[category_specific_rss_menu] Are you feeling uncertain what to buy that special running, mom or woman in your life?  Perhaps, you are running out of time as well.  With the help of other running moms, here are the 10 Must Have Holiday Gifts for Running Moms.  This is part two to my series on great gifts for active moms that focuses on the necessities running moms around the country have weighed in on. The items on this list are more expensive items than you will find on my 10 Great Stocking Stuffer for Running Moms.  I organized the 10 Must Have Holiday Gifts That Every Running Mom Needs into four categories: Running Watch, Motivation, Fashion, and Accomplishments.   RUNNING WATCH 1.  Garmin Forerunner® 310XT ($349.99 basic unit w/out the HR monitor; $399 w/HR monitor) This watch is great for both runners and triathletes alike. To me this is the mega of all watches, but of course that depends on what you are looking for in a watch. I am a triathlete and runner, so I wanted a watch that was able to track all three sports. However, I have definitely not used this watch to its full potential. Some key features that are especially important for runners are the 20 hour battery, GPS features, Heart Rate Monitor; and Run, Sync, and Store features. Depending on how much you budgeted for your special running mom or lady in your life, this might be more than you are willing to spend.  However, if you are truly wanted to make her feel special and show her how much you support her running or triathlon habit, this might be the gift for you. The Garmin Forerunner 310XT basic unit without the heart rate monitor is $349 and with the...

  [category_specific_rss_menu] Since holiday gift buying season is now – with the help of other running mama’s – I gathered enough information to write a two part series on great gifts for active moms: 10 Great Stocking Stuffers for Running Moms and 10 Must Have Holiday Gifts Every Running Mom needs. Part One focuses on 10 Great Stocking Stuffers for the running, multi-sport mom or a special woman in your life. These little gifts are small enough to be placed into an already stuffed stocking. Just remember, although these items are small, doesn’t always mean inexpensive. I organized the 10 Great Stocking Stuffers into five categories: Accessories, Fashion, Motivation, Music Lovers, and Recovery and Relaxation.   ACCESSORIES If your loved one loves to be active—and stylish—then accessories are the way to go. 1.  Road ID The Road ID ($19.99) offers stylish bracelets in different colors to fit your athlete’s persona.  In the event of an accident, if you can’t speak for yourself, your Road ID will.  I use my Road ID for every activity. I have mine in hot pink and my hubby has his in orange. 2.  Head Bands If you’re looking for something more fun, yet practical, why not pick up some headbands. Running or working out with hair in your face is annoying—a sturdy headband keeps hair in its place, and your athlete can focus on her workout. Many running and triathlete moms I asked suggest Bondi Bands. Bondi Bands are are a comfy, colorful and creative way to hold your hair back with a wicking favorite.  According to some moms, you can also get them personalized as well. Active.com suggests Sweaty Bands ($6) offers cute styles and never slips.  Sweaty Bands are the ultimate sports and fitness headband, uniquely designed...

  Traveling with an infant can be very stressful especially with a new born not knowing what to pack and how much to pack.  For me, it was the first time I had to worry about packing for someone other than my husband and me. I was told that I needed to bring two outfits per day in case my son had a blowout or threw up.   Wow, that is a lot of clothes.  Like a new mom, I took the advice only to realize after several trips that I did not need two outfits per day and came home with a lot of clean clothes. OK, maybe that is not such a bad thing on the laundry front, but not good in trying to minimize bags. This is great advice, especially if you are traveling via car and you have no place to wash laundry, which the first couple times we traveled via car this was the case for us.  But in order to reduce my luggage, I developed my own rule of thumb, one and half outfits per day.   For example:  a six day trip, I would take 9 onesies. I am no pro at traveling, but we have done several long road trips with our son including a 50 hour car ride in 10 days and crossed 13 states, so after preparing for that trip, I feel more equipped to provide a infant packing check list. I developed an infant packing check list of necessity items that I needed  to remember when traveling with my son. Your list will become more modified and honed over time based on your baby’s needs and yours, but hopefully, this is a good starting point for you.   For additional packing resources check out BabyCenter.com....

  Picking a pediatrician is extremely important.  When we were born our parents chose a pediatrician based on their parents and friends recommendations; not much has changed.  You will still receive the majority of your recommendations through your family and friend network.  But what has changed since our birth is now you interview the pediatrician. With so many of our friends having babies, I found it only appropriate to write about how to go about choosing a pediatrician. I am no expert, but this was useful information that was passed down to me when we were expecting from many mommy friends and sisters who all had to go through the process of choosing the right pediatrician. You should begin your pediatrician search in your sixth or seventh month of pregnancy.  Most pediatricians now have new parents informational sessions or “meet and greets’ with the pediatrician. If not, call the office and set up an introductory appointment.  They will generally not charge you for this appointment.  My recommendation is that if the pediatrician does charge, then you might not want to go with that practice.  To me it is just like any other business, you do not charge prospective clients; it is considered business development and it is the cost of doing business. When you begin calling the offices to set-up a time to meet the pediatrician consider the following: How long does it take to get through the phone system?  Were the people answering the phone polite, knowledgeable and helpful?   How long did they put you on hold?  If you choose one of these offices, you want to ensure you can speak to someone in a timely manner because if there is an emergency you want to know they will be there for you....

  The holiday season is just around the corner and it one of the busiest seasons for airlines; like millions of other people you probably are considering traveling to see your family and friends.  And if you are anything like me you want to carry on to avoid checking in bags, if at all possible, especially now that airlines charge you for checked baggage. As I stated in my post on 15 Tips for Flying with a Lap Infant, I am not an expert flying with a toddler, but have done it many times in the past 20 months since C2 was born. To provide additional value, I have partnered with another mom, Kristy Wood stay at home mom to 20 mos. old J. Kristy travels often with J and has been on 14 flights with him. We are two moms that want to share our tips and experiences with other parents in hopes that our tips will make your travel experience a bit more pleasant and less stressful. Here are our top 10 tips on how to Travel Carry on Only with a Toddler. 1.  Research. Research. Research. Purchase. Prior to purchasing any items for travel, research and think about the items you really need versus the items you want. My husband and I travel a lot, so when we found out we were expecting we knew we had our work cut out for us. I hate to check baggage with a passion, so this also fueled my need to pack smart, and buy products that served more than one purpose, or were compact. Every trip that we went on after we found out we were expecting became a research trip. We would look around the airports, planes, and at families traveling with...