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If you are still in the shopping mode, Amazon still has some New Year's Eve deals available, not to mention if you're looking for some great deals before 2013 draws to a close, check out the year end sale here. As a reminder, when you click on a link and make a purchase at Amazon, you're helping to support this site! Thank you so much for reading and shopping; I appreciate it!

Black Friday 2013: Canon EOS Rebel T3

One thing about travel and kids -- you want a good camera, one that can capture fast action and low light situations. I use the Canon EOS Rebel T3 with a variety of lenses, including my favorite: the Nifty Fifty. I really like this camera as it gives the user a lot of creative range in setting up the picture. For example, you can go the total automated route if you like as the camera includes your typical presets -- Landscape, Action, etc -- and a pop-up flash, but also allows for more manual settings such as setting aperture or shutter speed for more advanced usage. You can also have an auto white balance or you can set it yourself. It also has a broad set of ISO settings from 100 to 6400 so you can capture those sunset pictures on the beach!

One downside: this camera is more bulky than my point & shoot and so it is sometimes annoying to haul around a camera bag (I have this one) and depending on the types of pictures you want to take, you may find the 18-55 mm kit lens a bit lacking; I find the 18-55mm adequate for "walk around" -- when I don't know what I'm going to stumble upon and I need a good all purpose lens. However, I have supplemented the kit lens with the above mentioned Nifty Fifty and a zoom lens, the Canon 55-250 mm. That being said, I've taken this camera around the world with me and I've been very pleased with the quality of pictures I've gotten and I love having the presets at my fingers for pictures I don't want to "miss".

I'll be honest -- I don't know whether one should choose Nikon over Canon, but this camera is a good entry-level workhorse at a very reasonable price (currently $420 at Amazon with the kit lens). Nikon -- which I have NO experience with -- also has a reasonable entry level DSLR: the Nikon D3100  at a similar price price point.

I'm specifically pointing out the Canon EOS Rebel T3 because this Black Friday Cyber Monday, Amazon is allegedly offering the camera at a price "under $400". That's a fantastic value for this quality camera and the cheapest I've seen it new (I purchased mine in July of 2012 used for $420 and *that* was a good price then!). So if you've been thinking about buying a DSLR, I recommend this one, especially at the Black Friday deal price!

Special offer from Amazon Mom!

If you're planning on a trip and want to stock up on some new toys for the kiddos,
Join Amazon Mom to get 20% off select toys through August 23.

Kindle Fire at Amazon

I've mentioned in a previous post that the Kindle Fire has been an invaluable "toy" for both Mommy and baby when traveling. I have the original Kindle Fire, not the HD version, that goes for about $159 right now. It's a great buy, mho, for the tablet, especially if you plan to let your child use it for any length of time. I've learned that no matter how much I try to teach my child that a tablet is not for throwing, somehow, it always ends up on the floor!

There are lots of apps available for kids at the App store, though rumor has it, the app selection is not as extensive as what Apple offers for the iPad. For my child, at 17 months old, Picasso - Draw! Paint! Doodle! is a great free app. I've downloaded a bunch of the free puzzle apps, but they are a bit complicated for the child right now and I end up having to fill in the puzzles for her. Another app I like is also free: iStoryBooks. Another thing to keep in mind is that Amazon also has promotions every now and then for an app, for example, buy this app and get $1 mp3 credit at the music store. Some of the apps that qualify for this promotion are free to begin with so it's win/win!

And oh! The best part? All the music and video you purchase on Amazon is put in the Cloud so it's accessible on your Kindle anywhere you have an internet connection. I bought my child 50 Nursery Rhyme Songs, which she adores, and it's awesome that I can play it for her on the Kindle anytime she wants to hear her favorite songs.

If you're interested in finding out more about the Kindle, go here to shop Amazon's New Kindle Fire.  

All sales made through this page directly support this blogger. Thank you!

Travel toys!

We just returned from a 10-hour round trip transatlantic flight. We weren't concerned about going over to Europe as our flight left at bedtime and sure enough, a few hours after we took off, baby fell asleep and promptly slept most of the flight. Coming back though, we knew would be a completely different story as it would be broad daylight and our baby isn't the greatest of sleeper when removed from the 'comforts' of home.

When looking for entertainment for an airplane ride, here are some of the things we are looking for:

1. We want a quiet toy so we don't bother other passengers. To be honest, more and more people are using noise cancelling earphones (my husband uses Able Planet noise cancelling headphones
2. We want a toy that doesn't roll away when dropped. The last thing we want to do is chase a toy all the way down the aisle, especially if the flight attendants are in the aisle with beverage/food service. 
3. We want a toy that doesn't have a lot of pieces that can get dropped/lost/render the toy inoperable for the duration of the flight.
4. In the past, we wanted a toy we could use with a lanyard (we used Baby Buddy Secure-A-Toy for this purpose; worked great with pacifiers, but not so great with the type of sippy cup we used -- handles left a gap for the lanyard to slip out!).

A couple of toys that have worked well for us in the past for both airplanes and cars include the Bright Starts Clack and Slide Activity Ball and Freddy Firefly. We've always had decent luck with our Kindle Fire as a diversionary tactic, but while overseas, our child become unbelievably fascinated with the Kindle and constantly wanted to watch 'Elmo'. I was able to stream short bits of Sesame Street on the Kindle, but I knew that would be an issue while flying home. So while I was able to download Elmo Loves 123s (Kindle Tablet Edition) "just in case" and many other apps, I knew Elmo and the Kindle wouldn't last the full 10 hours home!

We also knew Baby had pretty much outgrown the toys I mentioned above and so I wanted to get her something new for the trip. Before we left, a friend recommended stickers as a good toy for an airplane. We loved the idea and set about searching for an appropriate book. The friend had suggested a Melissa & Doug sticker pad set and we liked that idea because right now we're trying to keep Baby as free from 'commercial influences' as possible (a losing battle as all parents know!). Because I didn't have enough time to get the set from Amazon and couldn't find a similar Melissa & Doug in stores, I ended up getting a gigantic -- and I mean, gigantic! -- activity book with 1000+ stickers, sketch pad and 'scene pages' from Costco for $12.99. It was Disney-themed, but we decided to let it go for now given the shortness of time.Best $12.99 we've ever spent as Baby spent much of the flight pointing to stickers, sticking them on the 'scene pages', resticking them and occasionally decorating us and the seats around us with the stickers.

Since a sketch pad was included, we also picked up triangle crayons from Crayola; they don't roll AND they are washable! The latter became especially important when Baby decided all she wanted to do was color on the tray table! It didn't take more than a single swipe of a baby wipe to clean up the mess and baby was completely happy. Also, whenever she dropped the crayon, no matter where, it stayed put. Love, love, love. We will definitely be using these again.

The items kept her occupied enough that I didn't have to break out the Kindle for entertainment purposes. This was definitely a concern as I wasn't able to fully charge the Kindle before leaving the hotel and also because I knew Baby would protest mightily when we had to take it away during take-off/landing. I'm still glad we had the Kindle and the apps/videos on it as back-up, but am really glad we didn't have to use it at all for this particular flight.