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The Mickey Mote showed up in my mailbox the other day and like most of you I had no idea what a Mickey Mote was. My kid, though, had some strange, deep instinctual understanding that this (THIS!) was a thing for him. And indeed it was.

The Mickey Mote from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is a stripped-to-the-basics remote control in a very familiar mouse shape. Kids in the 2-5 age range use the remote to interact with any Disney Preschool DVD that includes Discovery Mode, the interactive “Watch & Play” feature on the DVD.

Our sample came with a Handy Manny DVD which, when switched to Discovery Mode, allowed the kid to play with the television. It transformed a serious case of couch potato to a much more involved version. He loved it. He quickly Read more…

Married With Children Seeks Responsible, Dependable, and Attractive Crib. Must be well-made, eco-minded, fun, and preferably should match the decor. Sometimes finding the right furniture for your mini seems just as daunting as the dating scene once did. But you don’t need Read more…

When the sun is shining, your kid will happily spend every day outside running around at the playground. But as the darker, colder, and rainier days of autumn approach, what do you do with the under four-foot set? Bugge has a great solution. Their unique play structures allow for Read more…

Alphabet books come in every make and model. They range from pretty picture books that are so pristine they  seem intended more for the parent than the kids to the basic workbook. Sarah Midda’s How to Build an A takes learning your letters out of just rote memorization and puts it squarely in the fun category. It teaches kids that l Read more…

I don’t know about your kid, but my kid has never met a candle that he doesn’t want to blow out. Whether we’re at restaurants or the in-laws’ house, no candle is safe. I blame endless rounds of Happy Birthday and the promise of cake. Luckily there is a new kind of candle out there that the kid can’t blow out. He also can’t burn himself on it. Why? Because it is flameless. Read more…

As a busy mom on the go, go, go, there is no time for water spills. Unfortunately, there is also no time for making sure the cap is completely on the water bottle before chucking it your bag. Houston, we have a problem.

Well, we did before the nice folks at Contigo sent me a sample of their spill proof water bottle. After a week-long test run, I can attest that the bottle can be Read more…

Teaching your child to write is one of the great joys of parenting. This little baby that you made has grown up so much that he or she is now on the verge of writing actual letters. Soon they will be able to write their own name and then start typing their own preschool admission essays. Will wonders never cease?

Brain Quest Alphabet is a write and erase set that facilitates your youngster learning to write letters. In an easy to use binder, your little genius traces the letter twice and then writes it on their own. It’s simple and effective. The set includes all the letters in both upper and lowercase along with a pen with built-in eraser. Simply write the letter and wipe the card clean to start again.

I received a review copy of this product and, frankly, was a little skeptical. Why would my Buzz Lightyear-obsessed, soccer playing three-year-old want to stop playing, stand still, and write letters? Boy was I surprised! He came right over, picked up the pen, and started practicing.

Soon, with some help, he had written all the letters in his name. It was so amazing I picked up the video camera. This was historic and needed to be preserved for posterity. Also, Facebook. Interestingly, the excitement and interest in learning has lasted. He keeps writing and his letters keep improving.

I’m taking a moment to savor the wonder before starting to panic about paying for Ivy League admission.

In addition to the educational value of the Brain Quest Alphabet, another great thing about this activity is its portability. If you are a parent like me who occasionally thinks it is a good idea to dine at restaurants with a toddler, the Brain Quest Alphabet is a great dinnertime distraction. Just toss it in your purse and keep the kiddo entertained at the table while you wait for your entrees to arrive. After dinner your kid will be fed and educated and it will almost be bedtime, which is, of course, the other great joy of parenting.

Brain Quest Alphabet’s is available online at Target for $8.30.

The last time your toddler went on an artistic streak, your walls ended up splattered in purple. Let your young artist express his inner Jackson Pollock or Claude Monet while protecting the environment with the Ecotots Art Time Easel. The easel’s design is the perfect combination of creative expression and environmental activism.

The easel has a sleek modern look and comes in four environmentally-safe non-toxic hues, sure to please both your budding artist and your interior decorator. At just under 40-inches high, the easel is suitable for kids 2 and up and will last from fingerpaints to pointillism.

Plus the easel is incredibly easy to assemble with none of that blue-knob-on-screw-4, red knob-on-screw-5-tighten-with-an-allen-wrench nonsense. In fact, there are no tools necessary to assemble the easel. The Ecotots Art Time Easel is constructed out of just three pieces of 100% formaldehyde-free, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified/environmentally friendly “SmartWood”. It’s as good for the environment as it is for your sanity.

Still not sold? The easel comes with a lifetime construction guarantee meaning that when your child graduates from Impressionism to Expressionism a la John Madden, the easel will survive the transition in style.

The Ecotots Art Time Easel is available online from Amazon for $150.00:

Every day another sandwich …and another sandwich bag. In fact, more than 20 million sandwich bags from school lunches go into landfills in the U.S. every day! While I’m all for reducing, reusing and recycling, it gets a bit dicey when you’re trying to cram a sandwich into your kid’s lunchbox sans bag and it’s hard to reuse a bag that’s been covered in peanut butter. Luckily the folks behind Lunchskins sandwich, snack, and sub bags felt the same way and crafted a simple, yet ingenious alternative to disposable bags.

Lunchskins are reusable sandwich bags that come in a variety of sizes and are easy to clean and re-use. Buy it once and they last years making them a sound investment. Hand-sewn in the U.S. of A out of food-safe fabric Lunchskins are immensely better for the environment than use-and-toss plastic baggies. They are lead-free, bpa-free and phthalate-free and with the purchase of certain styles they donate a portion of proceeds to environmental charities. Find a baggie that does that! Plus, they are also a lot cuter, and with styles as diverse as crabs, polka dots, apples, and flowers there is something for every taste.

I was lucky enough to receive a free sample for review and after just one use I went and bought three more. They are just so darn useful, plus we eat a lot of sandwiches. Plus, when you do the math, it’s a no-brainer. For the cost of two boxes of plastic bags, you get a multi-use, multi-purpose reusable bag that can last for years. What’s not to love?

Lunchskins are available online at lunchskins.com. Sandwich bags go for $8.95, snack bags for $7.95, and sub bags $10.95.

Congratulations, your baby has graduated from a crib to a real bed! Now for the bad news: most toddler bedding is a snooze. When it’s time to head into your average department store to buy sheets for the new Big Kid bed, you will most likely be greeted with a cavalcade of pale pink puppies, light blue clouds and sleepy cartoon characters. Yawn.

Yes, the one thing that can be said about most sheet sets is that they will certainly put you to sleep. But Boodalee is willing to bet that your little angel will sleep just as well on brightly-patterned circus prints and brilliantly-colored cityscapes. The company was founded by a mom with a modern aesthetic and the hope of creating colorful palettes to counteract the boringness of most bedding.

Let your little dreamer drift off to sleep with visions of the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, and Egyptian pyramids from Boodalee’s World duvet set dancing through their head. Follow up a bedtime story by tucking your little girl into sheets covered in electric pink-and-blue castles. And who wouldn’t blast off to sleep dreaming of far off galaxies in Boodalee’s Space themed pillows?

These ultra-fun sheet sets have 250 thread count and come in 100% combed cotton percale. And if you are worried that those bright colors will fade, don’t be! Boodalee’s fabric has a reactive dye printing process that ensures superior colorfastness.

Your kid isn’t boring; their sheets shouldn’t be either.

Boodalee twin sheet sets come with a fitted sheet, flat sheet and pillowcase for $80.00. Duvets and sham sets are $110.00. Available online at boodalee.com.

Priorities change when you have a kid, but style doesn’t have to. Take the beautifully designed Hi Lo Highchair from AGE Design. The chair has a simple modern design that would work in even the most minimalist of decors. But buried within that sleek modernism is a highchair for real parents, not just those who live in a home ripped from the pages of the Design Within Reach catalog.

The Hi Lo Highchair has clean lines, but better yet, it’s easy to clean. It is made of solid beech wood and a molded plastic with a removable pad that makes clean up a snap. The tray has a built-in splash guard and is made from one piece of plastic busy parents can just wipe and go. The chair also has wheels making it easy to cart around the house. Safety features include a removable 3-point harness system and crotch bar to ensure that junior doesn’t follow his peas to the floor.

But the real secret to the amazing design of the Hi Lo Highchair is hidden in the name. With a quick pull of tabs located on the sides of the frame and a gentle push to turn the seat over, the remarkable chair flips from infant chair to a toddler chair that allows your tot to sit at a table without a booster seat. The chair is suitable for kids from 6 months to 6 years, so it grows with your child.

Such well-planned design never goes out of style.

The HiLo Highchair is available from ModernNursery.com for $299. Check out our sister site Smart Mom Deals to find out how to save 5% off products at Modern Nursery.

It’s hot, your kid is hollering, and everyone is grumpy. Sometimes you just need a popsicle. Like, now. That’s when you need the Zoku Quick Pop Maker.  The newfangled appliance’s technology lets the pop maker dive well below the temperature required to freeze juice, so you can make three ice pops in no time, without electricity or a long wait. Magic, right?

Simply store the Zoku Quick Pop Maker in your freezer (at least one day before you need an ice pop) and when you’re ready to make some icy treats, transfer the space-age contraption to the counter, fill the molds with fresh fruit juices for the kids (or maybe Kahlua-laced ice pops for the grown ups?), and watch them crystallize in about seven minutes. Yep, seven minute!. It’s like a little piece of Antarctica in your kitchen.

The Zoku comes with sticks, drip catchers and a special tool for removing the pops, so all you need to do is freeze, fill, and wait for the magic to happen.

Zoku Quick Pop Maker is available at Williams-Sonoma stores or online at zokuhome.com for $50.00.

Remember when you were a kid and back-to-school shopping meant buying a new lunch box each and every year? While we all loved our E.T. and Fraggle Rock lunchboxes, buying a new lunchpail every year is expensive and wasteful.

Today’s lunchboxes are much more eco-conscious. Take the Yubo Lunchbox, for example. The compact lunchbox is BPA-free, anti-microbial, dishwasher safe, and (when you are done with it) fully recyclable. But, you probably won’t be sick of your Yubo for a long time because of the unique ability to change faceplates. That means there is no need to buy a whole new lunchbox every time your kid’s taste changes from say, Toy Story to Despicable Me. You can also design your own faceplate, perhaps with a photo of your face or a plate or the family dog.

If the eco-features of the box alone aren’t enough to make you want to buy a Yubo, each lunchbox comes with a slim ice pack, which is so logical it is shocking it is not common practice. Simply stick the ice pack in the freezer and tuck into the lunchbox and your kiddo’s yogurt snack will stay nice and cool all day.

If you opt for the Deluxe Yubo, your lunchbox comes filled with three BPA-free food containers. The perfectly portioned containers mean no more baggies heading to the landfill. The containers are just the right size for a child’s entree and two sides, but if you want more options you can also purchase two medium-sized containers (for $7.95) and a drink container ($5.95), which you can mix and match in the lunchbox for mealtime variety.

However, if you want to tuck in a banana or a juice box in addition to the sandwich and sides, you are out of luck. They simply don’t fit within the Yubo’s structure. This limitation is a little frustrating, but if your kid eats less than my 90th percentile son, the Yubo is an awesome lunchbox.

Yubo lunchboxes are available online at getyubo.com. The standard lunchbox is $21.95, the deluxe (with three containers) is $29.95. Thanks to Yubo for providing a lunchbox for this review.

photo credit: Yubo

It’s August, which means one thing to parents: Back to School Shopping Time. You’ll want to batten down the hatches when the flurry of pencil cases, lunchboxes, gym shoes, folders, and books hits your home, but don’t get stressed – get labeled!

Whether it is for summer camp, preschool, swim lessons, play dates, or because your life is a whirlwind of all of those, labeling your kids’ gear is key. A label means a lost binder can be found, water bottles stay with their owners, and the right lunchbox comes home from school.

I.D. Me Labels offers completely personalized labels for every corner of your life, but it is their school combo packs that won my heart. The pack comes with over 80 labels for affixing to books, clothes, shoes, bags, and everything in between, which completely justifies the price. The fact that you can choose from a variety of fonts, patterns, and icons means your label will stand out even more.

I.D. Me Labels’ combo packs cover every possible situation where a label might come in handy. I had no idea how much I needed the bag tag until my kid left his bag on a park bench and a kindly mother called the number on the adorable Octopus tag. Now the streamline labels have been affixed to his favorite books, there’s a label in his soccer shoes, and, at his insistence, there is one firmly attached to Buzz Lightyear’s plastic foot.

In short, labels rule the school.

I.D. Me Labels are available online at idmelabels.com. The school combo packs cost $43. Thanks to I.D. Me Labels for providing a complimentary school combo pack for this review.

photo credits: I.D. Me Labels

It’s 6 a.m. the first time the kid calls out, “What time is it?!” Before you can respond, “Time to get a watch!” you remember: The kid can’t tell time. Yet. That’s when you pile everyone in the car to go buy the Teach Me Time! Talking Bedside Alarm Clock and Night Light.

The Teach Me Time! clock has both a regular clock mode and an educational mode. When the clock is in telling time mode, your little learner pushes a big button on the clock’s foot and the clock announces the time. When you are ready to teach your kid, just flip the switch in the back and the clock’s robotic voice asks the perennial question, “What time is it?” Your kid takes a guess at the time and pushes the button on the clock’s right foot for the answer. Hit the button on the left foot and the next round starts. Easy, simple, fun.

This clock had all the features I was looking for in a learning clock. When your kid really wants to learn, the clock is a straight-forward teaching tool, with two easy to use buttons and a clear clock face. Unfortunately, if your kid has the attention span of most toddlers, the clock isn’t quite engaging enough to play with for a long time. However, my kid is only three and I have high hopes that by the time he is four, this clock will come in very handy.

The other problem with the clock is that it is strangely complicated. I still haven’t figured out how to program the nightlight, but that hardly matters when my son is gleefully pushing the button and announcing, “It’s bedtime!” Who is going to argue with that? Now if I could just teach him to make his bed.

The Teach Me Time! Talking Bedside Alarm Clock and Night Light is available at Target for $39.99.

At those 4 a.m. feedings or in the beginning stages of potty training, sometimes we mothers feel like we are all alone in the world and have to discover every tip, trick and cure ourselves. But reinventing the wheel is exhausting and motherhood is exhausting enough!

Tap into the rich history of a profession that has been around since Eve. So what do mothers through the ages use to soothe their wee ones? Muslin.

Cotton muslin is an ancient fabric that was used 7000 years ago to swaddle babies. It is pure, simple, gentle and the perfect fabric to keep your kiddo cool, cuddled and (hopefully) sound asleep. That’s why Aden + Anais chose this fabric to make their awesome blankets. The incredibly soft fabric is perfect for sensitive baby skin and tough enough for a toddler.

The blankets are lightweight, too, meaning kids won’t get too hot (and wake up) during the summer months. My three-year old cuddles with his plush blanket when the air conditioning gets to be too much at night. The muslin’s lightweight open weave means breathability and summertime sleeping perfection.

Aden + Anais also makes infant sleeping bags, washcloths, hooded towels, and so-called Dream Blankets. These super soft muslin toddler-sized blankets live up to their name. They are plush and cozy, and my kid loves to snuggle up in his blanket for storytime.

He’s gotten so attached to the blanket, there’s a good chance he will take the thing to college. And why shouldn’t he? It’s comfortable, light and durable. He uses it for snoozes and as a playspace, and we brought it to an outdoor family movie night, too.

While 7000 years ago they probably didn’t have swaddling cloths in giraffe or alphabet prints, Aden + Anais offers each of their luxe baby wares in a variety of colors and patterns. Organic and bamboo options are also available.

Available online at Adenandanais.com. Prices vary depending on item, but generally range from $19-$45.