Gearhead Mom

Healthy Car Test Results

The 2008 test results for cars and car seats have arrived over at Healthy Car.
Definitely worth checking it out if you are in the market for a new car seat, or car for that matter.

You could also stop by to read Z Recs piece on the new Britax Frontier car seat, a 25-to-80-pound car seat that converts from a five-point-harness seat to a belt-positioning booster. Looks pretty groovy and oh, so safe.

Healthy Car

I’m looking into a spare car seat that is not going to break the bank. Because there’s not enough to worry about as far as crash safety is concerned, go take a look at HealthyCar.org to see how toxic the flame retardant levels are in your current car seat. You can also see how your vehicle ranks.

Nice to know there’s ALWAYS something new to worry about, isn’t it?

Oh, and by the way -
HealthyCar.org wants to know which child car seats parents are most interested in having tested.  Parents can go to the Test My Car Seat feature and vote by Monday, June 23.  Test results of the most popular car seats will be released on Tuesday, July 22nd along with updated data on toxic chemicals in 2007- and 2008-model vehicles.

Your Very Own Porta-Potty

OK, so after this review, I really think I’ve covered my potty-training bases.

Sy is pretty good at holding it if we are in the car. She loathes having accidents and more importantly, loathes getting her outfit dirty. It’s times like this when I wonder if she is really my kid. We have emergency diapers in the car and the piddle pad in place, but sometimes when you gotta go, you gotta go. Like at our favorite park that has no bathroom. Enter the Fisher-Price Potty On-the-Go (F-P doesn’t seem to have the illustrious commode on their own site).

Piddle Pad

I’ll keep this short and sweet because this product is a total uni-tasker, but definitely one I’m glad I have. I meant to write about this when I was reviewing potties.

The Piddle Pad, made by the geniuses at Kiddopotamus, is a waterproof seat liner that is completely worth its modest price tag. The liquid absorbing, soft pad is a unobtrusive receptacle for pee, vomit, blowouts, you name it. The backside of the product is coated with vinyl to help keep the product in place and the liquid where it should be, not on your car. You just place it on the base of your child’s car seat (or stroller) and your days of washing the car seat cover are numbered. It doesn’t snap or slide into to anything, it just sits there, ready to catch whatever rain may fall. 

Hitch a Ride All the Way to the Gate

OK, so check out these nifty carry-on, ride-able suitcases. My friend across the street has two daughters, four and six. They went on vacation recently and took their two Trunkis along with them. According to the site, Trunki is “the world’s first ride-on kid’s suitcase. Designed for family vacations, children can pack, sit-on and ride their own luggage, whilst parents can keep them in tow. Trunki’s light weight and durable design is hand luggage approved, with generous space inside for toys, games, books and spare clothes.”

A Trunki suitcase weighs less than 4 pounds and is made of the same hard plastic that adult suitcases are made of. It is 18” x 7.9” x 12” and has a five gallon capacity. The case comes in both blue and pink. I like that it has a soft rim built in to protect little fingers from being pinched.

Here’s what my pal had to say about them. 

Travel Toys

I am always on the hunt for travel toys that actually hold Sy’s interest. Growing Tree Toys has a pretty substantial list of travel toys on their site. I like that it has the recommended age on the short description. Easy to zoom by and look for age appropriate toys for my kiddo. Check out this Smile, It’s a Real Camera from Chicco (Really? That’s the best name you could come up with, Chicco?). It’s $18.95 for a real 35mm camera, including a roll of film and batteries. Sy would love that but she’d also burn through that roll of film in about three minutes and be peeved that she could not immediately see the results. Ah, the digital generation. I wonder if it would be fun even without film?

Folding Potty Seat

Potty training opens the door to yet more gear. Training potties, potty seats, fabulous pairs of Elmo underwear. So much for all that money saved on no more diapers, right? We have all the basics, but my favorite is the Primo potty folding seat. It’s exactly like what it sounds like it is, a folding portable potty seat. The white seat (yay! no Dora! no Backyardigans!) folds into quarters into a small little wedge. It slips into a purse or diaper bag no problem. I like to keep mine in a plastic bag since I am a total germ-phobe.

GHM Top Ten List: How to Keep Junior Happy on the Road

If you are traveling for more than about nine minutes, it’s good to have a few things hidden in your bag to keep the travel blues at bay. Here are some easy to pack supplies for the kiddos along the way.

Pretty Much a Fan of All Things Doodle

Ed. note-
Please note that Aqua Dots were recalled, not the Aqua Doodle.

Today my four-year-old daughter found her dusty Aqua Doodle mat folded up in a corner of her playroom.  Next thing I knew, both she and her little sister had spent a half hour on the kitchen floor, painting with water (it comes with a “pen” that fills with water; the mat turns blue as it gets wet). I bought the Aquadoodle after a couple of moms told me it was the greatest thing since exersaucers. I wasn’t as impressed, I’ll admit. Once it’s all wet, which can happen quickly, it’s pretty much done for the day. But my daughters loved using it together this morning. Of course, it only comes with one pen, and at first they were arguing over got to use it...when, in a moment of Mom Brilliance, I busted out the paintbrushes! Suddenly this activity had new dimensions. I put out a bowl of water to dip brushes and hands in, which was promptly overturned--but hey! Water spilled on the kitchen floor? Almost hardly worth cleaning up. 

My epiphany today is that we’ve actually gotten quite a bit of mileage from the Doodle products. Need a safe toy for the car? Magna Doodle is perfect (we even have the Disney Princess version for learning to write letters; as for my thoughts on Disney’s encroachment on the innocent Doodle line, see the Counter Princess Propaganda Campaign). Magna Doodles come in small hand-held to laptop sizes; my daughter uses hers to play school, to practice writing her name…

Missy’s humble opinion after the jump.

It’s a Twisted Relationship: Don’t Fall for Crayola Twistable Crayons

Ed. Note:
Jenny M and her kids have been on an art rampage. This review concludes Ms. M’s four part review of Crayola’s indoor/outdoor drawing instruments.

At first glance, these appear to be brilliant: first, they’re not markers, and second, they’re crayons that won’t break, because they’re housed in plastic like a twistable eyeliner, allowing for only a short drawing tip.

I bought these drawing implements for an airplane trip thinking that the gimmicky aspect of their not looking or acting like a traditional crayon or marker would contribute to keeping my two daughters busy. And busy they were, pulling the innards out and breaking them in short order. There is a serious design flaw here; the crayon inside is not grooved enough to require twisting to get it out--all you have to do is pull the tip. And then you have tiny pieces of a thin crayon and plastic casings everywhere, which from a waste standpoint is worse than regular crayons. 

Sy the Stevie Nicks Wanna-Be

We have this kooky, converted attic room with sloping ceilings, 1980’s skylights and lots of beige carpet on which to goof around. My favorite part of the room is that the insulation was put in backwards. Due to this quirky design flaw, the room gets mighty warm on summer days. Rog got this huge portable AC unit that does a decent job cooling the room down to a notch below the sunbathing-on-the-equator-at-noon feeling. Sy and her pals love the “fan,” as they call it. Sy begs me to turn on the beast, then runs and gets her play silks and dances like crazy in front of the AC. She looks like a miniature Stevie Nicks, whirling around with her scarves whipping through the air.

Kids on the Gogo

Editor’s Note: Here’s the second brave soul to guest review on the site. This entry is written by my pal Andie, a professional writer by trade and a darn fine mother by nature. Thanks for taking the time to write this, Andie! Enjoy.

If you’re like me and find yourself rushing to board the plane on time, be prepared to answer the questions of onlookers coveting this little baby (and I don’t mean your baby—I mean the Travelmate). Every parent, grandmother and curious child will stop you and say one of three things:

1) I wish they had those when I was lugging around my kid’s seat!
2) Did you make that?
3) Where did you buy that? That’s the smartest invention I’ve seen in a long time.

I try not to lie to the poor mom with the car seat weighing heavily on her shoulder (“Yes, I made it while my son was napping Tuesday afternoon.”) and instead, as I make my mad dash to the boarding call, blurt, “Yes, it’s fabulous, and you can buy it online.”

I can’t sing enough praises for this. The gogo Kidz Travelmate essentially turns your child’s car seat into a stroller by attaching a frame with wheels directly to the car seat. Side note: Earlier models only fit Britax seats, but now the company includes with the newer model several different attachments that make most car seats attach to this little wonder. The newer model also features easily detachable wheels so you can fit the outfitted seat through the x-ray machine.

The Land of Sippy Cups

Like diapers, I feel like we’ve tried all the sippy cups there are to try. I currently have two in rotation, and yes, I have tried them all too.

1) Born Free Sippy Cups
BPA-free and all that. This cup/bottle is easy to hold, has a removable handle and you can go from a bottle nipple to a sippy cup spout without changing the bottle on your kid, too. The flow is fast while using the hard spout attachment and it feels more like drinking out of a cup with a lid

There are six parts to the cup while cleaning which feels a bit excessive. I usually throw them all in a big bowl of hot soapy water at the end of the day and wash ‘em all up. I put them in the dishwasher once a week for an extra clean since they are dishwasher safe. I’ve noticed that the soft spout tends to break down pretty quickly. I even had to throw one away as bits of the rubber were breaking off and Sy handed me one straight out of her mouth. I did not worry because she does not swallow things unknown to her, but it might give me pause if she were younger. I now use the hard spouts only. They sell the nipples and spouts separately and all work with the same basic bottle.
9/29/07 update: I just had to throw away another spout because the opening basically disintegrated into a bigger hole and there were little bits hanging off. I am going to attempt contacting the manufacturer about this and see what their plans are for fixing the problem, I doubt I am the only one with this issue.

Snapshot for Born Free
• I love the idea behind it, to have a safe bottle for my kid, but how safe are the spouts?
• Not so cheap, but readily available both online and at Whole Foods.
• The bottles also come in glass. 

Sometimes My Purse is the Diaper Bag

Sometimes I just don’t have it in me to cart around Sy’s diaper bag. And sometimes it just does not match my dress or my attitude. There are days when I don’t feel like advertising that I am a mom. Of course, having a sticky, silly two year old attached to me at the hip is a dead give away. Anyway, when you crave your own accessories, it’s good to grab a bigger handbag from your superior (ha) collection and throw in one of the following little bags:

GHM Top Ten List: What to Take in Your Diaper Bag

Thinking about the Top Ten Lists got me excited, so I am posting another one today.

OK, so I am just going to say right now that I’ll definitely be going over the “ten” part of the Gearhead Mom’s Top Ten List more often than not. There’s just a lot of gear out there and I love a lot of it. As your child gets older not all of the items are needed every time. This is also a great baby shower gift to give. Get a diaper bag (off their registry if they have one picked out) and fill it up with all these items. It makes that first trip out of the house a little less scary if you feel prepared.