makakona's Profile

we use laptop lunchboxes. our kids have to choose a main dish and vegetable for the two large containers and a fruit and snack for the two small ones. they take a separate snack for the morning break.

we swear by the mini convertible arm's reach cosleeper. more convenient than a pack&play, more compact, pulls double duty. we wanted one for our first three kids, but put it off as impractical or a waste. got one for baby four and kicked ourselves for waiting! baby four slept in it (when not in our bed!) for months and then moved a bit further away (still in our room) with it set up as a crib. when she moved to her own room, it stayed in our room for naps away from the other kids. as a bigger 2yo, she still fits in it fine. baby number five is now in it and we're loving it all over again. LOVE that we can have him close without worrying about other kids climbing over him in the night.

one of the very best decisions we ever made was cancelling tv when our oldest was just born. we found we stayed up later than normal, lying on separate couches, flipping channels because nothing good was on. we still have a tv, but just one and we don't receive channels on it at all. the lack of commercials is one of the biggest advantages, especially now that we have five kids! we don't have a computer, either, so that's nipped in the bud. we use our phones for internet, which is nice, as it's limited in its functions and isn't comfortable to use for a long period of time. we do allow preselected dvd's, but rarely and with intent. we've noticed a great difference in play between our kids and our two nieces (from two different families) who are allowed copious amounts of television time and have been since birth.

rather than focus on tuning out, which we feel good about having near-perfected, we're spending this week making a conscious effort to celebrate the earth by getting outside and being productive there.

LOVE it!!!

LOVE it! we used to live in a 658sf house with our two, then three, young children. when we moved out, they were 4yo, almost 3yo, and 10mo. did i mention we also had two (small!) dogs? it was a tight squeeze, for sure, but it was fine. we now have four kids under six and only just under 1100sf and it feels like a mansion! it makes you reassess what you do and don't actually need. it also freed us up to spend more money on fewer items, giving our kids higher quality playthings (since they only got a couple of small items each occasion) and us nicer furniture.

jaime, the package says for three and up, likely because of the cap. our two year old eats it no problem, but ymmv.

my kids also prefer the carrot-applesauce flavor. i wouldn't even get a kid used to the plain applesauce with a beefed-up version out there! the packaging is rough, but we are so cautious in other areas, that we do "splurge" packaging-wise on this and use it as needed.

we just search for children's non-fiction and can find tons of educational books at regular stores. gail gibbons is a good author to search for under little ones' books, as is aliki.

none of my four kids has ever had baby food, we're totally anti-baby-clutter, the item is too expensive, buuuut... i think it's a really neat idea! beats some of the other junk that's out there!

i guess when you have four kids under five, you ditch all of the fancy stuff and go for basic! they're either in bed with us or on a bed made up on the floor. even when we only had one or two, we lived in hawai'i and had to fly 3000 miles each time we travelled. packing furniture accesories was the last thing on my list!