Gift Suggestions?
 

Someone gave my daughter a Leap Frog Fridge Farm for her 1st birthday (she's now 18 mos. old) and she has absofreakinglutely loved it since the day she got it.

Otherwise, push/pull toys are always a big hit. She loves the toy stroller, lawn mower, wheelbarrow, and corn popper. Also, she has a great time in the homemade playhouse my husband built out of end table boxes (especially the shutters and doors she can open and close).

At this age he will be developing and refining fine motor skills such as the pincer grasp and turning the wrist, so any toy that has things they can twist and turn and move about is also likely to hold their interest for a while (as is an empty detergent bottle). Imitation is also a big thing -- so toy telephones, pots and pans and utensils, anything he sees his parents using. this is also a good time for crayons or washable markers and those paint with water coloring books.

Sorry to be so general, but other than the particular leap frog toy we have, her toys are more general than specific, if that makes sense.

Gift Suggestions?
 

I suggest several buckets of fresh paint for the parents, in conjunction with this gift.

Gift Suggestions?
 

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

Larger Car?
 

I am the anti mini-van mom, so I have a MB wagon with a third row.... I'd like to trade it in for the r class which I think is a little roomier, but alas my wagon is paid off and I really don't want a car payment.....

My DH is trading his range rover (yay! I hate that gas guzzler) for another guzzler - a cadillac escalade - the super long one because it seats 7.... sigh...at least it eats regular gas and not premium.....

once you get to that number of seats, I think its mini-van, wagon or SUV only....

Gift Suggestions?
 

I second the fridge farm by Leap. Anoth possibility is the Word Wammer. My kids first just liked to manipulate the letters and hear them out loud but as my son got older and was beginning to learn to read (he is 5 and is already reading - he starts kindygarten next year because of a late birthday) he pulled out his old wammer and used it a lot more frequently as he goes to a montessori school and is learning to read phonetically....

Larger Car?
 

Do you have a regular MB wagon with the rear-facing third row and the hatchback, or one of the new ones with the three rows of two forward-facing seats? I'm intrigued that that one, partly because it is available in a diesel, and I like the idea of running biodiesel (yes, I care that much). It's not much more $$ than the top-of-the-line Odyssey. My husband is not into the wagon idea, and I have to admit it looks from the pictures I've seen like the third row is much less easily accessible than in a minivan.

tm

Larger Car?
 

I have the regular one (an eclass wagon) but am SERIOUSLY considering trading up for the R class (that is the new wagon that is available in diesel). When I bought my wagon in 05, the R class had just come out and finding a used one was pretty hard. Also, my wagon is an 04, which was the last year all scheduled service was included in the warranty for MB. I think accessiblity will always be better in the mini-van...I just don't like them, and I don't like to drive them. I have rented several different ones for road trips and the like, and not once have I felt like - okay, I could drive this every day. But thats just me. I think I may go test drive the R class and if I like it, price a used one (like a year old etc... - let some one else drive it off the lot and take the depreciation hit). My other hang up is that my wagon is paid for and I really don't want a car payment....

Ouch.
 

So, this past weekend I'm on a guy's trip at the beach with a bunch of highschool friends, drinking heavily, playing cards, etc. So around 9:00, while shivering around a classic Oregon beach bonfire, my phone rings. Mrs. Ramone on the line, and starts out with "now, don't even think about driving home right now." Good advice, to be sure, but nothing good could be following this. Seems 2 1/2 year old Sandra Day Ramone had broken her tibia. Lovely. So I switch to water, get up early, and cut the trip short (which got me out of cleaning the house, so not all bad).

After a fair amount of time at the doc's yesterday, she's looking splendid in a foot-to-thigh purple cast. Loads of fun, I can assure you. It's sort of like having a much larger and more demanding infant. Poor kid. And poor mom.

Oh, and we fly to Disneyland in a few days. Good. Times.

Ouch.
 

Ollie, you just hit the bonus round. Sandra Day's cast is good for one free wheelchair and a bump to the front of every line on any ride.

Of course, that only works on the rides a 2 1/2 year old would go on, but still.

Ouch.
 

We're hoping it nets us a bit more attention from the Princesses and such. Could make the toddler very popular with her sister and cousin.

Ouch.
 

Here's hoping. Good thing is, she would be in a stroller in any event, so it won't change that much about the park experience. You know to get a stroller for Ruth Bader, too, right? They hold up to 70 lbs, and are the only way to get through an entire day with no whining. I highly recommend.

tm

Ouch.
 

Do they have these thingies at DisneyLand?

http://www.wdw-photos.com/1oct9/strollers.jpg

The Brazenette and her cousin LOOOOVE those!

Ouch.
 

The ones we used at California Adventure two years ago were just like oversized strollers, with a cordura nylon seat and a flip-forward sunshade. It was great for Magnus, though I really would have liked one for six-months-pregnant me. ;)

tm

Larger Car?
 

The Odyssey is sweet indeed. But I wasn't ready to admit that to myself in 2003 -- so we bought a Honda Pilot.

We like it a lot. Great sight lines -- mid-size SUV (same size and internal cargo capacity as Ford Explorer) with fold-down third row, etc. 240 HP V-6. Decent gas mileage _for its class_.
Handles more like a car than a truck. (Good or bad depending on your preference.)

It was the first model year for it -- but we were sure a Honda would be reliable. It has been. Never a problem with it except for my wife running into and over things. To this day nothing more than standard maintenance. At the time, Honda was trying to rip the guts out of Ford and get the Pilot established, so it sold for about $30K -- about $8K less than the MSRP on a comparable size Explorer.

Honda doesn't have all of the fancy luxury touches as some, but we've been very happy with it. And I fooled myself into thinking that a mid-size SUV with car seats is somehow cooler than a minivan.

S_A_M

Larger Car?
 

Sounds like you don't want an SUV, then -- because there aren't any with good gas mileage.

You are certainly right about the third row accessibility. We use ours rarely, so its not an issue.

Check the cross-over vehicles that won't admit they're just station wagons. Some of them probably have better mileage. The Subaru Forester, etc still gets good reviews. (They do seem to have mandatory Rainbow bumper stickers around here, NTTAWWT.)

S_A_M

Gift Suggestions?
 

I would say 1 y/o is a bit young for a Leap Pad. Maybe the "Lily" frog doll (which talks and has spots to touch to answer some questions -- identify hands, feet, knees, numbers, etc.)

or you could buy him a gun.

S_A_M

Gift Suggestions?
 

That IS like magic.

S_A_M

Gift Suggestions?
 

I ended up buying him the recommended farm animal thing and this:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...RL._AA280_.jpg

I figured this would be something his water-obessed older brother would be able to share/fight over with him.

Gift Suggestions?
 

Oooh oooh I want one!

Larger Car?
 

Crossovers have the same issues with third-row accessibility (if they have one). A Forester wouldn't gain us anything over our current Outback, and if we really wanted to keep a wagon (we otherwise love it), we'd look into getting smaller carseats. But I like the big, safe carseats we have, and I'm interested in occasionally carrying passengers other than my children, so it looks like we're headed to minivan-land.

tm

Confidential to All the Moms
 

Happy Mothers' Day. because I know you all live for my affirmation.

Confidential to All the Moms
 

Trolling for MILF. Nice.

Confidential to All the Moms
 

An infant on my art car on Saturday wore a onsie that said "I put the M in MILF." The TV cameras zoomed in on him.

Confidential to all the Moms
 

The Lanyard

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room
bouncing from typewriter to piano
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the "L" section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word, Lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one more suddenly into the past.
A past where I sat at a workbench
at a camp by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid thin plastic strips into a lanyard.
A gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard.
Or wear one, if that’s what you did with them.
But that did not keep me from crossing strand over strand
again and again until I had made a boxy, red and white lanyard for my mother.
She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard

She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,
set cold facecloths on my forehead
then led me out into the airy light
and taught me to walk and swim and I in turn presented her with a lanyard.

"Here are thousands of meals" she said,
"and here is clothing and a good education."
"And here is your lanyard," I replied,
"which I made with a little help from a counselor."

"Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth and two clear eyes to read the world." she whispered.
"And here," I said, "is the lanyard I made at camp."

"And here," I wish to say to her now,
"is a smaller gift. Not the archaic truth,
that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took the two-toned lanyard from my hands,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless worthless thing I wove out of boredom
would be enough to make us even."

-- Billy Collins

Confidential to All the Moms
 

I'm old. I can still make them feel young and innocent.

Confidential to all the Moms
 

Fucking over-achiever Mamma's Boy.

Confidential to All the Moms
 

Well, one of those, anyway.

Confidential to All the Moms
 

I bet you have to get up early on the day of atonement.

Confidential to All the Moms
 

How long does it take you to say "So I lied. So sue me?"

Larger Car?
 

TM..I ended up going with the R-class - which is a crossover, and it actually seats 6, not seven BUT the third row is actually easily accessible and roomy (i am 6 ft tall and I fit back there comfortabley) the lowered the floor so your knees aren't in your chest and it makes the seating quite nice.

Larger Car?
 

Yes, but how accessible is the third row if you have carseats in both middle-row seats?

tm

babe
 

What is a good way to keep a 6-month-old to a year-old baby entertained while the parent is making dinner? Apparently they have short attention spans. Any ideas?

babe
 

Nursing.

babe
 

How do you nurse and cook simultaneously?

babe
 

We set both kids in a seat on the kitchen table while cooking dinner when they were tots, and let them watch us cook, while we explained what we were doing.

Obviously, they didn't understand a bit of it, but the activity seemed to keep their attention, and both are now avid cooks, so it must have had some benefit.

babe
 

Carefully.

Larger Car?
 

Yesterday in the WSJ there was a question about relatively fuel efficient comfortable family vehicles under $40K. They recommended the Odyssey and the Acadia. It seems that we will need to replace Mr. Chick's car sooner than we thought and if you want an accessible 3rd row with carseats, you are pretty much limited to a minivan or the Acadia/Outlook.

WSJ also recommended the Freestyle, but I haven't looked into that one too much.

babe
 

From 4-9 months, a super saucer works great for most kids for about a half hour. For anything other than standing at the stove (chopping veggies or other prep), you can wear the kid in a sling on the back side of your hip (so they can kind of look around you and see what you're doing), or in a backpack.

tm

Larger Car?
 

Word to the wise: Anyone who buys a GM or Ford deserves all the fucking misery those shite cars will reap on 'em. Plan on driving back and forth to the dealer, who will probably break more shit than he fixes.

Anything Honda is worth every penny.

babe
 

Well, I was going to make a joke based on current events, saying well if you're cooking you would be using a particular something and can't put 'em there but thought it would be tacky and not funny.