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My house is overrun with toys. Instead of trying to hide them all, maybe I should just own it with these acrylic wall storage pockets.
Turn your kids’ collections into wall art by mounting a few of these storage pockets in their room or play area. Use them to stash art supplies, Legos, figurines, model cars — the list could go on and on. As an added bonus, your kids can see, find, and hopefully put away their own things.
These wall storage pockets are $99 at Pottery Barn.
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(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
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Kid/Family Sales
- Carter’s – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
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Anonymous says
I failed the 1-hr GD screening and am scheduled to take the 3-hr test in 2 weeks. I’m so bummed… I know it’s premature to worry since I could pass the 3-hr test, but I’m already getting really grumpy about the possibility of constant dieting/monitoring for 4+ months! Any advice?
anon says
I didn’t have GD but had a few conditions that made me at very high risk for it so I basically just ate a GD diet my entire pregnancy. It’s really not that bad! It’s overall just a healthy diet with plenty of options and variety. The monitoring would be annoying and no advice there, but the diet itself is totally fine and doable.
Anonymous says
+1. I would be more annoyed about having to take the 3-hour screening than about the diet.
Anon says
Don’t suffer twice. You may not have gestational diabetes at all. So many women fail the one hour when everything is fine – which is why some researchers and clinicians are pushing the US to adopt the more diagnostic two-hour test instead. I understand the impulse and I’m going to be facing my own test in just a few short weeks, but I’m reminding myself that things are most likely fine and if they’re not, I’ll adapt to the hardship just like I’ve adapted to every other hardship.
govtattymom says
I failed the 1-hr glucose test but passed the 3-hr test. I think that is pretty common. Fingers crossed for you!
anon says
I also failed the 1 hour and got grumpy in anticipation of failing the 3 hour. And then I passed the 3 hour. And I know others who also failed the 1 hour and passed the 3 hour. So truly think of it as just as likely you will pass and it’s just the unpleasantness of the 3 hour test.
Anon says
It’s pretty common to fail the 1 hour and pass the 3 hour. It happened to many people I know.
Anon says
I am pregnant with my second baby and I failed the one hour test with my first and again with my second. I passed the three hour test both times as well. Just try to take it one step at a time. Please try not to worry because you might pass the three hour and this could be a blip on your radar during this pregnancy. Lots of women fail the one hour and then pass the three hour. If you do end up having GD, just know that there are tons of great resources available to you!
Anon says
I’ve twice failed the 1-hr and then passed the 3-hr. How far off were your 1-hr numbers? If you were within 10 points I wouldn’t stress; a lot of people I know who did have GD failed by like 40 points or more. The longer test is annoying, but I tried to think of it as 3 hours to sit and rest/do what I wanted and it wasn’t so bad
anon says
I’m the opposite of these posters – I had GD twice. In a lot of ways I was grateful – I learned a lot about diet and how my body processes sugars and it was interesting in retrospect. The finger prickings were the worst. But you kind of block it out in the end. If you do have it, there are a lot of resources and it won’t be too bad, promise. Also you don’t really diet – you just move around food. For example, I could eat an ice cream before bed (full fat, it actually helped my sugar overnight) but milk in my coffee in the morning would spike me. So it’s all about balance and timing and things.
Anon says
This was me. I failed the 3 hour by literally one point but I was 40 and they said it was too close for comfort. I learned so much from the nutritionist. I did not need insulin and was able to control with diet. I also gained very little weight (was not overweight to start). My diet was way too heavy on the carbs and it was a major wake up call. Nearly 7 years later I still rely on a lot of the strategies – Greek yogurt and nuts for protein, watch the white foods, etc. I am also not someone who likes a lot of meat and it was doable for me.
Anonymous says
+1. I had GD and had to monitor. It’s annoying but ended up benefitting me in the long run because I only gained ~25-30 lbs and went right back down to my pre-pregnancy weight after birth. I was 37 so didn’t have the benefit of my youthful 20s to attribute to the bounce back.
Anon says
I failed the 1 hr test at 16 weeks and ended up doing the 3 hour test twice. I was super nervous about it given I have a parent with type 2 diabetes that’s been a struggle to manage. I was surprised to pass the 3 hour test both times!
What did help my mind though, I looked up some videos of women posting their what I eat in a day with GD. I learned it really wasn’t that bad. I ended up trying to mimic a GD diet anyway (ex. eating snacks with proteins, etc.) I think it helped me avoid gaining as much weight as I did with a previous pregnancy.
anon says
agree with everyone else, I did not have official GD but for a variety of health reasons in my second pregnancy decided to act as though I did – Real Food for Gestational Diabetes by Lily Nichols was very helpful and I felt so much better than in my first pregnancy. It was very eye-opening to see how much some small shifts made a big difference. In fact, I liked it so well that in my third pregnancy I skipped the GD test altogether (ugh, I hate it) and just ate and monitored my blood sugar as though I had GD.
Anon says
And about 20% of women who pass the 3 hour still have GD. I would focus more on what’s healthiest for your baby (ensuring your blood glucose is well controlled through pregnancy) vs a temporary inconvenience.
Signed, a person who passed three hour but still most likely had GD for her first pregnancy (and a baby who was big and hypoglycemic in the hospital, excessive swelling and was induced due to hypertension) and subsequently self diagnosed with GD using finger pricks for subsequent pregnancies (treated GD resulted in with normal sized babies, no neonatal hypo in hospital and kids with less chance of developing diabetes later in life).
GD is unpredictable – I am normal BMI, no family history of type 2, exercise regularly, normal A1c between pregnancies and yet have had it 3x.
Anon says
20% of women who pass the three hour still have GD. I was that 20% for my first pregnancy and had complications and my child likely will have higher chance of diabetes’s later in life. Two subsequent pregnancies I also passed 3 hour but finger prick testing showed I had GD. I ended up needing insulin with both.
Having well controlled glucose is one of the best things you can do to prevent complications at birth and lower your child’s risk of developing type 2 as an adult. For me it was worth the diet and monitoring and insulin to ensure that for them.
Vicky Austin says
Same thing happened to me – right down to the worry about failing the 3hr test, which I passed. It’ll be okay!
GD says
I had GD first pregnancy, and it was honestly the best thing that happened to me. The GD diet cleared up my lingering nausea and made my cravings manageable; my sleep and bowels both re-regulated; I got an extra ultrasound at 35 weeks that was covered by insurance; and I remained fully diet controlled until birth and have had no issues since. I was shocked by how many of the “pregnancy discomforts” I was experiencing were actually GD symptoms. Third trimester was, by far, the easiest trimester I had. The adjustment period was tough, and I found that I had to do trial and error for a few weeks until I found the right approach for me.
All of the above is total luck—my placenta was just less mean to me than another woman’s might’ve been—but I think it’s not an uncommon experience. I hope that if you do have GD, you also find that it has surprising positive side effects (and that the diet is manageable once you’ve adjusted).
Help! One Year Old Gift! says
Help! My baby turns one in a month and I need birthday gift ideas. He has a male sibling two years older and we are privileged to be chock full of toys, ride ons, books, and puzzles. His interests include music (loves his brother’s banjo and ukulele, all the drums, tambourines, shakers) and remote controls (specifically the Roku), and books (especially Baby Faces). I want to make him feel special (and show our older that his brother gets special gifts too) but I am totally stuck.
Anon2 says
A Toniebox? All my kids, but especially my music-loving one, have enjoyed it and play their music all day. I’ve made several of the “create your own” Tonies with playlists of our favorite songs.
Other ideas: radio flyer walker wagon, Schleich animals, a new outdoor bouncy ball (Crocodile Creeks has some nice ones), his own beach/pool towel.
And I have three boys, I know the struggle…my poor third gets the bottom of the barrel gifts at this point, lol.
Help! One Year Old Gift! says
I love the idea of new balls. He actually said the word ball this morning for the first time!
I’ve also had my eyes on the radio flyer push wagon. He’s much more mobile than my first at this age and I think he’d get a kick out of it.
The Tonie Box looks great … I’ve almost gotten it a number of times… but his older brother will definitely appropriate it and I want to steer clear of that situation.
OP says
I wrote out a whole comment but now I can’t see it. Thank you very much for your ideas!!!
Cerulean says
We have a Yoto and my mom has a Toniebox at her house, and I vastly prefer the Yoto because the cards are much easier to store and bring along.
Anon2 says
We also have both, but our Toniebox mostly stays in one spot in our playroom, next to a tray of Tonies. Occasionally it gets moved around the house. I find it has more music options for purchase, and is easier for tiny kids to use (my 6-month-olds put the Tonies on, and they wouldn’t be able to be as independent with the Yoto and cards).
We have the Yotos for my older kids, and they have a lot more audiobook options. We use them in the car all the time, and the older boys take them into their rooms for listening
Anon says
Do you have a play kitchen? Water table? Little grocery cart or stroller to push around?
Help! One Year Old Gift! says
All fabulous ideas but yes we do! This is a hard task I realize. Maybe I just do a duplicative gift?
Momofthree says
What about personalized things with his name in them? Towel, robe, chair to watch tv, plate, maybe a step stool with his name on it.
One thing we did for my kids for Christmas one year was a book personalized based on their name (Wonderbly was what we used but also “I See Me” is showing up in searches)
OP says
Great ideas!! Thank you!
Anon says
I was also going to suggest a chair (like the Pottery Barn one) or a step stool with his name on it.
OP says
Such good ideas. Thank you so much.
We got those as baby gifts. I am laughing at this because while it’s so wonderful and we are so lucky to have all these beautiful gifts, it means I have to be extra creative now. Those are my favorite gifts to give others too!!
OP says
Thinking of Pottery Barn Kids, do kids outgrow those nursery rockers really quickly? That’s one thing we don’t have so I feel like he might love it.
An.On. says
Our family does personalized photo books for the babies around 1 year old. Board book style, pictures of relatives and then also ABC books with photos of their own lives/toys.
TheElms says
Make him a personalized book with pictures of himself doing favorite activities. Artifact Uprising does board books where you upload the pictures and add text. (I’m thinking it would be like a Loveevery book but about your son). Do you have Brio? You can buy the motorized engines so once a track is built the train just goes around and round. A simple remote control car? Fat Brain Toys Air Toobz? (You’d have to build it but a 1 year old could retrieve the balls). Fat Brain Toys Spin Again – my 2 year old has loved this since around age 1 and sometimes the 5 year old even plays with it.
anon says
A baby doll or big stuffie? My little boy started to take an interest in caretaking between 1yo and 2yo.
OP says
These are all so wonderful! Thank you so much!!!! Lots of creative ideas to choose from that I hadn’t thought of before.
GD says
My daughter loved bells at that age—could you get a set of hand bells that are just his?
Anonymous says
I’m ready to start doing some travel with my kids – what are some good places for us to consider? I’d love to go somewhere warm over the holidays and the kids will be 2 and 4 by then, although I know that’s a crazy time to travel. For context, my husband and I loved traveling to France, Portugal, Italy, and some US national parks pre kids and will be flying out of DC.
Anonymous says
We did New Orleans over Christmas with a 3 year old, and it was pretty fun. Mild weather, zoo and aquarium, and good food! We stayed in the Garden District walking distance from a playground and a doughnut shop and usually spent the mornings around there. I think it’s the off-season there so it wasn’t too crowded either.
Anon says
Was the donut shop District Donuts? I love that place!
Anon says
For the winter holidays with preschoolers, I’d recommend a Caribbean beach resort with a kid’s club. There are oodles of options in Mexico, DR and Jamaica (although the latter currently has a state dept level 3 warning) and more limited options on other islands. The Beaches resort on Turks and Caicos is great for families if you have the budget and can deal with the terrible airport.
We also loved visiting Europe, especially Italy, with little kids, but December/January is not the right time to go.
Anon4this says
Took similar aged kids to Atlantis and it was great (but no kids club – my kids would not go to a kids club anyway so this was not a factor for us). We stayed in the Reef ( so had a kitchenette) and loved the giant zero entry pool for our 18 month old. She was in heaven and could spend hours in the pool running in and out. The beach/ocean was lovely and calm as well and my 4 year old loved swimming in the ocean for the first time. The fish come right up to your feet! We went in August so it was blazing hot but manageable. I would check that it would be warm enough for you in December but otherwise it was a great little kids trip.
Anon says
2 and 4 had a great time in Italy this spring! Ate lots of pasta and bread and gelato, played at cool Euro playgrounds, and generally toured. We skipped art museums and kept the itinerary spare. It was wonderful!
Anon says
I’m sure this is kid-dependent, but I was actually surprised at how well art museums went with kids relative to other “grown up” experiences such as theater and nice restaurants. Art museums were manageable (for short visits) beginning around age 3.5-4, and I have a fairly squirmy kid who had a short attention span at that age. The fact that they don’t have to sit still makes it easier than a lot of other things, I think.
In Italy you can also find a lot of kid-focused tour of museums with guides who will engage your kids with things like themed coloring books and scavenger hunts.
GD says
Savannah and Charleston are both easily accessible from DC, temperate (but not warm) in the winter, and you could opt to drive if it proves easier for you. I have not personally done them with kids, but I’d think they are family friendly.
Anon says
Birthday gift ideas for 4 year old boys? The parents are very well off and buy their kids a ton of stuff, and he also has two older sisters so the family has all the classic kid toys like play kitchen, dress up stuff, Legos, magnatiles, etc. So I’m kind of stumped about what to buy.
Anonymous says
I’m the one year old poster above! Glad to know I’m not the only one stumped. Stomp rockets? They were such a hit with the 5 year old I bought them for and my 3 year old loved them too.
TheElms says
One of those remote control cars that drives up the wall? A book related to a special interest of his? Slime making kit (if the family would be ok with that).
CCLA says
I tend toward books then. We got an Anthology of Intriguing Animals as a gift around age 4 and it was well loved (we have girls but it is not at all girly). I’ve given that or similar ones as gifts often since and they’ve been well received. Toss in some on-theme stickers and/or temporary tattoos as well.
Anon2 says
How much do you want/need to spend? I get every 3-7yo boy a 5-pack of hot wheels cars or a 2-pack of hot wheels monster trucks, usually paired with an Usborne vehicles sticker book. If you need it to be bigger, add a Blu Track, which is THE BEST car track.
Another idea is the latest installment of the Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site series (there are so many now, and I bet most people just own the first one or two)
anon says
I’m a parent of a nearly 4 year old who has WAY too many toys. For his birthday in a week we have said arts and crafts supplies, zoo/museum family memberships, or specialty lego sets he can do with his dad. He played with a friend’s RC car recently and liked that. My mom also bought him a Nat geo kids subscription in the past and he gets a new booklet each month that discusses various animals and has word find and similar puzzles.
We bought him a bicycle for the birthday from us.
Anonymous says
Hot Wheels track
anonn says
did you know you can buy live caterpillars? I know my kids would go bananas over that gift. and then you like release into the world and don’t have another toy.
anonamama says
Stomp rocket, Gift card to candy shop or favorite ice cream place, water gun, firefighter/police/construction jackets/hats, bath stuff, glow sticks, magazine subscription
Anon says
Hey hive. Tell me about your kid who got a ND diagnoses (Autism, ADHD, others) or similar in the preschool years (3-5 years). Did the teachers raise something, did the pediatrician, or did you have to push for the eval? How old is your kid, and how are they doing now? What supports does kid use (therapies, school/plans, etc.)
TIA.
Anon_this_time says
My daughter was diagnosed with social (pragmatic) communication disorder when she was a little over 2 years old. She also received an ASD diagnosis but it didn’t really fit and we didn’t trust the doctor who gave the dx (for a host of reasons not relevant here).
Her issues were obvious – little to no eye contact, little laughter / smiles, low affect…she just was “different” from the other kids in her daycare class, and also below the minimal normal threshold on the social milestones on “ages and stages” questionnaires. Her ped was wonderful; he validated our concerns, got us engaged with our county’s early intervention as well as a research study conducted by a flagship state U focused on joint attention mediated learning. Through the early intervention program, she was assessed as significantly speech delayed (receptive and expressive) and started SLP 2x/week at her daycare. The SLP and the JAML exercises made a huge difference, and she is more or less a happy, quirky kid.
But. Now she is almost 11. As we were warned when she got her dx, her differences are starting to become more and more obvious as girls enter middle school age and social cues become so important. My daughter really has trouble maintaining friendships because she doesn’t do well with social interactions. We’re actually on the waitlist for an appt at the same center that diagnosed her almost a decade ago for an ADHD-Inattentive evaluation and we’re going to also mention the issues with her social interactions to see if they can recommend some resources. I suspect – but could be wrong – that she will receive the diagnosis and that we’ll need to start working with her school for an IEP or 504 (I don’t know enough to know which is potentially applicable).
Seeing her fail socially – and be aware of it now that’s she’s older – has been heartbreaking, but we’re working on those skills and I hope she will be able to learn them in the same way kids learn other complex subjects.
Good luck with your kiddo. It’s so tough, and I consider our family very fortunate because the issues are relatively mild compared to some kids’ challenges.
OP says
Thanks for posting it sounds like you’re a wonderful parent with a great kid. My heart goes out to you, and as a non-expert, it sounds like your daughter is at a good age for some of the help you’re seeking.
I (think) my kid would be on the mild(er) side of a ND diagnosis – is in weekly ST (expressive language delay) and doing well, has great joint attention/eye contact, and to date has not had any social stuff come up/loves meeting new kids and people, but he’s still at the age where it’s a lot of parallel play, and has gotten all good feedback from his teachers.
Annnnd…he is always a little “behind” his peers/on his own timeline, notices really curious details, and has 1-2 interests that are a little particular for his age (which make him “ahead” in some ways) and I want to make sure I keep an open mind about all of it, whether there’s an official diagnosis or not.
Anonymous says
Our preschool started talking to us about our son a few months before he turned 4 — he was having meltdowns in class, and he wasn’t really engaging well with the other kids. We talked to our ped at his 4-year check-up, and she gave us a referral to a psychologist. That psychologist was unfortunately not taking new patients but did give us the name of a private psychologist who did evaluations. We got him an evaluation two months after he turned 4 (cost about $1200). He was diagnosed with ASD. Sometime in this period, he got kicked out of preschool, and ended up being home for 3 months before we found him a spot at a different preschool. We also got him evaluated through our county, but they found he had no delays so they couldn’t help us. We got him private speech, OT, and ABA therapists, all of which helped tremendously. He has an ABA shadow at his preschool about 6 hours/day who helps him to stay on task, move through transitions, and remember to use the bathroom (he’s potty trained but he will forget to go if he’s absorbed in an activity, so reminders are helpful). It’s been a little over a year and he’s made a ton of progress, so much so that we’re hopeful he will be able to attend kindergarten without an aide.
OP says
Thanks for this. I think I remember your posts from some time ago – glad to hear things are going well. <3
I hear you on the eval process. The waitlist in our major city for the children's hospital's developmental peds is ~1.5 years (which I hear is a pretty common story), so we'd definitely have to go private if we opted to do an eval.
Anon says
I would say that absent huge and clear red flags, it would be inappropriate to diagnose ADHD before age 5 or 6. My son was ultimately diagnosed at 6, and though the signs had been there all along there is a big overlap with normal immaturity at those young ages. (For reference, he was super sensitive to correction and the word “no” as a toddler, had huge destructive meltdowns that would last over an hour and he couldn’t be comforted out of, slow/delayed speech and processing trouble, very hard to keep on track with getting ready routines). For something like ASD an early diagnosis may be preferable.
Anon says
This is what we were told by teachers and peds, that ADHD can’t be diagnosed before age 6 or so. I think ASD is different and can sometimes be diagnosed earlier.
Anon says
+1. Purely anecdotal but my sister is a child psychologist who frequently does neurodevelopmental assessment/diagnosis and says it’s pretty rare for her to diagnose ADHD any younger than four. That’s the youngest she’ll typically make that diagnosis and only in extreme circumstances. She is more comfortable with it at 6 and older.
OP says
Thank you for this. Yeah and we haven’t had any of those “red flags” (yet) – just some minor delays, so it may just be a personality thing. We had him assessed at ~19-20 months by EI, which didn’t flag anything major, but I also think that’s just too young for a lot of things barring any major factors like the other posters cited.
I also think time will make it more clear (which is really hard!) if any additional intervention/assessment is needed.
Anon says
Are you the one who always posts about this? If so, have you been screened for anxiety? It seems like you’re at risk of missing what’s special about your little guy because you’re so focused on one or two months on a milestone chart.
Anon_this_time says
Comments like this are really unhelpful. When your child is different enough from other kids to be noticeable to you, but there’s nothing concrete to put your finger on, that *is* anxiety producing. A parent can both enjoy their child’s special traits AND ensure they’re getting the help they may need, like speech therapy.
OP, you’re doing all the right things by monitoring, seeking EI evals, and trusting your gut. You know your child best.
Anon says
OP is making me anxious about my kid in speech therapy just reading her comments. I’m not convinced tbis is a trust your guy situation rather than a step away from the internet experts situation.
Anon says
Yeah I wouldn’t say OP is “making me anxious” but as someone who has had a kid in speech therapy for nearly three years now who still has noticeable articulation challenges, it’s a little off-putting to see someone so worried about speech therapy and being a bit late to some milestones. These are really normal things and not indicative of some global delay. I agree you need to balance trusting your gut with stepping away from the internet experts. Teachers see hundreds of kids and know what’s atypical; if they’re not concerned I wouldn’t be either.
Anon says
OP is making me anxious about my kid in speech therapy just reading her comments. I’m not convinced tbis is a trust your guy situation rather than a step away from the internet experts situation.