A big thanks to Woot.com for sponsoring this post. They provided product and compensation but all the thoughts and opinions here are my own.

Is it just me or is everyone either having a baby or tending to a new one? I know so many people who are popping out children right now. Aside from thrusting my baby fever into a whole new dimension, the baby boom in my life is making me think a whole lot more about new baby gifts.

Like anyone else, I easily fall prey to cutesy blankets and stuffed animals and stuff. But—spoiler alert!—new mommas do not need another blanket no matter how cute you might think it is. I am so guilty of this (sorry sister-in-law) and am trying desperately to reform—after all, we want to give our friends and family gifts they’ll actually use, right?

Enter a baby gift basket chock full of essentials…

About an hour before the school bus rolls down the street every morning, if you listen very closely you can hear the collective groans and hair pulling of mothers everywhere as they try to fight their kids into presentable, weather appropriate outfits. Something that’s warm enough to ward off frostbite, yet pulled together enough to avoid implications of gross neglect.

If you don’t have kids or your kids are not quite old enough for an opinion on their personal style, trust me. The struggle is real.

Even my almost four-year old (who sometimes gets confused between shirts and dresses) is in on it. She likes to give me increasingly impossible hints as to the specific pieces she wants to pair together on a given day. Yesterday it was a dress with a dress (see also: sweater) over it, tights that were too small, and an additional sweater that I talked her out of. That was a good day. Today, I’m pretty sure she’s paying me back for being so agreeable by insisting on bright red pants and a lavender sweatshirt solely to injure my eyes.

And do not get me started on the eight year old. Let’s just say the girl is not intimidated by color or pattern. She slaps it all together in whatever way strikes her fancy on a particular day. She also doesn’t let me even think of doing anything with her hair.

We had so much fun the last time we did a contest with LittleHoots, I had to team up with them again to do another one in time for the holidays.

There’s nothing like the hilarious (or really sweet) outbursts of a kid to pull you out of a stressed tailspin and plant you firmly back in the moment. I don’t know about you, but I could use a good dose of  that right now in the middle of the holiday madness.

And this time you can win a canvas and an ornament!

The other day I was flipping through my (endless) Instagram feed and a picture of one of my friends and her kids at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter tugged at my momma heart strings. I really want to take the girls there—especially now that Samantha is devouring the books—and they desperately want to go. Disney is on that same list. Unfortunately, our budget and these places are just not on the same level.

Then Amazon Prime Instant Video asked us to check out new episodes of their show, Creative Galaxy. I didn’t think these two things could relate to one another, but they did.