Category — Parenting Toys

I have found some great suggestions over at the Parent Hacks site. Stop by and pick up a few of your own.

How to trick the autoflush toilet sensor in public restrooms | Parent Hacks

Another great suggestion for those busy toddlers.

How to unload the diswasher with a curious toddler underfoot | Parent Hacks

Parent Hacks is one of my favorite parenting sites. I will be posting some of their great suggestions so please stop by and visit them.

DIY summer PJs: just cut the arms and legs off of winter pajamas | Parent Hacks

The other night was a school night and Mommy Bacchus was working late, which caused me to balance the kids, dinner and bath time on my own. Which is what most of us “Super” parents do every evening, but I paid attention to the lateness it took me to finally sit down and catch my breath. 10:45 pm was the time and I still had a couple of hours of things to do and should have been getting ready for bed during at that time. In those brief few minutes of solitude I reflected on how our lives changed when we had kids. So you know what that means…..I made a list.

Things that change when you have kids:

• You rate restaurants on the cleanliness of the bathrooms and availability of a decent changing station.
• You watch movies on Pay Per View or DVD
• You watch the Academy Awards show without seeing any of the top movie contenders
• You don’t mind going to work with spit up stains on your clothes
• Of course, say goodbye to sleeping in on the weekends, weekdays, vacation days, sick days…..
• You accept that your house is in a constant mess
• You shop at Sam’s/Costco/Walmart weekly
• You actually run out of bread and milk before it goes bad
• Lastly, after having a newborn, you learn to sleep during work conf calls and put the phone on mute so they don’t hear you snoring.

Feel free to add any of your own…..

I have struggled with my attempts to carry and use my own cloth grocery bags when I go shopping. I am a bag lover and have published posts about various cloth shopping bags, but none of it matters if I can’t do my part. I simply have had the hardest time remembering to bring the bags in from the trunk of my car when I go to the grocery store. I have tried moving them to the back seat and then the front passenger seat all in an effort to remember to take them inside the store with me. Fortunately for me and the environment, I found a solution to my forgetfulness, well kind of.

The last time I forgot I made a promise that if I forget again, I would go back to my car and get them. I am happy to say that while doing some weekend shopping at the local Krogers, I was close to checking out before I realized I again forgot my bags. I went to the front of the store with my cart and asked a customer service rep to watch my stuff while I ran to my car. It took a couple of minutes to walk back and forth, but it was an uplifting experience.

So if you struggle with this process like me, consider making a promise to yourself and it will help you from forgetting again. Previously I published a post about Whole Foods phasing out plastic bags, but on Earth Day Whole Foods has changed completely to cloth or paper bags. See video here.

We had wind damage to our house where our fence is a wreck, a broken window and roof damage. Thank God no one was hurt.

I love watching my oldest run into his school after a drop him off.  So full of excitement and wonder.

I love you infant crawling on top of me when I lay on the floor to watch TV.  He must think I am a mountain that needs to be conquered.

We had another bad storm last night and the weather sirens went off.  We huddled in the master bedroom walk-in closet until it passed. The second storm caused me to review my home-made emergency kit I leave in the closet.

• crackers
• bottled water
• weather radio
• first aid kit
• candy
• baby snacks
• dry cereal in a zip lock bag
• wash cloth and small towel

I picked these ideas up from other disaster resources and put all of it in a old paint bucket that has a lid.  If you are in a true disaster and can’t get out of your safety place, someone in the family will need to use the bathroom and a bucket with a lid is a lifesaver.

We have been working with our six year old the old hard way of remembering our phone number, but these days we have to also teach them our cell phones.  Wish I would have read this post earlier.

Teach your phone number by setting it to song | Parent Hacks

Mommy Bacchus was having a yard sale this past weekend and BJ was kind enough to give up many of his toys he no longer used. As a consolation, I agreed to set up a lemonade stand so he could raise funds to buy new ones, and below are things he learned while engaging in this entrepreneurial endeavor. Please keep in mind that BJ is in kindergarten.

You Need Customers and You Need Lemonade

Supply and Demand became very real to him. If I didn’t have another pitcher of lemonade waiting in the wings, he lost sales. So he asked me to always have a pitcher ready just in case he ran out.

Sometimes You Have to Ask for Business

How and when you ask, can determine if you make the sale. After about an hour I showed him how to wait until the customers walked close enough to the stand before asking. This was a problem because people were primarily stopping by the yard sale and he would scream at them as soon as they pulled up to the sidewalk. Ask nicely and you may receive a reward in return.

Money is a Tangible Thing

Making change became a real process other than completing a worksheet in school. He struggled with making change from a dollar most of the day (cup cost 25 cents), but finally saw the need to get it right. The big benefit was recognizing dines and nickels as being different from a quarter.

Check Your Product

We made a couple of practice pitchers before we got the right combination of Kool-Aid and sugar. We had fund testing it the night before. A bad batch could leave a bad taste in your mouth.

You Can’t Make Money if Your Not Available at Your Stand

After losing a couple of customers while playing with some friends in the yard, he was afraid to go to the bathroom without someone watching the stand for him.

The Wonders of Cross-Selling and Developing your Sale

After hearing me offer a free glass of lemonade to entice someone to buy some baby clothes, he starting doing it with some of his toys. He also heard me ask someone if they were thirsty and then suggest a glass of ice cold lemonade to satisfy that thirst.

A new toy fund is a great motivated for your kids, but I also found other ways to use a stand.

Take a Stand

Sunkist, with proud supporters Rubbermaid® and Domino®/C&H® Sugar, will soon be inviting kids 7 to 12 years old across America to Take a Stand® for their favorite charity. It’s a rewarding way to squeeze some fun into summer and give back to the community.

Last summer over 15,000 kids from every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada signed up to Take a Stand.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand

A unique foundation that evolved from a young cancer patient’s front yard lemonade stand to a nationwide fundraising movement to find a cure for pediatric cancer. Since Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004) set up her front yard stand at the age of four, more than $18 million has been raised towards fulfilling her dream of finding a cure for all children with cancer.

Overall, we had a blast and to top it off, he made $24.31. Just enough to get a new Pokemon DS game cartridge. I loved watching him act like a little business man and he was so excited about it. People liked what we were doing and the new toy fund got a great start. Watch out Donal Trump, BJ from Texas is on your tail…..

A buddy of mine at work and I came up with this list of things to do last spring during bad weather. He has 3 and I only have 2, but it has helped a number of times for us. Most are local Dallas, TX activities, but I am positive that you can find something similar in your own area.

1. Children’s Museum (Most major cities have one dedicated to children)
2. Kids Wing of the major Art Museum
3. Aquarium
4. Movies (A no brainer, but we can get more creative than this)
5. Science Museum (Great adventure for kids)
6. Toys R US Jungle Gym (In the TX summer heat this is a must)
7. Merry Go Round at local mall (We have a couple of malls who have installed these)
8. Roller Skating
9. Bowling
10 Build A Bear (A chain found in malls, you can take all afternoon deciding on the many choices)
11. Paint N Party (Arts store where you can pick your piece, paint it and they fire it)
12. Chuckie Cheese
13. Main Event (Similiar to Chuckie Cheese or Dave & Busters)
14. Dave & Busters
15. Bookstore (Barnes & Noble or a half-priced one)
16. Library
17. Ice Cream

The key to this list is to have it handy because you never know when you are going to need it. If you have something to add, please comment.