My Favorite Holiday Gift Guides

I had high hopes of of creating my own BBM gift guide this year, but instead I decided to compile a list of other gift guides for you to peruse. No need for me to spend the time making a list when others have done a splendid job of it already! Here are some of my favorite gift guides that I found for the 2013 holiday season!

Modern Parent's Messy Kids (MPMK)
This is the end-all-be-all of gift guides. You really don't have to look any further than MPMK's yearly compilation of gift ideas. They have it broken down into 10 different categories, i.e., Best Learning Toys for Quiet Time and Independent Play, or Best Building and Constructing Toys, making it all the more easy for you to find something for the kids you know so well. They have reviewed over 250+ toys, games and puzzles and asked countless parents, teachers and care-givers for their input when putting the lists together. You won't be disappointed with this gift guide!


Daily Candy gifts for Littles
Who doesn't love the Daily Candy emails? I remember receiving these 10 years ago. I would look forward to them each day, waiting to see what these ladies thought was the coolest thing to buy or see. They have compiled a great list of unique gift ideas for kids of all ages on their site. My favorite being this personalized memory game by Pinholepress.com that I have already ordered for my girls!

Personalized Memory Game c/o pinholepress.com

Real Simple Gifts for Kids
I love me some Real Simple magazine. I always pick it up and read it on plane rides, or when I am feeling like my house could use some organizing (which is always). Do I actually ever take the advice in the magazine? Of course not. I just waste my time looking at all the clean photos of people's anally neat closets and pantries and perfectly organized purses. But they do put together some great gift guides. Check out this one for kids for some unique gift ideas, including this fabulous monster hoodie. I want one in my size ASAP.

Monster Hoodie from cutesybutnotcutesy.com

They also have some amazing ideas for stocking stuffers, including this Ryan Gosling coloring book. Totally absurd, but every girl needs one right?

Yummy Ryan Gosling coloring book from blueribbongeneralstore.com

And for you parents with teenagers or tweens (God help you :) they have this gift guide full of unique gifts for those older kids with 'tude. I should add that I want everything on this list - what does that say about me?

Animal head from cardboardsafari.com. I want this!!

Time Out New York
Time Out New York compiled a great gift guide this year full of things you can find in New York City as well as online for us out-of-towners (or foreigners as we are considered by all New Yorkers). They have broken it down by age range, making it easier for you to shop for the kids on your nice list. I am in love with this all-in-one dinner set by Doiy Design.

If you live in NYC you can pick one of these up at E.A.T. gifts

Queen Oprah's Favorite Things
And then finally the gift guide for the rich and famous, or those that don't mind spending hundreds of dollars on truffle oil for their grandmother. Oprah's Favorite Things - because who doesn't need a chocolate nativity scene? I know I don't!

$79 for 3 baby bibs. BIBS. Bibs people!! Come on, Oprah. 

If you didn't find anything to your liking in the lists above be sure to visit my favorite gift giving sites below:
- Uncommongoods.com 
- Etsy.com
- Landofnod.com
- The MOMA store

Photo Gift Ideas From My Favorite Photo Sites

(Update: After writing this post this past weekend, I have discovered Pinholepress.com. You can create personalized memory games with your photos, wall decals, wine bottle labels and all sorts of other fancy things!) 

I take a lot of photos. A LOT of photos. As of today I have taken over 3000 photos this year, both with my camera and my phone. What do I do with those photos? I put them on a share site, and that is about it for most of the year. Occasionally I get them printed out and put them in frames around my house. But come Christmas time I love to use those photos (not all of them of course :) to make photo gifts for people. There are so many different things you can do with your photos that you might not know about, so I thought I would inspire you and share some of my favorite sites.

1. Blurb. Everyone loves a photo book. And nowadays they are easier than ever to make. I have been using Blurb.com since it's launch back in 2006. It is the best book making website out there. You will get the highest quality for the most affordable price. I started using them long ago because they offered the most variety when it came to page layouts. Since then other sites have gotten just has customizable, such as shutterfly.com, but the quality of your printed pages are far superior when you create with Blurb. The wonderful thing about this site is that once you create your book, you can actually sell it on their site! You basically become your own publisher. Pretty amazing stuff.

photo c/o blurb.com

2. Shutterfly. I have a love/hate relationship with shutterfly.com. I started using Kodak Gallery (anyone else remember when it was Ofoto?) back when I got my first digital camera in 2001, and then Kodak Gallery merged with Shutterfly, so I obviously just started using Shutterfly as my photo sharing site. Because it is so easy for me to create photo gifts on their site due to all my photos being there, I use it a lot come Christmas time for family gifts. I have made things like fleece blankets with photos on them, photo cubes, photos printed on glass, plates, cups, photo ornaments and key chains to name a few. All of them are of decent quality, and are loved by everyone that has received them. I also get photo books printed by them, but for some reason every photo or photo book I get printed by them is not up to par. The photo prints tend to be off color and the books are always a little funky. Most people don't notice these little things, but I am pretty picky when it comes to my prints so I don't usually get them done via Shutterfly (I go to Costco). I do recommend them for all those fun photo gifts though, as the resolution of the photo doesn't have to be that great for the gift to come out nice.

One of my favorite things I made on
Shutterfly was this iPhone case

3. Printstagram. I am obsessed with Instagram. OBSESSED. I have hundreds of square photos that I have taken and shared on the IG app. I even have IG friends - people I have never met in person, most who don't know my real name (I am bostonbabymama - check me out!) but whom I have developed "relationships" simply from commenting on each other's photos. Crazy, I know, but I love it. On Prinstagr.am (that is the web address) you can print your Instagram photos on beautiful thick card stock, in two different sizes - one being this 2x2 mini squares that are so fun for the kids to look at and play with. You can also get these "tiny books" made that that are only 1.5 inches square and are magnetized so kids can also play with them on the fridge. In the process of making these for my girls right now! 

How freaking cute are these!
photo c/o prinstagr.am

4. Artifact Uprising. This site is for the passionate photographer, who wants unique, quality, long lasting products to showcase their photos. I have personally never ordered anything from them, but they have come highly recommended by a few of my professional photographer friends. They tell me the prints are top quality, as well as their other products. One of the more popular products is their photo with wood block, which allows you to quickly showcase a different photo via the wood block stand. Another great thing about this site is that you can do all this directly from their iPhone app!

photo c/o artifactuprising.com

5. Gifts for the Baby:

Photo Stacking Blocks - If you are looking for a gift for your baby this year, check out these Photo Stacking Blocks. I will be filling them and giving them to Val, or I should say Santa will be giving them to Val, this year. She loves looking at photos so I hope she will love these took!

Customized Board Books - I am also planning to do a customized board book from Pintsized Productions for Valerie this year. This site, which came highly recommended by a friend, allows you to customize your own book for your baby, with your photos and text. Can't wait to see how it turns out! 

M turns Two-dles!!!

M in her first outfit of the day

This past weekend M turned 2. Holy crap I am the mother of a two year old.

No more are we counting her age in months, she is just simply 2.

She is no longer a toddler, but a little kid.

To celebrate the completion of her second year of life we had a little Mickey Mouse Clubhouse shindig with close friends and family. As with her first birthday, she was a little under the weather. Luckily this year it was more of a runny nose than the violent vomiting the year before. We decided to press on, as it was nothing a little Nose Frida-ing couldn't help!

My husband's brother, and my sister-in-law, along with their twin two year olds came to stay with us for the entire weekend. I was nervous about how Marlo would react to having two additional kids actually staying with us in the house, but once they got here, and got settled, and started playing together it was just wonderful.

M with her adorable cousins and some serious morning hair

The twins turned 2 in August, and are very different from my little monkey. They run around the house and climb on things like they were born to do it, while M is still a little shaky on her feet when it comes to stairs and climbing things. But M talks a blue streak and the twins say a few words here and there. But none of that matters when they are playing together. It warmed my heart to see them sharing toys so well (well, M was not nearly as good at sharing as her cousins were), and running and laughing and being silly together. When they left on Sunday, and the house was quiet again, I was definitely a little sad.

I had said I wasn't going to buy her much, but M was showered with gifts from my husband and I, as well as all her friends and family. She opened so many presents over a 4 day period that I think she thought every day from now on she would get a present.

Some of the biggest hits were Minnie's Birthday Boutique, Sesame Street Bus, and Mickey's Choo Choo Express. While she hasn't shown terrible interest in it just yet (my kid has the shortest attention span ever - like her mother!) my favorite thing she got was Toobers & Zots foamstruction set. Any kid that loves to build and sculpt will definitely love this set of bendy foam pieces.

And finally my mother bought her Let's Rock Elmo, the it toy of the season. It was last Tuesday (five days before her actual birthday) that I was cleaning up in the kitchen and heard "Elmo Dancing Mama! Look! Elmo Dancing! La la la la Elmo's song!" from the next room. I peak around the corner to the tree and there is my munchkin with a half un-wrapped present in front of her as she dances around it with her hands in the air. I couldn't be mad (hell, I put the presents under the tree a week early) and it was the cutest thing to see her get so excited about the actual gift. Since we have opened it, she has played with it twice. It is cute, and annoying. If you buy the microphone for the kids separately it actually recognizes Grover's voice and sings along, which in itself is pretty cool. But as with most toys like this, he only sings 6 songs, and they get old fast. It was a big hit with all the other kids at the party though!

All in all it has been an exhausting and wonderful past couple days (shout out to my fabulous mother for coming up to help out with everything! Couldn't have done it without you,) and I still can't believe my baby is 2. I feel like it was just yesterday that my water broke, 4 weeks and 2 days early, while I was out walking my dog and bent over to pick up her poop. And now she is running around the house singing songs at the top of her lungs, and filling our days with excitement and drama...so much drama.

Mama J & Moo's Favorite Things: Toys

As we don't have Oprah's Favorite Things to look forward to anymore (how will I know what crazy expensive cashmere sweater to not buy, and be insanely jealous of the audience receiving for free this year??) I figured I would start writing a recurring post featuring some of my and M's favorite things. I have gone on somewhat of a spending spree in the last few months in the toy department (and furniture, and shoes...) so I figured I would share with you some of our latest acquisitions. These are great for your kids, as well as gift ideas for friends:

1. V-Tech Sit & Stand Alphabet Train: While visiting some friends in New York, M got to try this baby out...and we had to pry it from her hands when we left. So, in true Mama J fashion, I decided we needed to have it, and have it ASAP. As soon as we got in the car I fired up the Amazon App on the iPad and purchased - it arrived the next day. And we have played with it every day since. M spends a good amount of time each day playing with this, and it is amazing how fast she was able to start recognizing letters, as well as the pictures on the other side of the blocks. She loves to ride it around the house, as well as walk behind it when I detach the seat portion. Great learning tool, you can walk and ride it, it teaches you colors and numbers, in addition to letters...I love it, she loves it...your kid will love it too!

2. Shoenhut My First Piano: I have wanted one of these since the day I found out I was pregnant. Who doesn't like small replicas of big things! I got this off Zulily.com a few weeks ago, but it was more for me than it was for her if I am being totally honest. M does like to spend some time every day on her "PEE-ano" basically just banging on the keys and laughing hysterically. She does love when I play her favorite songs, but gets annoyed when I spend too much time playing it and ignoring her..."Mama all done piano now!" I think I just need to get myself a piano in the future as the two octaves of keys isn't cutting it. I think it is a great gift for a two year olds birthday though!

3. Playmobil Take Me Along Ark: This is going down as the best gift from Grandma to date. My mom purchased this at a tiny toy store in Rhode Island because she wanted something we could take out to dinners with M to keep her entertained. We don't go out to dinner without it! The pieces are all made so that they are big enough so as not to be swallowed, and you can even take them in the bath with you (although you will have to dry them out afterwards as some retain water for a bit). We log a ton of time with the "Noah & Gladys' Ahhk." Why Gladys? Well Noah's wife's name is never mentioned in the bible, so I named her Gladys. She looks like a Gladys. :)

4. Playmobil Family House: Another Grandma gift. This is not portable like the Ark, but M can't get enough of it. I love that she is at the age where she can start moving things around and making sounds and acting out a mother daughter relationship with the toys (well, makes them "give kisses").

5. Educo Creative Peg Puzzle: This was totally an impulse purchase at a fancy toy store. I felt like I was being talked into it by the saleswoman, and thought I would end up giving it as a gift, but it turns out that M actually really likes it. I was surprised how quickly she was able to understand how it works, but she got it after a few tries and loves to sit and take the pieces off and put them back on. Plus it is a visually a pretty toy, so I keep it out on display. I find a lot of kids are drawn to it when they come over for play dates, so I think it would make a fabulous birthday gift!