As the school year is here (or just about here) for so many of us, it is also the time for carpooling. Graco has pulled together the ABC’s of carpooling with kids – just some things to keep in mind as you hit the road this fall with a gaggle of kids in your car or just your own child.

A lways place children under 12 in the rear seat of a vehicle.

B ooster seats, car seats or seat belts should be provided for every child passenger in the vehicle.

C heck to make sure the car seat or booster seat that each child is riding in is the correct seat for that child’s height and weight.

D on’t forget to check that all child safety seats are properly secured according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

E very door should be locked once all passengers are safely buckled in the vehicle. If child safety locks are available, make sure they are in place.

F ill out a contact sheet for every child in the car pool. Keep this information readily available in case of an emergency.

G ood examples should be set by you, the driver. Buckle up yourself every time you get in the car.

This is my friend Katie’s niece “K-Cakes.” She is hard at work on her art project. You gotta love the smock!

“I’m so glad Mommy likes abstract art. I’m getting good at this, this one will definitely make the fridge!”

Wednesday we’ll be sharing a photo showing off a little bit of wonder in the lives of our extended Graco family of customers, employees and friends.

Remember the days of soothing your little one without some of the fancy swings and soothing centers that Graco makes today? (my mom does and she reminds me about it often) Well back in June, we sent Metropolitan Mama one of Graco’s latest and greatest creations, the Sweetpeace Newborn Soothing Center, to check out for herself. She was so excited to review the product and ended up conducting a give-a-way with the sweetpeace we sent her. She asked all of her readers to share their best, most successful soothing tips in the comments. She received over 300 of them!  Here are some of the tips the Graco bloggers picked out as their personal favorites:

Brit says- “My soothing tips come from “Happiest Baby on the Block” I swear by that book. The 5 S’s swaddle, shoosh, suck, side lying, and of course SWING.

Jacqui says- “My best newborn soothing tip is when my kids were super fussy at night, I would rub their temples while I nursed…it worked every time. My kids still love when I do it.”

Amira says- “My best soothing tip is to sit down with your legs together and place baby in between your legs. Slowly rub their legs lightly, like a massage.”

Aisling says- “I’ve never understood why, but many babies can be soothed to sleep by the vacuum cleaner. Just put them in a sling and go to work on the carpets!”

Shay says-”My best tip for a newborn is to bounce them. Literally sit in a chair and bounce your legs while you pat their bottoms.”

Katie says-”My best soothing tip is to run the shower. Both my girls love this and it gets them to sleep every time.”

Jodi says- “My son loved his stroller, so I ended up keeping that stroller in the house and pulling it out in emergencies.”

Erin says-”The best newborn soothing tips I used were either skin to skin contact, or using a heating pad to lightly warm the sheets of the bassinet before putting the baby down. That way, there was not a huge difference between your body temp. and the sheets.”

And the winner of the soothing tip give-a-way was entrant Kimberly from “Oh My Baby.” She said, “My son loved to be swaddled and sucked on my pinky more then his pacifier.” Luckily she is expecting baby #2 so the sweetpeace she won will certainly come in handy!

Now check out these great soothing tips that Graco gathered from parents across the country.

My mom reminds me of a time when she would have to wind up my baby swing just to keep me quiet and if that didn’t work, a trip around the block in my stroller with Pop-Pop would always get me quiet and on my way to dream land. I think it was my Pop-Pop’s magic touch  (not so much the stroller ride) because to this day, my Pop can still make me happy on the worst of days!

It seemed like just a few months ago that I was relishing in my son’s inquisitive nature- thinking his adorable questions about why birds live outside and why I go to work all the time and why his baby sister (who’s not such a baby anymore) cries so much. So cute! 

Fast foward to now. Ahhh!  The questions! They come in a constant stream and from all directions. The questions often hit me when I’m least expecting it and the other thing I didn’t expect- I can’t answer most of them!  All that schooling and life experience and I can’t seem to figure out a good way to explain why I’m dripping sweat after a good workout.

I know this is a stage and I actually do love it.  It’s entertaining as all-get-out so I thought I’d share these recent questions that came from Jagger in a 4 hour time span (and these are just the ones that are appropriate to share here!)

Me: (putting a sweatshirt on Jagger) “It’s cold out here!”
Jagger: Why?

Me: “Jagger!! You’re peeing on the wall!!”
Jagger: Why?
(well that’s what I’d like to know!)

Me: “Please don’t play with that truck in here- that’s an outside truck.”
Jagger: Why is that an outside truck?

Me: “Careful with that juice cup- the lid is not on super tight.”
Jagger: “Why is it not super tight?”

Me: “Please pick up your toys. The dogs might chew on them.”
Jagger: “Why?”

Jagger: “Where is Mommy?”
DH: “Mommy’s at work”
Jagger: “Why?”

DH: “Jagger- let’s get ready for dinner time.”
Jagger: “Why is it dinner time?”

And some of these questions thrown in as a bonus:

“Why do I have a cousin?”
“Why is there a spider in the toilet? (um- that would freak me out too!)

The best are the unexpected questions that have you asking the question: “Where on earth did he hear that?!”  Got any of those?  I’d love to hear them!

FUN! That’s the word Jagger and B (and probably the other 75 kids that attended) chose to describe yesterday’s Graco Summer Carnival.  IMPRESSIVE. That’s the word I would choose to describe yesterday’s event.

First, let me tell you why all the kids, and actually the adults too, had such a blast.

- A Petting zoo! I know. You think just because we’re in Pennsylvania we see farm animals every day- you’d be wrong about that. I can’t remember the last time I saw a goat. Now I do. It was yesterday!
- Pony Rides! This was awesome. Every fair I’ve ever been to, I’ve either been too cheap to pay for my kids to ride the pony or too impatient to wait in the long lines - no worries on either side here. Free, on-demand, pony rides for all the kids (and some adults actually)!
- Clowns! Depending on who you ask this might not be as fun, but these clowns painted faces and made balloon animals! Jagger left with a balloon sword I didn’t mind him beating B over the head with!
- Moonbounce! There was one for the kids and one for the adults! Actually the one for the adults was an inflatable boxing ring with oversized gloves. Employees and their boss were seen duking it out - all in fun, of course!
- Games! There were so many great games for everyone to play- complete with prizes. The kids got cute little toys for every try (no winners necessary) and winning adults received “Carnie Cash” which we used to enter into a gift card raffle (apparently I won the iTunes gift card but came inside too soon to claim it!)
- Food, ice cream and even cotton candy! Good, ol-fashioned BBQ food never disappoints (and rarely have I met a kid who didn’t like a hot-dog), all you can eat ice-cream (very good but melted in 3 seconds flat) and what carnival is complete without cotton candy??

I’m going to breakdown a list here about why I thought the summer carnival was so impressive (and I think you’ll quickly agree). First of all, the folks who put the carnival together, thought of EVERYTHING. Here is what I mean by that:

- Balloons for each child (pre-tied and ready to slip right on your wrist or belt loop)
- Hand-sanitizer and wipes strategically placed next to the farm animals and near the food tent
- A sunscreen station (that yours truly had to hit up for the kids)
- Small tents to put over the most of the smaller games to keep eveyone out of the sun and a HUGE tent that kept everyone shady while eating their lunch and watching some of the group games
- Prizes for all ages (and little baggies for each child after they racked up said prizes)
- Another hugely impressive part of the carnival were the games. Not just the fact that there was something for everyone, but people MADE these carnival games by hand. If for some reason Graco gets out of the baby gear engineering business [*note: this is NOT happening], we could jump right into engineering carnival games! I’m not sure which was more impressive - the Frog Flip catapult engineered by Lena (pictured here) or the Spray Gun game engineered by Tom.  I was also impressed by all the good sports who participated in the pie-eating contest ($100 gas cards get people to do funny things these days!)- Congrats to Greg on his victory. (hope you got all of the pie out of your ears)
- Lastly, I was just impressed by the sheer number of folks who attended the carnival. With the weather ordered up from our good friend Mother Nature, and the posters around the building promising a great time for all, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Who would miss a day like that??

And of course, none of this would have been possible without the GREAT work of the “Carnie Crew.” Here’s a list of the folks that pulled together the very fun and very memorable, Graco Summer Carnival: Melissa Landis, Tom Pollack, Dan Mare, Jason Carpenter, Andrew Schlosser, Liz Grasing, Kristen DiGilio, Amanda Martin, Miranda West, Karen Hartzell, Nancy Breitenstein, Allyson Malizia, Christina Cipoletti, Lena Hunter, and Brand Burkholder.

 Thank you, thank you, thank you!

They say better late than never so here are some of my thoughts about the BlogHer conference that took place back in July in San Fran.

It was my first time to BlogHer & to San Francisco. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to really experience San Francisco (I was so bummed that I didn’t get to eat any sourdough bread or ride on any of the trolleys!) but I did get to attend the eye-opening, informative & inspiring Blog Her (which is why I was there in the first place). The conference days were broken up into various sessions & the toughest thing we had to do, was choose which ones we wanted to go to so Lindsay & I tried to be strategic & attend different sessions in order to hear & learn as much as possible. The sessions that really stood out in mind were:
–Beautiful Blogging & Positive Posting: just the name of the session made me want to go. I love the idea of supporting one another online instead of being a constant ranter or bashing other women’s blogs
–MommyBlogging- When the Road is Anything But Smooth: this session discussed the issues of infertility, miscarriage, and adoption. As you could imagine, it was a very heart felt & touching session as women shared their struggles with infertility & how they overcame these hardships.
–The Community KeyNote: this was a great introduction to all different types of bloggers with awesome speeches/posts that ranged from self esteem issues to a highlight favorite about Goldfish snack crackers.

Between sessions, BlogHer had some great bonus activities offered. My favorite, by far, was the infant & adult CPR classes offered by the American Heart Association. I had taken the infant CPR class three years ago when I was pregnant with Pudding Pop so it was great to take a refresher course. What was so fantastic about this training was that it was only 20 minutes & we received a kit to take home with us so  we could train others on CPR (the kit actually included a dummy too). I highly recommend ordering the kit from the American Heart Association–who doesn’t have 20 minutes to learn how to save a life?

All in all, I had a blast hanging out with my BFF, Lindsay, as we learned more about blogging, got to meet great, new people, and learned how to save lives–what an action packed 2 days!!!

This is car seat product manager, Shannon Hart’s family. Shannon’s daughter, “GB” and her daddy are washing their trucks on a Sunday afternoon.

Like father, like daughter!

Every Wednesday we’ll be sharing a photo showing off a little bit of wonder in the lives of our extended Graco family of customers, employees and friends.

The time has come for me to really crack down on what words reach my child’s ears. Slick is starting to talk a lot more. I know he’s hearing some conversations that are not appropriate for children- in the home and outside the home. My husband and I are trying to watch what we say. I also had to change my morning routine a little bit. One morning I heard Slick, in the back, imitating what he was hearing on the radio. No more local morning radio show between 7:00am and 7:15am! Now I can only safely listen after Slick is dropped off at daycare. If I don’t start censoring now, I’m sure he will repeat inappropriate dialogue in the most embarrassing situations. Because you know, Kids say the darndest things.

I haven’t been around children’s music all that much. Not since I was a child. I’m still trying to get a handle on this whole world of children’s music. When I was a kid, I had the same little red record player that all my friends had. The only children’s record I owned was an album of children’s songs sung by Carly Simon and her sister Lucy.  For those parents too young to remember vinyl records, this means I couldn’t play it in the car. My parents had a plain old radio in the car. So, I listened to whatever music was popular at the time. I was so embarrassed when I was watching VH-1’s One Hit Wonders and learned what “Afternoon Delight” was really about. Thank goodness my innocent childhood mind had no clue. How could my parents let me listen to it?  Worse yet, I used to sing it.  How did they ever keep a straight face or not be completely mortified?

So, I found myself browsing iTunes looking for kid-friendly songs to play during our commute to daycare. Quite frankly, I wasn’t looking forward to listening to Old MacDonald. Slick has many musical toys and it seems like they all play Old MacDonald. Thanks to this post, I turned my attitude around. I downloaded some of the classic children’s songs from my long ago and far away childhood. Some of these classic songs have odd and outdated lyrics. Even my husband noticed that The Old Man (from “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring”) might have a concussion if he couldn’t wake up after bumping his head. If this song ever becomes modernized, it will probably include a lyric about seeking prompt medical attention. “The Old Gray Mare” is more like a taunt that reminds me that this old gray mare ain’t what she used to be either. All this considered, I’ve been relearning these classic songs and singing along as we drive to daycare. For my effort, Slick rewards me with claps and cheers after each song. He’s so sweet. He doesn’t realize that I am an AWFUL singer. I make American Idol rejects sound like Mariah Carey. Yup. My singing voice is that bad. I will be so sad when Slick gets older and tells me to be quiet and stop ruining the songs.

I’ve got some of the modern kid’s hits on the playlist. I’ll admit it. I like The Wiggles. There, I said it! The secret is out. Call me crazy, but I’m looking forward to adding songs from Yo Gabba Gabba.  Slick’s playlist also includes kid-friendly grown up music such as Three Little Birds (Bob Marley) and Cantaloop (Us3). Cantaloop is one of his favorites.  Those were just 2 of only a handful of songs from my own playlist that I thought would be okay for him to listen to at this age. (I guess I never realized the music I listen to is so unsuitable for young ears!)   

I’d love to hear what’s on your playlist.  Slick needs some new tunes.  So, please recommend some favorites from your playlists.

Sometimes my mind wanders to weird and interesting places. Really. Do you ever find yourself thinking about something and then try and back track through your thoughts to figure out how you got to the subject you were just thinking about? My latest example - I was pondering how one would go about making an ice sculpture (like I really care or need to know this!)

But, anyway, I digress (which is how my mind wanders in the first place, I guess). So recently, I found myself thinking- what age I would most like to be if I was one age forever. This is a tough one that I think will lead into some good mindless thinking, although I’m trying to avoid thinking of the ages I WOULDN’T want to be right now. (way too many scarred memories from junior high and most of high school there!)

Oh. And if you’re wondering how a working mom of two has so many random, mindless thoughts I have a couple thoughts on that. . . a) we’ve had WAY too many long car rides this summer and b) I think it might be the only way I maintain some semblance of sanity. Good mindless thinking can be very healthy and beneficial, I think.

OK. Enough of that. Back to the subject at hand. . . What age would I most like to be if I had to be one forever?  How about:

EIGHT
I can’t say exactly what it was about being eight that I loved so much. Maybe just the absolute freedom of being a kid. Seriously, eight was pretty fun, plus you didn’t have all the trauma of really difficult school work, you didn’t have to work yet, and the stress of liking boys wasn’t even present. All I know is that I liked being eight so much that I made it my favorite number and I didn’t like another year better enough to change it (plus, I’m too old and set in my ways now to change my favorite number).

SEVENTEEN
Senior year in high school – I could drive. Freedom! I had an older boyfriend (I still can’t believe my parents were OK with me having a boyfriend that was 4 years older!). I didn’t get home before 10pm each night with all my activities. After years of awkwardness, I finally felt like I conquered the teen and high school thing (as much as any teen can, at least). Did I mention I could drive?

TWENTY-ONE
We all know what the age “21″ brings.  Somehow I was able to make dean’s list while still making it to 25 cent wings night twice a week, playing every possible intramural sport, writing a beer book (my roommate and I rated all 111 beers at the bar that was next to our apartment), and having a work-study (yes, study) job. Plus, this is the age when my husband and I FINALLY got together after being friends for three years.

TWENTY-FIVE
I moved back to Philly at the same time all my friends from college did.  As a bonus, my hubby-to-be and I lived in the same city again- it was like college again every weekend! (only I had money now) I worked really hard. But I also had a ton of fun. I did the Jersey shore thing – ‘nuff said.

NOW (Thirty-five)
Coming back to Philly a second time has been great! It’s like being twenty-five all over again and having all my friends from college in the same area. Only now we live out in the burbs, go to bed long before 2am, and have kids. Yes. The kids. While I love so many different times in my life, it’s hard to imagine being any age forever when Boog and Hercules weren’t there. They’ve made my life so much more- I guess 35 it is!

How about you? What age would you want to be forever?

Summers aren’t just business as usual around here at Graco.  Sure- we work as hard in the summer as we do in the winter (except on Fridays after 3 since we aren’t actually here thanks to summer Fridays!) but we have a lot of fun too.  Occasionally we’ll get an e-mail in our In-box telling us to head out back because there’s ice cream waiting to be devoured (cue the crushing crowd that then ensues in the stairwell!). They even provide healthy dessert options for those of us trying to watch our summer bikini figure (no-not me).  Certain managers have even been known to schedule meetings out on the picnic tables- that makes for great brainstorming (when the bees aren’t circling).

But the summer day we all look forward to at Graco is our summer picnic.  Last year’s was a BLAST. Really-it was super fun.  There were cool games like the diaper pail ring toss, the SnugRide handle horse shoes (now that’s creative!), the activity center balloon toss, the Pack n’ Play beach ball toss,  and the closest-to-the-pin stroller push (I won a silver medal in this event!).  Everyone meandered around playing games, winning points, eating hotdogs and enjoying the weather requested by Human Resources (who apparently have a great relationship with Mother Nature). 
Then the crowds gathered for the BIG game - the baby food eating and baby bottle drinking contest (we had a theme, people- we had to stick with it!).  Oh this was very entertaining- it’s not every day you get to see your president covered in pureed squash and drinking juice from what must have been a “slow” nipple!  The winners were certainly happy with their cool prizes but everyone walked away with a smile on their face (except maybe those who didn’t quite enjoy their pureed spinach).

I’m not sure why I do this, but I immediately think- “Now that’s going to be hard to top!”  Geez- what a Debbie Downer I am!  It sounds like Human Resources was up to the task because we started seeing this poster around the building:

Expect great pictures next week when we show you kind of summer fun Graco knows how to have!