Website Reviews

It’s fun to sit in my pajamas (alone) and watch my Cozi collage flash by the screen. What’s not fun is to stand with my husband with beads of sweat collecting on my forehead that moment I first realized that this slideshow is made up exclusively of pictures before-Alec… only ex-boyfriends, old trips, and single silliness. In the 30 seconds we watched together, we saw me finishing my first mini triathlon, me and one guy in Paris, and me and another guy on a date. Cozi has to lose a point for that one.

The promise of Cozi Central™ is free software that includes a shared family calendar, lists, quick messages, and a dynamic photo collage that’s accessible wherever you are. In my mind, this means, I use it at home to add appointments or notes to our calendar, and Alec sees them at work, eliminating the need for one of my many short (but informative, in my opinion) phone calls during the day.

Being a geeky list-maker married to a geekier software engineer, Cozi Central sounded like a natural solution to our family’s information management. Unfortunately, for our family, we’re not quite ready for each other.

On the plus side:

• Photos. Very fun photo integration with family picture and collage. For those who can control it.
• Calendar color-coding and delegating. Cool feature that each family member can have a tab on the calendar and a color. It also allows me to very simply reassign an appointment from being Milo and Mommy to Milo and Daddy with a click or two.
• Software and web interface. The website integrates with the software integrates with text messaging. That’s cool.

But on the down side:

• Photos. As I mentioned, the collage is a random collection of pictures from my Windows instance — none of which are family (or necessarily family-friendly) images. And I can’t see how to fix that.
• Grocery list grouping. My list was a hodgepodge of 37 items randomly listed on the page. For an efficiency nut like myself, that’s no way to shop. If we’re gonna enter in all our groceries into the computer (rather than jotting it conveniently on paper in the kitchen), there needs to be a way to organize (I’m talking categories like meat, produce, frozen, etc.). I think I could hack this into submission, but it’d be a lot of effort on my part.
• Calendar integration. This is another biggie. Unfortunately, Cozi only seems to integrate with Outlook. For many folks, that’s fantastic news; but for us, that’s not helping. I would need the Cozi calendar to integrate with Google Calendar if I was going to delegate appointments to my husband. Sorry, that’s a dealbreaker.

Bottom line: There’s a reason that those ex-boyfriends are exes… though they had many nice qualities, ultimately, I needed the whole package. Cozi has a lot going for it; it’s not them, it’s us.

————————————————————-
This review of cozicentral.cozi.com and Cozi Central™ software console was brought to you by Parent Bloggers and the letter X. RookieMoms will occasionally post such reviews if we believe they are helpful to our readers, and we will always be honest. That’s what a review is, after all.

When I clicked on LollipopKisses.com, I was pleasantly surprised to see a color palette that is vibrant and fun, as opposed to the typical subdued blues and pinks of many baby shops.

A couple of my favorite items:

This placemat is $4.00 and I know my son would love to have these vehicles sitting in front of him at the table each morning.

I love the way these letters are painted. (And I love the name Dylan. Can I name my daughter-to-be that?) LollipopKisses.com has more styles of wall letters than I’ve ever seen. Very cute stuff. Unfortunately, at $20 per letter, I would have to limit my wall lettering to initials, else face something in the neighborhood of a $260 investment to get both kids names on their bedroom wall. Still, I can enjoy dreaming.

Founder and mom Stephanie Dubner says that her store caters to moms who appreciate things with a “certain style and flair”. She also carries a couple of lines that are not available anywhere else: Zaffadillo and Anniefrannies. She’s got cool diaper bags and bibs, too.

Now it’s not very often that your average mom is going to splurge on a super cutesy boutiquey item, like the type at Lollipop Kisses, but it’s sure fun to look and to send the URL to your shopaholic friends.

Make sure to click all the way into each sub-category to see the full assortment of merchandise. (One thing I’d change would be to have everything listed at the category level.)

Best of luck to Stephanie with her mompreneur adventures!

This blogger New Yorker has a kid exactly the same age as my little dude. I can tell we are going through the same things from his most excellent Open Letter To All Toddlers.

If you don’t know MetroDad, get to know him.

Also, if you are a hip Asian-American daddy, like my third-favorite ex-boyfriend, Willie, you should bond with your peeps over at Rice Daddies.

While I am more often a sucker for a beautifully designed web site that merchandises unique and small brand clothes, I am also a sucker for selection. At BabyAge.com, there is no shortage of selection. For example, 18 tandem double strollers and 11 double jogging strollers to choose from. And that makes me happy.

BabyAge carries gear, like car seats, nursing pillows, and cribs, plus fun gifty items like clothes and toys. They even have a section dedicated to personalized items, which are fantastic when your friends go around naming their kids things like Milo, Etta, Paxton and Willa. We have this stool with the letters of Julian’s name, and he loves it.

Improvement needed: A very important aspect of an online store is the sale section. BabyAge.com could make this section easier to find and might lead more of us to the right place. Right now it is only linked to from the home page. I’d like to see it linked from every page. I’ve done you the favor of picking some good deals and linking right to them:

• 46-Piece Home Solutions Family Room Child-Proofing Kit by Safety First for $9.99
• Sound n Lights Monitor by Fisher Price for $14.99
• Travellite Infant Swing by Graco for $39.99

Bonus feature: a compare tool, so when you are getting ready to make a big decision about a toddler carseat, you can line up all the features and prices next to each other.

Well, who knew? Target and Babies R Us don’t have to be your only choices — BabyAge has gift registry, too.

————————————————————-
This is a paid review of BabyAge.com. RookieMoms will occasionally post such reviews if we believe they are helpful to our readers, and we will always be honest. That’s what a review is, after all.

While my mom and I did have a successful shopping trip this weekend, I must confess that I become irate as soon as I start interacting with the sales people at Mimi Maternity. But that’s a rant for another day.

Let’s stay positive, people. Positively pregnant. If that’s possible.

What I have trouble finding is normal-looking clothes that will fit my pregnant body. I don’t want to wear a floral shirt with a tie around the back everyday from now until July. Enter Bellydancematernity.com - an online maternity store with cute! maternity clothes! See, a brown hoodie. That’s what I’m talking about.

Also, I’m missing my ability to wear graphic tees, and no thank you, I don’t want one that has some saying about bellies or angels. How about this striped tee with the graffiti-style heart? Yes, thank you.

And, yes, there is a sale section. Not a true bargain basement sale, as nothing seems to be below $34, however, these are not Target duds, and will likely fit much better. (Don’t get me started on Target maternity. I have actually cried because I was stuck in itchy maternity pants at work and could not stop itching.)

Keep up the good work, Belly Dance, and we’ll come back for your baby clothes department in a few months. The sale items, of course.

————————————————————-
This is a paid review of bellydancematernity.com. RookieMoms will occasionally post such reviews if we believe they are helpful to our readers, and we will always be honest. That’s what a review is, after all.