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Baby Beluga in the Deep Blue Sea.....

Remember Raffi?? For some reason that song popped into my head today – one I probably haven’t heard since my little brother Max was a kid 15 or so years ago. I remember how he loved that music, and as a result our whole family knew pretty much all the words in his entire catalog. (Max also used to beg my parents to play “King of Pain” by the Police, but that’s a whole other story!)

Another album I remember clearly from my own childhood is Carole King’s “Really Rosie”. I loved that album! These are clearly random thoughts on my part, but I think it’s pretty amazing that music can stick with us for so many years. Think about all the songs we grew up with that we can still remember! Farmer in the Dell, The Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider? More than I can name, and it goes to show that music really stands the test of time.

Anyone have any new favorites to share?

Bean Loves Violet

I spent a couple of days this weekend at a lovely summer home on the Delaware river in upstate New York. Friends Jeanne and Jon brought their baby girl Violet along, so of course all eyes were on her throughout the weekend! At 7 months she is curious about just about everything, and even seemed to pose for my camera! Here's a shot of her in our Fu Girl Pink pants, looking adorable as always. I miss her already! :)

Thursday at the Garden

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, and we decided to take a trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to walk around. The sheer variety of trees, flowers, and plants makes it a really special place to visit – a place that’s also educational and fun for kids. Among the things to see are waterlilies, bonsais, and a spectacular Japanese garden with a pagoda and a pond teeming with koi and turtles. Throughout the day we saw children having a great time: scampering across the rose gardens, marveling at all the plant and animal life, shrieking as they ran through the sprinklers to cool off. One kid made us laugh at the lake when he declared “I so don’t want to stay behind the railing!”

As we were walking along the overlook to the rose garden below, we spotted a couple of women sitting with a baby girl who was maybe 6 months old, still bald and totally adorable. Her mom was holding a little stuffed animal froggy, and making it "dance". The look on the baby's face was totally amazing (wide eyed and grinning), and prompted my friend to run commentary on what he imagined she was thinking as she watched that little stuffed frog:

“OMIGOODNESS THIS IS THE BEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE! I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW WONDERFUL THIS IS! WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?! LIFE IS AMAZING AND FULL OF SURPRISES AND FUN! I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT’S NEXT! OH MAN THIS IS AWESOME!”

It cracked me up, and totally reiterated the point that babies are just so incredibly curious, and everything they see is new and exciting. Although that little girl wasn’t marveling in the grand beauty of the botanic gardens, she was taking pleasure in every moment and every new thing that she saw. I know it’s kind of obvious, but it makes me smile!

More pics below.

Botanic Garden Pics

France Bans TV for Babies

This is interesting – France’s broadcast authority has placed a ban on all television programming aimed at children 3 and under. According to the ruling, "Television viewing hurts the development of children under 3 years old and poses a certain number of risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition, over-excitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration as well as dependence on screens".

I can see where they’re coming from here – we all know that some parents can start to use TV as a “babysitter”, plopping their kids down whenever they get to be a little “too much”. But then again, some shows are totally educational, and at an age where they’re learning to speak, maybe it’s good to expose kids to many different voices and points of view??

My feeling is that it’s all about moderation, and it should be the parents’ jobs to enforce that. Even so, I am pretty sure that many of them do not, and I’m interested to see any follow-up reports to this development. I’d also love to hear from some parents on this – my idea of TV for kids is Sesame Street, and I’m pretty sure this stuff has come a long way since I was little!

Read the full article here.

Bean On Facebook!

I’m a bit clueless when it comes to all of the social networking sites that are out there these days (do we really need Friendster, MySpace, AND Facebook??). However, I think Facebook is pretty fun, and a great way to keep in touch with old friends.

To wit, I’ve added a Bean New York page on Facebook. Members of the group can see pics, and links that I post and will get periodic deals in their inboxes. I hope you’ll join!

Kiwi Industries is Back!

In honor of the return of one of our favorite brands, I thought I'd post this pic of Bean baby Jack in the striped earflap hat. Mom Becky told me that he's worn it through a couple of winters now!

Kiwi Industries is a pretty cool brand. They are committed to social consciousness, which is important to us at Bean. Their sweaters and hats are hand loomed by a women's cooperative in South America, so you can feel good about buying their products! As a set they make a pretty awesome gift.

Check out our organic page for more ways to be kind to the earth and our fellow people!

Congrats Amy and Cam!

Just wanted to post a little love for my friends Amy and Cameron in Colorado who now have a daughter! Madelyn was born yesterday and I'm dying to see more pics of her - she is gorgeous! Congrats and much love, guys!

Congrats to our First BeanBlog Winner!

Thanks to all for sending in your baby pics to the BeanBlog! The results of this month's random drawing are in, and the winner is.....

.....miss Jade!

Congrats on your $50 credit at Bean.

We'll be doing another giveaway in a couple of weeks (the details will be announced Monday), so keep the pics coming!

Kid-Friendly Neighborhoods

Time Out NY Kids has an article about my neighborhood (represent!) of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, naming it one of the kid-friendliest areas in the borough. This has been apparent to me since I moved in across from a little park that is literally mobbed with strollers and kiddies every day. Everyone seems to know each other....and people have their kids' birthday parties there all the time too!

The article goes on to list some of the restaurants that cater to families - one of my favorites (which has a very sophisticated atmosphere along with a kids menu) makes the cut - Boca Lupo.

What's YOUR hood like in terms of raising a family (and keeping them entertained)? I'm just happy that we're getting the credit over Park Slope for once! :)

(Kidding, Park Slope, I loveya)

Bean Baby - Zoe

Chelsea sent in this pic her of little Zoe B, all dressed up and looking divine! She's wearing the Briony Linen Dress, one of our all-time favorite Bean styles.

It is so great to see photos of little ones wearing our clothes - so thanks again to all for making our blog so CUTE!

Just in - Bobinette

Believe it or not, Fall styles are starting to trickle their way in at Bean! I tend to love Fall clothing - there are so many more fabrics to choose from, and everything just looks rich and cozy!

Bobinette is a new line that we found at the Bubble show last season, and we just received their wonderful fleece hoodies and cowboy shirts. The fleece hoodies are a great layering piece - and guess what? They're reversible! We've found that parents especially love to dress their little ones in reversible clothes.....when one side gets something on it, you can just switch sides!

Keep an eye out for more cold weather styles arriving this week!

Bean Baby - Mischa

Jody from NYC sent in this adorable pic of her little girl, Mischa. Looks like she’s a beach baby! What a cutie pie.

In other news, Micha is expecting a little cousin any day now – hmmm, will it be a boy or a girl??

imagine - imagination.

With laptops now available for infants (hit the cow graphic for "mooo") I'm thinking we're straying a bit on the meaning of a toy.
Sure, teaching children with playthings is fine - but aren't children just wired for learning every waking hour anyway? Do we really need to be pushing what they should learn?
I came across the most wonderful things at the Bubble show this week - playthings made of natural recycled cardboard. So many cleverly designed pieces - houses, castles, lemonade stands, spaceships, even a fabulous airplane that slips right over the head to zoom around in. The stuff is tough grade, but lightweight so kids can haul it or tip it over without hurting themselves. And it can be folded flat again and again for storage or carrying, so you can to launch that spaceship in the park for a change. Imaginative play comes naturally with these simple props. And they can be decorated with crayons, paint or...just use your imagination! www.cardboardesign.com

Don't Forget to Send in Your Baby Pics!

We'll be giving away that $50 Gift certificate next Friday (8/15), so don't miss your chance to win! Send in a pic of your baby (or a friend's) with a comment and we'll post it and enter you in the contest. Thanks to all of you who have already blessed the Bean blog with your cute kids!

Want a Boy? Eat Cereal. (?!)

A friend sent me this article from the New York Times Health Blog discussing dietary factors that may lead to the conception of a boy or a girl. The article and study are from a few months back, but I hadn’t heard about it before.

Writer Tara Parker-Pope reveals some specifics about a study conducted by researchers at Oxford and Exeter in England that studied nutrient and calorie intake in pregnant women around the time of conception and early pregnancy. The study found, among other things, that women who have a higher energy (calorie) intake at the time of conception are slightly more likely to give birth to boys (56% as opposed to 45% for lower-energy subjects). In contrast, women who tended to limit their calorie intake or diet around the time of conception were more likely to have girls. They also found that women who ate cereal for breakfast had a higher incidence of conceiving boys, especially as opposed to breakfast-skippers.

Nutrient levels also seem to be a factor, as women in industrialized nations seem to be eating more but taking in less essential vitamins and minerals due to convenience food and so on. This study seems to argue that this could be a reason for the slow but steady decline in male births in places like the US and Britain.

The writer also makes the point that “In animals, more sons are produced when a mother ranks high in the group or has plentiful food resources.” Interesting stuff.

If this is true, I wonder what evolutionary factors are at play. To be honest, as a woman I find all this a little depressing! I’d love to hear any input from the readers! Do you think there’s any merit to this?

Bean baby - Jonah

Oh my, I can’t get over the cuteness!

Elise from Boston gave us this adorable pic of little 4-month old Jonah. He looks positively rockin’ in his Drummin’ Squirrel Onesie. I love that little mischievous look in his eye!

Bean Visits Bubble

Yesterday Gail and I headed over to the West Side for the Spring 2008 Bubble Tradeshow. In the past couple of years, the show has grown from a startup exhibition to an important showcase for new and upscale kids designers. Tradeshows are a funny thing – we’ll find a ton of great stuff one season and come up short the next. So of course we were hoping to be wowed this time!

Luckily for us, we managed to find a few great new collections and we’re excited to bring them in for the Spring season! The absolute favorite had to be Velvet and Tweed. The designer has an aesthetic that fits right in with ours, and we even picked up some Fall and Holiday items like the adorable dress shown above.

Other lines you can look forward to seeing soon? Hummingbaby and Bobinette. You’ll also see some adorable new syles from some of our all-time favorite lines like Right Bank Babies.