Makeup & Beauty Monday: Stack Essentials

Does anyone have a recommendation for what I think is called a blanket sleeper for an 8-ish month old? We’re taking our California baby to the mid-Atlantic for Thanksgiving and he’ll need something a little toaster than he’s been wearing here. I envision this as essentially a fleece sleep-n-play but could be off-base. TIA!

Hopefully a fun question for Monday. I got my almost 2 year old this dress for family photos: https://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?pid=481652002
How would you style it? I was thinking pink leggings and rose gold ballet flat Mary Janes (similar style to the ones in the photo but more pink and less yellow). DH pretty much has to wear blue jeans, gray polo and a blue sweater, he wears super casual clothes to work and has a very limited “nice” wardrobe. I was thinking of blue jeans and a pink sweater for me – is that too matchy-matchy all of us in pink & blue?

What are your six-year-olds playing with aside from legos? My son is lego obsessed and still plays with magnatiles and some duplos with his 2.5 yo brother but, as we are moving baby toys out, I am wondering what other open-ended indoor toys are worth investing in. Thanks!

i posted on Friday asking for sock recs and a few people mentioned the hanes ones sold at target. all i see are some with white, pink and purple – do they not come in a pack of only white socks?

I know it’s a bit early, but does anyone have recommendations/tips/advice about how to handle holiday gifts from grandparents? DH and I just had a baby in April, so we are approaching the first holiday season. We celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas, and want to keep the amount of “stuff” that our child gets to a minimum. Our child is the first grandkid on either side, so there is lots of focus and happy gifting of clothes and toys. We are very appreciative of all of the random gifts we’ve received already, because they have been very practical – pjs in the next size up, a few very practical toys like a rattle, and books. But DH and I want to sort of set some ground rules so that our child doesn’t end up with a lot of stuff (and so that we don’t end up with a lot of stuff in our house), mostly because I don’t think our kid needs it, but also so that the grandparents aren’t in competition with one another. Generally, I am very, very, very lucky that my parents and in laws get along (they occasionally golf or have met up for lunch/drinks (we all live in the same metro area)), but I can potentially see gift giving getting out of hand. While I know that if my mom or MIL shows up with 20 gifts for the baby, there’s not really anything can do about that, but both MIL and my mom have hinted that they are open to a discussion about gifts. In an ideal world, they’d each get him maybe one toy and maybe a book, and if they wanted to give more than than, they could take what they would spend and put it in the 529 we have set up.

So, what do you all do? What has been successful or not successful? How have you communicated any ground rules to grandparents? TIA!!

For those who have (or who had) a toddler and a newborn, what does bedtime look like when you are solo parenting? We have a 2.5 year old and a six week old (also a 7 year old, but she pretty much puts herself to bed). I work a lot of evenings and we are having a hard time settling into a routine for my husband and the kids the nights that I work. The toddler ideally goes to bed between 7:45-8:30. The six week old isn’t on a schedule yet, and we’re not sure if we should aim for her to go down before or after the does his pj/ brush teeth/ books/ cuddle routine?

Anyone ever have really late postpartum hair loss? My baby is 20 months and I just started losing hair at a faster rate than normal (though still not the “handfuls” horror stories I’ve heard from friends) in the last couple weeks. Can it really take that long or are my hormones screwed up for some other reason (probably)? I am 100% not pregnant, have had a normal cycle since 5 months postpartum, and am still nursing once or twice a day.

What is your philosophy on “making” a child apologize? I see a lot about getting them to apologize to other kids, mostly focused on very young children. But what about an older child (pre-pre-teen) apologizing (by letter or in person) to a teacher or other authority figure for disrespect or noncompliance?