Make My Life Easier Thursday: Bumkins Snack Bag
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I’d dabbled in reusable bags before when J was in daycare, but we never quite found one that we liked. But when I started packing his lunch for first grade this year, I started feeling wasteful every time I grabbed a snack Ziploc bag for a few raisins or dried mangos. So I thought I’d give these cute reusable bags a try. (He doesn’t really know who Mario is yet, but I figured Nintendo would age with him and be good for his brother as well.) Verdict: we like them. We’re not washing them every single time we use them (although sometimes I’ll just do a quick rinse in the sink and then put them on the drying rack inside out — and they’re definitely not for anything gooey or that you want to keep super fresh — but for crackers, raisins, and other small, dry snacks, we like them. They zip easily and make me feel good that on some days, at least, we’re being kind to the planet. A set of two bags is $7.95 at Amazon. Bumkins Nintendo Reusable Snack Bag Small 2 Pack, Super Mario 8-Bit
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I inadvertently planned the worst day for myself tomorrow, my day “off” at the end of a condensed workweek. The housecleaner is coming (yay!) at the same time that my littlest has a doctor’s appointment that I had forgotten about (thank god for those reminder calls!) and I scheduled my older one’s first visit to the dentist for the same morning, AND my department holiday party is that afternoon. Plus, it’s my last non-work day before we go out of town for 2 weeks. What was I thinking???
I had planned to make something for our appetizer potluck, but that is definitely not happening now. Ideas for a good appetizer to buy and bring (and maybe even pass off as your own!)?
I remember someone recommending this type of seat blow up pillow that hooks on the table tray in front of you for kids to sleep on an overnight airplane flight.
does this sound familiar?
any recommendations or discussion of helpfulness?
I need ideas for my 2 and 3 year old.
Thanks.
Gift recs for direct report who happens to be pregnant with first baby? Under $50 would be great.
I put on 49lbs with one baby. I wasn’t even trying, I didn’t eat All The Things that we now call “sometimes foods” ie junk food. I ate normal foods, including some “sometimes foods” sometimes, though more food than before pregnancy if and when I felt hungry. Even so, 49 lbs. I’m 5’6” so that was a lot. I night sweat out buckets post parting, nursed, and was back to the weight I was within a year, though my body is shaped differently now.
You’re going to gain a lot of weight because you’re growing two people. It’s what is supposed to happen. It is necessary. It’s gonna be ok <3.
I’m pregnant with my first two (twins) and struggling with the amount of weight they want me to gain during the pregnancy. I do not have a history of body or food issues, but a bout of depression led me to gain 35 pounds pretty quickly, and I looked and felt terrible and it took a lot of hard work and a long time to lose. I have long legs, but a very short torso and already carry most of my weight around my stomach, so I know I’m going to look huge and not be one of those glowing amazing looking pregnant women who is all belly. There is another woman in my office, though not my department, who is pregnant with twins. She is a couple of inches taller than me and built completely different (she is long & lean), and much further along than I am, but I can’t help comparing myself to her and thinking that people are going to think I’m some slob, while she looks amazing. She is one of those women who looks like she has a basketball under her dress, but otherwise doesn’t look pregnant. This is her second pregnancy and she did not retain one ounce of pregnancy weight from her first. I know this is silly and I shouldn’t compare and I want to gain the weight because I know it is what is healthiest for the babies, but 40-50 pounds is a lot!
Charitable giving PSA: If you’re like me and have good intentions for doing toys for tots, angel trees, etc. but always miss the deadlines, I learned this year that calling local grade schools directly can be a good way to connect with kids in need. Often, these are kids in ESL programs whose parents might have not understood the need to sign up for holiday help. In any case, I called my neighborhood elementary school and the counselor knew of two families who I could help with holiday gifts. It was super easy to coordinate with the school (the counselor was so grateful, she even picked up the gifts from my house rather than me having to drop them anywhere!) and now I don’t have the nagging guilt of not doing enough to help kids during the holiday. Thought I’d share in case this is helpful to anyone else. Never occurred to me to do this before reading it on a local FB moms page!
Air travel question. We are going to Hilton Head in early summer with my husband’s family. We haven’t flown with our son before, and he will be 23 months when we travel. It would obviously be cheaper to bring him as a lap child, but is it worth the cost to just pay for a seat? He’s a super active kid normally, no idea how he will be on a plane. I don’t know yet if we’ll be flying direct or (more likely) having one stop.
Has anyone dealt with their child’s allergies to a pet before? We have been dealing with a persistent cough that appears to be related to an allergy and is triggering asthma in my daughter. The cough is really bad and I am desperate to do what I can to provide my daughter relief. We have seriously been dealing with the cough now for over a year. The allergy test showed sensitivity to tree nuts and dust mites, so we avoid the nuts and follow the cleaning protocols for dust mites. However, a cat allergy also appeared on the most recent test. We have a 10 year old cat at home. The doctor said not to get rid of the cat because the test can’t show how sensitive the allergy is, but to follow some precautions (keep the cat out of the child’s room, get a HEPA filter, vacuum twice a week, wash bedding in hot water weekly, etc). We have done all that and nothing is improving. I’m afraid we need to rehome the cat, which is devastating. But I’m also worried that it may not make the cough better. I know that the dander can stick around for a long time. Has anyone had to rehome a pet due to allergies? How long did it take for things to get better? Does anyone regret rehoming because things didn’t get better? I feel like I am not getting good answers from my doctor as to how likely we have a false positive on the cat allergy test, since I don’t see my daughter get worse or get other symptoms when she hangs out with the cat. But I will do anything to help her feel better. My mom is allergic to cats and I can’t force my daughter to live with that discomfort if the cat is the cause.
I use bumkins wet bags for storing pump parts in the fridge in between uses. Put them in the washing machine & dryer, so far so good. About half the price of the Sarah Wells pump parts bags, and I hated going through gallon ziplocs so quickly.
I know there’s been threads on this in the past but I’m not having any luck finding them. Looking for advice on traveling with an 11 month old in January for a short vacation. My parents offered to fly us for a short Florida vacation. We’ll be staying at a nice hotel, which I’m not thrilled about as far as washing bottle parts and what not. Any tips for things to take/not to take? Do we need to take a carseat (not sure if we’ll be renting a car or not)? Kiddo has some delays so she isn’t super mobile fortunately but I’m more concerned about lugging a ton of junk for a 4-5 day trip.
We use these bags as well. We rotate through 8 of them, and they’ve held up well in the past 5 months of daily use by two kids. They’re the perfect size for a snack. Like you, we use them for dry things like pretzels and raisins and yogurt chips and fruit snacks, so we just need to rinse them and let them dry inside out.
We also send reusable silverware and reusable tupperware for sandwiches, so it helps that everything in their lunchbag just goes back in the bag and comes home. Nothing to throw out but food waste (like orange peels).
But if anyone has recommendations on a good sturdy silverware set, let me know. We are using the bamboo ones and they break or split too easily for us. I didn’t think my kids were tough on silverware, but we’ve gone through 3 sets this year already.
Paging Needs a Vacation from yesterday:
We can only ever travel at peak periods because my husband is a teacher, so I don’t have any advice on February travel. But we only ever travel to places with a separate sleeping space due to the same concerns you expressed.
We went to Sol Palmeras in Varadero Cuba last Christmas and were really happy with our trip. Not sure where you are from, but Cuba is generally the least expensive all-inclusive options for Canadians. Many people don’t want to travel there because of what is stereotyped as not great food, but we didn’t have any issues. Most importantly for us, they have family bungalows with a small kitchenette, separate bedroom and living room. This let us put kiddo down to nap/bed without being stranded inside a dark hotel room with her.
The beach is BEAUTIFUL- we have travelled extensively and were really impressed. Very shallow entry for toddlers. There is also a small toddler pool that they can stand in, but my daughter is mainly a beach bum.
If you want more family-friendly resort recommendations (there is an entire chain in Mexico – forget the name, but it is way out of our budget during peak travel recommendations) check out the facebook group “Up Up and Away.” Lots of reviews there.
Happy travels!
Do anyone else’s kids behave better for literally everyone else but them (nanny, husband, grandparents…) My 3 year old especially. I don’t think I’m a pushover but every now and then it concerns me!
Recommendations for a loud trumpet toy for a toddler? That is her request from Santa… a loud kazoo or recorder might be popular too?