Sneak peek at Be-utiful Be-hatted babies

Last week we were thrilled to have Christa Hook of Creative Clicks Photography in our light-filled front room for 2 days of adorable babies participating in our Jingle Baby of the Year contest. Here's a sneak peek at some of these little ones -- and keep an eye on our blog and/or hers so you can participate in voting for your favorite choice...

The Jingle Baby contest winner gets a super-duper holiday photo session, great images of their be-uti-ful baby, AND they'll model our holiday duds in photos we'll have in-store and on our site. Best of luck to all the cuties who visited us last week! And many thanks to Christa for all her great work!

(Also, voting begins in October for our Funny Face of the Year contest... stay tuned!)

Interactive books for kids

Quick note: here's a neat resource for adding a little reading to your little one's day; thanks Kidoons for tweeting about it: Free Interactive E-books for kids... Visit Mrs. Ryder Rabbit in READING MADE FUN!

Here's the main page for this series: http://www.madisonrabbit.com/story_enter

Let us know if you enjoy it, and if you have other favs. And have a happy, healthy day!

We love this new take on an old kid-safety idea

I'm always a little anxious whenever we're at a crowded amusement park, festival or other people-packed event with Cailee. Even now that she's older and knows her phone number, I have read that when someone is upset or scared, even the most familiar facts can fly right out of their mind, and I imagine that getting lost in a crowd would be enough to cause trouble!

As the autumn event season kicks into gear, with HollyFest, the NC State Fair, Halloween and other outings approach, I recommend keeping one or two packs of Write On SafetyTats on hand for some added peace of mind. What is the Safety Tat? These clever innovations in kid safety are fun rub-on tattoos, pre-printed with "if LOST, please call: "... just rub it onto your child's arm, and write your mobile number in the space provided. A waterproof-ink pen is provided too. The tattoo is waterless, so you can apply it quickly and easily, even while you're out and about. It's waterproof, so even getting caught in the rain won't obscure it. AND it's super durable -- one will stay on up to 2 weeks if necessary-- yet peels off readily if needed. They've even got ones to alert people about your child's allergies!

I'll be keeping a pack in each of our cars from now on. Because we know that taking care of babies makes keeping track of older siblings a little more challenging, you can find SafetyTats at our store for babies and beyond: GreenPea Nursery, in Apex NC or online.

Healthier Car Seats

Here's an important item from a report released this week by HealthyStuff.org, a nonprofit environmental research organization:

Children's Car Seats – Infant and child car seats contain chemical additives that can have adverse health effects on babies and young children. Over half (58%) of car seats contain one or more hazardous chemicals, including PVC, BFRs and heavy metals. Three examples of car seats that had none of the chemicals tested for are: Baby Trend Flex-Loc; the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 Car Seat; and the Graco Turbo Booster. Despite the toxic chemicals, it is vital to use a car seat for your child because they do save lives.

That's just one of the categories they studied, in addition to pet products, back-to-school products, automobiles, and women's handbags. (You can read their whole press release at:
http://www.healthystuff.org/departments/stuff/press.releases.php)

While we don't sell car seats right now, when we hear of better choices, we want you to know about them -- and this is obviously an important product to all parents! As we often say, it's almost impossible to find chemical-free options in every category; 'til recently this has been one of them. Thanks for the news, Healthy Stuff.