Chairs that shrink as your child grows. At first glance, the idea seems ridiculous. After all, your child's getting bigger; why would you want their seats to get smaller?

Two designers—Charlotte Friis and Maartje Steenkamp—have come up with intriguing products that try to answer that question.

Friis has created her Children's Paper Chair as both seat and entertainment. As the toddler grows into childhood, the paper level decreases, and as a result, your child is always sitting at the right height.

Sow some seeds. If you're lucky, you have a small yard. But for many of us, the dream of backyard greenery is just that: A dream. So there's little chance of having your child help you tend to a non-existent garden.

Egglings may be a great first step in teaching your child about growing their own food.

Art for all. For those who rent their homes and whose landlords are rather particular about painting the walls, decals are often the best option for a nice mural or some wall art in your child's room. They're available in a plethora of styles and colors, and if you decide you don't like the design after a while, just peel off the stickers and you're done redecorating.

Here are some of our favorite designs:
•Girl with butterflies by Apple Pie Design
•Fish by Wallter
•L'arbrador by Ugly Home
•Apples by notNeutral and blik
•Dottilicious by Wallcandy Arts
•Dino sticker by dVider
•Cloud by blik
•Grazeland by Wallcandy Arts
•Hybrid by Antoine + Manuel for Urban Outfitters
•Le Petit Train by Acte-Deco

• Stendig child's chair: Looks like fun to sit on.

• Wood chicken farm: Charming little vintage set from Italy.

• Creative Playthings Rocking Horse: Beautiful, but not cheap.

• Cosco child's chair: Very cool child's chair topped with a mod-print fabric.

The kind of pop-ups we like. Sculpture in a book, pop-ups have always seemed to us like 3-D pieces of art on the page.

So on a rainy day when you're stuck inside, why not try making your own as a fun family activity?

The process is less messsy than say, finger paints, and it involves materials you have around the house: Scissors, paper, a pencil, and glue.

Modern mobiles. From our first college art class introduction to the mobiles of Alexander Calder, we fell in love with dangling sculptures and the way objects moved and twirled in the air suspended from thin wires.

But many mobiles for kids can be rather precious, and we wanted a modern mobile appropriate for a nursery that both our son and we would appreciate.

So we were delighted to come across the beautiful creations of Los Angeles-based artist, Helene Ige.

Though Ige makes more grown-up mobiles, there are also some good choices to hang in a child's room.

• Lucky baby: Twostraightlines shows some pictures of her soon-to-be-born baby's serene nursery.

•Arts versus Crafts: A thoughtful essay on how a non-crafty mom from In the Trenches of Motherhood encourages art exploration in her kids.

•Ben af Schulten-designed high chair: Crumb Catchers shows a beautiful Finnish high chair for Artek.

•Print Pattern highlights Freckleface cards: Cute enough they might help inspire your child to write thank you notes.

How expensive is it to raise a child? Obviously, it depends on a number of factors: Income level, location, credit line. So we were interested to read a WSJ article via Daddytypes that discusses just that.

Unfortunately, we think the article seems more attuned to highlighting extremes than discussing overall norms.

The article features such stories as a mother who paid $1,000 for her five year old's Little Mermaid-themed pool party (replete with an appearance from a former beauty queen dressed as Ariel), $60,000 backyard pools, and a big kid bed from Pottery Barn that costs over $2,000.

All kids love marbles. And most children also enjoy blocks: stacking, sorting, and constructing.

So what could be better than a toy that combines marbles with building?

Swiss company cuboro has created sets of beech wood blocks that do just that. Nicely natural wooden blocks fit together in all kinds of configurations to create sliding, turning, and twisting runs for marbles.

Alysa sent us an email:

"We need to divide our bedroom from our sons crib.

We would prefer to not put up a wall and do do something less permanent and more creative. any ideas????

Thank you!

Alysa"