Loose Ends and Final Purchases

We are in the home stretch -- 13 days or less to go -- and I need to buy a few more things for the divine Miss Lola before her arrival. I'm hoping you lovely ladies can help me and weigh in on a few things based on your own parenting experiences.





First, I need to purchase a swing. Our swing was a POS. It was a Graco Silhouette. It was awful, it never worked and I spend countless hours on the phone (time that I did not have) with Graco's parent company. Nine times they shipped us out new parts -- some never got here, some were lost in the mail, some were the wrong part -- each time the parts took several weeks to arrive. Finally, when the twins were 7 months old, I lost it on the phone with a Graco representative and they took our swing back and refunded our money. The comical part is two months after we shipped the swing back to them a box of Graco swing parts arrived at our door. It was a replacement motor that had been ordered months prior. Horrible.



I have heard wonderful things about the Snuggabunny and Snuggy Lamb (is that what it's even called?) swing. But I think they are atrocious looking. I'm sorry if you love them. And they are probably wonderful swings. And if I would have chosen a swing based on its reviews and not how well it matched my living room before we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. But alas, here we are. So...I can't do the lamb or the bunny. I just can't. At least not if I don't have to.



So my question is this -- is the Snuggy Monkey or any of the other Cradle n' Swing swings from Fisher-Price just as good as the bunny or the lamb? Or are those the only two swings that rock it out, meaning I just have to suck up the floppy ears and the mosquito net and buy the damn thing?



Second thing I need to figure out is carrying this kid around with the twins by myself. Mostly this is to get the twins into and out from their preschool class. For longer errands or more lengthy solo trips out, I plan on wearing the baby and strapping the twins into a stroller. I purchased the Baby Jogger City Select when we conceived Lola because it had the ability to add an infant seat adapter and a glider board attachment, making it something I could use for all three kids. And we've amassed a few double strollers to choose from if I'm wearing the baby.



For preschool comings and goings it is only necessary that the baby be strapped into something (preferably a stroller so that I don't have to take her out of her car seat in the winter months) and that that something is a frame that the twins can hold onto so that I can walk all three into the building safely.



I don't know whether to buy the car seat adapter for the City Select (which I've heard mixed reviews on) and schlep out the 28 pound stroller frame for a 5 minute walk into preschool.

Or if I should just purchase a single snap n' go (which weighs 12 pounds) and use that for preschool drop offs and quick errands instead.

Either way I've heard that I should pick up a pair of these handles for the twins so that they have something to hold onto when we're walking together with the stroller? Right now they are used to walking into school holding my hand. And while they do very well in parking lots and with listening when we get to school, I will say that not having their hands in my hand is sending me into full panic mode. 

So if you have a BJCS or three kids under 2 or some combination of the above, any advice for transporting all three short distances in the winter by yourself? Thanks in advance!

Learning Towers for the Sprouts

After briefly mentioning learning towers in this post, I came across this pin on Pinterest. My husband would call that coincidence; I call it kismet. Especially since learning towers are over $100 retail and as much as I'd like to pretend that the twins would happily share and stand nicely together, I know that it would turn into baby cage fighting at some point during an activity.

Source: ana-white.com via nikinikinine on Pinterest

We're not particularly handy DIY'ers but some of these projects look really easy, and they definitely appeal to my cheap resourceful side. I think this could be a good project for us to take on this fall, after the dust settles, in time for the kids' 2nd birthday. Plus, I love that I can pick a really fun color to paint them.



We've only tackled one other Ana White project. It was as inexpensive as it promised to be. And I think it would have been easy(ier) if we would have followed the directions. But our space was smaller and I didn't want drawers, so we modified this desk for our space.

Of course since I'm mathematically challenged and didn't anticipate other changes that would need to occur with the size changing, there were a few things that created build issues for us once Joe started assembling the pieces. All in all the mistakes only took an extra hour to work around and the desk is pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. It's basic, but it gave me a quiet space to do my freelance work behind closed doors. I think it cost us around $65 to build, which was about all I was willing to spend. Prior to the desk I just sat on our bed and worked, and I was willing to deal with carpal tunnel and losing pens in our duvet if it meant saving us any further expense.

Has anyone ever built a project from Ana White? How did it go? I need to convince Joe that this will be easy and fun for us to do together. I can sense his excitement already.

Homemade Play Dough

The kids have a sitter that comes twice a week while I run around to vendor meetings and such for the new house. I try to leave them activities to do each time their sitter comes, both so she can keep them occupied and so they have some fun while mama's away.



This week I made them up a bunch of play dough and had Joe swing by Wally World on his way home from work to pick up a cookie cutter set for the monkeys. He scored this 101-piece set for ten bucks. I'm so proud of him.

I sorted out all of the pieces so I can break them out at different times of the year (letters, numbers, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Halloween, etc.) and left a bag of the random shapes and animals out for the kids this week.



I surfed Pinterest for a few recipes and went along with the most common cooktop method. The dough came out great and I'm hoping the kids get a kick out of playing with it. I'm also hoping that it's nice outside so they can keep their mess contained to the spaces I can clean with a hose. Repeat after me: "fun does not have to equal mess". (At least that's what I keep telling myself.)

Play Dough Recipe

• 1 cup flour 


• 1 cup water 


• 1/4 cup salt 


• 2 tsp. cream of tartar 


• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil 


• food coloring 

Dump all the ingredients into a pot and whisk them together.

Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to form a ball. Do not panic when it seems to start forming lumps, this is what happens right before it turns into a ball.

I kept the food coloring out of the pot so I only had to make one batch to get multiple colors. Once the dough was formed, I threw it in my KitchenAid stand mixer with the dough horn and some food coloring to "knead" the dough and mix in the color. But I didn't have enough dough to actually make the KitchenAid do any kneading, so I ended up working in the dye with my hands which are a little pink and green after the fact. Sweet. Note to self: next time cook in two different pots and add dye in while dough is still in liquid form.

Once it forms a ball, let it cool and knead it with your hands until it's soft. Then store it in a sealed container or ziploc bag. Supposedly the dough will last for up to six months. I'll be happy if it lasts for six weeks.

Busy Bodies

Our kids (as I'm sure all kids do) need to be constantly entertained. Yes, they can sit and watch a video and play independently with their toys. But they also need to be stimulated. This toddler thing is so new to me. There are days when I'm scrambling to keep their little hands busy and their little minds entertained.



This weekend it is my mission to make them each a busy box to help with some of these rainy days where we've been stuck inside for a week and even our toys stopped being fun. I also think they'll be great to have when we have errands to run which require our kids to be independently entertained (i.e. a lot of these vendor meetings we've been dragging them off to for the new house).

Source: engagingtoddleractivities.files.wordpress.com via nikinikinine on Pinterest

I have a bazillion ideas about things to do with the kids, but I often feel limited by doing these things by myself (i.e. berry picking, our animal farms, etc.) since the kids are so determined to exercise their independence and I worry about their safety in public places. I've been trying to branch out more and just wing things. It's not always as hard as I have it built up in my head.



My friend Gina is amazing at entertaining her toddlers. The stuff she thinks up, oh my god. I want her to be MY mommy. I need to get on her page. (G, if you are reading this, I'm about to email you for help. Ha!) So, dear mommies out there, what do you do to keep your kids stimulated and learning. Stuff both inside and outside would be great. I'm in need of some serious help here.

Itzy Ritzy Snack Bags and Nantucket

Just ordered some ridiculously cute reusable snack bags from Itzy Ritzy. I'm not big on throwing away ziploc bags so, when I can, I wash and reuse them. Total pain in the tush! Hopefully these help us transition away from plastic altogether.

I scored a great deal on the bags through Zulily. They were offering up a $40 voucher for $20 and I had a $20 account credit from people who signed up through this blog to be Zulily members (if you signed up, thank you!) I managed to get 6 bags for under $30 total!

They get great reviews from mommy bloggers, so we'll see if they're as functional as they are cute. So...a little girl and boy eating snacks at the beach brings me to my second point of discussion. December is normally the time we rent our beach house and book our ferry for Nantucket. We've talked about what we're going to do for next year and haven't come up with a solid plan at all.



Originally we thought (since this will be our only vacation for the year) that we'd rent a larger house for two weeks and invite family out to the island. This way we'd have help with the twins AND get to visit with family, essentially killing two birds with one stone. But I don't know how I feel about

• being away from home for two weeks with 8 month old twins,


• being on vacation with family (is it really a vacation if you take your in-laws or parents?) and


• spending what we'd need to spend in order to rent a house on the island for two weeks in August.

Then we thought we'd go on our own for a week, per normal, and rent the same house we always rent. I wonder how we'll do - two babies and a dog on our own?









Last thought was to rent a slightly larger house than normal and bring our friend's daughter with us (and let her bring a friend) this way we have a sitter on island that can watch the babies if we want to go out to dinner and we have a few extra sets of hands, but the extra hands don't come with the extra baggage of family.




Thoughts? Anyone vacation with twins in the first year? How about vacationing with family? Any experience with that? I'd love some help and advice with this!

Crib Notes

I went from feeling like child preparation classes were stupid to realizing my kids would be here at any second and I am "completely unprepared" in a matter of days. In a flurry of type-a tendencies and OCD mannerisms, I booked us for several prep classes all of which are taking place over the next week.



I'm dragging Joe off to everything from a Childbirth Marathon Class to Breastfeeding Your Baby; he's being a really good sport about it all too. Last night kicked off our adult ed marathon with part one of Crib Notes & Baby Talk. In all honesty, we expected the class to be filled with weird people and for it to suck big time. Much to our chagrin, only some of the people were weird and the class was awesome.

We started off with a presentation by a local police officer who discussed car seat safety and gave us a list of places in the area where we can get our car seats installed and/or checked for free. Not going to lie, the videos she showed scared the crap out of me. My poor kids are going to be in child seats until they're eleven. After the car seat safety portion of the class (which lasted about 20 minutes?) the actual baby part started.



The instructor, Debbie Campagna - a practicing RN, who also teaches nursing at a local college - was down-to-earth, unabashed and generally fabulous. She made you feel instantly comfortable and answered a lot of our newbie parent questions.

The instructor began by asking us to imagine that we've all made it to term, we've had our healthy, fat babies, and now we're heading home...what are we most afraid of. I'm sure every person in the room was most afraid of answering that question in front of a room full of strangers, but what ended up coming out was:

• how to manage this new little person


• managing overbearing extended family


• feeding/getting on a schedule


• how to keep the babies from getting sick with so many visitors


• managing your marriage after the baby arrives

Debbie was playful with the answers and was genuinely there to help. Awesome. After she addressed some of the major fears, talked about finding a pediatrician, well-baby vs. sick-baby checks (and how to know if your kid is really sick), and sleep issues. Below are some of my major take-aways for anyone that might be interested.

Pediatricians:

• interview a pedi before signing on with the practice


• know who handles call in hour (it's better to have an RN, LPN, NP or PA answer the phones)


• find someone who will deal with your new parent neuroses and not make you feel stupid


• if you plan to breast feed, find a pedi whose philosophy on the importance of breast feeding is similar to your own; you don't need someone discouraging you if the road gets rough.


• it's okay to "fire" someone if you aren't comfortable asking them questions or if they make you feel dumb

Well Baby vs. Sick Baby:

• get a regular digital thermometer (the kind that are $3 at CVS), the others (ear, pacifier) are highly inaccurate wastes of money. Rectal thermometers are accurate, but are unnecessary.


• take the temperature under the babies arm with the metal tip in the fold of their armpit (not facing the back of their arm). Know that a normal axillary temp for a baby is 97.6 (always add 1* to whatever temperature you get for them then!)


• for vomit to be vomit it's chunky (the projectiles that come up after feedings are from burping issues, not sick baby issues). If a baby vomits on two or more occasions, call the pedi.


• if the baby's diaper goes from a paste-y consistency to liquid, call the pedi.


• get Mylicon drops for newborns - these will help with a gassy/upset belly.


• the book/DVD, Happiest Baby on the Block came up and we were told that there are many good strategies (the 5 S's) to help with inconsolable crying.


• rashes - babies skin is super sensitive. Washing their clothes in fragrance free/perfume free detergent is not enough. You need to wash their clothes (at least for the first few months) in a baby detergent (i.e. Dreft or a generic version of Dreft). This sucks because I already washed their clothes in Tide Free and Clear. Guess what I'm doing this weekend?

Sleep Issues:

• don't let a baby sleep for long stretches during the day (yes, we were told to wake them up). Why let your baby sleep from noon to 4 p.m. when they can sleep from midnight to 4 a.m. 


• it takes a baby three weeks to get adjusted to life outside of the womb and start creating new patterns/habits.


• allow babies to self-soothe - rather than cover up their hands with mits and gloves, tend to their fingernails with an emory board, this way babies can find their hands the same way they did in the womb.


• keep night feedings all business: feed, burp, change, bed. Don't get sucked into rocking, singing, mommy and me time. Babies are quick to learn patterns, and they will know that nighttime = mommy time very quickly as a result of this.

Part two is next Wednesday and will cover feeding, safety, bathing, diapering, swaddling and circumcisions. I honestly thought it would be a nightmare of two hours, but even Joe was thankful we took the class and we're both looking forward to next week. 

If you're in the Albany-area, the class is offered at St. Peter's Hospital through their Family Education Center. The office staff there are simply lovely. The class itself is spread over two days (four hours of instruction total) and costs $40.

Strollers Selected

One of the things I realized in looking for a stroller is that this purchase, almost more than any other baby purchase, is a deeply personal choice. It's all dependent upon your lifestyle and where you live. I tried to select strollers that were recommended by other multiples moms on message boards and blogs, but in the end it came down to the husband and I in Buy Buy Baby pushing strollers around and seeing what worked for us. Here's what we've picked and why.

0 - 6 Month Stroller 

Baby Trend Double Snap n' Go ($99)

I picked this stroller up used on Craigslist for $50. The benefit of this stroller frame is that it's compatible with infant carseats from multiple manufacturers making it easy to get around quickly with infant twins. Simply pop your infant seats out of the car and lock them on to the frame and go. Easy peasy. The frame is super sturdy and collapses down easily. It's really too simple for words. 

This stroller is only functional as long as your children are in infant car seats. From what I read most kids outgrow their infant seats by 6 months, which is why we elected to buy the DSNG used. The chance of me schlepping infant twins out in the dead of winter is pretty slim, so spending the full $100 on this stroller just didn't make sense. MoM's groups are another great resource for used DSNG's. 

(*If you'll be needing one around June, let me know I'm sure we'll be selling ours then!)

Lightweight/Umbrella Stroller

2011 Maclaren Twin Techno ($329.99)

* not yet available online

We picked the Triumph as our get around town, use in the airport, take when visiting friends and family, fold as flat as a pancake stroller. It's easy to set up, break down and maneuver. A lot of reviews suggested that there was little difference between the Twin Techno and the more common Twin Triumph. I beg to differ. Aside from the obvious difference in price (about $65) there were a few key upgrades on the Techno that caused us to cough up the extra cash. 

The Techno's hood is longer protecting baby's face more, the seats have more cushioning and back support for the kiddos and they can be reclined into five different positions (versus only two positions in the Techno), and the leg rest has metal extenders so that when baby is sleeping/reclining their feet can also recline. Add to that bigger tires, greater storage capacity and better maneuverability and we were sold. We preordered the 2011 with a 20% off coupon at BBB, making the Techno the same price as the Triumph. 

*Notice the stress on the 2011 model. This is because Maclaren umbrella strollers were recalled for hinge issues (the previous hinges were severing children's fingers. Yes, you read that right, severed fingers). In 2010 Maclaren "fixed" this malfunction by issuing a velcro hinge cover that was placed over the stroller. In 2011, the stroller's hinges were redesigned to be completely plastic and round. The outcome is stroller safe for tiny digits. 

Drop the baby weight, get back to normal, run your ass off stroller

(also good for walking, going to the beach and living in general)

Baby Jogger Summit XC ($649.99)

If this stroller were a man I'd make sweet, sweet love to it. Seriously. I had previously selected the BOB Revolution Duallie, but after trying both out in BBB there was no contest between the two. The BOB is slightly narrorwer than the Summit XC (by 2") and had built-in snack holders for kids and that's pretty much where the comparison ends. The Summit XC had better suspension (read: smoother ride for kids, easier for mom to push), a cushier seat, a hand operated break and it was quicker and easier to fold down. Oh and the stroller was a dream to push and maneuver. LOVE. 

I can't wait to hit the pavement this spring to start training for the Covered Bridges Half Marathon. I even convinced the hubby to run with me. Super excited because once we tackle that run the twins will be big enough to run with us and we can continue training for the Adirondack Half in the fall as a family.

I can't stress enough how important it was to try out these strollers in person. We had gone to Babies R' Us a bunch of times, but their selection of floor models stinks, so we took advantage of a road trip to see the outlaws, stopping in Rochester to go to Buy Buy Baby. If you have one of these amazing stores near you head over there before registering. Their selection was incredible and their sales people actually *knew* about the products they were assisting you with. We never got that kind of attention or help from a BRU associate EVER.