I don’t want to participate in the Mommy Wars or anything, but this time of year I start to think that it might be easier to be a parent in, say, San Diego. At least there’d be fewer layers involved in the morning and evening routine.
Archive Page 49
And they’re going legit, folks!
Published December 17, 2013 bling blog , family , friends 4 CommentsIn a surprise pre-holiday move, Mr. JMB decided to end months of will-they-or-won’t-they speculating by those of us on the sidelines and ask the GAOOG to be his wife. Wife!
I couldn’t be happier for these crazy kids. Mazel, my friend! Mazel.
Stepping up to the counter
Published December 11, 2013 parenting , toddler stuff 6 CommentsTags: Guidecraft, kitchen helper, Little Partners
So, as you probably know, kids love to do what adults are doing. Specifically, kids love doing chores. I knew this, but I didn’t really know it until recently. At a Montessori school, where Bear is, they call all of the kids’ purposeful activity ‘work,’ which is cool but the term seems particularly apt when Molly is actually working. For example, we watch Molly spill water over and over just so she can clean it up. Surprisingly, this is only mildly annoying. Last weekend, I bought her some sponges, a spray bottle and a little caddy to carry her tools around in. She likes it, I think, but not as much as the similar version they have at school. The week before last, when we came to pick her up, she was “washing” the glass door and was quite surprised when she saw us on the other side of it. She was happy to see us, but after greeting us, she quickly returned to her chores.
Anyway, recently she’s been pretty obsessed with helping AO in the kitchen and wanting to fiddle with the toaster. I imagine we’ll buy her a play kitchen at some point, but for now I’m more interested in getting her up to countertop height so she can be a part of the actual kitchen (better her than me, afterall). Her teachers suggested we get her a Little Partners Learning Tower, but the $200 price tag has us flinch a little. I mean, it looks great and everything, but it’s really just a step stool, right? Well, not quite, but still. It seemed pricey. I searched on Craigslist and did a Google search for a used one. No dice. AO and I both stumbled upon this cool Ikea hack, though. I daydreamed that we’d be able to pull that together, but quickly got stressed out by the whole thing. Not to mention the fact that Ikea isn’t exactly in our backyard.
In the meantime, we’ve been using a chair. She can’t climb up on it, but it does the trick ok. She isn’t super steady on it, which can make for a nervous cooking session, but it’s not awful. On the other hand, AO didn’t think she was able to participate in things as much as she’d be able to if she were using something more secure. So I did a little more searching and found that Little Partners isn’t the only game in town. There’s also Guidecraft, which makes this number. At $180 a pop, though, the savings didn’t exactly make me feel giddy. I searched around some more and found that, for some reason, Amazon is currently selling them for $125. Hmm. I was intrigued.
[Also, keep in mind, I’m doing this research while having a texting discussion with friends about how we all want to be shopping more locally this holiday season. Oops.]
So, a little more research led me to this amazing YouTube video showing the differences between the two little helpers (that’s my new term for the thingees). Hooray! If only there could be easily accessible videos for every choice I have in life. Ultimately, we pulled the trigger on the Guidecraft one because (a) it’s less expensive and (b) it’s smaller. We’re hoping to move in April and while I don’t know what size our new kitchen will be, I know our current one is pretty teeny so Guidecraft’s smaller footprint is welcome.
I’ll be sure to let you all know what happens when we open up that box.
Molly’s new favorite word is ‘no.’ Sometimes it’s a curt ‘no’ and sometimes it’s a very dramatic and emotional ‘NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ What’s confusing (read: frustrating) is that sometimes it doesn’t mean ‘no’ at all. It might mean ‘not right now’ or ‘maybe’ or – despite all of the PSAs to the contrary – ‘yes’ (gasp!).
Anyway, just today I was revisiting a Slate article from earlier this year that a friend had recently posted to her Facebook page. It’s all about why we should be cool with toddlers’ freakouts and tantrums. After a four-day weekend home with a 20-month old (21 months today! Happy day Bear!), it was especially reassuring. My favorite part? This quote, from the all-knowing Harvey Karp: “It is hard to spend all day with a 2-year-old, and they don’t really want to spend all day with you anyway.”
So true. This morning, as we were driving Mollybear to school, I turned around to face her in her carseat. I smiled and said, “Hi.” She smiled back at me, giggled and said, “No.”
A trip to the grocery store. Or how we spent our hours in exile from the open house.
Published November 17, 2013 everyday , family , local , Madisonia 8 CommentsAO has long wanted to check out Yue Wah, a grocery store on South Park. And we had to be out of our place today for an open house, so we thought we’d finally see what was inside. A little tornado warning was not going to deter us.
Yue Wah
Do you see Bear? Anyway, I’m no expert in grocery stores, but this one seemed pretty nice. I especially liked that it was not crowded. Though that could have had more to do with the ominous skies and probably shouldn’t be relied on by future customers who might be reading this.
Horseradishy
Hello panda
Plates and spoons
Snake-head fish
Coffee
Fruit
Bear kept insisting on putting quinoa in the cart.
Blurry quinoa
Sauces
And then we went out to lunch and Bear sat in her first booster seat. I know she was probably old enough for that rite of passage many moons ago, but don’t blame her for the delay. That’s on me. I hope I didn’t do any permanent damage.
Crayons and a booster
