So you get her a baby (doll) of her own and start furnishing a full home. The home is miniature, of course, but the furniture costs very close to the original. You will need this Doll Crib so that the fake baby will fake sleep while your own baby does not. Enjoy.

The KidKraft Medium Diva Table & Stool is not for every kid. But if your 3 year old daughter (or son) are into makeup and jewelry like my girl – they will likely enjoy this vanity table and endless hours of rearranging pretend toiletries and anything small enough to fit. In our case the jewelry is still sparkly plastic for the most part  and makeup consist of paint-on tattoos and lip balm -  but I do not think I am going to be this lucky for much longer. Given her parent’s lack of interest in such matters it is fascinating to see our daughter who was born with her own fully-grown personality which in some ways is very different than ours. In “bible school” (the equivalent for her age), when it was my daughter’s turn to thank God, she said: “Thank you God for my vanity”… need I say more?

This will get you lots of points with the 3 year old crowd. Try this link for Amazon. For Target.com go here and search for “Kidkraft Vintage Kitchen – Pink”. By the way, boys love to play kitchen too. I do recommend getting a non-pink version for boys – mostly to address your insecurities and future “what did I do wrong” thoughts.

10 pics to take on baby’s first day!

The Western Digital My Passport 1 TB External Hard Drive is one of my favorites. Looking back just a decade it is amazing just how much we can store in such a small drive. I like the Passport for the simple reason that it is the right size to stick in your pocket. I use it to backup the hours and hours of movies of my daughter doing something very exciting (ok – we find her singing with a stick as a microphone exciting but I do suspect – although cannot confirm – that others may not be as excited as we are).  Given the value of such records we keep at least 2 copies of each photo and movie and that does add up to many gigabytes of data.

With latest windows machines the drive works out of the box. Plug in one of the computer’s USB ports, wait a few seconds for the driver to automatically install and you will soon see a window popping up asking you how you would like to view the content of the drive. You can use the “explore” option and use it just as another “drive” (similar to your C drive) – where you can create new directories and drag and drop files from your computer directories. Or you can start the included software to have it manage your backup for you.

Personally I find the backup software that comes with the drive unhelpful – but this is really a personal choice and depends on your comfort level with backing up by yourself. As with any backup, it is only useful if you know how to retrieve the files if you need to – so be sure you have a “restoration” plan before you start your backup routine (this can be as simple as copying them back from the drive to the computer).

It is also important to remember that drives do “die”. Expect them to last 3-5 years – sometimes more sometimes less. Once they break, recovery, if at all possible,  is likely to be more expensive than simply keeping 2 copies. So I recommend doing just that: keep at least 2 copies of everything.

I find that the Passport is especially useful on the road when I need to back up our cameras. Downloading the pics to the computer is not enough (since computers tend to break on the road and I am running out of disk space on my laptop as well) and the Passport external drive is easy to bring along for that extra copy. Of course the same argument holds for less important data (such as work stuff and household records) so you can use that to make yourself feel better about the purchase and your addictive need to document every second of your child’s life (but enough about me…).

In summary, love it and recommend it.

This   PowerShot S95 camera seems to be loved by buyers and gets high marks for night time shooting and HD videos. While i don’t own this model i have owned multiple point and shoot cameras from canon and i definitely recommend them. Our latest one, the  PowerShot SX200IS has survived multiple attempts on its life by my wife including dropping it while the lens was extended and getting beach sand into the flash mechanism. The one shortcoming that the SX200 has in my experience is its night time capabilities, something that the PowerShot S95 seems to do well.  Note that despite their similar looks different models seems to have different characteristics and capabilities – so be sure to take time to research the exact model you want to buy.

If you have not yet seen these Magna-Tiles you may be living a very sheltered life. Pretty much every nursery school i have visited has them as well as many of my daughter’s friends. She of course has a set and loves it. While stacking blocks is still one of the best pleasures in life, these tiles provide a new dimension to the game: the third (that is, volume – the third dimension being the Z axis… ok sorry about that).

The only issue with these tiles are their price. The 32 set at $100 is not cheap at all and is sometime just not enough for serious castle building.  A rich uncle is strongly recommended. Otherwise split the cost between 32 of her best friends and have massive play-dates.

The recommended age for Rory’s Story Cubes is 8 to 12 year old but if your preschooler is like mine you can probably enjoy it at a much earlier age. Making up stories uses imagination, reasoning, creativity, humor, and the ability to order events in time. In short, a great way to develop your little one’s skills. Of course, not all preschoolers can express themselves very easily and you will need to adjust the level of the game to your kids ability.

The toy’s instructions recommend 3 level of play which are fairly advanced (and probably appropriate for 8-12 years old players). All include using 9 cubes in a sequence to create a story and variations on the story. For younger ones you may want to start with much simpler games and gradually build up the complexity of the game according to their skills and ability.

A few examples from easy to more challenging:

1. Name the cubes: pick up a cube and name the image. Experiment with variations and humor. That is, try to use different words to name the same cube as well as opposites of what is depicted on the cube (of course while laughing and making it obvious it is a joke). You will soon find your little one working hard to find funny words or starting off on a long story. In my opinion, any verbal output from your little one is positive and you should encourage it by asking questions and complimenting him for his great choice of words.

2. One cube story: choose a cube and tell a story or a fact about the image depicted in the cube. Anything goes in these stories and it is OK if your little one misinterprets the image on the cube. Tie the image to an event, place or person familiar to the kid and demonstrate how to play by making up simple, one sentence stories yourself. Allow your kid to repeat the same image and the same story multiple times. Repetition is very important for her learning and the way she feels confident about her skills and how she internalizes knowledge.

3. Two cube stories: increase the complexity of the story by incorporating 2 images in the story. Finding a logical connection between the 2 cubes will be challenging for your little one – so be patient. Initially you should expect and accept 2 disjoint stories with no clear connection between them – but you can certainly ask questions which tie his story for the second image back to the first image.

4. Short narratives: choose 3 cubes and tell a story using the cubes in sequence. Here you are practicing the order of events. Change the order and tell a different story (or more likely the same story in a different order).

5. Make your own game based on your child’s ability and reference. Using love, humor and true interest in what your child has to say – you cannot go wrong.

Use humor and be flexible. Allow your child to pick the image on the cube she likes to use in her story. Be patient and allow her time to express herself. Ask a lot of questions and expect lots and lots of repetition. Encourage and compliment her for her imagination and make it safe for her to express herself. She will build her skills and you will surely enjoy the experience too.

Llama Llama Red Pajama is a good way to discuss both sleeping alone and separation from parents in general. It is definitely not the cure (in case you were hoping reading the book a few times would make bed time struggles a thing of the past) but it speaks to the possible worries of toddlers and preschoolers in a fun and creative way. I find that books that depict others (in this case an imaginative young llama) in their weakness allows my girl to voice her own emotions and fears. Books with slightly misbehaving characters allows my young one to gauge what is appropriate behavior and how her parent would react if she did the same – without going through the actual exercise herself. This book is helpful on both counts and my daughter loves it.

I have not tested the Nikon COOLPIX S1200pj 14.1 MP Digital Camera with Built-In 20 Lumens Projector - so i am not reviewing or recommending it. The Previous and Cheeper Model had some reviews complaining about the strength of the projector – but taking into account the price, it is to be expected. This one is more expensive but has a stronger projector so maybe this was fixed. At any rate a cool gadget to have first in the block.

Some technical details:

• Built-in 20 Lumen projector enables instant viewing of still images and movies
• Compatible with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, iPod nano and iPod photo to project content from your device
• 14.1 effective megapixel CCD sensor for beautiful image quality
• 5x optical Zoom-NIKKOR glass lens 28-140mm (35mm equivalent) for superior image quality
• One-touch HD (720p) movie recording with optical zoom and stereo sound