In the past two month, recently a lot of our friends gave birth, which got me thinking of unique baby gifts. We received so many unique and personalized gifts when C2 was born that I wanted to share. The unique and/or personalized gifts mean so much to me because as a kid – and even now – I could never find anything with my name spelled correctly or personalized. Therefore, I am always in search of unique, personalized gifts that would be great to give to others.  Here are some of my top favorite unique baby gifts.   Lovem Security Blankets.  C2 received a Lovem Security Blanket from his Aunt and Uncle. His Lovem was custom made to look like our first baby (our lovable, English black Lab Parker).   Lovem blankets are made with two luxurious layers of coordinating Minky and an adorable stuffed animal, so your child is actually getting an animal to love as well as a favorite blanket!  They average price range is $17-$35.     Bodmer’s Pottery. Personalized handmade custom pottery plates are excellent gifts for a baby. We received one when C2 was born, and now it is proudly displayed in his room.  The plates are 7” in diameter and cost approximately $50.00.     Monthly Onesies Stickers.  I really wanted these for our son, but could not find them until of course he is almost 12 months old.  These are a great gift for an expecting mama, Monthly Onesies Stickers and/or Monthly Onesies Complete Set.  You can celebrate your baby’s “monthiversary” by photographing them in this set of 12 onesies. The Monthly Onesies Complete Set actual comes with onesie that are made with love using 100% cotton Carter’s brand bodysuits using high quality transfer paper. Each onesie has a...

[category_specific_rss_menu] *Updated April 22, 2013 For a comprehensive list of 2013 & 2014 stroller friendly races, please see the Stroller Friendly Race Calendar.  We currently have more than 1000 races listed and adding approximately 20 races weekly. *********** January 17, 2012 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 and some that encourage all family participation. Although, in search of stroller friendly races, I have not found one comprehensive list anywhere. 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 task, especially for parents who are trying to plan out their race schedules for the year.  Don’t get me wrong, I do plenty of races sans jog stroller – my husband and I switch of race days or get someone to watch our son – but, there are times it is nice to bring him to “race”.  As you know, for whatever reason, not all parents have the luxury of having someone else watch their child, so racing without them is not an option. One note:  I do encourage anyone racing with a jog stroller to abide by Jog Stroller Racing Etiquette. This is very important not only for the safety of you and your baby, but also for the other runners. I began doing research on stroller friendly races and reaching out to the race directors of each race so I can develop a 2012 stroller friendly...

Being that Educause, a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology, coined January Data Privacy; it got me thinking about kids’ privacy online.  With so many people blogging about their day-to-day lives, especially new parents wanting to document their child’s milestones online and share them with family; I wonder how we go about ensuring their privacy online. As of July 2011 according to Mashable, the two largest blogging sites Tumblr and WordPress.com, together hosted more than 20,958,182 blogs (Tumblr had 20,873,182 blogs and WordPress.com’s had approximately 85,000 blogs). So to me, the question arose do you have “rules” about what you will and will not post in blogs, forums and other online spaces such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Babycenter.com, etc.? Someone once told me that anyone could find out anything about me because my life was so public on the web.  I said, “Yes, you can, but there are a lot of things you will hopefully never find out about me because my husband and I have  house “rules” for social media (more guidelines because use of mobile technology and social media change daily) about how, what, where and when we choose to share our personal information. As my hubby and I have become more actively engaged in social networks and in combination with the our son’s birth, we decided it was time to have family “rules” (guidelines) for social media.  Our rules are constantly  being revised based on new security and privacy issues that arise daily, especially with regards to our son’s privacy online. According to comScore.com, social networking sites now reach 82 percent of the world’s online population, representing 1.2 billion users around the world.  In my opinion, that is a...

Is the hotel kid friendly? Traveling with your baby and/or toddler and planning on staying in a hotel? Kristy Wood, one of my favorite guest bloggers, and I have developed frequently asked questions to make sure the hotel you plan on staying at is kid friendly. If this is the first time staying in a hotel with your baby, make sure you ask the hotel the following questions or be sure to check their website for the accommodations before booking your reservation.  By finding out the answers to the questions before you arrive, will make for a more pleasant first time experience for your entire family, plus you will be more prepared. Do you have refrigerators in the standard rooms? If not, be sure to ask if they could put one in for you. A refrigerator is essential if you are breast feeding and you need to store breast milk. Or you have a toddler that is already on whole milk and you need to keep some at your disposal. In my experience some boutique hotels might not provide refrigerators in the rooms, but they will put your breast milk in their kitchen refrigerator. If they do, be sure to mark the cooler well with your last name and identify it is breast milk. Do they have a crib available to use or rent? This is only essential if you are planning to not bring your own pack-n-play or another sleeping device.  Ensure you ask them how old the cribs are and if they know when they were purchased.   From experience, I found that higher end hotels generally have the newer cribs ones that have not been recalled, but with lower end or cheaper hotels they have cribs that have been recalled or the...

Since children grow so fast, I wanted to capture the 10 best things my toddler – now 22 months old almost 23 months old – has said to me this past year that has warmed my heart and still does every time I hear them. 1.  “Ma Ma” 2.  “Da Da” 3.  “Wuve you.” (Love You) This warms my heart every time I hear this, which I usually hear several times a day. 4.  “Nite Nite” Both Brett and I love to hear this. C2 usually says this when he is going to bed and waves good night. 5.  “Da Da race, Ma Ma Race” While Brett was racing the Ironman Cozumel in November 2011, C2 would lay in bed when he didn’t want to go to sleep and talk to himself for an hour about racing. 6.  “Go fast” C2 loves to run, so when he runs he says “Go fast”. 7.  “Brovers” (Brothers) Referring to our two lovable labs Parker and Cole who we refer to as “The Boys” or his brothers. C2 does not recognize that his brothers are dogs. 8.  “Yeah, did it” He usually claps and cheers for himself after he accomplishes something like jumping off a stair or his interpretation of jumping. 9.  “Go, Go, Go” C2 loves to play chase and when you run after him, he yells “Go, Go, Go”. 10.  “Oh, no” When C2 was 15 ½ months our Au Pair started teaching him when he drop something to put his hands on his head and go “oh, no”. Although, as we know,  toddlers can be challenging, but I think the good times, toddler hugs and kisses outweigh any of toddlers trying...