The Biz: The Grapevine

Babies amuse themselves with the simplest objects. Anything that rattles, rolls, dangles or squeaks suggests amusement park-like fun to little ones! Children have an inherent ability to uncover joy through simple pleasures, an ability that can be easily lost in adulthood. Adults, for example, look at a man’s necktie as simply a clothing accessory. However, in the eyes of a child, dad’s tie is an exhilarating plaything! With creative inspiration, Smart Mom, LLC introduces a tie designed for child’s play — the Babe Magnet: a tie that babies can enjoy safely, and dad can wear stylishly.

Young boys and girls love to enter the world of knights, princesses, heroes and villains. Even with the most active imaginations, every story is made more exciting when children can experience the fantasy coming to life in active, surprising and hands-on ways. The pop-up series of classic stories published by Simon and Schuster presents favorite tales in an engaging way that makes reading an adventure! With the upcoming release of the newest title in the collection — Beauty and the Beast — parents can build a keepsake library of children’s literature.

Oh, mama! Mixing cute and functional is no problem for little girls and their mamas when “Lillibands™” or “LilliWear™” is printed on their clothing tags…not that anyone needs to look at the tags, because the products speak for themselves! Lillibands and LilliWear are ingenious products created by a mother who has solved the daily dilemma of dressing a little girl and keeping her cute, clean, and comfortable for any occasion. That mother is Jen Newman. Using her appreciation of folk art, and passion for fashion and sewing as raw materials, Jen invented Lillibands, the headbands with an elastic underside that stay in place.

Josiah has an important question.

In fact, all of the young rats in Professor Perimeter’s class — a class designed to teach ‘bad’ rats to be more “normal,” — have the same pressing question. Josiah (a bright eyed aspiring painter), Sarah (a ballet dancer with grace down to the tip of her tail), and Priscilla (a singer with a voice far bigger than expected and who is particularly fond of bright scarves) all want to know, “Why am I bad?”