Archive for August, 2010

With Labor Day approaching, a new fall TV season is just around the corner. That means fresh episodes of the L&Os, CIS and NCIS multiples and The Good Wife plus a batch of freshman shows (many of which are usually canceled).

For the sandbox set, PBS Kids is rolling out The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That (see UB story) on Labor Day, and Nickelodeon is launching its first annual Nickelodeon Mega Music Fest, an hour-long, prime-time concert special. Teen sensation Justin Bieber will be headlining the show along with Wyclef Jean, The Laurie Berkner Band, The Fresh Beat Band, Dora the Explorer and Yo Gabba Gabba! Comedian John Leguizamo will host, with Sherri Shepherd serving as Stage Manager. The Mega Music Fest, which was shot live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, will feature a mix of pop and family-friendly songs.

No rotating panel of judges to follow … just singing, dancing and a young American idol with the most famous hairdo since Rachel on Friends.

Nickelodeon Mega Music Fest premieres Labor Day, Mon., 9/6, 8-9pm ET/PT on NICK with encores on Nickelodeon Tue., 9/7 at 10am ET/PT and Thur., 9/9, at 1pm ET/PT.

With the Dow hovering around 10,000, we’re not exactly working with bull market material. Time to get creative (and we’re not talking bonds or gold … well, maybe gold).

French Bull can provide us with a bull market of a different sort. French Bull is a fab home accessories and tabletop line that’s put a modern spin on melamine. The eight-year-old company is launching a number of new products this fall, including adorable kids’ trays with vibrant colors and eye-popping graphics (as of 9/1). Our fave is the “Playtime” design; it kind of looks like the Candyland board game. Kids can follow the path leading to dessert. (That’s our preferred destination.)

Coming later this fall (10/1): the premiere of French Bull Bags. We’re loving the leather Astrology Pouches. Get one to celebrate your own sign or Junior’s. Perhaps these will replace the ubiquitous initial charms necklace as a way of honoring your DC?

These new French Bull products will be available at frenchbull.com. The website also has a brick-and-mortar store locator.

This past year has been about going back to basics on the parenting front. Instead of ramping it up, we’re dialing it down and learning about simplicity parenting and unspoiling a child. Part of this change in thinking is a backlash to helicopter parenting. Part of it is due to the state of the economy; many of us have less money for over-the-top toys, clothes and extracurricular classes for our kids. TIME magazine created quite the buzz in the blogosphere last November with its cover story “The Growing Backlash against Overparenting.”

But one of the books that started it all was one of our faves here at UrbanBaby: Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier and More Secure Kids. Well, now Simplicity Parenting is out in paperback.

Waldorf educator and consultant Kim John Payne teamed up with writer Lisa M. Ross to guide parents away from the four pillars of “too much”: too much stuff, too many choices, too much information, and too fast.The book presents a wealth of helpful ideas for reclaiming childhood and finding family harmony with chapters that cover four levels of simplification – environment, rhythm, schedules and Filtering Out the Adult World.

“As parents, we’re the architects of our family’s daily lives. You can see what a family holds dear from the pattern of their everyday lives.” Kim John Payne

A friendly reminder to slow down and simplify before the school year is in full swing and we’re knee deep in the holiday season.

There are plenty of mommy/daughter aprons out there but it’s tough to find a set that doesn’t make you look like Holly Hobbie and, and, um…who was Holly Hobbie’s mom? Half Pint and Ma. You don’t want to putter around in your kitchen looking like a couple of sister wives just off the compound. Instead, what you want is the Carly Mother/Daughter Aprons.

The two ruffly, fluffy things are sweet enough to be adopted by little girls, yet, with their simple styling and vintage-look fabric, not too ridiculous for Mom. It’s an over-the-head style, so it catches more spatters and drips, and tie in the back, so the daughter version will last a nice, long time.

One quibble: each could use a pocket. But they’re cute enough that we don’t mind all that much.

Carly Mother/Daughter Aprons, $32-39

Forget about those nasty little glass bottles of processed baby swill, or even those frozen cubes of steamed vegetables that you slave over long at night after your babe’s already tucked into bed (and you should be sleeping too!). All you really need to feed your infant once he’s passed through the first-feeding stage is one of these handy dandy food mills.

At 7 and 1/2 inches, it’s small enough to be thrown into a (big) diaper bag, or certainly won’t take up a lot of room in your crowded kitchen drawers. And it produces velvety smooth mixtures, perfect for second-stage feeders and beyond. Whatever you’re eating, toss it in the mill: chicken vindaloo, fish and chips. A couple of spins later, baby food! Or, for toddlers and preschoolers who don’t like lumpy soups or vegetable dishes, paste of pleasure!

You may even find that the food mill comes in handy long after your kid is tearing away at steak at the table. It removes skins and seeds (toss in tomatoes and out comes sauce), and makes smooth-as-silk mashed potatoes. At $50 this model is a little expensive but it works like a dream.

OXO Food Mill, $50

The Italians have given us design fabulosity in the form of Gucci, Prada, Armani, Alessi plus dozens of other celebrated brands. So it’s no wonder the Italians have managed to make even a sippy cup look chic.

Welcome mOmma, a beloved Italian line of feeding products for infants and toddlers. The mOmma brand has recently come stateside. The company’s roly-poly sippy cups (with and without straws) and spoon function like a Weeble - they wobble but they don’t fall down. So that means the part of the cup that touches Junior’s lips doesn’t come in contact with dirty tables and counter tops. The cup may tilt but will pop back up before touching the table. Bonus for you: fewer spills. Bonus for your bambino: BPA- and phthalate-free products. Plus the wobbling feeding accoutrements score high in the entertainment category.

MoMA’s design store in NYC will carry mOmma (pronounced with a long “O”) items. What better endorsement of mOmma’s ability to meld design and function. mOmma at MoMA.

mOmma is available at mOmmaus.com and amazon.com.

As as the parent of an urban baby, you subscribe to the philosophy that nursery aesthetics need not clash with the rest of your home’s decor. You want Junior’s room to be an extension of the streamlined, modern look you’ve worked so hard to achieve throughout the grown-up quarters of your abode.

Enter Anna Bondoc. The artist creates one-of-a-kind nameplates. Bondoc uses time-honored art traditions of Chinese jianzhi and Japanese katagami to craft chic, mod pieces of layered paper in a sophisticated palette. The nameplates are made from Bazzill Basics Paper and come framed and unframed. Patterns include Modern Hearts (above right), Flower Geometry, Modern Hoofprint (left) and Blast Off!

Because the words “compromise” and “design” should never be mentioned in the same sentence.

Nameplates run $80-$160 and are available at annabondoc.com. Check out Bondoc’s other pattern art and notecards while visiting the site.

Parents are most likely familiar with the threat of a “summer slide” in their child’s reading skills if they sit idle during school vacation. With an overdose of reality TV shows and Snooki “news” updates, adults experience a summer slide of their own. But you can compensate. For kids, it’s essential to make sure they hit the books to lessen the severity of this seasonal setback.

New research from the University of Tennessee offers a simple solution: allow kids access to choosing books they are interested in and the reading gap decreases. Reading scores improve even when children select books that are not classics or curriculum books usually on teacher mandated reading lists. So if your child has not cracked a book all summer, or if his reading list is already complete, here are few new titles to get him back into an “academic state of mind.”

The Junkyard Wars by Patricia Polacco (Ages 4-8)
Your child is almost certaintly familiar with the work of New York Times bestselling children’s author Patricia Polacco, and now he can read the true story of this literary legend. Young Trisha finds herself in a new state, new school and a new class full of misfits. Although initially disappointed to be with “the challenged kids,” once again she soon learns, with the help of a dynamic teacher, that special can mean amazing. The story explores the true meaning of genius as the junkyard class works together to become “wonders” before the whole school. This is a powerful story for all kids and their parents.

Available at Amazon.com

TIME for Kids Big Book of Why: 1,001 Facts Kids Want to Know (Ages 9-12)
This substantial and stimulating reference book can spark a child’s interest in a wide range of subjects - humans, animals, environment/nature, technology, and space. Each question (Why do bees dance?) and answer comes with either a photo or an illustration to show the reasons why. Little Henry might just be able to teach you a thing or two – “How did email start?”

Available at Amazon.com

Ruby’s School Walk by Kathryn White (Ages 4-8)
A little girl with an animated imagination walks to school with her mom and shows bravery in the face of pretend creatures and animals along the way. When she approaches her classroom, however, she is nervous and afraid. Her mother reassures her while mimicking her daughter’s make-believe world and suggesting what she might encounter in her new classroom. It’s a book with color, youthful delight and a lesson: “I must be brave, I must be strong.”

Available at Amazon.com

What’s the Big Idea, Molly? By Valeri Gorbachev (Ages 3-5)

Little Molly the mouse and her friends are busy planning their birthday pictures for their friend turtle. When they all come up with the same idea, Molly gets creative. As they work together preparing artwork and words, a beautiful book is the resulting gift. Children will be inspired to search for their own big ideas, work for creative solutions and maybe even create a book of their own.

Available at Amazon.com

** Bonus for Parents

Mini Lunch Notes: 105 pocket-sized notes, plus stickers
We could all use an extra set of hands to get the crew out the door on busy school mornings. With these charming little notes lunchtime at school is complete with extra love from mom or dad.

Available at Amazon.com

Just Between Us: A No-Stress, No-Rules Journal for Girls and Their Moms by Meredith Jacobs and Sofie Jacobs
Get to know your daughter in a whole new way by starting a journal together. This stylish journal comes with advice and writing prompts to help start conversation but also maintains a lot of free space to make it your own. This might just be the perfect way to start the new school year off on the right foot.

Available at Amazon.com

I pushed my daughter in a Maclaren, so I’m a fan of the company’s well-made, long-wearing strollers. But the company’s recent introduction of its Yellow Submarine Buggy got my (design) knickers in a twist.

Soooo, you say it’s inspired by the animated film starring the Beatles, Yellow Submarine? A movie best known for the psychedelic animation work of Peter Max, a style that informed the rest of the ’60s? So you evince this by making the stroller yellow? A particularly ugly, school-bus yellow? With navy accents with a teensy tiny little yellow submarine printed at the bottom?

Things improve a bit if you put in the stroller liner, made of vintage-look fabric with a Max-ian pattern and a couple of more submarines on them. But they biffed on this one. Imagine a stroller with fabric like this instead. How much cooler would that have been? And this after the Kate Spade strollers were so spiffy.

Oh well, if I haven’t convinced you otherwise, the strollers will start at $280. They’re built on the Quest frame, so they’re one of the heavier and more solid models, a hefty 12 pounds. Find more information (and a kinda pretty animation with an annoying song) on the Maclaren site.

It’s such a short time in your child(ren)’s life that you lug him or her around in a carrier, so you figure why not get the cheap and crappy-looking one. It’s not like anyone is noticing the ugliness of your carrier, what with all that sick in your hair.

But that’s the wrong way to think about it. A carrier should be comfortable for your baby, and beautiful for you. You have to wear it, and look at it in every shop window you pass. Buy a snappy carrier with a print that makes you happy, and you won’t regret the extra 50 bucks you spent.

Case in point: the Beco Butterfly II Custom Edition in Dylan, a high-quality fabric from Michael Miller, a designer of upscale quilting fabrics. If you’ve never had a garment or piece of gear made out of truly fine cotton, you probably don’t know what you’re missing. The colors are bright and true, the feel is luxuriously silky, the wear is incredible. And the Beco is well-made and balanced, with supportive hip straps that buckle smoothly, and a soft body that won’t scratch anyone. Ah, the pleasures of a well-made object.

Beco Butterfly II Carrier in Dylan, starting at $159