It’s not easy finding fun music for kids that parents can enjoy as well. As the first-time mother of an infant, it took me exactly three months before I started cringing when I hear the repetitive electronic tones of Bach or Beethoven coming from a swing or mobile. And don’t even get me started on Brahms’ Lullaby.

That’s why the newest CD from Milkshake, titled “Play,” has been getting quite a workout in our house. The companion DVD, “Screenplay,” rocks too! The Baltimore-based band has a simple mission: To create great rock music for kids.

The band is made up of singer Lisa Mathews and guitarist Mikel Gehl, along with drummer Tom Moon, Michael Sheppard on electric guitar, and Brian Simms playing accordion and keyboard. Lisa and Mikel began their musical careers together with the indie rock group Love Riot. Milkshake’s sound is deeply rooted in sounds from the 70s and 80s pop. That’s why today’s parents love it so much; it reminds us of songs from our childhood and especially our teen years.

I first heard a clip from the song Superhero online, a song with great lyrics and a positive message, hailing firefighters and teachers right next to Batman and Spider-man. Lisa’s throaty vocals called to mind Melissa Etheridge. That sound is prevalent, too, in the oh-so-catchy We Got a Band. That’s the track I find myself humming in the car, in the shower, while washing dishes. It has the easy-to-sing vocals and catchy chorus of an 80s rock anthem, and a great message for kids. “I’m not gonna just sit around / Wondering what to do / Gonna call my friends, get together and play a few new tunes.”

The CD contains 12 songs plus three bonus tracks. Play is the band’s third CD.

The real fun begins when you hit play on the band’s new—and long-awaited–DVD. “Screenplay” incorporates concert performances with fun, animated music videos. There’s even behind-the-scenes segments called Backstage with the Band. Eleven musical numbers and six bonus videos make this DVD a real bargain that will keep your kids entertained for hours. It also promotes movement; kids will want to get up and dance and sing along with the DVD. They won’t just sit like couch potatoes and stare at the television. That’s a big plus for me. In fact, I spend about a half hour a day dancing around with my daughter and singing along to this DVD.

My infant can’t keep her eyes off the screen during the song Bluebird, which shows animations of flowers, greenery, bluebirds and other living things. The simple melody is more like child’s music than many of the other tracks, but there’s still something very likeable about it. She also loves the animation in Fingers & Toes, a catchy and repetitive counting song. I like that it’s teaching numbers.

As a writer, I love what is perhaps the most creative alphabet song I’ve ever heard: ABC of Me. Lisa and Mikel, who wrote most of the songs on both Play and Screenplay are talented wordsmiths. Too many children’s songs feature trite lyrics with no surprises or fun phrases. Not so with Milkshake, who put real thought into not only the tunes, but the lyrics, as well.

Milkshake is currently supporting the release of their DVD with a concert tour, and have appearances scheduled up and down the East Coast through May. If the live performances on the DVD are any indication, seeing Milkshake live is a real treat for tots (and their parents).

I have to admit, from the opening chords of the first track on Play, I became a fan. Now, Babies Online is offering you a chance to discover this great kids’ rock band. We’re giving away FREE Milkshake media sets, which include the CD Play, the DVD Screenplay and the first ever Milkshake comic book. We have three CD/DVD/Comic sets to give away. (This contest is over – Congratulations to the winners! )

Simply go to www.milkshakemusic.com, then come back to this post and tell us WHERE the band is playing on Sunday, February 22. List the city OR the venue (or both) in the comments section of this post here at Babies Online.

While you’re at it, feel free to add your thoughts on children’s music. The contest ends Thursday, February 12 at Midnight (Eastern Time), so be sure to post your comments before then.

We’ll pick three winners at random and notify you by email to get your mailing address to send your FREE Milkshake set!

Parenthood changes a lot of things. One thing I noticed was that I had less time for exercise, or so it seemed to me. A recent study I saw confirmed that my suspicions were correct and that I am not alone. The study also confirmed that the reasons I most often skipped my exercise times were also named by study participants. Those reasons (excuses) would be: lack of time, tiredness, and lack of child care options. Another reason for me: finances. With 5 children, I simply can’t justify spending the money I used to spend on a gym membership that I may or may not be able to use depending upon who has the stomach flu this week.

For a while, I was very depressed about the whole thing and critical of myself. I should be making the time and finding the money to do this for me! But the reality is that my husband travels frequently with work, and I am, for many days of the month, a single parent. In between homework and caring for the baby and driving the older children to their activities, there’s not a lot of time to devote to an exercise program.

I decided to try and think outside the box for a solution to my problem. Ok, so my life had changed, but that didn’t mean that I had to give up my life because of that. I just had to find a way to fit exercising into my daily life given my constraints on time, money, and energy. I found that while I just didn’t have the energy to do an energy charged aerobics workout anymore, I did like Tai Chi. Yoga was not only exercise, but it helped calm my nerves too! I found that Pilates workouts were wonderful too.

I discovered DVD’s for Pilates where you could squeeze a mini-workout into 10 minutes! It’s true that I couldn’t find an hour long block in my day to devote to exercising, but I could find a 10 minute segment! I have to admit that some days, I don’t even find the time for 10 minutes, but I’m working on it.

The best part of my new exercise routine is the cost. I can loan a DVD from the library for no cost and I can try a different routine each week if I choose to do so. I have purchased several DVD’s for my own collection, but they are still cheaper than a gym membership! I walk the children to school instead of driving them, and I try to be as active as I can during my daily routine. Just hauling laundry around for 7 people should count as exercise, right?

Not only am I exercising more, but my children are learning that exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. They are also learning, just like I am, that sometimes we need to be creative when looking for solutions to our problems!

I try to limit the amount of television my kids watch, although they do indeed watch some almost every day. In a perfect world we wouldn’t watch any television, but since my world is far from perfect there are times when the kids win in their quest to get the TV turned on.

Although my kids get to watch some commercial-free TV at home, I draw the line at getting a TV screen installed into the car. I see far too many families driving around our city with the kids glued to the TV that’s going on in the back of the minivan. The parent who is driving isn’t engaging the kids in talking, the kids aren’t glancing outside of the car or looking through books, and all in all I’m sure it’s a quiet ride…but a potentially mind-numbing one.

My kids were allowed to watch TV in the car for one trip, and that was an eight hour drive. They didn’t watch the TV for the entire time and I was actually pretty happy on the return trip when the portable DVD player stopped working and we were all forced to talk about the things we saw outside. I have nothing against watching movies on long rides, but really…do we need to turn the TV on for the ride home from the grocery store? How are parents finding out about their kids’ days if they flip on the TV the second they pick them up from school or daycare?

Don’t families talk in the car anymore?

I try to take advantage of somewhat long drives by playing different types of music and having the kids compare them. Even when my kids were very young babies I tried to talk to them about the things that were out the car window and enjoy music while in the car. I don’t want my kids plugged in all the time. I want them to be able to enjoy their surroundings and use their imaginations.

My son is now almost 18 months old, and I am beginning to think about potty training. He isn’t really showing signs of being ready to begin the process yet, but I’ve decided to do some research on potty training boys.

My four previous children are girls and with DH away a lot traveling with his job, well, I’ve decided that I might need a little bit of assistance with this whole experience. Is it true that boys are more difficult to potty train the girls? I’ll let you know as soon as I do.

The real reason for this post was to encourage everyone to check out the PULL-UPS website which I just discovered. The disclaimers: I don’t really get to spend a lot of time on the internet just checking out sites, and when I do get the time, I like to make it count. I assume this is the case for most parents with young children. Because of these things, I felt it was important to share a quality site which is actually worth your time to sit down and explore.

On the website, you can find videos about potty training tips which are actually quite good. A real bonus is a free DVD on potty training which includes tips, songs and games designed to help your child breeze through the potty training experience. Even if you have a young infant, I’d suggest going online to get your free copy while supplies last. Eventually, you will be potty training your child!

One of the interesting things for me at least was a journal on the site started by Melissa Joan Hart to detail her potty training experiences with her son, Mason. My gosh I remember watching her show on Nickelodeon when I was a teenager. I guess I’m dating myself now, aren’t I?

The bottom line is that when you get a few moments to yourself while your baby is napping – check out the videos and get your free DVD. You may think that potty training is light years away, but the reality is that before you know it, your son or daughter will be ready to transition into big pants.

I received a copy of So Smart Sights and Sounds DVD and was anxious to check it out with my son. The DVD is produced by so smart! productions. Their work has won 30 national awards for educational products.

The DVD was designed for babies ages 3 months to 36 months, and is divided into 6 sections which allow you to tailor your viewing to your baby?s age and interest. It’s an interactive learning experience between parents and children. That means that the producers expect that the parent is sitting with the child while they are watching and pointing out the various shapes, colors and patterns that appear on the screen.

The DVD sections contain various line drawings which have been animated. The pace of the video is calm, and slow. The background music, all classical pieces, was my favorite part of the video to be truthful. My son enjoyed swaying back and forth and clapping his hands to the music too. The drawings begin with simple shapes like lines and circles, and then progress to more complex drawings such as people and fish. Some of the drawings are animated and move throughout the screen.

The DVD can also be used with a computer to print out story cards to further enhance the interactive learning experience. Sadly, the DVD on our computer is not working, and so I wasn?t able to use this option to explore what the story cards were all about.

I decided to test drive the DVD with my 13 month old son starting a few days ago. He is a very visually oriented child, and so I was excited to see how he might react. I personally found these videos to be very straining on my eyes. The contrasting colors, computer generated images, and the animation just really gave me a quick case of eye fatigue. I did make comments during the viewing session(Look at the rectangle?that color is red?can you sway to the music?) to try to keep my son interested. Despite my commentary and interaction with him, my son was marginally interested in the DVD. The music definitely interested him more than the images that appeared on the screen.

Overall, this is an excellent product which is well produced. Perhaps as my son becomes older, he will enjoy watching this DVD more. Right now, he?d rather sway to the background music while playing with his baby toys.

Up until a few years ago, I have been very against allowing my children to watch television. I never purchased movies for my oldest daughter who is now fourteen until she had reached age four. While television programs for children had come a long way from my childhood, I was still skeptical of so called ?educational television? and DVDs.

Today I had a chance to review a Baby Einstein DVD. Rather, I should say that my children had a chance to review it. I allowed this because thanks to advances in educational programming, children are learning more from DVDs and television than in years past. I must admit, I am glad I popped this into the player. Recipient of an American Baby Best of The Year Award, it has been voted as a product moms say they can?t live without. After viewing it with my children, I can agree!

Baby Einstein, Baby?s First Sounds-Discoveries for Little Ears is a fun, lighthearted DVD for babies aged 6 months and up. The program introduces little ones to sounds, the basic sounds of speech that we use everyday. ?Ah?, ?buh?, ?duh?, ?ee?, and ?mm?. Each sound is then connected to a simple word, easy for the child to understand especially if they are older than the 6 months stated as beginning age. My youngest child is eighteen months, but he loved every minute of this DVD. I was pleasantly surprised to watch and hear my little man imitating the sounds on this DVD. Unlike his sister who is 3 years old, he has not been using words strung together. He says one word at a time with some trouble on certain sounds. Key sounds being reinforced in a fun way with puppets, songs, and rhymes seemed to have a great impact on him.

His older sister, my 6 year old happens to be autistic and has some problems with certain sounds, much like her younger brother. She also enjoyed copying the sounds during the run of the DVD. For parents of children with special needs, I highly recommend the Baby Einstein, Baby?s First Sounds DVD. It appeals to children who love simple scenes and repetition.

The DVD is divided into 13 scenes, each accompanied by a song, sonata, or quartet. Most of the classical music is Mozart which has been suggested to help with intelligence development. Music is enjoyed by nearly all children, regardless of the impact on their I.Q. and this DVD has plenty of it for them.

Four bonus features are included, including a sneak peek at another DVD, Einstein Pals.

Any parent living on a budget surely appreciates entertainment that won’t burn a hole in the pockets. I don’t need to run down the list of how much a day at Chuck-E-Cheese, extra-curricular fees, a day trip to the fair for the family can cost. I mean, to go to the Texas Fair for just me and my little brother quickly ate away at what I thought was a lofty budget of $60. Simply put, entertaining kids are expensive.

Recently, I’ve just discovered the DVD rental system sent from heaven, or RedBox. This is a type of vending machine where you can rent your movie DVDs for, drumroll please, $1 a DVD ! You get charged an additional $1 per night, but even if you took 3 nights to finish 3 DVDs, that would only total $9 (plus tax). Compare to Blockbuster which charges me $3.42 per DVD. I consider that a steal.

We have a box in our local Albertson’s, and on a busy Saturday night where the local Blockbuster was out of a particular new release I wanted, RedBox had it. You can visit the website for more info as well as for locations. They have many kid-friendly movies in stock including ones I recommend Stardust, Ratatouille.

Are there any cons? Yes, there is no search function in the touch-screen interface, so you have to scroll through the movie lists, page by page, which can get cumbersome. Sometimes, you need to give that screen all the thumb-power you can give it when making the selection, which can get irritating. But at $1, I’ll take all that inconvenience.