Color-your-own backpacks and bags that let your kids be the designer
Any parent who has walls, floors, tables, refrigerators, windows, or slips of important paperwork knows: If it’s even slightly colorable, a kid will color it. So having extra things around that are supposed to be colored is always a good idea, and that’s just one of the reasons we’re all over the back-to-school coloring accessories from a CMP favorite company, OMY Design + Play.
Related: Crazy-affordable back-to-school gear for preschoolers
OMY is a cool woman-owned Parisian business that creates color-your-own items like placemats, puzzles, and posters with fantastically fun graphics. And now it’s bringing your kids creativity to a new line of color-your-own school accessories like a cotton backpack and belly bag — which, for the record, is an A+ rebranding of the term “fanny pack.”
The site says to use its ultra-washable felt pens for best coloring results — they wash out of fabrics and off of skin with a little soap and water. This does make me wonder about what happens when a kid schleps a fully-colored backpack to school on a rainy day, and whether you’d rather them use something more permanent. That’s up to you.
The prices are great, by the way — the color-your-own tote, for example? Just $6.67. But of course your kids’ own artwork is priceless.
You can order OMY’s entire line of fun color-your-own backpacks and school accessories at the site. If the backpack is sold out for now, it’s available online from The Tot.
I never thought twice about diapering my son with the eco-not-so-conscious disposable diaper. I have to admit, I thought that cloth diapers were still big cotton towels that required safety pins, manual dexterity, and a whole lot of free time.
Don’t get any sick ideas, dear readers. We’ve all seen our share of those softies and we certainly don’t need a stuffed one of THOSE laying around the house. 
When my 3 year old was a newborn we planned a trip to Europe and before I could say auf viedersehn, my brain pictured all the filthy traveling potties we would encounter while changing her diaper.