Mom Moments (and a Rant on Smoking Near Children)

Our crazy travel schedule is starting to wind to a close. While it's been nice to enjoy the city (and I CANNOT.WAIT. to move back) I am excited to leave behind all the smokers. I never realized it before but there are a TON of smokers in DC! While the act of smoking isn't a soapbox issue for me (it's your life) the WHERE really irks me.

Today I parked in the special section of "expecting mothers, infants, and young children." (I've always wanted to take advantage of rockstar parking!) When we came out to our car a woman was idling in our section (sans children) with all her windows down, smoking!

Now, I don't care if you choose to park in the expectant spot if you are not expecting - it's not nice but it's not illegal, so whatevs. I also don't care if you choose to smoke. However, the combination of smoking in an area where kids going to be around - really bothers me. AND this isn't my only example - like playgrounds, why would you choose to smoke at a PLAYGROUND! Ridiculous.

Regardless, of my little rant on smoking near children, we had a FABULOUS time, with some FANTASTIC weather. We spent a ton of time outside enjoying it!

 1. We visited the U.S. Botanical Gardens, which was very stroller friendly. Baby loved trying to touch all the leaves.

2. I thought this was weird but it's been so cold where we are that this was baby's first time playing in the grass! He LOVED playing with the sticks; oh the joys of boys.

3. I wasn't sure what the age limits were for real kid swings but we did it, and I pushed him (but not too hard - he's only 9m.)

4. Lastly, baby LOVED the mirror on the elevator ceiling. Not sure if you can see it but there is a BIG smile on that little face.

I hope where ever you are you get a chance to enjoy the wonderful spring weather this weekend!

Sincerely,
Jordan

P.S. - Think I'm going overboard about the smoking thing? Let me know below or just feel free to share your thoughts!

Ten Tips for a Hotel Stay with Baby

"What are these things on the floor and how to I get them in my mouth!?"

It's week two of our marathon trip to DC (we came for a week, went home for a week, and came back for another week.) Hubby came for work and baby and I came to enjoy the beautiful weather and sites. This might sound a little crazy but we actually travel back and forth and all over the place quite a bit (in our son's 9 months of life he's spent about one entire month in a hotel.)  You can say our son is quite accustomed to the hotel stay. I'd like to say that we have it down to a nice little routine that I think could be of some benefit. These might be common sense things, but they were huge revelations to us.

1. Get a room with queen beds

Why? Because King rooms tend to be smaller, and you need all the space you can get to put a little buffer zone between you and the sleeping baby. Additionally, having the extra bed is helpful to corral all of babies stuff.

2. Divide the room

Put all of babies stuff on one side, and all yours on the other (choose the side with the bathroom!) This keeps you from constantly having to make noise to go the bathroom, change clothes, eat dinner, etc.

3. Set up a visual barricade

When we put our son to sleep, if he sees us in his room he wants to stay up and play, even more so at a hotel. We recommend putting up a blanket or putting the crib on the other side of the bed so baby can't see you. 

3. Run the fan

AC units in hotels can be loud, especially when they turn on and off. If you can avoid it, do it, by leaving it on run. Additionally, it acts like a sound buffer for all the moving around you might do.

4. Bring a travel crib or a pack and play

We swore by this travel crib until our son was 7m old (at which we got too scared that he would try to pull himself out.) Some hotels have cribs (really just pack and plays) you can borrow but I've heard of bad experiences so we just bring our own.

5. Set some mood lighting

Our son goes to bed at 7pm which leaves us in a pitch dark hotel room...at 7pm. Keeping the room pitch black is not realistic, so before you put baby to bed pick one small light that you are going to leave on and dim it as needed by draping a towel over it. Then turn on all the lights while getting baby ready. Once you are about to put him down, turn off everything except the one little light you plan to keep on - wah lah - something to read by, eat dinner by, check your phone with, whatever. Having the little light on also keeps your phone from reflecting light all over the room (which our son has a 6th sense for detecting) and will keep you from having to check Pinterest under the sheets or hang out in the bathroom all night.

6. Set up a changing station.

Bring an extra changing pad or use a towel from the hotel to set up a little changing station (on the spare bed or desk;) it's much easier than trying to unpack/pack the diaper bag continuously.

7. Load up on disposable bags.

Ask for extra trash bags at the front desk or bring disposable diaper bags, surprisingly some hotels don't line their cans.

8. Set up a feeding station.

We've come up for two feeding station options over the course of our travels. OPTION A - The Lobster by Phil and Ted. So light, so portable, so strong. We bring it EVERYWHERE. We love it. OPTION B - We use our umbrella stroller. We have to bring it anyway, baby stays strapped in, and we avoid any dramatic eat/playing so that everything isn't soaked in peas.

9. Towel the tub.

At home we have an infant bath for our son and the first time we traveled we brought the bath with us...and then promptly never took it out of the car. It was too bulky and annoying and a space waste. Instead, put a towel in the bottom of the tub. For infants, use this as a little nest to sponge bath them or if they are sitting up, you can use it to help them from slipping around.

10. Bring snacks.

I don't know if it's the blackout curtains or the fan noise but my son sleeps superbly at hotels. He sleep so well, that I wake up first and am starving for breakfast. So bring some snacks, you'll thank me later.

Hopefully, this leads to great sleep and a nice relaxing stay for mom, dad, and baby!

Sincerely,
Jordan

P.S. - Got any more tips? Leave them in the comments below!

Baby's First Museum Trip

After our long car seat-testing drive to DC, and the delirious never-ending day, today has been AWESOME! I finally got a chance to get out of this hotel room and explore the city with my little one. Even though I used to live in DC I never really had time to explore all the touristy things there are to do, so I was so excited when today I was able to take in a museum with baby.

Taking baby to a museum is a lot more doable and enjoyable then I ever would have thought. It's a great outing for a few reasons.

1. It's stimulating for you.

I really enjoyed checking out the Fossil Lab at the Natural History Museum. It's basically a window into these offices that have "volunteers specially trained in fossil preparation" working on thousands of year old fossils - crazy AND who knew?! They are volunteers...you can do it too! (It says that on the piece of paper that is hard to read AND you can get more information about reinforcing your employable skills by being a fossil volunteer or another type of volunteer here. Gosh, I miss DC!)

2. It's stimulating for baby, (or they can sleep.)

I was really surprised by how many newborns were strolling around. For the most part they were sleeping in their carriers or strollers, and since it's actually pretty quiet, that seemed to work out well. For my 9 month old son, he just got a hoot out of looking around. He LOVED the fish display.

3. It's an easy place to nurse.

I actually think it would be a great place to try nursing in public if you are a little nervous. My son is to the point where eating requires about a dozen smile/look around/play breaks. He needs a really quiet place with very little to look at and no people around - at the museum there are tons of little benches and nooks perfect for just that.

4. The bathrooms are really clean.

Let's be honest, using those diaper decks in public restrooms, they gross me out. I use them but I just feel kind of germy afterward and so I limit use to "have-to" situations. (Especially the ones at rest stops and airports, because you know they prob get a lot of use.) The look of the bathroom also correlates with my idea of how clean the changer is and museum bathrooms are super clean!

So that covers the basic eat, sleep, play, and change of the museum experience. Hope you are able to get out and try it yourself!

Sincerely,
Jordan

Feed Read: Travel on Baby!

While I'm nursing my son, I get about 3-5 min where I can just sit and read. Every week, I'm going to start you off with a Feed Read: a couple of links to sites that I enjoyed and would recommend to you whenever you get your own five minutes during the day.

We're on the road again this week, so here's a few reads about traveling with baby.

How to Survive a Road Trip with Kids: don't forget a car game, stickers, and lots of toys - (oh, and maybe some candy and bribery.)

This is INGENIOUS! Lost child - check for tattoo. Or if you just love temp tats...check out these awesome designer ones.

Try some of these cool baby travel essentials (plus some for you too!)

Advice for flying sanely with a newborn.

Our pack and play is super heavy and bulky so one of our friends who has this recommended we try it.

Enjoy!

Sincerely,
Jordan

Mom Moments: Tourist Baby

 

This week baby and I spent the week site seeing all around DC.

1. Baby went on his first metro ride. 

2. We checked out the two boxwood trees from our wedding that were planted in front of the church we were married at on Capitol Hill.

3. My son LOVED the fish at the Museum of Natural History (which we totally recommend!)

4. We took a tour of the Capitol and got passes for the Senate Gallery; it was incredibly stroller friendly too. 

Sincerely, 

Jordan

P.S. - How was your week? See anything exciting?

Is There a Perfect Solution Out There?

Car seats are outrageous - so many kinds, so many rules, so many features; so overwhelming! I've been to four stores in the three days, I've looked online, and I even checked out Craigslist, all in search of the perfect car seat solution.

My problem is that my son is at the breaking point of his Chicco Keyfit, (22 pounds) and I can't figure out what to put him in next. Since he's only 9 months, we still have to keep him in a rear facing seat, which is safer and preferred by us, but they are HUGE and we can barely find one that fits comfortably in our car. You can't even see around the clunkers (even with the mirror) and since my son is going through a bit of a separation anxiety phase, that makes for a long ride.

Maybe my expectations are too high in what I want in a seat - safe, good weight capacity, fits in our car, and the ability to see my child in the mirror from the front; but I don't think so. Our car, a VW Sportwagon, is not that small! Plus, what do people in smaller cars use???

After my last unsuccessful trip to BBRUS, I finally started asking around. I got a few good suggestions that aren't on display at BBRUS:  Maxi-Cosi, Peg Perego, Recaro, and finally I just happened to ask a woman what she uses in her Toyota: a Sunshine Kids/Diono. We tried them all out, but the Sunshine Kids/Diono (Diono is the new name) was the winner.

Can't beat that.

When we tried it out, (with some minor adjustment to the passenger seat) it fit fabulously, I could see him from the front and he's actually really happy in it because he can now see out the window (yay for built in entertainment!) Yesterday, when we hit the road for what turned out to be an ELEVEN HOUR drive to DC, it literally stood the test of time: we had not one meltdown on the road. It's also upright enough that I felt comfortable doing a solid feed while we were underway.

I know there isn't always a "perfect" solution out there for every problem, but there is a solution that will solve your problem perfectly enough. In this situation, it was worth the extra time and effort to find this winner. It's not one of the "famous" brands, but when did famous equate to quality? When it comes to baby products, I feel so pressured to jump into these "popular" products and in so many of the instances that we have, they turn out to be a huge let down. Just like when we searched for a stroller, we had to find the product that was right for us.

Sincerely,
Jordan

Strollers, Love, and The Minimum Effective Dose

For about the past week I've been trying to pick out the perfect umbrella stroller to take to our DC trip in a few weeks. My husband and I talked about all the things we wanted in a lightweight stroller and I went out and found a few contenders. (In case you are wondering what made it to the final showdown: the Chicco Capri, Maclaren Quest, Uppa-Baby G-Luxe, and the Aprica Presto.) If you've done any stroller research, you would be like, "wow...that's a variety," because they really do have an extreme range in price and in correlating features. It's like trying to compare a Saturn to a Mercedes.

Yesterday, after spending about an hour at Babies R Us pushing my son around in several of the options, I finally just broke down and got the cheapest. It had the least amount of features but, well, the price just couldn't be beat for what we needed most, and the reality is that we just needed something short term.  Essentially, we bought the minimum effective dose.

Minimum Effective Dose (MED) is a concept I learned about in Tim Ferriss' 4 Hour Body. In it, he explains that MED is doing the least amount necessary to get the desired results. For him, working out for an hour every day was unnecessary because the same results came from working out for 20 minutes like every two weeks or something...(don't quote me on that, I don't remember the exact #s, but I'm close. You can check in the book. He also has a steroid use example; regardless the concept is the same.)

I couldn't think of a better example than what happened today, on Valentine's Day, when my darling husband got finished work and met me at the car with four carnations. Now, I wasn't expecting flowers and I was thankful that he thought of me on this loveliest of days but I was kind of surprised that it was just four carnations because my husband has typically put a little more effort into his flower selection (having them delivered or stopping at a store on his way home.) Plus, where do you find just four carnations? At an elementary school where you can send a flower-gram to a friend!? I thought maybe he had forgot about Valentine's Day and just borrowed them from a friend...and I asked him that too. He told me he didn't borrow them from a friend but how he got them is important. 

So some background information on my husband - my husband LOVES to take online surveys that give him a dollar every time he submits one. So every once and a while he gets a letter in the mail with a crisp one dollar bill in it and I always make fun of him. The last survey was a $2 survey but instead of sending him 2 crisp $1 bills they sent him a $2 bill! A $2 bill?! Isn't that cool!? I was impressed because who just goes around handing out $2 bills! So he jokes about me being jealous, that I can't make fun of his surveys and how he was going to keep it (away from me) forever. He has too - it's been in his wallet (as if it was gold or something) ever since.

Back to the carnations - so I was like, "how did you get four carnations?" And he told me that "these four carnations are equivalent to $2 worth of flowers, as in a $2 bill worth of flowers." I swear my mouth dropped! I never thought he would spend that $2 bill, especially on me. I seriously still can't believe it. I asked him why he didn't just use other cash and he told me "because I thought it would be cute and that you would appreciate it." OMG! Isn't he cute! Case in point: $2 of carnations = MED.

Back to the strollers: they were all awesome and I for sure had my heart set on the most expensive one and we could have easily just gotten it and been happy and out $200+ but is it really necessary? Especially when all the features we really needed were met in the cheapest option? Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It, and I may/may not be taking it out of context, "Can one desire too much of a good thing?" Heck yeah. The "good thing" was the lightweight stroller with some recline, back support, and a little suspension. The "too much" was the cup holder, the increased weight capacity, the ability to stand-upright; I desired the heck out of it but it's not essential. We just needed the MED.

The concept of MED can be applied to a lot of areas in life, especially parenting. As a type-A personality, I'm always focused on doing things to the max. My son doesn't need to be entertained by me every five seconds and I don't need to enroll him in every baby class in town. Trying to do all these things just gives me a whole lot of stress when all he really needs is the MED.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sincerely,
Jordan

P.S. - I hope I'm not the only one who has issues with MED - thoughts?

Get Out of the House Week

I grew up in the great State of Florida, and now that we live in the chilly north I have a hard time getting out of the house, especially with baby. It is really hard to truck him around normally, with the car seat or the stroller or the shopping cart cover, but in the winter it is even harder to bundle him up and take things on and off, remember blankets and hats, and to keep him happy under all those layers. It is a real struggle for me to even leave the house at all because I just don't like being out in the cold. This can't be healthy though, never leaving the house leaves me (and baby) with little social interaction. So this week I am forcing myself to get out of the house at least once every day, with baby or without. I sat down and looked up every resource I know of for events and meet-ups and this week I will be doing it all (or at least one thing.)

Looking for some events for baby or just for you? Here are some sources to try:

Library

BABY: Our local library has several FREE baby playgroups through out the week at each of the different branches. They play a little music, tell a story, and then have some free play; plus you can get some time to talk with other adults = networking.
YOU: The library has tons of free/cheap classes in all kinds of things. Just a sampling of what is available at ours: book discussions, art speakers, computer skills, etsy-instuction class, learning languages, film screenings, meet-the-author events, performances, etc. A lot of events are available in the evening and some of the speakers during the day could be perfectly reasonable to bring baby to as well. This is a great way to build up some employable skills, or network with people of similar interests.

YMCA/Fitness club
BABY: I take a great baby-and-me swim class at a local indoor pool. I know he is too little to be really "swimming:" but his affinity for water has definitely increased and they teach great pool safety skills like how to find the wall, floating, and how to climb out of the pool.
YOU: A lot of local rec centers have free/small fee childcare while you get to hit the gym.

Religious Organizations
BABY: Our church's bulletin is filled with great family events. It also has a mom/baby group that meets once a week. When our son gets older they have an affordable preschool too. Our local JCC is also popular in our area, not just amongst Jewish families, for having events, mom's groups, childcare, etc. The same is true of lots of other faith-based groups.
YOU: Not only do most groups have events for baby but there are also book clubs, speakers, and community service opportunities (resume-builders!) My church even has a career builders network that hosts job search related events; and a great skill-building event that I will be going to this Saturday, (so more to come!)

Local Mom Blog
BABY: Our area has an awesome local mom blogger who posts weekly event listings and reviews of places to take the little ones. I found the site through a google search "[your town] mom blog."
YOU: A lot of the events that are posted are great ideas for a free/cheap date night with the husband.

Hopefully these resources help you to get out of the house too.

Sincerely,
Jordan

P.S. I'm always looking for ideas: share some of your own resources for how you stay busy!

How To Sanely Fly Solo with a Newborn

So you may (or may not) be wondering where I have been this past two weeks since there have been no postings in that time...and it's because I just got back from a fabulous trip to FL with the little one to visit The Nan and Poppa (who have no internet access.)

This was my first trip flying solo with my son and so that was quite the adventure. I was totally worried about how the flights would go since we had a two hour flight, a layover, and then another two hour flight, both ways, and we had to get to the airport at like 6am! It truly turned out as best as it probably could, thanks to the following tips I received from friends prior to my trip:

1. Plan to gate-check the stroller and car seat. Gate-checking these items allows you to pick them up as soon as you get off the plane and utilize your stroller right up until boarding and during layovers, (super convenient for restroom breaks and for lugging around all your carry-on bags.) Plus, my baby loves to sleep in his stroller, so wheeling him around a bit knocks him right out. 

2. Wear baby through security. TSA will try to get your car seat and stroller through the screening machine (and mine is HUGE;) wearing baby in the bjorn left my hands free so I could break everything down, remove my shoes, etc. I seriously don't know how I would have done it otherwise.

3. Check with gate attendants for flight capacity. The first time my husband and I flew with our son we didn't check this, but if we had, we would have learned if there was enough space for us to bring the car seat on. I tried it this time and it was a huge plus. I thought it would be hard to try to feed baby and then get him into the seat but it wasn't a problem. Previously, I just held him (painful on the back!) or slid him onto the open seats next to me but I was constantly afraid he would roll off the seats of we would experience turbulence; def bring the car seat if you can.

4. Make it obvious you have a baby. Most people really don't want to sit next to babies on flights because they think they will cry the whole flight but take advantage of that stereotype! Don't wait for someone to eye your open seats from down the isle, mouth "is that seat open?" and then come to discover the baby, because for some reason they then feel obligated to sit there even if there is plenty of other open rows. Stand baby up, play with him, let him be a little chatty, and people will just move away from you. My son was even a tad fussy during boarding on one of the flights and people assumed that would be representative of his whole flying experience...people got up and moved away from me! I had like a two row radius of open seats around me. More quiet space for me! - baby slept each ENTIRE flight while I caught up on my back issues of Martha Stewart.

4. Breast/bottle feed during take-off and landing. This helps baby's ears from popping, it also helped getting him to sleep during take-off. I wouldn't recommend waking him to feed for the landing; slip a bottle or paci in if he is sleeping, then if he wakes you can breastfeed if needed. I found the paci to work just as well as the feeding  but I only tried it during the landing. It's can also be really hard to gauge when you are about to land so use the pressure in your own ears, the fasten seat-belt sign, and the ETA as a guide for when to initiate the feeding/paci.

Great flying toys.

5. Bring a variety of non-musical toys. Nobody wants to listen to endless rounds of Mary Had a Little Lamb, instead, pack some teethers, a "quiet" rattle, wood toys, a book, or some squishes. I read somewhere that you should have one new toy per hour of travel.

6. Change baby during layover. It may have only been two hours since you last changed him but you never know if you will get stuck on the runway or be unable to change him when you get to your destination. Plus, if it prevents a leak, hurrah!

7. Wear the baby and stroll the luggage. If no one is able to help you when you get to the baggage claim, stick your baby in the carrier and throw all your luggage into the stroller.

(8.  Bring your own car seat. This is a little out of order, but if you are planning on renting a car seat from the car rental company, think again. I've heard that they are not guaranteed or are found broken, and then you are SOL. So just be safe and bring your own, plus, you could use it on the plane.)

It was a blast to see my parents and spend some time in the wonderful sun but it's also great to get my baby back on his schedule because he did absolutely NO sleeping while on our vacay. He wasn't crazy fussy so it wasn't that big of a deal but he did wake up at least three times a night which was brutal for me. It was clearly related to his food intake because he was super hungry every time he woke. I noticed a major correlation between his solid intake and the number of times he tended to wake, but he was not into having solids while on vacay.

Otherwise the trip was a blast and I'm looking forward to getting back into posting on a more regular schedule!

Sincerely,
Jordan

P.S. - Saw a family using this gadget at the airport and I thought it was so cool! They said they loved it too - might have to try it when we hit toddler stage.

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