Mamakaze! Attacking Life at Full Throttle

Ideally, Totakaze would eat every meal at home. But Mamakaze often finds ourself out and about during lunchtime, feeding our wee one bananas and cheddar bunnies from our emergency diaper-bag stash. If playgroup wound down a bit later than usual, we used to be able to mollify our dear daughter with the smallest of snacks. As Totakaze’s appetite grows along with her ever-changing toddler body, however, we’ve discovered that we need an actual lunch bag for days when we’re going to be feeding her on the go.

But why settle for something that looks as if it should be carrying Papakaze’s CD collection rather than our little one’s chicken, peas and apples? Since Mamakaze is the one doing the shuttling, we reason, we ought to be able to carry whatever ridiculous girlie purselike lunch bag we like! And we’ve managed to find several fashionable insulated lunch totes that will be perfect for a day about town. (In fact, we’d take these bags with us even if we were leaving Totakaze behind!)

Our particular favorite is a cute orange neoprene tote (left) with separate sections for food and drink and an outer pocket for napkins — or, in Totakaze’s case, Wet Ones. It’s bright and modern and comes in a variety of fun colors, and the acrylic handles give it a sleek, stylish aesthetic. We found it at Target (online only) for $15.

Wherein cheddary crackers leave a good taste in mama’s mouth
Friday, September 08, 2006

For all the shopping we do, sometimes Mamakaze is at a loss as to what to buy for our wee ones. It’s not clothing that gives us such trouble; neither is it furniture, toys or handy gadgets for the bath or kitchen. The place where we draw a blank is in the snack aisle of the grocery store.

Totakaze may get the occasional bite of french fry or spoonful of sorbet, but we consider ourself a healthy-snack household. While bananas, cheese and grape quarters make for great snacks at home, it seems as if the only travel-worthy options are sugary puffs or processed crackers. Cheerios worked for a long time, but we realized they were wearing thin when, at playgroup outings, our wee began begging her friends’ mamas for their (yummier) snacks.

Luckily, a number of Mamakaze’s friends are health-conscious mamas just like us. We soon discovered their snacking secret: Annie’s Homegrown Bunnies. These robustly-flavored rodents are much like the goldfish we remember munching during our own formative years; however, they’re made with organic wheat flour. While they’re still very much a snack food rather than a staple, we like knowing that these baked crackers are made with real cheese and have zero trans fat. Better still, we didn’t see a single unfamiliar science-lab-type ingredient on Totakaze’s box of Cheddar Bunnies!

The best part of all? Despite the wholesome ingredients, our little one loves the cheesy taste of these bunnies so much that she’ll do (or stop doing) anything to get her hands on more of this snack food!

Ensuring travel-friendly snacking goodness for months to come, Mamakaze found Cheddar Bunnies for $24 a case online.

It had to happen sometime, and this week was the week. Our little Kidakaze has entered kindergarten — and with it, a whole new world. In this strange world of big-kid school, everything seems to be celebrated with cupcakes. Whether they’re for a Halloween haunted house, a Christmas party or to mark a birthday, delectable miniature cakes are all the rage with the primary-school set.

Mamakaze is no slouch in the cupcake-creation department, but we can’t say that our baked goods are always camera-ready when they arrive at our destination. The braking and swerving required in our city’s stop-and-go traffic manages to make a mess of even the most Martha-worthy icing job.

This year, however, we have some tools on our side. Instead of letting our cupcakes slide around in the bottom of a cake carrier, Mamakaze has found some nifty new solutions. The Cup-A-Cake (below, left) cradles cupcakes individually and keeps the wee pastries fresh and free of smears. Or simply flip the bottom of Tupperware’s rectangular Cake Taker (below, right) and voila! There are 18 holders especially designed to corral your cupcakes.

Once we arrive at our destination with all our little cakes intact (joy!), we like to proudly display our handiwork with a pretty cupcake stand. Mamakaze loves the Cupcakes ‘N’ More dessert stand (above), whose towering design and silver finish are the perfect complement to our undamaged confections (Wilton Cupcakes ‘N’ More dessert stand, $30).

Perhaps our friends are over-brave, but we’re sure there must be other people like us. Mamakaze is part of a group of about a dozen mamas with tots from about a year to 18 months old. Our playgroup started when the babies were just wee, immobile things, so refreshments seemed like an easy and logical idea. Over the past year, the babies learned to sit, then to crawl, and later to race toward objects of desire at light speed. Suddenly, serving snacks didn’t seem like such a great plan anymore.

But with several mamas, including Mamakaze, finding ourselves in the family way, we certainly can’t deprive ourselves — and our precious cargo — of sustenance. Thus, quartered grapes and soft breads have replaced decadent cookies and chewy bagels. And with a dozen sets of swift little feet and grabby little hands to contend with, using breakable serveware at playgroup is no longer an option.

But, creative mamas that we are, most of us have come up with solutions that pleases the aesthetic sensibilities of the grown-ups while ensuring that our china and glass remain intact. Whether it’s bold, stylish melamine, understated wood or sophisticated metal, our pitted cherries, cheese cubes and other baby-friendly munchies are still sitting pretty.

Mamakaze loves chunky pieces of focaccia in the kiln-dried maple serving bowl at left ($200, Uncommon Goods). Some mamas do it up in high style, while other mothers choose a clean, colorful scheme. Either way, we feel perfectly grown-up eating off pretty dishes. Well, as grown-up as one can feel while fighting with a toddler over the last piece of edamame …

Breastfeeding is wonderful and natural, but a good lactation consultant — or a been-there-done-that mama — won’t tell you it’s always easy. And on top of cracked nipples, mastitis, poor latches, embarrassing leaks and incomprehensible pumps and bras, we also have to deal with nursing tops. For whatever reason, even though people have been nursing for millions of years, these garments tend to be made from bargain-bin fabrics (quite possibly the same fabrics used for medical scrubs) and quite often sport not-so-cleverly concealed nursing openings.

It’s not that we’re ashamed of breastfeeding, mind you, but it would be nice to have the same fashion options as everyone else rather than something that screams to the world, “Hi there! I’m lactating!” Luckily, we can always count on a few retailers to provide apparel that allows us to not only pump, but also to nurse, in style.

The “cupcake dress” by Majamas (at left, $35, Milkface.com) is a versatile option for fashion-forward nursing moms. It can be dressy with tights and pumps, or worn over jeans for a cool, casual look. The top wrap layer moves aside for easy feeding, and it features something we loved as a brand-new mama — a forgiving empire waist.

Loose-fitting tops are all over the pages of our favorite fashion rags this year, and that’s a good thing when you’ve got a mommy tummy to lose. From sleek, chic tunics down to playful hoodies, Mamakaze has found a variety of favorite fall nursing tops.

If there’s anything Totakaze enjoys more than eating, it’s eating with her own fork and spoon. And if there’s anything she enjoys more than that, it’s getting her hands on a “real” piece of flatware and trying to stuff the oversize utensil in her little mouth. Maybe it’s the shiny metal or maybe it’s because it looks grown-up — whatever the reason, little kids the world over love to swipe silver from Mommy and Daddy.

That’s why our new best friend is the toddler flatware available exclusively at Leaps and Bounds. Available in either a traditional pattern or sleek contemporary design, this set of fork, spoon, and kid-safe knife looks just like adult tableware, but is made especially for tiny hands.

A far cry from the goofy, ornate sterling-silver tableware we used as a tot and the plasticky pastel spoons in Totakaze’s cabinet, this sophisticated stainless-steel “silverware” blends right in with the rest of the family’s and makes the little one feel like part of the action at the dinner table. (And with any luck, we won’t have to keep such close guard over our own forks and spoons now!)

We found My Very Own Flatware online for $19.95 at Leaps and Bounds.

Have we mentioned that Totakaze is a very active girl? She looks sweet as a cupcake, it’s true, but beneath her rosy, smiley exterior is a force of unfathomable destruction. When we add up all the times Totakaze has done something that took a few years off our life, we reckon we have about six months to live.

Today’s accomplishment for Totakaze was using her high chair as a diving board. We turned our back for just a minute as our innocent little cherub enjoyed her morning sippy cup, and when we looked over at her, she was standing smack in the middle of her high chair tray, dancing up and down on her fat little legs and beaming with pride. Fortunately we managed to magically teleport ourself to the high chair and snatch Totakaze up in one one-billionth of a second, before she went all Greg Louganis on us. But had we looked over a moment later, or had the high chair not been such a high-quality product, we shudder to imagine what might have happened.

Of course this could all have been avoided had Totakaze been wearing the five-point harness that comes with her Peg Perego Prima Pappa. Unlike the three-point harness provided with some other chairs, the five-pointer keeps babies securely in place (well, our clever Totakaze needs about 30 seconds to escape from such a harness, but we think we’ve established that she’s an extreme case). And unlike the cheaper chair we keep at Nanakaze’s house, the tray is sturdy enough to support a wild 24-pound toddler.

In addition to its super-strong tray and secure tray-locking mechanism, the reasons Mamakaze loves this chair are many. The Prima Pappa folds to a compact size for storage and is easy to operate. The seat is easy-to-clean vinyl and the dinner tray comes off in a snap for convenient washing. With four recline positions and seven height adjustments, the chair is as appropriate now as it was when Totakaze was a babbling babe taking her bottles at a 45-degree angle, rather than a tyrranical tot angling for a better vantage point.

When we were high-chair shopping, we found many imitators at lower prices, but none felt as sturdy as the Prima Pappa. We felt a little silly testing chairs for sturdiness with our nonmobile, 16-pound lump of slobbering sweetness in tow, but when we’ve used other people’s “as-good-as-Peg” chairs, they’ve wiggled and jiggled under the abuse of our wee dynamo. After today’s incident, we’re even more satisfied with our purchase.

But more importantly, we’re never, ever again going to leave Totakaze unharnessed (or let her escape without consequence) for even a second!

Totakaze dines in a gorgeous limited-edition Prima Pappa rocker that is no longer available, but we adore the stylish jade cube pattern available currently on the regular high chair ($169.99, Babies R Us).

Wherein the oil and balsamic vinegar come out of hiding
Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Despite our parental status, sometimes Papakaze and Mamakaze like to pretend that we are grown-ups who enjoy bread without the complement of Jif creamy. When we’re playing like we’re young and carefree, we enjoy a nice loaf of Italian bread dipped liberally in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

But parents who like to savor the occasional grown-up condiment are faced with a dilemma — do we enjoy this treat only when the children are gone, or do we store our vinegar and oil in plastic honey bears? Or, worse yet, yellow and red plastic squeeze bottles meant for hot dog fixin’s? Thankfully, Tupperware has solved our culinary conundrum.

Now we know what you are thinking, and we assure you that Mamakaze, too, was a child in the ’80s. We well remember our own mama’s vast collection of indestructible plastic foodware in such unappetizing hues as avocado, orange and maize — each item thicker and more opaque than the last, and all of them unmistakeably made for mothers of children who couldn’t be trusted around glass (or even, apparently, thin plastic). But kid-safe serveware has come a long way, baby!

In the past few decades, unbreakable plastic tableware has gotten thinner and more translucent. Now, done by the right people, it’s virtually indistinguishable from glassware. Tupperware’s Sheerly Elegant olive oil bottle is so sleek and elegant, we can hardly believe it’s made of polycarbonate rather than glass. Its attractive twist design is contoured to your hand for easier pouring, and in the spirit of all Tupperware, it’s a breeze to clean and is next to unbreakable.

We are actually so obsessed with this objet d’art among kidproof dispensers that we are considering using it all over our kitchen for such sundry things as soy sauce, dish soap, and salad dressings. For now, however, we’re mostly just happy that our whole family can enjoy sophisticated condiment bottles. Of course, this means that now we will have to figure out how to remove oil and vinegar stains from the kids’ clothing! Ah, mamahood!

Kidakaze loves popsicles. The problem is, they love her right back. Recently, we spent a good hour and a half painstakingly removing fudge-pop evidence from multiple items of her clothing. We’re not sure how exactly it happened, but it looked as if a chocolate factory exploded all over our eldest child. What we do know for certain is that it must never happen again!

When Mamakaze was a girl, if we wanted a popsicle, we ate it on the porch in our swimsuit or not at all. But that’s not an option for Kidakaze if she’s out and about — which is usually when those pesky popsicles seem to appear. That’s why we love the Drip Catcher, a clever invention that puts a stop to messy pops.

Made out of a ring of compressed sponge, the Drip Catcher traps and aborbs any drips that may slide down a slow eater’s popsicle. The idea is so simple we’re amazed nobody made these sooner.

Simply tuck a 24-pack of Drip Catchers in a purse or baby bag and you’re ready to avoid any ice-pop emergency. The sponge is absorbent enough to hold an entire pop, so no matter how many drips dribble down, hands and clothes stay spot-free.

To make sure we never have a repeat of the fudge-pop fiasco, Mamakaze found 24-packs of Drip Catchers selling for less than $7 at Leaps and Bounds.

Mamakaze must confess that we’ve been a bit smug about what we feed our little ones. Most nights, it’s lean meat and veggies, with homemade, hand-mashed natural foods for the tiny one. Even on the rare occasions we give Kidakaze fast food, it’s apple slices rather than fries, and milk instead of pop. And nary a french fry nor a cookie has touched the lips of young Totakaze!

Thus, when we read a recent article on Parents.com listing the 10 worst kids’ foods, we weren’t reading it so much for our personal enlightenment as we were out of eagerness to discover with which horrible foods today’s bad, neglectful parents are fueling the obesity epidemic. We weren’t surprised to see hot dogs, chips, fries, and juice-flavored drinks on the list. But they say pride comes before a fall, and wouldn’t you know it; we tripped mightily over No. 5. Did you know that most fruit leather contains very little fruit and a whole lot of sugar? We certainly didn’t. Grammakaze was a bit of a health nut in the ’80s, but while corn chips and Pop Tarts were strictly forbidden, we did have some fruit leather now and again. If only she’d known it was right up there with donuts!

Now, as much as we would like to offer the little ones fresh fruit all the time, we’re certainly not going to do let our preschooler and toddler munch on ripe strawberries or peaches in the car. And like Hansel and Gretel, our wee nibblers leave a trail of crumbs where e’er they wander if they are given granola bars. And despite her fruit-leather fallibility, we still lean on Grammakaze for healthy snack ideas.

Long before we were a mama, our own mama used her trusty dehydrator to make such healthful delicacies as dried bananas (basted in tangy lemon juice) and homemade, low-sodium turkey jerky. With a Deni(r) Food Dehydrator, we can give the kids healthy, fiber-loaded snacks all year ’round for a small investment. Mamakaze is lucky to have an abundance of fruit stands in our area selling dirt-cheap apples, peaches and cherries, not to mention the just-ending season for tasty Pacific salmon that, with a bit of marinade, will make some fantastic jerky.

Now, with the fruit leather issue under control, we can resume being just a little bit smug in the knowledge that our kids aren’t eating cheese puffs and toaster pastries. At least not while we’re looking.