Grand Avenue Baby

Style & Function for Busy Moms on the Go: líllébaby Oslo Diaper Bag

Katherine Heigl was spotted carrying the líllébaby Oslo Diaper Bag on Halloween. The red bag added a great pop of color to her outfit, but we’re sure the color wasn’t the only reason the Oslo Bag was her go-to diaper bag for Halloween festivities with Naleigh. The líllébaby Oslo diaper bag is the perfect bag for busy moms on the go!

Slim and lightweight it’s also roomy with multiple pockets to keep items well organized.  Everything from diapers and wipes to keys, camera and cell phone are within easy reach.  The bag can be carried over the shoulder, across the chest, as a backpack and even on a stroller with the convenient, built-in stroller clips.

The Oslo’s cushioned changing pad takes diaper pads to a new level with a removable terry cloth liner for easy washing and tabs that allow parents to have a diaper ready to go. Two hidden pockets under the front flap allow easy access to tissues and wipes. A magnetic top closure keeps the bag’s contents secure while making access quick and easy as well as silent (Velcro can be a challenge to open quietly).

The Oslo diaper bag retails for $75 and is available in four colors, Black, Brown, Grey and Red. For more information or to purchase the líllébaby Oslo diaper bag, please visit www.scichild.com.

Want to learn more?  Visit Coffee with the Mrs. and check out Amy’s very thorough review of the Oslo.

High Chair Recall: Tips for Choosing a Safe High Chair

With the recent the recall of more than a million high chairs in the United States, Brenda Berg, Chair of the Juvenille Products Manufacturing Association (JPMA) and Founder and CEO of Scandinavian Child gives information on what parents should look for in high chair safety on My Carolina Today.  For more high chair saftey tips, click here. 

 

Fit Pregnancy Loves the líllébaby Everywear Carrier

The líllébaby EveryWear Carrier arrived last August and quickly earned fans at Fit Pregnancy. The only carrier on the market that allows a parent to carry a baby 4 ways - on her chest (facing inward OR forward), back or hip, the EveryWear earned an Editor's Choice Award and is now prominently featured in the magazine's April/May Buyer's Guide!

 

The innovative and multi-function lillébaby EveryWear Carrier is ergonomically designed to be comfortable for the Child and the Wearer by balancing the baby’s weight to the wearer’s hips and shoulders while allowing the child’s legs to be up in a 90% angle, which supports the correct sitting position for the baby's hip, pelvis and spine growth. This design also enables the EveryWear to be lightweight and compact because weight is distributed evenly – limiting the need for bulky padding.

 

Available in a stylish texture and neutral colors, the EveryWear features a soft lining, wind and water repellent exterior lining with light breathable microfiber with enforced edges for strength and durability. It includes two front pockets for keys or cell phone and its zippered pocket fits most diapers and wipe holders. Extremely light and compact enough to easily fit in a diaper bag, the carrier retails for only $100. Click here to learn more.

Organic Apparel: Good for Your Baby, Good for Our Earth

Organic apparel may seem like a marketing ploy, but there’s more to it than a hang tag. More insecticides are used on cotton than any other crop in the world and the use of heavy chemicals continues during cotton production and processing as well; as much as one-fourth of a pound of chemicals to make one cotton t-shirt and two-thirds of a pound to make a pair of jeans according to the Pesticide Action Network. These chemicals and heavy metals are either carried around for the life of the clothing – slowly off-gasing onto the wearer – or released into treatment plants, sewers and rivers, leading to one half of the world’s wastewater problems. The chemical runoff is so pervasive that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified many textile manufacturing facilities to be hazardous waste generators.

Beyond these health and environmental concerns, the end result of cotton grown and produced with conventional methods is a weaker, inferior cotton garment because the chemicals used in the growing, processing and dying of the cotton ultimately breaks the fiber down.

Organic cotton provides an alternative, offering unparalleled softness and quality and is safer for children and adult’s health.

Sage Creek Organics’ stylish collections for infants and toddlers are a great example of how far organic apparel has come. The company’s affordable heirloom quality soft organic cotton pieces are produced using methods and materials that have low impact to the environment and are safe and healthy for children.  

 

The Cradle put it perfectly, “We’re talking 100% natural goodness here! And, they have a large variety of colors and patterns to fit your style or mood. It’s good for your baby and good for our earth.”

We hope you’ll take a look for yourself!

 

Beaba Babycook: Convenience & Cost Savings

Everyone knows that making meals at home saves money. It's time that is worth so much and why convenience so often trumps savings. The Beaba Babycook puts the convenience factor in the baby food equation making it easier for time-starved parents to choose homemade baby food over commercially prepared food.

Recently introduced to North American juvenile products retailers by Scandinavian Child, the Beaba Babycook baby food maker is a one-of-a-kind compact appliance that functions as a steamer, blender, warmer and defroster. With a press of a button, the Babycook steam cooks vegetables, fruits and meats and then purees or blends foods to the desired consistency; all while preserving their vitamins and flavors and time -- meals are ready in less than 15 minutes! The Babycook can also be used to quickly reheat or defrost precooked foods, and is very easy to clean.

Add to the convenience factor fresher foods to help children develop lifelong tastes for healthy fruits and vegetables and less waste and you’ve got an easy recipe for saving money.*

*In comparisons with major brands of commercially prepared baby food, the Beaba Babycook saves parents between $300-$560 in just six months.

Is Daylight Savings Time making bedtime a challenge?

If a week of tough bedtimes is getting to you, try these three steps to help your child (and you) get some much-needed sleep!

1. Develop a sleep routine. Adults benefit as much as children from having a consistent series of calming activities to help them wind down at the end of the day.

2. Incorporate sound. Sound can be an extremely effective part of the sleep routine because repetition of a certain pitch or tone helps the brain slow down.

For a baby, monotonous sounds are especially calming because it mimics life in utero where baby was accustomed to hearing his mother’s heart beat and the sounds of the womb. Cloud B's Sleep Sheep™ provides an audio pacifier that can calm even the fussiest babies to sleep. Tucked safely inside a soft, fluffy sheep that attaches to the outside of a crib with a Velcro tab, the sound box lulls babies to sleep with the soothing sounds of a mother's heartbeat, spring showers, ocean surf, and whale songs.

Toddlers and big kids will love Cloud B’s Gentle Giraffe™, which offers a unique compilation of soothing sounds that educate as well as de-stimulate by transporting young listeners to the beautiful and mysterious plains of the Serengeti. The removable sound machine tucked inside Gentle Giraffe's back offers the relaxing sounds of rhythmic drums, a waterfall, the sounds of a safari trail, and quiet giraffes.

3. Be consistent. Consistency is the hardest part of developing a lasting habit, but experts agree it is the most important element of a good sleep routine and a lifetime of better sleep. Before you decide to save time by skipping a step in the nighttime routine remember: when children sleep, parents sleep.