Family Friday: 3-In-1 Smart Snail Sound & Routine Machine
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Based on an informal survey of my parent friends, sleep (or more accurately, lack of sleep) is the number-one issue. Here’s a cute sleep trainer that might help your reluctant sleeper (or early riser).
This cute little snail comes with several pre-programmed bedtime and routine light/sound combinations. You can even create your own custom programs with the numerous light, music, and nature/white noise options.
My oldest has a simpler version of this snail, and before she could tell time, she would play quietly in her room until her clock turned green, signaling that it was OK to exit her room. It definitely bought us a little extra (and much-needed) sleep.
Skip Hop’s 3-in-1 Smart Snail Snail Sound & Routine Machine is $50 at Nordstrom.
Sales of note for 9.10.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; up to 50% off everything else
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off wear-to-work styles; extra 30% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 40-60% off everything; extra 60% off clearance
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Extra 40% off sale styles
- Talbots – BOGO 50% everything, includes markdowns
- Target – Car-seat trade-in event through 9/28 — bring in an old car seat to get a 20% discount on other baby/toddler stuff.
- Zappos – 26,000+ women’s sale items! (check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kids’ shoe brands on sale)
Kid/Family Sales
- Carter’s – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off all baby; up to 40% off all Halloween
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Extra 30% off sale styles
- Old Navy – 40% off everything
- Target – BOGO 25% off select haircare, up to 25% off floor care items; up to 30% off indoor furniture up to 20% off TVs
We have a play date tomorrow at 530 pm, because that’s when the mom could bring the kid (she works weekends). I think the mom is staying, but not 100% sure. Either way is fine with us. We should serve dinner, right? I’ve never had a play date at this time, and I don’t want to be a bad host but also don’t want to ruin the kid’s appetite if they were planning family dinner later (dad and several siblings are not coming).
Related to some of the conversations yesterday about feeling overwhelmed…lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how impossible it is to do EVERYTHING the “right” way for your kids — that each of us have to make deliberate choices about what we prioritize and what we do not, and that is one thousand percent okay. But sometimes it feels like other people ARE doing everything. What would you all think about sharing some of the things that your family has chosen NOT to prioritize (at least for now), without any justification or explaining (because it isn’t necessary — we are all allowed to make the choices that work for our family without justifying them to others). I thought it might help to see that even if it seems like everyone else is doing everything perfectly, that’s not the case — we all deliberately drop some balls.
Here are some of my balls that I have dropped into a deep, deep pit: Exposing my kids to new foods, spending significant time with them in nature (e.g. camping and hiking), literally any sports at all, consistently involving them in chores, deliberately practicing academic skills at home, enforcing table manners (my kindergartener still refuses to use a fork, sigh). Someday I may go get some of those balls but for now this is where we are.
Where are my moms of 7/8 year olds with ADHD? I’m here to celebrate a small win while the celebrating is good.
My 2nd grade adhd kiddo with major sleep issues that I posted ad nauseum about as she wrapped up 1st grade with near daily meltdowns, protesting school, the works, started school this week. Summer was better than the end of school but not great and we were bracing for impact when school started last week.
YOU GUYS.
I think aliens came and did a body swap in August. She’s been….perfect. Not just “perfect for her” but like, better than my other neurotypical kids on a good day.
She’s been *putting herself to bed* on time, heck even early. Lays out her outfit the night before, is often up before her alarm and dressed with a smile on her face. She’s been pleasant, even keeled with her siblings, long fuse on her typically short temper. Eating well. No meltdowns at all since mid august. Reports “it’s hard but I’m not even very fidgety at school. More wiggly than some of the other kids but for me not fidgety at all.” Is excited about activities starting back up, willingly wore soccer cleats (a. Massive hurdle we overcame via 74638472 try ons over 3 weeks until we found an Acceptable Pair). Sits at the table to eat, doesn’t get up 4736294 times, engages in pleasant talk and eats what we serve or politely asks for an alternative (which we allow for all the kids).
I don’t know what it is. But DH and I are soaking in every moment of it because we know what it can (and will) be like when she’s not having a good week but OH MAN is this awesome. We can’t figure out what we’ve/she’s done, other than we’ve gotten into a really nice cycle of bedtime and good sleep, and we’ve added in 10-15 minutes of outside time before the bus comes to let her burn some energy. We let her veg in front of the tv after school but switched to a “no screens after dinner” policy and try and get the kids outside for 15 minutes after dinner. She looks forward to school in part I think because I think she’s hit the age where she’s made real friends and a few are in her class and on her bus. We also have a K kiddo* so there is an element of “big sister” behavior in play which seems to be a good thing for her.
I think like when “it’s bad it’s really bad” with her, when it’s good it’s really good? I’m seriously considering a lotto ticket.
*K kiddo is an age appropriate hot mess and my 4th grader is a moody tween who won’t go to bed on time and wakes up super grouchy and emotional but I’ll take those battles any day over what we had with middle kiddo last spring!
My MIL calls my two year old daughter “baby cakes” and “baby doll” and “doll baby” and “angel.” It drives me crazy and I’m trying to figure out why. I don’t like MIL so I might simply be at the point where innocuous things irritate me, plus I’m just not into cutesy nicknames. But I’m also annoyed at the overly gendered nicknames I think. Like no she’s a kid, not a doll or an angel. Would these names bother anyone else or am I being wayyyyyy too sensitive?
Not trying to #humblebrag here, just looking for practical advice: DS is almost 5yo and consistently one of the more outgoing kids in his classes. He’s very social, very energetic, very vocal, and (for his age anyway) a good playmate. I think because of this a lot of other kids seem to consider him their best friend. As in, multiple moms have sent me videos of their kid talking about DS and how much they miss him when they’re not at school together. A mom from our old school just texted me asking if we would attend her kid’s upcoming birthday, b/c her kid misses DS so much. Etc etc. We haven’t seen some of these friends in months, and these are kids that DS has never once mentioned. It makes me happy that so many other kids consider DS to be a good friend, but it’s a little overwhelming and hard to know what our obligation should be. DH and I are introverts so we’re in foreign territory here. Has anyone else navigated this? I’m not always sure what to say, and I don’t really want to sign up to attend a thousand birthday parties for both our new and old schools.
We talk about K kids having meltdowns the first week of school, but can *I* have a meltdown for a moment? I’ve just spent the last 1.5 hours either:
-getting kids out the door
-standing out front waiting for the bus
-and finally dropping kids off at 2 different school campuses (and dispatching the other kids at our stop to get their grownups, whom I don’t know as we just moved) because the bus never showed up.
I’ve heard this is typical of the first week in large city systems where the buses have to do two shifts, but this is our third or fourth bus mishap this week. Sigh.