Law(yer Mama) Review

Kinzin Photo Service

If you're anything like me 99% of your photos are on your computer or on an Internet website.

Before I got my first digital camera I always got 2 sets of every roll of film I had developed. 1 for us and 1 to give away. I also got my photos on CD so I could put them on our website or email them, but I faithfully put my paper photos in albums and my albums on my bookshelf.

Raise your hand if you still do that? Anyone?

Bueler? Bueler?

When H&H were born I was pretty good about ordering photos for my grandparents and sending them off for them to view. My parents and the in-laws were on their own. They know how to email and download as well as the rest of us. But then we'd visit the in-laws and we'd see the snapshots printed out on regular printer paper. Cute. But not exactly a lasting keepsake.

Enter Kinzin, a new photo web site that I had the chance to review for PBN.

Kinzin is a social media site, but with a lot more control. You can create a page for your kids, or each of them, share updates and photos with your family. Or, if you have relatives who like to have a nice photo to put in a frame, Kinzin can do that for you too. You can also share your photos on a more public site like Facebook and Kinzin is free.

Sure, you can do a lot of that stuff on many different sites. But what makes Kinzin unique is its photo mailing service. For $2.99 a month, Kinzin will send 10 photos to the address of your choice. For every 2 subscriptions you purchase, the third is free. That's really not much more than you pay for digital prints you do yourself at your local store and Kinzin eliminates the hassle of printing out the photos and then remembering to actually mail them instead of leaving them on the floor of your car for 5 months. (Oh, wait. You mean I'm the only one who does that?)

Yes, you can do this yourself. But how many of you actually do it? On a regular basis? C'mon, be honest now! OK, if you're organized to do that yourself, I hate you.

Kinzin gave me 3 free year long subscriptions to their photo mailing service. I selected my parents, the in-laws, and myself to get the photos. Every month Kinzin will take the last 10 photos uploaded to my site, print them out, and mail them to the people on my subscription list. How cool is that???

There are a few things I would change about the Kinzin site. For some reason, I can never find my way directly to the area for uploading prints for the photo mailing service. I kept uploading them to my kids' individual photo streams.

Don't get me wrong, the photo streams are nice. You can type in some notes or an update with every photo so the family can keep track of what your kids are doing daily. But I would like the photos uploaded to my kids' individual pages to automatically be in my outbox for the print mailings. That doesn't seem to be how it works now. I'd also like to be able to upload more than one photo at a time. I tend to upload photos in batches and not 1 or 2 a day.

There have also been a few kinks in getting the photos out, but I think that's just because Kinzin was trying to rush photos out for their reviewers. I have no reason to think there's any problem with their photo mailings on a regular basis.

My dad received the first batch of photos late last week. He said they look great and he and my mom are both laughing over the photo of Holden with the crayon up his nose. (See above.) I haven't gotten my photos yet, so I'll let you know what I think about the photo quality as soon as mine arrive.

Overall, I'm really liking Kinzin. For only $2.99 a month it takes away a lot of my hassle and makes the grandparents happy. It's worth it! Barring any problems over the next year, I'll definitely be paying for my subscriptions next year.

Were You Raised by Wolves?

Shortly after having Hollis I discovered The Three Martini Playdate by Christie Mellor. It was a breath of snarky fresh air after the What to Expect books and Dr. Sears. I was in baby advice overload and overwhelmed by a major shift in personal identity. Reading Ms. Mellor's book, tongue in cheek though it was, sort of made me remember that I am an individual with wants and needs that I can't neglect.

Even T loved the book and would annoyingly read parts to me out loud in bed. You know, the book that I had already read and laughed my way through? Yeah, a bit annoying.

But when PBN gave me the opportunity to review Ms. Mellor's latest book, Were You Raised by Wolves, I jumped at the chance to get my hands on some snarky hilarity.

After reading the book, I can tell you that my answer to the question "Were you raised by wolves" is, "Why yes, it seems that I was."

Ms. Mellor did not disappoint me. This book is advice for the new grown up. Or, the grown up who never really grew up but is still making mom and dad pay off the credit card and bringing home laundry every weekend. (C'mon, we all know at least one of those!)

Need to know how to stock a bar? Well, if you ever want me to visit you do! Ms. Mellor has it covered. How to have a real conversation that doesn't just consist of you blathering on about yourself until your listener passes out from boredom or begins to bleed from the ears? Got it covered. Boil an egg? Yup. Do laundry? Uh huh. Become fiscally responsible? It's there.

The section of the book that told me I'm a slovenly juvenile destined to die in a pile of filth, newspapers and empty pizza boxes, surrounded by cats, was the section titled "Make your bed!" Ms. Mellor is a big advocate of making your bed every. single. morning. See, I never do unless company is coming over. I don't see the point when I'm just going to get in it & toss off all the throw pillows all over again at night. My husband? Couldn't be bothered either.

Here's what Ms. Mellor says:

[T]here is an idea used in law enforcement called the "broken window" theory that holds that if there is a broken window on a building, and if it is not immediately fixed, then it sends a signal to the neighborhood that nobody really cares. Vermin move into the building, graffiti springs up overnight, and garbage is dumped on the doorstep. More windows are broken. So, along those lines, I am suggesting that if you leave your bed constantly unmade, it sends a signal (to you) that it's also okay to leave your stinky socks on the floor, your dirty sweatpants slung over the chair, and a moldy crust of pizza sitting on top of a stack of magazines. You may think you're the sort that would never dream of leaving food lying around, but these things creep up on you, just like that broken window. You leave the bed unmade for too long, and pretty soon you find yourself sitting in a pool of your own waste, eating out of a takeout container in front of reality show reruns.

Um, ouch. I never watch reality show reruns.

This book is the perfect graduation gift. In fact, having received 2 graduation announcements already, I know I'll be buying a few copies of this book. Maybe I'll even make my bed.

But I won't like it. (She says with an adolescent pout on her face.)

Highlights High Five Magazine Gets a High Five From Me

In elementary school, I always looked forward to the day we got our Highlights magazines. I eagerly read every story, tried out the crafts, and solved all the puzzles. I loved, loved, LOVED the hidden picture puzzles. Highlights day was always a great day at school.

Highlights has been around for 60 years now. You know that anything with the sort of staying power that can interest so many generations of children has to be special. So when PBN offered me the chance to review High Five, a new Highlights magazine for children ages 2 to 6, I jumped at the chance. I couldn't wait to see if High Five was as wonderful as the Highlights magazine I remember from my childhood.

High Five didn't disappoint me. I received the first 3 issues from 2008. Each issue contains four sections: (1) Let's Read Together, with short stories, poems, and wonderful illustrations; (2) Let's Puzzle It Out, with fun games and age appropriate hidden picture puzzles; (3) Let's Do it, with crafts, recipes for kids, and fun activities; and (4) Bonus Pull-out Pages.

Hollis, my 3 year old, and Holden, my just-turned-2 year old, loved the magazines. The Bonus Pages were a huge hit. The January 2008 magazine Pull-out Pages featured numbered egg puzzle pieces that you cut out and put together as you read one of the short stories in the magazine, Little Round Hen. H & H are currently obsessed with puzzles and wanted to repeat Little Round Hen over and over again. I even sucked it up and helped because I love that it helps them understand what they're hearing.

The stories were also a huge hit. One issue contains a short story with Hollis's favorite topic of all time: construction equipment. He's been bringing the magazine to bed for 2 weeks now so he can page through it before he falls asleep and when he wakes up in the morning.

I can't say enough about High Five. At just under $30 a year, a subscription to this magazine is definitely on my gift list for the boys. It will make a wonderful Easter present. Anything that gets them this excited about reading is worth every penny.

PBN is also having a Blog Blast tomorrow where you can win a free year's subscription to High Five or Highlights. Go check out how you can play!

Do You Speak Penguin?

Have you heard of Pingu? Pingu is a claymation cartoon brought to you by the wonderful people at PBS. It features Pingu, the lovable naughty little penguin, his sister Pinga, their family and friends. It's a world where penguins are actually friends with seals and the seals don't try to eat the penguins. They all speak this interesting penguin language, but somehow we can understand exactly what they're saying.

I had never seen Pingu before I began obsessively watching PBS Sprout with the boys, but now I'm an addict. I've even written about Pingu before! So when PBN gave me the chance to review a new Pingu video, I snapped it up!

This video didn't disappoint.

Pingu is up to his old tricks, picking on his sister, getting into trouble, but being as cute as can be while doing it. (Hmmm, kind of sounds like my Holden....) Oh, yeah, I suppose you'd like to know what the kids thought too. Well, they love it, of course! We've watched the video about 50 times now and it never gets old for the kids. More importantly, I can stand watching it 50 times in 2 weeks!

My only complaint about Pingu is that he's not very big in the U.S. Consequently, if your child becomes a total addict and demands a Pingu birthday party, you will be forced to buy stuff of Ebay internationally. (Not that I've done that or anything. Noooooooo. Those Pingu stuffed animals and Pingu t-shirt in that picture just materialized here in the U.S.)

So, if you're looking for a new video to keep the kiddos entertained while you shower, do laundry, or cook dinner, this is a great one. If you don't want stuffed penguins reproducing all over your house, Pingu is a good choice. At least until he catches on and the merchandise starts "sprouting" from the shelves!

A Wacky Christmas Journey

As the youngest in the family, Holden frequently gets hosed. Hollis's every move was diligently documented in a baby book and in scrap books. Holden's baby book is nonexistent. Hollis has enough stuffed animals to open his own Toys R Us. Holden has 5 or 6 that belong only to him. Hollis gets to help Mommy and Daddy in the kitchen and in the yard. Holden is pretty much limited to emptying the kitchen cabinets and pushing a wagon filled with sticks around the yard. Or pulling my flowers out of the pots. You know, whatever strikes his fancy.

So when PBN offered me the opportunity to review some new personalized books for children, I jumped at the chance to get a personalized book for Holden. When he's spent thousands of dollars in therapy sessions to get over the emotional havoc "second child syndrome" has wreaked, I can point to the book and say, "See, I did do some things just for you!" Because nothing says, "I love you just as much as your brother," like a free book. Right? Right?

Anyway, I went to the Printakid website, chose my book, and entered some personalized information about Holden. There are several books to choose from, including A Fantastic Birthday, In the Kingdom of Nevernight, Laughing All the Way to School, The Robots of Sedna, and In Giddyland. I chose A Wacky Christmas Journey. Then I entered Holden's name, hair color and style, skin tone, and eye color. The site also asked for my name, my husband's name, and the names of some of Holden's friends. I entered his cousins' names.

The book came quickly, it only took about 2 weeks, and is really quite cute. You can write a message to your child on the first page and mine, "To our little Hurricane Holden," got me all teary before I even read the book. Darn hormones. The story itself is a bit corny. It focuses on Sniffy the Wet Nosed Reindeer, Rudolph's brother. Sniffy sneezes on part of Santa's list of nice kids, losing Holden's name and the rest of the family.

Wanting to fix the mistake, Sniffy makes Holden tiny and drags him into a Christmas ornament and to the North Pole to fix the mistake. Along the way, they encounter a pink sea elephant and go on a bender in Santa's sleigh. Reading the book, I immediately thought of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. (I just hope the Printakid authors haven't been out licking mushrooms.) But kids seem to love wacky stories and this one doesn't disappoint. Holden loved this book and his opinion is the most important one for this review.

The little boy in the book really does look like a cartoon version of Holden, with wavy blond hair and big brown eyes. Holden loved hearing his name over and over again on all the pages. Now, he loves to bring the book to us with a, "Want to read Holden!" The story nicely incorporates Mommy and Daddy, Hollis, Holden's cousins, and it teaches a lesson. It's a fun book, but ultimately the book is about the spirit of giving more than you receive.

The only disappointment was the CD. Each book can be ordered with an Audio CD to follow along. Unfortunately, we haven't received Holden's. Apparently we incorporated some names into the story that, unfortunately, Printakid doesn't have in their recorded database. So we'll probably receive the CD shortly after Christmas. I'm willing to bet 10 bucks the name that stumped them was Hollis. So once again, Holden gets hosed! If you're ordering a book for a child with an unusual name, be sure to give yourself a little extra time.

Despite the delay with the CD, I'm really happy with the Printakid gave us for Holden and I'm sure I'll be purchasing one or more of the books as gifts in the future.

Autolite Flareglo

Did you know that I'm paranoid?

Seriously, I've talked about this on my other blog. I'm constantly picturing the worst case scenario for pretty much everything. Those Worst Case Scenario books? Were written for people like me. I'm convinced that my car will break down in the middle of nowhere on a dark highway. I'll have no cell phone, two kids in the car, and will be rear ended by a kamikaze semi driver.

So when PBN offered me the opportunity to review the Autolite Flareglo, I jumped at the chance. The Flareglo is an alternative to the standard flares found in emergency car kits. Those flares? Don't last very long. I don't know about you, but the last time I called a tow truck it took 45 minutes to show up. And I was on the interstate, not in the middle of nowhere. I want something that will alert drivers for longer than 15 to 20 minutes.

The Flareglo is a reusable safety lite that operates on 2 AAA batteries. Two Flareglos came in the package I received. 1 should be placed 10 feet behind the car and the other 100 feet behind the car. They're visible for 500 feet and rapidly blink.

T and I tried ours out in the back 40 of our yard and it definitely works well and was quite visible. I love the blinking feature. It's much more noticeable than a flare placed on the ground and I love the fact that the Flareglo will last a minimum of 12 hours. And if I'm trapped in a snow storm for 2 days? I can simply replace the batteries. (Let's just forget the fact that this area of Virginia doesn't see much snow. I told you I was paranoid.)

The Flareglo is now in the trunk of my car just waiting for my next worst case scenario. And I'll be buying some for my husband's truck, because I worry about him too.

That Baby DVD

I know I've mentioned in the past that my 3 year old knows the lyrics to "Blister in the Sun" by the Violent Femmes. While it is a fantastic song and a necessary part of my children's cultural education, I'm not ignorant of the fact that a song about drug use might be a tad bit inappropriate for the preschool set. "Ya think?" as Hollis would say. (OK, I admit he also got that from me.)

Enter the That Baby DVD and That Baby CD. I recently had the opportunity to review the set for the Parent Bloggers Network. The music is mostly performed by Stephanie Schneiderman and her sisters, Lisa and Kim. Ms. Schneiderman has a wonderful, melodic voice that I could listen to all day. The CD and DVD cover songs like "Inch by Inch," made popular by Donovan and "These are the Days," made popular by 10,000 Maniacs.

The That Baby CD is great. The kids love bopping to the songs, but let's face it. The most important listener is me. I love the music. The kids like the peppier songs like "Inch by Inch," but I love the more mellow songs. In fact, the videos for "Sunday Sun," and "Songbird" on the That Baby DVD, make me cry every. single. time. I really wish I could embed their promo video for you, but you can hear samples of the music and get a feel for the DVD on the That Baby DVD site.

You can get a 20% discount on the That Baby CD and That Baby DVD with the code PBN. That Baby DVD also has a no questions asked, money back guarantee. But trust me, you won't need it. You'll love the music and video as much as your kids will.

Frankly, I'm just relieved that Hollis may start singing "Inch by Inch" in preschool instead of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. What are you still doing here? Go check it out!

3-2-1 Blast Off!

I love the Discovery Channel Store. They always have the coolest toys, for grown ups and children. In fact, my husband has a robot and a remote control helicopter from the store sitting in our sun room right now. We've both been eying the talking globe for some time, trying to figure out just how old the boys need to be before we can justify buying it for ourselves the kids.

So when PBN gave me the opportunity to review one the Discovery Store's latest pre-school toys, I was thrilled! Discovery Store didn't disappoint me. Paz's Lift-Off Rocket is pretty cool.

The rocket comes with 4 animal astronauts, a moon crater, and lunar module. When you push the red button on the handle, ground control counts down to lift off, the lower portion of the rocket lights up and then the rocket "lifts off." In flight, the button makes propulsion noises.

The interior of the rocket also has a cargo bay, living area and, of course, space for 2 pilots. My kids love, not just launching the rocket, but pretending to be living on the moon. Well, Hollis pretends and Holden chews on the astronauts and tries to steal the lunar module from his brother.

The doors to the rockets do come off, but they're intended to do so and pop back in easily. The doors really need to pop off to keep kids from breaking them off during play, so don't be concerned if one pops off on your child. Hollis insisted it was "broken" the first time it happened, but now he just pops the doors back into place.



If you're sick of toys that your kids just watch, the toys that don't require interaction, this is a nice compromise. It has a bit of flash and show (with the lift off noises and lights), but your kids will really need their imaginations to bring this toy to life. My kids have been playing with this toy for 2 months now and they still love it, as does every. single. kid. that comes over to play.

Looking for a good holiday gift? This fits the bill. I know I wouldn't hesitate to give it to another child as a gift. The rocket retails for $39.95 at the Discovery Channel Store.

HP Photosmart Compact Photo Printer

I take far too many pictures. I've taken more than 5000 photos since Hollis was born a little over 3 years ago. That averages out to about 4-5 every day for his entire life.

That's the wonder of digital photography. You can take a million photos and just print out the best ones instead of just praying that at least 1 photo on your roll of film came out all right.

But if you're anything like me you no longer have time to print out those "best" photos. I'm a scrapbooker. So for the first 9 months of Hollis's life I diligently printed out photos and created original scrapbook pages for each milestone in his infanthood. But when Hollis was about 9 months old, I really entered the throes of my second pregnancy and the paper scrapbook fell by the wayside. Hollis's scrap book stops at 9 months and Holden's never really got started.

So when PBN offered me the chance to review the new HP Photosmart Compact Photo Printer, I think I hurt my finger I replied to that email so quickly. I received the printer, a starter package with a color ink cartridge, an extra ink cartridge, several sheets of 5x7 HP photo paper and 2 photo books, 1 in a 5x7 and 1 8x10.

I must admit, I loved the photo book idea before I even tried out the printer. The pages of the photo book are actually HP photo paper, so you can print a photo or a scrapbook page out on your printer and pop it into the photo book. Voila. Instant scrapbook. I already create digital scrapbook pages and have printed out many as gifts, but in the past I had to mount each printed page in a scrapbook. I'm looking forward to making my gift giving a little easier in the future with the HP photo books.

The printer itself is compact and easy to set up. Mine is currently set up on the buffet in my kitchen so I can print and supervise the kids. I don't have mine hooked up to my computer. I just copy what I want to a memory card from my laptop and pop the card into the printer. Or, you can the HP photo printer up to your computer as you would any printer.

The printer also offers some editing options and a touch screen with menus that can be easily accessed with your finger or a stylus. I used the stylus to put my handwriting on some photos, something I really can't do with my usual photo editor - the tried and true Adobe Photoshop. I really thought that was the neatest thing about the editing capabilities of the printer, but you can also eliminate red eye, make photos black and white or sepia, add borders or graphics, soften photos, or use the "skinny" setting. Seriously. It can make you look skinny.

(Did I just hear women all over America whipping out their credit cards to buy this thing?)

The one problem I noticed with editing directly on the printer, is that there is no way to save your changes to a disk or your computer. Or if there is, I can't seem to figure out how to do it. And I'm notorious for refusing to seek help unless I'm desperate. I wrote on a cute picture of Holden with the stylus, but I can't figure out how to get my edits saved so that I can show them to you in a jpg format. That's frustrating.

With the exception of handwriting with the stylus and the "skinny" effect, I can do all of the editing options in Photoshop. I like editing my photos and I doubt I'll stop using Photoshop. But if you have no patience for that and want to take a memory card directly from your camera and print out photos easily and with a little editing, you can do it with the HP Photo Printer and it seems easy and fast.

The true test of this printer for me was the photo quality. Yeah, the editing features are neat, but I want something with amazing color that I don't have to order or take to a printer. Here, the HP Photo Printer did not disappoint me. The print quality of the photos is excellent. I printed out several photos of mine that I love, with lots of color, just to test it out.

This photo looked great. I couldn't tell that I had printed it at home. It looked professional.

The printer also comes with the HP Photosmart Essential software. The software catalogs all of your photos so you can easily access them by date or folder, allows you to do simple edits and create projects, like photo cards and calendars.

I tried out an add-on the Photosmart Essential software downloaded from the HP website to create simple scrapbook pages. It was fairly easy to use and gave me templates I could just drag and drop photos into. I can then print out the scrapbook pages and pop them into the HP photo books.

Again, I had a problem with saving my scrapbook creations and edits in a usable format. I like to have my scrapbook creations in jpg format so that I can share them online, on my blog, or print them out anywhere I like. The HP software saves everything thing in a format unique to the HP software and I can't for the life of me figure out how to convert the files. While that might be part of HP's plan to get people to use their printer or online services, I don't like it. I want my unique creations and edits in a universal format and I don't want to be limited in how I can use them.

The software does, however, save smaller sized preview icons of projects in jpg format that I found by browsing through my files. Here's an example of a holiday template from the HP software, although this isn't a finished product because I'm not even sure how this was saved by the software. But it gives you an idea of what you can do.

The Photosmart Essential software probably isn't something I'll use on a regular basis simply because I'm a dedicated Photo Shop user. I need more flexibility and options than the simple editing allowed by the HP software.

Seriously, HP? In a software update you should really consider letting us save edits, creations, and scrapbook pages in jpg or gif format. I'd be much happier.

As a veteran digital scrapbooker and Photoshop user, I don't think HP's software offers me many advantages. But if you're new to editing your digital photos or if you'd like to get started with something simple and easy to use, you'll like the HP software. The printer, however, I know I'll continue to use often. I've already gone out and stocked up on more HP printer cartridges and photo paper.

You can buy the HP Photo Printer here for $129. The Photo Books are on sale for 20% off. If you're looking for a nice quality photo printer that isn't too expensive, this is the one. The rich, sharp color and low price make it a great holiday gift bargain.

Where Was This Book When I Was 10?

I loved the Dangerous Book for Boys. I bought it for my husband for Father's Day and we gleefully read through the whole thing one night. T thought it was the coolest thing ever and we're going to make sure we cover every single topic with our little boys at some point.

But what about the girls?

Enter, The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. I love both Buchanan and Peskowitz. Buchanan wrote Mother Shock and edited the anthology It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons. Peskowitz's last book, The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars, was an insightful and substantiated look at our conceptions about stay at home and working mothers. So when PBN offered me the opportunity to review their latest, I was thrilled.

I wasn't disappointed. There are so many cool things in this book, I don't know where to start. How to tie knots? In there. Rules for basketball. Yep. An intro to palm reading? Uh huh. How to negotiate a salary? Sweeeeeet! (Did I just really date myself?)

Honestly, I loved this book. And I have 2 boys. Each page of the book took me through a different stage of my life. A time when my mom kicked me out to play with the neighborhood kids and explore until the street lights came on at night. A time when a cardboard box was an armed fortress. A time when the world was at my feet.

As I read through the book, it also sparked my imagination. What do I want to teach my boys (and maybe, someday, girl) as they grow up? How to be a spy? A short history of women inventors? How to write a thank you letter? Yes, yes, and YES.

If you have girls or ever were a girl, run - don't walk - and get this book. I'm giving one to my sister-in-law for Christmas to share with her girls (and her little boy). I know they'll love it. What's not to love about a book that tells you how to do a back walk-over, how to put your hair up with a pencil (dude, do you know how long it took me to figure that one out on my own?), how to care for your softball glove, and five karate moves?