Matilda? Oscar? Milo? Millicent?

As my dear friends know, I am a tad bit obsessed with baby names. Since my own baby naming days are most likely behind me, I need a school of fish or something. Here are some of my favorite resources:

-- Nymbler is fascinating. Type in a name, and it generates a matching sibling list for you. You can even specify boy or girl.

--Here you can look up the most popular names. Check by individual state, or my favorite, go back a hundred years or so to unearth a little-used classic.

-- This is my favorite naming quiz. My husband and I each took it and then compared notes, which really helped direct our daughter's name.

-- Finally, there are two baby name blogs that are worth subscribing to. If you want to run your names by some NEs ("name enthusiasts"), check the comments after each post here. She also has some interesting naming tools in the top bar. This one is updated almost every day and also has boards here where you can discuss names with others. 

Besides the ones in the title, here are some of my favorite names these days: Abram, Declan, Walter, Eloise, Theo, Betsy (for Elizabeth), Cora and Genevieve.

McGroovy

If you're at all handy, you can create amazing cardboard sculpture with Mr. McGroovy's Box Rivets. My husband made this pair of robots for Ronan's birthday party. We then let the kids go to town with washable paint and brushes.

If you want to see something truly amazing, check out the castles. Maybe for Bea's third birthday?? He also has advice about where to get boxes for free. 

Moving on from Go Fish

I bought my son the Rat-a-Tat-Cat card game based on some recommendations from the mommas over at Mothering. And we love it! Can't get enough of it. You have four cards, and the object is to have the lowest score.

It says six and up, but we play the modified version for younger kids and Ronan does great with it. This may become my new go-to gift for five-year-olds. My mom and husband and I even played it after the kiddos were in bed. It plays fast and has both chance and skill involved in satisfying measures. 

Available on Amazon.

Because airplane seats are so close together that you can't pick things up off the floor

These markers are brilliant -- the caps stay attached, so there's no chasing them down when you're traveling. And they're six to a pack, an ideal number for a trip. Oh, and washable of course! They're definitely more expensive, but worth it to have a pack or two around, I think.

They're Crayola Flip-Top Markers, and I bought them at TRU.

For General Audiences

As most of us parents know, it's hard to judge a movie by its cover. Just because it's animated doesn't mean it's appropriate or fun for little ones. And I've found that my memory is not necessarily accurate. (Somehow I have no memory of the drunken sidekick and child selling ring in Pete's Dragon. Oops.) 

Since my son seems particularly sensitive to movies,  Common Sense Media has been a huge help. I've found their age ratings to be spot-on for him. And they rate chapter books as well as movies. Now when he's interested in seeing or reading something new, he tells me to go look it up, and we both accept what Common Sense recommends. It's a win-win for our family.

Thanks to Greg Robbins on Flickr for the use of this Creative Commons photo.

Half-full

This book is delightful in so many ways -- the text is charming and the art is wonderfully whimsical (don't miss the rabbit blowing milk bubbles with his straw), but mostly I love it because of a conversation it sparked. But let me backtrack: this book offers interesting definitions of words like "modest," "envy" and "respect."

As my son looked at the page describing "optimist" and "pessimist," which shows a grumpy lady rabbit to the left, and a joyous, baseball-cap-wearing rabbit to the right, both with half a cookie on their plates, my son said, "I don't get it. They both have the same amount of cookie left." And we had a lovely conversation about how even when the situation is the same, two people can perceive things differently.

Don't miss Little Pea, another of our favorites by A. K. Rosenthal. 

A book to remember by

My brother and sister-in-law made this amazing photo book recounting the trip their family made to California to visit us. 

Using photos they took and simple text, they put it all together at Shutterfly. If you have a Mac, there are also easy options through iphoto. 

Now I'm thinking that I'll co-opt their idea for our upcoming trip and take photos with a story in mind: packing suitcases, leaving the house, at the airport, etc. 

It's such a fun, personalized gift that little ones will admire over and over. And in the case of family vacations, you can make multiple copies to share with all branches.