Gearhead Mom

Airport Pickup Tip

I spent an hour the other night just waiting to pick up a family member. As I made a circle by baggage claim, I saw a car with the sunroof open (brrr) waving a little pennant flag on a staff (kinda like this but theirs looked homemade), emblazoned with the name of the people they were picking up. Brilliant! What a great way to pick your car out of the crowd.

Now why didn’t I think of that!?

Recovering Your Seat - Toddler Style

[Ed. Note: Thanks to GHM contributor Shauna for writing up this review!]

How did Gearhead Mom know that my sad, stained dining room chairs were making me absolutely bonkers?  Well, somehow she did and was kind enough to let me review the SmartSeat Chair Protectors.  My husband brought a beautiful dining room table with upholstered chairs to our marriage.  These seemed so lovely until my first child started eating solids.  And then they were not.  They were a mess.  Somehow everything from her booster seat got onto the upholstery and it got even worse once she stopped using the booster and half of what was meant for her mouth went instead onto the chair.  Now every chair is grim looking and I always feel a little chagrined to ask anyone outside of our immediate family to sit in them.

So I needed a solution that did not involve me buying new dining room chairs.  And so the SmartSeat covers to the rescue.  These were, no surprise, invented by a mom who must have had messy little ones just like I do. (Aren’t mom’s just the most clever and industrious people that you’ve ever come across?  Yay, Moms!)  They come in khaki and navy and will fit nearly any upholstered dining chair.  They attach to the seat using velcro straps that after one false start were on my chair and looking snappy.  The fit is very good, although not perfect, at least not on my chair, but is a huge improvement over how it had looked.  And the cover is machine washable so that if it ever starts looking sloppy, which it hasn’t yet, I can throw it in the wash and it will be back to new in no time.

GHM Fave: Missy’s Favorite Travel Item of the Year

As I mentioned on Monday, the Munchie Mug is my pick for Best in Show for 2008. But I also have a few faves within more specific categories, so today’s pick is my favorite piece of travel gear - the Potty-On-the-Go by Fisher-Price.

When I reviewed it back in April, I only gave it 3 stars based on the wastefulness of the bags. While I still agree that it is indeed wasteful, we also couldn’t travel without this. Sy is absolutely petrified of loud and/or public toilets. Refuses to step foot in most public bathrooms, and really, who could blame her? They are loud and dirty, two things that drive Sy absolutely around the bend. Add an automatic flush to the set up and you have a three year old with a nervous breakdown on your hands.

So what did I do about the bags?

MacGyver Baby Monitor

Diaper bag? Check. Baby Bjorn? Check. Food for toddler (just in case)? Check. Pumpkin pie? Check. Green bean casserole? Check. Out the door we go to Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt’s house. We’re only 30 minutes late.

As soon as we walk in the door, we show off Baby G to the family, some who haven’t even met him. We know we have a short time window before he needs to go to sleep for the night. And this will be the first time he’s ever gone to bed outside our house.

About 20 minutes later, after being passed around from relative to relative, it was bedtime. Missy took Baby G to the spare bedroom and nursed and rocked him to sleep. Dinner was now being served.

Sy was having a blast with her cousins and aunts and uncles so I knew she was fine. I wolfed my dinner down so that I could relieve Missy. And then it occurred to me…

Crap. We forgot the baby monitor.

RE-POST: GHM Top Ten List: How to Keep Junior Happy on the Road

It’s a family week for us, so I thought I’d re-post some favorites. I wrote this last year before the travel season and I still agree with everything I wrote!

If you are traveling for more than about nine minutes, it’s good to have a few things hidden in your bag to keep the travel blues at bay. Here are some easy to pack supplies for the kiddos along the way.

Britax Sale at Babycenter

We just bought the bullet and ordered Sy a Frontier car seat by Britax. Baby G LOATHES his little infant car seat. I think it incenses him that he cannot see, so we’ll make the switch before year’s end. I’ll put him in Sy’s old one (the Britax Decathalon, which goes from five lbs up) and Sy into the Frontier (30 to 100 lbs). We’ve always loved the Decathalon by the way, I’ll have to review it.

I like the Frontier because it converts from a 5-point harness to seat belt, but still has a tether system like a traditional car seat. Of course, you can’t switch to the seat belt option until they are 80 lbs, which Sy won’t hit for a long, long time. It also has cup holders, which Sy is extremely excited about. My sister has the Parkway booster for her seven year old and says the cup holders are absolute crap; drinks spill all over unless your cup is only about 2 inches tall, which you know, so many sippy cups are. Not. The Parkway is a retired product, replaced by the Monarch. I think in a year or so, we’ll put Sy into one of those. So many options…

Hey reader Firemom, did you end up buying one for your kiddo? Do you like it? Do tell.

Britax car seats are on sale this week only over at Babycenter. Up to $60.00 off and free shipping. Woohoo!

Punchie Punch, Munchie Mug

Move over Snack Trap, there’s a new spill resistant infant and toddler snacking cup that is both BPA and phthalate-free and manufactured in the good old United States of America; Sonoma, California to be specific in town. Invented by a grandfather of six and manufactured by a machine he built, the Munchie Mug is committed to child safety and parent convenience.

The Munchie Mug when dropped or turned upside down does not spill any little snacking treasures inside out onto the carpet, couch, backseat of the car, grocery store floor, etc. It is made of 100% recyclable polypropylene #5 and all FDA food-grade approved materials. The Munchie Mug is dishwasher safe and baby safe. The soft fabric enclosure overlaps to keep snacks in, and it is soft enough to not irritate little hands trying to get snacks out.

OK. Sounds good, right? But let’s get down to brass tacks - did my girl like it?

Spit Up Tip #2

Here’s a great tip I got from the moderator of my mom’s group back when I had Sy. She reminded us to not only pack a spare outfit for our kiddo, but also for ourselves. There’s nothing like a torrent of spit-up pooling in my bra to make me grateful that I have an extra shirt in my bag. I find this to be especially beneficial while on an airplane; having spare pants makes holding a kid with an explosive diaper on your lap not a completely fearful experience.

I was reminded of this tip over the weekend while we were at the pumpkin farm. Roger had Baby G in the Baby Bjorn and he threw up all over his Dry Clean Only sweater. The supportive wife in me smirked and questioned, Who wears a sweater like that with a newborn? To a farm? I know. I’m super helpful, right?

Britax Sale at Amazon

Ooh. Amazon is having a sale on all Britax carseats this week (9/15-9/21). 10% off all of ‘em. Once baby G needs to move to a bigger carseat, I want to get the Frontier booster for Sy. Anyone have one? Opinions?

I was also reading about Amazon’s Baby Registry Promotion.  If you, your friends or your family complete $750 of purchases from your Amazon.com Baby Registry by September 30, 2008, you’ll get six months of free diapers from Seventh Generation. Has anyone done this? Sounds cool, but $750 seems like a LOT of purchases.

Healthy Car Test Results

The 2008 test results for cars and car seats have arrived over at Healthy Car.
Definitely worth checking it out if you are in the market for a new car seat, or car for that matter.

You could also stop by to read Z Recs piece on the new Britax Frontier car seat, a 25-to-80-pound car seat that converts from a five-point-harness seat to a belt-positioning booster. Looks pretty groovy and oh, so safe.

Healthy Car

I’m looking into a spare car seat that is not going to break the bank. Because there’s not enough to worry about as far as crash safety is concerned, go take a look at HealthyCar.org to see how toxic the flame retardant levels are in your current car seat. You can also see how your vehicle ranks.

Nice to know there’s ALWAYS something new to worry about, isn’t it?

Oh, and by the way -
HealthyCar.org wants to know which child car seats parents are most interested in having tested.  Parents can go to the Test My Car Seat feature and vote by Monday, June 23.  Test results of the most popular car seats will be released on Tuesday, July 22nd along with updated data on toxic chemicals in 2007- and 2008-model vehicles.

Your Very Own Porta-Potty

OK, so after this review, I really think I’ve covered my potty-training bases.

Sy is pretty good at holding it if we are in the car. She loathes having accidents and more importantly, loathes getting her outfit dirty. It’s times like this when I wonder if she is really my kid. We have emergency diapers in the car and the piddle pad in place, but sometimes when you gotta go, you gotta go. Like at our favorite park that has no bathroom. Enter the Fisher-Price Potty On-the-Go (F-P doesn’t seem to have the illustrious commode on their own site).

Piddle Pad

I’ll keep this short and sweet because this product is a total uni-tasker, but definitely one I’m glad I have. I meant to write about this when I was reviewing potties.

The Piddle Pad, made by the geniuses at Kiddopotamus, is a waterproof seat liner that is completely worth its modest price tag. The liquid absorbing, soft pad is a unobtrusive receptacle for pee, vomit, blowouts, you name it. The backside of the product is coated with vinyl to help keep the product in place and the liquid where it should be, not on your car. You just place it on the base of your child’s car seat (or stroller) and your days of washing the car seat cover are numbered. It doesn’t snap or slide into to anything, it just sits there, ready to catch whatever rain may fall.

Hitch a Ride All the Way to the Gate

OK, so check out these nifty carry-on, ride-able suitcases. My friend across the street has two daughters, four and six. They went on vacation recently and took their two Trunkis along with them. According to the site, Trunki is “the world’s first ride-on kid’s suitcase. Designed for family vacations, children can pack, sit-on and ride their own luggage, whilst parents can keep them in tow. Trunki’s light weight and durable design is hand luggage approved, with generous space inside for toys, games, books and spare clothes.”

A Trunki suitcase weighs less than 4 pounds and is made of the same hard plastic that adult suitcases are made of. It is 18” x 7.9” x 12” and has a five gallon capacity. The case comes in both blue and pink. I like that it has a soft rim built in to protect little fingers from being pinched.

Here’s what my pal had to say about them.

Travel Toys

I am always on the hunt for travel toys that actually hold Sy’s interest. Growing Tree Toys has a pretty substantial list of travel toys on their site. I like that it has the recommended age on the short description. Easy to zoom by and look for age appropriate toys for my kiddo. Check out this Smile, It’s a Real Camera from Chicco (Really? That’s the best name you could come up with, Chicco?). It’s $18.95 for a real 35mm camera, including a roll of film and batteries. Sy would love that but she’d also burn through that roll of film in about three minutes and be peeved that she could not immediately see the results. Ah, the digital generation. I wonder if it would be fun even without film?