Pillow Mate Picks, Volume 4
Our Pillow Mate reading selection this week is a reminder that everyone–young and old–needs to look up from their electronic devices and exchange interface connections with face-to-face ones. Hello! Hello! is beautifully illustrated as it follows a young girl whose family is so plugged-in, they don’t notice when she goes outside to chase a leaf. [...]
Stuffed Animal Crowd Control
Stuffed animals seem remarkably like live rabbits: They reproduce exponentially, almost before your eyes. Your baby might have started life with 4 or 5 plushie pals, but by toddler hood there are suddenly dozens of furry friends taking over beds, boxes and more. Apartment Therapy has an orderly plan for reducing head count without engendering [...]
Father of Five Jive
This hilarious family video makes you want to declare 2013 “The Year of the Daddy.”
Happy No Year!
According to a parenting expert at PBS, some of the best resolutions for parents center around saying “no” to some of the things that can really drive our stress levels up. Check out the suggestions and start a positive year off with every toddler’s favorite negative word.
Dreaming of a White Christmas?
Most kids love snow. The whiteness, the coldness, the feeling that they’re in a winter wonderland similar to the one they imagine Santa Claus lives in. But Mother Nature doesn’t always oblige come Christmas. So we found an alternative solution that will delight little ones almost as much as snow: Cloud dough. It’s white, it’s [...]
Pillow Mate Picks, Volume 3
A gentle Christmas tale with an emphasis on the joys of giving, The Bear Stays Up is a wonderful, rhyming story that kids as young as two will be chanting along with you as you read. It’s a perfect book for pre-holiday bed times and one that is so popular you might find yourself reading [...]
Top Tot Design Trends for 2012
The design guru’s at apartment therapy have just posted a round-up of the most popular decór touches cropping up in little kid rooms this year. Poufs and buntings are among the mix of design flourishes that seem a bit more geared to grown-up tastes.
Commode Commandments
You’ve child-proofed the vanity. You’ve bought toys for the tub. You’ve added a step stool. Now there’s one more detail to include when planning a children’s bathroom—art! North Caroline Artist John Golden created this colorful set of bathroom golden rules to delight and instruct the little ones. Discover them here.
Decking the Halls–Safely
As we all prepare to make our homes festive for the holidays, there are a few safety guidelines you’ll want to keep in mind to protect your home and children. Check out this list of decorating safety reminders to guide you in picking trees, hanging lights and more. Photo from Paper Couture.
Pint-Sized Potty Decor
For many parents, the bathroom feels like a hazardous zone for little ones. A water-filled tub or bottles of soap that sometimes looks like juice loom as accidents waiting to happen. The urge for all of us is to baby-proof everything, but one enterprising Mom decided to make her bathroom baby friendly, creating easy pathways [...]
Pillow Mate Picks • Volume Two
When one of our Aquatopia team reported that her child was more focused on the “giving” part of Thanksgiving–as in what are you giving me, mommy?–she thought it was time to teach her son more about the thankful part of the holiday. T is for Turkey does a great job of telling the story behind [...]
Thanksgiving Helping Hands
When it comes to the Thanksgiving menu, there are only so many foods the kids can help prepare. But it’s likely they’ll still want to help. Our suggestion: make your little ones the decoration committee. They can start with making these cute place cards for the dining table. It’s a clever variation on the classic [...]
Pillow Mate Picks
Because so many of our fans like using the Pillow Mate for curling up with a good book, we’re introducing a new blog feature that focuses on the books we think you and your little ones will love as much as we do. Pillow Mate Picks will suggest a new book every week to work [...]
Happy Post-Hurricane Halloween
All of us at Aquatopia wish you and your little ones a fun Halloween. For all of our friends in Hurricane Sandy affected areas—which includes many of our own team members—we wish you a speedy recovery and hope you can find a way to indulge a little Halloween fun. After all, a few moments of [...]
Painless Pumpkins
Though carving a pumpkin is a long-held Halloween ritual, the thought of wielding knives anywhere near your little ones can suddenly turn tradition into terror. Thankfully, crafty people everywhere have come up with non-carved ways to decorate pumpkins. Check out some of the creative ideas here and here. Once you’ve chosen your favorite approach, gather [...]
On your marks. Get set. Marathon!
Two of our Aquatopia crew completed the Scotia Bank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on October 14th. Antony Pereira, our Global Controller, and Edin Mesic, our Chief Supply Chain Officer, set out under rainy skies at the start of the beautiful metropolitan course, but were treated to some sunlight for the last few miles. Antony finished in [...]
Booooo on a Budget
Halloween is big business. According to the National Retail Federation, the average American family will spend about $73 on spooky decorations this year. If you’d like to make that number lower for your family, look to the web—Internet, not spider. Many enterprising and crafty people have generously posted print-ready posters, garland cut-outs and even iron-on [...]
You Can’t Spell Book without Boo!
For those of you with children who adore hearing you read Goodnight Moon before bedtime, now there’s a fun new spoof that’s perfect for Halloween season. Goodnight Goon has the same easy-going rhyme scheme and invites exploring little details on each page. The goons, ghosts and things that go bump in the night are more [...]
Soul Mates
Many little ones have a lovey—a special soft object the like to carry with them for comfort. This cutie has picked our Pillow Mate as her lovey. According to her grandmother, she carries it with her everywhere she goes at home! Feel free to send us pictures of your little ones enjoying their Aquatopia gear!
Costume Parade
Ask a typical little one what they want to be for Halloween and they’ll emphatically answer, “A superhero” one day and “A ghost” the next. With four-plus weeks to go, the average tot will have cycled through enough costume ideas to outfit an entire Halloween parade. This mind-changing has led many parents into the costume [...]
iPadding
About 2 minutes after little ones master their first steps they’re on to this era’s new milestone: iPad tapping and swiping. The iPad and other tablets are a great way to introduce early learning games or simply provide entertainment in the car. However, it’s important to remember that keeping these devices near your head or [...]
Activity Dice
This activity is proof that mothers are often the mothers of invention! Get-Up-and-Move Dice is a game created by a crafty mom blogger that combines creativity and movement to develop mind and body. Simply pick up a few cube-shaped gift boxes, cover them in chalkboard spray paint and write actions words on one and adverbs/adverbial [...]
Book to School, Volume 2
This next installment on our series of books that are great for preparing little ones for their first time at school is a real heart-string puller. The Kissing Hand By Audrey Penn Lovely illustrations and gentle text tell the tale of Chester the raccoon, who doesn’t want to leave his mother’s side and go to [...]
