Family Archives - Page 18 of 47

Bake Your Teacher a Thank You

May 8, 2013

Did you know that May 6-10 is Teacher Appreciation Week? Will you be doing anything special to honor your child’s teachers or daycare providers?

Katie Workman, author of The Mom 100 Cookbook, has started a campaign called Bake Your Teacher a Thank You. She outlines how parents can come together to host a Cookie Day at their children’s schools as a way to show their teachers some love. Isn’t that a sweet idea?

While I can’t see myself planning an official “Bake Your Teacher a Thank You Day” at Levi’s Montessori, I’m considering whipping up a batch of Katie’s chocolate chunk cookies, sugar cookies, or gingersnaps as a treat for his teachers. I’m sure Levi would love to help me mix and stir the ingredients together.

But knowing how ~~lazy~~ busy I am, I’ll probably just go buy them Starbucks gift cards. Besides, if I were in charge of 16 toddlers all day, I’d need some serious caffeine to get me through the day!

Currently…

May 7, 2013

reading

The Family Fang: A Novel is a strange yet engrossing story about the grown-up children of performance artists (sorry, JB, it’s not a vampire tale!) that I discovered via Karey Mackin’s Instagram feed. I could totally see this book translated to the big screen under the direction of Wes Anderson or Sofia Coppola.

listening to

I recently heard the very catchy “Recovery” by Frank Turner and now I’m anxious to learn more about the British singer-songwriter. I love discovering new-to-me artists (my iTunes playlists are terribly stale).

wanting

I’m tired all the time, a state of existence I attribute to being the mom of a toddler and to not sleeping well at night. Although I typically get what any medical professional would consider a full night’s sleep, I’m sure my quality of sleep is the pits. I’m prone to vivid action-packed dreams — plus, I’m sure I have one ear glued to the baby monitor, even while I’m asleep. Curious to learn more about my sleeping habits, I want to get a Jawbone UP, a wristband and app that tracks your movement and sleep (among other things). My friend Ari and his wife both have one; click here to read a review of the Jawbone UP on Ari’s blog.

watching

The always-adorable Emily Henderson explaining how to design a kid’s room. I love her eclectic style and appreciate her “rules” on decorating (i.e. don’t mix more than 3 prints in a bedroom). Oh, and she was super nice to me when I met her at Alt.

wondering

When do I swap Levi’s sleep sacks for a crib blanket (and pillow)? He’s nearly outgrown his large HALO SleepSack and has figured out how to unzip it from the bottom! Do I go ahead and get him the extra-large anyway, or is it time to transition to a lightweight blanket?

Limetree (and a giveaway!)

May 6, 2013

photo by Jason Lee

What do you do with the hundreds (or thousands!) of photos and videos you take of your kids each month? Post them on your blog or share them on your Facebook timeline? Or do you upload them to your computer and, for the most part, forget about them? (Be honest!)

Limetree, a European start-up that debuted in the U.S. earlier this year, is a web and mobile app that allows parents to collect all of the important moments in a child’s life — photos, video, sound clips, and messages — and save them in the “cloud” to share at a later date. Everything you’ve uploaded to Limetree can be made accessible to your child at a defined future date and displayed chronologically. The design is intuitive yet attractive; it’s easy to record something quickly and easily find it later.

Here’s another reason why I really like Limetree: It’s not another social network! (Ain’t nobody got time for that!) It’s simply a digital shoebox, a place where you can compile your kid’s adorable pictures, silly videos, and funny quotes. As a bonus, you can share the account with a spouse so that the two of you can update your Limetree from separate devices.

I’m happy to have Limetree on board as a new sponsor this month! And to get you excited, they’d like to giveaway five free Premium Plans (value $36.99) to five Bunny & Dolly readers.

Each Premium Plan includes:

unlimited photos
2 hours/year of video
4 hours/year of audio
unlimited messages

To enter, please follow the Rafflecopter prompts below. You can enter 4 different ways, so please read the directions. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For those of you who are not bloggers or do not feel comfortable posting your child’s every milestone on Facebook, I highly encourage you to check out Limetree as an alternative to doing nothing with those precious photos and videos!

P.S. – 5 tips for taking photos of your children

Friday Rewind

May 3, 2013

Here’s a look back at the week (and weekend!) that was…

We fed the dog (a job we take very seriously!).

We discovered the fantastic toddler-friendly playground at Metcalf Park.

We stopped to smell the tulips.

We attended part of an Omaha Stormchasers game (our first baseball game!) but were more interested in what was happening off the field than on (cornhole!).

We went to school with crazy, untamable hair, proving just how badly we need another haircut.

We enjoyed a water activity in the backyard on a warm spring day.

We discovered that window decals stick to almost anything, including the leather ottoman, the refrigerator, the dishwasher, and the front door.

We decided not to grow out our bangs (at least, not yet)!

Have a happy weekend! I hope you do something memorable!

The Neighborhood (#letsneighbor)

April 30, 2013

I’m excited to announce that I’m now contributing to The Neighborhood, a blog about building communities and bringing folks together. I even get my very own contributor profile!

In addition to posts about how to be a good neighbor, The Neighborhood is jam-packed with DIYs, downloadable content, and features on technology and safety. My focus is going to be on safety, which is a perfect fit considering I’ve always been overprotective of my loved ones and slightly paranoid about the world around me. Researching ways to stay safe in various situations might actually help me feel less worried by making me feel more prepared.

My first post for The Neighborhood is on how to prevent playground injuries. Did you know that The American College of Emergency Physicians reports that more than 200,000 kids are treated in emergency rooms each year for playground-related injuries. Ouch!

For more on The Neighborhood, follow them on Twitter at @letsneighbor or search for the hashtag #letsneighbor.

Stuck On You Giveaway!

April 22, 2013

I’m excited to kick off the week with a giveaway from Stuck On You!

Now, I don’t often buy Levi personalized items because I’ve found that they are usually low-quality products with cheesy designs, so I was hesitant to partner with a company that offers clothing labels and personalized gifts for kids. I’ll never promote a company on Bunny & Dolly whose products I wouldn’t personally use!

Stuck On You offered to let me review some of their products first, and after browsing their site, I was happily surprised by how many items and designs actually caught my eye. I ended up choosing small stick-on clothing labels in red with a rocket ship design and a personalized lunchbox in navy featuring retro robots. (Their cartoon graphics, all of which can be personalized, were super adorable. Other boy-friendly designs I liked included Super Strong, Tradies, and Monster Derby, and there are plenty of sweet girlie designs, too.)

The cool thing about the labels is that you can simply affix them to the tag of a piece of clothing like a sticker or you can iron/sew them on to the fabric for a longer-lasting hold.

Obviously, Levi was thrilled with his new personalized lunchbox. Although he doesn’t bring his lunch to daycare (yet), he loves carrying his lunchbox around the house, and it will be great for day trips and outings this summer.

Stuck On You would like to give you the chance to try out their decidedly non-cheesy personalized gifts! Four Bunny & Dolly readers will each win a $25 gift certificate to Stuck On You! Yay! If I won, I would either get Levi a library bag, a wooden number puzzle, or maybe a silicone placemat. What would you chose?

To enter, please follow the Rafflecopter prompts below. You can enter 4 different ways, so please read the directions. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

P.S. – If you are wary about your little one carrying around items with his or her name on them, you can still buy any product on Stuck On You without the personalization option!

Would you try this babysitting app?

April 19, 2013

I never thought that our current system of hiring babysitters by calling (or texting) and then paying them with cash (or occasionally check) was particularly old school. Annoying at times, maybe, but not outdated. Besides, how could you modernize the process of booking and paying sitters? Turns out there’s an app for that!

The Sitterati app is actually pretty genius because it alleviates two major frustrations that most parents experience when planning a night away from their kids:

Tracking down an available sitter, and
Coming up with cash at the end of the night

Here’s what typically happens when JB and I try to schedule a date night. First, I text one of three potential babysitters. Then I wait for a reply. Sometimes I hear back immediately, sometimes I don’t. If she’s unavailable, I text another babysitter. And then the other.

Eventually we find a sitter and are able to enjoy a nice evening out of the house. Pulling into the driveway, JB will ask me if I have enough cash to pay the babysitter. (Admittedly, we should have thought about getting money while we were out and could hit up an ATM if need be. But the problem with going to an ATM is that you only get $20s, and what if you owe the babysitter $35? Do you ask her for change?) Usually we can find enough money between both of our wallets, but occasionally we have to write a check. I’m always so embarrassed when I have to write a check.

Now, here’s where Sitterati can help: Once you create a job in the app, you can blast it to all of your sitters at once rather than sending multiple individual text messages. (Just text your sitters to invite them to join Sitterati!) Your sitter will respond via Sitterati and you can book her right from the app. When the job is done, you can pay her from the app using a credit card that you’ve uploaded; the money goes straight into your sitter’s account!

Pretty cool, huh?

So, the app just went live, and the Sitterati team is looking for feedback from parents and sitters to help build it into a truly useful and beneficial app. Let them know what you think! And I’m curious — do you think you’d try an app like this? Or does it seem too complicated/techie/modern?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Toys for Toddlers

April 17, 2013

As Levi gets older, I find it fascinating to watch how he plays and interacts with his toys. At 21 months old, he’s doing a lot more pretend play, trying to simulate grown-up behavior that he observes. He’s also showing a renewed interest in toys that have been sitting in storage bins for the past couple of months — or perhaps he’s just finally growing into them.

Just this past week, for example, Levi began pushing his wooden cars across the living room floor, something he’s never really been keen on doing before. He also has a new affection for his wooden alligator toy that he received from grandma for Chanukah. Previously, he seemed afraid by its clickity-clack noise, but now he’s so enamored by it that he wants to take his alligator in the car and to school with him!

I try to limit the number of toys that Levi has out at any given time, but if I were to add to his toy collection, here are the things I would buy him now:

1.Hape Coffee Maker and 7. Plan Toys Microwave because his two favorite kitchen appliances are our Keurig machine and microwave!

2. North Star Toys Camera because he’s been trying to pull my DSLR off my neck and up to his eyes.

3. Melissa & Doug Shopping Cart because he loves the ones at the pretend grocery store in the Omaha Children’s Museum.

4. Plan Toys Build-A-Robot because he’s starting to understand the difference between happy and sad, and this toy might be a great way to teach emotions.

5. Little Tikes Turtle Sandbox because he loves playing in the sand, and this beloved backyard sandbox would keep the sand clean and dry.

6. Tegu Blocks because these magnetic wooden blocks can entertain him at restaurants and on airplanes.

What toys are your kids loving these days? Do you own any of the toys on Levi’s wish list? If so, are they just as fun as they appear to be?

P.S. – Nine favorite toys for toddlers, the top 10 toys for infants, and my favorite play kitchens for budding chefs.

This is 21 Months Old

April 12, 2013

Today Levi is officially a 21 month old! We are getting closer and closer to the two year milestone. How the heck is that possible? Wasn’t I just planning his first birthday party? Sigh. Time goes by too quickly.

I suppose I’m feeling extra nostalgic because we recently received our finished leather-bound album from Kameron Bayne Images of Levi’s first year, which includes photos from my maternity session plus Levi’s newborn, 6-month, and one-year portrait sessions. (I just realized I never shared Levi’s one-year photos. Must upload those ASAP!)

Sniff.

At 21 months old, Levi…

…refers to himself as “Beebi”

…is starting to say “mine!” (much to our frustration)

…has discovered the joy of sandboxes

…still loves playing with pretend kitchens, whether at home, school, or the Omaha Children’s Museum

…is getting better and better at coloring with crayons and tinkering with stickers

…thinks the answer to any question with “name” in it is “Max” (except for Sesame Street characters, of course)

…wants to drink from a cup like a big boy

…has started asking for water instead of milk

…frequently wakes up with damp pajamas despite wearing extra-absorbant overnight diapers

…knows that two comes after one

…thinks the answer to any question with “how many” in it is “two”

…prefers his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on “Elmo bread“

…almost always says please and occasionally says thank you

…is starting to make three-word sentences like “More cookie book“

…is beginning to show an interest in lining up his toys

…asks for a plate, bowl, fork, and spoon during mealtime

…wants “gucky book, gucky book!” (his sucky and a book) before bed

…only uses his sucky when he’s in his bedroom

…will nudge, push, or pull me if he wants me to move

…does not have any more teeth than he did at 20 months old

…likes to snack on cheese, yogurt, applesauce, and cookies

…still won’t eat meat or vegetables

…holds your hand while he walks (“awk! awk!”)

…mostly calls me “mommy” rather than “mama”

…experiments with walking backwards

Yes, these are all iPhone photos. Can you believe that I only took photos of Levi with my DSLR once this entire month, and it was when he was sick earlier this week?!

P.S. – Go back in time and check out all the monthly photos from Levi’s first year.

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