mwinfield's Profile

Not an app, but a tablet-friendly website that offers online resources is www.mamaseeds.com. I love that I can take my prenatal fitness classes with me when I travel! The My Pregnancy Today one has such amazing graphics, its really impressive. Now I need to check out some of the parenthood ones... thanks for the list!

Wow. That was depressing. Now just shopping for a new house...

We pay our cat/housesitters and often travel for a month at a time. They are typically grad students and are happy for the fairly easy job. The ones who follow the rules outlined above are the first ones we call again! I have come home to a thoughtfully placed recycle basket by the mail slot (solved a problem of piling things on the table by the back door), amazing homemade cupcakes, flowers, other baked goods. I also usually pay them a little extra when they do these thoughtful things, it gives us the impression that the house has been well cared for in our absence. The general theme is letting people into your home is a pretty private thing and its nice to know that is recognized by the invitee.

@ISOSCHO- agree on the coffee press. I've traveled the world with carry ons only and with kids and that is the one thing I must pack. Even in countries with good coffee its often a bit of navigation and work to get to somewhere with coffee- and I need coffee to do that.

In colder weather, layers are the key, I will take tank tops (which can be worn on their own), longer sleeve shirts, light pullovers or cardigans (also can be worn as jacket in warmer climate), pack-able rain jacket, plus down sweater (which can go into a little pillowcase and doubles as a travel pillow.) If you put all that on at once, you will be warm. Mittens/gloves and a knit hat take up very little space and can add a lot of warmth. And if it gets warmer those things can accommodate lots of climates.

I'm surprised everyone is bashing the amount of technology, this is a pretty light load if someone is doing work/photography/just generally staying in touch for an extended period. Granted, you wouldn't need this much for a week vacation but for three months abroad? This is pretty streamlined, think about how much you use at home! I've taken twice this much and still packed pretty lightly, if you want to work while you travel, thats usually part of it and these items are hard to replace in some areas so its good to have some redundancy.

@EK76- hilarious!

We had a pack and play, used it as a co-sleeper/bassinet and changing spot at first and then later as a travel crib. We also co-slept later but still needed the crib for naps and our crib converted to a toddler bed, so thats a nice feature if you aren't sure you will use it right away. I never used my rocker to nurse, preferred to be in my bed or somewhere else in the house, so in contrast to other posters I would recommend skipping it unless you have one you could use later as a real piece of furniture. I also loved my changing table but at least partly because it had a ton of storage, I could use it for baby clothes and other things. Once both kids were well beyond changing on it I was still using the storage. I also think starting minimal is a great way to go, then see how you use your house/bedroom/etc and then you can always buy things later! We ended up having a changing station set up in the dining room for months to avoid having to go up and down the stairs every time we had a diaper change and it was near to the back door to make getting diapers out of the house easy (sounds gross but we never eat in there or use it at all and with a baby you do what you need to do!) Having a "set up" nursery fulfills the nesting instinct but usually doesn't meet the real needs of a baby. And a nursing pillow of some kind is used before the nursery, its useful in the hospital! My most critical thing was my Tivo (or Netflix, Hulu, whatever.) Sitting and nursing for long periods didn't seem too bad when I could catch up on shows.

I am not a girly girl so I objected for a long time when my daughter begged for a pink room. I finally decided it is her room, not mine. We went pink (very pink, although it is a really pretty shade) and she LOVES it. That room makes her so happy I dont' know why I ever resisted. Its just paint! Its easier to change than having a bunch of pink furniture or other pieces (which we went neutral on.) And I have to say, I get a lot of compliments on it as well.

We did this when we first moved in and it is a wonderful way to get to know the neighbors. We also did a pumpkin carving party, we bought a bunch of the kits so that we didn't have huge knives laying around. We bought a bunch of tealightes so we could get pictures of everyone's pumkins all together when complete. We served chili, hotdogs, and popcorn balls and kept it very simple. I don't really think we decorated at all, but if you wanted to make a big impact for low cost, tissue balls are super easy. If you cut the tissue ands with a straight point instead of curve it looks a little edgy for halloween. And spiderweb stuff is alwasy inexpensive and goes a long way!

I shower at night after bedtime, it actually has improved my routine in other ways too, more chance that my hair will actually get blown dry, etc. But I have a friend that joined a gym with childcare. She gets her workout and shower in that way!

I would say we have had a pink party for every one of my daughter's 7 parties. She loves pink but we've never done princess. Take whatever she loves and you can go pink with it. We have done Butterfly, Art, Chinese Tea Party, Miniature party, and more, but we've done it all in pink! I'd just pick her favorite thing of the moment and turn it pink. You'd be amazed at what you can find once you choose a theme and start looking. Once of my favorite favors this time of year is going through the back-to-school bins and finding crayons, glue sticks, etc. For a 3-year old these would make great favors. Tie them all up in a cute bag with pink ribbon. I think a few nice favors that kids can really use are so much better than the plastic ones that are in the theme but end up in the trash.

I live in a very urban area with lots of different sizes of houses and this is very common here. It is not quite as affordable as I would like, and the ROI wasn't there for us, but definitely not a McMansion only solution. Old house rehabs are one of the more common uses for this.