I’ve never been really good about taking safety precautions when traveling.  As far as I’m concerned, a semi-recent oil change and a full tank of gas are more than enough preparation.

And although disaster hasn’t befallen me in years (knock wood), I’ve been risking it for far too long.

Snow comes quickly here in Colorado.  It may look merely cloudy when you head out to the grocery store, but by the time you emerge, your car - and the roads - may be covered in the white stuff.  Considering that I’ve seen cars skid onto sidewalks mere blocks from my home, I can’t truthfully say, “Well, that will never happen to ME.”

With kids in the car, it becomes even more important to be prepared.  Sure, it’s great to have a cell phone handy so that I can call my husband to request assistance, but if the roads are that bad, it’s going to take a while for him - or a tow truck - to get there.  I need a way to make sure that our temporarily disabled car is visible to others, so that they don’t skid into US.

So I’ve got Autolite Flareglo lights stashed in the console of each car.  They’re battery-operated LED flares - meaning that they last much longer than traditional flares (try 12 hours instead of just 15 minutes), much more visible (500 feet away - plenty of warning for other vehicles), and much safer.  Even if the kids take them out to play now and then, they’re still going to be ready to go and where I need them - if and when I need them.  Also, because they’re battery-operated, they’re reusable.  I really ought to stash a pack of AAA batteries with them too.

And since my husband drives quite a bit for work - sometimes up to 100 miles in a day - it’s important for him to be safe too, especially since I can’t head out to rescue him if he’s 50 miles away.  Better to have one of these inexpensive insurance policies in the console than to become a sitting duck on the shoulder of a mountain downgrade.

Whether you’re driving to the grocery store or across country, don’t take unnecessary chances.  Get your own Autolite Flareglo lights, an extra package of batteries, and be prepared.

When it comes to strolling, let’s just say I’ve been around the block. Probably thousands of blocks, considering that I strolled Tacy to day care weekday mornings for three years, in addition to all of the city blocks that we logged on weekend trips to parks and museums and through the corridors of Riverside Square and The Mall at Short Hills. I’ve strolled through ice and snow, through pouring rain, through blazing sun. I’ve strolled over sidewalks, across fields, and through dog poop.

In nearly six years, I’ve bought

• A Graco travel system for baby #1 (don’t all new moms buy this behemoth - or something similar - and then discover that it’s not well-suited to any lifestyle?)
• A Kolcraft pseudo-umbrella stroller for baby #1 (not easily maneuverable even under the best conditions)
• A Maclaren Triumph for baby #1 (absolutely fabulous and will kept close at hand until baby #3 has grown out of it)
• A Kolcraft Snap-and-Go stroller frame for baby #2 (love at first use, but sadly I gave it away and will need to purchase another for baby #3)
• A jogging stroller at a garage sale for babies #1 and 2 (I walked home from the pool with it once, but Kyle complains that the alignment is off)
• A generic umbrella stroller for baby #2 (most often used by baby #2 to push her dolls down the driveway at warp speed, shrieking as the stroller reaches the street, over and over again - we call this game “Negligent Mother”)

And now I own a Mutsy Spider, thanks to the good people at Mutsy who offered to send one for us to check out.

I love the Spider. It’s more expensive than most strollers I’d consider buying - the Maclaren was my big splurge, but one I don’t regret - but considering how many other strollers I’ve bought, I would have been better off pooling those dollars for one of these babies.

First off, it’s light. It’s not as light as an umbrella stroller, but it’s light enough that it glides easily, even with a 25+ pound toddler squirming in her seat. It’s bulky enough that I wouldn’t try to take it on a city bus (only because I loathe the bus), but I’d fold it and carry it up and down subway steps.

Speaking of folding, once you squeeze two tabs under the seat, the Spider basically collapses with no further effort on your part, and there’s even a small carrying handle that’s exposed upon collapse. Since I’m far enough into this pregnancy that bending over is a bit of a chore, I wish I didn’t have to bend so far over to see those tabs, but I think that once I get used to where they are, I’ll be able to do it by feel.

I like the adjustable handle even though I’m not particularly tall. The Kolcraft pseudo-umbrella stroller had a handle that was too low even for me (perhaps I inadvertently bought it in a petite size?), and I know it was annoying for Kyle. Even the Maclaren doesn’t have an adjustable handle.

But I do wish that I could put individual shopping bags over the handle (like I do with the two separate handles on the Maclaren). When I took the Spider shopping, I had to carry my bags over my wrists, which gets to be painful.

Conversely, the storage net underneath the Spider is pretty small. I would have put my bags under there if they would’ve fit.

Maybe I just shouldn’t buy so much stuff.

But what I absolutely love about the Spider is how easily it maneuvers. A set of swivel front wheels not only makes this stroller steer effortlessly, but it feels more compact - and less likely to accidentally crash into the feet of the person walking in front of you. Kyle even took it out for a run because it’s lighter than our jogging stroller and it’s correctly aligned. He said it performed great.

Granted, I wouldn’t take it off-roading, and I don’t think any lightweight stroller is going to effectively handle snow and ice. But I wish I’d had this Spider back when I had to push a 25+ pound toddler uphill in the rain, using only one hand so that I could hold my own umbrella.

A rain cover can be purchased separately (highly recommended even if you don’t stroll often - you can never guess when it might come in handy, and it’s a lot easier than making a dash for it), as well as a transit bag (which might help me with my shopping spoils storage issues).

Would I recommend the Spider? Absolutely. As long as your youngest child (and you’re not expecting any more) isn’t yet two, I’d say you’ll get a good year’s worth of use out of this stroller. Considering how well made it is, I think I could have purchased it for baby #1 (once she was out of the Snap-and-Go) and would still be using it now, five years later. That’s a great return on investment. And personally, I believe some baby gear is used so often that it really ought to be considered an investment.

For more information on the Spider and other stroller models made by Mutsy, please check out their site!

My little girl loves New York.

She was born there, and we lived in the city for six weeks until we closed on our apartment in New Jersey.  But even when we left the city, we could still see it every day:

And every night:

She knew which building was the Empire State Building.  She knew which building housed my office.  She knew about the Lincoln Tunnel, Central Park, and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.  She rode the bus, the subway, and the NY Waterway ferry.  In the city, she was in her element.  When we took her apple-picking in Rockland County, she stamped her foot and announced that she did NOT want to pick apples; she wanted to ride the CAROUSEL.

We moved to Colorado just after she turned three, and although we’ve been here for nearly two years, she still asks me at least once a week: “When can we go back to New York?”

So when “Where Was I? New York!” arrived in our mailbox - addressed and inscribed to her by the author, Dave Carberry - she insisted that we sit right down on the driveway and read it immediately.

The book explores the highlights of a trip to New York.  Written in first-person, the simple descriptions of the sights and activities are a great way to remind kids of what they’ve done and seen - or even to get them excited about an upcoming trip.  The illustrations are bright and cheerful, detailed without being distracting.  From the Statue of Liberty to the subway underneath Grand Central Station, horse-drawn carriage rides in Central Park, Broadway shows and gigantic toy stores - “Where Was I? New York!” covers a lot of ground in only about fifteen pages.

Dave Carberry has more “Where Was I?” books in the works, including Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.  “Where Was I? New York!” is currently available at Lulu.com, and you can get more information about his series of books at the official “Where Was I?” website.

As I keep telling Tacy, we’ll make it back to New York someday.  In the meantime, we can remember how much fun we once had there.

Much of my undergraduate coursework focused on microbiology, and the two most unnerving classes I ever took were Human Parasitology and Food Microbiology.  While I was fairly disgusted by much of what I saw, it certainly did convince me to take precautions to protect myself - and now my family too - against germs.

That said, I hate anti-bac gel.  It smells funny, it feels funny, it dries out your hands, and it leaks.  And for Pete’s sake, would someone please explain why there are anti-bac gel dispensers alongside soap dispensers and sinks in restrooms?  A quick swipe of anti-bac gel does not absolve you of the responsibility to WASH your hands after using the restroom.  And if you’ve already washed thoroughly and you don’t aspire to create super-germs, then why do you need the gel?

We moved to Denver nearly two years ago, and we’re still adjusting to the aridity of the climate.  It’s especially hard on my girls’ skin, especially in the winter.  Anti-bac gel is out of the question; regular handwashing (with hand lotion applied afterward) is our routine.

But I took the girls - and some CleanWell hand sanitizer - to the zoo on Monday.  I love the zoo, but let’s be honest:  it’s gross.  Nearly everything is outside, so it’s covered in grime.  Kids cling to the guardrails and press their noses against the glass.  And when you do run across a restroom, you really don’t feel any cleaner even after you wash your hands.  Other than Disney World, I can’t really think of a better place to try out a new hand sanitizer.

I’ll admit it; I’ve been converted.  This stuff is great.

It doesn’t smell funny.  It doesn’t feel funny.  It doesn’t dry out your hands - ask my older daughter, whose hands get dry and itchy thanks to mere handwashing - and the pump spray bottle and sealed towelettes eliminate leaking entirely.

Count me in with the rest of the anti-bac crowd, because I truly don’t see any reason NOT to carry and use CleanWell.

Check out the rest of the CleanWell reviews, courtesy of our fantastic bloggers at The Parent Bloggers Network.