We will be giving away five copies of Barney: Hi! I’M Riff!

"Nothing beats being part of a club with your best friends! Barney and his friends sure know the feeling and invite children everywhere to join in on the fun in Hi! I’m Riff!, the latest title featuring everyone’s favorite purple dinosaur, available on DVD May 6, 2008 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and HIT Entertainment.

Barney’s new friend Riff is the first new dino to join Barney & Friends™ in 13 years. He is a six-year-old Hadrosaur and a one-of-a-kind kid! Riff is BJ and Baby Bop’s cousin, and he is all about music – music is in his voice, his heart and his every move! Riff also loves hanging out with his friends. Reveling in the time he spends with his pals, Riff decides to start a new club and invites everyone to join. It’s going to take lots of ideas – and some fun singing and dancing – to decide what kind of club is right for everyone."

If you’d like to enter to win one of the dvds, leave your name in the "Comments" section below or send an email to contests@mominthecity.com with "Riff" in the Subject line by May 31st.

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We will be giving away five copies of Bob the Builder: The Three Musketrucks.

"Bob the Builder™ and his Can-Do Crew welcome friends Meg MacDonald, a Scottish dairy farmer, her assistant Piper and their hilarious dairy truck Dodger to Sunflower Valley in five delightful new adventures in Bob the Builder: The Three Musketrucks, delivering onto DVD May 13, 2008 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and HIT Entertainment for a suggested retail price of $14.98."

If you’d like to enter to win one of the dvds, leave your name in the "Comments" section below or send an email to contests@mominthecity.com with "Bob" in the Subject line by May 31st. 

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We’re giving away a copy of the funny yet insightful Peeing In Peace: Tales & Tips for Type A Moms. 

If you’d like to enter to win the book, leave your name in the "Comments" section below or send an email to contests@mominthecity.com with "Peace" in the Subject line by May 31st. 

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Belli Baby is giving away one of their popular Belli Baby Gift Sets.

  
If you’d like to enter to win the gift set, leave your name in the "Comments" section below or send an email to contests@mominthecity.com with "Gift Set" in the Subject line by May 31st. 

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As you have all experienced by now, there is a huge push to "go green" during the month of April with Earth Day and the heightened awareness regarding the 3 Rs (reducing, recycling and reusing). Well, I’ve taken it all in with a grain of salt and here’s my personal list of what I WILL do and what I WON’T do for good old planet earth. Most of my decisions were based on two great books (Squeaky Green: The Method Guide to Detoxing Your Home and Big Green Purse) and one great website (Carbon Footprint). (Of course as a woman and a mom, I’m free to change my mind at any time….)

WILL:
-eat less meat
-only shop for clothes, furniture and appliances as needed
-recycle
-take mass transit as much as possible
-use more earth-friendly cleaning products (like method)
-use a power strip (and remember to cut it off!) to save energy
-be more cautious of PVC in plastic toys
-take note of and support companies that are environmentally aware (i.e. Did you know that SunChips uses solar energy (70%) to help make their multigrain snacks?  It doesn’t hurt that my son actually likes the taste too!)
-use a reusable tote (rather than plastic or paper bags) for groceries

(This is the tote that I have.  Isn’t it cute?! AND it folds into its own little pocket so that I can easily take it with me.)

WON’T:
-only buy local, organic food
-buy secondhand clothes, furniture and appliances 
-compost
-make people take off their shoes when entering my home
-use all natural cosmetics and personal care products (like deodorant!)
-give up disposable diapers

If you’d like to enter to win a copy of the two books, just leave one of your “wills” and “wont’s” in the “Comments” section below (or email them to me at contests@mominthecity.com) by May 31st.

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Mom in the City readers can type "MOMCITY" at checkout for 20% off their first purchase of contact information at CollegeQuickJobs.com. 

"Here’s some  information on how CollegeQuickJobs.com works:
You create a new account and post a job short-term job like babysitting, dog walking, tutoring, running errands, etc. for free.  Students from Columbia, Barnard, NYU and other top NYC colleges will then be able to see your job in our database and apply for it if they feel they are a good fit.  Once they apply, you’ll be able to see their resumes and their profile picture (if available) for free.  If you like what you see, you can purchase the contact information (phone number and email address) of 3 students for $12.99 (and take the 20% discount using MOMCITY).  Then, you just call or email the students directly to arrange the final hiring details." 

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Once again, I can’t think of two more things to make 7 (?!)… 

1. Cover Girl Lash Blast Mascara: My husband and two sons have long, beautiful lashes.  I don’t.  Such is life.  Every few months, I try a new mascara.  This is my current favorite.  It actually makes my lashes look full (with no yucky clumps). 

2. Carnival Games by Global Star:  I like this Wii game that my son received for his birthday.  Of course he beats me at many of the games (he has incredible hand-eye coordination!).  I don’t take it personally though — he beats most visiting adults!  The only thing that I don’t like about this software is that you can’t choose a black or brown character to represent you like with the other Wii games.  They need to change that.  Other than that, it’s really fun.  (Be forewarned that the carnival game "hosts" talk a lot of trash when you miss/don’t win at games.)

3. Bloglines.com: Now, in addition to reading parenting/family magazines and newspapers, I’m really into reading blogs.  There are so many great blogs out there that I don’t have the time/energy/inclination to visit each of them.  This free service is great.  You just put in the blogs/news sites/etc. urls that you like and they give you a brief synopsis of current posts.  That way, I can skim and see what I really want to read.  I love technology!

4. Tabletops Unlimited Swirl Multicolor Pattern:  When we were at the Jersey Shore, the place that we stayed had this tableware.  It’s cute and inexpensive.  I found it online at Replacement Ltd.

5. Zappos.com: My four year old son has wide feet (blame me, not his dad).  So, when Stride Rite doesn’t have any cute shoes for the season in his size (11W), I find myself in a bind.  I wasn’t having much luck online until I hit shoe pay dirt at Zappos.  They had multiple pairs of cute athletic shoes in his size (he, my husband and I all had different favorites - we went with my husband’s pick).  Of course, after making my pick I did a google search for "zappos coupons".  There are none - ever.  They don’t charge for shipping though, so that (somewhat) makes up for that. 

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Yesterday, I attended a Mommy Mastermind event entitled " 10 New Tech Things to Try Today: Become More Skilled and Efficient on the Web". While the kids played in the NY Kids Club gym, we parents listened to a presentation by speaker Sree Sreenivasan, WNBC-TV’s technology reporter and Columbia Journalism School professor and dean.

It was very informative.  It’s amazing to see how much FREE open source resources are out there on the web.  You can find the handout of the tips here.  There were topics for everyone (health, money, real estate, music, blogging, etc.)

The other great thing about attending "networking" events like these are that you get to put faces to names of people that you communicate with online.  For instance, I met Jessica from Tot Stops who has sponsored a past Mom in the City giveaway (thanks for the website designer referral Jessica!).  I also met another blogger, Kelcey Kintner of the mamabird diaries and her two adorable kids.

(On another note, I liked the club — so we’ll probably be having an event there in the near future!)

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Alvin, Simon and Theodore are back!!! Perhaps you are like me and loved them when you were a kid. I felt like a kid all over again watching this movie. The chipmunks lose their home to loggers and end up in LA where they run into David Seville, a struggling musician/songwriter. After causing complete havoc in Dave’s home, they get booted to the street, but win him over with their lovable and catchy songs. Dave sees dollar signs all over their singing ability and brings them to his producer, Ian. After their career takes off, Dave begins to realize what is truly important: the stability of this new family and the chipmunks’ well being. You would never believe that in this hilarious ride some really amazing lessons are taught. Not only did my kids laugh the whole time, they also learned the importance of limits, of listening and of love. This is one of the few movies I love to watch over and over again with my kids. There is some mild rude humor, but over all it is a big winner in my family.
(Review by Lesley Thompson)

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Because I am a mom and I work as a parenting writer, I get a lot of questions.  I’ll start answering some of them here on the blog.  Following are a couple of recent questions (and answers):

Question #1: My one year old only wants me to hold her.  She screams whenever I leave the room (even when someone else is there with her) except for when I leave her with the babysitter. (This is a mom who works outside of the home,)

My answer: "That’s normal" (that’s part of my answer for almost every question!).  She’s just going through her "attachment phase".  When given a choice, she’s going to choose you.  Don’t worry…she’ll grow out of it in a few months.

(My answer was confirmed by a May 2008 Parenting magazine article entitled "When only one parent will do" that you can read here.)

Question #2: How do you talk to young kids about death?  (This was actually a question that came up because I didn’t attend a wake along with my husband, because I didn’t want to have the "death" talk with my inquisitive 4 year old.  A mom friend asked me to let her know what I found out about "the talk" because she also has an inquisitive 4 year old.)

Answer: I didn’t have one, but the May 2008 issue of Cookie magazine had an article all about responding to five common questions that children ask about death.  The article is entitled, "a loss for words".  In the piece, common questions were directed towards bereavement specialists/authors Maria Trozzi and Dr. Donna Schuurman.  I recommend reading the magazine article (page 90) (I couldn’t find a web link.)  Overall, "The younger the kid, the simpler the answer" was the prevailing wisdom.

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