The photos are printed on heavy glossy paper, then coated to create a beautiful sheen and long lasting durability. Frecklebox takes pride in their products and takes the extra time to make sure their products will last.

Be sure to visit Frecklebox to see a sample of this book online and check out their other great products. Enter coupon code totsmag10 to get 10% off your purchase.

On a cold, snowy night, an itty-bitty mouse tip-toes in to a sleeping bear’s cave. Mouse lights a fire to warm himself and is soon joined by other forest animals looking for shelter from the winter weather. The animals pop corn, brew tea and have a merry ol’ time, all the while the bear sleeps on. UNTIL…a pepper flake makes the bear sneeze and wakes him up! But will Bear be angry that that animals invaded his space or sad he missed the party in his own cave?

The illustrations were done by Jane Chapman and are absolutely fabulous. The animals are friendly and have so much character and she makes the cave with the fire look so warm and inviting. No wonder all the animals were drawn to the cave!

Bear Snores On, written by Karma Wilson, is one of our family’s favorite books. I picked it up when my son was an infant. We used to sit in the rocker and read it over an over again. And now its one of my son’s favorite bedtime books. I think it will be one of your favorites, too!

Bear Snores On Written by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jane Chapman. Simon & Schuster 2002. Available in hardcover, softcover or boardboard.