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. When they do, they and the girl learn a valuable lesson in when and when not to use technology.

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 tantrums. Of course, you’ll want to keep the stuffed animal or two that your child wants by their side at nap time and bedtime.

This hilarious family video makes you want to declare 2013 “The Year of the Daddy.”

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.

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 powdery and it’s packable. All you need is flour, food oil and a big bin to contain the finished dough and the snowmen and snowflakes your kids will make with it. We like this recipe from littlepnuts.com, because it adds peppermint oil to add a fresh scent to the play. Yes, cloud dough can stick to little arms and get spread onto floors and tables, but sometimes a messy Christmas is a merry one, too.

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 it as frequently in July as December!

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.

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.

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.

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 for her child to wash hands and brush teeth without grown-up help. It’s part of her Montessori approach to home life. We like providing some ways for a toddler to be more independent, but definitely think a stepping stool is a more comfortable, more stable choice for giving little ones a boost than a chair.