Spawned Parenting Podcast: Latest Episodes
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More coolness from recent weeks…
Cardboard blocks – My kids’ current obsession
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 thankfully heeded my request...
Cribstyles of the rich and famous
If MTV's show Cribs was actually about cribs, this is what you'd see: Custom, handmade, super-luxe linens for only the poshest of tots. As narrated by Robin Leach. Of course, you can also buy it retail, but it's still going to cost you. Olena Boyko is pretty much the...
A winter clearance sale at the beginning of winter? Count me in
I love how when my son loses his glove--yes, glove; always the left--the stores are completely sold out of them. In January. Well, there's one "make way for the spring inventory even though winter just started" clearance sale I think you're going to want to know...
No ifs, and, just lots of butts
"Eyes and ears are much respected, but the butt has been neglected." And so begins the masterful and hilarious The Butt Book, by Artie Bennett, illustrated by Mike Lester. Let's face it, few things are funnier to a little kid (and those of us who are young at heart)...
Putting the “need” in needlework
Any hipster with a scarf can tell you: The fiber arts are enjoying a renaissance. I can knit (poorly) and spin (horribly), and I sometimes consider trying needlepoint. But no kittens and flowers for me. No, I'd start with the wacky but lovely PDFs from bombastitch to...
3 tech tips for getting organized for the new year
Not surprisingly, one of the biggest New Year's resolutions for all kinds of folks is getting organized. But for moms, we'd imagine it's the biggest of all. (Even us, we admit it!) Can you ever be too organized? So we're thrilled to be working with AboutOne.com, a...
Make your own adorable monster army
We're installing a hook-and-eye on my daughter's closet today because she's desperately convinced that the Gremlins live in there and come out to mess up her room each night. I don't buy it. But here's a book of monsters that I'm pretty sure she'll welcome into our...
Time to pull a Jamie Oliver on the plastic play food
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-market visiting, chicken-coop...
Thoroughly modern sleep sacks
Based on the color offerings of most sleep sacks out there, I'm left to believe that manufacturers think bright colors will somehow keep babies awake at night. What's with all the pastels? Well, that's exactly how mom Holly MacLean felt when she decided to launch the...
Oh the places you’ll go, looking cute
I'm a big believer in traveling with kids. It's never too early to expose them to other cities, other cultures, other foods, and hopefully, the ability to behave on an airplane. (Oh please oh please!) I'm always looking for travel goodies that help them get excited...
I heart I LEGO NY
After many months of buzz, hoopla, and general fanfare, I finally got around to checking out Christoph Niemann's I LEGO N.Y., and as a native New Yawka, I know can't imagine what I had been waiting for. This board book is everything I love in a book--it's artful, it's...
A less destructible notebook. (Hear that, writer moms of toddlers?)
At the beginning of every new year, I treat myself to a pretty, new notebook. It's an almost-literal way to start the year with a clean slate. New year, new notebook, new thoughts. The only problem with this method, now that there are children afoot: my fancy...
Even one of the pickiest girls in the world loves these clothes
My daughter is a bit of a choosy dresser. To say the least. If I'm being perfectly honest, it takes at least half an hour to get her ready every morning and she balks--nay, tantrums for an hour--if anything she's wearing is even slightly unacceptable. You know, like...
Toy storage solutions? Reader Q+A Part 2: Bins and Baskets
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 things away where they can't be...
3 kids calendars that start the year off a little wild
It's up to me to keep my kids' schedules straight, but they still love to count down the days until the next big event, whether that day is a Saturday, their birthday, or the next candy holiday (Valentine's Day, for the record).Instead of giving them that freebie...
A chore chart that doesn’t look like a chore.
The chore chart that has worked the best for my family so far been a (not-so-pretty) laminated list with my kids' pictures that I made myself. But even then, I can't really add or change jobs unless I make a whole new chart, which made them obsolete a few months ago....
Toy storage solutions? Reader Q&A
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? Thanks in advance, and while I...
This week on Cool Mom Tech
In case you were too busy playing with your new iPhone over the holidays, here are some top picks on Cool Mom Tech you might have missed this week-- including old things, new things, and really expensive new things that might change the world.1. Big news about Kindle...
Keelhauled by cardboard
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 will enjoy, too. Box Creations...
Save Handmade update: C’mon, Congress. Help us out.
As you probably know by now, there's a bill in Congress to ensure that toys and clothing are free of toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Which is good. Unfortunately, while the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act is well-meaning, the way it's been implemented has...
Kids snow boots that actually work in the snow
I did this year what so many parents do, and I should know better by now: I bought the cheap kids' snow boots for my daughter. I knew they weren't really waterproof, but they seemed like they would suffice. Until the actual snow came. (All that snow!)So I bit the...