Activities and Furniture

2 questions-

What is your favorite piece of baby furniture/gear, and what do you do all day with your kids (when you're home)? I figure the answer to both of these would be helpful to lots of moms.

Our favorite piece of baby gear is Leilani's baby table. It is by Babee Tenda, and replaces a high chair and a play pen. It supports baby properly, is safe (won't flip), and teaches baby to sit at a desk. She can play in it, eat in it, and sit in it while mommy washes dishes or cooks dinner. Also, it has wheels so it can move into any room, and is very easy to travel with. We brought it to grandma's house and it was fantastic to have somewhere to put her in every room!

http://www.babeetenda.com/safetabl.htm

it comes with tons of attachments if you want them- we didn't get any- just by itself it converts into a table with chair, or art table- pretty awesome....

At home, we read a lot, go for stroller walks with the dog, and of course the regular feeding, changing and bathing take up a lot of time... What else is there to do with a still-immobile baby?

Eliza, you crack me down!

Eliza, I'm sorry but that poop-everywhere story was hilarious. I'm sure it was NOT hilarious at the time. I bet it was one of those clean-up situations where you don't even know where to start, right? Whenever Maya pukes up her morning milk---it still happens occasionally---I have a moment of panic, like, "OK, my clothing, her clothing, and the couch are all dripping with toddler vomit right now. What the hell do I do first? Plop Maya in the tub? Strip us both nekkid? Attempt to soak up the puke that's quickly seeping into the cushions?"

I, too, have a poop story. It's a short one. One time Maya pooped on our living-room carpet in three places. I was letting her run around nude after her bath. Bad idea. She stopped in her tracks, shouted "Poop!" and then just let it rip. Took a few steps, let it rip again. Couple more steps, boom.

Also, I totally agree about buying quality diapers. We shell out for the Pampers here at Chez Kingsley.

-Maureen

Warehouse Club Diapers

Hey Ya'll, I just wanted to share a disgusting story that happened this morning...

A few days ago, I decided to try the diapers from BJ's Wholesale Club. I have been buying Pamper's Cruisers their and they had a coupon for their diapers which made a box of 170 diapers $20. I couldn't resist because Pampers are $35.

So, since I have purchased these, Marlee, 8 months, has wet through her diaper every night by 2am(and is not happy about it!) This morning was the kicker! I was on the phone with my mom when Marlee pulled up on the chair to greet me with a smile, she then took a big poo...well, she plopped on the floor and I continued to talk to my mom for about 5 minutes. I look down at her and see her hands...and they are COVERED in POOP!!! And then I got a look at the bigger picture...POOP was EVERYWHERE!!!! All over the floor, books, tea sets and most of all her...So, the moral of my story is....DON'T SKIMP ON DIAPERS!!!! But, I will say that the formula from Costco and BJ's is very good and if your baby is fine on regular Simalac or Enfamil, this is a great cost cutter...

Okay, that's all I have for now....Eliza

Hello Mamas!

Hello, Mamas!

I've been reading, never posted.
Took a sick day from work so that I can catch my breath, do laundry, go to Target(loved the poem, Mo), take a walk, and blog! We'll see how much I accomplish.
Anywho...I'm Mo in NC, looks like my kids are the oldest, Mary is 5, Jack is 3. Does this make me some kind of expert? OMG! I'm also 40 as of Sept.4th, so I'm a regular host of wise information.

I've enjoyed reading your questions and concerns, and here's my first comment. There are many questions and concerns to come!! You all sound like great Moms, you're doing great! It's funny how quickly I have forgotten about milk consumption and snacks. So if you want to remember stuff, WRITE IT DOWN! Keep a regular calendar in your kitchen and whenever your little one reaches a milestone or does something cute, jot it down. Then one of these years when you have time you can compile the info. That's my plan at least. I have no idea when my son's first tooth came in or what his first word was because I was going to write it down but I never did. But now I write down lots of stuff. Here's my second comment...

Don't be sad about your babies growing up. They get so much cuter, I swear! My Jack says something every hour that I have to write on the calendar. He's better than cable. Stuff like "you crack me down"-how precious is that! And my friends with older kids say that it keeps getting better. Once kids can do more for themselves you can relax a little more-take the baby gates down, take a shower, or pee with the door closed. 3 and 5 are my favorite ages right now.

Here's the 3rd thing..Don't keep all of your stuff! It mounts up too quickly. Use Craigslist to sell- I'm an addict! (Do you know about this? It's like e-bay, only local-no pesky shipping charges.) I remember gals selling stuff at yard sales and I was horrified, how could they sell their children's memories? 5 years later I'm giving stuff away weekly. Give, sell, donate, you'll feel great! I have 2500 sq feet and a 1200 sq ft attic full of kids stuff. I'm trying to only bring in new items if I get rid of something I don't need anymore. Good to rule if you have limited space-plus Christmas is coming.

Am I rambling? I know your time is limited, I'll stop for now. Have a great day. Remember that you ROCK!

Boast Post

I hope this isn't too unseemly, but I would like to share my excitement about a couple of new things Maya's been doing. Lately I'm just really proud of her for becoming such a big girl who can do all sorts of things! It's been so fun to watch---but also a bit bittersweet, because I'm alarmed at how quickly she's growing up. It's like everything just accelerated once she turned one year old.

Anyway, Seth successfully taught Maya to eat cereal and milk from a bowl, with a spoon! The two of them worked on it and worked on it for about two weeks, and now Maya eats cereal like a pro! Similarly, tonight at dinner she was scooping couscous onto her fork and bringing it to her mouth like it was no big deal. I was so impressed! Just last week she was smearing couscous around on her highchair tray with her fingers. (Yes, we eat a lot of couscous.)

Maya has also graduated to a big-girl cup for her daytime milk. She'd been using those disposable plastic cups with the removable lids, but this week she's started using an insulated tumbler-type cup. (Unfortunately it's plastered with The Little Mermaid characters. My choices were Ariel, Cars [the animated movie, not the eighties band], or Dora. There wasn't a plain-colored cup in sight.) She looooves the cup and is drinking more milk now.

Finally, Maya is singing like you wouldn't believe! And honestly, the girl stays on pitch better than I do. She sings snippets of Twinkle, Twinkle; Row, Row, Row Your Boat; Bringing Home My Baby Bumblebee; and three songs from her Laurie Berkner Band CD (thanks, April!). It's really, really fun to see her enjoying music so much.

OK, that's it. Just wanted to share my excitement...

Feel free to write a Boast Post of your own! I love hearing what everybody else's kids are up to.

-Maureen

Reasons not to freak out

Eileen,
There are plenty of things that suck about returning to work, definitely. But it doesn't all suck, in my opinion. Here are some things that I personally like about working (part-time, as you know). Maybe you will find some of these to be true for yourself, too!

-At the office, I can pee in peace and privacy (feels so luxurious)
-While working I'm less likely to obsess over Maya's health and well-being than when I'm at home watching her every move
-Interaction with a diverse mix of other adults
-The commute, believe it or not. It's 40 minutes to myself that I appreciate because it gives me some "alone time" to think, talk on the phone, listen to talk radio, etc.
-Having a whole hour to leisurely eat lunch, by myself if I want!
-Or, some days, having a whole lunch hour to run the kinds of errands that are difficult to run with Maya in tow
-Feeling like I still have one foot in the professional world
-Solving business-related problems, enjoying professional achievements
-Really, really savoring the time I have with Maya when I get home in the evenings---even if she's a cranky mess, I'm so thrilled to see her that the crankiness just rolls off me (not so on the days I'm home with her, when the crankiness can really wear me down)

Having typed all of that, however, I don't think I would necessarily keep working if Seth were to sell a screenplay for bunches of dollars, or if we won the lottery or something. I'm pretty sure I would want to try staying at home with Maya, see how it goes...

But enough about me! Best of luck to you on the job search! Keep us posted.

Pre-Going Back to Work Freak Out

Hi Mommas!

So, I'm going back to work in January- Leilani will be almost 9 months old and will start day-care. I'm starting a massive job search now... casting a wide net to see what offers I may get.

Although I'm very comfortable with the idea of Leilani going to day-care at 8+ months, I'm pretty stressed (early and unnecessary, I know) about how it will all work out- going back to work, "leaving" her, work/life balance, how the schedule will work, having enough time with her, etc.

Any tips on how to manage the going back to work bit, the day-care bit, and the freaking out bit?

Milk consumption

Hi girls,

So I'm finally an official blog-user! (so not tech savvy - I know). About the milk thing - Isabella is 20 months old and consumes about 2-3 cups of milk a day (her pediatrician seemed happy with that at her 18 month check up). She has a sippy cup of milk before bed (then we brush teeth after), a sippy cup when she wakes up to hold her over until breakfast (the girl wakes up way too early!), and some milk with her cereal.