Organizing Thursday: Play Mat and Toy Storage Bag
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If you have a little kid who likes Legos or any other toy that has a zillion little pieces that get all over the floor, you might like this bag. We got a bag like this in an attempt to corral the Legos because you can just pick it up and take it away. (It does work as intended, although I haven’t entirely succeeded in getting my 5-year-old to use it.) We bought two of these at Amazon and one of them shipped from China and took four weeks to get here (and they wouldn’t respond when we tried to cancel), so if you need it sooner than four weeks, make sure that you pay attention when you’re at the checkout screen. AVAWO Play Mat and Toy Storage Bag
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This is one of those kid-items that looks cool in concept, but I feel like in practice it would never work as intended and just end up as a messy ball of fabric in the corner. If your kids are good enough to keep all the Legos on the mat, aren’t they good enough to just… put them back in the bin/ container? And why is a ball of fabric easier to store than just a bucket?
Every time I see this, I think “oh cool!!!”, and then I think about when/ how we’d use it, and it just doesn’t make logical sense to me.
My mom is coming for a visit at the end of the month (when I’ll be 32 weeks) and wants me to put her to work with baby and house stuff. I think she’s feeling a bit left out living so far away and wants to do something tangible (she’s not a spa day and manicure type at all). I’ve got a midwife appointment that week so she’ll be able to come along and hear the heartbeat on the doppler.
I’m completely heads down with work at the moment and am so, so appreciative of the help but am not sure what would be most helpful and fun for her?
I suspect she’s going to arrive with loads of baby clothes so organising these + hand-me-downs I’ve collected, but what else? We have a tiny European fridge freezer so batch cooking is probably a no go. Baby will be in with us for the first year so we aren’t decorating a nursery.
Piggybacking on the above, I am in the suburbs and have an entire second full size fridge/freezer (yes, the privilege!!)
For the first month my parents are getting us Blue Apron and they’ll cook all the meals for us – which is a really cute idea and I love it. But I’m sure having some frozen casseroles etc will be great too.
What were some make ahead/freezer meals that worked well for you for when baby comes?
I have been sick for the past two weeks with what turned into pneumonia. I have made what I consider heroic efforts to make sure that critical tasks are still getting done at work, including going in to the office to give a board presentation and handle a critical client meeting with a 102-degree fever, drafting a proposal, and responding to numerous inquiries from a problem client. Although most of my colleagues have been understanding, one particular senior colleague has been treating my illness as a performance problem. Examples:
-“That proposal you wrote [while I had a high fever, hadn’t slept in three days, and couldn’t breathe] was really weak. We had to clean up a lot of problems before we submitted it.”
– “Why haven’t you scheduled that meeting with the client yet? You are creating problems for me because the client wants it scheduled right away and is unhappy.”
– Demanding that I respond personally and instantaneously to all inquiries from aforementioned problem client because “I can’t understand anything you have done on this project. Your files are a mess.”
– Repeatedly cc’ing our mutual boss on e-mails and text messages and demanding that I acknowledge receipt.
This guy has been an ongoing problem for me over the past couple of years and I suspect he may be trying to push me out, although I don’t know what good that would do him because he can’t or won’t work with anyone else in the division. Any suggestions for handling him when I return to the office next week? I could just ignore it and hope it blows over, but this behavior is so outrageous that I think it needs to be addressed head on.
Just a vent to people who may understand: I’ve been completely underestimating the amount of time it should take me to accomplish tasks, and because of this I’m scheduling too much into a day. By 11am I’ve taken DD2 to a doctor’s appt, helped fit DD1’s helmet so she can roller skate (ok, that one was thrown at me when I dropped the baby off at home) dealt with a major work fire, and oh, maybe I should eat something. I still have to pump, get the major work task I planned for today done, and get gas or I’ll strand myself on the way home.
I’m pretty sure this is just the new normal, and a phase, and all of that, but OMG right now I just want a cocktail and nap.
Looking for ideas for gifts under $30 for a two and a half year old.
I’d love to hear everyone’s methods for organizing printed photographs. I have a great system to organize all digital photos (with backups) but I am stuck on how to get it together for my printed photos. Right now, I am stick them in a drawer and forget about them, but I would like to create a system to actually organize the photos we have, get print copies of the really special digital photos, and actually hang some on the wall or put in frames around the house.
Please forgive me yet another pumping/BFing question. My son will be 10 months next week. He’s still drinking two 4-5 oz bottles while I’m gone, though I’ve started pumping only once a day. Sometimes I’ll get 9-10 oz which covers what he drinks, sometimes I will only get 6-7. Last night, I had a work event late, and he drank 3 bottles while I was gone, and I only pumped 6 oz. I *think* there’s enough in the freezer to cover anything extra for the next two months, but after 9 months of being paranoid to always pump to cover a missed feed, I can’t stop worrying about it. I considered going through the freezer and counting all the bags to give myself some piece of mind. I am worried that my supply will dip since I’m not pumping to replace all feedings, and that that will affect him getting enough when he nurses (currently around 6 pm and/or 8 pm, 11 pm, 7 am during the week). Has anyone dropped pump sessions like that and still managed to keep up with nursing needs at home? I remember several women saying that you have stopped pumping at work altogether and maintained a nursing relationship beyond that. My hope is to get to one year of EBF.
My friend’s baby, 6 weeks old, died in the NICU yesterday due to complications related to a heart defect. The baby never came home. We are all devastated. And right before Mother’s Day. We don’t know what to say or do to support her or her family. What is the right or wrong thing to say or do?
Reach out and just listen. Take mom and dad’s lead with how they want to talk about it. be sure to include dad, this was something that was really overlooked when I had out loss and my husband really had a difficult time being almost ‘left out’. Closer to Mothers Day, reach out with a msg maybe something like, depending on how close you are- with something acknoweldging the day coming up and ask if they want to do something or if they want some alone time.
Weaning advice?
My LO just turned a year old a month ago and I’ve been weaning. Got rid of all daytime nursing/pumping sessions but when I tried to cut out the “wake up” nursing session he totally lost it and then regressed to wanting frantically to nurse all night. I’ve managed to get over that speed bump but am still being held hostage to nurse at wakeup, bedtime, and once overnight. Any tips for how to get rid of these last sessions, I’m ready to be done! And anticipating that someone will advise me to just stop, bear in mind that I’m a softy and won’t be able to just walk away if he’s losing it at 2 a.m.
My daughter LOVES Umbro checked shorts and t-shirts when the weather gets warmer. Well, someone at school finally called it a “boy outfit” on Monday. Didn’t seem to bother her, though. I didn’t hear about it until Tuesday evening.