Gearhead Mom

Mmmmm…Cupcakes

I saw these cupcakes featured over at Oompa way back in 2007. I wanted to get them for Sy, but we’d already met her one toy limit for Christmas, so I just had to sit around and hope that one of Sy’s pals would receive them. Jackpot! Kara got a set and boy are they pretty in real life, even the family dog thinks they should be his toys. They have a good heft to them and are knitted together well enough to withstand a few beatings and chewings by toddlers. Each kid who saw them at Micky’s the other day went straight for them and tried to pop ‘em right into their salivating mouths. And you know, they just look really cute.
Sy gets a bit irked that the knit wrapper on the bottom half does not come all the way off. She pulls with all of her might to rip it off, I fear that someday soon she’ll be successful. I remind her every time that it’s a pretend cupcake and that the wrapper is just a decoration, but I am not sure she believes me. Regardless, she loves to play with them. A good addition to the picnic routine.

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Heaven’s Gate

The Retract-A-Gate is hands-down the best gate ever. I’ve owned several different respected types of gates, so I feel I can make such a bold statement. Sure, safety is the No. 1 concern—and it meets all those requirements with flying colors—but the main reason why I love this gate is because it practically disappears and is so easy to operate.

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I Asked Santa for a New Kitchen, but My Kids Got One Instead

I have two daughters, two and four, both of whom love to “help” me cook and as well as to sneak water into their bedroom in various containers to make…well, messes. They’ve also outgrown a play kitchen that served us well (the Little Tykes Discover Sounds Kitchen, which is great, by the way, for tight spaces and 1-to-3 year olds. We had an earlier, less gadgety version than this one.

Time for an upgrade (Did I mention that my OWN kitchen needs an upgrade too? Anyway…). I spent quite a bit of time looking at play kitchens and comparing reviews and sizes and features.  Here were my specifications:
1.  Made of wood. We have plenty of plastic toys, so I am not a die-hard wooden-toy mama, but I don’t like the big, NOISY plastic kitchens out there. They remind me of bad model-home kitchens:  overdone and So About To Look Dated.
2.  Big enough to be interesting, but small enough to not Overwhelm MY Small Kitchen. 
3.  Removable Sink Basin. This was a must, as my daughters were going to pour water on this toy whether it held water or not. I wanted to be able to clean this part and carry it away from my overzealous Aquarians if need be.
4.  One piece. While I like some of the kitchens that have separate refrigerators and ovens, they tend to take up more space, and rather needlessly, in my book. 
5.  Two cooks=not too many. I have two budding chefs who want to play at the same time. I looked for a kitchen with space for more than one little culinary genius—and I liked kitchens that functioned like islands, and which my girls could walk around, but I DON’T HAVE ROOM FOR AN ISLAND IN MY OWN KITCHEN, so finding free floor space for the toy was not going to work. 
6.  Less than $200. That requirement immediately disqualified anything from Pottery Barn, for example.

Enter the Kidkraft Retro Blue Kitchen, which we all love, kids and parents and neighborhood children alike. Some reasons it’s great:

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Cool Toy Gratitude Week, Day 3

Oh, how we love Rody, the inflatable red horse. Rody gets dragged by its ear from room to room by my daughter. She insists that it sleep at the edge of her bed and adorns it up with her dress up clothes. She puts hats on the red horse and declares it, “QUEEN RODY!” We originally had this toy as part of a toy swap: Andie’s son was desperate to use Sy’s pink Hello Kitty suitcase for a while, and Sy was equally interested in getting her hands on that horse! But once Max’s Thomas suitcase arrived in the mail, Sy could not bear to part with it. Sy’s love of all things Rody was so great we decided to pony up and get her one of her very own. She loves to clamber onto the horse and bounce until she falls off, cackling as she disentangles herself from the floor below. I try to keep it away from sharp corners with a few pillows nearby, but it’s not like she has that far to fall, and really, that’s the allure of it, the wicked dismount.

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The Land of Sippy Cups

Like diapers, I feel like we’ve tried all the sippy cups there are to try. I currently have two in rotation, and yes, I have tried them all too.

1) Born Free Sippy Cups
BPA-free and all that. This cup/bottle is easy to hold, has a removable handle and you can go from a bottle nipple to a sippy cup spout without changing the bottle on your kid, too. The flow is fast while using the hard spout attachment and it feels more like drinking out of a cup with a lid

There are six parts to the cup while cleaning which feels a bit excessive. I usually throw them all in a big bowl of hot soapy water at the end of the day and wash ‘em all up. I put them in the dishwasher once a week for an extra clean since they are dishwasher safe. I’ve noticed that the soft spout tends to break down pretty quickly. I even had to throw one away as bits of the rubber were breaking off and Sy handed me one straight out of her mouth. I did not worry because she does not swallow things unknown to her, but it might give me pause if she were younger. I now use the hard spouts only. They sell the nipples and spouts separately and all work with the same basic bottle.
9/29/07 update: I just had to throw away another spout because the opening basically disintegrated into a bigger hole and there were little bits hanging off. I am going to attempt contacting the manufacturer about this and see what their plans are for fixing the problem, I doubt I am the only one with this issue.

Snapshot for Born Free
• I love the idea behind it, to have a safe bottle for my kid, but how safe are the spouts?
• Not so cheap, but readily available both online and at Whole Foods.
• The bottles also come in glass.

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Cool Toy Gratitude Week, Day 1

In honor of Thanksgiving week, I’ll be posting some of the toys for which we have the most gratitude.

Monday’s pick is Sy’s current favorite, sure to be in the top slot for years to come, just as it was in my own youth:

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