jaime's Profile

Reading these comments I realize how lucky my husband and I are with our schedules. He works in a university lab and I am a teacher. We both work about a 30minute commute from our home, but in opposite directions. We still need to pick our son up from child care everyday, which adds onto the commute time. Typically we are all home by 5:30. Who ever gets home first is in charge of dinner.

We plan our meals a week ahead of time, taking into consideration any obligations that might keep us late at work. We've tweaked our weekday menu to have quick, but nutrious meals that appeal to us as adults and our 3 year old. No seperate dinners. We typically sit down to eat between 6 and 6:30. Jammies around 7ish, stories in bed starting around 7:45.

Our dog sleeps with us... luckily we have a king sized bed because it gets crowded with two adults, a dog, and the occassional toddler. We have a blanket at the end of the bed and she knows the command, "Lay on your blanket". There's a no dog above the knees rule while sleeping, but she crawls up for snuggles in the morning.
However, the bed covers do get dirty, hairy and smelly so I have an extra complete set of bedding (duvet and dog blanket included) and wash often.

We actually have the one pictured. We avoided it for a long time and it wasn't a case of our toddler son wanting to touch the woodstove, but more of a running around like a wild man and accidentally tripping and falling onto it. I agree, that it is temporary, thank goodness. The black metal one starts to blend in a little bit the longer you live with it.

I make the "modern paper ornaments" with my 5th graders every year to decorate the classroom for our New Year's party. The kids get really into them and the room looks awesome!

I've got a couple of the taller ones (1 in my classroom and 1 in the kitchen) and 2 shorter ones for my son in the bathroom. I got them at TJMaxx for about $7.99 (for the shorter ones). No pinched fingers yet, but I could see that happening. The short one is the perfect height for my son to reach the toilet while standing up to pee!

peanut noodles - my 2 year old loves bow tie pasta, a ton of blanched veggies, and tofu tossed with peanut sauce

I second eggs - scrambled, fritta, egg salad

Cucumbers with plain yogurt, dill and a splash of lemon juice

Hummus and cheddar on wheat bread

camp (for the first time) within a reasonable driving distance from your house... just in case. We car camp, not back country. As for sleeping, here are our arrangements (our son is now 2, but first went camping around age 1): 4 person tent, full sized air mattress in the middle, blanket on one side for the dog (who ends up on the mattress), therma rest on my side with child sized sleeping bag for my son. He has the barrier of the tent side and the side of the air mattress. This has worked really well for us. I've had friends bring their pack n play, but they had a huge tent. My other suggestion is shoes that easily slip on and off, especially when they're older. My son was constantly in and out of the tent last time and the sneaker thing was maddening.

pickles, mayo, catchup.

Love these. They are my son's "blankie" as well. When he was smaller, I cut one into 4ths and hemmed the edges so they wouldn't wrap around his neck.

We've done this, but only on the driveway. It makes a terrible mess otherwise, but so does salt and sand.