More coolness from recent weeks…
Mommytrack’d Helps Gets Moms Back On Track
When a product is presented as the "Ultimate Family Organizer" it's setting the bar pretty high. You nearly expect it to come with a personal assistant and three more hours in the day. But Mom's Ultimate Family Organizer from our friends at Mommytrack'd,...
Like Steven Sprouse for the Toddler Set
I have a wee bit of high-fashion envy, knowing very well that a size (mumblemumble) mom can't walk into the fancy designer stores and actually expect to find something that fits. And so I do what every style-conscious woman trapped in a postpartum body does: I project...
Classic Baby Gifts to Replace the Stuff Your Great-Grandma Never Saved
Not every mama in my life has the same taste in baby gifts that I do. Shocking, I know, but some of my friends really do prefer smocking and gingham and sweetness and light to some of the more, um, contemporary items I gravitate to. One of the really nice labels that...
Tax Day Splurge: The Summer Dress Love-Fest Continues With Room Seven
We have to be careful that Cool Mom Picks doesn't turn into Cool Dresses For Little Girls Picks. But man, it's hard to avoid when there are so many sweet offerings this season, particularly as this year's hot floral print trend suits the preschool set just perfectly....
Tax Day Splurge: Italian Tricycles the Grown-Ups Will Covet Too
Buying the kid's first tricycle was wrought with way more emotion than I had expected. It's like the first time you tell your kid Go! Be free! Off on your own! Despite the fact that she'll still need the occasional push off an uneven sidewalk square. The Triciclino...
Tax Day Splurge: Modern Kids Furniture that Should Come In Big People Sizes Too
Not all of us looking for kid-sized table and chairs are looking for our playrooms. Because, um, ain't got no playroom. Instead what we're hoping for is something we can put in the living room that doesn't look like a polycarbonate plastic rainbow puked all over the...
The Next Best Thing to Annie Liebowitz Popping By the Maternity Ward
Six hundred or so digital photos later and I couldn't find one that was just right for the announcements. (To say nothing of the pics of me for which I should have demanded professional lighting and Vaseline over the lens.) The baby: Perfect. My photography skills,...
So Maybe Sparkles Aren’t The Best Ever Ingredient For Baby Lotions
Being the quintessential product snob can be hard work (trust me, I know), especially when you have a wee one with dry skin and chapped lips. It's difficult having to choose between Big Name Baby Products that are loaded with artificial ingredients and Natural...
The Least Raggy Rag Dolls Ever
It's been a while since we found some handmade dolls that we're really crushing on. After all, December isn't the only time we need great gifts for the special girls in our lives. A new find comes courtesy the etsy shop Little Big Pants, and its visionary,...
More Boo-Boos, Please
Sometimes I am scared to use boo-boo panaceas for fear that my children will think them the only thing that can heal. The last thing you want is to be caught at the playground without a "magic Band Aid" to calm your hysterical child. Even so, my daughter has...
Paper Shouts: Not So Much Shouting. Which Is Nice.
I'm one of those few new mothers who actually enjoys writing thank you notes. Even if I thank you in person for your lovely and thoughtful gift, be assured that I will break out a box of fabulous cards to thank you in writing as well. My latest find in the custom card...
Junking Junk Mail
Recently we reviewed Catalog Choice which I continue to love (love! love!) but recently I've been turned onto a similar service to help cut down on junk mail: Green Dimes. Any service that guarantees to get rid of 90% of all your unwanted solicitations--not just...
Dinosaurs Are Our Friends
I'm more than happy to oblige my daughter's new dinosaur obsession, that is if I could find a cool shirt that doesn't display a mean, scary T-Rex.I'm prefering Hildegard, my new favorite bike-riding dinosaur from parent-run label Playground Partisans, and quite...
So the Girls, They Like to Twirl
The notion of a dress "that twirls" used to seem kind of foo-foo to me until I thought back to my own childhood and my many hours simply spent spinning. I was like that kid in Parenthood who just spun until I fell down for fun, while other kids were doing...
Presenting the Ultimate Mother’s Day Shopping Guide. (If We Do Say So Ourselves.)
Today is April 11. Which in most parts of the country doesn't mean a whole lot. (Except for you, Joss Stone - happy birthday!) But around CMP it means it's exactly one month until Mother's Day, a perfect time to launch our second annual Mother's Day Gift Guide. This...
Forget Duckies, Have the Only Baby With a Sea Urchin On Her Chest
One of our fave T-shirt discoveries last year were the bold alphabet toddler tees from BioME5 featuring alligators, bears and camels that actually look like alligators, bears and camels. And not some lame cartoon rendition. Seriously, I'm a little scared of the...
Foot Fungus: The Good Kind
We realize that baby booties are a frivolous purchase for a cute little lump who doesn't do much more than poop and sleep (or if you're my kids, not sleep). So that's why you don't buy them for your own baby. You get other people to get them for you.Moving...
Too Much…Magic Bus
Brooklyn parents have surely overheard other moms in the supermarket or the corner diner saying, "Oh we signed up for Kevin...he's the best." They're talking about Kevin Meeker, who teaches one of the more popular Music for Aardvark classes in the hood. For...
The Pigeon Wants 1. A Puppy, 2. To Take Over Story Hour Completely
I am such a crazy Mo Willems stalker-fan that when I heard I missed meeting him at Toy Fair this year by about 30 seconds I nearly cried. His collection of children's books are this generation's Dr. Seuss or Curious George. Willems' newest release in the...
Heather Moore is for lovers. Of mothers.
A reader recently turned us on to Heather B. Moore Jewelry and now, well, we're turned on. What can I say, awesome, expensive custom baubles make me hot. (Hint to the sigOth.)I think any of this talented artist's (blown glass, painting, photography, metal work) custom...
DIY Baby Announcements That You Won’t Regret Having DIY’d
Self-serve baby announcements that you create on the computer aren't necessarily my thing. Although I appreciate the cost savings (particular for children number two through 17) I am always squidgy about the quality of those things, to say nothing of the banal...