Family Friday: Halloween HannaJams Pajama Set
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I’ve been getting Halloween-related ads for months. Now that Halloween is just over a month away, I’ve started paying more attention to them. These fun Halloween PJs from Hanna Andersson caught my eye.
I’m a loyal Hanna PJ customer and love these pumpkin PJs — while perfect for Halloween, they work for all of fall (kind of like how snowflake PJs work for both Christmas and the rest of winter). Like all of Hanna’s pajamas, they’re made from hand-me-down quality, 100% organic cotton.
Halloween HannaJams are $52 full price (but on sale starting at $25, depending on the pattern). In addition to the pumpkin set, there are other 10 patterns (but some are already sold out!). These PJs are available in sizes 2-12 as well as baby/toddler sizes.
Can anyone recommend a unicorn snack container? It needs to be half a cup, have at least a transparent section so you can see what’s inside, not shatter when dropped on a tile floor, and not leach a plastic taste into the food. I have some cute ones from Figmint at Target that I thought would be fine because they are PET (recycling #1), the same plastic that food packaging is made from, but they leave an awful plastic taste within a day or two. The only glass containers I can find don’t have a silicone bumper to prevent breakage. And the metal ones are opaque.
Where can I find fun, printed leggings in Girls sizes? Size 6, so a 5T may work in brands that run big. It seems like the usual places are slim pickings this year for that kind of thing.
I mentioned this in a reply on the household management thread, but figured it would be worth its own post. Does anyone have solid quick and easy recipes to share?
My recent favorite is the NYT slow cooker honey chipotle chicken tacos. They are so easy and so delicious. Great as written for tacos (def. do the pickled onions!) but the chicken can also be used any number of ways. Freezes well too, although it’s almost not worth it because it’s that easy.
Help me figure out how to work with my 3rd grade 8 year old daughter? She’s the oldest. Other kiddo is almost 3. She’s a very strong reader, on grade level with math, polite as all get out, but pushes boundaries at home… so really just a totally typical kid who aims to please but pushes mom and dad because that’s what kids do. She plays team sports and as other activities in the arts, too.
Observations: she does not react well to being corrected. We were going through some work that was sent home from school (teacher asked us to) and on page 2 there were two big red X’s next to problems she got wrong. NBD! But she saw the X’s for the first time while sitting next to me and just started sobbing. She said she didn’t want to be told she was wrong. We talked about how being wrong is ok, it’s part of learning, and that even adults are wrong… etc etc. So we got through it. But I feel like this is becoming an emerging theme.
Another: building legos. If something doesn’t fit, she tries to make it work but if she hits a roadblock, it escallates to a storming off and sometimes swiping the lego piece off the table to the floor out of frustration.
And another: At home, 75%-ish of the time that we correct her / redirect her or whatever – could be, stop picking on your sister to go make your bed or pick up your clothes – the reaction out of her is not just a “humph” and eyeroll if she doesn’t want to do it… it’s a fullll on crying, upset, with her spouting off random things like “you’re basically saying I don’t do anything right!! This is the worst day of my life!!”. Friends, there is no yelling from DH and I in these moments when we ask her to do The Thing. Sure, we are firm in holding the expectation to get The Thing done, but we are calm. I swear. He reaction just escalates out of nowhere.
What is this? I want to ask her teacher if she ever observes things like this at school when she gets things wrong or needs correcting. This has been happening for a while but seems to be getting more frequent. I Wouldn’t call her a perfectionist or even Type A. Is it anxiety? Is it not something named and totally within the realm of normal? I hate that she gets SO upset and, while I think we do a reasonably good job of deescalating, it’s becoming a bit exhausting…. thoughts?
One added note: DH has raging ADHD. It’s always been in the back of my brain that maybe there’s something underlying with her… but I don’t know. I know it can present differently for girls so while I’m not trying to force a diagnosis or anything, I just offer that up because I acknowledge that I don’t fully “understand” ADHD as I do not have it, and also don’t want to miss it in her (or other child) because I don’t relate to it. School hasn’t said anything to us about it/her.
DS (6) started Kindergarten last month. The worksheets he brings home often include pictures to color. His coloring is outside the lines and not even the right colors. His teacher always approves his worksheets with the same smiley face she gives everyone. Should we use coloring books at home so he gets more practice, or will he get enough practice at school?
Vent: don’t you love playing “am I sick or just pregnant?” when new symptoms crop up. All sorts of digestive disruption last night and continuing on today. But I gotta save up that sick time!
Anyone have a good source for store-bought non-branded-character kids costumes? I have strong opinions about costumes, but won’t be able to manage even halfway-homemade ones this year.
Would love brand/ sizing advice for boys… my almost 8yo is very large for his age. I just bought him some new pants for the fall and the size 8 is already a little short. But when I go up to a 10, they fall off of him. Does anyone know of brands that make a boys size 9? Or that run really big or really small so that I can get the Goldilocks size in between 8 and 10? Tops are generally ok–if they’re too big, he just pushes up the sleeves. But the pants need to be a better fit.
Any recs for Montreal with kids? I’m taking my 3rd grader there for her fall break in a couple weeks. Biodome and the Science Center are on the list (we have free admission to the latter via a reciprocal program). Food-wise we’re decently adventurous but we both especially enjoy French, Italian and anything dessert-related.
Yesterday’s convo on outsourcing and chats with my friends IRL has me thinking about WOW how fundamentally hard it is to be a working parent (especially a working Mom), in general, even with privilege and means. Just how bad the setup in the US is for families generally.
With my IRL friends, so many of our chats, when we do talk about household stuff center on tips on how to manage better, quick recipe ideas, etc. And this is for women here and my friends who are probably in the top 5-10% of income/education. Hell, my immigrant Mom would show up to PTO meetings in the 90s asking “Why do all the times of school activities/events conflict with parents working hours” and we still haven’t really solved for that.
We spend all this time trying to optimize but it’s almost like we need a better system all together…what would that look like? Partly rhetorical.
Backpack help! My daughter just started at a new middle school. They don’t have lockers and have very heavy book bags. I don’t think a rolling bag is the solution because they also have a lot of stairs but wondering if a lightweight and more ergonomic backpack might help. Right now kiddo has a regular jansport. Any suggestions appreciated.