KateGee's Profile

I live in Upstate New York and had a January baby. I use an Ergo carrier and I just kept wearing my maternity coat with the bean buttoned up inside it. Even now that she's bigger, it's more comfortable for both of us to keep the bulk down, so I just wear a warm, wide scarf that I can cover her with like a blanket. I've never put her in the carrier with a heavy coat on.

Love it! My little one has a ton of Eric Carle books and plays with the sturdy cards from the Yoo Hoo Can You Moo? game while I get ready for work every morning.

So many beautiful rooms, but Into the Woods is just spectacular!

That is absurdly wonderful. Amazing.

Great post! I've been pondering the many possibilities for a lasting, diy advent calendar. (And running out of time). Thanks for the ideas!

Oh, shame on me for not doing my research! I recommended Plan Toys, but they're the same style as the pottery barn dolls you don't like.
These are too pricey for my budget, but could be a neat vintage treasure: www.etsy.com/listing/54078413/perfect-happy-doll-family-vintage-ideal

@mhartman We don't have a moratorium on electronic toys, but our little one just isn't interested in them. I've certainly never felt like we had a shortage of toys though. In fact, my daughter often helps me rediscover the play value in ordinary things. Some of her favorites are (yup) stacking cups, balls of all sizes, a mirror, a magnifying glass, a sand pail, a flashlight, aluminum pot lids, stacking rings, a big wooden abacus, a rhythm egg, hand puppets, an old fisher price chatter phone, magnet letters, board books and a big juice jug for banging on, dropping things into and dumping back out. We also got a pack of hard baseball card protectors and slipped photos and letters and pictures into them. She spends lots of time shuffling through those and examining them, but she can't chew them up. Of course, every kid is different, but the under-a-year set is discovering everything for the first time. Sometimes the most basic things open a whole world of fun to them.

Amen yrlh. Giving and letting go are such vital lessons. I recently picked up used toy from a woman whose daughter had a total fit about parting with the long-ago discarded item. But the mother let her daughter cry out her goodbye and encouraged her to teach my little one how to use the toy. When she saw how happy it made my daughter, she eventually took joy in the letting go. Of course, there's no need to go through that process for every lego. But it's an important lesson to reinforce fairly regularly.

It wouldn't have worked for my little one, but it's exquisite. I wish my bed could be so soothing!

@Sussu The thing is, I meant that last post. I thought the typo was funny. If you take joy in stuff like that I'm not going to stomp on the fun. And yeah, I do try my best to be positive person. I'm not looking for a medal, nor am I going to apologize for advocating for someone else who feels the same way.