Speaking of strollers, Vanessa is here to tell us about one of the best budget-friendly double strollers that you’ve probably never heard of: the Kinderwagon Hop.

It’s lightweight, compact, maneuverable, and costs less than $300:

See more of Vanessa’s stroller reviews at Nessa Knows Best — or stay tuned for her videos, right here at Early Mama.

And don’t forget to read all of my single and double stroller reviews at Babble.com.

After almost a full year of testing, reviewing, and researching strollers, I’ve finally posted my comprehensive reviews on Babble.com.

It wasn’t until after I got into reviewing products that I realized how little I actually knew about baby gear. I didn’t know that there were cooler, easier, and even more affordable strollers out there than the typical travel system. I had no idea that I had so many options — because I had no one to tell me.

So this is me telling you…

Looking for an all-in-one stroller for a newborn? A double stroller for baby #2? A lightweight, travel-friendly second stroller? Read my full reviews on all of my favorite strollers:

• Favorite SINGLE strollers — including compact space-savers, innovative game-changers, and strollers that grow with your family.
• Favorite DOUBLE strollers — from budget picks to luxe splurges.
• Winter stroller accessories you don’t know you need.

Happy searching!

Sending you love, peace, and a lovely, noisy, laughter-filled Christmas.

Merry, merry!

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic lately.

So I rounded up some awesome 90s-inspired gift ideas over on Babble.com. And they’re pretty rad.

I’m just starting to feel like I can write again, here. We all know why — we all can’t stop thinking about the whys and the hows and the my gods from the horrific school shooting in Connecticut.

And I so desperately wanted to share the magical experience we had on our Disney cruise — the princesses! the characters! the joy! — but I didn’t realize the real magic of that vacation until right now, as I’m continuing to process this whirlwind of emotions.

I spent seven days cut off from the world — no Facebook, Twitter, email; no worries or stresses. And the people? My god, the people on that ship. All smiles and friendliness and helpfulness — all the best parts of humanity.

Going into the experience, I worried it might be a bit exhausting and overwhelming, being alone with Noah. If we’re being honest, “Disney” can be synonymous with long lines, overstimulation, and big bucks. I knew Noah would have fun, but me? Am I even a “cruise person”? I wasn’t sure. I certainly didn’t expect to be so relaxed and well taken care of — even without another adult to alleviate the parenting duties. I didn’t expect everything to be so accessible and easy — for both of us. The food was endless (and pre-paid, which is the best way to eat food), the views were incomparable, the characters were always around, and the all-inclusive entertainment didn’t stop. DID NOT STOP.

In fact, I somehow found even more love for Noah, down in the deepest part of my heart — the part ignited by watching him watch his first Broadway-style show, where the music vibrated through his little overjoyed body, and where bubbles floated out from the stage and snow softly fell on his outstretched arms and smiling face. By seeing him dance with Mickey Mouse as confetti fell from the sky, watching him bow to the very princesses he’s always adored, and hearing him repeat the mantra of the Disney Magic: “Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust.”

By exploring a foreign country with him, where we climbed ancient ruins and saw a monkey jumping through the trees. By experiencing the magic together, through his eyes, holding his hand.

 There were countless times throughout the week when I would stop and gaze around — at the laughing children, the vast spans of water, the natural beauty — and realize how much good there is in the world.

How much there is to experience here, now. How grateful I was just to be here.

The very best parts of humanity.

And the first thing I did after stepping off that boat was check my email. Oh how I wish I didn’t.

I then spent the bus ride to the airport reading news stories and looking at on-the-scene photos, as children — all 5, 6, 7 years old — sat around me, deliriously happy from the week-long escape on that ship. Children the same exact age span as those 20 children who were killed in Connecticut, so close to home. I cried.

The contrast was blatant and overwhelming. After breathing in such goodness and happiness for a week, it ended with a punch in the gut — forcing me to exhale the most evil, torturous parts of humanity. And I just wanted to climb back into the blind optimism and comforting constraints of that ship. I wanted confetti and fireworks. I wanted to forget that reality was so real, and hard, and scary.

A little boy named Noah was gunned down in his classroom as my Noah was parading around a Mickey-shaped pool, pretending to be a superhero, shooting webs at the bad guys.

“It’s not nice to call strangers bad guys,” I told him. “We’re all good guys here, Noah.”

How I wish that was true. How I wish children just needed pixie dust and spider webs to protect themselves.

But for a little while — for one week, to be exact — that was our reality. And it was very good reality.

Even as this terrible tragedy continues to unfold — even as I cry and grieve along with the rest of the country — I’m so grateful to have those moments of pure, beautiful happiness. They’re the kind of memories we all need right now, more than ever.

***

Disclosure: I’m eternally grateful to Disney for sending us on the Disney Magic cruise. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We will, most certainly, be back.

Here’s another “early marriage” guest post today — this time from 31-year-old Nikki Moran, who has been married for 10 years, with three children spanning 9 months and 6 years. She’s a maternity nurse in Canada, where she’s currently finishing up the last few weeks of her maternity leave (a foreign concept to many of us here in the U.S., ahem), and she’s willing to share her seasoned experience with us when it comes to marriage:

My husband and I celebrated our tenth anniversary this past summer. I feel so lucky to be married to Neil and I feel like we have a great marriage. Ten years in and we’re still in love and we’re still happy. We must be doing something right! Here are ten things I know and believe are important to growing a happy marriage:

1. You are a team.

You really are. So tackle things together. Contribute what you can. Find what you’re good at and let that be the thing you do. There aren’t any “pink jobs” or “blue jobs”.  Do what works for you — which may not be what worked for your parents, or what works for your married friends. Help out where help is needed. Don’t leave the garbage busting at the seams because that’s “his” job. Take it out this time. Maybe one day he’ll throw a load of laundry in for you. (Maybe even fold it, too.) You’re in this together and the harder you work together, the better it will be. You’re a team: act like it.

2. Learn and improve.

Don’t be content to just stay where you are in life skills. Being a wife can be hard and sometimes you need to take time to learn to be a better one. You will personally feel more fulfilled in your marriage if you know that you are contributing the best parts of yourself. I am still learning how to manage a household, how to keep up with the housework, take care of the children, and make meals, and besides all of that, (and most importantly!), make sure my husband knows how loved and important he is. I know that I’m better at this than I used to be, but I’m going to keep working at it — and hopefully I’ll keep getting better at it.

P.S. It’s nice if your husband is working to improve himself too, but that’s not your responsibility!

3. Enjoy it.

Like, EVERY part of it. It’s so easy to find yourself pining for the next season in life (….when you have kids, ……when the kids are out of diapers, ….when the kids move out, etc.) Stop pining! Be happy where you are! Seriously.

4. Do things together.

This might seem obvious, but sometimes you need to make a conscious effort to do things together. (Not just be in the same house together.) Go places together. To Hawaii! To the movies! To the grocery store! Leave the kids at home and have fun together. It’s so important to take time to do this, not only because it’s fun, but because it can truly recharge your relationship and remind you why it was you fell in love in the first place, all those years ago.

5. Do things apart.

As awesome as it is to spend time together, sometimes you just need to spend some time apart. Make sure you have some good girlfriends and take the time to hang out with them. Make sure your husband goes out with the guys sometimes, too. (In moderation of course!)

6. Be nice to each other.

Duh.

But sometimes it’s so easy to be mean. Try not to be. Learn to fight nice (because fights are gonna happen) and forgive quickly. Honestly, I’ve got a long way to go on this one. Also, be polite to each other. Use your manners! Don’t be bossy! You’ll find each other a lot easier to live with if you behave civilly.

7. Appreciate each other.

Take the time to notice all that your spouse does for you and make sure to thank them. My husband works ten hours a day five days a week while I stay home all day with the kids (not that that isn’t work, of course). Then he comes home from work and steps straight through our door into a veritable zoo of small children and chaos at every turn. And he does it with a smile on his face! I am so thankful that he works so hard to support us and I am so thankful for the way he loves me and our children and I want him to know it. Say thank you OUT LOUD to your spouse regularly. Just the other night my husband sincerely thanked me for everything I do for our family. Honestly, I was a bit surprised because our house was in a complete state of disarray and I felt like I’d been a crabby mom and probably a crabby wife that day too. It meant so much to me that despite all of that he notices all of those (sometimes mindless) things that I do all day every day, even if I’m not doing a perfect job, and he appreciates me for doing them.

8. Find some married couple friends.

Find some married couples (that you both like!) to be friends with, and hang out with them. Make sure they’re the kind of married couples who are super cool and super committed and super in love. You’ll inspire each other and learn from each other.

9. Invest your energy wisely.

 My husband does certain things that cause me to shake my head over and over again. I feel like I have spent YEARS asking him to put his hats away. Ten years into marriage, I still find his hats littered all throughout our house. Ten years into marriage, I know that he is not purposely doing this to drive me insane and that I may as well just pick up his hats and put them away. He does a lot for me, and so I’ll let this little thing slide. They’re just hats. (But why does he have so many!? And why does he think they belong on the top of the kids’ play kitchen!? ) Anyway, hats are not a big deal. I choose not to invest my energy whining, nagging, etc. about this issue. Well, not as much as I’d like too, anyway. Because no doubt there are things that I do that drive him crazy, and he’s letting those slide for me.

10. It’s going to be great.

Believe it, because it really is. Don’t listen to those naysayers. You’re not too young, you’re not too dumb. The first year isn’t the hardest; it isn’t the easiest. Your kids aren’t going to ruin it; they’re not going to save it. It’s going to be what you make it, so make it great. Yes, of course, marriage is hard, but it’s also so much better than I thought it might be.

***

Thanks, Nikki! Read more about her and Neil (+ their adorable kids) at Outnumbered. And even though Nikki has over twice as much marriage experience than me, I wrote a little something about marriage, too.

Photo credit: happy photo co.

Today’s guest post comes from Emily, the former teen mom behind Your Mom Goes to College. I’d love for her to start sharing her story as a young single mom, balancing school, motherhood, and her 20-something life (including dating):

As we get older, our concept of friendship grows and changes with us. In elementary school, friendship is giving each other cootie shots and spending recess running away from boys. As we grow up, our friendships become more meaningful, more important. Our friends become our support system. In the painful high school years, when everyone is trying to discover who they are and prove to everyone that they’re adults, friendship is the key to keeping a person grounded.

In a way, I think friendship shows us that we are not alone in our struggles. We have friends for advice, for a shoulder to lean on. My biggest struggle as a teenage mother was finding and maintaining healthy friendships. If you really want to find out who your friends are, get pregnant your senior year of high school. It isn’t to say that I didn’t have good high school friends, but everything changed once I had my son.

Becoming a mother is an experience that you cannot even begin to fathom until you actually become one. It changes you, in the most beautiful, uninhibited way. You create another life and are then responsible for its well-being. Somebody depends on you to do better, be better. When I became a mother at the young age of 18, I felt this sense of obligation to be the best version of myself.

Suddenly, it became hard to relate to my high school friends who were going off to college. Even though our friendship had lasted through the turmoil of the teenage years, it seemed like it couldn’t survive teenage pregnancy. My priorities had changed. I was always a mother first, a teenager second. My interests didn’t involve frat parties or being reckless. The things that mattered to me, the things that were important, involved my child, because I was a mother.

How many 18 year olds can grasp something so complex without actually experiencing it? As I found out, not many. It became increasingly hard to find people close to my age who I could relate to on this deeper level. I felt alone in my struggles.

A big reason I started blogging was for this very reason. I relied on my keyboard for comfort and compassion, and I opened up my missteps for the entire Internet to see. Because I believed that if I felt alone in all of this, somebody somewhere felt exactly the way I did, and I wanted them to know that they are not alone at all.

Through the mom-blog circuit, I have discovered some of the most amazing young women. Many of whom I can understand without ever having a conversation with them. I read their blogs and I feel like I am reading my own words, my own story. They are able to instantly comprehend the little things that most girls my age couldn’t even fathom. They are thankful for jeggings and leggings for reasons that have nothing to do with fashion or flattery. They know what it means to be excited about the grossest things (i.e. poop) and gracious for the simplest things (i.e. an uninterrupted shower). They became mother’s younger than anticipated, but they are embracing it, loving it, enjoying it.

Just like I am.

***

Thank you so much, Emily. And stay tuned for more guest posts while I’m out sailing the seas.

Today’s guest post comes from an ambitious grad student, Megan Yinger, currently going for her Ph.D LIKE A BOSS. She’s doing the dance that so many young moms know by heart — balancing a challenging course load with work and family life. So I asked her to shed some light on that experience, considering I got pregnant post-college — when my classes were all behind me.

Today Megan’s writing about carving space for your different roles, and that’s something that I can very much identify with as a work-from-home mom. Take it away, Megan…

You may remember me from my Q & A post — but things have changed since last year. I was accepted into a Ph.D program in American Studies and started as a teaching assistant this past August. My son, Elliott, is now almost 17 months old, so he is an active toddler! While it has been stressful at times, it has also been great to keep moving forward in my career.

After you have made the decision to become a student / mom, which I will discuss in a future post, it is crucial that you carve out spaces in your life to be successful. If you’ve been an undergraduate or graduate student before without children, then this is a whole new ball game. You can longer sit and read for hours upon hours, uninterrupted.

1. At home: The majority of your work will obviously be done at home, especially if your childcare budget is limited (or non-existent). If you have the space, create a dedicated area for your school supplies. This way little hands won’t be dumping your research all over the floor or doodling in your school notes. If you can,wait until bedtime to get started on work. I like to dedicate as much of my time at home to playing and interacting with E. One also must carve out time to get work done, as naptimes and bedtime are not going to provide enough quiet time. Here is where to enlist your spouse, partner, parents, or whoever is helping you with your kiddo.  Ask for an hour (two, three, whatever) to dedicate to schoolwork. Then, do it.  Focus up and take advantage of this quiet time. (Then buy your helper some wine for being so wonderful.)

2. At school / work: I put these two together because if you are in a program like mine, my work is at school, and I suspect many of the graduate students in the audience will identify. At school, it’s important to draw boundaries. Craft a schedule that allows you to take classes at night, or only come to school on certain days (rather than Monday through Friday). It won’t always be easy (my spring schedule is a crazy, hairy mess), but when possible, it makes life so much easier. If a meeting comes up on a “day off,” explain your childcare situation. Be open and communicate with those around you. Don’t try to always make it work for everyone else; you need to be considered as well. Additionally, when possible, leave work at work. I try to get as much grading and planning done at work as is possible.  It’s off my plate and stowed away in a drawer until I return.

3. Mentally: The way you create mental space for being a student / mom is the most important key to success. If you are not already hooked on a detailed planner, purchase one for yourself now, or use a computer calendar. You have enough things to think about with your kiddo, and it’s not going to get easier when you add due dates, deadlines, and meetings to the mix. You also have to let the people around you now that you do have time for them, but it’s compartmentalized. For instance, I have a department meeting every Friday at 3:00. I made it clear that I had to leave by 4:00, since it’s unfair to my childcare provider to be late picking up E. Finally, use the “Sunday Funday” system (or whatever day works for you). I got this idea from my best friend who is not a mom, but works a full time job and is in a rigorous program at night. She dedicates Sundays to little day trips, date days with her boyfriend, or time with her family. Your marriage and your children are just as important as your career, and it’s crucial to make time to see a movie, go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, or decorate the Christmas tree.

I have to say that I’m a lucky woman. I have a husband who supports me 110%, parents and in-laws who step up in amazing ways, and a program that embraces my position as a student / mom. Every situation is different, but with the right mind-set and the proper dedication, it can work for you too.

Feel free to comment questions and suggestions for future posts!

Thank you Michelle for providing me the opportunity to address this void in the Early Mama community. You are really an inspiration to all of us! [ed: blushing!]

*****

Read more about Megan at her blog, The Yingers.

Photo: Flickr/azrasta