These deals are similar to a Groupon, except that they are selected by local moms, so I know they’re finding deals relevant for moms like me. Another awesome perk about this deal site is that they hire moms to find deals and promote them; I know several stay-at-home moms who write posts for Juice in the City and are making some extra cash. Interested?  Check out the promo for Juice in the City by my friend, Gigi Ross.

Have you tried the Juice?

Not sure what I mean? Well, Juice in the City is now live in Austin! Juice in the City is not your ordinary daily deal site, though; every single one of their deals is personally discovered by a local Austin mom. You can be sure that when Juice offers up a deal, it’s been mom-tested and mom-approved!

Juice offers crazy-good deals on everything from restaurants to summer camps to spas and the deals are focused on locally-owned businesses, so you can feel good that your money is being put right back into YOUR community. Subscribe to the North Austin deals if you’re in that part of town, or South Austin deals if you’re in that neck of the woods. Hurry, so you don’t miss a thing!

I married into a technologically-savvy family. Family get-togethers involve quality time with laptops, iPads, and iPhones. Therefore, my kiddo has been exposed to Apple products her entire life and she’s been able to navigate my iPhone since she could crawl. Early on, my husband and I had to password-protect our phones so she wouldn’t inadvertently call our friends, send mass emails, or tweet!

When she was a little older we started downloading some kid-friendly apps for her to use. Although apps are innocently priced, with most only being $0.99, I’ve bought 4 or 5 bad apps for every good one I’ve found. Some are so awful that I feel like I have been scammed. Since I am a consumer and close observer of how my child plays these games, I feel entitled to give some advice. Here are my free (and unsolicited) consulting tips to kid app developers.

By the way, you can see my favorite iPad and iPhone apps in two previous posts: Baby’s First iPhone Apps and Best Toddler iPad and iPhone Apps.

1) Load fast, or don’t load at all.

There are lots of good apps out there (say hello to Elmo’s Monster maker and There’s a Monster at the End of this Book), but unless it loads quickly my toddler is not going to play them. Period. Do what you’ve got to do, but instantaneous play is key. If your game is not quick to load, then add in a fun progress bar that lets a kiddo know that the game is working and something is about to happen (for example, see Dora Ballet Adventure app).

2) Be more than a one note app.

Apps that have only one game or one element get old quickly for little kids. While a game like Dinosaur Stickers has cute graphics, it seldom gets played because the only option is dragging stickers around a page. This rule applies to book apps as well, which are typically formulated to move in one direction with minimal variation in the story. The apps that my child likes the most are those that are interactive and can change from one play to the next. See the book feature in Fun with Thadros (pictured) for a good quality book where you get to pick what is going to happen next.

3) If you’re going to offer a free app, don’t be a jerk.

I like free apps but I also realize that nothing is truly free. I understand that to make a free app worthwhile, the producers may have to include ads or another source of income. However, for games designed specifically for children, I expect a little bit of discernment about appropriate advertising. For example, I am not a fan of free apps for little kids that have advertisements in the middle of the game or book (e.g., look at this Shaun the Sheep screencap), or games that contain advertisements that if clicked on send you to an external Internet site. By the way, this isn’t only a problem with free apps (for example, Winnie the Pooh Puzzle Book).

I like the idea of having a free app with limited functionality compared to the full-priced version so you can test it out and decide if you want more. However, when the free app is only the first 10 pages from a complete book (Dr. Seuss), that is lame.

4) Have a good narrator.

This rule applies to flash cards, games, and book apps. The game Toddler Teasers Food is a decent game, but the narrator’s robotic female voice is grating. But my child loves and responds well to the kids’ voices in the Peekaboo Wild games.

5) Don’t make your application too large.

Most kids don’t have their own iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. Instead they have to share with their parents who have their own set of applications, songs, videos, and games. Thus, competition for space should be a real concern for app developers. We downloaded a game called My Stuffy Bunny, which is another decent game, but it has long since been removed from all our Apple products because of its size (95.8 MB!). We’re unlikely to keep a game that takes up so much space, when we could have 3-8 smaller games in its place (most games range from 4 MB – 40 MB).

Yes, I confess, my daughter has her own iTouch. We didn’t purposely get her one, but it came with another purchase so we thought we’d load some toddler-friendly games on it. She gets to use the iTouch when we go on vacation or eat out. I now wonder how I would live without one! She loves to play the games, it keeps her quietly entertained, and many of the apps are educational as well.

In my search for fun iPhone and iPad apps for kids, I have come across MANY duds, but my husband and I have also found several our daughter really likes. So for parents looking for fun apps that are easy enough for babies and toddlers to use, look no further! You can review my iPhone apps post from last year, and below is an all-new, updated list of my preferred kid-friendly iPad and iPhone apps.

1) My Coloring Book Free

This fabulous app is designed to be very similar to a regular coloring book with more than 30 pages/scenes to choose from. The best part is that you cannot color outside the lines. To play, select a color from the palette and then touch the part of the picture you want in the desired color. My daughter loves this game, but plays it by coloring in all pages in one identical color.  Although she has not grasped the idea of using multiple colors, this game keeps her attention for long spans of time.

Download My Coloring Book Free here, free for iPad and iPhone

2) Fish School

Another amazing iPhone app for kids is by Duck Duck Moose, whose Itsy Bitsy Spider game is still my favorite kids app (previously featured in my first iPhone apps post). Even if you only ever purchased iPhone/iPad games made by this company, then your kids would be highly entertained. This particular Fish School game has everything from free play (guiding fish around a tank), to ABCs, numbers, shapes, and more. I love the cute fish and it is easy for toddlers to navigate.

Download Fish School here, $1.99 iPad and iPhone

3)  MixMe-FixMe

This game is simple – you match three puzzle pieces (a head, mid section, and legs) together to create a person. Even if your child does not understand the objective of the puzzle, it’s still fun to use your fingers to slide different heads on to different bodies. When you do line up the correct person (ex. fireman), you get rewarded with a colorful scene (ex. fireman fighting a fire). I love this game because it is a puzzle with attractive graphics, but not overly complicated so little ones can play. This app is great on airplanes or in restaurants because it’s still understandable and fun when silenced.
Download MixMe-FixMe here, $0.99 for iPad and iPhone

4) Doodle Buddy

This app (not pictured) is essentially a drawing canvas with many color options as well as stamps. You draw by tracing your finger over the paper and you can clear the drawing by shaking the iPhone or iPad.  My daughter started playing this game at 18 months and still enjoys it at 30 months. She loves the stamp feature, which includes pictures of ladybugs, fire, smiley faces, and more. The newer versions of this app appear to be getting more complicated by adding more features. The older versions are a bit easier to use; nevertheless, you can’t beat this free app.

Download Doodle Buddy here, free for iPad and iPhone

5) C is for Cow

C is for Cow is an educational iPhone app with beautiful artwork. This app goes through the ABCs, featuring animals for each letter. You slide your finger to go to the next letter and tap the buttons to hear the letter sound or the animal name. If you love the pictures, this company has a similar app that with animal sounds called Speak, Piggy.

Download C is for Cow here, $0.99 iPad and iPhone

6) Little Uzu

The makers of the Little Uzu app explain this game as “a kinetic multitouch particle visualizer.” My toddler just thinks it’s cool. It requires no skill, but encourages kids (and adults) to explore and discover how the colors react to your touch. The colors and motion changes as your hand moves across the screen and the more places you touch the more complex the designs become. Kids like it because there are no rules and no specific buttons to push; however, it is not a game that commands a long attention span.

Download Little Uzu here, $0.99 iPad and iPhone

7) Dora’s Ballet Adventure

This game barely squeezed onto this list because my daughter loves Dora and spends lots of time on this game. But it has a few downsides.

Pros: the graphics are great, the game is set up exactly like an episode so it is a familiar format, the game is long so it feels worth the higher price tag, and the words highlight as the story is read so it can help new readers.

Cons: this game takes parental guidance to teach young ones how to play, the game never changes or has alternate routes so it could get boring after several plays, you have to click through lots of text to get to the next objective, and it cannot be played easily while on silent.

Download Dora’s Ballet Adventure here, $2.99 iPhone and $3.99 iPad

These are some of Heather’s favorite iPhone and iPad apps for kids – what are you some of your favorites?

Watching the Royal Wedding last week made me wish I were brave enough to wear fancy hats. Besides Kate’s gown, the hats were the highlights of the day. But seriously, how many occasions can an adult get away with wearing statement hats and fascinators like those worn by the royal guests? That being said, it is completely socially acceptable to dress up your baby/toddler in ridiculously adorable hats, headbands, and bows. So quick dress them up, take them out, and snap as many pictures as possible before they are old enough to say ‘no’. If you must have an occasion for dressing up your little one, hats are great for photo props, and appropriate for tea party play dates and Kentucky Derby parties.

After the Royal wedding, I was inspired to search for baby/toddler hats that matched some of the exciting fashions worn by the British socialites, princesses, and the Queen. Through this endeavor, I have discovered that the really eccentric hats/headbands don’t come cheap, and perhaps rightly so – it makes them more special. Here are my finds… enjoy and be sure to visit the Etsy shop owners to see their other whimsical creations!

1. Princess Beatrice of York – The Fairy Factory Shop, $9.50

2. Tara Parker Tomkinson – Amarmi, $35

3. The Queen – Lil Lady Bows, $28.99

4. Princess Eugenie of York – Miss Ruby Sue, $68

5. Duchess of Kent, Catherine Walker – Amarmi, $35

6. Sally Bercow – Tutu Glamourous, $119.99 (includes tutu dress and hat)

7. Lorna Brooking – Amarmi, $45

8. Miriam Gonzalez – Bellas Bowtique 2008, $12.99

Royal Wedding photo credits: People’s A ROYAL WEDDING, Best Hats of the Royal Wedding

Flying with an infant or toddler can be stressful, but being prepared by understanding the airline rules and regulations can make your trip easier. This post was written to help elucidate some of the hard-to-find rules and make you feel like a travel pro. For other travel tips check out my holiday travels post and my favorite iPhone apps for on-board entertainment.

Flying with a lap child

If your child is under the age of two, then he/she can ride in your lap. However, you must inform the airline after making your reservation that you have an infant (this is easiest by phone). Certain airlines, including Southwest, require you to bring a copy of the infant’s birth certificate to prove that he/she is less than two years old. Even if the airline doesn’t specify this when booking the flight, I always carry a birth certificate just in case.

Some large airplanes and airline companies have other infant amenities, such as a bassinet option, which is especially common on long, international flights. Usually the bassinet can be attached to the bulkhead, so to get one you must schedule your flight early and request it in advance. Check Seat Guru for the pacifier key, which indicates an infant amenity may be possible.

Rules on where you cannot sit when traveling with infants/tots

Seating rules are important to know when booking a flight and are often not very easy to find. Here are some things to keep in mind when booking your seats.

• Children under the age of 16 may not sit in an exit row, and parents with lap children cannot sit in the seats behind the exit row.
• If you are traveling with an FAA approved car seat, your child must sit in the window seat.
• If you have multiples, talk to an agent about how to arrange the seating. For planes with three seats, you must have an adult with two young children. In other words, three young children cannot sit in a row by themselves. Also, two lap children cannot sit within the same seat section (this is due to the number of oxygen masks available per row of seats).
• Personal recommendation: Do not sit in the first row because you cannot have carry-on baggage on the floor. It is best to have diaper bag or entertainment stuff accessible and near your feet.

Note: These rules may vary slightly depending on the airline (for example, see Continental’s rules here).

Why you might want to buy your infant his/her own seat

Even if your child is under two, it is a good idea to get a seat for her if you can afford it (especially if she is older 12 months). Why, you ask?

• Regardless of the fact you have a baby, the people in front of you can still lean their seats back, making cramped space even more claustrophobic.
• If your child is used to car travel then having a car seat on the airplane will give her a sense of normalcy, hopefully allowing your baby to fall asleep. I found that my daughter was unaccustomed to sleeping or sitting in my lap for long stretches and would squirm the whole flight.
• You and your child will be more comfortable and you can both have your tray down for snacks, books, or drinks.
• It is safer for your child to have a FAA approved harness or travel seat.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) child safety regulations

According to the FAA, there are no safety regulations for lap children. However, if the child is under the age of two and has her own seat, she must have an approved harness or child restraint system (CRS). An approved CRS states that it is approved for motor vehicles and aircraft and must have a sticker attached. See the full FAA child standards here. If your child is over the age of two, then she is allowed to use the lap belt (however, it may not be the safest option available).

My picks for infant & tot airplane restraints

1) For infants sitting in your lap use a Baby Bjorn (8-22 lbs; $60)

Baby harnesses and slings can act as a seat belt if they are securely fastened to you on the plane, but only if you have on your seat belt as well. I love the harness because it gives you free hands when walking through the terminal.

2) The Lilly Gold FAA approved car seat/stroller (5-40lbs; pictured above)

This is my favorite option even though it is a bit pricey – around $250. My mother-in-law got this for us and we love it when we travel. We don’t use this as our everyday car seat, but if you plan on flying more than a couple of times with an infant or toddler, then this is a worthwhile purchase. Did I already mention that this chair is all-in-one car seat/stroller/FAA approved flight seat? It saves you money from renting car seats from rental car companies and also works as a stroller on vacation. When my daughter flew on my lap we would often gate-check this stroller, and it would serve as a stroller in the airport and a car seat in our rental or extended family’s vehicles. Now when my daughter flies in her own seat, we use it on the flight as a car seat. For it to be secure, you fasten the airplane seat belt to the Lilly Gold seat. It fits snuggly in most airplanes and comes with an FAA approved sticker on the side, which you may need to show to a flight attendant when boarding.

3) CARES: Child aviation restraint system (22-44lbs; pictured left)

This restraint harness keeps your little one secure on the plane. It’s quick to attach and is small enough to be tucked into your carry-on baggage. One of the cons of the Lilly Gold chair is that the distance between your kid’s seat and the seat in front of them is closer, meaning that your kiddo could drive the person ahead of you crazy by kicking their chair. The CARES harness prevents this by keeping your little one closer to the back of his/her seat. However, it is not as comfortable as the Lilly Gold for long flights. A friend who uses the CARES harness brings a pillow for her tot to sit on to make the flight more comfortable.

When I first started looking at crayons for my kid, I was amazed at how many products there are for coloring. With all the options, it is hard to choose, so here I’ve included some of my favorite coloring options with their pros and cons.

Crayola TaDoodles

Pros: Crayola TaDoodles crayons are great first crayons (for 12 months+). The crayon holders are perfect for little hands to grasp and the crayons do not easily break from forceful coloring. I’ve found that my tot likes coloring with these on plain white paper much more than coloring books.

Cons: To refill the holder you have to buy special triangular shaped crayons.

Giddy-up Dora Color Blast Activity Book

Pros: This Dora activity book comes with a marker that works like invisible ink, which means that you don’t have to worry about coloring outside the lines or on the couch. Just draw on the page and the colors magically appear. This brand has several books including SpongeBob, My Little Pony, and the Littlest Pet Shop. It’s fun to watch the page turn to color, and also requires no skill. This is a great item for travel and dining out. Another plus is that you can leave the cap off for days and it still works (I know this from experience).

Cons: While the markers are no mess, it does take a few seconds to see the color appear on the paper after drawing. When my kiddo would first start drawing she was confused to not to see color immediately. Also, like the Color Wonder brand, the markers only work on the paper provided.

Magnetic Sketcher

Pros: With a Magnetic Sketcher, you never run out of paper. My daughter loves to draw and erase over and over again. I always love good travel toys and these types of magnetic sketchers can come in a smaller travel size as well as larger sizes. Guaranteed not to make a mess.

Cons: No color drawings to post on the refrigerator.

Crayon Rolls

Pros: These are bags designed to tote 8 to 10 crayons out of the house. Have you ever tried packing crayons in the crayon box in your purse? I have and the box falls apart immediately. I have also used ziplock bags, which while functional is not very attractive. Crayon rolls are made to be more durable and have more personality. My tot likes pushing and pulling the crayons in and out as much as she likes to color. I have recently started making these myself, and since I don’t sew, I use colorful felt and fabric glue. If you don’t have the energy to make one yourself, buy one from the LilBambinaBoutique on Etsy for $6.99 (pictured here). It makes a great gift.

Cons: None!

What are your favorite crayons and coloring accessories?

Having kids can be very expensive. Here are some tips on how to save money by cutting back on buying things new.

Make your own maternity clothes.

Although I loved getting maternity clothes, I totally understand that they are overpriced and might not fit like your perfect jeans. If you love your jeans and want to save money, Belly Jeans will convert your jeans to maternity jeans for as little as $17. If you are really thrifty and good with a sewing machine you could even do them yourself. (Disclosure- in the long run this may cost as much buying maternity because you’ll have to get new jeans to replace your “maternity” ones later.)

Join Amazon Mom. 

I am pretty sure that the Amazon Mom program is a mom of multiples’ dream come true. Sign up and get 30% off diapers and wipes and get them delivered to your house.

Get a library card.

I just recently got a library card. Oh man, was I missing out! I was unaware that library borrowing is FREE! This may be unsurprising to everyone but me, but I honestly assumed that they must a charge a membership fee or something. Libraries have more than just books too, including DVDs (including Pixar and Disney that regularly cost $20 a movie), and even CDs. This is perfect if you like to expose your baby/tot to a range of music tastes from classical music to Christmas CDs to kid tunes. Need another reason to go? My tot now has her own library card that she is very proud of.

Shop at kid resale shops.

Not only do stores like Kid to Kid and Once Upon a Child buy and sell gently used kid stuff, but they often do the same with maternity clothes. I’ve never bought clothes from either of these stores, but I have bought some toys. If you have great stuff that your kid outgrew and you want to earn cash back, I recommend this option. Also useful if you’re having poor luck finding nursery furniture on Craigslist.

Use Cheaptweet.

Do I even have to mention this to you? Get coupons and information about sales from CheapTweet! Printing off coupons before you visit the mall can save you money. If I need to go kids clothes shopping, I always check online to see if there are any coupons for Children’s Place or Gap that I can use to save.

What are some other ways you’ve found that you can avoid buying things brand new?

From that, we’ve learned a great deal about what kinds of tweets get retweeted and clicked on. We’ve written before about how to write effective tweets, particularly if you’re tweeting on behalf of a store, brand or other business. Writing clear, actionable tweets is essential to being successful on Twitter, but it’s also equally important to measure what’s happening when you tweet.

Twitter itself gives you some good insight into your tweets. For example, it tells you how many times your tweets are retweeted, as well as who retweeted those tweets.

Having that retweet information is very useful, but it can be difficult to tell what kind of impact those retweets are having. How many people follow the people who retweeted you? How many impressions are your tweets generating? What kinds of tweets get traction? Who are your biggest advocates?

Besides the info Twitter includes about your tweets, there are a number of third-party tools that provide hard numbers and other data to help you understand how effective you are on Twitter.

One of these is TweetReach, a tool we developed that calculates a tweet’s reach on Twitter. We wanted to be able to measure how far tweets about a topic traveled – how many people retweeted (and who retweeted), how many total people saw tweets about a topic, and more.

TweetReach is useful for gaining insight into a particular deal we tweeted. For example, we recently tweeted about a BOGO coupon for Jamba Juice. Through Twitter, we learned that it was retweeted 35 times. Using TweetReach, we can see that there were actually 47 tweets about that coupon. Not all were traditional retweets, so they’re not all counted in Twitter’s retweet calculation. Beyond that, we can also see that those 47 tweets contributed to more than 59,000 people who were exposed to this deal! Those numbers are really helpful to us, and we can take them to customers and advertisers to help them understand our impact on Twitter.

This TweetReach report also shows us, of all the people who tweeted about our coupon, who contributed the most impressions. This is great information to know – who are our most influential advocates?

In addition to TweetReach, we depend on a variety of other metrics and analytics apps to help us measure our success on Twitter. Three of our favorites are Klout, TwitterCounter and TweetStats. Klout calculates a Twitter account’s influence and gives you a number of useful metrics about an account. TwitterCounter provides stats about the number of followers and tweets for an account. TweetStats quantifies your tweet frequency and other useful tweet stats. And depending on what else you want to calculate, the oneforty analytics category has 151 Twitter applications listed – I bet you can find what you’re looking for.

This kind of measurement is important to knowing if you’re being successful on Twitter – whether that means increasing awareness about a sale, driving traffic through to your website, or communicating clearly about company news. What metrics and analytics tools do you like?

If you don’t shop at Etsy, you really should. You can get artistic, unique items and support individuals rather than big corporations. Granted, most people can’t afford to buy all their kids’ clothing from Etsy stores, but it is fun to occasionally get a special outfit that you love. However, Etsy is not just about clothing – there are so many creative shops and items for decorating a nursery. It is also just fun to browse for inspiration.

Here’s a list of Etsy shops where I love to browse and shop.

Cottage Mama

Cottage Mama makes adorable one-of-a-kind modern vintage dresses. She loves to do custom orders and has a blog where she gives sewing tutorials. You can also follow @TheCottageMama on Twitter. Price range = $4 to $70

Olive and Ollie

Another adorable clothing shop that also has modern vintage dresses as well as appliquéd everyday wear. And she’s another fun person to follow on Twitter at @oliveandollie. Price range = $11 to $45

Gracious May

These are seriously cute baby shoes. Maryjanes, Eskimo Boots, loafers and more… Even though these shoes are more for the parents’ enjoyment than the baby’s, they would make such adorable first baby shoes. Price range = $30-$60

Shopop88

There are even Etsy stores for making custom dresses and bedding for your dolls. shoppr88 has darling dresses for the American Girl Dolls and you can get a matching dress for your little girl. Price range = $10-$30

NouWall

This shop has great decals for decorating walls that can transform a room from boring to friendly and fun. The wall decals are nice because they are simple to put up and don’t make a mess. And they’re easy to peel off when you kid gets older. Price range = $25 to $200

CarrotFever

There are tons of shops to find adorable mobiles, but one of my favorites is CarrotFever. Their mobiles are whimsical and simple. Price range = $15 to $40

Cute Kid Creations

Cute Kid Creations is another Etsy jewel. This shop makes personalized door signs, nursery wall letters, and bow holders. It’s a great idea for baby showers. Price range = $12 to $40

So, these are some of my favorite baby and kid-focused Etsy shops. Which ones do you like?

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