My kindergartner is the most prolific artist in the house. Allow me to present to you five from his recent series of monsters and beasts (incredibly adorable until you realize that they’re all holding weapons and shooting poison from their spiky appendages).

I really love all most of what he creates but I can’t possibly store all his artwork. I mean, really, we only have so much wall and shelf space.

Enter the kid art storage app!

I started using Artkive to manage our ever-growing art collection earlier this year at the recommendation of CoolMomTech. It really works for me. I photograph each drawing right into the app and then categorize it by artist, schoolyear, and date. From there, I can make custom digital or printed albums. It also lets me share among circles of his interested art fans.

I’m already grateful to have a place to put sweet little recyclables like this toddler masterpiece from Sawyer; I might feel nostalgic for it if I tossed it out.

Wait. Is that upside-down?

I have heard of other apps worth trying out: Art My Kid Made (check out this review on cnet) and Evernote (which I hear does everything but I haven’t figured it out yet), but I’m pretty satisfied with the features on Artkive.

Find ArtKive for FREE on iTunes.

What’s your strategy for saving and organizing kid art? I’ll share some non-app ideas in another post.

One of our local experts offered to field this question, which comes up over and over again: For the past few days my son (2) won’t stop climbing out of his crib, and I’m afraid he will get hurt! Does this mean he’s ready for a toddler bed? Won’t he just get out of that too and play with his toys? Any tips will help!

Here’s what Stef from AskaNanny.com said:

Yes, this child is ready, and your child might be as well. For the sake of their safety, and your sanity, when they begin to climb out of the crib it is time. Sure, you may be able to find ways of keeping them in, but toddlers are determined and love a challenge! So I strongly suggest that when your toddler (over the age of 2) begins to climb out of their crib or requests to sleep in a big bed like yours, be ready with a few easy ways to ease the transition out of the crib:

1) Invest in a toddler-sized bed. I know a toddler bed has short-lived role, but it’s a very important one, and will help the most in the transition. By offering a bed that they can get in and out of on their own, you boost their sense of independence and ownership. Toddlers are all about “me do it” and “mine” after all, so play to these motivations and get them excited about their new bed. Other bonuses of the toddler bed: it’s a shorter fall if they roll out or are just fooling around (I would still suggest a thick rug or foam matting though); you can’t fit in there and therefore falling asleep with them in the middle of the night won’t happen; toddler beds are cheaper than a twin mattress set and bed frame; and, you can use all your crib sheets a little bit longer if you chose a frame that works with your crib mattress!

2) Transition at the right time. Understanding what’s happening with their development will help you to choose a perfect time to make the transition. Most “terrible twos” rear their head just before the second birthday, and then again at the tail end of the second year. (So 21 – 23 months and 30 to 36 months they may be less flexible and open to change.) Just-turned-2 year olds are usually rather pleasant and open to new ideas. Of course you know your toddler best, so when you feel like you can come up for air and the pre-2 screaming and tantrums are subsiding, that’s when I would introduce the bed – before the 2.5 tantrums come in. That said, make sure there are no other major transitions happening in their life at the time, like moving daycare classrooms or the birth of a sibling.

3) Let them pick out the bedding. This goes along with #1. Taking ownership is what toddlers do best: once they claim it, it belongs to them and no one else. Awesome! I use this to my advantage when transitioning toddlers for anything, really, by offering a choice. So when they are potty training, you pick two potties and let them choose the one they want. Same with moving to a toddler bed. Pick two comforters you like and have them make the final decision. (Even if you have bedding at home for the toddler bed, it really is important to have them pick a new blanket or sheets for their bed.) Limit it to two choices and offer the choice away from the bedding aisle, or she will automatically want the ones on the shelf and not in your hands.

4) Make a game plan for when they get out of bed. Whatever you decide, install a baby gate on their door. (I would do it before you even introduce the bed to normalize it.) Choices for addressing the exodus: 1) Ignore and let play. With this choice you will need to baby proof the heck out of his room, and then when he passes out on the floor, pick him up and put him in his bed night after night until he just goes there to pass out on his own. 2) Go in and put back in bed. Every time you see him get out, go in and put him back in bed. Do this without much emotion and talking. Just repeat the same phrase “It’s time for you to sleep,” or something like that. This is the toddler version of sleep training (like you may have done when they were a baby, going in every 5, 10, 15 min). Be supportive and firm, but shower with positive attention before bed and in the morning.

These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg! If you would like more tips head over to Stef’s AskaNanny.com post “Ready for a Toddler Bed?”! Stef is the expert nanny behind the parenting advice website AskaNanny.com, where questions about your 0 to 3 year old get answered for free. She lives in San Francisco with her highschool sweetheart and her two boisterous children. Ask her your question today at unravelme@askananny.com or on twitter @askananny #thenannyisin

Related: Kids Bunk Beds; Standing Up in The Crib

If you’ve ever lost your enthusiasm for reading the same story over and over, you’ll appreciate our guest Abbi’s discovery. She sent this tip to us as an alternative to letting YouTube read to your child.

I was first introduced to A Story Before Bed via the Nursery that I work for here in Dubai – Blossom. All the staff were asked to record a book and upload the recordings the Nursery Facebook account at 7pm each night to build a library of interactive bedtime stories for our parents.

This novel (heh) idea was such a great success I was inspired to use it with my own child. I found that, as with all toddlers, my son loves to see himself on video and so we changed the experience up a bit – we all did it together! He may not have smiled during the recording – it was bedtime after all, but he laughs non stop every time we play back it to him! Have a look at our family’s rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider.

If you have a look at A Story Before Bed, you’ll see that there is a wide choice of books to choose from and they are updated on a regular basis. So far we have recorded just the free books but there are options to sign up for a paid account and it looks pretty fair. Right now, the paid family plan is about $10/month and you can re-record books as many times as you like.

You could record the same book in a variety of ways, get Grandparents to record one to show the kids, or record a bunch of books to be played to your little one if you have to go away on work for a few nights – they can still get a bedtime story from Mum or Dad – pretty cool I think! I hope everyone who has a look gets as much use and fun out of it as we have.

Abbi lives in Dubai with her amazing husband, David, and angelic two-year old, Charlie. We thank her for sharing this creative web service. I shoulda tried using it before going away for the weekend without my kids. Oops.

This guest post is by my friend Karen from OffTheMeathook.com, about her son, Laz.

We are among the lucky few who had a baby that slept through the night from a pretty early age. We didn’t really do anything to make it happen – but around 4 months old, our son just stopped waking up at 2 AM and started sleeping for a good 10-hour stretch almost every night. If he did wake in the night, we would leave him to cry in his crib and he would very quickly get himself back to sleep. I probably don’t have to tell you that this kind of thing can really lull you into a false sense of sleep security. There you are, getting used to finally waking up all rested and refreshed, thinking you have made it through the hard part.

Ha! It turns out we had merely passed Level 1 of this multi-player game we call sleep training.

Fast forward to 9 months old, and our son had proudly learned to grab onto those crib rungs and get himself to a standing position. He had also, seemingly overnight, developed a hyper-acute Spidey-sense to detect the very moment that one tiny part of his deep-sleeping, limp body hit the crib mattress, which would jolt him awake and set him into a screaming, crying fit. Unlike the sweet little baby of just a few months prior, who would quickly roll over and settle in the crib and get back to sleep, we found that our kid was now standing up in the crib, hanging on to the edge, to continue his tantrum from a fully upright position.

The problem? Once he was standing up, he couldn’t figure out how to get down again. So he would cry standing up, until he fell asleep standing up, at which point the fact that he was standing up would jolt him back awake. And the cycle would start all over again, ad nauseum. We had a few nights of feeling exhausted, frustrated, and powerless before we found a way to wrest back control. Of course, we didn’t know if it would work – but we felt relieved to have something to try.

The plan: to “emotionlessly” and silently lay him down over and over until he went to sleep. The first night it took about 50 times of laying him down before he finally got to sleep, sniffling and sobbing. I don’t have to tell you that it was a super hard night. But the next night, it only took 30 times. And the night after that – 10 times. The fourth night, after laying him down just three times he figured the jig was up, and passed out.

What this experience taught me is that my husband and I can handle these parenting hurdles so much better if we work together on a plan that involves specific actions we can take. We both took so much solace in the idea that we were trying something consistent to solve the problem, even though there were really challenging moments (OK, hours.) Luckily, in this case, it worked out. But if it hadn’t, I now know that the right thing for us would have been to make a new plan and try it until we got it right.

It’s been about a month since all this happened, and it’s still working great. If he needs to be laid down at all, it generally takes fewer than 5 times before he gives up and remains lying down. Last night he was acting up at bedtime and standing sentinel at the edge of the crib, whimpering. I went to lay him down and something fabulous happened – he laid himself down and went to sleep.

I love Karen’s rookie mom stories about Laz. We have more if you want to read them: their international baby travels, their nice stuff, their cute monthly photos!

My friends, Magnus and Cheryl, are amazing nomads who have been around the world and back only to set off again with a baby and another time with two toddlers. They have chronicled their journeys, triumphs and tantrums on a blog, with loads of tips on touring the world with young kids. Since they’re expecting baby number three any day now, I caught up with them and asked them to share some stories and advice. Merci!

Lessons learned from international trips with tots

We planned an 8 month soiree from August 2011 until March 2012, with hopes to travel from Scotland to Barcelona, dip into America, zip across Japan and Korea, traverse New Zealand, dot around Australia, take time out at Thai beaches before ending up in scrumptious Sri Lanka.

Traveling the world with young kiddies – exhausting chaotic craziness, yes, but with the payoff of a close-up view as our two tiny people grow and change with each passing day.

Destinations: Where’s safe & fun to go with the wee ‘uns?

Recommended child-friendly itinerary:

• Camping across Western Europe: safe, manageable but a lot of driving miles.
• Drive the U.S. East and South: family friendly but again, large distances to cover.
• Japan: Nuclear reactor cooling down (though we kept south to be safe) and a country that can use our tourist cash as it rebuilds.
• South Korea: Diverse, safe, user-friendly and not widely visited.
• New Zealand: Stunningly beautiful and family friendly parks and barbecue spots everywhere.
• Australia: Sunny beaches and familiar culture but scary poisonous critters to avoid.
• Thailand: Asia fun-style with great tourist infrastructure, lovely people and no malaria in the south.
• Sri Lanka: Cool varied culture, civil war in the past, a bit like India-lite!

{Read how and why we picked our Destinations}

Packing: What to pack on a world trip with toddlers

We found packing to travel with kids worked out fine: just keep your grown-up kit to a minimum. Also remember the obvious fact that there are children everywhere: you can most likely find any essentials wherever you are in the world. Be ready for a few embarrassing interactions, though, like Magnus mistaking the label for ladies sanitary pads for nappies (diapers) in a Japanese store!

Of course, some things have worked out better than others: the pram turned out to be a god-send, giving control over our crazy kids in busy train stations (but less handy going up and down subway stairs); the child-carrier allowed us to take the kids on a multi-day trek in New Zealand and the ukulele has brought joy to neighboring rooms in hotels across Japan and Korea. On the downside, e-books are not as easy to use as an old-fashioned print, we couldn’t survive without running shoes to keep us in shape and the kids needed a regular refresh of their toys and books to keep them interested.

{Read our actual Packing Lists and how they changed}

Travel Days: Surviving long transit days with toddlers (planes, trains, & automobiles)

Japanese trains are particularly cool because you can sit in the front carriage and look through a glass window to watch the driver pull his knobs and turn his dials to drive the train – great for inquisitive youngsters.

However, the magic lasts for but a few minutes until their tiny attention spans turn to the rest of the carriage. The cool, polite silence of the carriage with the people and occasional children sitting with restraint and impeccable manners.

Books, toys, treats and threats can also buy you a little time but, again, a journey of over 2 hours made the train carriage seem like a prison, with us the inmates being punished with the shame of damning eyes as our uncontrollable toddlers charged up and down, climbed the seats, fought and wailed when reprimanded. {read more Travel Days}

Even more reflections on our world trip with toddlers:

• The Fear Factor: Founded and unfounded fears when traveling with toddlers
• The Jabs!: Kiddy inoculations/vaccines

I excerpted this post as part of our series on traveling with babies, toddlers, and small children. Sheryl and Magnus have been some super amazing places. Go visit their blog to see inside more of their adventures. 

[All photos from MagnusandCheryl, all rights reserved]

I have no idea what I was thinking when I purchased four colors of finger paint.

You can see by virtue of where I was storing it, on the top shelf in my unfinished laundry room, that I was pretty keen on my kids using it. Not.

Then I had the idea of using it not as paint, but more as a drawing tool, and suddenly it became not messy at all. No paintbrushes to wash. No sponging of, well, everything.  I’d even do it again.

While my kids were out with my husband, I put out two plastic placemats, each with a baggy of two glops of primary colors. I provided Q-tips to use as a stylus, and taped the bags in place. It’s sort of like one of those Zen boards you see in Brookstone.

Because my placemats are colorful, I had to put a piece of white paper behind the bags so that the paint would be visible.

Drawing on it is pretty satisfying, and the kids liked watching their lines appear and then disappear as the paint dispersed.

Aside from childbirth — in which I got a lovely all-expenses paid trip to the hospital down the street for two nights with my husband — Alec and I have never been away from the kids together. (Aww crap, I just realized that I have been telling that story for a while now, but even in the hospital, we obviously had one baby to care for).

When my mom offered to come out from Ohio to watch my three sons while Alec and I enjoyed a mid-week escape, I said, “YES PLEASE!!”. While I may have been fantasizing about two weeks on another continent, we decided for a three-day roadtrip in California. Baby steps. We also agreed that weekdays would be the easiest because the children have school and childcare for most of the day. Thus my birthday getaway and foray into Camp Grandma was plotted.

My mom arrived last Monday afternoon in time for us to share a mother-daughter lunch and pedicure before we launched into kid-care and hands-on training for pick-ups, tantrums, dinner protocol, meal planning, and minivan navigation. In the morning, we did drills on wake-up-and-leave-the-house including quizzes on where we keep clothes, lunchboxes, and coffee supplies. My aunt would join later in the day for an extra pair of hands. I felt ready.

Alec and I headed out the door with our tiny rental convertible and drove off leaving them for some family-bonding time.

Whee!

While we were away, we got a few text updates and photos to let us know that things were going well (enough).

… as well as a few questions about where the heck we keep things.

Luckily, they all got into a groove because our second and third nights away, we were completely off the grid with no cell reception and *gulp* no WIFI.

We returned from our getaway to a family dinner and a birthday karaoke excursion. We hired a sitter so that my mom could join us for an adults-only evening and celebrate the success of Camp Grandma. Please excuse the quality of the iPhone photo in party lighting but I love this picture of me and my mom as I’m singing Radiohead Creep. See the lyrics? Priceless.

I know my kids had a terrific time with my mom. Sawyer, at 18 months, is still asking “Gammy go?” now that she’s returned home. I hope we can do it all again soon.

[All photos from me or my mom]

Two-year old birthday parties are an exercise in herding cats. You can hire an entertainer, serve an aesthetically pleasing and/or well-balanced meal, and provide hands-on activities for your little guests, but it doesn’t mean they will appreciate it. In fact, some may cry or scream “MINE!” for the better part of your event. That’s why we encourage you to take it easy.

These are some sanity-saving suggestions for planning a second birthday party.

Skip the meal. If you can get away with it, host your party when neither lunch nor dinner is expected. Serve fruit, crackers, pretzels, and finally cake or cupcakes. (I always feel compelled to serve a meal because we usually have out-of-town grandparents at our parties and I have to feed them anyhow, so if our party is at home, I order from a taqueria: everything you need for guests to make their own burritos, from tortillas, beans, and meat to cheese, salsa and guacamole.)

I like the snack line up below where the pretzels have been poured into a toy truck.

The rest of this construction-themed party is way too adorable, so proceed with caution.

Cupcake papers can hold individual snack portions and make them feel special. (This idea is from an amazing LEGO party.)

Simplify the theme or just don’t have one. If buying everything Dora is easy for you and makes you happy, go for it. If one key element will satisfy your toddler, such as Dora on the cake, do that, and free yourself from weeks of curating Nick Jr. merchandise. Other themes that offer flexibility, especially for the licensed character-adverse, are stripes, animals, or transportation. I usually have no theme at all, other than a color scheme — red and white for Scarlett who was born on the 4th of July; orange and black for Julian, born October 29th. I don’t think my kids have ever demanded a theme. This is not a Bar Mitzvah, guys.

Searching “rainbow party” on Pinterest may leave you feeling inadequate, but picking one simple point of focus for the rainbows could just be a 20-minute project.

Crepe paper is a cheap and easy way to decorate with big impact. Two-year olds will enjoy running through the “curtain” (and tearing it down.)

Let them swing, bounce, dig or splash. Outdoors is ideal for two-year old parties. If at all possible, set up a sand table, water table, or trampoline. A playground party will do the trick as well. Winter birthday parents might consider children’s gyms or children’s museums where kids can roll up their sleeves and get involved. Remember when we hid plastic animals in the sand table at Scarlett’s fourth birthday party? Two-year olds are too young to socialize, share, or play cooperatively. Empower them to have a good time on their own terms and the party will be a success.

photo sources: truck, puffs, rainbow veggies, crepe paper, sand table

His first Easter, four-month old Julian slept through the whole thing, but when he got his first taste of modern American celebrations of this holiday, Julian never looked back. Since he is not actually Christian, his experience of Easter was limited to the hunting of plastic and hard-boiled eggs. And hunt he did.

It was so much fun, that I realized we should be doing this in the backyard whenever boredom strikes. The more the merrier, so this might be something to suggest when your relatives are visiting. A little fresh air is good for everyone.

So the activity of the day is to conduct an age-appropriate treasure hunt for pre-verbal toddlers.

Materials needed:
- three or four of the same object, such as golf balls, tennis balls, or plastic eggs. (We use lemons from our backyard tree).
- small gift bag
How to do it:
- Place objects in a grassy area in plain view.
- Hold a small gift bag on behalf of your little scavenger.
- Announce the hunt: “Let’s go find some golf balls!”
- Model the desired behavior: “I found a ball – now I’ll put it in the bag!”
- Help child “find” another object and place it in the bag.
- When child is not watching, take “found” object and toss it from the bag back onto the grass for more finding fun.
- Practice this exercise periodically so that when Easter rolls around next year, your toddler will be kicking butt and taking names.

A local friend of mine, Jackie, has two little kids and has a sharp eye for the visually beautiful. Just look at her house.

She recently blogged that a turkey baster is the key to making pancake batter into fun shapes. I was thrilled to learn this hack because I had been ordered to make Mickey Mouse pancakes last night, and I felt a little bummed out that I couldn’t raise the bar beyond Mickey Mouse. So Mickey they ate – but watch out, kids. Next weekend: alphabet letters!

I wanted to name this post “5 ways to save money on your Children’s Museum Membership” but that seemed rather long-winded, yes? Then again, it is descriptive.

If you are a toddler owner, local children’s playspaces are a treasure trove because littles can run, jump, explore, paint, drip water, and play without you doing any chasing or cleanup (well, maybe clothes and hands). An annual membership can save headaches about who has a meltdown when and cut our visit short. Not naming names, but ummm… you know what I mean.

I have some mom-tested ideas for saving on admission prices and I know that at least one of them will work for you.

1. Leverage another membership (zoo? science museum? student discount? AAA? affiliate children’s museum) to see if it can save you money on a yearly pass or daily outing. My zoo outing got me into a smaller hands-on wildlife preserve for the day.
2. Split a membership with a friend. Our friend Darci used this sneaky strategy with terrific results. If you and a buddy are both on maternity leave or similar schedules, do this!
3. Borrow a membership from the library. Our local Discover+Go program gives FREE day passes to these destinations with certain restrictions. Superhero Andrea likes to do this.
4. Ask for a membership as a big gift. Birthday or holiday? A huge YES PLEASE for a year of outings rather than one more noisy toy. I coordinated a group gift for my sister and her toddler son when they were living in a Manhattan apartment.
5. Look for deals on Savvy Source, Groupon or Google Offers. They happen pretty regularly. You might make a trade-off in your reciprocity benefits, but it may be worth it. My Oakland zoo membership didn’t include free ride passes but it was about half off, so, yay!

I’d love to know if you have any other tips for saving cash at kids’ museums (beyond packing your own snacks)!

ps Whitney tells me that the toddler in each photo looks like the same kid. What do you think?

My friend and parenting expert, Julie King, had a rookie baby who would not sleep once he reached the toddler age. Once he figured out that better things were going on in the other room, he resisted.

Together with her friend and co-author, Joanna Faber, they created Asher’s Dance and Rest Tape to trick the savage toddler into napping.

Julie told me:

Joanna came up with the concept and then made the tape for me (and Asher) years ago, when I was having trouble getting him to calm down and nap (and I had his new baby brother to juggle). As a classical pianist who only listens to pop music when someone force-feeds me and have no idea what I’m hearing, I was at a loss when it came to picking actual music, so she came to my rescue.

It has about 30 to 45 minutes of music, and it goes from very lively dance music, to calmer dance music, to soothing, ending with Gregorian Chants.

I would always do it with Asher (or else he wouldn’t do it), and we would start off with wild dancing, and then get slower and slower, and by the time the Gregorian chants came we’d be lying on the floor on a blanket, and he would take his nap on the floor.

Inspired by your comments last time I posted this scenario, I created a Rookie Mom’s Dance and Rest Playlist on spotify. It starts with fast songs (like the move it, move it song) all the way through sleepy songs and chants.

I’d love to hear your feedback if you try it. I tested it on my seven year old and about halfway through, he got bored, so, there’s that.