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Strollerderby
In just two days the wrapping paper will fly, and kids everywhere will finally get their hands on those new toys that have been tempting them for weeks.
Parents can ensure a safe and happy Christmas playtime and make sure that those new toys are safe for their kids by following these 1o toy safety tips from chief of emergency Dr. Tony Woodward at Seattle Children’s Hospital:
The threat of Santa can only take you so far. You keep using him and using him, and come Christmas Eve, it’s over.
If your kids haven’t shaped up, what do you? If you’re hard core, you cancel Christmas.
Really. Continue reading »
It’s easy to tell when your kids don’t like a gift. Three-year-olds just don’t have the grace to tell Grandma they’d rather have a Transformer than yet another pair of pajamas. They just throw it across the room and then go and pout behind the Christmas tree (unless you’ve managed to teach them some manners by then).
But at some point in our lives, maturity requires we be a little more civilized. Sure, we may not like/understand/be able to identify a gift, but grace requires that we smile and be grateful anyway.
Thus, Present Face.
With a beer in hand, and possibly a surely attitude, 4-year-old Hayden Wright escaped his home, wandered the streets, then broke into the neighbors house to steal their Christmas presents.
Hayden’s mom, 21-year-old April, says she doesn’t know how the boy got beer and got out but she’s just glad he’s okay and says it won’t happen again.
It gets stranger.
Last year, my then three-year-old wanted one thing for Christmas: Groovy Girls. Groovy Girl dolls, Groovy Girl beds, Groovy Girl cars. One look at the prices left me a little dizzy, until I got the idea to look them up on Craigslist. Low and behold, there was an 11-year-old girl selling her entire collection. For $20.
You wouldn’t give your child a block of lead to suck on, right? Unfortunately, lots of toy manufacturers would. Hidden toxins in children’s toys continue to permeate holiday goodies. Kids inadvertently lay hands on chemicals ranging from lead and cadmium to BPA and phthalates when they show up in shiny new toys.
Consumer pressure over the last few years has prompted both legal reform and greater responsibility from companies. The folks at Healthy Stuff tested this year’s popular holiday toys and found that contamination levels are down. The number of lead-laden toys was down 2/3 from 2007.
That other third includes items like a Dora the Explorer Activity Tote and Barbie Bike Flair Kit. Nice going, toymakers. These popular toys are over the legal limit for lead in toys. Not cool. Continue reading »
Clearly, live hand grenades make a poor gift for children. So too do gift certificates to the local strip club. And don’t even think about wrapping up some left over marijuana. Okay, so no one in their right mind would even for a moment consider any of those to be acceptable gifts for children — or adults, even. The Huffington Post, however, has compiled a list of 15 toys that aren’t much better and are clearly aimed directly at kids.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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