Come and find all your holiday gifts at Appel and Frank's Stockings & Stilettos shopping event on Wednesday, December 8, from 5 to 9 pm at the Regency Center's Sutter Room, 1270 Sutter Street (at Van Ness) in San Francisco. There will be variety of unique gifts from more than 70 talented designers at discounted prices. Shop for fabulous jewelry, clothing, accessories while enjoying complimentary wine, beauty services, goodie bags, and a raffle.

Admission is normally $10, but Marin Mommies readers can them at the special price of $7 with the code MARINMOMMIES at www.appelandfrank.com or at the door. Secure your goodie bag by purchasing your tickets online (quantities are limited).

This guest post is from Fertility Expert, Dr. Lee Kao of Laurel Fertility Care, a local fertility practice with offices in Mill Valley, San Francisco, and Modesto. Visit them online at www.laurelfertility.com.

The journey to conceiving for child number two (or more) can be stressful and difficult. However, parents can make small changes and help grow their parenthood dreams. Below are some suggested tips from Dr. Lee Kao of Laurel Fertility Care to help grow your fertility success:

1. Take daily multiple vitamins at least three months prior to attempting pregnancy. Vitamins like folic acid, a B-complex vitamin, helps produce red blood cells and facilitates cell production and division. Research has shown that intake of folic acid reduces pregnancy complications like preeclampsia, certain kinds of anemia, and Neural Tube Defects. It also facilitates healthy fetus growth through reducing Neural Tube Defects.

Fans of Jane O'Connor's popular series of Fancy Nancy books won't be surprised to learn that Nancy considers Christmas to be a splendiferous time of year. Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas(32 pages, HarperCollins, 2009) follows its fancy character through the holiday season as she makes cookies, decorates the tree (too much tinsel? No way!), goes caroling, and awaits the arrival of her beloved grandfather.

Tragedy of sorts strikes when Nancy insists on putting her prized fancy tree topper on the Christmas tree. But all is made well with a little help from Grandpa. With colorful and appropriately fancy illustrations by Robin Preiss Glasser, Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas will appeal to its target preschool through first grade audience, who may even pick up a few new vocabulary words after reading this book.

Writer and illustrator Loren Long's Drummer Boy (40 pages Philomel, 2008) is a fresh take on a classic holiday story. The harrowing journey of the titular character, a little toy drummer boy, serves to both affirm the Christmas spirit and to tug on the heartstrings. The toy drummer boy appears mysteriously on a child's doorstep before Christmas. He's accidentally tossed in the trash, and undergoes an arduous, sometimes frightening journey to reunite with the child. All the while he plays his drum, which seems to have a calming and reassuring effect on all whom he meets.

Long's paintings are colorful and luminous, and help draw you into the simple heartwarming story. Our children, ages 4-1/2 and 7, loved the book, but some parts—including the appearance of a big rat, a hungry owl, and the abandonment of the frightened drummer boy in the cold snowy weather—might be a little scary for younger or more sensitive kids. Ultimately, there's a happy ending with an inspiring holiday message. We think it's a Christmas classic! Find Drummer Boy at your library, or buy it from your local bookstore or Amazon.com.

Olivia, everyone's favorite precocious piglet, lends her family a hand in preparing for Christmas in Ian Falconer's hysterical Olivia Helps with Christmas (58 pages, Atheneum, 2007). You'll probably recognize a few of your family's holiday traditions among the ones that Olivia helps hers with (and "help" doesn't necessarily mean "being helpful", which most parents already know…). Untangling Christmas lights, trimming the tree, leaving a snack for Santa Claus, and of course impatiently awaiting Santa's impending arrival are all covered here.

Naturally, this Olivia book wouldn't be an Olivia book without our porcine protagonist's antics such as feeding baby brother William blueberry pie (with messy results), amazingly finding a perfect little table-top Christmas tree, and recoiling in horror as her father prepares to build a fire in the fireplace and potentially roast Santa!

Every parent knows that finding a truly great toy can be a challenge, especially when you're trying to find one that's not only fun, but educational as well. For this 2010 holiday season the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) has again helped take the guesswork out of toy shopping by compiling their annual Best Toys for Kids list! Nominated and voted on by the toy experts who are members of the ASTRA, the list of winners features a wide variety of toys for just about every age group imaginable. There's an emphasis here on good old-fashioned imaginitive play and fun, so you can feel good about buying these for your children.

We're also happy to see some local companies represented here, like Emeryville's Folkmanis Puppets and San Francisco's Green Toys, Inc.

This guest article is by Marin County therapist, writer, and mom Lisa Brookes Kift, MFT.

If you’re married with children—and your life is a whirling dervish of chaos as you struggle to keep all of the balls in the air—this is for you. In all that you do for your kids, career and hopefully self, are you forgetting anyone? Is there a special person who no longer gets the amount and quality of attention they used to “pre-kids?” Hmmm???

I’ve heard it over and over. Couples come into my office disconnected in their marriages and upon closer inspection, it’s revealed that after children landed on their radar, their relationship changed. As reasonable and expected as this is when children arrive on the scene, many forget to return to caring for their marriages. The reality is your relationship needs care in order for your family to thrive.

If you live in Novato or spend time there, especially around the holidays, you can't help but notice the beautiful horse-drawn carriages traversing the length of Grant Avenue, and making their way around town in search of the most magnificent holiday light displays. These classy but decidedly old-fashioned vehicles are owned and operated by Novato resident Gary Sello and his Indian Valley Carriage Company. If you're looking for a family outing in Marin that is truly unique, fun, and stress-free, then you should consider the offerings of Indian Valley Carriage.

Based in Novato's rural Indian Valley neighborhood, Gary and Indian Valley Carriage operate several different carriages, including a formal black and maroon vis-à-vis (where up to six passengers sit facing each other), a three-seat surrey (with a fringe on top!) that can carry four to six passengers, and a large covered wagon that seats up to twelve.

This guest article is by Marin orthodontist Dr. Don Wilson.

The American Association of Orthodontists recommends that all children have an orthodontic screening no later than age seven (or earlier if there are indications of a problem).

Why age seven? By the age of seven, most children’s first adult molars have erupted, establishing the back bite. Also, most children’s incisors have begun to erupt so that alignment problems and facial asymmetries can be detected.

Age seven is the best time for an orthodontist to evaluate your child’s bite and jaw relationships, check for functional shifts, and evaluate front-to-back and side-to-side tooth relationships. Untreated malocclusions (bad bites) can result in a variety of problems…

• Crowded teeth—More difficult to brush and floss properly, which may contribute to tooth decay and/or gum disease
• Protruding teeth—More susceptible to accidental chipping
• Crossbite—May result in unfavorable growth and uneven tooth wear
• Openbite—May result in tongue-thrusting habits and speech impediments
• Appearance—Crooked teeth, a poor facial profile, and/or speech impediment can damage your child’s self-confidence and self-esteem

Generations of children and their parents love the classic Curious George books authored by the husband-and-wife team of Margret and H. A. Rey. This fall, San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum (the CJM) presents the fascinating exhibition Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey, which opens on Sunday, November 14, 2010 and runs through March 13, 2011.

The story of the Reys is an adventure in itself. H. A. Rey (born Hans Augusto Reyersbach, 1898–1977) and Margret Rey (née Margarete Waldstein, 1906–1996) were both born in Hamburg, Germany, to Jewish families. They lived together in Paris in the late 1930s, and fled Europe after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, eventually settling in New York City by way of Brazil. They went on to publish over 30 books, including their iconic series about the little monkey with insatiable curiosity (and his friend the Man with the Yellow Hat, of course).