By using a reusable lunch kit, you reduce waste and save money.  Just imagine, no more paper bags, plastic baggies, or tin foil–I’ll bet your lunch will even taste better, knowing that you are doing your part for the earth and your household budget.

While saving green, of both the environmental and financial varieties, don’t forget to select containers that are healthy for your family, too. Kids Konserve products are non-toxic, non-leaching, BPA, PVC, phthalate, and lead-free!

According to Kids Konserve, ” the amount of trash produced by one child’s lunch alone creates 67 pounds of landfill waste in a school year!”  That’s a trash heap over twice the weight of my preschool daughter.  You can significantly limit your personal contribution to that dump by reducing your use of disposable items.

In place of sandwich baggies, use the food cozy, my favorite part of the lunch system, .  They are perfect for any sandwich, bagel, or wrap.

My daughter loves the Butterfly pattern in fuchsia and lime green and likes to carry the reusable stainless steel water bottle with her everywhere she goes.

Preschoolers may not understand all the science of environmentalism, yet, but they can easily grasp the idea of tossing less waste.  And little kids love being helpful.

These eco-chic lunch bags provide a fun opportunity to make a dent in the amount of trash we throw away–one bite at a time.

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WANT IT: Waste-free lunch kits at Kids Konserve are $42-45; individual items are available a la carte. Use 15% coupon code “mamanista” (expires 4/30/10).

Thanks to everyone who pledged at Bloganthropy and fanned Bloganthropy, we made a donation of $156 to The Salvation Army, which will be matched by AJ Lawrence, CEO of The Jar Group.

Disaster relief in a country like Haiti is a long-haul.  We’d like to encourage our fellow bloggers to keep the focus on these efforts and to continue to support the relief organizations that do amazing work in Haiti and throughout the world.

And then I wake up.

In the meantime, there are organizations and companies that make it a whole lot easier to be a working mother with a nursling.

	Breastpump: Medela has topped the list of recommendations I received from friends and professionals.  I like that all parts that touch the milk are BPA-free and Phthalate Free. Nursing Mother Supplies has a great rundown of the features available with the various Medela Breastpumps. My breastpump of choice is the Medela Freestyle Breastpump ($350). Some mothers find they are successful with a simple hand pump but personally I prefer an electric double pump. This pump is lightweight (under one pound), portable, hands-free, programmable, and efficient.
	Nursing Camisole/Tank: Whether I’m pumping or breastfeeding out in public, I prefer to keep my stomach covered.  Nursing camisoles are comfortable and fashionable and also give you a smooth line. If you are looking for a great deal, Gilligan & O’Malley Nursing Tanks are only $17. The Glamourmom Nursing Tank ($30-35) is available in a wide variety of beautiful colors and patterns. Or, if you want to treat yourself, the Yummie Tummie Long Length Nursing Shapewear Tank ($82) will shape as well as cover your belly.
	Bottles and Bags: Compatibility with your pump is the key here. Since I have a Medela pump, I go with Medela bottles and breast milk storage bags. All of Medela’s products that come into contact with breastmilk are and always have been BPA-free and Phthalate-free, so no worries there. To be extra safe, I like to use their glass bottles at home, which are also compatible with most of their pumps (though it is not intended for use with the Freestyle). For you, dear readers, I dropped one of the bottles on my hard wood floors and it survived perfectly intact. And if you find yourself needing to sterilize away from home, the Medela Quick Clean Micro-Steam Bags are a real time-saver.
	Books and Websites: Although it is a general resource, we like the friendly straight talk of Mama Knows Breast: A Beginner’s Guide to Breastfeeding ($15). Pumping moms experiencing supply problems will find tips in The Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk ($13). You’ll also find expert answers, mama gurus, and forums on these websites: KellyMom – Pumping and Bottle Feeding Dr. Sears – Breastfeeding and Working Mama Knows Breast Medela Breastfeeding U.S.

What are your must-have recommendations and tips for pumping moms?

Disclosure: Debbie, one of our editors, was sponsored by Medela for BlogHer ‘09.

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

Why, yes, yes I can. In fact, if you are able to get to Madison Square Garden, Mamanista can take you there!

Sesame Street was a favorite of mine as a kid–a magical place of learning, sharing, and caring.  So, it is very exciting that we get to share tickets not only with a reader’s family, but also with some children who could use a special day!

Sesame Street Live “When Elmo Grows Up” is coming to New York City! (Feb 4-15)

When Elmo and his Sesame Street Live friends think about growing up, it’s a musical show-and-tell! Bert dreams of becoming a forest ranger, Telly longs to be a cowboy and their newest friend, Abby Cadabby, wants to be a fairy godmother just like her mommy. Elmo thinks about becoming a ‘weather monster,’ but has a hard time predicting his own forecast – he wants to be anything and everything all at once!

We have a family four-pack of tickets for Sesame Street Live at Madison Square Garden (dates February 6-15, subject to availability) to give away to one reader.

We’re also going to be giving away four tickets to a worthy children’s charity in New York City, based on the winner’s choice.  We recommend Big Brothers / Big Sisters of America, the youth mentoring organization, and Make a Wish, giving hope, strength, and joy, to children with life-threatening illnesses.

To enter, please leave us a comment by 10pm EST, February 4, 2010, letting us know how Sesame Street helps teach compassion AND which charity with a NYC chapter you would like to see receive the tickets.

Hop over to Bloganthropy and you’ll find more chances to win with two other blogs.

Disclaimer: Contest ends February 4, 10pm EST. Winner, chosen at random, has 24 hours to respond. Transportation not included. Dates subject to availability.  This post was brought to you by the letters M, S, and G for Madison Square Garden, and B for Bloganthropy. Sesame Street Live is an advertiser this year but we are receiving no compensation for this post…maybe a little good karma.

(Yes, I’m missing new episodes of Glee.)

Your faithful Mamanista editors have been busy with professional and family obligations but we are are looking forward to a fabulous 2010 with you, our readers and friends.

When we started Mamanista almost three years ago, we were among a handful of blogs reviewing children’s products and baby gear. After advising friends and random strangers in the mall about baby gear, we thought a blog would be a fun way to write it all down in one place. Plus, we could raise money for children’s charities and meet new friends. Since then, our blog, mom blogging, and the entire blog-o-sphere, have all grown by leaps and bounds.  We’ve dropped some features and added others. We’ve become more focused on our charitable work and have had the opportunity to get to know a lot of thoughtful and talented bloggers.

After thousands of posts, we want to know, how are we doing? What do you enjoy here? What would you like to see us add? Please take this poll and feel free to leave other comments on this post.

Photo Credit: Stefan Baudy

And we want our donation to have a larger impact, so we are asking you to take action, too.

• For every new person who takes the Bloganthropy pledge by January 31, we will donate $1.
• For every new Bloganthropy facebook fan by January 22, we will donate 50 cents.

AJ Lawrence of The Jar Group has also pledged to match our donation.  If any company, large or small, would like to match our donation, or would like our assistance in finding other social media efforts they can match, please feel free to contact us.

We are also writing a round-up of similar efforts by other bloggers on Bloganthropy.  If you are able to donate, please do.  Even if you do not have funds to spare, you can increase the donations made by other members of the social media community and you can spread the word about disaster relief efforts.

Photo Credit: United Nations

We also want to highlight more charitable efforts as part of the Bloganthropy project. Because looking at stuff is neat, winning stuff is fun, and giving stuff to people in need is truly fabulous.

This December, we were delighted to work with some of our favorite toy companies, LeapFrog, Corolle, and Steiff, and publishing companies, Scholastic and Klutz, to bring gifts to children at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Schneider Children’s Hospital.  Veronique Christensen of Little Elephants, Sarah Peppel of Genesis Moments and DIY Frugal joined us in delivering the donation and learning how volunteers and community donations keep Child Life running.

If you are part of social media networks (blogging, facebook, twitter, forums, whrrl, anything that involves interacting with others online), will you pledge with us to use our influence as part of the online community to build a better world?

There is a whole lot of good going on in this blogosphere, let’s shine a bright light on it!

From all of us here at Mamanista.com, Happy Holidays!

Art Credit: Candace’s daughter, aka “Diva the Kid”

Local stores provide personalized service. I have a great relationship with my local store owner, and I have appreciated some of their tips and product recommendations. My neighborhood toy store carries unique educational toys.

But I bet you didn’t know that you are actually supporting your local schools when you shop locally. I serve on my local school board, so I spend a considerable amount of time analyzing school budgets. Did you know that commercial properties pay real estate taxes which support local schools in most states? When these stores do poorly and close, the properties are often reassessed and that erodes the real estate tax base.  The result? Revenue for schools goes down, and school districts must either tax or cut programs to balance the budget.

To raise awareness about the importance of shopping locally, we’re giving away 3 more Award-Winning toys from the ASTRA Best Toys for Kids List. These toys are educational AND a hit with kids. They were selected by toy retailers across America based on their expertise and the feedback they hear regularly from their customers!

Chicky Boom (ARV $25)  -  A game of balance that will challenge your fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Collect as many chickens, hay bales and wagon wheels as you can before the perch topples.

Bananagrams (ARV $25) –  A fast, fun word game for kids and adults. Bananagrams is my favorite travel game, and it was one of Mamanista’s top picks in 2008. If you don’t own this soon-to-be-a-classic game, you are missing out on some fast-paced educational fun that develops spelling and vocabulary skills.  Bananagrams has the educational aspects of Scrabble but takes just 5 minutes to play– great for busy kids and adults.

Create Your Own Pop-Up Books by Creativity for Kids/Faber-Castell (ARV $20) – It’s hard to imagine a better present for an aspiring young writer or artist. This kit comes with two hardcover books. Kids add pictures and photos as well as a story. This is also a great present for Grandmom or Grandpop. Have your child write a story for the proud grandparents, and they’ll treasure the homemade gift that shows what a brilliant, perfect grandchild they have.

WANT IT: Visit the ASTRA Best Toys for Kids Site to locate a specialty toy store near you!

WIN IT: To win one of the three prizes described above:

• Required Entry: Please visit the ASTRA Best Toys for Kids Site and leave us a comment on this post telling us why you think it’s important to support local toy stores OR telling us the name/location of your local specialty toy store.
• Additional Entries (up to three): You can receive up to three additional entries by linking to and/or sharing our Hottest Holiday Toys Guide (see rules at the bottom of the guide) and leaving separate comments on this post for each mode of entry.

Contest on Mamanista.com ends December 21, 11:59 PM EST. Open to U.S. Shipping Only. Winner chosen using Random.org.

We’ve been able to teach the toddlers and preschoolers to line up, inspired by their desire for a turn at the Cozy Coupe.

This 30th Anniversary edition has bright yellow and red primary colors, an appealing cartoon-style face, a steering wheel, a “car key”, gas tank, a door that opens and shuts, and a removable floor for infants who are too young to use their own foot power to move the car along.

The Cozy Coupe is perfect for active play–it really gets kids moving and developing gross motor skills.  And my toddler and preschooler are very excited to play in the Cozy Coupe, motoring around our playroom. At our house, the Cozy Coupe is such a favorite that it even has its own soundtrack: “Driving in my car…Beep, Beep!”

If you are buying a new Cozy Coupe for the holidays, though, be ready to spend an hour assembling it.  After trying to go it alone, I finally called in the big guns–Papa the Engineer.

Once the Cozy Coupe was assembled and ready to go, however, it was a source of instant delight and imaginative play.

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WANT IT: Buy the 30th Anniversary Little Tikes Cozy Coupe at Little Tikes ($50) or Amazon ($33).

WIN IT: Little Tikes is generously offering one reader a 30th Anniversary Cozy Coupe.

• Required Entry: Please visit Little Tikes and leave us a comment on this post sharing your favorite active toy (other than the Cozy Coupe) from their catalog and why it is your favorite.
• Additional Entries (up to three): You can receive up to three additional entries by linking to and/or sharing our Hottest Holiday Toys Guide (see rules at the bottom of the guide) and leaving separate comments on this post for each mode of entry.

Contest on Mamanista.com ends December 21, 11:59 PM EST. Open to U.S. Shipping Only. Winner chosen using Random.org.