8 surprsing reasons your baby 's crying

I came across the following article and thought it might be helpful for some of you new parents.
Check out the article here.

Children Museums

This past weekend we went to the hands on science museum. We were a little leary as our daughter is only 15 months and didn't know if it would be worth the trip. Luckily children under 2 are free! We took her through the exhibits and what I found really great about this place is that all the exhibits are childproof! It was really nice not having to chase her shouting "No-no-no." We let her roam around and looked at the exhibits she wanted to see. Most of the exhibits had buttons, knobs, wheels and all types of switches that she could turn, twist and pull. While my husband and I had fun with the science of each exhibit she had fun with learning how to bounce on a spring floor! There was a tornado machine and a laser harp that were a ton of fun for her. The museum also had a toddler room with a water table, blocks and all sorts of toys! It was something different to do and fun for the whole family! You should check out a museum near you!

Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum
Chicago Children's Museum
Manhatten Children's Museum
Children's Museum of Los Angeles

Click here to find a Children's Museum near you!

The Petting Zoo

Okay, I am a huge fan of the Zoo. We actually went again yesterday. I would like to note that as much as I like the zoo, I really enjoy the patting farm. If you do not live near a zoo I am sure you can find a petting farm near you. It is great because the kids can see animals really close and even pet them! The zoo is fun, but sometimes all the animals are hiding or they are too far away to see. My daughter LOVED the farm! It's also great because you don't have to make it an all day event. We actually went before her doctors visit and now I have decided that when she gets older, the sell will be: get your shots and then off to the farm! How great is that?!

Please check out your local petting farm!

Update on BPS free bottle exchange

I figured instead of posting a comment, I'd create a new entry to be sure you all would see this...
I went to babies R Us this weekend and did the bottles exchange. Here are a few tips and further information on the program:

1. They will take Doc Browns or Advent bottles, but they MUST be in increments of 3.
   
2. They give you the current price of the bottles and than you have to do the exchange that day-- you cannot get store credit. So, you can pick any type of BPA-free product- bottles and/ or sippy cups.

A 3-pack of Doc Browns bottles are $12.99 and a 3-pack of Born Free are $27.
I like the filters for Born Free better, because they are easier to clean. Although, their 3-pack only comes with 1 filter! The Doc Brown bottles are just fine too, although they do not currently come in wide mouth.

Baby Registry 101: Lesson #9- The Highchair

Highchairs are something every baby needs. They range in prices from $30 to $300. Brand names from Graco to Inglesina Zuma. Whatever your budget you must have one! If you have a low budget you can get away with a cute space efficient booster seat.

Our picks:

Booster Seat- Recline and Grow 5 Stage Feeding Seat-Why we love it? It is easily strapped to a chair. It is space efficient. The best thing though is that it can seat an infant at 3 months to an older child. The tray fits in the dishwasher and the entire unit can be wiped down with a disinfecting cloth. the only bad thing about this is that is is bulky and not easy to travel with!

High Chair Winner- Peg Perego's Prima Pappa Diner - Why we love it? The colors of the wipable fabric are so nice and the nooks and crannies are a little easier to clean than the Chicco. The chair is also easy to fold up and store.

High Chair Runner-Up- Chicco Polly Highchair- Why we love it. It is a great comparison to the Peg and is about 30% cheaper. The only fault is that it is a little tougher to clean than the Peg.

City mom must-have!

There are cute tops for your child, but how cute is a top that gives props to your town? These adorable "I Stroll" tees come in cities:
L.A
Chicago
New York
Brooklyn

They are available in onesies or tees! They also make a great gift from a Big-City Auntie!

You can get all the cities at The Little Hipster! Be sure to check them out!

Your Child's Height Predictor

I came across this fun tool to predict your child's height based on the parents height. It claims to be 68% accurate within 2 inches and 95% within 4 inches, but if you think about it it's kinda silly. You can check it out for yourself and even see how close it comes to your predicted height!

Go to the Height predictor

Personalized Pacifiers Reacalled

Jut recalled "It’s MY Binky" Recalls Personalized Pacifiers Due to Choking Hazard. Just yesterday they announced this recall. Apparently there were two cases where the nipple detached from the base and ring causeing a coking hazard. These pacifiers were not sold at our store, but at Nordstrom's and many other boutiques. If you have one of these pacifiers make sure to return it to the store you purchased it from or contact It's MY Binky directly! PLEASE if you know anyone who may have this pacifier please let them know!

Read the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's full report

Kid Friendly Resturants

Restaurants are meant to be a nice time out. No cooking, no cleanup and great food. If you have kids and plan on taking them with you, dining out is another story and usually a stressful one! Here is a quick list of fun places to take your kids and a reason why we love them!

1. PF Changs. We loved this place before kids and now with their easy to use chopsticks, kids toys and lengthy kids menu it will be in our hearts forever!
2. Logans. We love Logans! Weekdays give you two meals for $12.99 and $1.99 kids meals. Also with sides like sweet potatoes, steamed veggies and rice it can be healthy if you choose wisely!
3. Red Robin. What a fantastic place for kids! With all the activities on the wall - your child will be occupied for awhile looking at it all!
4. Chic-Fil-A. A favorite fast food. Fun chicken bites that are healthy and they give you a placemat that sticks to the table- goodbye germs!
5. Chili's. From having yummy sides like mandarin oranges and pineapple to charitable giving to St. Jude's- there is no question as to why we love this place!
   

If you have a favorite kid friendly place please let us know!

Baby Registry 101: Lesson #8- BPA-free Bottles

There has been a lot of recent controversy over plastic bottles. There has been a chemical BPA (Bisphenol-A) that has been found most prevalent in water bottles, baby bottles, beverage can linings and dental sealants. It has been controversial, because the tests are not conclusive enough and the FDA is not updating their requirement for BPA in food. You can read more about BPA here.

The best idea , in our opinion is to keep away from BPA bottles. Here is a list of some of the bands of BPA-free bottles.:

1. Born-Free. They have wide mouth and regular bottles. Also they come in glass or BPA-free plastic. They run about $10 a bottle or you can buy a set of 8 bottles for $78. You can purchase them on their website.
2. Platex Nurser. These bottles have a drop in disposable lining. The disposable lining make cleaning easy and fast. The bottles are cheap, about $4, but remember you have to keep purchasing liners!
3. Dr. Browns Glass or Dr. Browns BPA free plastic bottles. If they don't think BPA is bad enough to recall their BPA bottles why make BPA free ones?
4. Adiri Natural Nurser. This bottle looks like a boob, but if you can get over the exposed look than it's a great option!
5. Evenflow Glass Bottles or Evenflow Classic Tinted Polypropylene bottles.
   
6. Medela
   
7. Nuby Standard Neck Non-Drip Bottle, Wide-Neck Non-Drip Bottle, Wide-Neck Bottle with Handles and Non-Drip Nipple, Standard Neck Bottle with Handles and Non-Drip Nipple, 3-Stage Wide Neck Easy Grip Feeding System with Non-Drip Nipple

Whatever bottle you choose just research them and make sure they are BPA free! Also there are alot more bottles that are deemed safe. You can check out a detailed list of bottles and sippy cups here!

How to find fun Events

So, some weekends I look at my hubby and we say "What should we do?" or we end up doing nothing and waste a weekend that could have been more fun! One of my friends told me of this great website that lists all the activities and events in your area! It's Called Go City Kids and no matter where you live they will list activities that are "kid friendly" that are happening around you!

Check out kid friendly events near you!!

Free Potty Training DVD

Free potty training video, while supplies last. Pull-ups has a free potty training DVD that they will send you when you sign up at their website. Even if potty training is months away for you I would order one!

Click here for the free DVD.

Baby Poll- a GREAT office game!

When I was preggers with my daughter I worked full time at a corporate office. My co-workers were great and they all loved telling me what they thought I was going to have. I found this really cool website where you can register and set up a baby guessing game. You send the link to all your friends, family and co-workers and they enter their guess: Sex, Birthdate, Weight and length. You can set it up so that each guesses must pay to guess or you can have them guess for free. It's a lot of fun and when you have the baby you enter the information and it calculates the winner. My sister-in-law came the closest, but I came in 3rd... and I even got the gender WRONG (which is a 400pt deduction!) I was really close to the date/time and weight though.

Here is the link to sign up for the baby guessing game!

Babies-R-Us Bottle Exchange!

Take in your bottles made with BPA plastic and Babies R Us will exchange them with non BPA bottles!!!! The bottles must be complete and they will refund you the selling price in a for of store credit! You may want to call the Babies-R-Us by you before you leave-the one by us is only doing it until August 9th!

August 10th they have a new policy- receipts required with every RETURN!

Healthy Popsicles

Popsicles are fun in the summertime even for a teething toddler! Sometimes you can find small Popsicles at the store, but watch that sugar intake! Here are a few fun popsicles ideas to make your own:

• grapejuice or applejuice
  
• smashed strawberries and strawberry yogurt (this becomes more of a creamsicle)
• freeze chocolate milk

For us moms- take the popsicle and dip in chocolate and re-freeze :)

Here is a good popsicle mold at Amazon.

Books

So, I have always tried to read to my son before bed but he just wasn't that excited about sitting still! But, I must tell those of you who have experienced the same indifference to keep trying because now he loves it! He walks around all day carrying his favorite books over to me to read to him. He even has favorite pages in each book! I have found he is becoming more verbal by us reading together too.
I received a great book, called Goodnight Chicago. It goes through landmarks around town. They have several versions of it in different cities. Check them out: http://www.amazon.com/Good-Night-Chicago-Our-World/dp/0977797929

Honey we're killing the kids

There is a new show on the Discovery channel that definitely grabbed my attention. I have not seen an episode yet and the previews look like it's a tad exaggeration, but it is a eye opener to having you kids eat right.

Check out the discover channel's website

Deceptively Delicious

So, I am sure most of you have heard about Jerry Seinfeld's wife's new cook book right? Well Jessica Seinfeld was on Oprah and I got the scoop. What an amazing book! Here's a quick lowdown of what her "secret" is: she purees veggies and fruits and mixes them within her recipes. For example she makes chicken nuggets with a batter made with spinach and sweet potatoes., Mac-n-cheese with butternut squash, Cauliflower in scrabbled eggs, carrots in brownies!

We are all about veggies!

http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com/site/

Read more about getting your toddler to eat his veggies!

Gift Giving Idea #1

The other day one of my friends called and asked me what he should get for one of his coworkers who just had a baby. This particular friend happens to be a single guy, with no kids... but it got me thinking. Regardless if you are male or female, maybe this area of gift giving is a bit of a mystery to you. I have to say, before I had my baby, I thought the stuff was cute, but had no idea what was "THE GIFT" to give was or what was the most practical yet fun gift to give that would always result in a "WOW"!
So, we decided to offer our ideas and maybe this will help you become the BEST gift giver ever!
Please do share your comments or suggestions to, we love hearing from you.

Gift idea #1:
Trumpette socks
These much such a great gift for several reasons:

• They are totally adorable AND
  
• PRACTICAL too. In the first few months, babies don't really need shoes all the time, but people want to complete the outfit! Trumpette socks look like shoes, but they are socks!
• They actually STAY on the baby's foot and they will fit for almost 12 months! Babies grow so fast, but these socks grow with them
• Stylish and unique

There are different styles and colors. Check them out!

Popsicles!

So, I have discovered a fun treat for your little one... Popsicles!
I should definitely warn you though, it is best to give it to them while outside, preferably at a pool or by a sprinkler. If that is not possible for you, I have also set my son in his highchair without a shirt and a bib!
Some grocery stores sell these Mini-Popsicles and they are the PERFECT size for little hands! It is so cute to see them eat one. Cool your little one off with this tasty treat and watch their amazement at the wonder of a cold treat on a stick!

Baby Registry 101: Lesson #7- Convertble Carseats

Toddler carseats, front facing or convertible carseats are often overlooked in a baby registry. New moms are so excited for that new infant carrier that they don't realize baby only sits in there until they reach a certain height or weight, which is most likely less than 1 year. For me, I was able to lug around the infant carrier until my little one was about 8 months old. Than I switched to the convertible carseat. The convertible seat is able to face rear or forward.

Here is the deal:
Infant carriers are nice- they are convenient and make life easy when the baby is small. Once the baby starts to get heavy- lugging around a 18lb child in a 13lb carrier is not so fun. Also- these are INFANT carriers. These are meant for babies who cannot support their neck. This is why baby is at a 45 degree angle in the seat when properly installed.

Once you are ready for the carseat you can use the convertible carseat and have the baby rear facing. After they are at least 1 year and 20lbs you can face them forward.

So, now that you realize your child will be in the convertible carseat for a longer percentage of time versus the infant carrier, you can see why it is important to register for a really nice one. When baby is about 1 year you may not feel like spending $200 on a carseat, but if you already have one from your shower, no worries!

Our favorite Convertible seat:

The Britax Roundabout Carseat

Why we love it:

• It holds a child from 5lbs to 40lbs (you can in get by with getting only this one seat - until they are ready for a booster!)
  
• Plush fabrics make it cozy
• Easy to install. We love easy!
• Seatbelt does not rub baby's neck like other seats
• High safety ratings
  

Happy 4th of July!

I cannot believe it has been 1 year since this pic has been taken! Make sure this 4th of July you take pictures of your little one! They sure grow fast!

Traveling With Baby Tips

Phew! After a fun trip to Chicago I have learned a few things about traveling alone with baby.
Let's look at them:

• You NEVER can pack too many diapers
• You will forget something- most likely it will be something you need :)
• Do not count on children sleeping the whole way- partial, maybe
  
• Be prepared to break routines
• Realize that there is a high chance of NO sleep for you :)
• Fun music in the car is a lifesaver! (check out Barenaked Ladies- Snacktime!)
• Food is your friend!!!! Check out this travel container for your child
  
• Pack just one more outfit than you think you need
• Bring a new toy for your child to play with in the car. This little doggy set is PERFECT for travel

Remember that even though the journey may be tough it will be worth it!

Safety Recalls

Baby toys and items are being recalled daily. Make sure you are up to date with current recalls. The following page helps you by listing all the company recalls:

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html

Little Hipster of the Month- June Winner!

And the winner is: Francesco! Congratulations! You win a $25 gift certificate to Little Hipster!


Make sure to submit a picture for the July contest to compete for your $25 gift certificate!
contests@thelittlehipster.com

Remember- if your child didn't win this time you can submit a new picture for next month!

Christmas in July Sale!

We love a reason to celebrate! This is Little Hipster's 1st July and we decided to celebrate!

For the month of July we are running a special of a FREE hook on-tray with any purchase over $50! This is a fabulous product and we want to help get it out there! We think you will love it! Make sure to get your free gift today!

Remember- Free shipping on orders over $75!