Find Part One of my FAQ here.

Where should we stay?

We stayed at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. It’s the high end of the three Disney hotel properties, and I really think it’s worth the extra bucks. I loved the decor - dark wood, vaulted ceilings, very subtle Disney themes. It felt far more adult than I expected, which was refreshing.

The other two Disney hotels are also very convenient to the parks, but when I saw that the Grand Californian actually had a private entrance to Disney’s California Adventure, I was sold. Especially when the five of us were totally wiped out and able to take a much-needed short cut back to the hotel (vice carrying two sleeping children through Downtown Disney as we’d done the night before).

There are other hotels in the surrounding area with access to the parks, but considering the time value of money, I’m sold on the Grand Californian.

Should we bring our own stroller?

I was impressed, as only a mom of small, whiny children can be, by the stroller rental service at the parks. They don’t have double strollers, but one single stroller is $12/day, two for $22.

The strollers are joggers, easily maneuverable and quite comfortable for babies who can sit unsupported all the way up to pre-schoolers. In fact, Tacy and CJ perched in our two strollers to watch Fantasmic! and the fireworks display.

I especially liked that we could return the strollers, hang on to our placards (each stroller has a placard with your name on it, which reduces the potential for mix-ups) and receipt, leave the park for a while and then come back and get new strollers without waiting in line again or paying a second time.

The only drawback is that you must turn in the strollers before leaving the park, which means that you might end up carrying sleeping children all the way back through Downtown Disney, as we wearily did after the fireworks.

Is the food any good?

Surprisingly good!  At Disneyland, we had dinner at the French Market restaurant in New Orleans Square.  I had the jambalaya, and Kyle had the citrus chicken.  The girls shared a plate of macaroni and cheese (which comes with carrot and celery sticks), and Oliver chowed down on shreds of chicken from Kyle’s plate and mine too.  We also splurged on dessert - a chocolate mousse torte for the ladies, and cheesecake topped with red raspberries for Kyle.

The next morning, we had breakfast at the Storyteller’s Cafe at the hotel, accompanied by Chip ‘n Dale.  It was probably the most pleasant sit-down meal we’ve ever enjoyed with all three children, thanks to intermittent visits from the character, plus a post-meal dance parade around the entire cafe.  My only gripe?  The food is pricey - $25 for the buffet for adults, $12 or so for kids.  We ordered off the menu, and in retrospect, we should have ponied up for the buffet and taken advantage of the selection - like Eggs Benedict, sauteed asparagus, and smoked salmon with capers.

Then we had a late lunch at the Wine Country Trattoria at Disney’s California Adventure.  I had a caprese sandwich, and Kyle had a meatball sandwich - both of which were delicious.  It was pretty chilly out that day, so we forewent the adult beverages in favor of hot tea.

How much is this vacation going to cost me anyway?

Believe it or not, I’ve got some good news for you there.  Our airfare was surprisingly low, and because there are several different airports in the general area, you can shop around for flights.  Just make sure your chosen car rental company has a location at each airport; we learned that lesson the hard way.

Disneyland has also begun a new promotion that makes for an ideal vacation.  Buy a three-night hotel and three-day ticket package, and get two more nights and two more days absolutely free.  The reason I think this offer is so fantastic is that it lets you relax more as you explore the parks.  Instead of feeling compelled to see and do everything in only a couple days, you’ve got five full days to leisurely make your way to every corner of both Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure.  And aren’t vacations supposed to be leisurely?

Granted, a five-day stay means you’ve got more days’ worth of meals to buy and more time to be tempted by souvenirs.  But you can return home knowing that you’ve really made the most of your time at the parks.

In short, for a family of four - with the cool new promotion (get the details here) - with airfare and car rental and meals and a few sets of souvenir mouse ears, I’d say you’re looking at around $3500.

But like I said in Part One, it’s an experience for the whole family, and unless you live in SoCal, it’s not one you’ll repeat every year - or even every other year.  Plus, you’re just not going to find a comparable family vacation for less.  Certainly not one that’s anywhere near as memorable as a trip to Disneyland.

For more information on Disneyland promotions, check out their Special Offers page.  And if you’ve got any more questions about our Disneyland experience, please email me directly at mothergoosemouse AT gmail DOT com.

On our recent trip to California, we stopped at a Fresh & Easy neighborhood market to pick up a couple bottles of wine to bring to dinner.  We emerged with two bottles of wine, a twelve-pack of beer, a one-pound package of grapes, a bag of spinach artichoke tortilla chips, and an apple that CJ and Oliver fought over shared on the way to Hollywood.  All for about $20.

But Fresh & Easy has so much going for it that the prices are only a small part of the appeal.  Before our trip, I chatted with a couple friends here in Denver who’ve heard about Fresh & Easy from friends and family in LA, and I was surprised to hear that low prices didn’t top the list of reasons why they like to shop there.  Instead, it was the accessibility of the stores, Fresh & Easy’s community involvement, and the quality and simplicity of the selection that they cited.

Hear that, megastore-that-shall-remain-nameless?  Low prices aren’t everything.

The Fresh & Easy we visited in Glassell Park was austere, but well-stocked and immaculate.  It wasn’t large, but the aisles were wide, the shelves didn’t tower over me (I always hated how Manhattan groceries were jam-packed floor to ceiling), and I’ll reiterate how clean it was.  Cleanliness always makes a favorable impression on me.

The selection was very basic: a few name brands, plus the Fresh & Easy brand, for each type of item.  But here’s what struck me - I gravitated to the Fresh & Easy brands.  Simple packaging, with appealing descriptions and visible contents.  Plus, the prices were outstanding.  There were so many items I wanted to try, I wished I were shopping for my own pantry and refrigerator.

Did we like what we bought?  Definitely.  The wine was good - I chose a couple bottles bearing the “selected especially for Fresh & Easy” sticker, along with a $4 price tag - and the chips and grapes kept the kids happily satisfied and out of the minibar.  Kyle grumbled that the beer was bland, but the man drinks Natty Light every night - when did he get so picky?

I also noticed the diversity among our fellow shoppers.  Unlike some specialty groceries that seem to be populated exclusively by young white couples, I saw a wide variety of ages and ethnicities at Fresh & Easy.  Which made me smile, because eating healthfully should be important to everyone.

Fresh & Easy markets are currently located only in southern California, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, with planned expansion to northern California.  I realize that they’re working to get the model down pat before opening stores in other locations, but I can’t help being a bit impatient for them to get to Colorado.  Yes, I was that impressed.

Have you visited Fresh & Easy?  What did you think?

…well, you know.  It rhymes with “grass”.

I looove peanut butter.  I’ve always loved it in combination with chocolate, or in a PB&J sandwich - strawberry jam and soft white bread for me, please.  It’s good on crackers, and it helped me gag down celery sticks, forced upon me by my father who never believed my claims that celery makes my tongue numb.

Dad, I get at least ten Google search hits a day for “celery makes my tongue numb”.  It’s true!

Similar to my feelings for whipping cream and soft cheese, my love for peanut butter has only grown as I’ve gotten older, just like my posterior.  Now I like it in sauces and spreads and even straight from the jar.  At a time when my derriere can least afford my love for peanut butter, that love has reached an all time high, thanks to Maranatha peanut butter.

Regular peanut butter, the kind you find in mass quantities on the grocery shelves, is delicious, no doubt.  But Maranatha’s organic no-stir peanut butter blows the old stuff away.

It’s not nearly as sugary, which makes it ideal for cooking.  My kids still dig the Skippy, but their taste buds are unsophisticated, so they can’t appreciate taste variations the way that Kyle and I do.  When I tried the Maranatha, I could immediate taste the difference.

Not all foods that go by the same name are created equal.  For example, anything from 80/20 beef (or worse, those frozen JTM hockey pucks) to ground sirloin can be called a hamburger.  The same is true for peanut butter, and Maranatha is definitely at the ground sirloin end of the spectrum.

It’s expensive - I’ll get that out of the way right now.  A 16-ounce jar at Target cost me $4.99.  So unless the kids want to pay for it out of their allowance, I’m going to hoard my Maranatha for my own PB&J sandwiches, sharing it only with Kyle if he feels like cooking something with peanut butter.

Who am I kidding?  It doesn’t matter whether or not he feels like it; I’ve already started bookmarking recipes for him to try, because this peanut butter’s taste is so pure that it’s ideal for cooking.  Oh, and eating it straight from the jar too.

Want to try Maranatha peanut butter for yourself? I’ve got five coupons, each for a free jar (up to $4.99 value).  Get it at Whole Foods or Kroger or Target or wherever else you’ve already seen it - it’s popping up more and more.

Before midnight Sunday, leave a comment to tell me how you like your peanut butter - in cookies, on crackers, slathered on a celery stalk, smothering your chicken satay.  I’ll choose five commenters at random (US only, please).

Okay, so no one has actually asked me these questions yet.  But these are the questions I asked (or wish I’d asked) before going to Disneyland, and I hope my answers will help others who are planning a family vacation to this classic and timeless resort.

Are my kids too young/too old to enjoy Disneyland?

Personally, I don’t think anyone is too old to enjoy Disneyland.

Too young though…that depends on your situation.  For example, I know Oliver (14 months) won’t remember this trip to Disneyland at all.  Tacy (7 years old) will remember it well, and CJ (4 years old) will remember certain highlights, especially with the aid of pictures and video.

But we’ll remember CJ’s and Oliver’s enjoyment of the trip, their reactions to everything that they saw and did.  As much fun as I know Tacy had at Disneyland, I think CJ’s and Oliver’s experiences were more magical, which made them even more fun for Kyle and me to observe.

So if you’ve got an only child, I’d say wait until they’re three or four, so that they can get the full effect and you can marvel at the experience through their eyes.  But if you’ve got two or more, don’t wait for the youngest to be old enough to remember the trip.

What are the must-ride rides?

I love rides.  I don’t care how kiddie they are, rides at a big park like Disneyland are all awesome.

But I did have a few top favorites that I’d highly recommend.  First, at Disneyland, “It’s a Small World” is non-negotiable.  It’s integral to the Disney experience.  The ride itself, inside and out, is just beautiful, and I love the subtle cultural messages.  Plus, if you’re there on a day like the one when we visited, a nice cool boat ride is just the ticket.

Also at Disneyland, if you have a fan of the Disney Princesses, check out the Disney Princesses Fantasy Faire.  Even if you don’t wait in line to meet and greet the Princesses in person, go around the corner to the merchandise area and spot them as they make their entrances and exits.  CJ waved at them all like she was hailing a cab, and Belle - still in character - greeted her: “Hello!  Have you read any good books lately?”

Over at Disney’s California Adventure, I had to forego the big rides in favor of those the kids could enjoy too.  But I didn’t expect to love Toy Story Mania! as much as I did; I insisted that we ride it twice.  It’s a 3D virtual midway, where you “shoot” targets and a small screen mounted on your car totals up your points.  Absolutely addictive.

My other top favorite at Disney’s California Adventure was Soarin’ Over California.  It’s a simulated hang glider that suspends you over a hemispheric screen with footage of gorgeous parts of California - sail over orange groves (you can smell the oranges!), up the cliffs of Yosemite, skimming the ocean past the surfers, down the ski slopes.  I’ve never been on another ride like it.

What’s FASTPASS?  Does it cost extra?

One area in which I did not adequately do my homework before our trip was FASTPASS.  I thought it was a premium service, so I dismissed it as a nice-to-have.

FASTPASS is basically a virtual line.  At the rides which feature FASTPASS, you can get a ticket that tells you to return to the ride during a certain window of time, and when you do, get in the FASTPASS line instead of the regular line.  This means that you will likely wait somewhere between 5-15 minutes to get on the ride, instead of 45-90 minutes or more.  But it also means that you need to plan out your day, so that when you get a FASTPASS ticket for a particular ride, you can be sure to make it back there during the window.

While FASTPASS is found at rides with height requirements that leave out many younger kids (such as California Screamin’, with a 48″ height requirement), it’s also available at rides with lower height requirements like 40″, which both Tacy and CJ met.  I really could have used FASTPASS when the three of us went on Soarin’ Over California, and it would have allowed Kyle and me to enjoy some of the bigger rides ourselves without splitting up the family for an hour or more while one of us waited in line.

What are the must-see shows?

I have to admit that I’ve never really been one for seeing the shows at amusement parks.  Why sit on bleachers when there are roller coasters waiting to be tamed?  Even when we went on family vacations to Disney World and Disneyland, we stuck to the rides.

But this trip to Disneyland really changed my mind about shows.  I was fairly well blown away by every one we saw.

The newest one, which just debuted the day before we saw it, is Celebrate! A Street Party with costumed street dancers and dancing characters.  High energy, with lots of crowd involvement - it had even Kyle and me dancing and singing along, and we typically only do that at Depeche Mode and Rush concerts.  But even better was how much Tacy and CJ got into the fun, thanks to the engaging performers.  I would absolutely recommend camping out twenty minutes ahead of showtime to get a front row spot for Celebrate!

Also at Disneyland, we were amazed by the theatrics of Fantasmic!, the evening show featuring Mickey Mouse, which takes place just before the fireworks display.  The effects are incredible, in particular the projection of vintage Disney film sequences onto huge sheets of water.

Over at Disney’s California Adventure, we saw the stage production of Aladdin.  It’s a 40-minute show, and all five of us were riveted.  The costumes were beautiful, the animatronics were lifelike, and the actors were talented and entertaining.  I was genuinely impressed.

As an aside, I haven’t taken the kids to any stage shows yet.  I knew Tacy would do well at Aladdin, but I wasn’t sure about CJ - that’s a lot of sitting for a four year old.  But since she knew the story and was able to follow along easily, it was an ideal first stage show for her.

Go see the shows.  They’re absolutely worth the time.

Next up: the logistics and costs associated with a trip to Disneyland.

I understand the appeal of the Disney Princesses, I really do.  What little girl (and, truth be told, her mother) wouldn’t love to be beautiful and adored and have a life story that ends with “happily ever after”?  It’s no wonder the majority of the pre-K set loves to put on those princess dresses and twirl around, waving their magic wands…until they accidentally swat their younger brother in the face and we have to take the wand away.

Not that such a thing has ever happened around here.

CJ loves dolls.  More specifically, she loves any doll that has hair that can be combed.  Actually, she’ll happily whack away at a stuffed animal with her hairbrush, but dolls with nice long hair…those are her favorites.

She doesn’t cut their hair, thankfully.  But she does like to spray conditioner on it and then comb and comb, and comb some more.  I wish she’d comb her own hair so willingly.

And while she does adore the Disney Princesses, she’s not exactly the girliest girl out there.  So when I was offered a Disney Princess doll for her to comb enjoy, it was no contest.  Mulan is my girl’s kind of princess.

Even though Mulan’s not really a princess.  Just a badass soldier who loves her daddy and oh, by the way, saved China from the Huns.  Not to mention winning over Li Shang, who has got to be the hottest cartoon man ever drawn.

Naturally, CJ loves her new Mulan doll.  She wants to take her everywhere, which means that Mulan has to be strapped into the car seat belt along with CJ.  She’s gone easier on the spray conditioner, which I certainly appreciate, even if Mulan doesn’t know the difference.

I’m impressed by the size of the doll and her elaborate costume.  But what I like best about her is that she’s not so fancy that I feel as if she needs to be put up on a high shelf, where CJ can look but not touch.  Mulan is meant for playing, for pretending, for being a constant companion.

So while Mulan is my girl’s kind of princess, she’s also my kind of doll.

Find Mulan and the other Disney Princess & Friends dolls at Disney.com for $16.95 (or 2 for $25!)

There’s a lot of green stuff I don’t do.  At the risk of inciting outrage, I’ll make a few confessions: I don’t recycle, I don’t compost, and I absolutely adore Viva paper towels.  If Viva ever needs a spokesblogger, I’m their woman.

However, I’ll also toot my own horn on a few points of greenery: I drive a hybrid, I’m replacing burned out incandescent bulbs with CFLs, and I absolutely adore my Flip & Tumble reusable bags.

The lovely people at Stubby Pencil Studio sent me a set of four Flip & Tumble Loopt bags last Christmas - not for review, just as a gift - and I’m never without them.

That’s the first thing that I love about these bags; they roll up and secure with elastic, and they fit perfectly at the bottom of my handbag.  Unlike my big canvas totes, I don’t even have to think about bringing them to the grocery store with me.  They are simply always there.  When I unpack the groceries, I roll up the bags and pop them back in my handbag.

Yes, I suppose I could take my big canvas totes back out to the car after I’ve unpacked them, but that’s not always convenient.  Plus, for apartment-dwellers, it’s definitely not convenient to take the bags directly back out to the car.  Flip & Tumble eliminates that problem entirely.

I also love these bags because they’re so roomy and strong and lightweight.  They’re made from polyester, and I’m amazed by how much they’ll hold.  They’re also easily laundered in the event that one of your grocery items springs a leak or gets squashed.

Finally, I have to admit that I love the colors of these bags.  Sure, a store-brand reusable bag is functional and cheap, but it’s nowhere near as cute.  Think I’m being frivolous?  Fine.  But I’ll bet my bags are cuter than yours.

And since Stubby Pencil Studio is all about eco-friendly products, I suppose I can add my love for their store to the list of ways in which I’m actually pretty green after all.

——————————

I may love my paper towels, but it helps that I prefer to use them with cleaners like Nature’s Source.  Want more ideas for living naturally?  Check out the posts at this week’s PBN Blog Blast!

Hi.  My name is Julie, and I’m addicted to cleaning.

Is that bad?  Do I need an intervention?

My ten year old self would be astounded at my thirty-seven year old self.  Not only do I have three kids and a husband, but I can’t stand messes.  My ten year old self was a champion messmaker with absolutely no attention to detail when forced to clean up those messes.

Who cares about crumbs?  There are books to read and bikes to ride!

I’m also getting to be quite picky about the cleaners I use, which is something that would astound even my thirty year old self.  No more Comet powder or Windex with ammonia or Clorox bleach.  I don’t care what the commercials say; that stuff is bad for you.  Bad to breathe, bad for your home, and bad for your nails.  Also, extremely bad if your kids get a hold of it.

So while I may be addicted to cleaning, I’m moving away from the hard stuff to a kinder, gentler clean that’s still just as clean.

The laundry liquid and pure oxygen whitener from Ecostore USA are great examples of that kinder, gentler clean.  The laundry liquid is made from plant-based ingredients like palm and coconut surfactants (the ingredients in detergent that allow water to clean away oil and dirt), plus eucalyptus oil which smells absolutely heavenly.  The oxygen whitener includes mineral salts, sodium percarbonate, and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).

I like that both of these products include ingredients that I understand, even without a degree in Chemical Engineering.  I love the eucalyptus scent that wafts out of my laundry room too.  There’s some debate online regarding the advantages of oleochemicals (the surfactants used in this laundry liquid) versus petrochemicals (the surfactants used in most laundry detergents), but as with most debates, there’s evidence on both sides.  Is my laundry cleaner?  Honestly, I don’t know.  I can’t say that I’ve noticed a difference either way, and since none of us have sensitive skin, I can’t make a judgment on that basis.

As with any household cleaning products, these should obviously be kept out of kids’ reach.  But on the flip side, I can be reassured that if my kids get a hold of Ecostore USA products, there really aren’t any nasty chemicals in there.

In fact, No Nasty Chemicals is their tagline.  While I can’t pronounce all the ingredients in each of their products, I have to commend them for listing the ingredients in full - something rarely seen on other household cleaning products.

Finally, their products are definitely pricey - $11 for one liter of laundry liquid - but they’re also concentrated so that a little goes a long way.  Personally, I’m impressed by how many loads of laundry I’ve been able to do in the last month, and both the laundry liquid and whitener are only about half gone.

Buy Ecostore USA products on their site!

It’s been a year or so since Tacy finally started sleeping with the lights off.  For a long time, she needed the overhead light.  Then a plugged-in Hello Kitty night light would suffice.  Now we turn off all the lights, but the door still has to remain open.

Meanwhile, CJ is still in the stage where she needs the light on.  Fortunately in her case, it’s just the bedside lamp that needs to remain on all night long.  Still, just a nightlight doesn’t cut it.  Not even the super cool PalPODzzz from SYLVANIA.

Don’t get me wrong; she adores her ladybug - which functions as both a nightlight and a rechargeable flashlight - and the little green leaf upon which the ladybug rests while she’s charging her batteries.  It’s the cutest darned nightlight I’ve ever seen, also available in a rocker ship design, and I hope SYLVANIA will come out with a few more models.  I’d gladly buy one for each child.

Why do I love this nightlight?  A few key reasons:

1. It plugs into the wall, just like a regular nightlight, but the “pod” rests on a surface like a night table or dresser.  One aspect of traditional nightlights that I don’t like is that kids can yank them out of the socket, leaving a vacant outlet that’s just waiting for a baby to jam an errant hair clip in there.  With the PalPODzzz, just plug it into an outlet that’s covered by a piece of furniture.  Potential problem successfully avoided.

2. It includes a rechargeable flashlight.  If you’re a parent of children older than three, there’s really no further explanation required.  But I’ll happily indulge those who haven’t yet groped for their emergency flashlight during a thunderstorm only to discover that it’s been relocated to a child’s bedroom, where it was left on all night and the batteries are completely drained.  Oh, and of course, there are no replacement batteries anywhere in the house.

Bottom line: A flashlight that doesn’t take batteries and is specifically intended for the kids = TOTALLY FREAKING AWESOME.

3. It’s cute whether it’s plugged in or not, whether it’s night time or not.  So much kiddie decor is just awful.  Even that damn Hello Kitty nightlight Tacy used went against my “no licensed characters” rule, but in the interest of sleep preservation, I did what I had to do.  The PalPODzzz nightlights are decor-neutral and haven’t been infiltrated by Dora or SpongeBob.  God knows I get enough of them on TV; I do not need them in my kids’ rooms.

What don’t I like?  That CJ can drop the ladybug flashlight behind her bed so that I have to lift her entire mattress off the platform in order to retrieve it.  But I suppose that’s actually a good thing; it reminds me that I need to change her sheets.  Plus, she could do the same with any other flashlight (and has).

Of course I wish that PalPODzzz had been the magical solution to the energy drain of CJ’s bedside lamp, but really, that’s too much to expect from a cute little ladybug.

But knowing that my emergency flashlight can rest easy in its kitchen drawer?  That’s more than enough for me.

Find out more about SYLVANIA PalPODzzz from the other PBN bloggers who checked out these nightlight/flashlight combos!  Or if I’ve already convinced you that you must have one, find them on Amazon!

I’m always on the lookout for new options in kids’ clothing.  I love my old standbys where I know I can get a great pair of jammies or a comfy tee, but it’s so much fun to make discoveries and bookmark them to check occasionally.

One of my new bookmarks is 77 Kids, the kids’ clothing offshoot of American Eagle Outfitters.  I’ve always liked AE for their truly casual clothes.  It’s their niche, and they don’t stray from it, even in their dresses and button-down shirts.  Plus, their clothes are comfortable and affordably priced.  Really, you can’t beat that.

So I was excited to check out 77 Kids.  They don’t carry baby clothes - their sizes start at 2 and go up to a kids’ 12 - which meant that I’d get to pick out a couple items for Tacy and CJ.

Tacy has reached the jeans-and-a-tee-shirt stage, which makes her easy to buy for, if a little frustrating to a mother like me who looks wistfully at coordinated pieces and knows that they’ll just end up as part of separate outfits.  I limited my window-shopping to the girls’ tee section, since I knew that’s what would make her happiest, and I ended up going with the pink dip-dye tee.

CJ, on the other hand, loves dresses.  That’s not to say that she behaves like a little lady when she’s wearing one, but she usually prefers them over pants.  I found a solid color smocked style in soft cotton that I knew she’d love.  It’s billed as a sundress, but it looked like it could be paired with a cardigan for those 50-degree days we often see in the winter.  I picked out the gladiola pink sundress since it was a color that could go from winter to summer.

The ordering process was smooth, delivery was quick, and the girls fell all over themselves when I told them it was a package for both of them.  Tacy wanted to put on the tee immediately, but both she and CJ grudgingly agreed to wait until the next day to wear their new clothes.

Both the tee and the dress are super-soft.  The dress feels like it’s a heavier weight cotton than the tee, which is a little thin.  If I were to order the tee again, I’d go up a size.  If you’ve got a skinny kiddo, go with their usual size.  But for kids who are average or tall, a larger size will give you more wear - and it won’t look like you bought a size up.  I’d advise this strategy especially for kids in the younger grades, who are liable to shoot up three inches in one year.

One suggestion I’d make to 77 Kids - have actual kids modeling the clothes on the site.  That would really help me determine whether a particular style would work for us and if we ought to size up or down.

The dress fits CJ perfectly and will definitely take her through the summer and into next fall, even though I only got her a size four.  It’s not so short that she’ll outgrow it, and there’s plenty of give in the material.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if she could still wear it next summer, maybe with a pair of leggings underneath.

Neither item I bought was on sale, and yet the prices were still reasonable, even for kids’ clothes which tend to be a racket considering how briefly they’re worn.  If they’re both still wearing these items next fall, I’ll count this as a good deal.

I’d definitely recommend 77 Kids.  As the kids’ corollary to AE, you can expect comfy casual clothes at decent prices.  Which is really what most of us moms are after anyway.

*Thanks to 77 Kids for sending me a $50 gift card to try out their clothes and evaluate their ordering process

Sometime in the the early years of our marriage, Kyle and I bought a white noise machine from Brookstone.  It was originally intended to help block out the sound of his snoring, but soon it served multiple purposes - masking noises from surrounding apartments, distracting him from the sound of MY snoring when I was pregnant, and muffling the whimpering of our babies as each one learned to self-soothe.

Now we take it on every trip, and when I travel alone, I miss the low whirring sound like snow on analog TV channels that are just out of range of the rabbit ears.

Cloud B knows all about sleep.  Not only do they provide a resource center for parents who are struggling to help their children sleep, they carry many products that are designed “to achieve a better, safer sleep for baby.”  These products, such as the LullaBag and Sleep Sheep & Friends, are “developed in consultation with an advisory board of pediatricians and sleep specialists.”

When I heard about Dozy Dolphin, part of the new Cloud B sound and light collection, I knew it would be a great fit for us.  The dolphin is a plush toy with an internal sound machine which has two ranges of sounds - cheery ones for playtime, and soothing ones for naptime or bedtime.  Plus, it’s made from bamboo, which is one of my favorite materials - amazingly soft, hypo-allergenic, and eco-friendly.  What’s not to love?

Of course, Oliver thinks Dozy Dolphin is pretty cool.  He loves any toy that makes noise, especially the soft huggable ones.  It did startle him one night when he jostled it in his sleep and the white noise came on suddenly, so I’d suggest keeping the volume pretty low when it’s time to sleep.

The girls think it’s a neat toy too.  Because it’s in Oliver’s crib, they’ve deemed it a baby toy, but really, Dozy Dolphin would be a great sleeping companion for any child.  I think it would be even better for a toddler who’s just starting to have night time fears, particularly since a toddler can manipulate the sound buttons themselves.

Come to think of it, since I’m on the road now, I’m kind of wishing I’d brought Dozy Dolphin along with me.

Dozy Dolphin is currently on sale for $24.95 (reduced from $64!) at Amazon.