I normally do not announce a new page on my site via a blog post, but I wanted to share with you that you can now submit a Stroller Friendly Race via the Race Submission page.  If you know of a race that is stroller friendly or you think one might be – but not sure – I would encourage you to submit the Race Here. Once a submission is received, I will verify with the race director that the race is stroller friendly and then add it to the calendar and blog post. Please be patient. The race might not be added right away because it might take awhile for the race director to get back to me. So far, there are more than 1000 races throughout the United States that have been identified as Stroller Friendly and we have not even got through half the States.  Thank you for all your support in making the Stroller Friendly Race calendar comprehensive....

Does your Au Pair travel? Does your Au Pair stay in cheap hotels/motels or hostels?  Most likely the answer to these questions are yes.  Has your Au Pair heard of bed bugs?  The most likely answer to this question is no and if they have heard of bed bugs it is because the commonly  used phrased by parents worldwide when tucking their children into bed. “Sleep tight; don’t let the bed bugs bite.” This is no longer just a phrase. This past August our Au Pair had friends visit that frequented several hostels while traveling the United States East Coast.   Not only did her friends stay at our home, but they left some uninvited guests – bed bugs. According to Orkin Pest Control, they have seen a 33% rise in bed bugs since 2011.  As of 2012, New York (ranked 10th in the country) and Washington, DC (ranked 7th in the county), of course two of the places my Au Pair’s and their friends frequented. Every morning for about a week, our Au Pair would wake up with bug bites all over her legs, neck and back. We thought at first that they were mosquito bites and then perhaps spider bites finally my husband – who lived in New York – said that we might have bed bugs.  Of course I was mortified and automatically started itching. I knew nothing about bed bugs, so immediately I did research, but my husband did.  You can’t get rid of bed bugs with RAID and normal spray…it does nothing; over the years bed bugs have become more resistant to pesticides.  First, we found a reputable bed bug exterminator and one that used canines to detect if we had these little mites. Low and behold, the dog detected...

[category_specific_rss_menu] Although this is not a “race”, I was inspired to put Touch A Truck on the 2013 Stroller Friendly Race calendar where you can find the information on how to purchase tickets.  In addition, you can  download the Excel 2013 Stroller Friendly Race Calendar. Today, I was contacted by Melissa Mikulak of San Diego, California.  Melissa is a mom, the race director of Max Run, but also co-founder of a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization Max Ring of Fire that was founded in 2008 by her and her husband Andy.  The charity is a pediatric cancer fundraising and advocacy organization that supports innovative neuroblastoma research and clinical trials. Melissa and Andy started the foundation in honor of their late son Max.  Max was diagnosed with the disease at the age of three and battled hard against the disease for four years until the age of seven. I first reached out to Melissa because I heard from a mom that the Max Run is an awesome race that is family friendly and stroller friendly, but they did not have their 2013 date picked.  Melissa wrote back stating they don’t have a date set yet, but their next event Touch A Truck on June 8, 2013 in San Diego, California is very family friendly and of course stroller friendly. She asked me to add it to the calendar. How could I not?  I am a mom of two and my oldest is a little boy who is now three, same age as Max when he was diagnosed.  My heart was touched by Melissa, Andy and their son Max. I have added Tough A Truck on June 8, 2013 in from 10 AM – 3 PM in San Diego, California at Qualcomm Stadium to the calendar.  If you...

Sleep training is one of my least favorite things to do as a parent. I understand the importance of teaching your baby how to sleep, but like most parents the crying can be unbearable.  With C2 (now almost three year old), I swaddled him until he was 7 months old. Being first time parents, we did not really sleep train our son until he was a nearly a year old.  I thought the “Cry It Out” method seemed mean, more because I could not handle the crying. It broke my heart. My husband graciously allowed me to take the lead on sleep training because I was the one reading all the books and spending more time with our son at night. To be fair, my husband thought we should of sleep trained our son much sooner, but I was not ready.  However, finally at 12 months I was ready and we went to the “Cry It Out” or “Ferberizing“. We all needed sleep desperately.  Yes, I do know there are several types of sleep training methods and I tried them. With my daughter Ace who is nearly 5 months old, we began sleep training her around 4 months old.  The circumstances were different and yes, as the experts say, every child is different. Plus as parents for the second time, we were more comfortable sleep training her earlier.  My daughter is a much bigger baby than my son and much longer; she no longer fits in the Halo Swaddle Sleeper. Moreover, at nap time she lasted 20-30 minutes and at night she was getting up every hour or hour and half and not because she was hungry or wet, she just wanted to sleep being held.  We would lay her in her crib and...

[category_specific_rss_menu] Updated as of June 18, 2013. Due to high demand, I have migrated all the stroller friendly races to an actual Stroller Friendly Race Calendar; whereby, you can search by state (categories) and race distance (tags) to see the races available.  Currently, there are more than 1000 races listed throughout the United States and on average, 20-30 races are added a week. ******************* January 11, 2013 Stroller friendly races are hard to find. While many races discourage or outright prohibit the use of jog strollers during the race, I have found several races that offer special start times to strollers, some that encourage all family participation or allow the strollers to start in the back.  As of 2012, I began developing a comprehensive list, but I never completed it, so I am trying again this year. Currently,  I have a fairly comprehensive list with more than 60 stroller friendly races in the following states; Virginia, Illinois, California (San Diego and working on San Francisco), Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri , Nebraska, North Carolina and Texas.  Furthermore, you will notice in the Excel document there are worksheets for every state. The Excel document is is alphabetical order by state and each state’s list is organized by date of the race, distance (5K, 10K, 4 miler, 1/2 marathon or other distance) and location. As you probably have found there is no one comprehensive list and/or website to go to that indicates races as stroller friendly. Sites such as Running in the USA, Active.com, or Runner’s World do not have a search filter for “jogging strollers”, so in order to find out if races are jog stroller friendly, you have to contact each individual race director. As you can well imagine this is a daunting...