Family Friday: Wooden Activity Cube
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My son received an older version of this wooden activity cube. It was the perfect toy for those few months when he was able to sit and pull up to stand.
This cube features five sides of fun, including spinners, a zig-zag racetrack (his favorite), bead maze, doors to open and close, and mix-and-match animal puzzles. It’s weighty enough to support your baby pulling up on it, and the corners are rounded for the inevitable tumbles.
For parents, there’s no assembly or annoying sounds. A win-win!
The Battat Wooden Activity Cube is $59.99 at Amazon.
Sales of note for 9.10.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; up to 50% off everything else
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off wear-to-work styles; extra 30% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 40-60% off everything; extra 60% off clearance
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Extra 40% off sale styles
- Talbots – BOGO 50% everything, includes markdowns
- Target – Car-seat trade-in event through 9/28 — bring in an old car seat to get a 20% discount on other baby/toddler stuff.
- Zappos – 26,000+ women’s sale items! (check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kids’ shoe brands on sale)
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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And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- The concept of “backup care” is so stupid…
- I need tips on managing employees in BigLaw who have to leave for daycare pickup…
- I’m thinking of leaning out to spend more time with my family – how can I find the perfect job for that?
- I’m now a SAHM and my husband needs to step up…
- How can I change my thinking to better recognize some of my husband’s contributions as important, like organizing the shed?
- What are your tips to having a good weekend with kids, especially with little kids? Do you have a set routine or plan?
TTC another child over the past few months. We have been doing every other day and timing with ovulation test with no luck. This method worked for #1 very quickly. When tracking my cycles, I noticed my luteal phase is only a week. Ovulate on day 21/22 of a 28 day cycle. Anyone had this problem before and managed to go on to conceive? Dr google says it can be much more difficult, and I’m wondering if this is our case. I know this is an “ask your actual doctor” situation, but I have a feeling they will tell me to keep trying and come back later. Looking for anecdata if it’s even worth calling about.
Does anyone feel like they are the ones initiating more in friendships? How much do you initiate if the other person doesn’t as much, and at what point do you stop initiating as much? I feel like in a lot of my friendships, I am the one initiating to make sure we see each other every month or so etc. Or I guess this brings the question, How much do you see friends vs. communicate via text/social media/etc? Maybe people are too busy these days to see friends in person. I feel like a lot of people are very eager to initiate conversation via text but not as much to hang in person.
I have officially entered the I-am-always-uncomfortable phase of pregnancy and am on the hunt for the MOST comfy maternity leggings and/or joggers. All types welcome: workout, lounge, fleece, whatever — as long as they are maximally comfortable. I have plenty of maternity work pants left over from previous pregnancies but everything else seems to have vanished and so I’ve just been re-wearing a single ratty old pair of Old Navy maternity leggings. Thank you!!!
Suggestions for preschool’s dress your kid as a book character day? I am not crafty nor do I have the time. Would love something warmish so 3YO son could wear this as his Halloween costume.
Seraphine 3-in-1 zip hoodie. Look for a coupon. Yes it is expensive, but it is so comfortable & I still wear it all the time postpartum. Definitely got my money’s worth. https://www.seraphine.com/en-us/connor-3-in-1-active-hoodie/
Fave books for ~8 year old (2nd grade) girls? Mine proclaimed all her books to be “too easy” last night, and she’s right. But the next books we have are really more “read with” not read-to-self level (Narnia, Harry Potter).
I sent her teacher a request too. I’m thinking the Dahl books and similar? A series would be great. She’s a strong reader; her limitation is really vocabulary at this point. We got her a dictionary and she can use it but I don’t want her to have to look up every other word.
Tips on helping a 2.5 yo through being scared of going to sleep alone? She’s always been a great sleeper for her age, one of those “toss in the crib and leave” kids, but over the past couple of months she’s regressed. She cries when we leave the room and will only lay in her crib calmly if me or my husband is sitting in the chair next to her crib. Sometimes it takes her an hour to fall asleep, so we’re losing a huge chunk of our night and I know this can’t be a good habit for her.
She can sort of explain that she’s scared to be alone in her room. Sometimes she tells me she’s afraid of lions, or thunder (even when there is no rain or thunder that night). We’ve told her a bunch of things that seem like they should be reassuring (lions live in the zoo, let’s set the alarm and the lions can’t get in, the thunder goes away when you fall asleep, mommy and daddy are always in the house and always keeping you safe) but nothing seems to be working. Is this just a phase she needs to grow out of? Any suggestions for books to read or ways to have this conversation?
New kindergarten mom support group check-in: how are we all doing? how are the kids?
Mine seems to have finally gotten into a bit of a groove. She’s young for her grade and still working on self-awareness stuff…and seems to have made a big breakthrough, realizing that when she’s raging, she’s tired/hungry. She’s caught herself mid-explosion and calmed down or gotten a grown up, and has become way more amenable to eating. Our AM routine is that i wake her up at 6:30 with a 5 minute snooze, go back in at 6:35 with a banana and feed it to her as she gets dressed. Then she goes to the bathroom, then downstairs for more breakfast (muffin, pancake, that sort of thing), hair, brushes teeth downstairs, gets shoes on (I sometimes will place them on her feet as she eats), coat and mask on and out the door at 7:10 to catch the bus.
She’s been a lot better about bedtime and has pretty consistently been asleep before 8 which is something she had not been able to do her entire life. She has afterschool activities twice a week and soccer and dance on the weekend, which seems to be enough but not too much.
The good news is that she really loves her teacher and kindergarten in general. She’s a bright kid and I think she’s just loving the constant learning. I’m not sure how she’s doing on the social side of things, but she seems happy.
My new challenge is my 2nd grader, who is a real life Judy Moody these days and can’t get out of her own way to get to bed on time. But this one I can handle!!
Has anyone left the legal field after kids and then come back after a year or two? I am currently big law and feel like I am at a breaking point. I keep telling myself I am going to stay until bonuses get paid (Jan.) but kind of want to quit after that even if I don’t have another opportunity (ideally a 9-5ish type job) lined up yet. If you’ve done this, what was your experience getting back into the market like?
Reposting from last night (thanks Lilibet for your response):
WWYD? My almost 4 year old’s daycare bestie invited us to an outdoor birthday party, her first birthday party invite ever (and this kid is the #1 person she’ll want at her own party in a couple of months). We have had outdoor playdates with this kid but I believe there will be some neighborhood friends who aren’t in our “school bubble” at the party, which is giving me pause. But my husband pointed out that our school bubble isn’t really a “bubble” because each of my kid’s classmates have siblings and parents and friends and activities so we’re actually exposed to way more people than just her 15 classmates, and the risk of getting infected at school is objectively much higher (8+ hours indoors vs. 1-2 outdoors).
On the one hand, I would feel awful if my kid got a potentially debilitating virus from a preschool party she isn’t even going to remember in a year. On the other hand, school is objectively riskier and I am so tired of cutting literally everything fun out of our lives (she does not do activities or go anywhere indoors or do any socialization outside of school, except outdoor playdates with classmates) to shave off a tiny amount of risk when we’ve already accepted the comparatively large risk of school.
Ahhhhhh. The never-ending risk assessment is destroying me. Please tell me what to do.
So I’ve done a lot to try and create an environment where both my husband and I share ‘family’ duties. I’ve done a lot to talk about emotional labor and the unspoken burden that mostly mothers carry.
And I shouldn’t be as proud as I am, but guys: this morning my husband mentioned that he had written the thank you notes from Baby for (thing) and was dropping them in the mail. I didn’t ask. I didn’t nag. He just… did them. Somebody will come on here and tell me ‘we should expect more’, which – agree. But also: today I’m taking this as a triumph for equality in parenting.
Ugh. What do you do when you and your spouse have very different parenting styles?
We have an 11 week old who I’ll happily cuddle to sleep before transferring to her bassinet, which DH doesn’t agree with. He did bedtime last night which resulted in 30 min of her screaming (and me in tears) before she fell asleep on her own.
I know there’s no one right way to parent, but I don’t know where to find the compromise to give her consistency with bedtime. I’m just not ready to lose the baby snuggles when it’s not a problem for her sleep yet.
Your Friday entertainment, courtesy of McSweeney’s:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/this-is-your-kids-school-and-even-though-the-emergency-contact-form-lists-your-husband-we-need-you-the-mom
Two newbie elem parent questions for you:
1) What grade did homework start for your kiddo?
2) When did your kids start getting letter grades (on either papers or reportcards)
Our school district is highly regarded so I’m not at all questioning their methods–just curious how different we are in having a “no homework until 3rd grade” policy and no grades until 4th grade.
Friday fun. If you could have dream daycare, budget not an issue, what services would it offer?
-Monday meals – pick up a throw-in-oven, healthy meal at Monday kid pickup
-washes the bedding for you over the weekend
-monthly date night childcare available
-coordinate family photos with school photos so you only have dress the kids up once! (+1 if it is Santa photos so I don’t have to wait in line at the mall)
-kid snacks/meals obviously made on site