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My husband brought home a branded Yeti Rambler as a corporate swag gift, and I am so close to owning it via adverse possession. This thing is seriously the best. So far I’ve only used it for cold drinks, but I can imagine it working just as well for hot. It keeps ice inside it for almost the whole day, which means if I forget about my iced coffee in the early morning, I can come back to it in the afternoon without finding a puddle of watered-down liquid. It also is sweatproof, which means it doesn’t leave a ring on countertops. I also really like the way it easily slides open and shut, but it unfortunately it is not leakproof, so don’t throw it in your bag. Even if my family didn’t get it for free, I would purchase it on my own, now knowing how much I like it. It is $29.99 on Amazon, comes in several fun colors, and is eligible for Prime shipping. Yeti Rambler 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!Sales of note for 4.18.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 50% off full-price dresses, jackets & shoes; $30 off pants & skirts; extra 50% off sale styles
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything; extra 20% off purchase
- Eloquii – 50% off select styles; 60% off swim; up to 40% off everything else
- J.Crew – Mid-Season Sale: Extra 60% off sale styles; up to 50% off spring-to-summer styles
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Spring Mid-Season Sale: Up to 50% off 100s of styles
- Nordstrom: Free 2-day shipping for a limited time (eligible items)
- Talbots – Spring Sale: 40% off + extra 15% off all markdowns; 30% off new T by Talbots
- Zappos – 29,000+ 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 – Up to 70% off baby items; 50% off toddler & kid deals & 40% off everything else
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off spring faves; 25% off new arrivals; up to 30% off spring
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Up to 60% off sale styles; up to 50% off kids’ spring-to-summer styles
- Old Navy – 30% off your purchase; up to 75% off clearance
- Target – Car Seat Trade-In Event (ends 4/27); BOGO 25% off select skincare products; up to 40% off indoor furniture; up to 20% off laptops & printers
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And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- If you’re a working parent of an infant with low sleep needs, how do you function at work when you’re in the throes of baby’s sleep regression?
- Should I cut my childcare down to 12 hours a month if I work from home?
- Will my baby have speech delays if we raise her bilingual?
- Has anyone given birth in a teaching hospital?
- My child eats everything, and my friends’ kids do not – how should I handle? In general, what is the best way to handle when your child has some skill/ability and your friend’s child doesn’t have that skill/ability?
- ADHD moms, give me your tips to help with things like behavior in the classroom, attention to detail, etc?
- I think I suffer from mom rage…
- My husband and kids are gone this weekend – how should I enjoy my free time?
- I’m struggling to be compassionate with a SAHM friend who complains she doesn’t have enough hours of childcare.
- If you exclusively formula fed, what tips do you have for in the hospital and coming home?
- Could I take my 4-yo and 8-yo on a 7-8 day trip to Paris, Lyon, and Madrid?
Anonymous says
DC area moms- suggestions for baby water acclimation class or a warm public pool we could use to do our own? We previously went to the JCC but it is closed for renovation, and our local public pool is pretty cold.
Anon says
We did classes at the Alexandria City pool and it was warm – Chinquapin Pool.
Anonanonanon says
Seconding Chinquapin. If you’re willing to go further out, Audrey Moore rec center in Fairfax.
Anonymous says
Anyone have this mug and know if it spills easily? I’m looking for some little gifts to ask for and this looks like it could be good to keep around for b-feeding, but I’m clumsy and like something with a semi-reliable lid.
If not this, any recommendations for a b-feeding water cup/bottle? I’d prefer one I don’t have to screw the lid off every time.
Redux says
I liked straw cups better than flip lids for breastfeeding. I have a great one from Klean Kanteen. A bit pricey, but I like the look and feel of it much more than plastic.
Delta Dawn says
+1 for straw cups while b-feeding; I use a Camelbak for this.
CPA Lady says
Maybe there is something wrong with my face, but I can’t drink out of lids like this or the tervis tumbler lid without spilling all over myself. Thank heavens for reusable straws.
mascot says
The Yeti lids have a rubber seal on them so they fit pretty snugly. And I think some of them have the sliding part to cover the opening. I use thick silicone straws in mine and between that and the seal, they don’t really leak if you knock them over.
Anonymous says
There might even be a straw lid – if you look at their website there are more options that what typically come with the cups. I agree – I just stick a straw in the regular lid for the time-being.
Anonanonanon says
I have this one and love it. The slidey thing is magnetic and can come off, but even so I just slide it back and stick a straw in my drink if I need to.
I like it because it’s easy to close and carry to the car with a baby, a bag, etc. without worrying about spilling coffee everywhere
Anon says
I like the contigo snap and seals. Easy to clean, you can open one-handed and when closed are spill-proof (fall out of bag, bounce off the concrete, roll 15 feet through the parking garage spill-proof). And while they say hand wash, I’ve been putting them in the dishwasher for at least 2 years at this point and the only damage has been that the color coating has started peeling off (but they still keep my drinks cold or hot for hours).
Anonymous says
+1
Anonymous says
The most leak-free cup I’ve found is my daughter’s Thermos Funtainer. Also a straw cup. I don’t know if they make bigger sized ones for adults (I think hers is 10-12 ounces), but if so, I highly recommend.
ADHD in girls says
I know that DSM-wise, Aspergers isn’t a thing anymore. I have one child (elementary school aged) who is pretty quirky but has consistently failed all ASD screenings). We even did an extensive battery of tests for K (required by all private schools in my city; we are in public school) and then retested after K based on in-class fidgeting and squirminess and wound up with an ADHD diagnosis (it presents very differently in girls, so I was initially not thinking that but it totally makes sense to me).
At any rate, kiddo is now a few years older and our drs have rotated around and at kiddo’s checkup they wanted to revisit not doing meds (we discontinued over the summer after thinking whether they were really doing any good; kiddo is still fidgety but less quirmy; school is fine; kiddo is still awkward but has friends). I feel that kiddo’s awkwardness is more noticeable b/c she is a girl (boys with this level of awkward are just allowed to be themselves and aren’t medicalized, etc.). I think fitting in socially will always not come as naturally to her as it does to her sister.
I feel more testing would probably result in her failing all Aspergers testing (I can see say if you need a 4/10 on a scale to trigger the label she’d maybe get a 3, so close but never enough symptoms or impact on her life). I can recheck with the LCSW who did her testing (she is good for a gut-check and we’ve kept up otherwise). I feel for my kid — she is smart, hates being a room where people are talking about her but not talking with her (had I known new Dr. would do it, I would have warned him off doing than and requested a private meeting for us to discuss his concerns privately), and is in that begiinnig of puberty phase where she is having All The Feelings, running into mean kids at school, etc. I’d love for her to feel that she is OK as she is and not to deal with a label. We gently work on social skills at home (and have a wonderful weekly sitter who also a good friendly-adult sounding board).
I feel at a a loss as to the right path forward but don’t like putting my daughter through things where she is made to feel broken / wrong / wired the wrong way and I know she hates it (I also don’t think she has it but that the ADHD diagnosis is spot-on and just not what people are used to girls having and yes they will have issues fitting in socially with it that are just going to be a challenge to manage). Any one else been here? Help!
AwayEmily says
I have no advice but you sound like the kind of parent I wish I could be — empathetic, able to see the big picture, and proactive without being overprotective. Your daughters are lucky to have you.
Anonymous says
This. You’re doing great.
Another idea, since you mentioned your daughter is smart and sensitive: Is there a gifted and talented program at your daughter’s school, and is your daughter identified in it? Many gifted kids are quirky, even if they’re not necessarily identifiable as ASD. Teachers for these types of programs are often much more empathetic and adept at managing a class full of kids who are socially different from their age peers, and the kids are often more comfortable around each other than they are around the broader population of their grade. I was a socially awkward kid, and hugely benefited from the safer space my gifted class gave me. It could be a really good resource, if available.
Anonymous says
Yes, but in her grade, it’s more of a pull-out or push-in by one teacher for the whole school vs a dedicated teacher for a subgroup of a grade.
Part of what may throw people is that she is very tall, so people may expect teen social skills from her (but she is not a teen, she is 10) and her school work is a bit advanced, but she’s still 10 and a little girl and some areas are advanced but others are not (which is totally OK).
I have friends with ASD kids in the mild and severe ranges and I feel that that is just not what we are dealing with. But whatever the label, we are still dealing with a person. Her strengths are her strengths and her challenges are her challenges.
Anonymous says
As a kid who was quite tall, I’d encourage her to dress in kids clothes from kid stores. I was taller than my teacher when I was ten years old and my mom let me shop in the small sizes of womens stores – that actually made me look even older which didn’t help with behavior expectations.
Anonymous says
Luckily, they are in uniforms (which you can get in adult smalls if needed). So it’s cute — she hasn’t aged since she was 5 and in K (and you can’t look tarty in them). But we will age out of this school and the next ones have no uniforms :( Mornings are so easy when your option is navy dress or navy jumper.
Anonymous says
Asynchronous development is a common issue with gifted kids, and can be even more pronounced with exceptionally or profoundly gifted kids. It’s often easier to navigate social situations with other gifted kids than with the general population. Have you looked at summer gifted programs? I attended one through a university when I was in junior high, and my daughter attended one through the school district. It was life-changing for me to finally be around other kids who were like me. My daughter did not find it as transformative as I did because she was a bit younger and the program was not focused on kids with her specific variety of giftedness, but she really enjoyed it and made lasting friends.
Another option is to look for routes for her to pursue her specific interests outside of school. I have a nephew with ADHD and a niece on the spectrum who have both thrived on LEGO robotics teams.
Anonymous says
You’re describing my sister. She has continued to struggle socially throughout her life, but has generally found her niche. Life is harder for her than it is for me (compounded by the fact she has some learning issues that it sounds like your daughter does not). I think that some cognitive behavioral therapy earlier on would have helped– concrete exercises/techniques to practice in social situations, etc. My sister has developed anxiety because of her repeated social failures and it makes me so sad for her. I have some social anxiety myself and cognitive behavioral therapy was what helped the most.
stringbean says
I think you should be very hopeful. I had a rough time, socially, growing up. I’m not very good at reading social cues or others’ reactions. However, as an adult, I have a solid social life that makes me happy (spouse, friends, etc). I think working on social skills with your daughter is a great step. I did the same as an adult, mostly in therapy where I spent a lot of time discussing bewildering (to me) social interactions and talking about how to build solid relationships. Growing up may be rough (as it is for most people for one reason or another) but it sounds like your daughter will be just fine in the long run.
Anonymous says
+1.
anon for this says
+1 I can relate to this. I wonder if today I would have been diagnosed as ASD or ADHD as a kid. I thoroughly hated school, especially high school (found it boring, didn’t relate to most kids, etc). But I attended MIT where I was not nearly the weirdest kid around, and found my people.
Also agree with suggestion above that CBT would have been helpful, even without any kind of diagnosis. I struggled with anxiety in high school and I think I was more miserable than I needed to be!
Anonymous says
What year? Fellow MIT alumna here!
Anon for this says
Your daughter’s behavior sounds like mine as a kid, except that I was of average height, and frankly, I was probably a lot worse.
Have you asked her why she squirms and fidgets in class? Are there specific classes where this kind of behavior doesn’t manifest? Certain people she gets along with well?
It would have helped me at her age if a person had asked me about my interests and actually listened to my responses. This did not happen, and I grew up to become a nightmare of a teenager! Thankfully, I shaped up in my twenties and am now a lovely thirty-something, but I think a lot of mayhem could have easily been avoided in my teenage years if someone had actually cared to ask and listen… and then help.
Sarabeth says
I have a girl with ADHD, a few years younger than yours. If you feel like that diagnosis fits her, you might be able to use it to get some stuff that would help. Social stuff is a classic ADHD challenge, and my kid’s behavioral health provider referred us to a social skills group run by a local social worker. It is all similarly-aged girls, and I think the group aspect of it removes most of the stigma. It’s presented as a fun activity and they all work on stuff together. I also have a therapist who functions kind of like a parent coach (this may be like your LCSW?)
From your post, I’m not sure if someone in your life is pushing more testing? I agree that it doesn’t sound particularly necessary. And are you worried about ADHD as a label, or just about ASD? I would be reluctant to give up an ADHD diagnosis, at least on official paperwork, because she may end up needing accommodations at some point. For the meds, the nice thing about them is that you can go on and off the standard stimulants more or less as needed. So there’s no problem being off them but watching and waiting to see if she needs to go back on them. My daughter is not on meds right now but I think they will probably be necessary in a few years as school becomes more demanding and structured.
Holiday Gifts says
I’m looking for general recommendations of favorite toys/ books for various ages. Anyone have favorites? Mine will be 7 months and 4 years, but I’m assuming all ages could be helpful to others :)
DLC says
The website Baby Cheapskate does a series every year called “Toys that get played with”, broken down by age. I’ve found it very helpful when looking for gift ideas for kids- the suggestions are mostly for classic toys/gifts that hold up well, rather than the latest trendy thing.
http://www.babycheapskate.com/category/toys_played_with/
As for books, when my daughter was four she really started getting into chapter books. We would either read them to her or she would listen to them on audiobook. A few that we liked: Little House in the Prairie series, How to Tame your Dragon series, Cowgirl Kate and Coco series, the Ramona Quimby series, Mr. Poppers Penguins.
AIMS says
What a good list – I just saved it for future gift ideas. Based on my age group (baby and an almost 3 year old), these are def. a hit in our house: all the play food and dishes (my littler one puts everything in his mouth so I really like the Green Toy cups/dishes; you can often find them for not a lot at HomeGoods, etc.); legos; wooden train set; the big floor puzzles, and one of those play sinks for washing your hands/brushing your teeth.
Books-wise, I think Boynton books are great for babies and my older kid still likes them well enough. The older is currently really into Pete the Cat books (they have longer and shorter options).
Cb says
Hand foot and mouth…we haven’t slept well in 2 days and I can’t feel my face. Wishing my parents weren’t 7k miles away
Anon in NYC says
Oh no! Hugs. I think it took my daughter about a week to get over it. Good luck.
Pogo says
noooooooo
HSAL says
Has anyone used a battery pack for the Spectra S2? I found a link to a Maymom one on Amazon but it doesn’t look like they carry it anymore.
Anon says
I used this one for my S2 and it worked great: https://www.amazon.com/Medela-Battery-Style-Advanced-Breast/dp/B000HL2JOC
AwayEmily says
Yes! I used the Medela battery pack and it worked fine. ($28.99 on Amazon). Definitely key for airplane bathroom pumping.
HSAL says
Awesome, thanks guys. I was considering just buying the S9 to have something more portable but I’d rather just spend the $30.
Baby schedule help says
How do I figure out a good schedule for a baby? DH and I have a 7 yo and a 6 week old. We never really established a bedtime routine or good sleeping schedule for the 7 yo, which led to co-sleeping for way too long. This time around, I’m determined to do things differently! But I don’t know how to decide what time to put the baby in the crib to bed for the night. I’m EBF and will be going back to work after baby is 12 weeks. Baby and I should get home between 5:30 and 6, and baby will probably need to get up between 7:15 and 7:30 before daycare.
Anonymous says
Our doctor recommends sometime around 7 as a starting point when you move up baby’s bedtime. Worked well for us!
Anonymous says
7 pm is very early for a newborn. Keep in mind many babies will do only one long stretch – when you finally got a 5-6 hour stretch do you really want that to start at 7 pm? I wanted to sleep during that long stretch so our daughter went to bed at 10 pm until she was about 4 months. Then we gradually moved bedtime forward as her night got longer.
Anonymous says
I posted below, but this advice really didn’t work for us. Both my kids had a natural rhythm that wanted them to sleep around 7:30. We would get the longest stretch of sleep first. Any attempt at a dream feed, etc, just screwed up that deepest sleep cycle. Yes it was annoying for the few weeks /month where that meant a 2:00 wakeup, but rapidly moved on from there to much longer stretches. When we had an after dinner nap and a 9 pm bedtime we got 5-6 hours. No after dinner nap but a 7:30 bedtime got us 7 immediately and rapidly up to 10.
Pogo says
Agreed. I didn’t start enforcing a schedule until more like 3mos. Before that, baby did his long stretch from 10p-2a. In general most kids don’t start being awake long enough for a “schedule” until after 3mos. But at that time I went with the EASY (eat, awake time, sleep) schedule in 3-hour blocks.
However I have friends who started Moms on Call around 6w and had great results. There is a book which lays out the schedule based on baby’s age and a Faceb00k support group.
CCLA says
Yes, moms on call!! Used it with DD1 starting around 6 weeks and saw vast improvements – 6-8 hour stretches around 8 weeks, 11 hours by 11 weeks. DD2 is just 3 weeks and we started right away for her – she’s reliably sleeping two 4-5 hour stretches at night. The book has some religious references and I’m not religious at all, but am a huge believer in the methods. While the whole sleep chapter is helpful, you can get most of the benefit from the “typical days” schedules which I think you can find online.
HSAL says
I’ll tell you our schedule, with 4 1/2 month EBF twins who started daycare at 12 weeks. I usually start nursing the first around 6:30, and try to be done nursing both by 7:15 or so. Twin 1 often falls back to sleep for a little while. I pick them (and our 3 year old) up from daycare and usually get home by 5:20 or so. Sometimes they need a little bump right after we get home, but generally I try to hold out and start nursing the first one for bedtime around 6:15-6:30. Goal is to have both down by 7:00.
I will say that daycare exhausts them. Before they started we were putting them down (or trying to) in the 8:30-9 range, after our 3 year old went to bed. Their very first day they were tired by 6:30. Depending on your commute, I wouldn’t be surprised if the baby falls asleep on your way home.
HSAL says
Sorry, that first set of times should be AM, since I don’t think that was clear.
PregLawyer says
We do 7-7. It works well. We also use the 2-3-4 method – first nap after 2 hours, second nap after 3 hours, and then awake until bedtime. That’s once we transitioned to two naps at around 8 months.
For the first few months, do no more than 2 hours awake before you put them down for a nap. Try to do a slightly longer stretch before bedtime, and slowly move it closer and closer to 7 pm. Once they survive the 4-month sleep regression, try to do a nap every 2-3 hours, and really work on the bedtime routine at 7.
That’s our method! It worked for two kids, but every kid is their own special sleep snowflake.
FVNC says
Some sleep books have sample sleeping schedules that can be used as rough guides. I think The No Cry Sleep Solution did, and I also remember g o o gling “sample sleep schedules” when my youngest was a baby. On the other hand, all those schedules and good intentions went out the window when kiddo started daycare and refused to nap for, oh, six months…so a 6:30 bedtime was normal for him.
Anonymous says
+1 I liked this book.
I had the best luck with cluster feeding – like nursing 3 times – between 6pm- 9pm and then baby would generally sleep for a longer stretch, usually only one wake up around 2am.
DH did most of older kid’s bedtime routine but she would bring in a book and I’d read while nursing.
DLC says
My son is now 21 months, but once he was past the constantly napping infant phase, he went down for the night around 7p/7:30p and wakes at 6:30a. While he was still nursing at night, he slept in the pack n play in our room, but once he was sleeping through the night, he went into the crib (he shares a room with his 6yr old sister). For us, it was important to be consistent about the 7pm bedtime because 1) the room sharing meant that he needed to be asleep before his sister went to bed at 8p, and 2) I work a lot of evenings so having a set routine made things smoother for my husband and the sitters. We did cry it out, but we were incredibly lucky that both our kids slept through the night fairly early on (like by 4 months). I think it also depends somewhat on what the nap schedule is like at daycare- some places have all babies on the same nap schedule and some places they follow the baby’s lead more for naps.
anon says
I am in a Facebook group called Respectful Sleep Training/Learning and while some of the comments in it are a bit nuts to me, I have found it helpful for figuring out age appropriate wake times and schedules. generally at the beginning with stuck to a pretty strict feeding schedule every 3 hours and generally followed the Eat, Play, Sleep routine, which helped us create good habits. One thing to consider and again this is totally up to you – but a lot of friends with EBF babies decided to do a dream feed with formula both so DH could participate and so they could get a bit more sleep
Anonymous says
Our older son put himself on a schedule around 3 months and I ended up getting our current baby on one around 6 weeks based largely on the fact that we must leave the house at the same time every day to take older son to school. Babies this age really should only be awake 45-90 minutes at a time, so if we start the day at the same time every day, it’s never that different. we have a fixed point wake up/breakfast (bottle at this point) between 7 and 7:30, then baby is awake until he naps in the carrier on the way to/from school, and then I keep him in it to finish his nap. Both my babies have needed a couple 1.5-2.5 hour naps per day plus one or two shorter ones, so I am a total nap time enforcer– if baby wakes up at 40 minutes as he often does, I will do whatever it takes to get him back to sleep, including holding him. At 6 weeks we did 2 long naps and 2 short ones, with around 60-90 minutes of awake time between, which naturally led to a bedtime around 8:30 or 9 (immediately following the last nap). Around 10 weeks we cut the last nap as he was taking a while to settle for bedtime, and that led to a natural bedtime between 7 and 7:30 (and immediately led to vastly improved night sleep). We usually do eat-play-sleep.
CPA Lady says
How do you balance letting your kid set boundaries vs. teaching them to be kind? My kid has a friend from school that she plays with and talks about in a positive way. We’ve had a number of play dates that have gone well. The last one was at the playground, and my kid was kind of mean to the other kid, saying “I do not want to play with you!” and “you can’t play with me!” What is a good way to handle this? I don’t want to teach her to ignore her feelings and stuff it down and be nice and docile at her own discomfort, but also I don’t want her to be a jerk. She’s 4.
Anon says
(in the moment) “Hey! That’s not a kind way to talk to our friends. Why don’t you say ‘No thank you’ or ‘Let’s take turns on this, you can go after me.’ or ‘I just want to play by myself right now.'” Or whatever other phrases make sense.
rakma says
We’re trying to teach DD that ‘I want to play alone right now’ doesn’t hurt feelings, but ‘You can’t play with me’ does. This is with a younger sibling, but I’m sure it would work for friends too.
H13 says
This is a great distinction. Borrowing!
Anon for this (capital A) says
I make everyone in our family behave nicely to everyone. It’s not easy, but I think it’s smart in the long run to take the high road as much as possible.
My kid is younger, but I could see myself saying something in that situation like, “We don’t talk that way,” or “We are nice to all our friends.”
I am all about standing up for ourselves, firmly and politely. And I have often restructured social relationships (that I couldn’t walk away from) to be respectful, even if it took years of plotting. I get super angry sometimes! It takes a ton of effort to not rage on people when I want to, and to use my brains to shift the relationship in my favor, but doing so earns respect and preserves access relationships.
I figure that if I get my kid used to doing the same thing, maybe it will be easier for the kid… It is not easy for me, but it pays off.
Anonymous says
This is not helpful, but my first response was “all 4 year olds are jerks.”
Beyond that, I agree with everyone else about modeling kinder ways to get the boundary message across, but I also think there is value in not always intervening in kid-kid interactions. That is the balance that I find tricky.
mascot says
Yeah, it’s not called the “f-you fours” for nothing. Some of this is normal developmental flexing as they realize that their words have some power. And, they are also learning to use their words to stand up for themselves even if it sounds very unpolished at first. All of these suggestions are great, but don’t think you are raising a monster when they don’t always work.
anon says
We are having that issue right now except it’s with grandparents. My mom gets huffy when my 2 year old tells her to go away, but not sure how trainable he is at this stage! I love these comments – super helpful for framing my thinking.
Anonymous says
Kat/April— When you use the collapse/expand all feature here there is no option to expand individual threads at a time. The only option then to see replies is to expand all. This isn’t the case on the main s!te. Would appreciate that feature coming back.
Redux says
SAME. Please fix! Makes it a real bummer for me to come back to these posts throughout the day (and maybe why the posting traffic has been thinner since the redesign?).
Anon says
Yes, this is really bothering me as well.
Spirograph says
+1 million! I commented on this on the redesign thread, I’m glad it’s not just me.