Weekend & Family Friday: Wooden Vehicle Magnets in a Box
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I recently bought a set of these magnets as an impulse purchase at Marshalls. My son loved them so much that I bought this set in addition. They’re brightly colored, easy to grab, and there’s a lot of them in the box. We recently had to replace our refrigerator (ugh), and luckily these magnets don’t scratch the outside of the new one (and my son is not a gentle kid). Best of all, if I put them all in the box, then set the box on the floor near the fridge, they buy me about 10 minutes of uninterrupted food preparation or eating. A total win in my book. The set is $9.59 at Amazon, eligible for Prime. Melissa & Doug Wooden Vehicle Magnets in a Box
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I remember someone here suggested an document storage system for storing kids art. I can’t find the thread, but if I remember rights it was a set of smaller plastic document cases that fit inside a larger plastic case or file box.
Sound familiar to anyone?
My 4 year old wants to dress up as Zuma from Paw Patrol for Halloween but I can’t find a costume anywhere. Why does he have to like the least advertised pup? Any ideas?
How did you handle getting your toddlers in the car solo during the bolting phase?
Walking out of daycare to the car is fine since they’ll hold my hands, but it’s really hard to keep a grip on B while I pick up A to plop her in her carseat. I used to just let one stand next to me while I put their sister in, but now they want to wander off into the street. I can still sort of get one in the car while carrying the other on my hip, but they’re getting big enough that’s not really a good solution either. They’re still rear-facing so can’t climb in by themselves. I’m thinking about a wrist leash to tether the second one to me while I deal with the first, but that also seems like a pain for just this 2 minute process.
I just want to share with this group because I can’t do so much in real life… Had a meeting yesterday afternoon with Big Boss and Big Big Boss (my first real exposure to her). Meeting goes over by 45 minutes because we are having a great discussion. I am anxiously watching the clock because it’s my day to get to daycare pick up. We leave, I race to the train, which is late, meaning that I have to sprint the half-mile from the station to daycare, peeing myself in my light grey mmLaFleur because I have stress incontinence from two ginormous babies. I make it there with one minute to spare, and the nice daycare lady gives me a cot sheet to tie around my waist. Winning, my friends. Winning. Hope everyone is ready for the weekend.
I’ve been listening to the podcast Best of Both Worlds recently (thanks to whoever recommended this!), and am on the outsourcing episode. Thinking ahead to when we have two little kids and are both back at work, I’m wondering how much additional outsourcing we should look into vs. how much we can do ourselves. I know this answer will vary from person to person, and depends a lot on work schedules and finances, but let’s assume we have some (though not unlimited) extra money to throw around. Both my husband and I generally work standard hours, with some later nights thrown in for me. Most days, we should both be able to get home by 6 and take on the evening together – it just sounds like a lot of work and not a lot of down time for us.
For those who’ve gone from 1 to 2 kids, particularly when they’re both little, what additional outsourcing have you found to be the most helpful? Right now, we have a biweekly cleaner come and we do pretty much the rest of the household stuff. Our son is in daycare full time and we plan to put the second one in daycare as well. I guess my other broader question is, should I aim to have easier mornings/nights or just accept that the early days with little are just going to be chaotic and deal with it?
What do you guys do for nanny vacation coverage? For the summer vacation week we just took our vacation at the same time. However, our nanny goes back to India for 3-4 weeks every other year to visit her family so we need to find coverage for that long chunk of time.
This is our first year dealing with this. We are lucky to have family as an option but not for the entire 3 weeks. My husband’s office provides “back-up childcare benefits” – has anyone used such a thing? I’m not opposed but I worry about how a toddler would fare being thrown into a random daycare for a week (I mean, he’ll survive obviously but I don’t want him to be a nightmare for the teachers).
I could also look for someone on care dot com, but wondering what the likelihood is of finding someone who can do full-day coverage, but only for a week or two.
I know this has been discussed, but the best early walker shoes? My kid isn’t really walking yet but she’s starting to cruise and daycare has requested shoes for when they go into the halls or outside. I think we need soft soles, to help her learn ‘proper’ walking, right? So I thought Robeez, but they look like they could be pretty slippery since there isn’t any traction to speak of. What am I missing? I really don’t want to spend more than even $30 on these since she is going to outgrow them quickly.
We are shopping for a Big Kid Bed. I have narrowed it down to either a) two twin beds or b) one queen bed. Hoping to keep this setup for a long time, maybe even through high school if it works. Any advice on two twins v. a queen bed?
Thoughts on two twin beds: I thought it might be good for having friends stay over, or when little brother wants to sleep in big brother’s room sometimes. He and little brother adore each other (for now!) and I could see them possibly wanting to share the room later (little bro has his own room currently). It’s a pretty big bedroom and won’t hurt for space either way. My mom said she wished she had done two twin beds for when we were kids and had friends over. She said we would inevitably make pallets in the floor rather than share the bed, ha. (Maybe kids just like floor sleepovers though.) Plus, I just think two matching beds are super adorable. (That’s not a good reason, I know!)
Thoughts on queen bed: I don’t know if he would get confused about why there are two beds in his room that’s not technically a shared room? Maybe he would rather have a bigger bed, especially in later years. It’s a little less expensive to buy and outfit one bed rather than two twins (but not a dealbreaker). Thanks for any thoughts!
Help, moms! Kiddo has been sleeping alone forever (like since 8 months-ish, and she’s 3.5 now) but suddenly “there are monsters” and “i can only sleep if I’m snuggling you.” She comes into our room any time between midnight (noooo) and 6AM (livable) and it is *rough.* My husband, in particular, does not sleep well when she’s in the bed with us.
I don’t know what to do … she does fall asleep, but it seems like she wakes up in the middle of the night and is scared and lonesome. I believe her fear is real — last night I bribed her (if you stay in bed all night, in the morning you can have a donut) and she was in tears going to sleep because she really wanted the bribe but was really scared to stay in bed all night. Poor thing. (She didn’t come in until 6, and 6:20 is wakeup time, so she got the donut.)
Advice?
This seems like such a dumb questions but where do you shop (online) for weekend clothes? Not athleisure but like jeans and t-shirts/casual date night outfits. I used to shop at LOFT and BR, but everything seems boring or way too trendy lately.
Is this typical two-year-old or is something else going on? And…help?
Our 26 month old has been having a rough time of it the last couple of days, especially around meal times/getting home from daycare. This morning, we had the first iteration of it at breakfast, and I felt like I was at a total loss. My husband did too, I think, but had to go up and shower during part of it (had to take older child to orthodontist) so I felt pretty alone and stressed.
Over the last few weeks he’s been having a rough time when he gets home from daycare. He’ll be fine and happy, and even point to the door and say, “Dada? Yaya? [sister]” then as soon as he walks in the door and actually sees one of them he screams and tries to run back out the door. He’ll scream BYE BYE DADA! or BYE BYE YAYA! and cry and other grab onto me or just cry and run away.
Then he’s just tough until dinner is on the table. He wants snacks. I’ve tried giving him snacks. They are the wrong snacks. I’ve tried not giving snacks, and having dinner instantly ready. He doesn’t want to sit in his chair. He wants TV before dinner. I try that. It’s the wrong Thomas. He wants TV before dinner but I say no, no TV today, and there’s a meltdown. I understand I’m probably missing consistency at this point, but things that have worked in the past don’t work now, so I’m trying other things.
Last night was probably the worst iteration of this. I picked him up from daycare a little early because of my schedule, and he cried and threw a tantrum when I arrived because I picked him up while they were reading him a Thomas book. Calmed down by the time we got to the car. Lost his mind about the carseat. I said, “Carseat in one minute,” and held him until he calmed down, then just fine in the carseat. Then the above, “Yaya home?” in a hopeful voice followed by “BYE BYE YAYA!” and screaming/crying as soon as he saw her. Complete screaming mess putting him in his high chair, I rubbed his back, he calmed down, ate dinner, was 100% fine and sweet when my husband arrived home after working late and put him to bed.
This morning was the first time it has ever happened with breakfast. He woke up normally and totally fine. But when we went downstairs, he lost his mind. He didn’t want anything to eat. He didn’t want to sit in his chair. He didn’t want to play. He didn’t want to be up in his room. He didn’t want to be downstairs. Everything was terrible. Finally I gave him a zucchini brownie and a pretzel to eat after about an hour of just terror. For that hour, I felt like I needed to be near him because if he was downstairs, he could (and was trying to) destroy things. And he wouldn’t stay in his room (climbing the baby gate).
I felt like a terrible parent because I am generally very good at boundaries and giving space but I felt like I didn’t have a safe space to just leave him to calm down. I’ve been wondering if this is about being hangry but I don’t really know how to address it when he literally won’t eat anything.
I know this is a novel. I would appreciate any advice. He’s not super verbal but has good receptive language and I can understand a lot of things he says, so I don’t think this is totally about me not understanding him, and more about him just not wanting….anything. AGH!
We have been using a small cleaning service for years and it’s fine–they are very nice, but things aren’t necessarily as clean as we would like (particularly with a toddler contributing to the messiness now), and they come with a crew of 3-4, so don’t stay long enough to cycle laundry through. We are thinking about trying to find an individual who could come for a longer time and clean, do laundry (at least towels/sheets), maybe some cooking–other things that are useful? Basically I’d like to pay one person for 5 hrs/week, rather than 4 people for 1.5 hrs. Has anyone successfully transitioned to this model? Likelihood of finding someone ok w/being paid on the books? We are in DC if anyone has recommendations. Thanks!
Any advice on letting go of and moving past resentment in your marriage? My husband and I have had a really challenging last 18 months in our personal and professional lives (unemployment, a scary and complicated pregnancy, and undiagnosed PPD, to name a few). My usually wonderful, loving husband was not emotionally available or supportive during these challenges and I basically went through a lot of these struggles alone. He now admits that he checked out because he was really overwhelmed and afraid of losing our baby and he didn’t know how to deal with what we were facing, so he just shut down. Now that we’re through the worst of it, he owns his behavior and he continues to apologize profusely for how he acted during my pregnancy and those first few months postpartum.
However, it’s been a few months and I’m struggling to let it go and move on. I’m usually good at forgiving people and I’m not one to hold grudges, but I’m having a really hard time forgiving him for how he acted during the most difficult time in my life. I’m hanging on to this resentment and I don’t know why I can’t move on yet. I really don’t want this to ruin my marriage. Therapy is unfortunately not in the budget at this point.
Any advice or words of wisdom from those who have been able to move past big disappointments in their marriage or relationship?
I probably won’t get a lot of responses to this late post, but I’ll give it a shot…
I gave birth to a daughter 3 weeks ago (yay!!). I love her so, so much, but this has honestly been a really tough time. The first week, specifically, was terrible. It was the worst week of my life, actually. I cried almost constantly. This was due to various factors (jaundice, breastfeeding issues) but probably mostly hormones.
Things are much better now in terms of my emotional health, but (especially now that my husband has gone back to work) life feels… mundane? I feel like my day revolves around feeding my daughter, and it’s starting to grate on me. Feeding her still isn’t a wholly pleasant experience– it involves feeding at my breast (including difficulties getting her to latch), then supplementing with pumped milk in a bottle, and then pumping. It’s a long process and I usually only have an hour of rest before the whole things starts up again. I’m basically either feeding her or dreading the next time I have to feed her, all day, on a 3-hour cycle.
Please tell me it gets better??
lol– angry mysterious alien is so accurate.
None of my friends have kids, and they keep asking how I’m doing, and I want to be like… life kind of sucks? But I’m sure no one wants to hear that, unfortunately.