Gearhead Mom

Great Party Favor: Queen Beatrix Jumping Bug

Sy got one of these super cool suction cup jumping bugs the other day as a birthday party favor. It has been a huge hit in my house. She does it over and over and over for her 1.5 year old little brother, who laughs hysterically over and over and over again.

But uh, make sure your Littles stay out of the way as it pops up! I don’t let Baby G play with it, just watch.

Cash Register Jonesing

All of a sudden my child who was Anti New Toys is all about her (bulging) birthday wish list. Anyone have a good cash register suggestion? Sy really wants this one from Learning Resources. One of her pals has it and I’ve watched five kids simultaneously go bananas for it. But it’s expensive! It lights up! It has batteries! Do we really need all of that in our play kitchen?

What To Give?

My girl is turning four year old (!) soon, and me, the Queen of Gear, has no ideas on what to get her. I’m thinking maybe this cute apron set from Becca Bee Designs.

Any other ideas? I’ve never had a four year old before…

Knitting Got You In Knots? Try Knot-A-Quilt!

Ed. Note: Here’s another gem from my sister. Keep it coming, G!

The outside of the packages says that Knot-A-Quilt kits are for children 6 and older.  I guess at 41 I can still qualify under ‘older’, right?  Made by ALEX toys, a company that seeks to provide quality creative products, this kit has far surpassed my expectations for ease of use, quality, and sheer entertainment value.

We went looking for the kit to diffuse an on-going problem.  My 7-year old daughter T always wants to knit with me.  I love that she wants to be with me, I love that she wants to knit and have dreams of us knitting together. But at 7, knitting is still too hard.  So every time I bring out my knitting we have a problem.  She simply isn’t developmentally ready to knit without tears. But now, now we have been saved by knots.

The thing that Knot-a-Quilt gets right is that it isn’t too easy but it isn’t too precise either. 

Jenny’s Holiday Gift List (For Kids)

Here’s a list of some of the toys and fun stuff I am eyeing for kids’ gifts this year.

Top Ten after the jump.

Jenny’s Holiday Gift List (For Adults)

Over the years, our family has whittled holiday gift-giving down to Draw-a-Name Exchanges for both siblings and cousins, making lists of gifts to give and get manageable (and presciently appropriate in this economy). Nevertheless, I always enjoy perusing the catalogs for cool stuff and culling good ideas from magazines’ gift-giving guides. Here is a list constituting a combination of items I either admire, would really like to have or would really like to give. 
Photo via MarthaStewart.com

Jenny

GHM Fave: Best One Year Old Toy

Any one year old I know will be your best friend for life if you give them wheels, anything with wheels. Once those wee ones can locomote in a homosapien sort of way, they are thrilled with rolling on down the hall with as many accoutrements as they can handle. While I was getting Baby G’s room ready, I pulled out all of Sy’s old toys and came across a favorite wheeled wonder that Sy was given at birth. I had put this wooden push toy away when she was probably about two and realize now I never should have done that! She was thrilled to see this old friend and has played with it almost daily for the past four months.

Rickrack Headbands

Sy is completely obsessed with headbands right now. Thank goodness for the dollar spot at Target. I can just imagine how posh she’d look in this awesome rickrack headband by Holly Stewart of Jane Edward.

She also makes sweet rick rack burp cloths, groovy key fobs, and belts for girls too. Stocking stuffers!

Be Crafty Makes It Easy to Be Crafty, Even If You Are All Thumbs

I always imagine myself to be the Martha Stewart of my family. Except that really, I never have time, inclination or mad skillz to pull any of it off. What I really do is clip pages from MS Living and other magazines, file them neatly away (or shove them in folders) and rarely complete a crafty task. So when Julene Montgomery of Be Crafty sent me a sample craft, I was stoked. Cute craft, items already assembled in handy paper bag, shipped straight to my doorstep and easy to make with my kid. Watch out, Martha, Missy’s on your ass now.

REPOST - The Learning Puppy: A Break-Up Story

Dear Learning Puppy,

I have some bad news for you. I think it’s time for you to move out. No, you are not going to be shoved in the back of the toy closet (again) only to be resurrected by Sy in a couple of months. I can’t take the break-up/make-up routine anymore! It’s more serious than that. I think it’s time you move to the consignment shop at the foot of the hill, because Puppy, it’s over. Do you hear me? O-V-E-R.  I no longer want to sing and play games with you. I don’t want to hug you. I’m tired of hearing about your YELLOW FOOT! I just want you and your blinking dog bone collar out of my home forever.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had some good times together. I’ll never forget the time I gently tapped your nose and you said to me, “RED NOSE!” I felt like you really meant what you said. But as the years have passed, your once-charming ways have become one dimensional, almost superficial. I mean, how deep can you be when you are only surface washable?

The Counter-Princess-Propaganda Product Program

In celebration of GHM being on the internet waves for just over a year now, we’re reposting some of our favorite reviews. Here’s one of my faves from Jenny. Enjoy (again)!

Editor’s Note: I’d like to introduce the first guest reviewer to the site, my best friend from fifth grade, Jenny. Jenny is an educator and a mom of two girls. Without further adieu, I give you Jenny’s Counter-Princess-Propaganda Product Program.

I am hard-pressed to find a three or four-year-old girl who hasn’t succumbed to Disney Princess madness and whose parents can’t be overheard mumbling “That’s it!  I am calling a moratorium on princess paraphernalia…” as his/her daughter opens the third birthday gift…“Oh, great!  It’s Barbie Swan Princess.”  These are the same parents who painted their daughter’s bedroom in gender-neutral hues and dressed her in overalls, to no avail:  she will only wear dresses (like my daughter—even skirts are suspiciously un-princess-like). 

The Disney Princess Phenomenon is more insidious than carbon monoxide, more silent, more deadly (well, silent in the early stages, anyway…beware the shrill tones, for example, of Disney Princess CD Player).

Nevertheless, folks, my message is two-fold: 
1) give in, to a certain extent, and allow your little girl to express herself, as some of this is natural, and
2) be just as insidious as Disney (and Mattell) and fight ingeniously against the hegemony of the princesses-rule-my-daughter’s-very-existence-syndrome. Try, at least. 

Becoming Blockheads

My aunt, my father’s only sister, unmarried and without children, wound up with five nieces and nephews, and is currently Great Auntie to six (going on seven) grand nieces and nephews.  Among her many cool attributes, Auntie C has distinguished herself as a very creative and personalized gift giver.  She’s the one who ordered us the home delivery subscription of organic fruits, vegetables, and flowers after our first daughter was born.  She has an uncanny ability to pick out books that match each relative’s interests and developmental stage.  In turn, she asks only that we make a donation to a worthy organization and let her know all about it. 
Last Christmas, Aunt C gave the parents of small children gift certificates to Maple Landmark Woodcraft, a folksy company that makes handmade wooden toys of the traditional variety. 

Table For One, Personalized Just For Your Kid

My friend AJ got Sy this totally cute personalized placemat for her birthday from the Stationery Studio.

Sy loves that it has different designs on either side and that it has her name on it. When we received it, the company had forgotten the gift card, so I called to see who it was from. The customer service gal couldn’t have been nicer and read the message to me right away.

I’ve bookmarked this for future gift ideas!

For The Kid Who Has Everything

You know, I really thought I’d have a baby by now, but no. Stubborn kid. Regardless, I lined up some wonderful women in the blog-o-sphere to write some guests posts for me this month. I hope you enjoy them. Today is the first one!

Big, huge thanks to Dawn from Pink With Sparkles for writing today’s post.

The number of kiddie birthday parties that my girls attend is ridiculous. We have two this weekend…and it’s mid-August, which is usually not birthday party season since school is out and people may be away.

I pride myself on the fabulous original gifts my girls bring to a party. I am not the type who runs out to a big box store on the way to an event, purchasing whatever is on the end cap and shoving it into a gift bag. I put some thought into our gifts!

The gift we are bringing today is for a five year old girl who has EVERYTHING. She’s an only child and only grandchild with well-to-do grandparents, so, you can imagine. This girl is jaded.

I had to be creative, find a gift that would appeal to a five year old girl, yet not another Hannah doll or princess wand. The best place to start? Etsy!

New Baby Gift Idea: Cookbooks

Even though the new arrival won’t be eating solid food for another six months, cookbooks are great gifts to give to a new parent. One of my favorites is First Meals by Annabel Karmel. She’s a Cordon Bleu trained chef who has come up with some rather inventive kid food. Karmel’s recipes show her training. I rarely have shallots or parsnips in the pantry, but who cares? I am not going to run out and get them because I think it’s totally acceptable to swap those out for onions and some carrots, don’t you?

When Sy was a beginning eater she insisted we eat with the book by her high chair because she loved the picture of the baby on the cover so much. So yeah, I guess we love the book from cover to cover, literally. At three years old, I still come up with some creative ways to do pasta and vegetables for Sy using Karmel’s recipes.

You could add in a book for the wee one too. Dim Sum for Everyone is a favorite in our house. Sy is a big fan of dim sum in general. Lots of egg-less dishes and cart after cart of food rolling past you. What’s not to love?