A Blog for Online Parents

My son has a Thomas book that is his favorite and my least favorite.  It is a “lift-the-flap” book.  On the outside it says “Over 55 Flaps to Open.”  I laugh whenever I see that, because next time I see that on the outside of a book, it will do anything but entice me to buy it.  I really like reading to my son, we read a lot each day, but sometimes I just don’t have the patience to sit there while he opens every single flap and makes conversation about what is under each flap.  I have to be full-rested (as if) and in a really good mood to enjoying reading any flap book.

I promised some pictures for yesterday’s review of the Bebe Au Lait Review.  So here you go…

My grandma got the kids a Trunki from Amazon and it is Awesome!!!!

If you remember, I was debating the purchase back in September.  I watched the videos on the Trunki website and poured over the website deciding if it would be good for us.  Now that I have it the answer is a resounding “yes.”

When we opened the box, we didn’t even have to tell my son what to do with it, he just hopped on and started rolling around my mom’s kitchen.  The thing that surprised me most was how big it was.  In the pictures on the website, I think it looks very small - they show a teddy bear going in it and it takes up half the thing.  Well I have successfully fit about 20 diapers, two change of clothes for my daughter, one change of clothes for my son, a Matchbox pop-up play set, a blanket for each of my kids, plus a few other odds and ends in it.  Also it is super easy to carry on your hip.  The top of each side kind of indents, and it makes it really easy to carry when you put the shoulder strap on.  My only concern is that the place where the shoulder strap attaches doesn’t look that strong.  I hope it holds up over time.

Can’t wait to use it on our trip….I’ll post a follow-up review after travel.

This nursing cover was a 13th hour purchase. I have two kids, a boy and girl. So I think I am finished having children, and I am almost done exclusively breastfeeding my daughter, but I still thought I needed a nursing cover for my last month of exclusive breastfeeding because we are going on a trip abroad and I didn’t want to have to bring a blanket to cover myself while nursing. Blankets are bigger and heavier than nursing covers, and blankets aren’t that easy to keep on my daughter now that she is easily distracted while eating. So I got a Bebe Au Lait Nursing Cover from My Precious Kid. I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. I will be posting a video review of the product tomorrow, but for now, let me tell you why I like it so much.

1. Super light weight - easy to fold and stuff anywhere, purse, diaper bag, stroller.

2. Stylish fabric - I got the black and white one - it will match just about anything.

3. Easy to put on - Once you put the strap through to make the neck opening, you can put this thing on and off with one hand while baby is in the other hand.

4. Lots of coverage - material is big enough to cover you and the baby while you are latching her on and once she is drinking. Also helps my daughter to stay focused when drinking because she can’t see everything going on around her.

5. Awesome little viewing window - the 2nd biggest problem with using a blanket for a nursing cover after it falling off all the time, is that you can’t see your baby to help her latch on while also covering yourself for the comfort of those around you (Note: I only use a cover to make the people around me feel comfortable. I could care less if people saw things while I was nursing my baby). This nursing cover has a tiny band of flexible metal at the top of the cover so it stays “open” so you can look down at your baby. Very very cool!

So overall, I think it was a great purchase, and one I wish I would have made a long time ago.

Purchase Nursing Cover Here

I really didn’t get that much use out of my Boppy Pillow when I had my son because I always found it kind of a pain to keep around and pull out every time I nursed him.  However, with my daughter, the opposite has been true.  I use it all of the time.  She is much more picky about how she wants to be fed.  She really likes to be in a straight line across my chest and the Boppy pillow really helps me keep her in this position when my son is bouncing around us on the couch while I am trying to feed her.

My my mother-in-law comes from Malta (as does my husband).  Here are a few things I learned from my mother-in-law about cooking.

1.) Fried eggs on a sandwich make a great picnic lunch

2.) Learning to cook (at least a few) meals without a recipe will save you massive amounts of time and frustration, and will help you learn how to adjust other recipes to your liking.

3) Make dinner preparation easier by starting to cook early in the afternoon. Cut up potatoes and put them in a bowl of water — add a clove of garlic sliced in quarters to really make them yummy. Cut up veggies and put them in water (if they will keep). Make soups or salads ahead of time so they only have to be served at dinner time.

4.) Adding some cut up garlic cloves to boiling veggies gives them a great taste.

5.) There is liking to cook and there is LOVING to cook. My mother-in-law LOVES to cook. It can reach over 110 degrees Fahrenheit in a Maltese summer where most people don’t have air conditioning and she is still in the kitchen cooking soup. I like to cook, but I can guarantee that my family would be eating sandwiches and cereal all summer if I had to cook in that heat.

6.) You can make baby food from scratch. This idea had never occurred to me until she mentioned in passing that she was making my niece’s baby food. I did it for my son. It wasn’t that much work, it got him used to eating “normal” food, and it saved us a lot of money.

This post won’t come as a shock to experienced mothers with sons, but because I never had a brother, I am continually amazed how much my son is a “natural” boy.  He has a natural magnatism to balls, trucks, trains, and all things dirty.  It isn’t anything I pushed him toward because, to be honest I forgot that I should even be getting him these things until I saw him playing with them at daycare and our friend’s houses.

Ok, so maybe not a million, but if I had to make a stroller wish list without regard to cost, storage options, or the fact that I would be throwing other perfectly good strollers away, this is what it would be for our family (mom, dad, a two-year-old, and a 3-month-old)…

1) Two Maclaren Triumphs for the car. I hate transferring strollers into and out of my car. I would keep a single version and a double version folded up in my car for shopping trips. Sometimes I only need one child in the stroller, sometimes I need both. Having both of these strollers folded up at all times in my car would help me get out of the house faster because they would always be there and I wouldn’t have to decide which one to use until I am actually at my destination. The Maclarens are superior to other umbrella strollers because pushing a 35lb toddler around is a breeze! You will break your wrists trying to push a toddler in cheaper ripoffs of the Maclaren.

2) Two Baby Jogger City strollers for walks. We walk every day. Our walks involve walking over grass, through mud, and in winter - through snow. The Maclarens are not heavy duty enough for this type of walking. On shorter walks, our two year old likes to walk, so I would only need the single stroller for the baby. On longer walks he likes to sit down, and if we go for our usual 3 hour walk on a Saturday morning, he usually starts his nap in the stroller.

What’s not on my list — my Bugaboo. I wouldn’t buy it again. I will be posting a video review of it shortly on the website, you should be able to read why within the next week.

I was recently shopping for a Maclaren stroller for the kids.  I found some sellers on eBay selling them for considerably less than elsewhere on the internet.  If you read the description it says something along the lines that you are buying the “European spec version” and because of that they pass the savings on to you.  After a little research on the Maclaren website I found that the EU specs carry significantly less weight than than the American version.  For example, I bought a Triumph.  The American version carries up to 55lbs and the EU version only carries up to 33lbs.  My 2-year-old is already 33lbs so if I hadn’t done the research I would have been a very disappointed buyer.  So please be careful if you intend to purchase a Maclaren on eBay.

I bought a Hotsling when I was pregnant with my daughter. Now that she is two months old and I am getting back into shape, I realize that I bought it way too big. I got an XL, when I should have gotten a M, so I had figured I had three options, 1) Get a new one in Medium. 2) Get someone to alter it for me. Or 3) Try and alter it myself. I opted for option 3 because option 1 is expensive and unnecessary given options 2&3. And option 2 requires me to drive 30 minutes to the seamstress and 30 minutes back and still pay about $10 for something I could probably do myself. So I choose option 3 which in the end was the right choice because it turned out great and only took me 20 minutes. Below are some pictures on how I did just in case someone else runs into the same problem.