Everyone Thursday: Seam Detail Sweater

It’s my husband’s birthday today and he’s also just arriving home today after a long business trip. So I had the idea of putting up decorations in the kitchen as a sort of welcome home birthday surprise — just some streamers and balloons, but it looked fun. I put it up after the kids went to bed last night and thought they’d also like the surprise in the morning. Boy did they. Twin A came downstairs first and was sort of like “meh, I’m more into this board book.” Twin B, however, made his “OMG” face and pointed at them and was really thrilled. I was pretty happy about that. Then he kept pointing at the balloons and signing “more” (which he uses to mean “give me”). I blew up a couple of extra balloons and gave them to the kids to play with. No. B wanted the balloons on the ceiling. Now. (“more, more, more,” point, point, point, fussy noise, louder fussy noise, “more”). “No, B,” I said. “You have a balloon. Those balloons need to stay on the ceiling.” More, more, point, point, fussiness. We wound up in full, complete, utter, tantrum mode. He couldn’t even eat his breakfast. He NEEDED THE BALLOONS NOW NOW NOW. Screaming. Flinging himself on the floor. Tears, snot, big patchy redness on his face, swollen crying eyes. More screaming. More pointing. The kid can throw a tantrum and he went all out on this one. For 20 minutes. Finally, I just pulled down all the decorations, popped the balloons, and put it all in the trash. Sorry, honey. Our kid ruined your birthday. Surprise! I did, however, manage to snap a cute photo of him pointing to the balloons when he first came in. It’s pretty cute.

We have been planning on getting the Uppababy Cruz but weren’t in a rush because we’re facing the winter and thought we wouldn’t use it much until a few months after baby is born (we live in the city and are planning on mostly babywearing for the beginning). Someone mentioned we should just get the Chicco Caddy stroller to have for emergencies and to use with our Chicco Keyfit carseat, and hold off on the Uppa until we have a firmer sense of how we’ll be using a real stroller.

Q’s: Anyone here do this? Is it silly to get the caddy if we think we want a “real” stroller eventually? And is this the kind of thing I can buy gently used if we do go this route?

My kiddo will be 2 1/2 this summer … which would be a better Christmas gift, balance bike or tricycle?

Did anyone choose an alternative to cows milk when baby was ready to transition off breastmilk / formula? Although my child does not appear to be intolerant to cow’s milk (we’ve given him yogurt), a lot of research we’ve read shows that cow’s milk is not in fact good for the human digestive system. So far, I have heard of almond, rice and goat’s milk as alternatives.