This horse is not for riding…
…but it is fantastic for lighting up your kids room!
This wonderful light makes my architect heart beat faster. It is so different, and so, so cool looking! Thankfully, it made my toddler son’s heart beat faster too. As soon as he saw the horse, he had a crush on it. In fact, I had trouble convincing him that this horse isn’t meant for riding but has the sole function of decorating his room!
The Lite-horse is made out of recycled polyester by Swedish company, The Snowroom, and is sold by KidsLoveDesign.com, a super-cool new website that focuses on gathering the latest design-trends for children…
xxx Esther
Top 10 Aussie baby finds
Australian kids have never looked so good. And there is a reason for that – well, I’ve managed to narrow it down to 10… of my favourite baby-related businesses. Sure, one of them is based in New Zealand (Merino Kids), but Australia often claims all the best of that country as our own (just ask Collette Dinnigan or Russell Crowe). And another (Dwell Studio) is from the US, but has recently made its way to our shores thanks to local distributor, Luxury Labels. So for a taste of what’s in store, check out these stylish shops and cool finds:
1.) Tuchuzy Kids: 86 Gould St, Bondi; (02) 9365 5371
I can’t tell you how excited I was when Tuchuzy took what used to be a sideshow in the men’s store (which is next to the oh-so-fashionable women’s section) to centre stage in its very own shop. Now there’s a great place to not only kit out my baby in the coolest threads but also buy presents for friends with bubs.
2.)Bholu
Simple, stylish designs that are created with love — that pretty much sums up what Bholu is about. And not only does Jodie Fried’s beautiful company produce dreamy homewares for adults but a children’s range which includes cot sheet sets, lamp shades and toys.
3.)Merino Kids
I’m all for anything that makes life simple. And time and time again I find that nature’s answer is often the easiest solution. Case in point: sleeping bags for babies. While there is constant chatter in my mother’s group about “togs”, I’ve got a Go Go Bag by Merino Kids and because it’s made of merino wool, it allows my baby’s skin to breathe when it’s warmer during the day and keeps him toasty when it’s cooler at night. Perfect.
4.)Kido Store
Really, this is one of the best edited collections of children’s ware that I’ve come across so far. And the great news, for those of you who don’t live in Sydney, is that you can buy online. How did mums manage before the internet! (more…)
Sydney
If I could live anywhere — apart from Paris of course — it would be Sydney. Where else in the world do you get to live in a vibrant, cosmopolitan city whilst living by the beach? I love the balmy weather, the wonderful Pacific rim food and the idea that I could potentially go for a quick surf — if I knew how to surf — after work.
I also love the Sydney style: a bit surfer and funky and yet also cute and chic. To be honest there is so much going on in Sydney that we would love to update you on a regular basis about this great city. Which is why we are so excited to have found a fantastic lady to represent her city with gusto…
Natalie is the deputy editor of an interior decoration magazine and mother to a six-month-old little boy. We love her attitude towards motherhood, shopping and life and cannot wait to see what is going on with her from far away on the other side of the world. We hope you enjoy reading about Sydney as much as we do.
Without further ado… we welcome Natalie, our newest Babyccino contributor!
- Emilie
Hello from Sydney!
Picture this: there are four stylish, intelligent, successful women sitting in a café having a conversation and you can’t help but listen in. Your admiration soars when you soon realise they’re all mothers. Really? How is this possible! They not only look amazing but they’re engaging in the world around them with a passion and enthusiasm that is contagious. Then one of them spots you and invites you to join the conversation. Yes, this did happen (well, virtually)…
…and I can’t tell you how excited I am to join the Babyccino team as a guest writer. I’m bursting at the seams to share with you all that is wonderful about Australia from the eyes of a recent mum and a six-month-old (and growing oh-so quickly) baby boy.
I am a journalist with an interiors magazine which aims to present stylish homes on a realistic budget, and I have to say, hand on my heart, that this is the way I approach motherhood too. I believe in creating a wealth of experiences for my child which have everything to do with love and knowledge and little to do with gratuitous spending. Together we’re going to have a truly rich life, and a lot of fun along the way. The only thing is – should I now confess to the team that once I start talking…
-Natalie
What are you making for dinner tonight?
When Esther lived around the corner from me here in London I called her all the time just to ask her what she was making for dinner that night. Esther is really good at opening up her fridge, looking at what is left in there and then coming up with something tasty! I, on the other hand, am really good at copying other people’s ideas! I’m just not very innovative in the kitchen… But if someone tells me how to make something and gives me the recipe I’m pretty capable of doing it.
I still call Esther from time to time hoping for ideas and inspiration, and I love to read the recipes the other girls post here on Babyccino. It’s so fun to learn all the typical recipes from the different countries. I love Michela’s easy pasta recipes and Emilie’s recipes for French tarts and sweets!
With all of this in mind, we thought it would be fun to set up a forum for our readers to discuss what you’re all making for dinner tonight. Whether you’ve prepared a 3-course meal, pureeing home-cooked baby food or you’re scrambling eggs, we want to hear from you!!! (It also makes us feel better if someone else is ALSO just heating up left-overs, or ordering take-out… 
)
And, If you’re making up a recipe, we’d love to know about that too (even if it wasn’t very tasteful — it happens to the best of us). We would especially love to hear your all-time favorite recipes… If you’re willing to share!
So please leave your comments. Check back daily to hear what others are saying, and keep the conversation going!
We think this is going to be so much fun!!!
Bon appetit!
Create your own Christmas cards
I must say, I don’t send out a lot of Christmas cards. To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the whole Christmas card thing. I do like the personal message, but I hate to think about all the paper and energy that is wasted by this worldwide craze! So, I only send out cards to a few friends abroad, or very close friends here in the country, and that’s it.
I do tend to put some effort into creating the cards though… I like to make it into a little craft project!
This year making the Christmas cards was a true family effort. Even my husband helped!
What we used is:
-One large potato
-Ready made cards, blanco (folded)
-Red and yellow paint, big brush
-Gold paint, fine brush
-Black permanent marker, fine point
-An old-fashioned type-writer
(I found mine in the attic of my parents-in-law!)
I don’t think I spent more than 15 euros on the materials… Real Credit Crunch Christmas Cards, you could say! (more…)
More heuristic play DIY
I know now what heuristic play is, and how relevant it is for the development of a child. Yet, before my first son went to nursery, I didn’t know that the activity of playing with everyday objects had a specific name or that it was so important. It is thanks to the lovely teachers at my children’s nursery that I learned this, and it is from them that I got ideas for simple DIY heuristic toys.
The latest addition to our range was really simple to put together. I took an empty can of Pringles (I honestly bought it for this reason!), a pack of wooden laundry pegs and a roll of children’s adhesive border, et voilà the toy is ready.
My daughter really enjoys playing with them, taking them all out, throwing them around and then putting them back in. The bottom of the tube is made of metal so the pegs really make a nice sound when they fall in!
-Michela
Travel mattress
As I have just moved to a new house, I now have the luxury of something I’ve never had before in London: stairs (and many of them)! I went from having everything within arm’s reach all on one level, to now scaling 4 levels about 100 times a day! Phewww! (At least my bum will benefit!)
As we are expecting a baby this spring, I’m already starting to think about where on earth this baby will sleep/play/lie down (ideally in the same room that I’m in). Thankfully, I’ve just discovered the NaturalMat travel mattress — a mattress you can roll up and take with you wherever you go. You can use it in your home (as I’ll do) to provide a cozy place to lie your baby down, or you can use it specifically for traveling and holidays. It rolls up neatly into a cotton draw-string bag, so it’s easy to keep clean and tote around when necessary. (more…)
It’s the Wild West out there
My eldest daughter started school in September. When I pick her up I usually ask her how her day went. She always responds: “Great!” with a huge smile on her face. Obviously being a nosy mom I want more information: “But what did you do?” The answer is always a variation of the following: “I had fun!!!! First L hit me, then I cried, then I hit G…. then C took my toy away so I cried, then I took her toy away and said no….she then poked me and I poked her back….”
How can this be fun? To me this sounds like a constant struggle of survival, the ritual kicking of the underdog and a throw back to the Wild West.
I got a bit concerned at first and spoke to the teacher to see if my daughter was being bullied. The teacher looked at me with incomprehension…. “Mais Madame” she said, “They are three years old, how else do you expect them to interact?!” Yet again I stood out as the overprotective Anglo-Saxon mom. Tell you what, I am so happy not to be 3 anymore, where getting hit by my peers is the order of the day…..
- Emilie
DREAM BIG
A book so beautiful it will bring tears to your eyes, put a smile on your face and make you want to cuddle every child on earth!
Dallas Clayton is a writer, illustrator and ‘creator of all things good’. He wrote ’An Awesome Book’ for his nearly-5-year-old son, Audio, whom he wants to make happy ‘more and more every day forever’.
Even though Dallas says he can make pretty much everything (‘as long if it’s beautiful and good’), I just feel he should just focus on writing kids books from now on, and making kids (and their parents) happy! Because this book will make you happy – I promise!
If you don’t believe me, you can actually read the whole book here. And, since I have the hardcover book in front of me, I can vow that it is beautiful in reality too. And if you don’t believe me, you’ll just have to order it yourself…!
The cutest, most touching and wonderfully illustrated kid’s book I’ve read in a long, long time… THE perfect (Christmas) present!
xxx Esther
Panpepato
Panpepato is a lovely little shop that faces Parco Solari, a small but very child-friendly park in Milan. This tiny space overflows with trendy clothes, cool jewelery, scarves, hats, bags – anything but shoes! It is the creation of Martina and Giulia who, after a degree and a few years behind a desk, decided to make their lifetime dream come true and open a shop. This shop is not ordinary in that it sells the products of over 50 artisans, making everything you buy original and often unique. They also stock clothes from small young producers like skunkfunk and Lo Spaventapasseri.
Next to the women’s collection of clothes and accessories they also sell baby and children’s clothes. They are all handmade by Monica and Roberta (both WAHMs) in a simple timeless style with nice colourful fabrics and often decorated with big matching fabric-covered buttons. They do not normally have a huge selection in stock, but if you see a style you like you can pick the size and the fabric and they will have it done for you at no extra cost.
The shop is not easy to spot, so look out for a pink wooden bench – it’s their sitting room and on sunny days many friends and locals alike stop by for chat. There is a good chance you’ll find me there with one or two of my children. Why? Because Martina is my sister!
-Michela
Last-minute getaways…
Cookie Magazine’s Going Places blog is featuring a week of last-minute getaway ideas, perfect for the holiday time. All their ideas are for easy-to-plan and relatively affordable holidays with kids.
The four of us have written about a quick, last-minute getaway from each of our cities. Check it out here, and also make sure to check out their other ideas… like, how about a sunny trip to Mauritius?!! Oh, how I’m craving some sunshine…
-Courtney
Anti-slip clips
Some baby girls, like Michela’s, are born with a huge amount of hair and basically have to have a little clip in their hair from the moment they are born to prevent their long locks from hanging in their faces.
Some baby girls, like mine, are born completely bald (as bald as a billiard ball as we say here in the low-lands!), and consequently don’t have hair until they are one, or even 2 years old! My daughter was considered a ‘he’ for pretty much most of her first year! Putting in the much anticipated hair-clip would help of course, but it wouldn’t stay in the few hairs my daughter had by that time…
My daughter is now 3 1/2 years old and I’m sure she’ll end up with a full head of beautiful, thick hair eventually, but her hair, although shoulder length by now, is still sort of thin. (Of course the fact that last week she decided to play hairdresser on her own hair didn’t help!)
Anna-Aliza created Moo G clips with exactly this sort of hair in mind. She basically attached a no-slip grip to her clips, and voila — her clips stay in place, whether your baby/little girl has a head full of hair or just a few wisps!
There is a grand selection of clips, in all sorts of cute designs, and I especially like them for festive occasions.
xxx Esther
Sarah Gardan Photos
We have family literally all around the world from Italy to New Zealand. A lot of our relatives only rarely see our kids, so there is no better Christmas present for them than a nice photo…
We have previously sent out snap shots we had taken ourselves, but the photos were never quite right. When one of the kids looked great, the other had her eyes half closed. When we finally had a shot where both of them looked good, there was always something wrong with the background.
It is so hard to take good photos of kids, so this year we decided to bring in a professional. I was very skeptical as I’m still a bit traumatized by the professional photographer who used to come and photograph me at school when I was a kid…. it always looked so staged, not the mention it was so embarrassing to pose for the camera with my gap tooth grin, while the whole school was watching!
Sarah Gardan is an Australian who has settled in Paris with her husband and kids. I met her a couple of months ago when Esther, Michela and Courtney were in town and we needed someone to take photos of the four of us together. They turned out great, so I asked her to come along and take some shots of my two little ladies. (more…)
Mummy facing buggies
I just read this article on the Guardian, which reports the preliminary results of study carried out by the National Literacy Trust inside the Talk to Your Baby campaign and funded by the Sutton Trust.
The Talk to Your Baby campaign aims to encourage parents to talk more to babies from 1 to 3 years old because it helps develop their social and communication skills which will contribute to their success in many aspects of their future life.
These researchers chose to study the life of babies inside a pushchair given that modern babies spend on average 2 hours a day in them. Early results, but the sample is not very large, seem to indicate that parents are (obviously) more likely to talk, laugh and interact when pushing a toward-facing pushchair. An even smaller-sample study seem to suggest that when babies are facing their carers they are more relaxed and their heart rate is lower. (more…)
Terrific teepees!
We moved house last week, which was an exhausting and emotional experience! As happy as we are to have a bigger home with more space (which we needed thanks to a certain baby number 3 on the way), it was sad to leave the home where my children were born, and to leave a home my children were so happy in.
To make the move exciting for my kids, I promised them a surprise for the new house — something they could have for their play room, something really, really cool!
I bought them this really lovely teepee from Little Smiles, which absolutely thrilled them beyond belief! They just love having a little ‘house’ of their own — a place for their special toys, somewhere for them to hide away to a little world of their own.
The teepees are all beautifully hand-made, assemble quickly and easily in a matter of minutes, have velcro fasteners to close the doors, and are super, super cute! (I think they make a perfect present for the holidays or any other big event.) (more…)
Flat rental in Paris
We are often asked here at Babyccino if we have any advice on flats or hotels in our cities!
I personally prefer staying in flats as opposed to hotels now that we have kids — it gives us more space and freedom. I recently stumbled over this website called VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner) whilst looked for a short term rental flat for a friend in Paris and I think it is one of the best websites I have seen. The big advantage is this: the site puts you in direct contact with the owner of the flat so that you don’t need to deal with an agency. This saves you a lot of money in agency fees. It also means that you deal directly with someone who has invested themselves in their flat, mostly meaning you get a better, more personal service. There are a lot of family-friendly flats on the site in central locations, and most of the owners I have been in contact with spoke fluent English.
I have no idea if VRBO works well for other cities, but for finding short term accommodation in Paris, it has been great.
- Emilie
Fish Gerald
Not long ago, we visited our local pet store. My children immediately went to the aquarium with all the glittery goldfish, but I discovered the cutest little hamster rolled up in a miniature pile of hay. I secretly opened the cage, and stroked the tiny sweetheart over its belly, meanwhile telling my husband we should maybe get our children this cute little animal for them to cuddle and love…
AAARGH! The little sweetheart had turned into a killer hamster and had attacked my index finger! It seriously put it’s little teeth deep into the flesh! Holding back a scream, I quickly closed the cage and buried my now badly bleeding finger into a clean nappy in my handbag. Pretending nothing happened so to not to alarm the shop assistant (but seriously holding back tears of shock, pain and embarrassment), I promised myself I would NEVER buy such a dangerous animal for my children. I made my way to the fish tank.
Within ten minutes we went home with a huge fish bowl, plants, sand, fish food and one lucky fish: Gerald.
And I must say, he’s really become part of the family. Every morning, my kids fight over who may feed Fish Gerald (Great Gatsby — get it??). And I swear he recognizes them, because he starts racing around his bowl and jumping out of the water. We put some big shells in the sand, and he likes to call those his little house (he really retires to his shell when he wants some quiet time). And he’s not at all dangerous. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t even have teeth!
In celebration of Fish Gerald and goldfish in general, I got my daughter this lovely print from l’Affiche Moderne. And it is beautiful! Even if you don’t love fish, this is a wonderful print, and it will look gorgeous in every little girl’s room…
xxx Esther
Rocker tee
Recently my son has been wearing this long sleeved t-shirt by huddy buddy — he proudly shows the electric guitar to everybody. Normally I’m not too fond of prints on kid’s clothes, but this one is different. It’s not a kid’s print — it has a vintage feel to it, and given the small scale of the garment I think it’s funny and very cool. The seventies look comes also from the very slim fit of the shirt.
All the clothes from Huddy Buddy are made of 100% ring-spun cotton which provides an extra-soft and comfortable fit — and they are made in a sweatshop-free environment in Los Angeles.
I really like some of their other retro prints, like the gas station, the bowling and the take-away prints– pretty unique in my opinion!
-Michela
ONE YEAR AGO WE WROTE ABOUT:
• More country differences: caring for the umbilical stump.• Sinterklaas- A Dutch Tradition
Thidwick
Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose
Coming from America, where ‘Dr. Seuss’ is a household name, I always assume that everyone is familiar with this famous children’s book author. But interestingly, this isn’t so. Many of my European friends have never heard of Dr. Seuss, and even more surprisingly, my husband (who works in animation) says that it often happens that Dr. Seuss is referenced at work and nobody in the room knows who he is!
Oh my goodness… they’re missing so much! For not only is there Thidwick, but there’s Yertle the Turtle
Dr. Seuss was a genius. He was far ahead of his time, clever and bold. All of his books are wonderful, but of course dear ‘ol Thidwick is my favorite.
-Courtney
PS Don’t forget to check our bookshop for more of our favorite books!
ONE YEAR AGO WE WROTE ABOUT:
• More country differences: caring for the umbilical stump.• Sinterklaas- A Dutch Tradition
