Oh Yes We Did

It was painless. There were no tears whatsoever because they had anesthesia for “the childrens”. TV.

There was an actual wall of dated, battered and abused VHS tapes all with handmade labels telling of which character the plastic box held. The “stylist” asked if Lolo wanted to see Dora, whom she knows nothing about. I quickly scanned the collection and found what she needed to get the job done.

See that dazed look in her eye? She’s in Elmo’s world in that picture. A minute and a half later, it was done. The super long flap in the back isn’t really gone, just shortened.

In The Spirit

It’s pretty spooky around these parts.

She

She knows “two.” When she sees two of anything, she loves to point it out, and if those two things happen to be both large and small in size, well, one is the mama and one is the baby. There is a neighbor with two American flags in their yard, one full size and one about the size of printer paper. Every time she sees them, she mock cries for the baby flag and motions that it needs to be comforted by the mama flag. She is obsessed with pointing out flags in general. It’s a hobby.

She can recognize the letters F, C and Z.

She loves the whole idea of mail and relishes in our chore of bringing the red mail (Net-flix) to the blue mailbox down the street.

She likes to play “take care of baby” as much as she likes to play with cars and trucks. Right now she is fascinated with methods of transportation and construction with diggers, trash trucks, taxis and tow trucks being some of her favorites.

Her favorite number to say is five.

Me: “Let’s count, Lolo. One …”
Lolo: “Twooo, Feee …”
Me: “What’s next?”
Lolo: “Figh …”
Me: “Not five yet, four.”
Lolo: “Figh …”
Me: “Five, six …”
Lolo: “Figh …”

Busybody

Adventures in the life of a busybody: Frenetic movements of an intense person annoyed when not everyone matches her intensity or pace.

I was at the JCC gym on one of my regular Tuesdays or Thursdays working out for the hour Lolo allows me to leave her side. I immediately noticed the absence of snacks in the “Kid Care” room when I dropped her off.

Sidenote: You are not allowed to bring your own snacks into the room. They provide a mock-Cheerio option called Perky O’s that is allergen-free. Perky O’s contain no nuts, no gluten, no wheat, no soy and no dairy. And, last but not least, it’s Kosher. I’m sure it’s delicious and perky, but I’ve never tried it.

When I picked her up, I asked the caregivers about it and they said that someone was going to the store to get  more boxes. I let it go.

The following week, same story. Now they are asking me to take action with the suggestion box.

The next week, which is  three weeks without snacks, I took matters to the membership office. The director told me that they were aware of the issue and that their nutritionist was working with Whole Foods to find an alternative since Perky O’s cereal had been discontinued. I told them that I appreciated their struggle to find a cereal that matched all of their allergen-free needs but that they should have communicated this to the members instead of us just griping about the lack of snacks. She understood that I was frustrated and said that if I had any suggestions on cereal snacks that would fit the bill that I was welcome to submit ideas. And, she added that it also had to be edible by infants just learning to eat solids.

(I know what you’re thinking. This kid can’t go an hour without something to eat? Of course she can. It’s the principle of the matter. If I can’t bring her grapes and raisins because of your rules, and you pledged to provide a snack that meets your center’s allergen-free needs, then do it.)

That’s all the challenge I needed. Three weeks of research and consultation with Whole Foods and you still don’t have an answer? Really? I’m sure the nutritionist was burning the midnight oil hunting down snack options for toddlers.

My mind went buzzing into its Internet search zone. On the drive home, I started thinking about all the cereals I had seen on the shelves of Whole Foods. Once I was home and Lolo had a suitable smorgasbord in front of her, I fired up the old Internet to find a snack contender. First, I found a Kosher foods catalog site and cross referenced it with a gluten-free site. In five minutes, I found several options, the first of which was sold in value-sized boxes at the old-fashioned grocery store, Rice Chex!

I immediately called the director and left a voicemail with my idea. Another week went by with no new snacks until I got a call from the Kid Care coordinator who wanted to thank me for my suggestion and that because of me, Rice Chex cereal was now the official JCC snack.

The glory. I basked.

No Picture Required

And, so it begins. I purchased a mini toilet seat and stool for Lolo just so the idea of using it could roam around our house. Permeate the walls. Sit on the side table. “Hmm. Peeing and pooping in the potty. How about that? Quite an notion indeed. Let me just sit with that for a while.”

She thinks it’s funny to sit on the potty and on a random first try with the new device, I struck gold because it was the exact time nature called. Not only did she not get that it was a momentous occasion, she was quite appalled. She didn’t want nature to call right then and frankly wanted to hang up on her. “No cheering mama. Make it go away. Who wants to peer into the toilet at that?”

Clearly we’ve got a ways to go. But, we have at least a toe in the water, recognition (if nothing else) that giraffes do not go on the potty.

This is not our toilet. Just a representation of the product we've chosen to try. I am trying to avoid at all costs the process of emptying baby waste from one pot to another.

A Sculpture Garden, Two Brides and a Refrigerator

A Sculpture Garden, Two Brides and a Refrigerator. In that order.

How do you spend a stay-cation over Labor Day weekend when you’re part of the Stinkerbean family? Well, you make yourselves ridiculously busy with things both sublime and mundane.

Here’s the sublime part.

Saturday we whisked ourselves away to Mountainville, New York, for a large dose of culture at the Storm King Art Center, which is a breathtaking outdoor sculpture reserve only about an hour or so away from us. I knew we would see a lot, maybe not all Storm King had to offer. After all, it’s an outdoor space comprising 500 acres of hills, grass and sculptures ranging in size from 5 to 300 feet tall. But, I knew we’d eat outdoors, play, touch some art, and sit in the grass. If we made it out without tears (since Lolo would be skipping her nap), we’d be ahead of the game. As we waited for a tram (otherwise known as a choo-choo to someone that still counts her age in months) to take us to the farther reaches of the property, we tried to think of how Lolo had changed our visit and she really hadn’t. It turns out that our collective attention span is much like hers and we were all ready to leave at the same time. That either says a lot about her maturity or not so much about ours.

Lolo's favorite "sculpture". She is very into diggers right now!

Sunday we headed back to Brooklyn to celebrate with our dear friends Hannah and Michelle as they got married under the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a lovely wedding, a beautiful and fitting setting and a glorious time. H & M, we wish you all the best of love, life and happiness! Mazel Tov!

Then we wrapped up the weekend with the not-so-sublime. Refrigerator shopping. Yes, we’re in the market for a new appliance. Not by choice. Who wants to spend a hunk of money on something that you can’t watch Bravo TV on anyway? Our current fridge may have been the best Frigidaire had to offer in the 80s, but now it’s just an inefficient mess that sometimes stay closed and sometimes doesn’t. The fridge freezes anything near the back and the freezer door leaks water. So, it’s definitely time to put it out of its misery. But, that meant we had to devote a whole day to visiting our nearby appliance stores. And, this is only after hours and hours of online research. If you were wondering, it is nearly impossible to find normal sized fridges anymore. All the new models are made to fit the dream kitchens of tomorrow and not the less dreamy kitchen spaces of the early 1920s. But, we do indeed have one on order. Now we will have two stainless steel appliances and two black ones rather than one white, two black and one stainless. Apparently, we’re headed in the right direction.

When it’s delivered, we will take a family picture with it.

Color-ific

Suddenly, but not so suddenly, the world is colorized. Several months ago I realized that Lolo could point to colors when I asked her to but she couldn’t name them with words. We’ve built on that until she started calling out when she saw “boo” (blue). And, then one day she was sitting in Zoe’s toy basket and pointed to the yellow button on the Guitar Hero and said, “weh-woh”. From there, it’s exploded. And, now she is a walking color narrator naming every hue as she sees it. Right now her toughies are pink and orange. But, she owns the rest including “puh-pah” (purple) and “back” (black). If she’s stumped on a color like lime green, she thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to insert a pretend word (with confidence) because it’s far better to sound like you know what you’re talking about than to say “i dunno.”

Insulated Straw Cup Reviews A-Go-Go

Again with the cups. I know. But I have to do it. It’s for the greater good of moms like me across the country.

I don’t typically review and talk about specific baby/kid products. There are plenty of sites out there with that exact aim. But, I found a hole in the internet revolving around reviews of and options for BPA-free straw cups.

I’ll keep it as short and to the point as possible with tons of bullets rather than blathering text.

I was forced to find another straw cup for Lolo because the ones we had been using (the Playtex Insulator Sports Straw Cup) became bloated at the bottom from the volcanic-like heat in our dishwasher (even when using the top rack). Aside from the fact that they could no longer stand on their own, they were pretty good soldiers for us. I drew the line when Lolo started to assume all cups acted like weeble wobbles and held out her hands to catch a cup after she placed it on a table. (I will say that I know a lot of people who use these cups and have not had the bloated bottom issue because they have safe and effective kitchen appliances.)

Here’s where I break it down.

What I want:
• Insulated straw cup.
• Something that doesn’t leak excessively. (I learned long ago that there is no leak-proof cup. There are only leak-a-little-less ones.)
• Not alot of parts.
• Cup with valve that makes it pretty easy to obtain liquid.
• Cheap.
• BPA-free. Phthalate-free would be nice too, but there are fewer options down that road.
• It would also be nice if it could stand on its own.

What I found:

I found a few options, mostly at Babies-R-Us. I tried a few and returned what didn’t work for me.

1. My first purchase was the Insulated Straw Cup by Munchkin with the Backyardagins theme.
Pros:
• They’re kinda cute for a hot second, and then those little animated dudes started to bother me as a collective group in my cabinet.

Cons:
• One cup from the two-pack was easy to suck from, but the next one kept being handed back to me with the exclamation “empty” even though it was filled to the brim with water. So, I tried it myself and nearly popped a blood vessel trying to extract liquid.
• I didn’t use them long enough to find out how much they might leak especially with milk since milk seems to instantly expand once confined to a kids cup. But, I will say the assembly was totally annoying. You can’t reinsert the straw through the top without taking apart the flip-top mechanism, otherwise know as the orange-thingee pictured above.

Bottom line: I would never try these again. Too hard to suck.

2. Next, I pondered the Insulated Straw Cup by Nuby but thought better of it once I remembered what it was like to clean a Nuby cup after a friend left one at our house. They have two straws that make up the cup assembly and one is so super short that it was eaten by my dishwasher. I put it in but it never returned. I knew I could never keep track of the parts so I didn’t even consider it as an option. The other thing I don’t like about Nuby is that the kids actually have to bite the straw while sucking and now is not the right time to re-teach Lolo how to use a straw. They are cheap, though.

Bottom line: Small cup parts make me lose my mind.

3. I also thought about but didn’t try the Playtex “Baby Einstein” Insulated Straw Cup. I really do like Playtex cups and the construction of this one made it seem like it could stand up to my dishwasher. But, at $5.99 a cup in-store, I couldn’t bear to buy the 5 or 6 I needed. They also seemed a little hard to handle and baby-ish for an 18-month old. I dare say that I would have tried this if she was much younger and just starting with straw cups.

Bottom line: A little too expensive per cup when she is on the down-slope of using kids cups.

4. Then I moved on to the “Meal Mates” Insulated Straw Cup by Learning Curve. They seemed like they would fit my needs and have worked out pretty well.

Pros:
• They have a slip grip texture on the outside for easy handling by a toddler.
• They fit in traditional cup holders and pouches.
• The packaging states that they are BPA-, Phthalate- and PVC-free.
• Insulated so cool drinks stay cool.
• Only two parts to keep track of.
• No obnoxious characters to look at

Cons:
• They aren’t perfect, liquid does leak. But, I knew that would happen and it’s not the top of my wish list. I just try to keep it upright in my purse and away from my phone.
• The shape of the straw is different. It’s oblong so you can only use it from two directions. But, she’s adapted well to this change.
• The silicone valve that attaches to the cup top doesn’t have a super tight fit and I wonder if that seal will falter over time.

Bottom line: It’s the best option for me now with the cons that I am willing to live with until the next phase of Lolo’s beverage life.

5. As a last hurrah, I bought and didn’t return another variety of Playtex straw cup, the “Lil’ Gripper”. It’s not insulated, but it has the same basic innards as the Sports Insulator one we decided to ditch.
I love it except for one fatal flaw. Yes, fatal. The straw that attaches to the valve inside isn’t long enough. It’s maddening. Lolo would have an inch of water left in the cup and the straw couldn’t reach it. So, I tried out the straws from the bloated cups mentioned above and they were too long for this one. After a few scissor snips, I modified my old Playtex straws to make these cups usable. Otherwise, I would have returned them in a flash.

Bottom line: Had these come with straws that were long enough, I probably would have chosen these over the “Meal Mates” ones even though they aren’t insulated. I think they leak a little less, they are so easy to grip, I love the valve and overall cup construction, and they are less expensive. But, for now, we need something that is insulated. These don’t fit in every cup holder either as they are a little too wide at the bottom.

6. Another option out there that I did not try simply because I couldn’t find it in the stores close to me is the Fun Sip Insulated Straw Cup by Evenflo. It looked promising but I ran out of steam hunting down the cup options.

And, finally, for those of you who think I have way too much time on my hands or space in my brain for something as trivial as a straw cup, try spending a day with a thirsty toddler. Go ahead, throw a cup of milk in your laptop bag all day and see if you don’t care about the cup’s performance. Just think of it as my mid-year marketing report on juvenile products minus the PowerPoint presentation.

Vacation

This picture says it all!

She Doesn’t Even Know Him

As usual, we all forgot to bring our toothbrushes on our trip out of town. That’s what happens when you put a toddler in charge of packing the oral hygiene products. So we had to do the obligatory run to the drugstore for the family. While the adults got the Walgreens brand, Lolo got a Crest Sesame Street toothbrush with a little picture of Elmo on it just because that’s what they had. It’s very different from the plain, translucent, BPA-free, marketing-free, excitement-free one she uses at home, and it’s now the top pick of our bedtime routine. She actually giggles with joy when I give her the toothbrush to use. (This is a dramatic shift from the normal closed mouth clamp she displays when we whip out the old toothbrush.)

What’s funny is she doesn’t even know “MehMo” in a real way. Lolo does get a set amount of TV each day (gasp!) but we never sit down at the same time to watch so she sees what happens to be on PBS Kids or Noggin at the time. She loves Sesame Street but he’s not always on so she sees him less than occasionally. (And Mama also likes to watch YoGabbaGabba.) But, this is how it starts. Before I imagine a future of cartoon character bedroom decor, I’ll rest easy with her simply gazing at a toothbrush and cackling like she’s getting away with eating cake for breakfast, which really would be fine if it was whole wheat cake.

Summer means chalk

“Toda” to Keren B. for the hip hot dog shirt I lusted after once I saw it on Neko. Some things you can only find in Brooklyn!

Recreational Doctor’s Visit Camp?

It’s looking as though I should have signed up for a mommy-and-me “visit the doctor’s office” class rather than the Wee Whales swim class we registered for this Spring. I haven’t documented every single trip to the pediatrician simply because it’s the same thing every time, right down to the timing.

Scenario: Child gets fever Sunday or Monday. Child is cranky and not self. Child tugs at ear once and only once. Child sleeps through the night. Perplexed parent makes appointment Tuesday or Wednesday. Child diagnosed with raging ear infection. Parent and child must skip swim class and instead head to CVS. Seriously. She has never gotten an ear infection on a Thursday.

I feel like we have a VIP card at the doctor’s office, too. We walk in to a packed waiting room. One of the nurses peers at the door to see who walked in. “Hi Lolo,” they say. No sooner are my quads doing the work necessary to sit in a chair than they are calling us back to a room. I could have totally just jinxed myself and will now be punished with a 2 hour wait time today. But, I’m weary especially when you add in my own trips to the doctor this season. I’m so worn down that I release her in the waiting room to actually touch surfaces. I don’t have the energy to convince her that it’s much more fun playing in my sanitized arms than to squirrel around with a pile of worn out Time magazines.

If Murphy’s Law comes into play today, I will have finally self-diagnosed her with an ear infection only to hear, “Her ears look fine,” from the doctor.

Her First Concert

We took Lolo to her first real, honest-to-God concert, The Sippy Cups.
Just after her mid-day nap, we pre-partied at Starbucks with rice cakes and water, saw the rockin’ show and then hit the pub afterward for chicken quesadillas.

She was pretty much mesmerized by the whole experience especially the physical aspects of the display. They had an aerialist suspended from a hoop doing crazy tricks and later tossed giant inflated balls into the audience.

Pre-partying with "brown rice" rice cakes.

The Sippy Cups

Already a rock star

Canadian Indie Rock Star Wannabe

It’s not a toddler mini-mullet! No! She is simply finding her destiny which is being a Canadian Indie Rockstar … Lolo “hearts” Tegan and Sara.

Listen!

Birthday girl

I am so "1"

Caught on tape

The hit of Christmas

How do I manage to complicate things so …?

This is the complicated way to avoid getting a real Christmas tree. I don’t know how I manage to make things more complicated than they need to be in my specific quest to simplify. But, I do it consistently, and I do it well.

I didn’t want a big Christmas tree this year even though it will be Lolo’s first. In my defense, it would only be up for a week before we left town, and I didn’t want to spend that week vacuuming tree needles and convincing Lolo that it was not for eating.

I wasn’t a complete scrooge, I just wanted a tabletop tree. So, sue me. Matt wanted a full fledged tree but didn’t have the energy to protest especially since he knew I would be the one on the front lines wielding the vacuum.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we took a trip to Home Depot in search of the family tree. However, because it was the first weekend after the holiday and we didn’t make it to the store until Sunday afternoon, the supplies were more than low, they were non-existent. They did not have one tree that was under 6-feet tall. And, the ornamental shrub trees they had were only suitable for sitting on your front porch railing.

Fast forward to the next weekend. We sought out Lowes this time figuring their poor store location may lead to more tree selection. And, we played it safe and went on a Saturday morning. Again, no luck. We seemed to always be 10 minutes behind a group of fanatical tabletop tree shoppers bussed out from the city searching for their perfect studio apartment tree. Our only options were three pathetic “tabletop” trees that looked like branches cut from larger trees that were stood on end to look like something that was worth $20. Buuuuuuut … there were also three “holiday spruces” that were meant to be planted outdoors. (Yes, they were giant shrub trees.) My idea was to buy an outdoor planter and bring the “tree” in for a week and then plant it outside after the holiday. We could dress it up, put lights on it and then have a living tree after all was said and done.

We didn’t think we had any other options. Time on Lolo’s good shopping cart mood was running low and there was no way we could make it to Home Depot without a meltdown. So, we went with it. I also bought a 17-inch plastic spill tray that would catch the water overflow when I watered the tree indoors.

Really, if you think about it, I was being incredibly environmentally friendly. Renewable Christmas tree shrubs are the way of the future. Just you wait, you’ll see Cameron Diaz and Leo DiCaprio doing it in US Weekly next year.

Later that afternoon just as it was getting dark, I decided to transfer the tree to the planter and bring it indoors. It’s fun planting a giant shrub tree in wooden planter in the dark when it’s 20 degrees out. Really.

Matt and I hauled it in while Lolo watched from her high chair. We placed it on the plastic saucer that would catch the draining water and the wooden planter just smashed it. The outer edge of the planter was at least 6-inches wider than the 17-inch dish. And, no, I didn’t check to see if the dish fit the planter beforehand. That’s far too logical.

(Sidenote: Matt had to run out while Lolo was napping earlier that day to get soil to plant the tree and wouldn’t you know it … Home Depot had a plethora of small trees ranging in size, shape, price, beauty, astrological sign, etc. They couldn’t have had more of a variety of small trees.)

In the end, we have a lighted tree and a good story of Lolo’s first Christmas.

Oh, lighted shrub.

Stella stella bella bo bella

Open Call: Baby Jesus

I got a call from a woman at the church Lolo was baptized in regarding their Christmas pageant this year. They need to fill the spot for Baby Jesus, and she wondered if Lolo would be interested in the role. Once I stopped chuckling, I quickly turned on my “stage mom” instincts and asked when the performance would be. She told me it was at 4pm on Christmas Eve. Dargh! We will be out of town, but I assured her that Lolo was indeed a superstar and would have been perfect for the part. She’s realistically baby enough but with a hint of sass.

She said she was going down the list of babies born in 2008 and Lolo was at the top. I like to think she was at the top because of her star power and presence and not because she was born in the second month of this year.