My little one has a love for horses. It’s partially because her cousin has one, so she has been around one for some time now. When she saw the Fur Real horse Butterscotch at Target, she was enamored.

The batteries must have been worn down, because Butterscotch didn’t respond to getting her hair brushed or being fed. When we ran across the horse at Toys R Us that was working, she wasn’t so fond of it anymore. With a price tag of right at $250, it’s a little pricey to buy as a play thing she doesn’t like when working. Too bad there isn’t a version that does nothing. I’m sure it would be much cheaper.

The Fur Real horse does look cool especially since it comes with a hair brush and a carrot. It’s also a nice size to for a child to sit on. When you brush her hair, her tail wags and she turns her head. I can’t quite remember what she did when you fed her. I know her head moved. It was enough to spook my two-year-old, or at least at first. When we go back, she may be just fine with it.

It’s an amazing stuffed animal with a hefty price tag. I will have to keep an eye on it to see if the price drops anytime soon.

The Tickle Me Elmo is 10 years old and to celebrate 10 years of the happy go-lucky monster that refers to himself in third person from Sesame Street, Fisher-Price introduced TMX Elmo. There is no doubt about it that Elmo is a popular character on Sesame Street with every episode ending with Elmo’s World that runs at least 10 minutes. That’s a lot of Elmo over time, so it’s no wonder that toddlers recognize the red monster in stores, on TV, and everywhere else.

TMX Elmo is Tickle Me Elmo taken to the next level. Elmo still laughs when tickled but also will being to shake from laughing so much an eventually fall over from laughter. It’s a cute toy that has also prompted the release of TMX Cookie Monster. I’m sure the future holds many other TMX toys of our favorite Sesame Street characters as well.

We bought the Leapfrog Fridge Farm magnet set for Raegan for Christmas since she had started taking an interest in the refrigerator magnets. It was a very smart move on my part since she loves playing with the toy.

The set comes with 8 different animals, each has a front piece and a back piece. Place each piece in the right spot on the front and then press it for sound. If you just do have an animal, you get the message “blue sheep” or whatever color and animal magnet it happens to be. Put both halves in and you get a little song about matching a match. If you put in the front of the cow and the back or a horse, you get a personalized song for your creation. First the voice will say in a questionable tone, “A cow horse?” Then she will sing a little rhyme song about the silly cow horse.

You can also press farmer Tad sitting in top of the barn to listen to his banjo. This is Raegan’s favorite button of all since you don’t have to put the magnet pieces in for it to work. She really loved it before she could get those pieces into the magnet. Now she is a pro at putting those magnets in and out of the right slot.

There is on off button and volume control, two big pluses if you ask me. It’s been a great toy to keep her occupied while I’m cooking or just whenever. She will forget about it for a few days, then it’s like a new toy. Leapfrog makes some fun toys and this the Fridge Farm is definitely one of them.

Housewife Rating — 6 out of 10

Cute guitar and fun music. It’s a very loud toy that can become very annoying really fast.

The Backyardigans is a cartoon on Nickelodeon that my daughter for first exposed to this weekend. It’s colorful and has a lot of music which kept her attention. Their line of toys include a guitar. Since Rae loves the guitars of Guitar Hero we wanted to get her a guitar of her own. The Backyardigans guitar stood out because it has buttons on the fret and has a strummer.

It plays a couple of songs. While the songs are playing if your you can strum along or press the fret buttons to add a guitar riff or interject words into the song. It’s a cute guitar, and Rae loves it. My only complaint is that there isn’t a volume control. The speaker is located on the backside of the guitar, so when it plays music it is extremely loud. It can become annoying. The guitar would be so much better with a volume control since Rae loves playing with it but Mommy can only take so much.

DonorsChoose.org is an organization that helps teachers across the United States. By donating money you can help teachers get the much needed supplies they need. It’s amazing how many school items teachers will buy with their own money and never get reimbursed for. Imagine if you needed something at and had to purchase it but your company didn’t pay for it. It’s a practice in business that is practically unheard of but for teachers they have to because they are only given so much money to spend on their room that is apparently in inadequate amount.

The BlogCatalog community is uniting to bring recognition to this plight. The donation page below will tell you how you can help a teacher out. There are several requests listed, and you can choose which one to help with your donation. A lot of the requests are from teachers in Louisiana whose school was affected by Hurricane Katrina. The goal is to raise $25,000 to fund 9 proposals. Have a look and help a teacher in need.

Help Public School Kids by Funding by Participating in the BlogCatalog DonorsChoose Challenge

If I were to say the Leapfrog Baby Counting Pal was a godsend, I would not be exagerrating much. This hang-on-the-crib toy has been a great investment. Thie counting pal has provided a lot of entertainment to the baby, especially durying diaper changing time.

When Rae was a newborn, I really didn’t understand the need to have toys nearby during diaper changings. Toys are paramount when babies get a little older and begin to move around a lot. The counting pal was wonderful to provide a distraction to the baby while I changed her diaper. There are a few different modes of play: counting, colors, and music.

There are five different spots to mash on the counting pal, so it will count up to five. Each number has a little song attached to it and a number of the items in the song. For example, there are five ladybugs below the number five. (song: Five little ladybugs meet for lunch, five little ladybugs munch and crunch..1,2,3,4,5)

Now that the baby is a toddler, she enjoys toting around the toy and pressing the buttons herself. The counting pal has been a lifesaver. Plus, it’s not too annoying to listen to over and over again. Definitely a good toy for a baby’s crib and beyond.