More coolness from recent weeks…
Jungle love
If your kids are like my kids, then it doesn't matter what the toys were intended for, they all still end up in their mouths. Hence my appreciation for the new sets of pretending and teething toys from Little Alouette. Hand carved from maple wood with love...
Cooking for kids just got 150 recipes easier
Recently, my Michael Pollan-obsessed sigOth and I have had some conversations about stepping up our meal preparation game for the kids. So I'm pleased to have discovered two new cookbooks that seem primed to help us find some options that lie somewhere between...
Who wants to come see the Rockettes with me next week? No, seriously.
One of the fun things about what we do here is getting the occasional invitation to an event so cool, we have to pinch ourselves. Next week, I'm heading to Radio City Music Hall with my kids and some other bloggers for a behind the scenes look at one of my favorite...
Packing school lunches gets more fun. And more eco-friendly.
I pack school lunches for my kids every day. I don't mind actually making the lunches; it's the packaging that gets me, all those little plastic bags bound for the trash, stored in a garish character tie-in lunchbox. That part is depressing.CMP has brought you plenty...
Love me tender
After inheriting yet another useless stuffed animal courtesy of my in-laws, I have officially put the kibosh on any and all such toys. With one exception, of course. The King.If you're an Elvis lover, his spirit and likeness can now live on in your own home with the...
Happy birthday, hot stuff
Eh, I'm over the ironic birthday cards with the cartoon characters telling you how saggy your boobs are or how you'll burn down the neighborhood with all those candles. Sure they were cute when I was 22 but maybe they hit a little close to home now? With my own...
1000 Markets – You will be bummed they only stopped at 1000.
There are a lot of me-too etsy type online marketplaces cropping up these days, though most of them fall a little (or a lot) flat on execution. But 1000 Markets? So awesome I don't even know where to begin.1000 Markets is beautiful, it's navigable, and it's mercifully...
Funky lunch – that’s a good thing
I do not have six million free hours in my day but if I did, I just might consider turning my kids' sandwich into a giraffe. Or a caterpillar. Or Sponge Bob. Just because I could. And if I were to do that kind of a thing, I would have to hit the website Funky Lunch,...
The gift the kids will love to ruin
With the kids heading back to school, the birthday party circuit will be starting up again. If your kid is old enough to read, you may understand my temptation to give other kids books rather than more toys. The problem is that while their parents might love you for...
Photo learning books that seem like they’re made just for your kids. Because, well, they are.
We've been huge fans over the years of Shutterfly's photobooks which make affordable gifts guaranteed to bring the tears (in a good way). And now they're getting the word out about the ability to turn the photobooks into make-your-own photo learning books for the...
Back to school dresses that go way beyond dresses
Yes, I know that the dresses from Pink Chicken are not the least expensive in all the land, but I'll tell you why I love them beyond nearly anything else in my girls' wardrobe:They're well made, the styles are adorable and I can toss them in the wash along with the...
Our house is a very very very fine house
My husband has a bit of an obsession with graphic representations of homes, making no effort to hide his loud praise for them when he sees them on our friends' walls. I wasn't entirely in his camp until discovering the handmade little city hoops from Little...
The Mad Men diaper clutch
Smaller diaper bags and diaper clutches tend to be sporty, so if you prefer something more stylish and on trend, you're often left to fend for yourself with a small purse stuffed with baby stuff, praying that the bottle doesn't leak onto your not-quite-waterproof...
Hope in a bottle. Seriously.
Every year, without fail, I make the same New Year's Resolution: To drink more water. And every year I fail miserably. However Project 7 water may provide me with just the motivation I need to succeed. Project 7 is a small Texas company created by Tyler and Taylor...
Stokke enables eating, playing, and learning all in the same spot. Though you may want to keep the eating and playing separate.
Stokke's Tripp Trapp high chair is a classic that's been around for 37 years--in fact, my daughter recently sat in the one that I had used as a kid. How's that for longevity? The basic principle behind it remains as popular with parents today as it was in the 70's--it...
Soft books for babies go green
Since I've become a parent, my delight with Peter Rabbit has been replaced with a desire to give him a time out for eating Farmer Brown's veggies and disobeying his mama. He's figuring out how to win we me over again though, by going green with his new eco-friendly...
Shake, rattle and bark
I make no apologies about dissuading people from giving stuffed animals as baby gifts because the damn things just seem to spawn and multiply overnight. But I could easily make an exception when it comes to the gorgeous plush baby rattles that are a result of an...
Threadless + Childhood = BFFs
I have a giant soft spot in my heart for Threadless, already--my kids and I all wear the community-centered shop's artist designed shirts--but now there's one more reason to love them. Threadless Kids has recently teamed up with Babycenter to create the Threadless...
B Designs’ gorgeous letterpress birth announcements for twins just look expensive
I had three kids in under four years, but it's the parents who have twins who earn my respect for living with double the chaos. Maybe that's why I love B Designs' minimalist letterpress twins birth announcement which conveys the joy over the new arrivals without any...
Three cheers for custom pennants!
I used to love the show Happy Days--remember Arnold's and all the sports pennants hanging all over the walls? (You do remember Happy Days, right? I can't be that old.) I guess that's why I loved these personalized felt pennants from Kristine Kaye which made me feel so...
What’s the baby going to look like?
So you're pregnant, and every blurry black-and-white ultrasound photo of baby is up on the fridge, and you spend many a quiet moment imagining what your baby might look like. Will she have your eyes? His chin? That funny little dimple you get in the corner of your...