PineTree's Profile

My husband is an adult. I think it's insulting to leave prepared food for him and our daughter. He is fully capable of opening the fridge and cooking. If he wants to take our little one out to eat every night I'm gone I respect that choice because he's an adult.

While I admire the craftmanship, I can't say these appeal to me at all as a parent. They seem heavy to me. I much preferred infant toys with textures and high contrast designs (like black and white patterns) that were light.

They are gorgeous from an adult standpoint though.

Please, nothing that requires scheduling an appointment and leaving the house (e.g. a massage). People gave me some of those and I just had to let them expire. Sure a massage would have been nice, but it was just one more thing I had to juggle. As a new mom getting the hang of breastfeeding, the idea of scheduling an appointment in between feedings seemed like a logistical nightmare. Now in retrospect it would have been fine, but that's not the mind set of a new mom.

That is gorgeous! Thank you for sharing.

I made a light table using a plastic bin and Christmas lights (I lined underside of the top with wax paper to diffuse the light). My daughter is in kindergarten and learning to read, but she hates working with me on it. BUT if I turn off all the lights, turn on the light box and pour coloured salt (just salt and food colouring) on the light box and write words in the sand with my finger, she loves it! She's supposed to be working on sight words at home, and this has been a very relaxing and fun way to do it.

A 130 pound woman running a full marathon in 4 hours burns about 2500 calories. Are you seriously burning that many calories 3x a week??? Your calculations are wrong. See a doctor, nutritionist and a personal trainer, don't rely on the internet.

We used aveeno with our cloth diapers (bumgenius pockets) and never had a problem. One thing is to make sure there's no fish oils in the cream - it can build up and smell.

We have a big, generous extended family so it is hard to deal with all of the gifts sometimes. We have one daughter age 5 and this is what we have done.

1) We have created a tradition of a Christmas season that starts on December 1. We focus on family stuff -- making cookies, buying toys for a local charity, making ornaments, going out to look at lights, taking funny holiday pictures, shoveling snow and making snow angels etc... And we talk about how all of those things are 'Christmas', so it's not just about gifts.

2) Our daughter picks out or makes a small gift for everyone in the family -- aunts, uncles, cousins -- so she learns about gift giving as well as receiving. She's done this since she was 3. She puts a lot of thought into what each person would like -- trail mix for grandpa, coco puffs for her cousin etc... When we open gifts she is very excited to have everyone open the ones from her, so it's not just about what she gets.

3) Santa brings her one small present. Last year it was a book she wanted. We wanted her to feel a sense of gratitude to us for her presents, rather than simply getting a big haul of presents from some magical figure. We told her that Santa only brings her one present because he knows that mommy and daddy will get her other presents.

4) We write thank you letters to family for the presents.

It's hard, but I think we've made Christmas more special for all of this way.

Beautiful photos! What a lovely and simple idea.

Here's some info I found from someone selling the same kit - it used to have a booklet listing 66 different games to play.
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This Reader's Digest 1972 Playskills Kit has a ton of activities tucked away inside it's compact carrying case!

It comes with activity blocks that have the alphabet, images, colors, shapes, and can be put together to spell and show an animal (cow, cat, and fish are shown in photos). Also included are cards for learning games as well as a booklet to guide you through activities and games to play with the set such as Bingo, games to help learn the alphabet, numbers, words, and more! It doesn't stop there - the set also comes with two vinyl activity mats (48" x 30" each) that are washable and a 'Spin-a-Dial' spinner for playing games on the mats. All of this fits into a carrying case with a handle!

The set is very good condition with some signs of use and age but is absolutely still usable and ready to go! The carrying case does have some staining and scuffing from age and storage. The set is very close to complete but 4 of the road game cars are missing as well as the cars for the road game (all items included are listed below). Although, any small car or token you have could be used to play the game.

There are endless possibilities for hours of fun learning for everyone with this set!!

Included in the set:
~ 2 Vinyl Sheets/Activity Mats - each measure 48" x 30"
~ 26 Plastic Blocks
~ 1 Spin Dial
~ Booklet for 10 Steps to Learning
~ 26 Color Cards
~ 26 Alphabet Cards
~ 26 Shape Cards
~ 26 Road Game Cards (4 are mising)
~ 12 Blank Cards (for you to create your own cards)