A couple of weeks ago, we invited you to nominate yourselves or your favorite handmade artisans for the Handmade Olympics, a fun, entirely unathletic competition featuring amazing handmade creations. Cool Mom Picks was invited to be the …
I have a soft spot for good quality wooden toys . I like them so much I find myself decorating my daughter's room with them, and these handmade, wood puzzles from Just Hatched are no exception. They're much too pretty to keep in a drawer…
When I first became a mother of two, my own mom introduced me to the concept of collaborative board games. Think less "I did it!" and more "We did it!" In other words, less "I hate you, I'm never playing with you any more ever again!" an…
This past week, I had a dandy time perusing the 600,000* aisles of the NY International Gift Show, scouting out what's cool in gifts and gear and design for our fair readers. I was also honored to be one of ten judges of the Best New Pro…
My go-to standard baby shower gift was, for a long time, either a baby bathtub, or infant footie sleepers. Useful, and admittedly a little uninspired. These days, I want to give something unusual, beautiful and creative: both moms and ba…
Four is a magical age. And for us, it includes a daily account of closet gremlins and nightmares that involve an epic battle between Scooby Doo and armored Transformer/My Little Pony hybrids. I love the imagination. The fear of bedtime, …
LEGO is, in my mind, the quintessential building toy of childhood. I played with it when I was little; both of my kids--their ages in double digits--still love to build with it . The problem, of course, is that no matter what LEGO storag…
We just love it when one of our favorite little mom-run brands makes it big. Not only because that means that quality construction and design reap the rewards they deserve, but because even more people will get to discover a great new st…
Every week at my daughter's violin lesson, my kids would head straight for the cardboard brick building blocks and play quietly for a solid 30 minutes. That was enough for me to send them as a Christmas gift idea to my mother-in-law, who…
When my kids were younger, they received a big bag of plastic play food filled with such gems as skinny hot dogs, rubbery pizza slices, flat burger patties and even a few brown chicken nuggets. Well, this grass-fed beef buying, farmers-m…
Yesterday a reader wrote to us about her toy storage woes, and we loaded her up with toy storage solution possibilities . Today we continue the organizational help with some of our favorite boxes, bins, and baskets. While I love putting …
We have wood crates, with toy fruit and veggies, crafts , blocks, trains, etc., but no way to store or organize them. Do you have a toy storage solution? Do you dump everything by category into bins or baskets, and shelve them that way? …
Cardboard cottages are more common than refrigerator boxes these days, and cardboard castles are no longer hard-to-find real estate. But we've found a new line of structures that go beyond the typical rose-covered cottage-- and that boys…
I'm one step closer to becoming a treehugger. My new toy crush is made with organic maple, cherry and walnut wood and tackles balance, problem solving, pattern recognition and fine motor skills . Oh, and it's for babies. The Brainbow Sta…
If you're sick of the frantic rush of live holiday shopping but still want to take up some real estate under the tree, you need to go check out the cool stuff at Discovery Kids, the exclusive toy section of The Discovery Channel Store. I…
Kids need a little ink too. (No, not tattoos. We may be hip and fashion-forward, but we're not crazy.) I'm talking about the kind of ink that creates together time, yields beautiful artwork, and teaches an interesting lesson . The all-in…
My daughter is obsessed with being a dentist. Yes, just like that Elf on that Rudolph video. Of course, I'm delighted and I want to encourage her, but dentist toys are a little hard to come by. Luckily, I won't have to scour the Internet…
I know that this year I'm going to end up with a bunch of kids I've forgotten about on my holiday list, so I try to amass a repertoire of fun, not too expensive gifts to keep on standby. If they don't get given out this month, there's al…
I have this fantasy every Christmas of convincing my extended family to go together on one big gift for my children. You know, instead of everyone doing their own thing and my kids ending up with a playroom full of blinky-light, noise-ma…
I'm such a huge fan of finger puppets for kids , which inspire all kinds of creativity and good thinking. I'm thinking about tracking down a finger puppet theater this holiday, so we can have a more formal stage for all that tiny enterta…
When buying a gift for those sweet toddlers in my life, I tend to steer clear of "white" anything. Let's face it, they aren't the cleanest creatures on the planet. But HABA is one step ahead of me with their new line of snow-white lambs …
Whether your kid likes bouncing, aliens, or just anything that looks like Muno off Yo Gabba Gabba, you've got to check this toy out. [ don't miss a great offer after the jump!] The new Dippy Dop Space Hopper will keep your entire family …
Watching The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is a holiday tradition around here and I can only imagine how well this greener version of the grouchy Grinch himself would go over peeking out of my kid's stocking. Now I realize that technically …
Ok so maybe teething doesn't really rock. In fact, it can be pretty painful for all parties involved. I recall more than my share of sleepless nights when my son's teeth were coming in. Not fun. But maybe the teethers can be? I only wish…