Nursing/Postpartum Tuesday: Flip Fish
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Make tummy time fun with this bright and colorful fish toy!
Peek under this washable toy’s scales for hidden pictures. Explore different textures and sounds through crinkly and mirrored scales and a squeaky tail. Unlike many baby toys, this one will hold your little one’s attention through the early-toddler years.
Melissa & Doug’s Flip Fish is under $20 at Amazon.
Psst: Looking for info about nursing clothes for working moms or tips for pumping at the office? We’ve got them both…
Sales of note for 6/4/25
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Lots of markdowns on AGL (50%!), Weitzman, Tumi, Frank & Eileen, Zella, Natori, Cole Haan, Boss, Theory, Reiss (coats), Vince, Eileen Fisher, Spanx, and Frame (denim and silk blouses)
- Ann Taylor – 50% off dresses, jackets & shoes + extra 30% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 25% off
- Eloquii – $19+ up select styles
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off women’s dresses + up to extra 50% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 50-60% off summer styles + up to 60% off everything + extra 60% off clearance
- M.M.LaFleur – Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
- Spanx – Free shipping on everything
- Talbots – BOGO 50% off everything, includes all markdowns
How many girls’ trips do you take a year? I never had many friends (there were times when I had no friends) but now in my 40s I somehow have more friends than I ever had. I took three separate girls’ trips this year (each with different people) and I want to make all of them an annual thing. They were all four-day weekends. DH does fine solo parenting, we have a 4.5 year old who is pretty easy. DH takes an annual weeklong backpacking trip and also travels for work, so it evens out more or less on that front. My trips are more extravagant so I will have to stick to a budget if I want to keep this going.
Thank you for all of the thoughtful responses yesterday about stepping away from a litigation career to spend more time with family. I don’t know what I will do but truly appreciate the perspective from those who have been through similar situations. Lots of good food for thought.
Are we doing end of year teacher gifts (lower elementary)? What if we contributed to a group teacher appreciation gift, but didn’t do individual stuff?
Argh I have such a love/hate relationship with summer. Yesterday my daughter had camp from 9-3, my parents got her at camp, I picked her up from their house at 4 for a playdate, she was at that kid’s house until 7, then we went to her friend’s baseball game (she and several friends on her softball team have a group of guy friends who are all on one baseball team and they love to attend each others’ games, which is so cute) and then while scootering home from baseball we ran into another friend and they played outside until 9:30. Then of course she hadn’t had a proper dinner during any of this, just popcorn at the ballpark, so she had to eat and didn’t end up in bed until after 10. Today she has camp and a swimming play date with a friend from camp, and then a softball game until 8:15 and then will play with her softball + baseball friends after.
I don’t want to deny her this stuff because I know looking back they’re likely to be among her core childhood memories, and a lot of her friends have less structured summers than she does – two neighbor friends came to the door today looking for her while she was at camp. But she still wakes up at 7 am on the dot no matter how late she goes to bed and she needs more sleep than she’s been getting. (her normal school year bedtime is 8 pm and she falls asleep immediately). And I miss having quiet evenings with more time to myself. I like all the neighbor moms and baseball/softball moms, it’s just too much socialization for my introvert self.
Such the post below, along with the fact that I recently met a mom who red-shirted her June birthday daughter, is making me think I did my twins a disservice, but not redshirting them with mid-may birthdays. We are in the south where red shirting is common, so they are on the younger side for their grade. they do seem a bit emotionally immature compared to some of their peers, but it also seems to vary on if the peers have older siblings or not.
Thanks so much to those who relied to my tween swimsuit question yesterday! Never would have thought of Abercrombie but it’s perfect.
Prompted by the question below re: swim safety – My broader family has a house on a small lake that we visit often over the summer. The lake’s water is dark and has a current such that an adult can pretty easily tread water and stay in the same spot but a raft will move 50 ft down the lake in 5 min. All of the family kids are swimmers but none are strong swimmers, for a variety of different reasons. Kids are now 10-15. There is no beach, just a rocky shoreline and a dock that ends in 6-10 ft water (depending on the recent amount of rain, snow run from the winter, etc.). The favored activities are jumping off the dock and playing on rafts (getting more physical as they get older). My rule has been either that there is an adult with eyes on the kids on the dock or life jackets are worn. In other words, no rough housing or running and jumping into the water without life jackets and no adult present. (There are only obstructed views of the dock unless you are sitting on it.) My family, primarily my mother, thinks I am hindering their fun and too overprotective. Thoughts?
We got my 7 year old a smart watch earlier this school year (no internet access and can only call approved numbers, which was just us and her grandparents). I know it’s on the young side but I didn’t really see a downside – she doesn’t use it except to make very occasional calls and text us when we’re out of town so she probably spends a grand total of 10 minutes a week, if that, on it, and I liked the increased autonomy that being able to call us gave her.
But now a friend – actually more of a frenemy that was really mean to her for months and then recently decided to be friends again – got a watch and wants to add my daughter as a contact so they can call and text. I think I’d be comfortable with calling, I don’t really see that any differently than calling a friend’s landline, which I did at her age, but texting makes me a little more apprehensive especially with the history of drama between the girls. I really hoped we’d delay peer-to-peer texting for a few more years. What would you do? I think we’re leaning towards allowing it but telling her we have full rights to read their texts and we can change our minds at any point.
Have you tried medication for anxiety and did it work for you? If so, did it work short term or long term? I’ve been dealing with high-functioning anxiety for pretty much as long as I can remember. I can function normally and so I’m not sure I can say that it impairs my life to even meet the criteria for medication. But I’m just so worried all the time about things that other people are not worried about. And I don’t want to pass this on to my kids.
I exercise regularly and that does help. Breastfeeding helped a ton for me, and as I’m completely weaning a toddler (who has only been nursing once a day for months), I feel it coming back.
I know I need to talk to my doctor but I’d love to hear honest experiences with this type of thing.
I’ll establish up front that I’m a responsible mom who has spent her life on the water (open ocean and pools). My parents put in a pool last summer. They live 10 mins from us and we were there several times a week last summer. This is the second summer with it but my first with a non-swimmer. DD1 is 7 and could swim last year. DD2 was an infant last year so we didn’t have to worry but now she’s a strong willed 19 month old with, evidently, zero effs to give (I adore her for this but also WOW).
We have all the basics of water safety down cold – eyes on kids at all times, bright swim suits, gate is locked, drilling in to heads of older cousins that there is never swimming without an adult, never trust other adults to be responsible for your own kids, etc etc etc. But, accidents happen even to the most vigilant of us. I know this. So, I keep coming back to the idea that we need some kind of flotation on my 19 month old to be extra, extra safe. I am anti puddle jumper. We used a “bubble” for my daughter when she was learning per her swim school (worked great btw), but #2 is to small for that (29th percentile so she’s teeny!). Thoughts on life jackets in pools? I’ve read they’re not recommended because they can give a false sense of security but idk – maybe it’s ok just as an insurance policy for this one summer before real swim lessons/learning kick in? Open to any and all suggestions short of swim lessons, because we’re on that but she’s simply not going to be a swimmer this year. ISR isn’t something we’re interested in. Thank you!
I’m considering getting Wicked tickets (the live show) for my daughter and I. She is 7.5 and has seen the first movie. It’s been 15+ years since I’ve seen the play, so I honestly don’t remember much about it (particularly the second half). Anyone seen it recently with a kid or have an idea about whether that would be appropriate? I’m a rule follower (to my detriment tbh) and I saw when I was looking at tickets that it is recommended for ages 8+.
For those who struggled with their marriage after having kids, when (if ever) did the relationship return to its pre-kids feeling? I know everyone says the baby/toddler days are hard on a relationship and they were for us. We only have one kid who just turned four and things are definitely 1000% better than they were two years ago, but still nowhere near where they were pre-kids.
I read an article in the NYT yesterday about how boys aren’t ready for kindergarten and how kindergarten is too academic. I’ve read lots of things like this over the years (I’m sure we all have), but it made me realize that I have a question – what happens if you just opt out of intensive pre-K activities, let your kid play and have fun, and then put him or her in kindergarten at the right age (5 or 6) anyway? Will they hold your kid back if he or she shows up bright and eager to learn, but without the ability to read or do basic math yet? Do schools insist on the hard skills before the child can be enrolled, or is it more a soft expectation? We’re in the baby years right now but considering moving, which means we need to have a sense of what the school districts offer and require (TK is universally offered, just about). We’d love a less academic-oriented and a more play-focused childhood – I don’t care if he doesn’t read until 7 as long as he enjoys bedtime stories with us.
I did look at our current school district’s guide to grade readiness after reading the NYT article and there’s something about “sight words” for kindergarten – isn’t that the learning approach that was debunked in favor of phonics?
After yesterday’s convo, how does one interpret this text. “Btw are the boys free Friday night – Would they like to join Jim for swim and dinner at the pool club? (You and DH are welcome also)” – does this mean they want DH and I to come? Prefer we don’t come? The kids (mine are twins) in question are finishing 1st grade and Jim also has a little brother who I’m assuming will be there.