My nieces and nephews from Israel are on their way visit grandparents. My 2 year old son will probably not have a chance to visit but would like to send something to them while they are here. Any ideas for a gift to help entertain the 2 …
Almost every day, we drive by a castle. No, really-- it's in a field near our house, and the moat is a swimming pool, and the iron fence is guarded by concrete dwarves painted in garish colors. I can't make stuff like that up. "Mommy, ca…
Maybe toddlers shouldn't fish. I remember thinking this as I watched my 3-year-old niece clutch a big fishing pole while my husband tried to keep her from falling into the deep dark water or skewer him with the sharp fishing hook that wa…
If my kids are any indication, Stickermania may in fact be an actual medical condition. It strikes kids between 2 and 3, can last as long as a decade, and side effects may include weak and broken nails--your own--after scraping stickers …
When I was pregnant with my first daughter, now six, rattles that were actually cute, functional, and not made completely of plastic were just starting to make it onto the scene. Well it seems that now cuteness and a bit of hilarity abou…
Most of the online shopping I do at UK shops is of the window variety. As in, browsing only, do not pass go, do not add to my cart, do not pay international shipping. But sometimes I stumble on a sale so good, it makes it worth it to do …
I have no trouble getting my kids to go outside on a summer's day, it's getting them to stay outside when the siren song of kids' cartoons and super-exciting video games beckon from the air-conditioned comfort of our home. That's when I,…
Whether you stay up late enough for fireworks this year or you're lying in bed in the dark, fingers crossed that the loud noise does not wake the baby (PLEASE GOD DO NOT WAKE THE BABY), all of us at Cool Mom Picks wish you a Happy Fourth…
I'll be honest -- as an art teacher, I was once opposed to rubber stamps. Then I realized that giving children some handy, thoughtfully designed building blocks for their two-dimensional world can be the perfect springboard into confiden…
Well, July is here. And if you are anything like me, you don't even start looking for the beach toys until beach season is well underway, and the kids are sitting in their car seats, eager and ready to go. And that's when you discover th…
The night light is an essential component of the bedtime routine around my place, but no matter what method we employ, which lately has been our hallway light, it never seems to satisfy the kids' need for light right next to them. That's…
We first fell in love with Green Toys way back in the day of the lead paint recalls (aw, remember those fun days?) and knew they were onto something fabulous. Well sure enough, their line has expanded beautifully since then and today the…
First I feared the colicky newborn, then the Godzilla walker, then the Terrible Twos. Now I can see the Freaky Fours glaring at me from just a few months away, and I tremble in my flip-flops. She doesn't want to clean, she doesn't want t…
Those board books start out so cute and shiny, don't they? And then Baby Bookivore gets very interested in gnawing the corners, splitting the pages, and seeing what a slice of banana will look like sandwiched between B is for Broccoli an…
We've been fans of the Handmade Toy Alliance since this organization formed in 2008 in response to Congress's [expletive deleted] Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act. This ill-conceived (and ironically named) law is the impetus for …
This is one of those times when I find myself wishing I owned a sewing machine. And that I had a single crafty bone in my body. Check it out: Gulf Coast Cottage , a wonderful shop filled with soft toys, has an entire category filled with…
I have nothing against boys embracing pink, but when I went to buy a little boy doll for my nephew to love while his mama was caring for a newborn, I found that 99% of the baby dolls in the big toy store were of the female persuasion. Fr…
These so-called " friendly monster finger puppets " bear such a striking resemblance to the Yo Gabba Gabba characters that I had to break down and buy them for my YGG-obsessed daughter's third birthday. I mean, that striped green one doe…
The way I see it, if your kids are going to fall in love with colorful shape sorters and battery-operated talking phones anyway--and trust me, they are--they might as well be from a company like b.toys . This small company used to licens…
Memorial Day is here which means goodbye wool, hello breezy, beautiful linen. Even when it comes to your kids' playthings . Have you ever loved a doll so much that you wanted to hug it? Wait, that's ridiculous, even for a rhetorical ques…
When it comes to eating out with my kids, we make sure to go to our favorite family friendly restaurant early in the evening with an arsenal of activities to keep them occupied . Seriously, I think planning a wedding is easier. But thank…
I scream, you scream, we all scream for... well, okay, I lied. I didn't scream over these adorable soft ice cream-festooned beanbags, but I did squeal just a little bit. The Baby Gardner brings us Lisa Bacigalupi's exclusive hand-stitche…
You know, you think a block is a block is a block. Then something like Tegu comes around and suddenly those regular blocks your kids play with just seem you know...like regular blocks. If you haven't heard of Tegu, they're the eco-friend…
I have a true story to tell you--a tale of DOG, and DOG, and DOGGIE, MAMA, DOGGIE. At least, that's how it began. My 17-month-old son says only four words, but I can tell that he understands a lot more. Now, thanks to the U Play Mat by P…