Mama Love
... We love the eco-friendly reusable snack bags called Reusies. They are the perfect alternative to ziplocks. Think of how many ziplocks travel in children's lunch boxes every single day. We think it's a great gift idea for the mamas in your life who want to go green in 2010! ... We love the Slither, a fun new scooter for boys that has a swivel mechanism, making it easy for kids to ride it like a snowboard. It's a great gift for an active boy (or a boy you'd like to get off the couch). You just might want to hide it from your husband, though.

FRIDAY GIVEAWAY: Swaddle Designs
SwaddleDesigns recently expanded their Organic line to include hooded towels, wash cloths, bibs, and wearable blankets. One lucky mama will win a beautiful GOTS certified organic Ultimate Receiving Blanket.Any reader can use the promo code "MadeinUSA" at eSwaddle to receive 10% off regularly priced items by clicking

if you play it, they will come
Further proof of the magnetic properties of the television . . .For the last month, I've been letting Karis watch a Baby Signs DVD every day. Both Jafta and India watched this when they were babies, and they really did learn some sign language from it so that they could communicate before they were verbal. And also so that we could make them perfom party tricks like signing "poop" i

sweeping generalizations
Karis is officially crawling now. At six months, this is earlier than either of her siblings learned to crawl. To be honest, I'm not that thrilled about the early milestone. I've always loved the stage when babies are old enough to be really playful, and yet young enough to sit where you plant them. She seems to have skipped that phase altogether. Every time I turn around, she is booking it across the room, with her eyeball on some small speck of something that she wants to put in her mouth. And judging from the still-intact Spiderman sticker I discovered in her dirty diaper today, I'm guessing she's succeeding more often than I realize. I've made a note to myself that I need to be more car

Talk Back: mixing it up old school
I got one of those random spur of the moment urges today to clean out my kitchen cupboards. You know the one - when you absolutely do not have the time to take on a task, but you have the overwhelming urge to dive in anyway. The end result - me rushing out the door to pick up my kids from school with my kitchen's contents scattered throughout the room. sigh. But, the positive side of that is I was reminded of how many great cook books I have that I so seldom use. Cooking with me is one of my daughter's favorite things to do, even if it is just getting to mix up the batter, tear the herbs, dump the salad contents, or measure the cups of water. The down