You had me at "how do you close this thing?"

L.O.V.E.

I just returned from {a much needed} vacation and I now can truly say...I love my stroller. Not just love, in love, infatuated, soul-mated to my stroller. I once {back in '07} thought I was in love...with a Bugaboo. But now I know that was merely young lust. Once you've mated with a stroller, you know all those that came before it were simply a distraction. Love like this doesn't come around every day {well, until the next great stroller comes out.}

Okay, okay enough with the metaphors. Here is what sold me, and has kept me, in love with my CityMini. And if you are a parent, a grandparent or even a caretaker, you will understand why I fell hard for this one:

Perfection!

If you've ever struggled to close any stroller with packages in one hand, or a screaming baby in another hand, or both, you'll understand how beautiful the CityMini's quick close feature is.

As I was waiting to go through customs after a 5+ hour flight home, trying to corral my sleep deprived 4 year old, hold my completely knocked out 1.5 year old and make sure our luggage wasn't picked off, I folded and unfolded {just as amazing} this bad boy too many times to count. And every time I was able to flick it open and close and move in and out of places, I fell deeper and deeper in love.

But don't take my word for it. Love is best experienced in person:

Baby Jogger City Mini Stroller by Baby Jogger

The gift that truly keeps on giving

TEGU
The Tegu Story from Tegu on Vimeo.

I found these guys on Open Sky {one of my new addictions} and after watching the video above I instantly fell in love with their story and products. I am always on the hunt for non-plastic or recyclable/eco-friendly toys and ones not made in China {no offense to the Chinese, but they know what kinds of products they are making}.

These toys fit both of these requirements. And, to sweeten the purchase, for every toy you buy, Tegu will plant 12 trees in Honduras or fund one day of school for a child who would otherwise work on a trash dump near Tegucigalpa. The products are simple. But simple is best for little ones. It helps ignite their imagination and unleash creativity. Wooden blocks are a staple for any kids toy box, but even more so when they are young like my little ones {1 and 4}.  It can be quite frustrating when they fall over so easily!  

Tegu's blocks fix that little problem because each piece is magnetized. So after your little one has concentrated so hard to build the best castle possible, it won't be instantly ruined when his/her little brother/sister comes and tries to knock it down {we call Little J the Block Monster}


Watch the video, it's a must see. Check out their products. And buy a gift that won't just end up as another toy box casualty.

Virtual Baby

They change so fast! We try as hard a possible to capture, record, memorialize all of the special moments. But being a mommy to 1, 2, 3 or more little ones does not leave you with the luxury of leisurely writing in and designing a baby book. And if you're like me, your smartphone, tablet, laptop is usually a lot closer when these memories occur than that beautifully embroidered keepsake book gathering dust in the top of your little one's closet. 

I soooo want to be the mommy who has a beautiful book that includes all of my little ones' firsts and special keepsakes.  But alas, I'm up to baby number 2 and haven't even gotten past 4 months in my book for baby number 1.

That is why I LOVE the concept behind MyOwnLittleStory. They claim to be the "only on-line baby book with email reminders".  Sounds good to me, but I haven't come across any with non-email reminders so..hey...ok. But what I think is great about them is that:

♥ you can design and create a book for free {yes, free!}. That way if you start working on it, with all the best of intentions, you're not out 25, 50, 75 bucks if you don't quite complete the project; 

♥ the interface is so user-friendly and they even give you prompts {on each page and via email} so you don't have to come up with what to include on each page; 

♥ your book can be as long or as short as you want; and 

♥ best of all, you can upload pictures to your book! What I lack in book creation, I more than make up for in photographic memory creation.  I have gigabytes of photos of my boys. Cheese was {and likely will be} both of their first words.

The only catch is what the book looks like after you print it. That's where the money comes in, but the prices are reasonable.  Unfortunately, they don't give you a lot of detail about what the finished product will look like, or better yet show you detailed samples of finished book. It would be very helpful for me to see how moms who are really good at this wrote in and designed their books. 

If nothing else, I have an easy and highly accessible place to record the memories until I get around to actually figuring out the book creation process. Which is.....Priceless.

A Picture's Worth $1000 Words

Okay, maybe not $1000, but at least half.  The Sony Alpha NEX-3 is just awesome. When my son was born we purchased a Canon DSLR.  I love to take photographs, but I hated the slow shutter speed of the pocket digital cameras {at the time}.  I knew that to really capture infants and small children, you need very fast response time.  So we splurged and and purchased the big bulky DSLR and I haven't regretted the purchase to this day.  

What I do long for is the size of the pocket cameras. When you have 2 kids and all the myriad things that come with them, the last thing you can afford to add to it is a big, bulky, fragile camera.  But I've done it, it's just not fun.  And I've missed a lot of photographic opportunities solely because I didn't have enough hands {or energy} to pull out my DSLR. 

This Christmas I was helping my mom pick a gift for my dad.  Now, he's still using a Cybershot from 2000.  Needless, to say, it's slooowww.  But as I looked for a new flicker, I stumbled across Smile Shutter from Sony.  It's on a number of their cameras, but I liked it best paired with the Sony Alpha NEX-3.  The Smile Shutter, when enabled, makes the camera take a picture when the subjects smile.  

This is incredibly useful when your subjects are little people who smile quickly and out of the blue. So I was eager to try it out on Christmas Day.  Unfortunately, that did not happen because Sony does not include memory sticks with their cameras {can we say cheap! geez}.  A few days later, after I received the memory stick from Amazon I took the Alpha NEX-3 out for a click.  The results were so wonderful! 

My seven month old is the most adorable little one ever {yes, I'm biased} and looks even more amazing when he smiles.  But it's difficult to catch him cracking one.  I'm always so busy trying to get him to smile, I often miss the smiles or catch them on the tail end.  But with the Smile Shutter set, I just held up the camera while I made funny noises and faces trying to get my little one to smile.  And just as advertised, as soon as he flashed his pearly 2 whites, the shutter snapped.  The picture is the best one I have and I can't wait to take many many more.

SMILE!
{not my little one, but he's still cute}

Boutique Magnifique

I recently moved to Washington, DC and while I was born and raised in this area, I have been in New York for so long now I feel like a New Yorker.  So, returning to this area has been a huge adjustment.

 Like any good New Yorker {read snob}, I think every other city is just not good enough.  The restaurants are not as good. The shopping's not as good. The people aren't as interesting {read rude}. 

For an urban-mom like me that includes the baby boutiques, activities and Mommy and Me groups.  Will they be as trendy?  Will there be tons of activities to choose from?  Will I even want to join any of the groups?

Well the answer to the first question at least is a resounding Yes!  I know that Georgetown has always been a generally cool place to shop, but I didn't know Capitol Hill was so fab!  I particularly love the row of family-friendly shops near Eastern Market and especially Dawn Price Baby.  They have all of the best baby gear, clothing and gifts that you could want.  Her taste is impeccable.  I strolled through their Capitol Hill shop thinking "I like that, and that and that and that, ooh and that too!"  So, of course, I had to pick up a few things that I needed {eehhm yes needed} for my little ones -- French flash cards, mitten clips and an über cute cable knit outfit. 

If you are a NYC-transplant in the DC area, be sure to check out Dawn Price Baby.  And for a few minutes you may forget that you're strolling the shops in our nation's capital and think you've just stumbled across a cute new baby boutique in SoHo.

Custom Cuddlery

I guess you know by now that I love baby blankets...and of course anything personalized.  So I really love Fill In The Blankie.  They make great, keepsake blankets that include extensive personalization in the cost {you not only can include a name and date, but a message/saying too...all 4 sides of the blanket!}.

I've purchased 2 blankets from them for my sons' infant Dedications -- the As Good As It Gets and the Martha's Majesty -- and was super pleased.  I also purchased one as a gift and the mom is still talking about how wonderful the blanket is.  I just wish I could afford to get one for each milestone in my kids lives {okay maybe not high school graduation, but at least while they are babies☺}!

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