I'm back!

We had an at home day today, which translates that mama was eagerly trying to get the house together.  Seriously it was ridiculous, because every time I folded a pile of laundry in the basement my kids were recking havoc upstairs and visa versa. By the end of the day all my headless chicken frantic cleaning efforts were no better off than when I started. My kid's felt a bit neglected I must say, but not enough to not enjoy ripping up magazines, dumping out silverware, and making cushion obstacle courses. All three are definitely forbidden in our home and guiltily enjoyed while mama is making valiant efforts bleaching hopeless white shirts, loading dishwashers, folding laundry, and hauling bulk junk pick up to the curb. After my frustration peaked to almost intolerable levels I finally got down on the floor taught my son to perfect his handstands, did a few hockey pokeys and my twin's new favorite Oogah Oogahs, and had everyone huddle around me as we YouTubed Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire for an intro into tap dancing. I suspect my son would do very well as a tap dancer and I'm thinking of ebaying a pair of taps for him in the near future. My husband is not to sure of the positive merits, but I've convinced him that our son might have a good career as wedding entertainment. The Russian dancing and arm swinging has got to go on the men's side. A nice cane, some tails, and a top hat and he'd be set. I do have higher aspirations for him, but who doesn't love a cute kid with some talent.

Car rides!

My family is taking a long car ride up north soon. I remember tons of car rides with my family growing up. My favorite was going to Apple Hill when I was a little girl. Apple hill was a great place for sampling apple cider, apple picking, and even an apple museum. At that time, my mother drove a light blue Oldsmobile with rear facing seats in the trunk. Loved it! My friends and I would wave and duck at the drivers waiting at red lights. I can't believe my parents let me, but I would stuff as much random art supplies, books, and toys in that small space as I could. None of the random belongings would of course get used, but I needed them all right next to me. For my two older children I went to Target today and bought clip boards with compartments underneath with loads of art supplies. Hmm, I was wondering where it sounded familiar. I also got scissors and glue sticks so they can collage. I figure it will keep them occupied for most of the ride and if not, I'm going to download some videos from Smories.com, which I found it on KidCrave.com. So cute, there are tons of videos of young children reading stories they wrote themselves. I'm super impressed how developed some of the stories are. Honestly, it got me a bit nervous for my own almost first grader. He can read bits, but has no real interest. He actually finds Hebrew much easier and spending time with my Husband is always a good incentive. Those kids read rather well! The accents are a great plus and I hope my son gets inspired. I'll let you know if it was worthwhile when we get back.

Alrighty, found a new one!

They are called Safetytats. You write your phone number on the temporary tatoo and adhere it to your kids body. Wow! I'm not a big fan of temp tats for my kids. I don't give them permission to write on their bodies with any kind of pen or marker, that is not to say that I don't occasionally find them with I found a marker face. If  we teach our kids that the Torah explicitly does not want us to tatoo our bodies then why educate them about temporary ones. I would say that it is pretty bad chinuch. Although, henna tattooing for the appropriate occasions is not bad in my books, for adults. Neither is face painting. Henna has definite minhag standing and let's face it, face paint does wash off in two seconds. If it didn't, no one would do it. Anything that does not come off in the bath after a good soak and scrub is not appropriate for little kids, sorry. What is worse is tattooing a string of numbers on your child's arm. Does that remind you of anything? Sorry Safetytats, that's a no from me. Keep track of your children and make them memorize your phone number. If you must, safety pin your info into the inside of their shirt. Disclaimer: please disregard any temp tats that you find on my children that they might in the future do without my permission or knowledge. You never know what happens in birthday parties, right?

The crossover stroller fad

Well, here goes with my third just out stroller review. Thanks to my SIL who is doing some serious research the Baby Jogger City Select has been brought to my attention. Finally, someone did what we hoped Bugaboo would do. The City Select boasts to have 16 seat combinations! Wow, that's impressive with a bassinet, adapter, one hand fold,  and a second seat attachment. I guess for a single it must be rather long in dimensions to accommodate the second seat comfortably. From the two second video showing all the possible combos it looks to have blown poor Bugaboo out of the water. To have a better understanding how the Select pairs up against the new Britax and Phil&Ted's I looked at the obvious, price, first.

• Both the Britax B-Ready, to be released mid August, and the Baby Jogger City Select are set to run $499 for the basic single model.  
• The bassinets are $149 for the Britax and $89.99 for the Baby Jogger. 
• The car seat adapters are $49.99 for the Britax and $59.99 for the Baby Jogger. 
• The second seats are for the Britax $149.99  and $163.95 for the Baby Jogger

So, if you are looking at the single you will actually spend $697.99 for the Britax and $648.98 for the Baby Jogger. The way I see it you are not looking at too much of a price difference at the end of the day by the time number two comes around.

The Phil&Ted's Smart will run you $359.99 with bassinet. They do not offer a second seat attachment and can not be compared equally with the crossover competition between the Britax and the Jogger. If you ask me, Don't plan on maximizing your stroller capacity. you never know what your needs will be in the future.

I've mentioned before that embarrassingly enough, I own five strollers currently. The single I used with my son until he was three is the Bugaboo. I used the bassinet attachment with all my kids. The twins were the cutest scrunched together. When my first daughter was born, we bought the Joovy Sit and Stand. Loved it since my son didn't want to sit ever. When the twins were born someone gave us the double snap and go and I used it lovingly until it broke on the streets of Manhattan on an outing. Truthfully, I had my older daughter sit facing frontward on the rear facing infant seat over the babies legs. My son use to hang on as well and was the probable cause of the stroller's demise. Next came the triple, from the  Adventure Buggy Company out of New Zealand. Fabulous, but exceptionally heavy and not practical for the car. We use it every Shabbat and store it open in the garage. Lastly, we purchased the City Mini double by Baby Jogger to solve the car dilemma. I use it daily and stuff all the girls in there. I don't think I could have managed without it. In between all the stroller buying and kid raising, we did own a few cheap umbrellas for airport travel. Anything that does not close and fold into one piece should not be traveled with is a lesson well learned. Truthfully, strollers are fads like everything else. I remember when every person in shull had to have the double Mountain Buggy. To my SIL, pick whatever comes in a color that makes you happy and if you have a need that your stroller won't fill come and borrow one of mine.

Another great invention from Beaba

The Bib'Expresso heats and mixes formula bottles to the exact temperature of 100 degrees in seconds. In 30 seconds and with one hand you can prepare a bottle and be ready to feed. Amazing. It even looks like an expresso machine. For those who follow my blog, you know that I'm in love with the Beaba Babycook. It is pricey, but it makes a great gift. You just want to be on the receiving end. Love the ingenuity. I'm wondering if it works well with liquids other than water+formula. It would be amazing for mamas who express milk and for the good ol' apple juice tea babas in our home. So far it doesn't look like it is on the market yet. I haven't found a site that sells it to check the price. Beaba claims to have it available first quarter of 2010, but since March is long past, I'm not sure they me their target distribution date. William Sonoma does offer some of their products as well. A similar product to the Bib' Expresso is the Bib' Seconds. The Seconds warms food and bottles to 98 degrees in two to three minutes and runs about $65. The difference between the two is that the Seconds warms the whole bottle instead of just the water and formula. I guess my previous questions are answered regarding heating up other liquids. Another Beaba product to look forward to is their Classido electric nose cleaner. I wasn't sure if that was a joke, but I guess it isn't. No offense but I'm not putting anything electric up my child's nose. If you don't know how to use a squeeze bulb, you tube it I guess.

The crazy room!

So, the twins no longer sleep in their cribs. It became too much of a safety hazard to be honest. Over an hour after bed you could hear them jumping, thumping, laughing, crying, and of course the occasional, "help, help." My husband and I, after realizing that they were climbing up top dressers, switching cribs, jumping on each other, emptying drawers, peeking at us grilling outside through the window, decided it was time for them to move out of their shared room. Having no other option, being it was a Friday night, we took their mattresses and put them on the floor in the room my other two share. Why not? Didn't Wendy, Michael, and Little John have a blast in the nursery in Peter Pan? My six year old couldn't take it and opted to sleep in my room. Straight out of, "Where the Wild things are," my wild women started quite the rumpus. Today was the third day of this trial by fire experiment. Two hours after official bedtime I could still hear the party going on. Lots of bed jumping, wipes throwing, and battle cries tore me from completing this post to put the ladies straight. Yes, I did have to tip toe through a toy strewn floor to reach them in the dark, but it was only a few minutes of nursery rhyme singing and an amateur rendition of teddy bear's picnic to have them peacefully dozing. I'm hoping that this is just a transitional phase, like moving around your bedroom furniture as a kid. It takes a few nights to acclimate into a new nest. In the meantime, what a party it is over here.

Awesome!

Now that it has been two going on three weeks with all four home, I've come up with some good tips. For those of you just entering the blog, I'm home this summer with all four kiddos. Before I leave the house, no matter where I'm going, the gym, the park, wherever, I pack lunch. The twins are obsessed with things eaten in baggies. I take disposable ziplock plastic sandwich bags, because I can't seem to find any plastic containers lying around. It doesn't matter how many I buy, they always disappear. I should be more green in the kitchen. Theoretically, I would love to go and buy all those cute Pottery Barn lunch box containers that come in pink and green in loads of cute kiddie sizes. But they are expensive and little baggies are cheaper. I'm learning that dieting, being environmentally friendly, and kosher are all extremely costly endeavors and something has gotta give. I pack their bags with cut up grapes, cucumbers, blueberries, and make loads of cream cheese sandwiches. Currently, the kids are on a major Pirate Booty kick, which they call bamba. I'd rather them shouting bamba than booty so I don't correct them.  Trader Joe's is great for snacks so I rotate between their whole wheat honey pretzel sticks, sesame sticks, and of course the ever popular booty. My husband got to see them in action when we took the bunch to the aquarium in Coney Island yesterday. To give my husband credit it was over or just about 100 degrees, but I almost laughed when two hours in he turned to me and said that he was exhausted and we had to leave. His nerves were shot from hyperventilating every time the twins started to run off in opposite directions. I didn't like to gloat but it was hard to help. "Honey, what do you think I do everyday," I said. So, I was thrilled to see the cute invention that I'm sure some entrepreneurial mama had to put on kiddie handals to the bottom of her canvas tote. I'm forever yelling, "Everyone hold on to the skirt choo choo train style!" So, really I would need to wear two bags with two handles each, but cute idea anyway. They are not super expensive at $23 dollars and the bag zips at the top, awesome!