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Updated: Nov 1, 2018 85 Comments · by

Finally Friday: Kids’ Bubble Umbrella

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A Totes Signature Clear Bubble UmbrellaAm I the only one who thinks kiddos look absolutely adorable while holding an umbrella? (Am I the only one whose kiddos are absolutely obsessed with umbrellas, also?) Happily no one’s poked anyone’s eyes out (yet), so we’re all good. I didn’t realize Totes made these simple bubble umbrellas for kids — but they do, and they’re cute! They’re $13-$23 at Amazon. Totes Kids’ Bubble Umbrella (L-2)

Sales of note for 9.10.24

(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)

Kid/Family Sales

  • Carter’s – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
  • Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off all baby; up to 40% off all Halloween
  • J.Crew Crewcuts – Extra 30% off sale styles
  • Old Navy – 40% off everything
  • Target – BOGO 25% off select haircare, up to 25% off floor care items; up to 30% off indoor furniture up to 20% off TVs

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Comments

  1. HSAL says

    Now I want a bubble umbrella for me.

    Shapewear recommendations? I’m 10 months postpartum and squishier than I’d like, which is normally fine, but a lot of my dresses are still making me look a little pregnant. Is Spanx still the gold standard? I’m looking for something that’ll hold up well with wearing 1-2x/week.

  2. FTMinFL says

    Does anyone have book recommendations for (early) toddler years? All of a sudden my 9-month-old seems so big and I’m realizing that I have no idea what weaning from the breast/bottle or caring for/parenting a toddler looks like. Any and all suggestions are welcome!

    • AIMS says

      I think the baby 411/baby bargains book people also make Toddler 411. I like the the quick reference approach they have as well as that’s it’s more an overview of the prevailing research and literature vs. a specific philosophy they try to push.

    • Anons says

      I love to read parenting books. Here are the ones I have found helpful:

      How Toddlers Thrive (this was really useful around 18 months)

      How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk (very good as your kid becomes verbal)

      Oh Crap Potty Training (a little judgy at times, but I still thought it was useful–she recommends training between 20 and 30 months)

  3. AIMS says

    Trying to figure out how much milk my baby needs now that she is eating a lot more real food. 8.5 months, if she eats no food at all, she’s all good with three 150 ml bottles for the day while I’m at work. But she also eats oatmeal, and puréed fruits and veggies, and mashed avocado, etc., so now so I’m wondering if maybe she should get smaller bottles or maybe 2 bottles instead of 3? Depending on her caregiver for the day she either ends up with two bottles and then nurses as soon as I come home before bed or she’ll do 3 bottles, not be hungry or nurse very little before bed and then will wake up an hour or two after bedtime to nurse. how much did/do your kids eat at around this age?

    • Anonymous says

      At about that age (just before starting finger foods) mine was consuming at least a quart of milk/formula per day, plus three bowls of baby oatmeal, a baby yogurt, and three jars of purees.

    • HSAL says

      We’re just 6 weeks ahead of you, but at that time my kid drank 27-30 ounces (we offered 30) overall during the day. She was at daycare 8-9 hours and did 12 ounces there along with oatmeal, one tub of puree, and puffs or mummums as a snack. At home she sometimes would have finger food or more puree, but we weren’t terribly consistent with “dinner” until recently. A few weeks ago there was a thread about when babies would cut back on milk intake, and a lot of posters said their kid didn’t start dropping bottles until closer to a year. Right now we’re offering 27 ounces and she has some days where she doesn’t drink much, but others she’ll do all 27 so we’re sticking with it. In your situation, though, I’d cut back the bottles so she nursed better at bedtime (and slept longer). Maybe two 6-ounce bottles instead of three 5-ounce? We went from three 4 ounce bottles to two 6 ounce bottles at daycare last month and it was a lot easier than I expected.

      • Anon in NYC says

        At 8.5 months, my kid was drinking 3 6-oz bottles of at daycare (at daycare from about 9:30-6ish), nursing in the morning and the evening, and eating solids.

        My kid was one of those who didn’t really drop bottles (or the amount in the bottle) until she was around a year. AIMS, if you think your kid is too full from solids to really nurse, why don’t you try reducing the total amount in her bottles by an ounce?

        • AIMS says

          I think I may try that. Right now I’ve been trying to reduce the 3D bottle only but maybe I should reduce all 3. Thanks!

    • Anon says

      My daughter did the following at that age: nurse one side when she woke up, nurse the other side right before I left for work. Ate breakfast (yogurt, fruit and cereal mash), 4 oz bottle at 11:30, lunch, 4 oz bottle around 4:30 or whenever she woke up from nap, dinner at 6, nurse when I got home around 6:30/7, nurse at bedtime at 7:30. And then frequently a middle of the night feeding… :(

      She’s now given up the 6:30/7 nursing at 11 months as well as the middle of the night nursing.

      They say food before one is just for fun, so you likely don’t want to reduce her bottles quite yet. Her caloric needs will only rise now that she’s more active. Formula/breastmilk have a lot more caloric (and nutritional) bang for the buck than most solid foods.

    • Anonymous says

      Kiddo is the same age. He normally nurses once before I go to work. At daycare, he’ll eat several berries, pita with hummus (pita about the size of an old iPhone), two small mozzarella cheese balls, and about 15 oz of milk/formula. During dinner, he’ll eat about the same amount of solids, maybe a little more. Then he’ll nurse before bed and sometimes have 2-4 oz of formula. He usually nurses at least once overnight, too. In all, he has cut out one or two nursing sessions and dropped one bottle at daycare (He used to have 20 oz at daycare).

    • CLMom says

      My baby is 9 months and 1 week. Here is our “schedule” (all times give/take a half hour):
      6am – nurse
      9am – 7oz bottle + jar of homemade puree
      12pm – 7oz bottle + jar of homemade puree
      3pm – 7oz bottle + jar of homemade puree
      6pm – nurse (but I don’t think there’s much in the “tank”) + cheerios and sometimes puree
      7:15 – nurse (again, I doubt she gets much this round)

      For reference, she is extremely active. More than any other baby in daycare. She plays hard and sleeps hard.
      And, just recently she has started leaving milk in her bottles, about 1-2 ounces. However, it’s not consistent enough for me to reduce the bottle size yet.

      • AIMS says

        Thanks all. It sounds like she doesn’t eat that much comparatively then. But she ends up not wanting to eat at night at all when she has 3 bottles and then wakes up after going to bed which is what I am really trying to prevent. She also nurses a lot more at night now which maybe where she gets a lot of her calories but I’d rather she get them in the day time and sleep thru the night. Most mornings now she doesn’t even want to nurse before I leave b/c she usually woke up to eat at like 5 and went back to sleep so at 7 she’d rather just play.

  4. Momata says

    This is so cute!!! I want to get one for all the kids in my life going back to school.

  5. EB0220 says

    Yes, kids are adorable with umbrellas. Yes, my kids are also obsessed with umbrellas.

    • NewMomAnon says

      Mine too! In fact, the only umbrella in my house that works is a lady bug umbrella, because apparently adult umbrellas aren’t meant to withstand toddler-level forces.

  6. Anon says

    My nanny recently told us that she is pregnant. I did not anticipate needing to provide maternity leave at the beginning, so I have no idea what would be fair to both of us. My state does provide disability benefits, so that’s a place to start, but I’m hoping someone else has been through this and can offer advice.

    (P.S. I am the same person whose nanny got arrested – this is the person I hired to replace her. I clearly need to work on my hiring.)

    • Anonymous says

      No advice, but sorry you’ve had such bad luck. Congrats to your nanny, and she’s lucky you’re willing to work with her on this!

    • Em says

      When we were considering a nanny, I spoke with an applicant who had an infant my child’s age and wanted to be able to bring her with her to the job. I imagine most women would want at least a few weeks of actual leave, but she may be open to coming back to work earlier if she can bring her baby. It would depend a lot on your situation and what all the parties are comfortable with, but it may be an option to consider to help bridge the gap.

      • Katala says

        This was so common in my previous city. I was shocked this was normal practice. I felt like if I were interested in a nanny share, that’s what I’d be looking at (and would pay a commensurate rate; all the SAHM-nanny applicants wanted full single-child pay). We did not meet a single person in New City that wanted to bring their child.

        Maybe try to talk to people who’ve had this setup before re: any pitfalls etc. if it’s something you’d be open to.

        • OP Anon says

          From what I can tell, this seems to be not-uncommon in my city. The few posts I see in my mom’s email group seem to suggest that the share care rate is prevalent in this situation. I just don’t even know if I want to pursue that, but at the same time, I have tremendous guilt over the possibility of putting my family first. :/

    • NewMomAnon says

      When I was a kid, my nanny had a baby after a year with us, and she brought the baby with her to work. I don’t remember her maternity leave – I’m sure my parents cobbled together some sort of camp/daycare/alternate nanny situation.

      Bringing your new baby to work is a fabulous perk for a working mom of an infant, and I grew up treating her son as my little brother. She stayed our nanny for years as a result. I’m sure there is a downside, but I didn’t experience it….

    • hoola hoopa says

      A teacher at my child’s daycare recently had a baby. She will return at 6 weeks with baby.

  7. Anon says

    Daycare/Nanny woes. My son (2yrs 8mo) used to go to a really amazing daycare (Center 1), we pulled him out on my 12th week of maternity leave to get him used to being home with the nanny (I was RTW at 16 weeks). By week two it was clear he still needed some group care time, so we put him back in Center 1 for two days per week. Two months later he got into really awesome center in our neighborhood that we had been waitlisted on for 1.5 years (Center 2), it’s half the price of Center 1 and walking distance, so we decided to switch for his two days per week. Switch happened last week and has been okay.

    Now we are having trouble replacing our summer nanny and cannot find anyone we trust/like. A new bilingual center opened in our area this week and pending liking it on a tour we are considering just going that route full-time (part because I can’t go through another nanny search, it is so time consuming; part because I WFH three days per week now and think it would be nice to be home alone; part because I think nanny plus daycare seems to be a rough transition for 2 year old.

    Now I feel terrible that we might be transitioning him AGAIN. He takes it all with stride (although has been ubber clingy since he started Center 2 this week). I guess I’m just looking for confirmation that I’m not crazy for switching again/i’m not the only one that has forced their child through so many transitions/that i’m not a terrible mom. Made the mistake of venting to my non-working SIL, who was basically all “sounds like working sucks” Ugh.

    • Momata says

      Can you up him to five days a week at Really Awesome Walking Distance Center 2? I am not sure what the reason would be to switch him again — to me the “bilingual” aspect would not be worth a third transition and giving up being in walking distance and “really awesome.”

        • Anon says

          Exactly, No spot for kid #2 until next summer at Center #2. Bilingual has spot for both. I’m fine with two drop offs (Baby at bilingual, Toddler at Center 2) execept for when husband travels, which is going to start being a week every other month, which seems like a lot.

          • Anon says

            And both have a 5:30 end time, which seems impossible if i’m not tag teaming with my husband or getting off work crazy early.

          • Anon in NYC says

            Juggling 2 separate dropoff and pickups does seem impossible on your own.

            Is going back to Center 1 with both kids not an option?

          • Anon says

            Technically they can both go back to Center 1 BUT the whole reason for switch to nanny in the first place is because I am not excited about their infant program right now. They have had a lot of transitions and i’m not comfortable with the teachers (toddler + is still great). This would require a transition for 2yo as well, as he would go back to a new classroom (moved up, we switched right before move-up time to hopefully eliminate a transition). So less of a transition for him, but infant care i’m not comfortable with at double the price of Bilingual, and 25% more than having a nanny. So we aren’t really considering it right now.

          • Anon in NYC says

            Can you give the dual center schedule a test run before transitioning your son? It might be worth a try doing that for a bit before your husband starts traveling and seeing if it’s even feasible.

            At the end of the day, I think you need to do what works best for the family as a whole, yourself included. If you like the bilingual center, it seems like that makes sense. You’re not a bad mom for trying to make your life easier!

            The only other alternative I can think of is to hire someone (or ask a friend) to do one of your kids drop off and pick up during the week that your husband is traveling.

  8. Momata says

    Does anyone know what the deal is with the kids’ clothing brand “Fiream” on Amazon? Their stuff is super cute imho (Boden-like) at an Old Navy price point. Is it an Amazon house brand? I’ve never seen it before.

    • Anons says

      Not familiar with that brand, but I have started to feel that Amazon has been flooded with really shady sellers lately. I see so many knockoffs or other questionable goods. I follow a few entrepreneur forums, and apparently it is all the rage to get goods from Chinese online sellers and then import and sell them on Amazon for a quick buck (with little to no regulation at any step in this process). I’ve stopped buying anything from Amazon if it has a safety aspect (so no car seats or anything like that–I try to buy direct from the company or a larger retailer who hopefully will have some control over the supply chain.) As a caveat, yes I am *that mom* that would worry about cheap clothing being unethically made or showing up at my house smelling like it has been soaked in a formaldehyde bath for a year. YMMV.

      • Momata says

        This was exactly my concern. I experienced that problem myself when I was looking for cheap shells for under my suits.

      • M says

        Yes! It is markedly worse. And smaller items have such a markup but inevitably I need it with prime shipping vs the cost/speed of shipping from Target or Walmart because I haven’t planned far enough ahead

    • Pogo says

      It must be, because it doesn’t appear to be anywhere else?

      Agree the clothes are super cute. Ugh, I can’t wait to have a little one to dress up!!

  9. Em says

    We just started solids and I’m looking for suggestions on what to send to daycare. We have done bananas and avocadoes but neither of those store/travel well. I plan to do some sweet potatoes soon. Can I prepare oatmeal in advance and send that? Any other suggestions that are good for initial foods and can be prepared in advance?

    • mascot says

      Honestly, we sent pouches. I figured I had 16 other meals during the week to feed homemade purees, tiny finger foods and warm cereal. I’d make things easy for daycare (and easy for me to pack).

    • Anon in NYC says

      I’ve always been fine sending bananas/avocado. We just prepare those in the morning, and figure the browning doesn’t hurt. My kid hasn’t liked oatmeal, so we don’t feed it to her that often.

      In the beginning, we sent a lot of purees. We would take, like, 2 hours on the weekend and make pureed pears (prepared the way we make applesauce). We also did pureed peaches, peas, broccoli, spinach, blueberries, applesauce, prunes, and so on. We would steam the veggies, and puree them in the food processor. We would often add a little seasoning to the veggies (butter, salt, pepper, soy sauce, etc.). We would freeze all of these in a silicone ice cube tray (easy to pop out). We would just take the frozen cubes and defrost them overnight in the fridge. We would mix and match them for daycare – one day she’d get a combo of pears and peaches, or broccoli and spinach, etc.

      After a month or so, daycare asked us to start providing finger foods. We would send things like peas and carrots, broccoli, black beans, cheese, fruit (cut up peaches, blueberries, pears, etc.).

      • CLMom says

        This is what we’re doing. But I always have jars/pooches available for random days when I’m off my game.

        • Anon in NYC says

          Oh yes, we have a big store of pouches for days where we just can’t get it together and we keep a few a daycare. I think my LO’s getting one or two tonight for dinner since we’ve run out of food in the house.

    • MDMom says

      Frozen purees (in ice cube trays) were our go to. My center would let us keep a box of baby oatmeal there and send the milk to mix with it.

      At age 1, my kid started eating the center provided food. But they asked for backup in case there was a day where he couldn’t or wouldn’t eat their food. I got a bunch of the pouches because they are shelf stable. Now I use them for travel and as backup at home. Very convenient and baby loves them. I wish I had used them before, for variety and travel, if nothing else.

    • AIMS says

      I didn’t even know baby oatmeal was a thing. My daughter eats the same oatmeal we do w/o issue (made with water) and it travels well. I add fruits and stuff to it, which I think actually ends up better after it sits a bit.

      For early foods one of the best for us was carrot purée. I just cooked a bunch of baby carrots till really soft and puréed in a mini food processor. Same with apples. Super simple and a big hit.

      • MDMom says

        Yea no reason a baby can’t have regular oatmeal. Baby oatmeal just has advantages of being easy to mix cold and iron fortification.

      • HSAL says

        We do the baby oatmeal – after a couple tubs I thought “hey, I can just food process our oatmeal a little and add some pureed fruit, it’ll be great.” Baby is apparently too good for homemade oatmeal because she couldn’t stand it. Do you just mix up plain oats? I usually eat non-instant rolled oats, but worried it’d be too chunky for her.

        • Meg Murry says

          Baby oatmeal has been slightly pre-cooked, so you can mix it with cold milk/formula. Rolled oats (or quick oats) has been steamed slightly, but isn’t completely cooked. Same with baby rice cereal – it’s pre-cooked rice that has been dehydrated.

          So food processing uncooked oats and mixing it with purees isn’t quite the same as baby oatmeal – but if you were to process it and then cook it, it would probably be fine. You can freeze oatmeal in small containers like you would purees if you want – I freeze it in cupcake liners for my older kids, so we can just pop out an oatmeal and some yogurt or applesauce or other fruit to mix in it.

        • AIMS says

          McCann’s Irish Oats – Instant, ready in 5 min. kind. I don’t purée after. It’s not super smooth but you can’t choke on it and baby loves it. I add softened fruit to it as it cooks and/or berries. Since I don’t serve it hot, the fruit also gets even softer as it sits a bit. Sprinkle of cinnamon & voila. I think the key is to make it sweet with fruit.

    • Momata says

      Greek yogurt! We go through SO MUCH greek yogurt. Cottage cheese is sort of phase 2 from greek yogurt. As baby got older I started making meat-based purees as well; I would just throw it in the food processor with a couple of complimentary vegetables, some butter, and a little bit of broth or water. There’s a book called 100 Baby Purees that provided good inspiration.

    • Leslie Knope says

      You all are amazing with your homemade baby food. I. just. can’t. I feel guilty and buy all organic baby food, but honestly it was just something I had to let go of aspiring to do. Pouches and a tub of oatmeal are what I send to our sitter. Oh and now some puffs.

  10. E says

    Any recommendations/creative ways for ways to keep grandparents that live far away involved in the lives of their grandchildren? I am expecting my first child this fall. Baby will be my parents’ first grandchild and my mother in particular is worried that the kid will grow up without any idea who she is. We will travel to visit when we can (approx 2 times per year) but my dad has a physical disability so it is very challenging for them to travel to/stay with us. They are not big fans of FaceTime but willing try it out and I can up my communication game. Any stories of success?

    • Momata says

      I’m all over this thread today . . . i am also anti-FaceTime but it works, at least for my 2.5 yo. All her grandparents are out of state. She recognizes the ones she FaceTimes with and has a markedly better time with them when they visit than the ones she doesn’t. We try to do it once a week. I also created an Apple photo stream for sharing photos with the grandparents and anyone else with a grandparent-level desire to see photos and movies of my kids. This has the added bonus of being a great photo album of just my favorite shots of the kids, and my 2.5yo now loves to go through it herself.

    • Anons says

      Every few months I send an email update on what kiddo is doing now (new skills she has learned, my favorite recent memories with her, books she likes, etc.). I think that helps people feel involved. We also have a private photo site on Shutterfly and I try to average uploading one picture a day. If you aren’t concerned about privacy, Facebook or Instagram or other sites work as well.

    • hoola hoopa says

      Similar situation with my ILs, and I will say that my kids are remarkably attached to them. They aren’t so familiar with them at younger ages, but by age 2 they have been nearly as attached as they are to my parents, who see them weekly.

      Tell your kids stories about them!! IME, that makes a HUGE difference in bridging the gap between visits. Talk on the phone with the kids, but also talk to your parents yourself without the kids and tell the kids what they are doing. Tell the kids stories about your parents when they were growing up. Talk about their favorite foods, sports that they like, where they live, etc.

      If your parents are crazy about facetime, don’t stress it. We do 99% of our calls with them on the phone. The facetime is nice, but it’s almost more distracting than helpful.

    • anon says

      We have that situation. My mother is local and sees the kid a couple times a week, my MIL is across the country with travel restrictions and sees her a couple times a year.

      You have two issues: does far-away grandparent get to see kid grow up in some way, and does kid care at all about far-away grandparent. The first is somewhat easy to address – create an online photo sharing portal (iphotos, google photos, whatever), and load photos in very regularly. Even the out of focus ones or the boring ones. MIL inhales them all.

      As to the second issue, frankly, my kid, 1.5 years, has no idea who MIL is and it’s killing MIL. Kid could not care less about facetime with MIL, despite many attempts. Meanwhile, my mom was out of town for this past month and we face timed with her for the first time, and I was expecting it to go as poorly as with MIL. To my surprise, Kid was very, very engaged with facetime and knew exactly who my mom was. My mom also made a shutterfly paper book full of photos of kid and my mom together, which, again to my surprise, kid loved to look at.

      I don’t think this situation is going to improve much until kid is older and can remember MIL better, like Momata’s kid. Here’s hoping.

    • Jdubs says

      Definitely facetime if you can. We have one set of grandparents and we facetime almost nightly. Its very casual, i stick the ipad on the kitchen table while I am making dinner so I can hear and respond and kiddo is going about her business and Grandparents are sort of just also at the table. Will also sometimes facetime during bedtime routine so grandparents can read stories. For the other grandfather who does not facetime, we made a book (shutterfly, or other program) with photos of grandparents and other long distance family members and their names and keep it in the reading rotation. My kids are much more excited about the visits with these relatives since we have book looking at them and discussing their photos.

    • Anon in NYC says

      We have a private photo group for grandparents and our siblings on Flickr. All they have to do is download the app and accept this invitation into the group. Our parents love it! We include little notes about what she’s doing on any given day or new things that she’s learned, or even just silly things like when she decided that the best way to eat hummus was to smear it all over her face and hair. We also upload the photos and videos that daycare sends us. I think it really helps our parents feel like they’re a part of our kid’s life on a more regular basis.

      As for your LO recognizing your parents, I think photos are key, and FaceTime too. My LO loves looking at my phone, and in particular, loves looking at photos or watching videos of herself. So I would collect a lot of photos of your family, perhaps get them scanned (sounds like a good project for your mom?), and regularly show them to your LO and talk about who they are. Maybe they can record videos on their phones and send them to you to play for your kid?

      • H says

        This is what I was going to suggest. My family wants me to do something like this and they are in the same city!

        Your parents might be more ok with facetime once they get to see the baby. Also, when your LO gets older, send handmade cards.

    • Spirograph says

      I agree with all of these suggestions and just want to add that my 3 year old gets really, really confused when we talk on the phone to someone we can’t see. Even if we’re not doing facetime with my mom, he likes to look at the picture of her that pops up on my phone when she calls. My dad (parents divorced) doesn’t do facetime, and every time we talk to him, it’s “but I want to seeeeee him! Why can’t I see Grampa? Where’s the picture?!” Totally crazy to me that tech has built this expectation into my kid.

      Both my kids enjoy looking at our family wedding pictures that are hanging around the house. They like to name all the family members — even ones they’ve never actually met. We also try to bring up all the grandparents in conversation on a regular basis, just to remind kiddos that they have TWO grandmas, and TWO grandpas, and various aunts, uncles and cousins, even though only my family visits with any kind of regularity.

      Also, down the road, if your kid goes to a daycare/preschool that does lots of craft projects, packaging up a few of these every month and shipping them off to grandparents is a good way to keep them from piling up in your house, and the grandparents enjoy them too!

    • NewMomAnon says

      I second all the suggestions – paper photo books, Facetime (my kiddo didn’t get it until about 18 months old and the calls last less than 10 minutes), frequent updates via e-mail or other sites (yes, I use FB – judiciously I hope).

      The other thing that has been amazing is the ability to take and send short videos. I send cell phone videos of kiddo to grandparents weekly, and when they are out of town, they send videos of themselves reading a story for kiddo, or doing something goofy with their pets, or singing a song. Kiddo LOVES it. We watch those videos regularly, for months and months after the fact.

      And finally, now that kiddo is old enough to do independent art work (and so much of it), we’ve gotten in the habit of making a whole bunch of pictures, folding them into envelopes, and then mailing them to anyone who had the good sense to give their mailing address in the last year. Family and friends send post cards back to us from wherever they are. It’s great.

    • profesora says

      We try to skype once per week and we use WhatsApp group messaging with both sets of grandparents. We try to take at least one video/picture per day to send. WhatsApp makes it easy to send pictures and videos at a size that the videos still look good. They really love getting the videos and I’m told they play the favorites over and over.

    • PEN says

      We are basically a no screen time family. Except for one hour (30 mins with each set) on Sunday when the kids skype with their grandparents. We do it nearly every Sunday. My kids (2.5 &1) love it and the love their grandparents. They quickly spot them in crowds (like at airports). Sometimes we Skype at dinner or during bath time. Gparents and kiddos love it. We live on the other side of the country from family.

    • FrankieCat says

      We have a photo album called Grandma and Grandpa, we periodically print photos and get Baby to put them in there. It’s nice to have them in one place and kids can recollect all the fun times they have had together.

  11. Chi Squared says

    I just wanted to thank everyone for the kind and encouraging words following my comment on Wednesday’s post. You ladies are wonderful!

  12. TBK - LeapFrog Recommendations says

    We leave tomorrow 7:00am for the epic two toddler drive to Charleston, SC. We splurged on LeapFrog Epics for the kids (one for each, nach — this is why twins cost a fortune). I played around with one of them, but I’m having trouble finding age-appropriate apps. My kids are almost 2.5. I don’t think they will get games that involve moving specific letters around, or designing pets. They’d like painting apps or something where they can manipulate colors etc. on the screen, apps that ask them to find specific shapes or letters or numbers or colors (like “find the red triangle!” and they have to tap it — they’d get that), or apps that tell a story. Are there apps like that? I’m having trouble finding them.

    • Meg Murry says

      I think you can load up the Amazon app store on the LeapFrog Epics and download apps from there – you might find more than what you can on the LeapFrog store.

      My son is 4, but he likes (or used to like):
      – apps by TocaBoca
      – Kaleidoscope drawing pad
      – Kids animal piano
      – Looking at pictures of himself in the photo gallery
      – Lego Duplo Train
      – Kids Connect the Dots
      – Fisher Price Laugh and Learn
      – There’s a Monster at teh End of this Book

      Important tip: once you think you’ve installed all the apps, turn off wifi and then test them again. Some apps need to be opened the first time with an internet connection available, some don’t work at all without an internet connection. You don’t want tantrums when they click on an app and it doesn’t work while you are on the road.

      • mascot says

        “Important tip: once you think you’ve installed all the apps, turn off wifi and then test them again. Some apps need to be opened the first time with an internet connection available, some don’t work at all without an internet connection. You don’t want tantrums when they click on an app and it doesn’t work while you are on the road.”

        THIS x10000. Our Kindle Fire is the worst for this. Sometimes we can tether it to our phones and get it re-booted, but not always.
        Also, if you have a Amazon Prime acct, there may be some videos you can download for off-line watching through their videos app.

    • mascot says

      Apps my son loved- Tozzle, Peekaboo Barn, Duck Duck Moose apps, some sparkly painting app.

  13. Baby snow suits says

    What kind of winter gear do babies need at age 6 – 12 months? We live in the upper midwest and I would like to stay active with my baby during the fall and winter — we’ve been in the habit of taking a long walk every day this summer and I would like to keep it up as the weather turns cold. Would you recommend an actual snow suit for these pre-walking months or just some cozy bunting for use in the stroller? Patagonia has some cute baby snow suits but they are not cheap (~$150).

    As an aside, I am never how to balance my inclination to buy fewer, high quality, ethically made items, which is the philosophy I try to adhere to for my own clothes, against the fact that babies grow out of things so quickly that it seems wasteful to buy the expensive version of everything.

    • TBK says

      Bunting. And shop consignment! Or neighborhood listserv! Or find the FB parents’ group for your area. Or big annual/semi-annual group consignment sales (check your local parents of multiples group — ours has a ginormous sale twice a year and allows non-members in to shop about 1-2 hrs after the members are allowed in). People are off-loading kids’ stuff all the time and a bunting is prime “need to get rid of” territory. I picked up my kids’ buntings for $15 each (full price for new ~ $100 ea). And if you’re buying used, you don’t have to worry about supporting practices you don’t believe in since your money isn’t going to the company at all.

    • AIMS says

      This may be too late now, but the best thing I found for just keeping warm in a stroller is a stroller muff type attachment. We got one from 7 am enfant and it was perfect for stroller and car sea. I found actual snow suits and bunting to be too hard to safely buckle the baby in. Also – a side benefit – it’s so much easier to just get baby into one of these than actual outerwear. The bunting we had basically never got worn bc it just didn’t work with the stroller straps at all.
      https://7amenfant.com/shop/nido/

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