Top Kid Toy Picks for 2012 Holiday Season: Gift Guide

A look at the hot toys for tots this holiday season.

Every holiday season, the mailbox fills with the latest toy catalogs. Children peruse the pages as they scribble their lists, daydreaming about what they will find under the tree come Christmas morning. Parents pull out their pocketbooks, spending hard-earned cash as they anticipate the joy on those little faces. What will be the runaway favorites this year is always a guess, but here are some of the latest trends, mixed with tried-and-true perennial favorites.  jChews Smartphone teether by Jellystone No tears for parents or babies. Babies love nothing more than to gum Mom and Dad’s cell phone, but now they’ll be too intrigued with their own smartphone to chew on. The Jellystone smartphone teether comes in seven funky colors and is BPA …

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Back to Preschool Shopping

Kathy Zucker's children are entering preschool and kindergarten this fall. See how she is prepping school supplies for the year to come.

My kids will be starting preschool and kindergarten in Hoboken next week. That means we need school supplies and clothes for the new school year. It's really hard to guess clothing sizes since my daughter grows approximately twice as fast as my son. My daughter is also picky about her clothes, identifying certain wardrobe items as school clothes and refusing to wear them at other times (makes holiday dressup difficult when the cute Peter Pan collared tops are off-limits). I try to stock up on clothing in two sizes; my five year old currently wears a size seven, so I am buying short and long-sleeved tops, skirts, shorts and pants in sizes seven and eight. The warm weather clothes will work for the beginning and end of the school year (size …

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Finding Treasures and Friendship at the Hoboken Citywide Yard Sale

Kathy Zucker set out to replenish her kids' wardrobes with yard sale finds. Instead, she found something far more precious; new friends.

My daughter grows incredibly quickly. At age four, she wears size seven clothing. I recently went through her closets and culled outgrown items, taking 12 bags to the Salvation Army and one of unworn designer clothes to K.C. Kids Hoboken. The annual Hoboken Citywide Yard Sale came at an opportune time to fill all that closet space. I loaded up our double stroller with my younger child and a big garbage bag. With the ongoing bedbug epidemic, you can never be too careful when it comes to purchasing pre-owned clothes. My plan was to quarantine my yard sale finds in the garbage bag and put it all into the washing machine as soon as I got home. I struck gold at my first stop on the yard sale tour. A family at First and Madison had two boys ages…

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Kathy Zucker

1:37 pm on Friday, May 27, 2011

I took photos and live tweeted my day at the Hoboken yard sale. Complete virtual tour twitter stream at http://bit.ly/yardsaletour   more ›

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Spring Cleaning with Hoboken Toddlers

Kathy Zucker is putting away her family's winter clothes to make room for their spring wardrobe. It's a great time to sort & jettison outgrown clothes.

It's finally springtime in Hoboken! Out with the old and in with the new. Clothes, that is. Every year, I stockpile clothing in the next size up (or two) for my toddlers. Children's clothing stores like Ciao Belly and Bellie & Katrina offer deep discounts at end-of-season sales to clear out inventory. My stash of t-shirts and shorts gets us off to a good start when the warm weather arrives, but what about all those giant ziploc bags of outgrown clothes stacked in bedroom corners? My kids grow so quickly that I often find myself discarding garments that have only been worn once or twice. That is especially true for holiday and dressy outfits. The real question is, what do I do with the culled items? Hoboken has seen a variety of vintage …

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Kathy Zucker

10:35 am on Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Easter egg hunt is today from 3-5pm at Newport Center Park next to Duane Reade in Jersey City, map @ http://bit.ly/eGjY3r.   more ›

Back to School Shopping for Hoboken Toddlers

Kathy Zucker knows how to stretch the dollar for seasonal necessities.

My oldest child is starting Abbott preschool in Hoboken this week, and I just realized she doesn't have any clothes. The situation isn't quite as dire as it sounds. At the end of each season, I buy clothing several sizes up on clearance. In this manner, I have stocked up on Tea jeans in sizes 3T, 4T, and 5T at Bellie and Katrina, Italian designer down coats at Ciao Belly, adorable embroidered tanks at Gymboree, and Naturino shoes for the next four years, after Shoephoria went out of business. I also load up on play clothing like Cherokee long- and short-sleeved tees - great for playing in the dirt at Pier A or painting in school - when Target applies the red sales stickers marking them down under $3. In addition, we inherit a variety of …

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Furnishing a Hoboken Toddler Room on a Budget

Kathy Zucker has furnished three toddler rooms in the last two years through bargain hunting and used furniture from a trusted online resource.

Every time I move, I swear never to waste money again on furniture. In the ten years of my marriage, I have lived in four different apartments, and nothing ever fits right from apartment to apartment. Seemingly classic pieces like my solid cherry Thomasville desk become unwieldy encumbrances that have to be wedged into the spare bedroom corner, and ultimately sold at a fraction of the original cost to make room for a crib. Urban apartment living, like in Hoboken, further limits my options because I have to be smart about basically every inch. I start my home decor plan with permanent pieces of furniture, like the king bed in the master bedroom and the queen one in my daughter's room. Once those pieces are in place, I measure the available …

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Kathy Zucker

3:25 pm on Friday, June 18, 2010

Definitely agree on the convertible crib. The only reason we only have a 2-in-1 (crib to toddler bed) is because we have an upholstered crib that we plan to keep as extra seating after our kids have outgrown it.   more ›

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First Street: The Heart of South West Hoboken

Kathy Zucker and her family moved to South West Hoboken because they felt it closely replicated their lifestyle in Brooklyn Heights.

Every couple of months, I get an email from someone looking to raise a family in Hoboken. They always ask where families live. My sense is that most families live in northeast Hoboken, near Elysian Park. However, there are families all over Hoboken, and child activities are scattered all across town, from Romparoo (midtown) to Kidville (uptown) and Monroe Center (west side). The majority of children's stores are on Washington Street. When my family outgrew our Hoboken two-bedroom, our choice was between South West Hoboken and the suburbs. The amount of space, pricing and amenities are very comparable, so it came down to a lifestyle choice. We were already living in South West Hoboken, and we love the area. We initially moved here because …

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