About this article: part of me thinks, "Eh, lighten up!" The other part thinks, "Preach it, Sister!" But with C reaching maximal cuteness age (when does that end for parents???), it does make me think long and hard.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Baby Registry Madness
So I'm at that age now when all of my friends are popping out kids, and a number of them have asked me for registry advice. I've had to warn them all that I'm of the "less is better" school (perhaps a function of living in a cramped NY apartment). Overwhelmed by the plethora of baby crap out there, we ended up registering for approximately three million items -- of which we ended up using around 5. Since then, I've come up with the list I wish I had had back when I could have used it. Of course, I welcome any feedback! It's been a while since I've had to deal with this, so I'm sure my memory has failed me in some places, but I think it's a good start.
Must haves:
- Car seat (the kind that doubles as a stroller with the snap-on base, like the Graco SnugRide)
- Stroller (for urban moms, the lighter the better)
- Crib and crib accessories (like sheets and breathable bumpers, etc. Don’t need blankets just yet, since they’re suffocation hazards. Instead of blankets, you may initially want to try SleepSacks.)
- Lots and lots of onesies -- lots and lots of them!
- Little mittens (to keep kids from scratching themselves while sleeping)
- Baby socks and caps (lots of air conditioning everywhere, so want to keep feet and head warm)
- Pack-n-Play (important when travelling or when you want infants napping in the same room you’re working in)
- Swaddling cloths/receiving blankets (usually given out by hospitals when leaving, though maybe it was just my hospital)
- Baby monitor
- Night lights
- Breast pump (if breastfeeding, obviously)
- Bottles (Dr. Brown’s are great, but since you'll most likely be experimenting with different types, wouldn't go crazy and get hundreds of them)
- Bottle brush and drying rack
- Baby bath tub
- Would get lots of bottles of Burt’s Bees Shampoo on Body Wash (awesome product and makes fun bubbles!)
- Hooded towels (actually, probably not a must have for most people, just for P and me)
- Bumbo (little soft chairs that the kids will sit on when they can keep their heads up)
- Activity mats
- Exersaucer (lots of debate on this, as well as walkers, but we thought they were AWESOME, and they certainly didn’t hurt C)
- Jumper (again, lots of debate on this, but hours of entertainment and relief for you)
- Swingle cradle (we only used ours for a couple of months, but they did have the benefit of calming C down a number of times)
- Rocking chair (which makes for a nice way to bond with the new kid while relaxing you as well)
- Diapers (though I'm of the impression that you're going to be experimenting with diapers as well, so no need to go crazy just yet on these. If you're going to go the cloth diaper route, I'd highly recommend gDiapers!!!!)
- Diaper bag
- Portable diaper changing pads (for when you’re out and about and don’t want to put your kid on some nasty surface. Diaper bags may include this already, but check.)
- Diaper changing table/pad (though, actually, P and I just plopped C on a towel on our bed and changed diapers that way, so wasn't really a necessity for us)
- Bibs
- Little utensils and bowls/plates
- High chairs (or booster seats that you can strap on to chairs)
- Ergo (or the equivalent — hated the Moby wrap)
- Baby nail clipper (though a regular nail clipper worked just fine for C, even when she was a tiny infant)
- Health/medical kit (thermometer, nose bulb, baby aspirin, etc.)
- Teethers (like Sophie the Giraffe)
- Soft books
- Soft toys
- Developmental toys
- Diaper pail/liners (though P and I just put pee diapers in the regular trash and poopy diapers in a separate plastic bag that we would just tie and untie and eventually throw out)
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Little Piggies
So how excited am I to share this? I'd been racking my brain to come up with an activity that would be exclusively for C and me (to help ease her transition from being mama's only little girl to older sister), and I finally hit on mommy-daughter mani/pedis. But, being incredibly fearful of slathering C's poor little nails with toxic waste, I'd held off...until I came across this:
Not only do they have nail polish in the cutest colors imaginable, they have non-toxic nail polish remover! The polish goes on smoothly and dries really quickly, though I have to admit that it chips and peels pretty easily. But who cares? Gives mommy and daughter (or son, I guess) more time to bond. Enjoy pampering your little ladies, ladies!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The Dangers of Raw Sprouts
After the whole food poisoning/sprouts scare in Europe this month, I started reading more about sprouts in general. Turns out that, as nutritious as they are, they're allegedly incredibly risky. Not that C really cares for sprouts anyway, but she does down Pad Thai noodles from our favorite Thai restaurant, and they always come with raw bean sprouts mixed in. No longer!!!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Organic or Conventional?
When it comes to fruits and veggies for C (and for me and the hubby, I guess), I've always tried to go organic as much as possible. But there are times when you just have to roll your eyes at the prices of organic produce -- as I did one day recently when I picked up a pack of two (2!!) bell peppers and laid eyes on the price: $7.60. I put them back, figuring that I didn't necessarily need bell peppers swaddled in fairy dust. But other than price considerations, I never quite had a system for choosing organic over conventional, or vice versa, unless you count hunches as a system. So I'm glad that the Environmental Working Group came up with this handy dandy chart of the cleanest fruits and veggies (the "Clean 15") and the dirtiest (the "Dirty Dozen", so to speak).
After browsing this chart, it occurs to me that I may need to buy bell peppers swaddled in fairy dust after all.
Friday, June 10, 2011
A Tragic Summer Reminder
I think that most parents have probably experienced the paralyzing panic induced by losing sight of their child for a couple of seconds on the playground/shopping mall/(fill in the blank). Ours happened a couple of weeks ago, in a crowded playground. Both the hubby and I were supposed to be watching C, but I thought he was watching her, and he thought I was watching her, and we were both chatting with other parents. I'm sure that we had lost sight of her for under a minute, but a lot can happen in a minute, and we were more than sufficiently freaked out.
And, not that I want to be a fear-monger, a lot can indeed happen in under a minute. 18 seconds, in fact, which is why I'm reposting a blog article that was published in "Philly Mag". It's a tragic but necessary (and extremely timely) reminder of why we need to be keeping a hawk's eye on our kids at all times, especially during swimming season.
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