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This is one product that I could never have anticipated wanting or needing. However, my house has narrow stairways and I have to walk down two flights to do the laundry. We originally bought the regular rectangular laundry baskets, but I was bumping into the walls, knocking picture frames to the ground, and having a difficult time going down the stairs with a heavy basket that I couldn’t hold perpendicular to my body. In the grand scheme of things, this is such a small complaint in life, but as the laundry-doer in the household, this square option has truly made my life easier! It’s available at Target for $8.99, both online and in-store. Ultra Square Laundry Basket
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AIMS says
Ooh, I have something very similar but it’s taller, and has wheels and a handle. It’s fantastic. Small enough to tuck away in a closet but makes doing laundry so easy. We use it as a sort of hamper, too. Our laundry is in the basement of our building so that’s part of the reason we got it but it seems like it would be useful in a house too.
Cb says
We’ve got brabantia stackable laundry hampers which sit on top of the washing machine and they have markedly improved my life. The washer and dryer are in our bedroom (weird Brits and their lack of laundry facilities) and it looks tidier.
Mary V Bellamy says
I’ve got several of these very laundry baskets (the ones in the original post). After 4-ish years, I’ve had one break. It’s still useable, but the handle broke on one side. (And it’s *possible* that it was overloaded and used to move stuff during a recent move. By my husband, of course.) I have a hip basket too, which lives in the kids room, which is on the same floor as the laundry. But it is much easier to move this one up and down the narrow stairs from our room.
lawsuited says
The curved laundry baskets that you can balance of your hip are where it’s at.
So, I’m being induced with #2 this weekend. I’ll get the prostaglandin gel and then be sent home to labour for a while, and then be admitted to hospital for pitocin. I’m wondering what people did with their toddlers when having baby #2? We have family who would happily have him to stay with them, but I’m reticent to send my toddler away for 3-4 days (I’ll be in hospital for 24-48 hours after the birth) and then resurface with a new baby. I think I’d like my family to look after him in our home for the duration so that he’s in his familiar surroundings (and then my husband will bring toddler to the hospital to meet and bring home the new baby), but that will mean he’ll see some of my early labouring. Is that fine? Is that going to freak him out?
I may be overthinking this, but I just want to do right by my sweet toddler, ya know?
Anonymous says
My parents stayed out our house. But they came over as soon as I was in labor and took older kid out for lunch and then to the local children’s museum for the afternoon. I was gone to the hospital before they got back. Totally depends on when you start labor. If you start laboring after older kid is in bed, it won’t even be an issue.
HSAL says
Can your family come stay with you the day before so they’re there to distract him if necessary? My parents stayed with my daughter but I had a csection so she never saw me laboring. Based on my first labor I wouldn’t have wanted her to see any of that, but you might respond differently/timing might be better and that way you’ve got a backup plan.
lawsuited says
I was induced for #1 in the same way, so I have some sense that the gel will take several hours to work, then contractions will be very manageable for a few hours after that and at the point that they really intensify I’ll go to the hospital for pitocin. The house is big enough that toddler could be playing in a different part of the house and visit me occasionally rather than having a front row seat the whole time.
Family can stay the day before, and we’re trying to think of some fun outings to get him out of the house if necessary, but he’s only 20 months so not quite up for children’s museum visits (I think?).
Cb says
Our national museum is fantastic for little ones. I’ve been taking my toddler since he started crawling and he loves it so it might be worth a go.
Annie says
Isn’t everything a fun outing at 20 months? Climb on the benches at the mall, go the park, toddle around a children’s museum, bundle up and go for a long stroller ride to a park, stare at people in Starbucks . . .
lawsuited says
With us, definitely, but my in-laws are a lot less active than my toddler so if they’re out with him he’s more or less relegated to a car seat or stroller, which is why I’d like him to be at home as much as possible where he can run around and play.
Anonymous says
Are there any indoor play gyms around? Or libraries with a play space? Basically something where they can sit and he can explore a new-to-him safe space.
Boston Legal Eagle says
I started labor on a weekday when our older son was in daycare and my husband and I went to the hospital before he was picked up. My parents picked him up and stayed with him that night and the next few days. If your induction is on a weekday, can you keep him in daycare/school and get to the hospital before he’s back? If it’s on a weekend, maybe your family can take him somewhere during the day.
MomAnon4This says
Please ask your pediatrician if s/he thinks that salt is a problem.
IMHO it is not a problem, and I’ll tell you why: it is a problem OVER. TIME. Yes your 40-year-old adult child MAY develop a disease due to too much salt intake. But not NOW.
Also — the reason (to me) why salt intake is a problem now is because of your child’s taste buds- you want them to *not* love salty food. But, they will. And if you’re doing your best, I trust you.
It’s not a problem to us, IMHO. I have way bigger parenting problems than something that will appear over the next 2 generations. Like, WHY CAN’T MY KIDS STOP SCREAMING AND PRETEND TO GET A LONG AND OH GD MY IN-LAWS AND MONEY. But, whatever, you do you.
Anonymous says
Family history matters too. There is some high blood pressure in my family, but only in very overweight men over the age of 60. Salt is not high on my list of things to worry about because I don’t think it will be an issue for my daughter anytime soon, assuming she is otherwise healthy. Husband has normal blood pressure and I have very low blood pressure.
Anonymous says
I was also induced and we thought we’d have to do the gel prior to pitocin (ended up going straight to pitocin). But because they schedule inductions at midnight in our hospital system (so horrible), and don’t send you home, we dropped 3 year old off at dinner time at my parents’ house prior to the midnight induction. We arrived at the hospital 12 am Tuesday, baby born 2:30 am Wednesday (had complications that required stopping induction for a while). Luckily we were both fine and could go home Thursday morning. Parents brought toddler to visit us in the hospital. I was glad it was only 3 nights at grandma and grandpa’s! Some people have the father go home, but for us it worked better for him to stay in the hospital Wednesday night to help with the baby so I could attempt to sleep after being awake 48+ hours. For me, I would not have wanted to be dealing with toddler while in any sort of labor.
laundry pop-up baskets says
IMO the pop-up laundry baskets are so much better — lighter, collapsible, kids love to play in them. Yes, they maybe only last a year or two, but we keep 3 in solid rotation and they are cheap. Also helps when you sort hampers in multiple rooms into colors/darks/whites.
I use solid laundry bins more as shelf-storage organizers for off-season kids things or sale buying for stuff they may grow into (jackets, leggings, dresses).
Anon says
How much do you worry about sodium in kids foods? I feel like it’s pretty easy to buy baby/toddler foods with no sugar added, but a lot of things my 10 month old loves are pretty high in sodium (frozen turkey/chicken meatballs especially). We also eat out a lot and I know restaurant food is generally high in sodium. Is this something you don’t worry too much about as long as it’s in moderation? Or does anyone have strategies for eating lower sodium that aren’t “make all food from scratch” (that’s a non-starter for our family).
AwayEmily says
Interested to hear responses — this is on my “talk to the pediatrician about it” list. My 10-month-old’s favorite foods are pre-packaged guacamole and salmon burgers. Both of which are healthy, sort of, but do contain a fair amount of sodium.
Anon, we also don’t really have time to make food from scratch BUT I outsourced some of this to my mom — she made a ton of little egg-and-veggie muffins and froze them, along with some other random stuff she found on Pinterest. She loved helping out and I love not having to worry about at least some of my kid’s meals. So if you have any family nearby might be something to ask for?
AIMS says
My mom does this too. She’s very anti packaged food and loves to help out so it’s a win-win. She usually makes a soup for the week and sometimes a second something else. All of it can be frozen so it was really great when our kitchen was under construction and we couldn’t really do any cooking but could reheat stuff. Things like chicken meatballs freeze well. You may be able to buy them “fresh” but pre-made if cooking is really not an option; our ‘fancy’ supermarket sells them ready-to-cook and I don’t think they add anything too terrible to them.
rosie says
I would assume that pre-made fancy supermarket food has lots of salt. I don’t have an opinion on whether it’s something to avoid (and it is not something that I personally avoid for my family, although try not to do it everyday), but salt brings out flavor and makes stuff taste good. They’re adding it.
Anonymous says
Yeah. I’m not especially freaked about salt, but I do think you’re deluding yourself if you think food is low sodium just because it’s organic or natural or preservative- free or whatever. Salt is a natural seasoning, it tastes good and it’s added to almost everything that’s not explicitly sold as plain or unseasoned. If you care about sodium, you have to read labels, you can’t just assume it’s fine because you bought it at a bougie grocery store.
Anonymous says
I worry about it a lot and making food from scratch is my solution. My family has a history of sodium sensitive high blood pressure and related complications so for us, we eat out once a week or so and don’t eat much processed food. It’s hard. But not that hard. I mean, if your kid loves sodium laden pre packaged guacamole is mashing an avocado really that hard? If salmon burgers are a hit, just cook a piece of salmon?
AwayEmily says
No, it’s not “that hard,” and we do give him both mashed avocado and actual salmon, but I guess I’d politely ask you to take people at their words when they say that making three meals a day of homemade food poses a challenge. For me it’s because my husband is away for work for most of the week, I’m parenting two kids on my own, and so by the end of the week I haven’t really necessarily had time to get to the grocery store to buy fresh salmon and I’m scrambling for options. For Anon maybe it’s another reason.
Mama Llama says
+1 And more generally, I hate when people (not just the prior poster, I see this a lot) want to focus on one little thing and how it’s not a big deal to do that particular thing. No, it’s not *that* hard to mash an avocado, or make your own granola bars, or bring your lunch every day, or read to your kid every day, or exercise, or do laundry, or take a shower, or journal, or mediate, or do date nights, or go to networking events, or a million other things that are valuable and worthwhile, but doing them all is impossible, and we are all doing what we can within our own constraints and priorities.
HSAL says
I love this and am going to save it, so thanks.
AwayEmily says
Yeah, this is great, thank you. “We are all doing what we can within our own constraints and priorities.” Very well put.
Spirograph says
So well said, thank you. I have to remind myself of this all the time, when my brain defaults to “omg, it only takes a few minutes to do X. It’s not that hard. Why can’t I just do it like “everyone” esle?”
To the OP, I really don’t worry about sodium, and I’m confused what your gold standard is if your cooking dinner “mostly from scratch” every night is not cutting it! My kids get cereal or yogurt for breakfast. Daycare provides lunch for the littles, and I don’t think about it at all. My K son gets a lunchable, some raw vegetables (baby carrots, usually), and a piece of fruit for lunch most days. Sometimes I make him a sandwich, but same same with bread instead of crackers. The only thing I actually worry about is dinner, which we make dinner from scratch or semi-homemade most nights. We go out to eat or have takeout once a week, whether fast food lunch on a weekend, or restaurant/pizza/takeout for dinner.
Meal planning, which I NEVER did pre-kids, has been a game changer for me. Also, I try to keep on hand things like quick rice, frozen vegetables, tortillas, cans of black beans, shredded cheese, precooked frozen chicken breasts, pasta and jars of pasta sauce, etc that I can turn into dinner quickly if things go sideways. We minimize snacks like crackers/chips in the house and have cheese sticks, veggies and fruit available instead. But otherwise, everything in moderation. If your kid(s) are eating a balanced diet over the course of a day or week, I think you’re good!
Pigpen's Mama says
+111111
Preach.
Also, this is one reason I love the Week in the Life of posts that are honest about how much help (or how little help) they have, there’s no one I can outsource anything to that doesn’t require either oversight or significant money, usually both. Including my husband, because he’s out of the house more than I am and lacks ‘executive functioning skills’ or whatever…
ElisaR says
ooh yes this just gave me a flashback to when i completely snapped at my very sweet MIL (not my style but I lost it) when she told me how easy homemade mac and cheese was. when I said “well, no, I am telling you it is not an option for me” and she interrupted me to say “no no no it’s REALLY very easy.” I lost it. and ended my response with “I’m just doing the best i can”.
Mama Llama says
That is totally snap-worthy. ugh.
Anon says
So I’m the OP, and neither DH and I want to grind up raw meat – neither of us grew up cooking with raw meat at home and we’re just not comfortable doing it, so pre-made is her only option for meatballs, which she loves. We do cook a mostly from-scratch dinner each night (although we often use frozen veggies to save time, I don’t think they have added sodium though), but that’s one meal out of 4-5 meals that an older infant/toddler eats each day. It’s really hard to prep the other four meals from scratch every day and would absolutely eat up a lot of the limited amount of free time we have. People on this s!te are so non-judgy in general, but I feel like there’s always so much judgyness about using pre-made food. Which is bizarre to me, because with two working parents and kid(s), it’s really hard to do that much from-scratch cooking.
Anon says
Replying to myself to add that I also think there are lot of nutritional benefits to a diverse diet. My pediatrician said we should aim to not repeat ingredients throughout the day (eg if she has salmon at dinner, no salmon at any other time of day) and pre-packaged foods really help us add variety to her diet. It’s the same reason we used baby food pouches/jars when she was still on purees. DH and I eat the same 2 or 3 easy, convenient things over and over again (banana for breakfast, steamed broccoli with dinner, etc) and with pouches, I could expose my baby to 20+ different fruits and vegetables a day, most of which we don’t regularly have in our house.
Anonymous says
Where are you food shopping? We’re lucky to have a Whole Foods as the closest store to us, and a lot of their kids food is pretty low sodium. Specifically, we get the Mom Made Beef & Cheese meatballs. Kiddo only gets a few– less than the serving size on the packaging– but even the serving size only has 260mg, less than 1/3 of her daily allotment.
Mama Llama says
Do not even worry about it! Here is my kid’s entire list of things she can and will eat for dinner: PB sandwich, baked beans from a can, frozen pizza, frozen chicken nuggets, pasta with frozen meatballs, frozen pancakes or waffles, cheese quesadilla, plain slices of cheese, avocado/guacamole, frozen peas or corn, fresh carrots or cucumber, yogurt, and a variety of fruits. And this is a lot more than she would eat a couple of years ago.
Em says
I was crazy about food when my son was an infant (I made all his baby food from scratch) and now he is at a daycare that feeds him fruit loops (with marshmallows!) and donuts for breakfast and mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs for lunch. I don’t like it, but we are on our 5th daycare in 2 1/2 years so this is the price of admission. We cook dinner at home every night, but sometimes it’s ready too late for him so he has a peanut butter sandwich for dinner. I guess that puts us in the “whatevs” category on caring about sodium.
Anonymous says
Wait though what? You don’t have to grind your own meat for meatballs! It comes ground.
And sorry not sorry- you asked about sodium and my answer is for my family it’s a big deal, and means cooking a lot, and I don’t think it’s all that hard to cook from scratch for a 10 month old, and it really matters.
Anon says
Sorry I didn’t mean actually grinding the meat, but just the hands-on process of working with raw meat to shape it into balls…need more coffee. I’m ok sticking a piece of raw chicken into a slow cooker or oven, but I don’t want to get any more “hands on” than that with raw meat.
Anonymous says
Oh ok gotcha! I totally get that is a challenge. And, salt matters more for some people than others, medically. So I am extremely cautious because I know I need to be but maybe you just don’t have to!
Anonymous says
slow cooker chili might be a good option – you just put the ground beef in straight from the package. We make a double batch and freeze in individual portions so we can pull out a portion for baby.
We found that making a meal plan was the easiest way to identify what meals were fast and easy but healthy. Crustless quiche with a salad is a quick and easy staple for us. Just make it without salt and add a sprinkle at the table. We also make a few extra mini quiche to freeze and use for kid on the evenings when DH and I want spicy thai takeout.
Basically whenever we do cook from scratch we make enough for three adults which always leaves us with an extra portion to freeze for a future kid meal. Kid currently eats about half an adult portion.
anon says
My kids practically lived on deli meatballs when they were toddlers. I tried to balance it with fruits and veggies (including tons of frozen varieties that we could microwave as needed), pasta (which we would cook in greater quantities than we needed so that we could have refrigerated leftovers ready to microwave), lots of yogurt, breads, and cereal. My kids also liked canned beans and chickpeas–we bought the low sodium kind and rinsed them before serving the kids. Pasta, chick peas, and some frozen vegetable was a common meal at that age, especially when meatballs were served the same day. When we cooked, we made more than we needed and then reheated so that we were not cooking every meal. I doubt your kid is eating so much when you go to a restaurant that the sodium is overpowering.
Wow says
Restaurant and frozen food have a ton of sodium, so you’re right to be concerned about it. I would do more things at home even if it’s not super fancy cooking — simple things like making pasta or doing a big batch of something in the crock pot on a weekend. You can mix in the frozen meatballs as part of her diet, but adding other home cooked meals will help too.
Anonymous says
We did almost no salt before one and still try to limit salt now. I was much more worried about salt than sugar given my family history of heart disease and high blood pressure. Also, their kidneys can’t handle much salt at all before around age one. When eating out, avoid cheese and ask for pasta and veggies to be cooked without salt.
This has some good tips on how to lower salt – https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/children-sodium/index.html
And this explains how much salt babies/kids need – https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/childrens-health/how-much-salt-do-babies-and-children-need/
Anonymous says
Yeah it’s really a big deal. Your baby should not be eating salt laden food. Sorry it’s hard!
Anon says
OP here, just for the record I believe my baby gets under 400 mg/day even with some processed food. Appreciate the links, they’re informative, but my takeaway from them is just that you have to read labels and balance processed things with fresh foods and veggies, not that you can never give your baby a frozen meatball.
Anon 9:38 says
Yes! I totally use frozen meatballs – it’s all about balance. Replied above as well but making an extra portion for kid when we do cook from scratch, gives us leftovers to use when the adult meal is less healthy/too spicy.
Anonymous says
You did just ask us our thoughts. They aren’t always going to be “everything is perfect you do you.”
AwayEmily says
Thanks for posting those links. The max sodium recommendation was a lot higher than I expected, and makes me much less worried about some of the “processed” food that I was worried about. Half a salmon burger (what he typically eats) has 165 mg of sodium, which is not even half the daily max (400mg). So, I now feel more ok with what I’m feeding him.
rosie says
Salmon is so healthy. If burger-form is what it takes for him to eat it, I think that’s a fine tradeoff, it’s not like it’s salty food devoid of nutrients. I wish my kid would eat salmon. Maybe we’ll try the burgers.
Anonymous says
Just as an FYI, breastmilk, formula, vegetables, meat and fish and especially cow’s milk dairy all have non-trivial amounts of naturally occurring sodium. I’d assume well over half his daily allotment of sodium is met by foods you (and most people!) consider natural or fresh, and that excludes basic kid staples like canned beans, bread, peanut butter and meatballs/burgers. I’m not judging at all, I think my kid eats way more than the recommended amount of sodium, but just so you know for purposes of assessing accurately, the salmon burger probably represents a fairly small percentage of his overall sodium intake. I was actually shocked when I learned how much sodium is in cow’s milk – it’s 120 mg in one cup, so a toddler typically gets about half their ideal sodium intake just from milk. The other half can easily be met by one PB sandwich.
anne-on says
Can you do more ‘semi-homemade’ stuff for you/your kids? I totally get that it can seem incredibly daunting to cook 3 meals a day from scratch, but I think you can do a lot of mix/match to avoid totally pre-cooked/pre-made options. In my house we do a lot of bagged salads/bagged veggies (baby carrots/snap peas/cut up broccoli) along with an easy protein (marinated chicken breasts thrown in the oven, pork loin rubbed in salt/pepper and roasted) etc. I can easily turn on the oven, shove meat in for 30 minutes along with frozen baguettes and then give the kiddo cut up fresh veggies while the adults have a salad. Slow cooker options like shredded chicken, stews, and shredded bbq pork. For breakfast I also do a lot of homemade muffins that I’ll freeze/defrost in bulk, or simply fresh fruit with cereal/homemade waffles.
I totally get the amount of time/energy it takes, so if its a value call for you now, just accept it. I place more priority on homemade meals but I also like and enjoy cooking and have a lot of practice cooking and can bang out a family meal quickly. I fully recognize that isn’t reasonable for everyone. Maybe aim to try to cook 1-2 days a week as a starting point if it is important to you and go from there?
lawsuited says
My strategy is to not offer more than one processed item per meal, so I’ll feed LO processed meatballs with cut up raw veggies or processed broccoli-and-cheddar bites with roasted chicken breast but not processed meatballs and processed broccoli-and-cheddar bites together in the same meal. My kid eats a lot of frankenstein meals as a result, but who cares?
Also, my threshold for what counts as “processed food” is probably higher than some moms. I don’t make my own bread or yoghurt or peanut butter, but don’t count the store-bought versions of those things as processed foods (although I understand that they are not naturally occurring in the universe). I’m targeting protein and veggie options that are preserved in some way rather than fresh.
Anonymous says
This is us. Chicken fingers with roast potatoes and carrots. Homemade tomato sauce for pasta but add in frozen turkey meatballs.
AwayEmily says
Also, OP — I don’t know if this is kid #1 for you or not but I found that the age from about 10 – 20 months was the absolute hardest in terms of food. They need finger food but it has to be soft enough for them to gum, which rules out a ton of easy stuff (carrots, for example). It got a LOT easier to cook for my kid once she got her molars in and got reasonably good at chewing. So: it gets better!
Anonymous says
I worry about it, but also feed my kids commercial bread for breakfast every morning, nuggets or meatballs for dinner a couple times a week, crackers basically daily, and SO MUCH cheese, so I’m just here to say that I’m probably more of a failure than you are!
Anon in NYC says
I worry about it, but I also don’t stress about it on a daily basis, if that makes sense. My kid eats a lot of fresh fruit, very little in the way of veggies (literally: tomatoes, peppers, avocado [technically fruit], and mixed veggies [corn, peas, carrots]), and a limited number of proteins. Breakfast is usually a carb – frozen pancakes/waffles, cereal, or toast. I can’t interest her in eggs or yogurt. She eats PB & J every day for lunch because that makes our life easier (although I might be able to rotate in other items). Dinner is usually a homemade-in-bulk-and-pulled-from-the-freezer meals or a prepared food item. Like, Dr Praeger’s fishies, Amy’s Mac and Cheese, or Amy’s cheese + bean burritos are favorites in our house. In terms of homemade stuff, I usually have homemade pasta sauce or black beans in the freezer, and we’ll defrost those and she’ll eat pasta or beans several times throughout the week. Sometimes if my husband and I make something like meatloaf for ourselves, my kid will get some of that. So, I worry about it in the abstract, but in practice, we do what we need to do to get food in our kid.
Anonymous says
I worry about sodium a lot. Way more than sugar, TBH.
One way that we limit our intake is our dinner formula of main + fresh fruit + veggies. When kiddo was 10 months, the veggies were usually the frozen steamable kind. Now kiddo prefers raw veggies or salad (and has now discovered ranch for dipping, which clearly has sodium). So if your main is processed or semi-processed, you can feel good about the sides and provide some balance.
Pogo says
We did very little salt before 1, so he would get a small amount of 1 pre-packaged thing a day (usually a Dr Praeger’s Kale Little) and the rest of the stuff I’d do was “home made” in the sense that I would roast a squash on Sunday and then portion it out to him over the week with his lunch.Now that he’s 1.5, we do more packaged stuff, but still try to limit it to half of his meal, with the other half being “home made” or whole foods (typically: poached chicken which husband does once a week, roasted fresh veggies or microwaved frozen veggies, sliced avocado, fruit).
We also do cook full meals from scratch, but he rarely eats more than a few bites of the “adult” food so we always serve something that he will eat as well.
Anon says
I don’t worry about it (DD is 16 months). I know what my mother fed me, I seem to have turned out OK, and I know I’m doing better than she did (I honestly didn’t eat a vegetable other than iceberg lettuce, potatoes or corn until college and my mother’s favorite food is McDonald’s cheeseburgers), so I take comfort in that. I work 60 hours on a good week, so even though I love to cook, cooking in our house is laughable these days. My child generally gets yogurt or one slice of peanut butter toast and a piece of fruit for breakfast (usually a banana), I have no idea what my husband feeds her for lunch, assuming she doesn’t refuse lunch, which is a thing these days, but she is happy, growing and generally healthy, and for dinner she usually gets whole grain refrigerated chicken nuggets that cook in about a 1:30 in the microwave or macaroni and cheese (the only things she reliably eats) or whatever we eat if I cooked over the weekend, and steamed frozen veggies. I try to cook once a weekend so that we have leftovers to mix in during the week (e.g., this week I made homemade falafel on Sunday night, last week I made a butternut squash creamy orzo that she went crazy for, the week before that I think I made meatballs for a party and kept a handful behind for her to eat throughout the week).
I share your aversion to ground meat – I used to roll meatballs between spoons so I didn’t have to touch it. Now, I just use food prep gloves and that solves the grossness factor for me.
Anon in NYC says
Oooh. what is the butternut squash creamy orzo? Sounds delicious, and I keep trying to get my kid to eat squash but she otherwise refuses.
Anon says
Search for “One-pot Creamy Spinach Parmesan Orzo” from kitchn. I use that as a seasonal base for us and use whatever milk we need to use up (i.e., it tastes fine with 2%) and I use pre-shredded parmesan cheese because life. Instead of spinach, which I hate, in the spring and summer I usually do peas or small cut up pieces of asparagus (adjust when you toss them in the pot as needed – usually 2-3 minutes for peas and 5 minutes for asparagus for me). In the fall and winter, I roast a butternut squash with a little oil (and TBH, salt and pepper, but you can omit that if you’re concerned about salt), scoop out the flesh and do a quick and dirty mash in the pasta pot to break it up and then stir it all together. Bonus is that it’s nice and orange just like the kraft stuff, which I think helps on the enticing toddler factor.
anon says
is the general consensus that a holiday bonus for a nanny is a week’s pay? (this is our first year with a nanny)
Anonymous says
That’s approximately what we do. We settled on $1k because it’s even, but that’s about what she gets pre-tax.
AnotherAnon says
I have never been in a job that was this busy during the holidays and I am strug.gle.ing. Going to have another convo with DH tonight about how it’s time for me to stay home.
anon says
hugs. this time of year can be hard and overwhelming
AwayEmily says
Any tips for holidays with kids who are on the anxious side? We are spending ten days with my inlaws, and it will be eleven adults, four kids, and a dog in one house. I anticipate that it will be pretty overwhelming for my routine-oriented, somewhat sensitive 2.5 year old, who even during playdates that she enjoys will say things like “it’s too loud for me” or “there are too many people here.”
Right now I’m thinking of finding a corner in the house somewhere and putting some pillows/books there so it can be a “retreat” (unfortunately our room can’t always be that because her baby brother will be napping there),and also trying to go on a couple of walks a day to get her away from the craziness. Other actions/scripts that have worked for you guys?
Mama Llama says
Your daughter sounds very similar to my 4 year old. All your thoughts sound like good ones to me, especially getting out of the house. At that age my daughter really liked listening to books on CD. Any chance you could set up something like that with headphones to help her tune out the ruckus?
Anonymous says
Do you allow screen time? Sometimes zoning out to a 15 minute Daniel Tiger helps us. You could maybe even get her headphones so she can tune the chaos out even more.
AwayEmily says
Brilliant idea. We have headphones that we use during plane trips and I never thought of repurposing them for zone-out time. Mama Llama, any particular book recommendations? Maybe I will try to get a few audiobooks from the library.
Mama Llama says
Her first audio books were Strega Nona, Dr. Seuss ABC and Green Eggs and Ham, and the Pout Pout Fish. I realize it’s old-fashioned, but we got book and CD sets, and she really liked looking at the books while listening to the stories.
Anonymous says
I am trying to plan an “outing” every day to break up the day and have something to look forward to, plus get away from all the people. Actual Christmas Day will be hard because everything is closed, but even if we go to the playground or around outside for a bit, I’ll be happy.
Other days I’m looking at going to the library, the children’s museum, and a local microbrewery for lunch. I coordinated with SIL ahead of time because we found the one day during Thanksgiving that we didn’t have an “activity” planned/leave the house, the kids went bananas and the day felt like it was 47 hours long. Also, we need to get away from our MIL.
Anon says
Make up excuses to leave the house and take her with you. “Oh I’m going to run out for more milk. Kid, come with me!” “Oh we’re going to drive around and look at the Christmas lights! Be back in a few!” “I found a special place with hot chocolate so we’ll have a mama/daughter date! We’ll let you know how it goes!”
Also we bought an Amazon Fire Kids and use the included kidtime to have all sorts of audio books she can listen to with headphones. We used the parental controls to require 10 min of books before any games/apps. The room we stay in at my in-laws has space on both sides of the bed, so Kid1 naps on one side of the bed, she lays with her tablet on the other side. Sometimes I sit on the bed “to help them go down” and play on my own phone. Those two hours of quiet solitude while the kids “rest” helps us all deal with a full day of chaos, and we’re all extroverts. It’s just exhausting to be in a chaotic household that isn’t your own for days on end, for anyone.
Anonymous says
Get a hotel? 10 days is so many days.
anon says
why are people so obsessed with Hanna Anderson? i have a gift card to the store and the stuff just doesn’t seem that special to me
ElisaR says
i think the quality has gone down hill a lot. I had at least 5 zippers break on the pajamas. The stuff without zippers though…. that has gone through nephews and my 2 boys and holds up about 100x better than carters.
Mama Llama says
I like it because it looks like kids clothes, not tiny versions of adult clothes and because of the quality, but I only buy things on sale.
Spirograph says
I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed, but I do like their stuff a lot. It’s fun, colorful, and everything I’ve ever bought there has been great quality and stood up to kid shenanigans noticeably better than the cheaper brands. It is significantly more expensive than I prefer to spend on kids clothes, though, so I don’t shop there often.
AwayEmily says
I am soooo obsessed. I dress my kids exclusively in it, our cat is named “Hanna,” and I reupholstered our sofa in old striped pajamas.
OK fine, really I have ordered from there maybe twice ever, but I agree with everyone else — their stuff is cute and good quality. I haven’t noticed any more “obsession” with them than with any other brand, but maybe the OP moves in an especially Hanna-centric social group.
Anon in NYC says
I love their pajamas and their (girls) leggings. No idea of the boys stuff is different. The leggings have weight to them (as compared to, say, Carters, Cat and Jack from Target or even Gap), and they’re long-lasting. I had a problem with a seam on a sweatshirt, and they replaced it with no problems. I have been able to use the same size leggings for about 1.5 years now. My kid would often outgrow Gap pants in length but she would still be swimming in them at her waist – I’d rather pay more for something that will last longer. Their Pima cotton basics shirts are super soft as well, and their sweatshirts are nice. Their hats are really soft and warm.
I personally don’t really care about their applique shirts or some of the designs they have, so I don’t buy them.
RR says
It’s been a long time since I bought something at Hanna, but I have to say that the older stuff was amazing quality. It lasted through both of my daughters and was still in great quality to give away. Including things like tights. I do think the quality has gone downhill, but that used to be why I liked shopping there. We mostly buy kids’ clothes from Gap because you can get amazing rewards with the Gap credit card. We basically used it to pay for daycare and had enough points that we clothe all three kids for a couple hundred dollars a year–we frequently spend less than $1 on items. It’s better quality than Target (our second go-to) and generally cheaper with sales/rewards.
Anon says
When did you start taking your baby to the dentist? I’ve done some Googling and it appears that the recommendation is around age 1, but my one year old only has two teeth, which showed up around 8 months of age. Thethird is FINALLY starting to make it’s way in, but it seems kind of silly to take my largely toothless baby to the dentist. Thoughts?
Spirograph says
Somewhere between one and two once they had enough teeth to make it worth a visit. Early appointments seem to consist of the dentist doing a tiny bit of brushing and a quick glance to see that there are, in fact, teeth in there. My 3 year old had a real cleaning this year, and I think that was her first one. My younger son was a month or two shy of 2 at the time, and he was still “pre-cooperative” and got the cursory look.
Boston Legal Eagle says
Our dentist generally starts seeing kids at 18 months unless you have specific concerns earlier.
Anon in NYC says
I took my daughter at 2.
DLC says
Our pediatrician told us that a lot of people in our area go on the early side because in our area (major suburb) there are a lot of pediatric dentists. She wasn’t concerned until at least two so long as we were brushing.
On the other hand, we didn’t take our first kid to a dentist until she was 5 and we had to have a form filled out for Kindergarten registration. And she had three cavities by then. So maybe don’t wait as long as we did.
CBG says
My dentist told us not until our daughter has 20 teeth! She only had 8 at open enrollment this year (16 months) so I didn’t add her to our dental plan for 2019. So she’ll be about 2 .5. We don’t give her juice or sweets, and brush every day so I think it’ll be fine.
Anon says
That seems insane to me…most kids don’t have all 20 teeth until age 2-2.5. The AAP says they should go to the dentist by age 1 (or within 6 months of the first tooth appearing if it appears super early).
Anon says
I was told the earlier of 6 months after the first tooth or 12 months. We went at around 13 months, discovered two of my daughter’s teeth are actually fused together (how I didn’t know this I don’t know – they are only fused at the bottom, not the top, which is the only defense I can think of), and developed a plan for how to monitor. Given the fusing, she has some food traps so they want to see her every 6 months to monitor for cavities.
Anon says
+1 This is what the AAP says for when to go.
Anonymous says
Officially I think they want you to go at 1, when the kid has teeth, but… Our pediatrician is married to a dentist and just recommended we go by 3.
Anonymous says
Our first ped said 2 (and that was with ankid that didn’t bust a tooth until 13 months and got her 2 year molars at 3.5). The pediatric dentist we see said not to bring my second until 2.5 or 3 (and she has her 2 year molars).
K says
If you have dental insurance, it should be free to take them, so I’d go ahead and take them as soon as they have any teeth.
H13 says
I posted a few weeks back about getting through a sleep regression with our 21 month old and wanted to share an update. I am happy to report back that we made it through. We fell back on good ol’ extinction. Just like when they are tiny, it was a few really hard nights but it worked.
Thanks for all of the support!
AwayEmily says
YAY congrats!
New baby anon says
Looking for shopping help — have a newborn photo session next week and will be only 2 weeks postpartum. Need a top in neutral colors with at least 3/4 length sleeves that will be very forgiving for my large chest and belly. Any great suggestions?
AwayEmily says
I don’t have a suggestion but CONGRATS on your new little baby! Hope all is going well for you in the crazy first few weeks.
CBG says
why the sleeves? most newborn photographers crank the heat up to over 80 degrees to keep the baby sleepy and comfortable. I just wore a plain gray nursing tank, but I’m small chested, so maybe like a gauze-y white button-up on top if you want more coverage? Also don’t worry too much about the belly, you’ll have to hold that tiny babe up pretty high to get both of your faces in the frame.
Anonymous says
She might be using a lifestyle photographer and getting pics of the whole family (vs a “newborn” photographer which I associate with the heated studios and only pics of baby, usually in adorable little outfits and manipulated to be posed in odd positions while sleeping).
Anon says
I had similar concerns. I did layers – a flowy blousey shirt with a thinner cardigan over it. Make your flowy shirt a dark color with smaller pattern and then your thinner cardigan a dark color from the pattern, like an olive green or maroon. Make sure your cardigan is thinner, those bulky sweater ones that bloggers love just add too much bulk in a regular photo.
Something like the photos in this post: https://www.puttingmetogether.com/cyber-monday-cyber-week-gift-ideas/ I’m basically describing #3 on the top but any would look cute and help camouflage the middle.
Emily S. says
Try Isabella Oliver! Very comfortable, flattering, and wear well.
Anonymous says
Weaning question. I have a 12.5-month-old who decided that he is done with br**stfeeding. Which is fine. He just kind of looked at my n*pple one day and giggled — like, why would I want that when there is so much more milk in a
bottle?! But I digress. My supply had obviously been dropping, but I hadn’t quite expected him to start refusing it altogether all at once. It’s been a few days, and one side is sort of full. I don’t have a clogged duct or anything, and it’s nor engorged, just sort of fuller than it ought to be. I don’t want to pump, because I want to make sure my body get the memo that we’re all done, but… is this the milk going to just go away somehow? This is my third baby, so I feel silly not knowing this, but I don’t remember it being so sudden with the others!
anon says
I hand-expressed a little bit in the shower each day and eventually it pretty much went away.
Anon says
It’ll go away on its own.