What an overstimulated mom, empathetic toddler, and the Care Bears have it common
I get overstimulated easily. It sucks, but it’s not the worst thing in the world. Usually I just need to take breaks from whatever we’re doing and have some quiet time, then I can return refreshed and ready to tolerate some more chaos. Sometime though, I get stimulated past my breaking point and I freak out. The big freakouts luckily only happen a few times a year, but I had one recently.
Parenting advice I ignored… but now wish I had tried sooner
After getting unsolicited comments from just about everyone you know (and strangers! So fun!), it gets really easy to just start tuning people out — and by people, I mean everyone. Brooke sent me an email saying it might be fun to ask around and find out what parenting advice people have received that actually did work — and it turns out you guys have tons of it.
When should we tell our sensitive toddler that we’re having another baby?
After peeing on a stick, we conceded that we now have a theoretical baby incubating currently in my midsection. We’ve been trying for a few months, so for a nice change, it’s expected. My husband and I already have a wonderful, rambunctious, handful of a three-and-a-half-year-old son, who in the last year has expressed an extreme desire for a sibling. I have never seen a kid love babies so much. All kids, any age, he adores them all, so since I never wanted to raise an only child, it was easy to start trying for spawn number two.
Sweet organic goodness your offbeatling can wear, play with, or sleep in
The first thing I do whenever I find a new place online filled to the brim with sweet baby-and-toddler clothing goodness is cruise over to the “sale” section. This is half because I have this thing about buying new clothes (why do it when there are so many gently used clothes just lying around) and partly because I can’t bring myself to justify spending a third of my rent on something for my two-and-a-half-year-old to wear. SO color me stoked when I discovered that Wild Dill’s sale section is the cutest thing this side of… wherever they’re from.
Dealing with the sting of a toddler’s mean-spirited words
It was a new thing for Tom to be deliberately mean, so it hurt. But I also recognised myself in him. My parents separated when I was eight and, although I would never have seen it in myself at the time, I can admit now that I used to be completely horrible to both of them at changeover times, when I was switching from one house to the other. It was as thought I thought I would miss them less and find it easier to go if I fell out with them first.
Cool idea of the week: turn an old bikini top into a doll sling for your toddler
You know all those old swimsuit tops you’ve got lying around? Who knew you could take one and fashion into a perfectly toddler-sized baby sling?? PRECIOUS.
Bright and trippy cooking aids that will make your kitchen fun(ky)
Ariel introduced me to Wanelo a few weeks ago — it’s basically like Pinterest, but actually has things you can BUY on there. So instead of spending a few hours “pinning” items that you’d own in your dream world, you can spend a few hours buying items you can have in your real life.Searching for kids’ products will bring you endless delight — Wanelo has a huge collection of some of the wackiest products around.
Yep, my kid still sleeps in a closet: our post-crib sleeping solution
Those of you who have read Offbeat Families for a while may recall that, since my family of three shares a one-bedroom home, our son’s bedroom is a converted walk-in closet. It’s worked out really well for us, but my son Octavian is now a very large 19-months-old (seriously: dude is bigger than some of his three-year-old friends. He won a genetic lottery) and his second-hand crib was on the small side of things to begin with. It’s become increasingly clear that it was time for our son to graduate to his next bedding situation: a pile of crap from Ikea on the floor.