Organizing Thursday: Woodland Park™ Elephant Bank
This post may contain affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
When my husband and I first moved in together, I noticed that there was loose change EVERYWHERE. He would come home from being out, and empty his pockets on any and every flat surface in our apartment. Or (and I only found this out by witnessing it myself), he would take his pants off, fold them in half, and the change remaining in his pockets would fall out onto the floor. When we were childless, this was only a mild annoyance, but when I became pregnant I knew he had to nip it in the bud before the baby came. We bought a piggy bank (coincidentally, also an elephant), and I’ve been filling it up with loose change ever since. We’ve cashed it in twice so far, and with Coinstar, you can get gift cards instead of cash to avoid the fee. This cute Kate Spade elephant bank is $49.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond and is functional décor for your home. Woodland Park™ Elephant Bank
This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!
We’re currently at a small daycare, which we love, but kid will age out of around 3. We’re currently debating three options:
A) Move kid at age 2 to Daycare 1 that has great programs for 3-5 year olds, but a less good program for 2 year olds (they’re combined with the toddlers a lot). We have a spot at Daycare 1 if we want it.
B) Keep kid at Current Daycare for another year and hope we can find a 3 year-old spot at Daycare 1 (harder than a 2 year-old spot in our area).
C) Hope we get off the waitlist at Daycare 2, which has awesome programs starting at age 2, and in the meantime stay at Current Daycare.
Any thoughts?
Hi ladies, I’m hoping you can inspire me and ease my anxieties. After years of being passed up for even minor promotions (despite having worked hard and performing pretty well) I’d been feeling really cruddy about myself. Some people have suggested it’s a boys club around here – I think it’s more that I’ve probably been too self-deprecating and have just boxed myself into a corner, where my output is appreciated and I’m liked, but they’re just comfortable with me in my current role.
Now I’ve been given a wonderful opportunity by a former manager who’s really familiar with my work – but, it’s in another state. My husband has been supportive and is actually ready to move out of this area anyway – plus it’s closer to his family. But, I’m feeling terrible about uprooting my very small kids and leaving my extended family. I feel just generally guilty, almost more so BECAUSE it’s such a great career move – it’s a huge promotion and jump in title (after years of languishing in the same role) – and that’s making me feel like a jerk, like it’s trumping everything else, like my kids’ welfare, that I’m leaving my extended family. Scarier yet – my husband doesn’t have a job lined up, so it feels risky, although the raise for me would help with that a lot.
I think I will kick myself if I don’t take this. But I’m feeling guilty and freaked out. Any advice from you wise ladies/suggestions to think this through would be so appreciated – thank you.
1. How old was LO when you did sleep training? 5 months, after a month of full on 4mo sleep regression
2. Did you night train first or nap train first? Both at same time.
3. Was your LO weaned at night when you slept trained? No. I felt at 5mos he still needed to eat 2x a night. I would feed him those two times and at other times we didn’t go to him.
If yes, how did you wean before sleep training?
If not, did you wean as part of sleep training? No. After sleep training, he self weaned. It took one month to get down to 1x a night. After two months, he was totally weaned at night. I did nothing to encourage it.
4. Was sleep training successful? How long did it take to work? Yes. My LO was very stubborn and it took probably 2 weeks. Only the first few nights involved lots of crying. After that he might still wake up and cry but not for too long. But after two weeks he was on his own going to sleep and only waking up 2x to eat, very predictably.
On the subject of holiday cards– how late is too late to send them? Mine would be for Christmas if that matters for timing.
For context, I’m due to have my first baby at the very end of November, we will have newborn photos done shortly thereafter, probably early December. I expect to get at least a couple photos I could use for cards very soon after the photo shoot–our photographer is prompt and I think she would be willing to get us a couple for this purpose within a couple days of the shoot. Even so, I could see that we wouldn’t be ready to hit “send” on the photo cards until mid-December. Is that too late? I have never sent holiday cards before.
I may or may not have applied my rage at the hearings today to the whole secret smoking thread from yesterday’s main page. Got stuck in mod but I cannot believe people’s reactions and wanted to make sure you know there are those of us who are Team Bodily Autonomy in a relationship!! (And Team Rainbow Hair.)
1. How old was LO when you did sleep training? We started working towards independent sleep at about 10 weeks old (basically trying to reduce the amount of rocking and bouncing needed to put her to sleep) but we didn’t really start formal sleep training until 16 weeks.
2. Did you night train first or nap train first? We inadvertently did both around the same time (16 weeks). Once she figured out how to put herself to sleep at night, falling asleep at naptime got easier for her, so I started to let her figure it out on her own when she could.
3. Was your LO weaned at night when you slept trained? No. We didn’t night wean until 6.5 months. We still have one 1 night feed (around 4:30-5:30 AM) most mornings to help her sleep until 7ish and avoid a really early wake time.
If yes, how did you wean before sleep training?
If not, did you wean as part of sleep training? No, we weaned separately from bedtime sleep training.
4. Was sleep training successful? How long did it take to work? Yes, it was! Since we had slowly worked on reducing the amount of assistance we gave her to fall asleep, she took to sleep training at bedtime very easily and literally put herself to bed with no crying the very first night. Naptimes took a little longer, but within a week, she was nap trained as well. Our real issue was night wakings, though. I was still getting up with her 2-4 times per night, even though she could fall asleep on her own at bedtime. Once we got the okay from our ped to night wean, and I felt comfortable doing so, she cut out most night feeds within 2-3 nights. There are the occasional regressions due to developmental things/teething/etc., but as long as you’re consistent with your sleep training, you’re able to get back on track relatively quickly.
Tell me about your experiences with sleep training. Debating when/if to sleep train LO and how to best do it.
1. How old was LO when you did sleep training?
2. Did you night train first or nap train first?
3. Was your LO weaned at night when you slept trained?
If yes, how did you wean before sleep training?
If not, did you wean as part of sleep training?
4. Was sleep training successful? How long did it take to work?
I used Simply To Impress for our birth announcements earlier this year and I was pleased with the price and the quality. My only qualm was that you couldn’t remove their small logo from the back of the card, but other than that, they were great.
Any suggestions on where to order holiday cards? My main requirement is recipient addressing. I have used Minted for several years and am looking to switch. I see recipient addressing at Paper Source, and a few others. Have you used any that you would recommend? Thank you!
Sad question — we are having our cat put to sleep tomorrow. He has been sick for a few months, but has taken a turn for the worse, so it’s not going to be a sudden shock to kiddo. Earlier this week before we scheduled the appointment, I told her that the cat is old and sick and that he is probably going to die soon, and go to heaven, where god will take care of him and he won’t be sick anymore. (Yes we were both bawling). I told her this morning that he is going to go to heaven tomorrow. I’ll have her say goodbye to him tomorrow before she goes to school.
The vet is coming to our house to do it tomorrow afternoon while kiddo is at ballet class. Should I let her see him after he has passed? We’re going to bury him in the back yard. How do you handle pet loss? Kiddo just turned 4.
On coin banks: There’s a local couple I know who make wood crafts and they make amazing banks out of old post office doors. They each have a unique combination (mine is two dials, my husband’s is a compass that has to be set to S/SW) and they look really sharp. I’ve gotten them as gifts for many family members because they are a neat thing to have at the office. We love filling them up and then we and my 12yo guess how much money it is, then take it to coinstar and whoever gets closest picks the restaurant we spend it at.
Fun story: sometimes I bring milk for my coffee to work in one of the little bottles I use for pumping (can you guess where this is going…). This morning when I got to work I looked in my fridge and realized that there was still a container of breastmilk in there. Which means…one of the three 5oz bottles my 8mo baby brought to daycare had 3oz of cows milk in it. I called the pediatrician, the nurse was like “oh no, you’ll have to throw all three bottles out and have the daycare give him formula today.” I don’t mind at all about the formula but the thought of wasting all that milk was ugghhhh. But a happy ending! She checked with the doctor, who said “absolutely no problem at all. Don’t worry about it, he’ll be fine.” So now the only bad part is that I don’t have any milk for my coffee (the office only has horrible powdered creamer). Moral of the story: I am an idiot for thinking this was a good way to transport my coffee milk and I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner.
Feelings on the Babyzen YOYO stroller? I am thinking about getting it and the infant Cybex car seat to attach with the adapters.
I live in NYC, 2nd floor apartment (so one set of stairs to walk up), internationally travel a ton, don’t have a car. I want a infant car seat that doesn’t require a base so its easy to put into taxis when I need to. I love that the Babyzen YOYO folds down so compact.
Any other models I should consider or downsides of the YOYO?
Please tell me your stories about kids that start walking late. My daughter is 16 months and not walking. I’m not worried yet: she loves walking around the house holding our hands, but she just prefers to crawl. I’d just like reassurance that this is fairly common. Thanks!
We just had our 3rd baby, and we are done. I am 100% never intentionally being pregnant again. last night, DH proactively brought up that it’s time for him to get fixed, that way I can stop with birth control. I was super surprised, only because this is the man that can’t be bothered to deal with scheduling a dentist appt. so…
I somehow have weird feelings about him being permantlynhnable to have kids. Talk sense into me.
I want 0 more children. If DH died and I remarried, I’d want no more children. But my crazy brain feels like if I died and DH remarried, would it be an issue because his new wife might want kids? We are young (34) so in my insane hypothetical he could remarry in his mid 40s with teenagers and her wife might be late 30s and want kids.
This is crazypants, right? As far as I can tell, this is just my warped brain trying to make sure everyone is happy if I die. I didn’t even mention this to dH, who no doubt would ask why I am planning to die and should we up my life insurance.