Reviews Category Archive

These shoes look like they were designed by a three-year-old. Which is very cool, because they were!
Back in June I took a look at the new Vans custom shoe creator. And while I really liked the available options, I was a bit disappointed by the 5-7 week delivery window. But since Vans had kindly provided [...]

When Vans first contacted us to review their new custom kids shoes, the first thing that came to mind was Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High airbrushing some slip-ons while eating a slice of pizza.
Ok, enough 80’s references. Today Vans bills itself as the “original skate shoe manufacturer since 1966″ and designs products for [...]

I don’t like flying.
Actually, let me clarify that: I don’t have a problem with flying, but I really don’t like airlines or airports. After frequent trips, I’ve learned to expect things to go wrong and try to do everything to reduce the hassles caused by the inevitable delays and cancellations. For example, thanks to my [...]

Building forts is part of growing up. It starts with hiding under blankets and develops into creating complex structures from blankets, chairs, couch cushions and whatever else is around. Unfortunately, blankets, chairs and heavy books limit you to only basic structures. But the folks at The Happy Kid Company in Princeton, MA came up with [...]

About a year and a half ago my husband and I talked about how we could probably get our daughter potty trained within the first few months of turning two. To that end, we’ve had the Boon Potty Bench in our bathroom for probably close to a year. I think somehow we thought exposure to [...]

Back in October I mentioned that several people had suggested letting kids use a digital camera to record the road trip for themselves.  Although my 2.5 year-old understands the basics of using our regular camera with supervision, there’s no way a Canon, or any other “adult” digital camera, could survive the occasional drop, not to [...]

I was lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Jenna McCarthy’s book The Parent Trip: from high heels and parties to highchairs and potties in response to our call for advice on traveling with a youngster.  Her stories about traveling were great, but I found interesting and entertaining information throughout this short, but sweet [...]

I hate outlet safety covers.
Actually, let me clarify that: I hate removing outlet covers.  And while it’s not something you need to do every day, there’s one chore that always seems to involve removing at least one cover: vacuuming.
In our household, I’m typically the one who vacuums. And by that I mean that I’m the [...]

When our daughter discovered how to climb over the gate in her door (way too early for our comfort) we started leaving the bathroom light on to help her navigate the hallway. This worked, but we wanted a better solution, preferably something she could use on her own. Enter Mobi Technologies’ TykeLight GloMate and TykeLight [...]

Confession time: parking lots scare me. Now that my daughter is mobile (and fast!), I tend to see danger lurking behind every parked car. There’s enough risk from people driving correctly in the lots, not to mention the idiots who appear to believe that 50 mph is the correct speed for navigating among parked cars. [...]