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A Pea in the Pod V-neck Tunic Go from summer to autumn in a stylish and sexy V-neck tunic. This fashionable gold lurex top from A Pea in the Pod's fall collection is available for $130. |
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Cool luggage tags make flying fun (well, less awful)
Wherein baggage gets a cute, personal touch In Mamakaze’s opinion, the very best part of traveling with tots is finally getting off the plane. Don’t get us wrong, we enjoy the in-the-lap diaper changing, the insatiable toddler wanderlust, and the urgent bathroom requests that seem to occur only when the “fasten seatbelt” light is on. But as much as air travel with youngsters is a time of comfort and convenience, Mamakaze is always happy to deplane. Until, that is, we hit the baggage claim. In our infinite wisdom, we managed to acquire luggage that is absolutely indistinguishable from any other set of black bags. Thus, what might take but a few seconds (had we bought the sky-blue luggage we really desired) takes a good chunk of time — time that could be spent getting our fretful wee ones to the hotel and into their beds! The luggage-verification process doesn’t have to be painful, of course. In fact, one of Mamakaze’s favorite online vendors, The Container Store, offers a variety of cute and clever tags for your bags. For kids, there are brightly-hued tags with frisky animals or funky hearts (see above left). For mamas, retro luggage tags emblazoned with vintage hotel logos provide a fun, fashionable way to identify our bland black baggage. Either way, the tags will set one back less than $5 and save valuable minutes at the baggage carousel.
Deni food dehydrator for kids’ snacks Wherein we find a healthy alternative to fruit leather 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 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.
Jar holder and spatula spoon Wherein we get a hand at feeding the little one We suspect that every mama, at some point, wishes she had three arms. Hey, there are times in our day-to-day life that require the multitasking abilities of, say, an octopus. Alas, science has not yet advanced to the point where we can have multiple arms grafted onto our bodies, so we soldier on! One of those times when we’d like an extra arm or three is when we are feeding Totakaze outside our home. We need one hand for the jar of food, one for the spoon and one for the wet wipe we have on the ready in the inevitable event that our wee one decides to spew chicken and sweet potatoes down her chin. Luckily, in this instance, we don’t have to wait for advances in transplant technology, because Leaps and Bounds makes a handy-dandy jar holder and spatula spoon. This brand-new jar holder securely cradles baby’s food while suctioning to a table or tray, leaving both hands free to feed and wipe the wee one. The soft spatula spoon scrapes the jar’s every nook and cranny to minimize food wasting. Genius! Our only question is why on earth were these essential baby-feeding tools not invented before? Say, when Totakaze was in her raspberrying phase. Inconvenient timing aside, this may be Mamakaze’s favorite invention yet. (That is, until someone invents actual extra arms. We’d be all over that.)
Inglesina Domino twin stroller Wherein we discover the perfect conveyance for two tots Not long after we got our positive pregnancy test, it occurred to us we had failed to take into account a few small things. First and foremost, we had definitely not eaten enough sushi between the birth of Totakaze and the conception of Babykaze. Almost as importantly, we had never thought about how we would transport both babies on outings. As Totakaze’s walking skills are primitive at best, a twin stroller is an absolute necessity.
Bag-It keeps baby ick at bay Wherein the diaper bag meets its new best friend Nobody wants to carry a stinky nappy around in the diaper bag, but sometimes a mama just can’t find a trash can. Rather than throwing our little one’s diapers on the street (icky poo!), we carry around something airtight and plastic to enshroud diapers, messy clothes, burp cloths and other biohazardous delights we encounter. Backseat Babychanger for emergencies Wherein our on-the-go diaper-wrangling dilemmas are defused One day earlier this spring, we stopped in at Papakaze’s favorite Italian restaurant for some baked tortellini. On our way out, something smelled a little off — and it wasn’t coming from the kitchen. Our darling Totakaze’s jeans were bursting with special surprises, and as it happens, this restaurant is a rather grown-up establishment whose bathroom has pedestal sinks and no change table.
SnackTrap keeps food where it belongs Wherein Totakaze’s efforts to make it rain Cheerios are foiled One of our wee one’s great delights is snacking on a popular brand of toasted oat cereal. Her other is flinging said toasted oat cereal hither and yon. Since Totakaze clearly cannot be trusted with food, our solution for a long time was to put cereal in round 4 oz. GladWare containers and dole it out in tiny portions. However, as Totakaze wolfs her food like, well, a wolf, you can imagine, dear reader, how time-consuming this became.
Kawasaki dual-screen DVD players Wherein our children peacefully coexist in the backseat While Kidakaze and Totakaze love each other, car rides can be long and boring. If Kidakaze is playing with a toy, Totakaze naturally must have that very plaything. If Kidakaze is tidily nibbling on raisins, Totakaze wants to messily munch the same snack. If Kidakaze is watching a movie, Totakaze wants to view it, too.
Suction placemats make dining doable Wherein we discover an alternative to letting Totakaze eat off the table Through no merit of our own, we have been gifted with the rare 1-year-old who can be taken to adult dining establishments an hour past her bedtime with nary a screech or a table-pounding. Genteel though she may be, however, Totakaze does have one wee shortcoming when dining out — she has not mastered the fine art of eating off a proper plate without, at some point, throwing it. Nor have her parents mastered the art of placing food directly on a strange table without cringing.
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