I am all for fashion, but this is ridiculous. In response to Huggies limited edition jean diapers, Pampers fires back with their own version of fancy poop sacks. Target will stock Cynthia Rowley designed Pampers beginning in mid-July.
Yes, they are more expensive. And yes, your baby's poop will still smell.
Expand your home recycle program beyond plastic and paper and start collecting those old crayons. You know the ones... they can be found underneath a couch cushion, in the backseat of your car, maybe even in your pocket or pocketbook?
The National Crayon Recycle Program will take those odd bits and pieces and melt them down to make brand new ones. If you're crafty you can do the same (how to melt down crayons). Or if you're lazy like me, you can just buy the ones someone has melted and shaped for you.
Before I had kids I remember saying to my husband, "I don't want anything to change about our lifestyle. I want to travel just as much. I want to spend as much time on my hair. I want to watch the same TV that I would have if kids were not in the room."
Obviously, I was completely mistaken.
Two and a half years later, my oldest son controls the TV remote with an iron fist. My hair has been in a ponytail for the better part of two years. And travel... well actually that's the one thing that remained somewhat the same.
Before kids I was always on the way to someplace else. Business trips blurred into pleasure trips and frequent flier miles added up. I would stand at the front of the line with my gold encrusted magic flier card and shrug as families with entire living rooms for carry on baggage watched me board with only a laptop and purse. I glared at kids who screamed on flights. I mentally willed the woman with the infant in arms to sit anywhere but next to me.
In my second life as a parent, my gold travel magical front-ofthe-line card has expired and I have joined the masses of families waiting for the red carpet business travelers to make their way onto the plane. Instead of glaring, I get glared at.
I love to travel. I think I may have some gypsy blood in me and I want more than anything to pass this love to my children. So far we have done the safe family trips. Disney, Disney, and Disney. Beach vacations and the mother of all vacations, Hawaii. One location remains uncharted, Europe. So it was with interest that I read the article, Travel to Europe on a Family Budgetin the May 2010 issue of Parents magazine.
After reading the article I realized that I have been playing my vacations child-safe. Europe is possible with small children, you just have to be smart about your choices. I was thinking in terms of big foreign cities with even bigger toddler melt-downs -no thanks. However, there are more than enough alternatives off the big city grid to satisfy all ages.
Take Ireland for example. I have been two times as an adult. Dublin - loved it. But now? With kids? What would we even do? Well skip Dublin completely of course. What kid wouldn't love a horse and buggy ride around the Aran Islands? Or explore some really old castles or even older caves. It didn't dawn on me until reading Ms. Klurman's article that this same logic could be applied to most every European country.
The question really is, is traveling overseas with children under 10 worth the hassle? Depends. If your goal is to sit in a Parisian bistro, smoke cigarettes and drink a glass of red wine... well, a toddler may cramp your style. I would suggest hitting up Epcot faux-France and pretend. They have red wine. A smaller version of the Eiffel Tour and a smoking section if you must.
Chances are I will stick with the kid friendly vacations for now. But as the boys get older and the itch to broaden our travel repertoire grows I will think back on my pre-kids travel self with fondness and chart a new travel path that the whole family can enjoy.
On my quest to avoid purchasing a Wiggles CD for my two year old I stumbled down the rabbit hole of modern artists moonlighting as children's musicians.
There are the obvious ones such as They Might be Giants and Barenaked Ladies. Both artists have some great kids albums available that will not make your ears bleed.
Ninjas - being one of my favs...
I recognize that I am exposing my son to these artists for my own sanity and musical snobbery, but it feels good to look outside the itsy bitsy spider box. I've burned him CD's with songs I've dug up on ITunes. I've also gone and thumbed through my old CD collection for anything that may fit for a "night night" CD. Coldplay, Nina Simone, Miles Davis being a few that seemed to fit the bill.
However, now that he is well into his two year old months, he has started developing an opinion on what he wants to listen to. Green Day in the car, no thank you. He'll tolerate top 40 pop, but only for a small amount of time. Though I hold the keys to the musical kingdom, he is really the one who dictates the playlist.
Each night before bed we put a CD on. I had a mellow Disney CD that seemed to soothe him as an infant. That CD was replaced by a Baby Einstein classical medley. Most recently the playlist has taken a surprising turn. For reasons unknown Nick Drake's Pink Moon has been in the CD player for the past few weeks.
It never dawned on me that my son was actually appreciting the music and not just letting the sounds fill the background before sleep. He's formed opinions-- "Nine" is how he refers to his favorite song (the track number on the CD display). He's memorized lyrics-- or rather made up what he understand the lyrics to be. And he asks me to hum Pink Moon songs at random times during the day. For all intensive purposes, my two year old is a Nick Drake fan.
This does not mean he will turn down a chance to sing Wheels on the Bus or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He's no fool and please, he's only two. Should he request Barney's Greatest Hits at some point in the future, I suppose I would have to give in. I would just be sure and look for the version that included the duets with Rhianna and produced by Jay-Z.
