Violet's Favorite Apps

I've been trying to find fun apps for Violet to play with while I'm feeding Lucy, as she always seems to get really jealous while we're nursing. I've tried reading to her during that time, but Lucy is a very thrashy eater and I'm just not coordinated enough to manage it all without frying my last nerve. Luckily we've found a bunch that occupy her and make her feel like she's getting to do something special. Here are her faves:

Nosy Crow's Little Red Riding Hood:

We seriously both love this app - it's really interactive, a super cute take on the story (no one gets gobbled up), and my favorite part is that it's a choose your own adventure book as there are different paths you can choose for Red Riding Hood to follow.

The Three Little Pigs by the Nosy Crow:

This one isn't quite as interactive as Red Riding Hood, but Violet still loves it. For some reason we can't get the wolf to blow with our microphone - we have to press the button (maybe because we have an older iPad?) but otherwise this one is a ton of fun!

Nosy Crow's Cinderella:

Can you tell we love Nosy Crow? This one is very interactive as well - Cinderella asks you to help clean up the kitchen and get her stepsisters ready for the ball, and you can aid the fairy Godmother in finding items to transform so that Cinderella can attend as well. Violet acts like she is sooo tired after helping Cinderella clean up the kitchen - it's pretty hilarious!

Toca Boca Hair Salon 1 & 2:

Violet LOVES to cut, shave, comb, wash, curl, and blow dry the hair of all of the quirky characters in these apps. The second version has a lot more options, but she likes a lot of the fun characters (like the lion above) in the first one.

Foot Spa and Cupcakeroo:

Okay, kind of creepy, but Violet apparently loves to give pedicures. She washes the foot, rinses it, trims the toenails and cuticles, removes the old "toenolish", and of course paints the nails, and outfits them with sparkly gems and new shoes.

Cupcakeroo is basically virtual baking - you choose your recipe, mix up all of the ingredients, add icing and candles and all kind of goodies on top. And then of course you blow out the candles and eat the cake - yum!

Disney's Storytime App:

Love this - your child gets to choose books by character, and while at first I thought it would just be shortened versions of the movies, I found out that they are actually totally new stories with the characters your kid already loves. You get a few books for free and then can buy credits for your child to "purchase" new stories. The illustrations are very good (I'd expect nothing less from Disney), and your kid can choose to have the book read to them or to read it by him or her self, so I'd say that this one has some longevity.

So there you have it - if you need to entertain a toddler for oh, say 15-20 minutes I highly recommend all of these. Sorry, most are not free, but a few bucks (to me) is a small price to pay to not have a toddler crying and climbing on you while trying to feed a wiggle worm of a baby.

What are your favorite toddler/preschool age apps? I'm sure Violet will eventually tire of these, so I'm happy for any recommendations - thanks so much! xo, Lauren

Making Hotels Feel More Like Home

Posting some travel tips for kids over on Apartment Therapy today! These things were lifesavers for us when we traveled to Australia withViolet. What would you add to the list? xo, Lauren

Desk Buddies

I got a couple of new desk buddies lately that I thought were worth sharing with y'all. They're both pretty sweet and simple, which is right up my alley as far as technology is concerned. The first one is a really pretty iPhone stand/sound amplifier called the Ecoustik that was sent to me by the lovely folks over at Portsmith Company. They thought it would be great for the new baby for lullaby music/white noise, but until she makes her debut I'm enjoying it for myself!

I love that it amplifies the sound just enough, but not to an obnoxiously loud level, and I think it makes the iPhone speakers sound less tinny (very technical term). And I really love that it gives me a place to call home for my iPhone that is super sweet, simple, and pretty. The stand is working out great for Face-timing as well. It's really so simple it's genius, this gives you an idea of how it works:

And that's all there is to it! They also have similar amplifiers for your iPad. You can check them out here. The other guy that I recently received has also made himself at home on my desk:

It's called a MOS Organizer (Magnetic Organization System) It's basically a magnetic dock that keeps your cables in place. I always had to dig behind the desk when my camera cord or iPhone charger would slip, so when they contacted me about trying it out, I thought - perfect! Some of the cables stick on their own, but if they don't there are little magnetic clips that will hold the cables and cords in place:

You can also mount it on the wall, but I preferred it on the desk (didn't want to mess with the wallpaper) I do wish the clips came in white (the ones I received were red, blue, and yellow), but overall I love it and it's really come in handy! You can check it out in more detail here.

Thanks so much to Portsmith Company and MOS for my new gadgets!

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed in this post are my own. I received both products for free to review, but was not otherwise compensated for this post.

Holiday Gift Guide 2012: For Him

1. The Zombie Survival Guide

2. The Grit Handmade Soap

3. iPhone Dock

4. Black Hawaiian Sea Salt

5. Whiskey Stones Gift Set

6. Fleece-lined Lodge Moccasins

7. Leather iPhone Case

8. Beer Varieties Print

9. Atari Flashback Game Console

10. Classic SIGG Bottle

11. Pain is Good Hot Sauce

12. Chocolate Coal

13. Ultimate Grilling Rub Collection

14. Grillhouse Gastropub at Home

15. My Dad Loves Me!

P.S. Last day to enter the holiday giveaway! The winner will be announced tomorrow...

Holiday Gift Guide 2012: Music

1. Hohner Kids Glockenspiel

2. Vilac Musical Bells Set

3. Lale Titus Guitar Cover

4. Voice Recorder with Pitch Control

5. Vilac Guitar

6. Color Block Miracas

7. Roboth Listening Headphone Splitter

8. Horbert Wooden MP3 Player

9. Zither Heaven Yellow Ukulele

10. Egg Shaker

11. Schoenhut My First Piano

12. Hohner Kids Soprano Recorder

13. Fisher-Price Music Box Record Player


P.S. Last chance to enter the holiday giveaway extravaganza! Over $750 in prizes to one lucky reader - the winner will be announced Wednesday.

Cherry Walls:

For those who aren't confident enough to paint their own wall mural, or perhaps want a less permanent solution, wall decals have become a popular choice. Cherry Walls is a wonderful shop for those looking for original wall decals for their home or nursery. In the shop you will find wall decals, decal stickers, nursery decals, kids decals, girls room decals, tree wall decals, and even urban forest vinyl wall decals for your home.

Cherry Walls is run by a husband and a wife team working together to help make nurseries in the USA and across the globe look beautiful and fresh. Every Cherry Walls decal design has been created by an artist and started as a simple pencil-drawn sketch, became a vector illustration, and later was die cut. Finally there's a long process of preparing decal for application and finally packaging and shipping! We are using almost exclusively materials and supplies made in USA every step of the way, as we believe it makes our products superior in quality, safer to use, easier to work with and also makes our economy stronger.

Thanks Veronica! Enter to win a $50 credit to Cherry Walls here.

Baby Wish List No. 004

Call me nosy, but when Violet was in her crib I was just dying to be able to what she was up to. Whether she was singing herself to sleep as a toddler, wiggling herself into funny positions as an infant, or just laying there in that sweet baby slumber as a newborn. I felt like I missed out on a lot of adorable moments and would love to have a video baby monitor for our new little guy or gal. Unfortunately Kevin thinks I'm crazy and that it's a waste of money :/ What do you all think? Do any of you have a video monitor or wish that you did? Any ideas on how I could convince him? :) You're the best!

Happy Friday all! xo, Lauren

(Image above of the Smart Baby Monitor from Withings)

Baby Wish List posts are generously sponsored by the online baby registry, BabyList - put anything on your baby registry from any store. It's as easy to use as Pinterest, because making your baby registry should be fun!

Traveling with a Toddler: Part 2

Yesterday I talked about artsy activities to keep your toddler occupied while in the air, but for a six hour flight followed by a fourteen hour flight, that's only going to work for so long. Of course hopefully she'll sleep for some of that time, but it's always best to be over prepared in my opinion! When all else fails, technology to the rescue. Here are a few things we'll be taking on the plane to keep her entertained, along with some toddler-specific gear:

1. We each have an iPhone, so we'll be bringing those for sure. We loaded them up with her favorite apps, as well as a new never-before-seen ones to keep her excited. A few of her favorites are:

• The Monster at the End of This Book & Another Monster at the End of This Book - Violet loves these interactive books. There's the classic original with just Grover and the second version which includes both Grover and Elmo. She gets to knock down Grover's brick wall, wipe off his glue, and untie the knots of his ropes - good times people, good times.
• SoundTouch - this one keeps her entertained for a really long time. There's a lite version, but I definitely recommend getting the full version. There are pages and pages of different illustrations that she can choose - household items, animals, musical instruments, etc. When she taps on one it shows a real photograph of that item/thing and a realistic sound to accompany it.
• Animal Puzzle for Toddlers by Eiswuxe - These puzzles are very cute and there is a lot of variety to them. She just drags the puzzle pieces to the correct spots and when she finishes a puzzle she gets to pop a bunch of balloons - win win!
• Nighty Night! This app is just adorable and perfect for bedtime. She loves to touch each lighted window of the farmhouse to find a different animal who is ready to go to sleep. She turns out the light and each one settles down for bed. The narrator has a nice soothing voice and the illustrations are very cute.
• DoodleBuddy - She'll have a Magna Doodle and Color Wonder markers on the plane, but drawing on the iPhone is still fun too! I love that this app has different backgrounds to choose from (including a tic tac toe board for older kids), you can alter the line thickness and color, and use a ton of fun stamps.
• Peekaboo Barn - Violet loves to try to guess what animal is making noise behind the barn doors before she touches them to reveal the animal. The animal's names are narrated in a cute child's voice but are still very clear. At the end she loves to watch the animals go to sleep.
• Make it Pop - Like the name says, with this app you can make different things pop - balloons, popcorn, bubbles, and fireworks. An added bonus is that each one is educational in a different way. The balloons help with letter identification, the popcorn with numbers, the rockets with colors, and the bubbles with shapes. 

2. We decided to save the iPad for movies. The plane will have some kid-specific movies, but we wanted to make sure we had the right ones for Violet. She loves Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Shrek 2, The Wizard of Oz, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and we also bought her a few new ones - Follow that Bird, Winnie the Pooh and Annie.

3. To make sure that she can hear her movies and apps without bothering neighboring passengers, we bought these Kidz Gear headphones for her a few months ago. We've used them periodically with her to get her used to them. Of course a plane adapter is a must (silly two-pronged plane outlets!)

4. The iPad and iPhone batteries are pretty decent, but not when you're talking a fourteen hour flight. So after a lot of research the Mister found this portable recharger - I'll be sure to let you know how it worked, fingers crossed!

5. This one isn't for entertainment, but safety. We've opted not to bring Violet's car seat as we have one waiting for us to use over in Oz, so we purchased the FAA approved CARES (Child Aviation Restraint System). It just slips over the back of the seat to provide a safe harness for your little one during takeoff, landing, and any potential turbulence.

So that's it! I'm still looking for some new fun apps for Violet - if you have any recommendations for a two-year-old I'm all ears.

xoxo, Lauren

P.S. Tomorrow I'm going to share a few of the books that we've been using to prepare her for flying on a plane!