This review of the Maclaren Twin Techno was written by one of my dearest friends, Ella. She also wrote apartment life with newborn twins.

As the mother of 7.5-month old twins, I learned more about double strollers than I ever would have imagined.  After my extensive research, we landed on two strollers.  We have been using one of these, the Maclaren Twin Techno, for about four months now, and it has been a lifesaver.  We love having it, for the following reasons:

• Small footprint. Whether open and in use, or folded, this is perhaps the most compact double stroller out there.  I can’t stress enough the importance of this feature, particularly as we are urban parents: not only does it easily get through small doorways and make tight turns, but it also fits easily in the trunk.
• Easy to fold. Whatever the stroller you are considering, it is critical to evaluate whether you can manage both the stroller and your children on your own.  Because the Maclaren is very easy to fold and fairly lightweight, I am able to maneuver trips with it easily – not a small feat, given I’m not the strongest, or the tallest mom out there.
• Comfortable for the babies. I like that this double stroller allows for each seat to be adjusted independently, so that each baby can recline at the most comfortable position; ditto for the canopies. Our babies know their stroller well and always seem comfortable when we set out for an adventure.  The straps and snaps ensure they are secure.
• Fantastic for indoor trips. If you are heading to the mall, or a doctor’s appointment, this is the stroller for you.  Not only does it pack up in the car easily, but its wheels and overall dimensions make for an easy time maneuvering stores and small offices.

So, why do we have a second stroller, you may ask?  There are a few downsides to having the Maclaren (or any umbrella stroller) as your sole means of transportation:

• Heavier and harder to maneuver than most all terrain strollers. Compared to our jogging stroller, this one is harder to push and harder to turn.  There are two handle bars rather than one, so both hands are needed to navigate.  This is noteworthy – as the mother of twins, it’s not as dramatic, given our babies are of similar size, but if using for two children of different ages, I would imagine there would be a need to push each side at varying levels of strength.
• Wheels are geared toward indoors. While we use this stroller outside for short walks, its wheels are really geared toward use indoors, as compared to an all-terrain stroller. This can result in a bumpy ride for the babies at times, and a harder time when encountering curbs or cracks in the sidewalk.  Because it is rather boxy, it also does not allow for great ease when walking outside.
• Few bells and whistles. In turn for being compact and easy to fold, this is a fairly bare-bones stroller. The canopies do not extend very far to shield from sun, the baskets underneath are not easy to access.  Most notably, the babies must be strapped in at all times, or they will slip out of the narrow seats.  I don’t believe this is an issue, as I’m happy to make the trade-off for the points above.  But if it is your only and primary stroller, this is something to consider.

Overall, we have been very happy with our Maclaren Twin Techno and, as urban parents, find it the perfect umbrella stroller to use in conjunction with our all terrain stroller.  For suburban parents or those who primarily drive, this could perhaps be sufficient on its own.  Its ease of use and small footprint are invaluable – if you’ve ever tried to navigate two children, you know exactly what I mean.

Thanks to Maclaren for providing the Twin Techno for testing and to Ella for sharing her experience!

Yes, you deserve a beautiful (dare I say “sexy”?) nursing bra that makes you remember you’re a curvy woman and not a cow. The thoughtful people at Cake Lingerie sent me the one below, called Licorice, and I love it.

The good: The bra is super pretty, comfortable, and it has a flexible wire that lifts things into place while maintaining optimum health.

The bad: No complaints but these bras (and matching undies) are a bit of a splurge. I think they make a great gift from the partner who still thinks you’re beautiful.

The ugly: Because I don’t look like this model, I’m not going to try it on for you (though they do have a terrific campaign in progress called Real Moms, Real Fit that shows all kinds of body shapes). If you want to see me in it, the best you can hope for is that I might flash you by mistake when feeding my little guy. Which is not altogether unlikely (Umm, sorry about that, Whitney and Wendy).

Bottom line: I recommend it highly for a special occasion or every-day treat. If you like, you can buy online (which is really really hard for bras because good fit is so important) or find a store near you.

Related:

• You’re good enough, you’re smart enough and you deserve a nice bra or two
• 5 Sexy nursing bras by the mominatrix

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Disclosure: Cake sent me sample products for editorial consideration.

When I first read about fitbit on coolmomtech, they called it the perfect combination of tech and fitness). I was intrigued and excited. I emailed the company that day and begged for a review device. Whitney and I share a love of counting steps (see this week’s rookie mom challenge!) and this cranked it up a notch in fun high-tech ways.

Whitney had a great time wearing it and playing with the data. Lucky girl! This is what she told me:

I’ve been wearing the fitbit on the waistband of my clothes on and off for a couple of months now. I think it’s the most accurate pedometer I’ve ever worn. It’s slim profile fits snugly, although I am careful when I use the restroom as I have been scarred by a previous Blackberry-in-the-toilet accident.

If I leave the mini-cradle attached to my desktop computer, then whenever I go into my home office, it syncs the data it collected from my day, just from being close to the cradle. This means that if I ever check my stats, they’re already updated.

Seeing my step count throughout the day definitely motivates me to walk more. I do silly things like take the first parking space I see, rather than trying to get closer, because I want the steps. It’s like a real life video game.

I’ve also worn it on the elliptical trainer, where I don’t think it could tell what the heck was going on, and in a bouncy house, which was also tough to track, it seems.

Sadly, I had some trouble attaching the fitbit to my waistband because of my expanding midsection (wear it high? low? on the bra?!). It also fell off several times including lodging itself under my car’s floormat for a few weeks before my husband (who can still bend fully at the waist) discovered it.

Despite having it just as long as my friend, I have not yet enjoyed the fun part of number crunching. But I’m back on the wagon wearing it wherever it will fit on my body, and can’t wait to try the data analysis!

Learn more about fitbit on their site.
Buy a fitbit on amazon for about $99 (free super saver shipping, anyone?).

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Disclosure: as I mentioned, I contacted the nice folks at fitbit and begged for a review sample. To avoid best friend bickering, they sent one to each of us.

If you ask Milo why he’s excited about a new baby coming to live with us, he will mention the word “minivan” within a few enthusiastic sentences. We told the boys we’d get a minivan to soften the blow of having another kid in the house. It worked like a charm.

Before we borrowed a deluxe, kitted-out Toyota Sienna (AKA Swagger Wagon) with video screens and a heap of fancy features, both boys were already enamored by the remote control doors. After riding in one for a week, they were sold.

Not my kid, but do you see how happy he is?

As I mentioned, the kids LOVED it. Within minutes of me picking them up at school for our week-long roadtrip down the California coast, they discovered the video screens, footrests, and controls for the dual sun-roofs.

On the road, I honestly don’t know how they found anything to complain about, but being trapped in the backseat with your brother for 9 hours in a row gets old even in the lap of luxury and your choice of movie.

Alec was the first to discover the smart cruise control features. The car slows down on its own if you get too close to the vehicle in front of you. Very cool. I relied on the parking assist features and gradually got more comfortable driving and stopping in town.

Proper name is Sienna XLE not swagger wagon

My sister-in-law loves hers. Truth be told, driving such a large vehicle feels a little bit like being pregnant: I’m constantly afraid I’ll misjudge my own girth and hurt somebody. For now, we are back in our small car in nervous anticipation of the day a minivan and a baby arrive to stay.

After a few seasons of rain boots that fell apart within two weeks (I am not exaggerating, this happened to two pairs!), I decided to splurge on high quality rain boots for my son, Holden.

These look very cool — black with spiders! — and they are warm and high-quality. In fact, they can handle temperatures down to thirty degrees below zero. Ummm, that’s where I went a little above and beyond. It doesn’t even snow where we live; it only rains. Cold weather here is about forty degrees. What the heck was I thinking? I dropped about $60 on these boots.

I sent him to school in these butt-kicking boots and his feet were super sweaty all day. Sorry kid. On the plus side, we’ll be all set when we go visit friends and family in the Real Winter. I can’t wait to drag these kids Out East for the holidays. Maybe we’ll finally make it to Tahoe for sledding. Gosh, do we have to go back to Copenhagen to make this investment worthwhile?

If you live where it’s actually cold, I highly recommend. They come in many cool patterns. Buy sweet Bogs spider boots on Amazon >>

For Milo, I couldn’t stomach another $60 on rain boots so I was very happy to find these Kamik rain boots for about $20. They look super hearty (not build an igloo hearty but splash through the puddles hearty like we need).

We plan to try to give them a little more personality with Sharpie drawings and maybe a paint-job. They come in navy blue and pink. Find these practical Kamik boots on Amazon >>

If you’re still wondering about those terrible fall-apart boots, I haven’t decided whether or not to tell you which brand. Should I? Shouldn’t I? Do you want to guess?

I just finished my four week experiment based the Stocked Kitchen cookbook and I rate it an enthusiastic one thumb up. I embraced the system fully in order to take advantage of the promise: maintain the master shopping list ingredients and be able to make any recipe in the book. I lived according to the guidelines in the book and had mixed results.

What I liked:

• I loved shopping once and being done for the week. No mid-week “honey, can you pick up X?” trips. No being caught off-guard by potlucks, dinner parties, or camping trips. Truly awesome.
• We discovered new go-to foods. This cookbook included mostly recipes we had never tried. I discovered that my son loves ham, and he likes ham and cheese tortilla roll-ups for breakfast and lunch!
• We found new options for potlucks and dinner parties. I loved the Greek Roll-Up (flank steak with spinach, bread crumbs, and feta) and ate all the leftovers during the course of one week. My foodie guests enjoyed the Empanadas too. The Asian Cole Slaw is sweet, delicious, and EASY for a potluck.
• The dessert section is versatile. From the basic stock, we made Lemon Bars (delicious but wrong texture because of user error), Chocolate Peppermint Bars, and Apple Pie Bites. There are many more we still want to make.
• Most meals had simple prep. If you’re home with a baby and can make use of the naptime windows for prep, you would be in great shape.

What I didn’t like:

• Most meals took too long to make. While the prep for most meals was very simple, once you factor in the cooking time, I struggled to get the dinner on the table in time. Once, I had to make an entirely separate meal after letting the boys extend their allotted TV-time and the food still wasn’t ready.
• What, no side dishes? The authors would be doing readers a HUGE favor by suggesting side dishes to accompany the main dishes. I found myself lacking a veggie more often than not because I was too focused on making the main.
• Over-reliance on canned goods. I am concerned about BPA exposure and the freshness of ingredients. Canned corn? No thanks.
• My family didn’t like enough of the food. Unfortunately, I have a refrigerator full of leftovers that my family doesn’t want to eat. If, based on the table of contents, you can tell you’ll like the dishes, the system is pure genius. If you live with a bunch of picky eaters or food snobs, it may backfire.

Bottom line:

The simplicity of the grocery list and the approach is phenomenal. I am happy to have this cookbook in my arsenal, but I’m not ready to fully embrace the Stocked Kitchen lifestyle because the specific dishes didn’t quite make the cut with my boys. If it were just me and Alec, we could go on eating chili mac for a while before we grew tired of it, but not our children. (I think we have the only two kids on the planet who won’t eat macaroni and cheese.)

P.S. Now that I’m done with the official part of the experiment, I’d still like to try a few more of the dishes: Ham Corn Chowder, Peanut Noodles, Bacon Wrapped Shrimp, and Hot Spinach Artichoke Dip.

Depending on your taste buds and your willingness to delegate meal planning, I strongly encourage you to give it a try, if only to be inspired by the systematic planning and management of your dinners.

My kitchen counter when I started the experiment

Related links:
Stocked Kitchen experiment, week one
Stocked Kitchen experiment, week two
Stocked Kitchen experiment, week 3.5
Stocked Kitchen book on Amazon
www.thestockedkitchen.com

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of the cookbook for my review. All groceries were purchased by me. The opinions expressed here are mine and I’m a meal-planning, chicken-raising food snob with two sons who don’t eat macaroni and cheese.

Another not-so-secret trick from Auntie Karen:
We already know about getting produce from a CSA (don’t we?). Did you know meat can be delivered, too? Say what? Yes, I just got these Italian bison sausages in the mail, and made them for Sunday breakfast.

Bison is very lean, but instead of adding more animal fat to the sausage meat, these have provolone cheese embedded throughout to make them juicy. They were pretty tasty… and best of all, they have no nitrates nor ingredients that sound like they’re from your high school chemistry textbook (so they’re pretty healthy for kids AND adults)!

Rookie Moms readers can 20% off all food items from High Plains Bison with this code: EATGOOD22. [Note that although you will add the code on the cart page, the discount does not show up until the billing page].

Disclosure: Karen received a sample of High Plains Bison sausages, hot dogs and steaks to taste test. She liked it. She also thought the ribeye was tasty (and lower in calories than beef but not quite as “special” as the sausages).

I downloaded the Hipstamatic iPhone app for $1.99 at the recommendation of my photo-snob friend, Jen. Loving it!

I call this one “Hipsta-Milo” and it was taken by Holden.

Photos are taken with various “photoshop effects” to simulate the results of the 1970′s era limited-edition camera, the Hipstamatic. You can select from film, flash, and lens to create different effects. Or just shake the iPhone to get a wildcard combination.

Additional goodies (more funky lenses, films, and flash effects) are available for more money, but I think you’d have to really know what you’re doing to bother with that. For $1.99 I totally love it!

Other things to know: All photos come out square. Because it’s like an old-school camera, you can’t review your image immediately and you can’t be too sure what’s included in the frame. I offer an example:

I centered in on these lovely cupcakes but the dirty dishes surprised me in the final photo. Because of the “film border” I can’t crop it out without losing the coolness.

Now that I’ve been home for 2 weeks, I have finally recovered from my family vacation. Because we live on the West Coast and our families live Out East, every time we cross the Mississippi, it turns into a full-on Family Vacation, capital letters required.

Three thumbs way up

This year, we managed to sync up my plans to go to the BlogHer conference in New York City with my mom, step-dad, sister-in-law, sister, brother, nephew, and niece so that we could visit all kinds of people at once. We augmented our already ambitious cross-country flight with a monster road trip.

Big shout-out to GMC for providing the wheels (and car seats!) for this adventure.

We flew from SFO to JFK on my favorite airline, Virgin America. It was smooth (well, all but the gogo wifi, which was patchy and made me grumpy!). The awesome dude who coordinates such things with bloggers made sure that the GMC Terrain was waiting for us at a mysterious off-airport lot (with cool elevators for the cars!) and we were good to go.

Alec and I stuffed it full of luggage and explored some of the neato features of the sound system before rolling away. We hit the road with the passenger-as-copilot monitoring the iPhone maps and headed for dinner in the Bronx. Apparently, that was our first mistake.

Upon getting into the Terrain after dinner, our GPS seemed confused. Rather than shooting us Up North through New England, she was now suggesting we go Down South through New Jersey. Uh oh. We seemed to be on an invisible boundary between totally different routes. Every time our car faced one way, we’d get one set of directions; and when we turned around, we’d get the opposite directions.

Mom, he's touching me

Ultimately, we headed towards Jersey and didn’t make it too far out of The City before finding a hotel for the night.

In the morning, we packed up our gear into the (ample) trunk and headed off for the real road-tripping. We made pretty good time including a few rest stops (for wrestling and running) and a few meals.

Wrestling Stop

While we were in the Adirondacks, the Terrain served us well for beach excursions, hikes, rainy days, runs to the town dump (sorry GM!), and it even carried the bike and cheering section (us) for Alec’s victorious triathlon with my family.

Ready for the beach

After a week of Vacation, I took the train back down to NYC for BlogHer while Alec stayed up with the kids and MY parents at the lake. I wish I could get him to tell more of that story. He is a super hero.

I really liked driving the Terrain. It certainly helps that it’s about 5 years newer than my current car. For a big crossover vehicle, it handled well. It felt like I was driving a car (except for one or two minor complaints)

What I liked:

• Rear view camera: it was very handy to see the little things (like people, curbs, and vehicles!); I did some practice reverse-parking and found it a little trippy
• USB port: LOVED being able to easily charge and listen to our iPhones
• Bluetooth wired through the car speakers: when it worked, it was awesome. Seems to support up to 3 phones, but when we tried to test it by calling each other (within the car, mind you), the car got confused.
• Steering wheel controls: access to the music system and phone answering without reaching too far. Good thinking, smart car design-y people.
• XM Radio: in the mountains, there are very few regular radio stations. Thank you XM!
• Good MPG (better than my Subaru) and high safety ratings

What I didn’t like:

• Wide turn radius: it seemed impossible to make tight corners. Maybe this perception was exacerbated by us being lost so many times.
• The brake pedal: it was too high. I had to wonder if my petite friend Whitney would have been able to drive stop this car at all.

Bottom Line: All in all it was a great car to drive for our trip. Do I think every trip I make to the East Coast should involve a multi-day drive-a-thon? Not so much.

Almost a year ago, Kathy from Invisibelt invited me to try out her special belt. She told me, “The Invisibelt is a flat undetectable belt intended to be worn under fitted tops. No more belt buckle bulge!!!” I was intrigued, but not completely sold.

When the package arrived, I eyed it suspiciously before trying it on. She had sent me both a clear plasticky one and a black one to try out. The package sat unopened for a couple months. Then, one day, I needed a belt!

Yes, when your pants go from being perfectly fitted to drooping a bit, it’s time to grab a belt, ladies. So, I opened the clear Invisibelt and gave it a test run. It’s not like ordinary buckle belts (in a good way) so it takes some adjusting to get it right. For first-time wearings:

1. Adjust to fit. Before threading through the loops, take time to find the right fit with the slider. It may take a few tries.
2. Thread through belt loops. Duh.
3. Wear fitted shirts. The best part about this belt is what goes unseen. Wear longer fitted shirts and don’t worry about that belt or buckle bulge (just like she told me).

If you wear shorter shirts, the belt will show and not look so good.

For about six months, I wore this belt nearly every day. Still, I hesitated to write about it because it was a freebie. And, by itself, I think its ugly. It’s plastic. Then again, this is what I genuinely liked:

1. the slim line of the belt under shirts.
2. the quickie one-handed closure.
3. that I could adjust it once and it fit perfectly without having to struggle between (or beyond) belt holes.
4. that I could pretend to be Wonder Woman by having a special invisible super power belt.

So, if you are between sizes (new mom!), need one hand belting (new mom!), and want to look less bulky in the midsection (new mom!), I highly recommend an Invisibelt. In fact, I’m wearing it right now. See also the InvisiBump for pregnant bellies.

If you are perfectly fit to your belt holes, want to show off a stylish belt accessory, have all the time in the world for buckling, buy a different belt.

Disclosure: I received free belts for wearing and reviewing. But I already said that, didn’t I?

Nature’s Basin — run by mothers who are both environmentally and health conscious– is a new sponsor of our site. For the next month, you’ll see their ad tile on our sidebar. We are happy to have them!

Nature’s Basin sells organic beauty care and natural beauty products from around the world. They rigorously look at every ingredient to ensure the safety of the product so that you can rest assure that the organic beauty products are safe and healthy for you and your baby.

Organic baby care products include baby lotion, baby oil, baby soap, and baby cream. Made with pure and effective botanical ingredients, these non-toxic items protect baby’s delicate skin and developing system.

What else can I tell you? Free shipping on all orders over $45 and free samples included with every order.

Did I mention free returns with full refunds in case something doesn’t work out?

One of many chocolate flavors in the Luna family

My great friend, Sunny, generously offered my Eat. Blog. Run. girls a 200-mile supply of Luna Bars to power us through running from Calistoga to Santa Cruz. Yes, we survived the run. Barely. And on the way, I got to try out several flavors of Luna Bar.

I think these bars are great for moms, not just runners. As a new mom, I was always on the hunt for foods that I could eat with one hand; I got pretty creative (by laying a napkin over my baby’s head and eating lasagne, for example). I also like that the ingredients are things my grandma would recognize as food.

Hop over to our facebook page and tell us your favorite Luna flavors. One lucky Facebook fan will win 100 Luna Bars.