Category Archives: Age 3-5

The Bowtique – Hair bows for little girls.

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Not many things make me melt as much as seeing Madelyn (left) wearing a super cute hairbow. There are a lot of online hairbow shops but the great thing is that most of them are ‘mom owned’ and every mom has her own style, so all the hairbows are unique in their own way. The Bowtique is no exception. 

Here are a few reasons why I love The Bowtique:
1. The hair bows are just plain cute!
2. Even dad can make your baby girl a beauty with these easy to use, super cute hair bows.
3. The Bowtique has a huge selection of bows including plenty of designs for casual days, dressy days, and Holidays.
4. You can purchase a beautiful bow holder personalized with a Swarovski crystal initial at The Bowtique.

I love Jillain’s style. She has an eye for design and her color combinations are great. After browsing her entire site I feel confident that she has a hair bow to go with any outfit or for any occasion including Hanukkah, Easter, Birthdays, and more.

Most of The Bowtique’s bows are available in several colors and you can even personalize a cupcake clip with a Swarovski crystal number to show off your baby girl’s special day!

With tons of design and color options, you are sure to find bows that fit your baby or little girl’s personality at The Bowtique.

Where to buy: The Bowtique

The Mommy Insider readers get 10% off with coupon code ‘insider’!

Personalized Birthday Hats

PersonalizedbirthdayhatI can’t believe that Madelyn is going to be one in May! The first year goes by so fast and the fun has just begun.

I am in the midst of planning Madelyn’s birthday parties. We have to have at least two because of our extended families so I may be a little stressed in April while trying to figure out who is coming when and how we will celebrate at each party.

One thing that is making the thought of having multiple parties easier for me, is this super cute personalized birthday hat from Darling Designs Boutique. I put it on Madelyn and everything is OK.

This personalized birthday hat is simply too cute for me to put into words how cute it is. There is pink, fluff, polka dots, Madelyn’s name, a big "1".. and it’s all on Madelyn’s cute little head. (You can brag too if you send me pictures! – alicia@themommyinsider.com)

I can’t wait for our families to see Madelyn in her personalized birthday hat.

If you purchase a personalized birthday hat from Darling Designs Boutique or have already, please send me a photograph of your child wearing it and I will post it on The Mommy Insider for your family.. and the world to see!  I don’t do this for many products, but these are just so adorable, that I want to see your kids in them too!

When you order your child’s personalized birthday hat, you are given the opportunity to enter your child’s name, age, and the date you need the personalized birthday hat by.

Darling Designs Boutique offers several other personalized birthday hat designs including an adjustable princess crown party hat, and they don’t leave the boys out. There are designs for the little prince in your family too!

A few things I love about this personalized birthday party hat:
1. The durable construction. The hat itself is very sturdy and not easily squished when a seven year old "accidentally" steps on it.  Sebastian called it part of the review process?!  He’s smarter than I think sometimes.
2. The fonts are adorable.
3. The colors are vibrant.
4. The selection of fabrics and trim make your child’s hat even more personalized.
5. The chin strap keeps the hat on and doesn’t leave a mark on Madelyn’s skin.

Where to buy: Darling Designs Boutique

The Mommy Insider readers get 10% off with code WAHM10!

dreambaby safety accessories

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Madelyn has been walking for a couple of weeks now. At first, she wouldn’t wander far from us so we didn’t worry about gates… we were always within 5 inches of her. Now that she is more confident in her walking skills, she is all over the place. She’s all over the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, the den, and her favorite is the stairs. Luckily, dreambaby sent us a couple of their safety gates so I know now what a really good safety gate is. When Sebastian was a baby, we used the wooden pressure gates all over the house so I wasn’t accustom to the metal/sturdy gate that dreambaby sent for review. I quickly warmed up to them though and now I won’t use or recommend anything other than dreambaby safety gates.

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safety gates can be used in hallways, doorways, and they have baby safety gates especially for use at the top of your stairs.

Installation of the hallway gate was simple and the use was even easier. To install the hallway safety gate, you simply turn/screw the knobs until they are tight against the doorway or wall. That’s it. There is a little ‘slide’ button on the top of the handle of the gate that you simply shift while pulling up and out on the handle to open the gate. It’s a one handed process. It took me longer to write that sentence than it does to open the gate. What I love is that I don’t have to put Madelyn down while opening the dreambaby gates like I did with the wooden pressure gates. I can use one hand and it’s easy!

Another dreambaby product that I love is the cabinet safety locks. I never took into consideration that there would be a difference in cabinet safety locks from brand to brand, but there is. We have two dreambaby safety cabinet locks that I love and have been using for a while, and when I needed more, I purchased a three pack at Target by the brand that they carry. I don’t like them.  You don’t realize how nice a product is until you use a similar product that stinks. The other brand is very difficult to open compared to the dreambaby brand. The dreambaby cabinet locks do a great job at keeping Madelyn out of the cabinets, so I don’t see why I should use a more difficult lock. I am ordering more dreambaby cabinet locks so I don’t have to use the other brand.

dreambaby sells a lot ofther safety products including a bathroom line which I will review soon.  They sell a complete safety value pack with 46 safety products.

Where to buy: dreambaby

The Adventure of Bento Babeys

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Do you know what your baby is doing in her spare time?  Did you know there are babies with secret karate skills?  I bet not!  Mikey, Shonda, Pedro, and Sahi, are four very special babies with karate skills that keep the city safe while we sleep at night. Isn’t this every child’s dream?  I think this is an awesome concept because this type of story that we read to our children usually focuses on adults being the "hero", not other children. The Bento Babeys book can be a great educational tool as well as a wonderful confidence booster.

The book comes with a colorful figure for each character so your child can play along with the story or make up her own stories using the characters in the Bento Babeys book. What a great idea!

A CD featuring songs with easy to understand lyrics and music that your child will love comes with the book.

Sebastian, my seven year old, loves anything to do with martial arts. When I got the Bento Babeys book to review on The Mommy Insider, he was so excited.  He loves the figures and really enjoys the CD and best of all, he actually WANTS to read the Bento Babeys book and share it with his classmates at show and tell.

Sebastian really appreciates the section of the Bento Babeys website where the facts about each ‘babey’ are told. Apparently, his favorite character Sahi once ate a fuzzy caterpillar which made her throw up! It’s funny things like this that make Bento Babeys easy to related to and enjoyable for children.

Where to buy: Bento Babeys
 

Baby Meets Family – Personalized baby video

BabymeetsfamilyI know you don’t like to put your baby or child in front of the TV while you clean the kitchen but sometimes it has to be done. Now your baby/child can have a positive, educational entertainment experience while in the TV zone.

Baby Meets Family DVD’s include up to ten photographs that the parent submits. Each photograph is displayed several times throughout the show. The show itself is very cute and keeps Madelyn’s attention unlike regular TV shows.  Now that Madelyn is old enough to recognize me and Tim (daddy) she ‘gets it’ enough to wave at the TV. It’s so cute! 

Baby Meets Family videos are a great tool to use when leaving your child with a babysitter or nanny. 

The video itself is fun to watch. Even Sebastian, who is seven, enjoys watching it!  The video features toys, puppets, and animal scenes, that are soothing, easy to follow, and colorful.

You can watch a demo on the Baby Meets Family website.

Don’t forget to buy extra copies for the Grandparents!

Where to buy: Baby Meets Family