Hot Tip from the Holsapples via Marni March 17, 2009

A couple of weekends ago, we found ourselves wanting to go for a hike, but ready to move up to a proper kid backpack. We never made it on that particular hike due to the detour known as A Trip to REI.

There, we tried on four or five backpacks (harder than it sounds– needs to fit Roy, me, and then the Boy– hard enough that rather than going through it themselves, another family just tagged along with us) before deciding on this one:

I mentioned this to Marni yesterday, who gave me a hot tip– wear it around the house. I did this morning, which thrilled Ari. Great view, lots of hair to pull, what more could a kid want? There was a lot of squealing.

Also, now I’m inadvertently prepping for our trip to Yosemite in May.

A Room of His Own December 16, 2008

A few people have asked me about Ari’s room. Turns out there is actually a fair amount to say about it, other than my probably-pretty-obvious disdain of pastels.

First the important stuff. We’re probably fairly typical first-time parents in that for the first several weeks we were way too scared to have Ari sleep in a different room. Our first night in the hospital I actually slept with my arm in the hospital crib. (Our second night, we followed some very good advice from more experienced parents to put him in the nursery and enjoy a night of sleep. I sleepwalked twice in the middle of the night to check on him, but still, this was very good advice.) When we got home, we tried the Moses basket, but he hated it, so we had him in bed with us for the first couple of weeks. While we were sans pillows, it was kinda fun. We moved him to his crib at about 2 weeks, but didn’t move him out of our room until about 3 months, a couple of weeks after he started sleeping through the night. In hindsight, we were probably ready to move him earlier, but we had house guests for much of November, so logistically it didn’t really work. Now we’re all enjoying sleeping in our own beds through the night. Its the little things…

Which leads me to the fun stuff. Ari’s room doubles as a guest room, which dictated much of the design (which sounds a little highfallutin, but I can’t think of an alternative). I’ve always loved the Stokke crib, which has the benefit of being on wheels and small enough to fit through doorways (he rejoins us in our room when we have company). Its only problem is that its hard to find cute, good bedding for it, which I resolved by finding a woman in Texas who does custom crib bedding. The little love seat, ottoman and lamp (sorry Jeff, once I saw it on the Cape house I had to have it) are from Ikea. The sofa actually folds out to a bed AND has storage underneath for that bedding. So that replaced a rocker or glider for us. The ottoman I use as a changing table, plus it also has storage, so it doubles as a toy chest. The two other things I love about the room– which is finally starting to feel more like Ari’s room than a guest room– are the big black and white print (Megan and I got the fabric at Ikea and stretched it ourselves– he LOVES this thing) and the red Kartell side table/storage unit (which I think I first saw at Jaime’s old 3rd Avenue apartment)

There are little things you can’t see in the pics as well: a painted box Roy and I got on our first trip to Israel together, a goofy photo of us in Tokyo on our honeymoon, the painting over his crib Roy got at a Wes Clark fundraiser, a painting in the bathroom done by an old friend of the family, and last but certainly not least, a glass block with his name etched on it, created by his grandfather Ari.

Clearly he won’t remember all of it, but I hope he remembers it as a colorful, fun place filled with love.

Sidebar: pregnant ladies run-don’t-walk if you don’t already own an exercise ball– they work miracles on you and on baby.

Gear Recommendation: Tiny Love December 6, 2008

Tiny Love is an Israeli company that I was peripherally aware of as I started to think about essential baby gear. My mother in law happened to go to Israel shortly after Ari’s birth, and she returned with a ton of Tiny Love stuff, not knowing it was available in the U.S.

Consider their products as you fit out your playroom/bag of tricks. We don’t really do toys that don’t have a pretty clear developmental value. Tiny Love is a company completely founded on the same belief. All three of us love their stuff.

Gear Recommendation: Baby Bjorn Bouncy Chair December 5, 2008

Every expecting parent gets a ton of advice on what they need to buy. Its a little gross, but a little necessary.

Given The Pending Baby Boom, I feel like I should be of service, especially on the things we (Ari and parents) really love and couldn’t live without. I should disclaim that we are picky about safety and design and materials.

All that said, this is one of our favorites.

Introduced to us by our friends Conley and Meredith, this is a great alternative to some of the other bouncy chairs that include electronic vibrations, visual and audio stimulation. I put Ari in one of those recently at a friends house and he just completely spaced out. Handy for the couple of minutes I wanted to distract him away from my holding another baby, not so much how I want him spending time every day. I love this chair because it looks great and it teaches baby cause and effect– they learn to bounce themselves while maintaining full range of vision.

Its so popular with our family, that it wins the Shula Seal of Approval– no easy task.

Gear Recommendation: Bugaboo Bee December 5, 2008

Strollers. Why is it that we focus on the stroller? I guess as urban people, we want to walk around the way we want to walk around.

For us, that meant something small, something light, and something that folded easily (in one piece, for local travel or plane travel) and could accommodate a baby right away, either on its own, or with a car seat (we don’t actually use it with a car seat, but thats another matter– when you’re spending this kind of money, you want to preserve the option).

Seems simple, right? Actually, this wish list didn’t leave us with a lot of options. There was the Maclaren XLR (can’t fold with car seat adapter), the Baby Jogger City Mini (I can’t get into the 3-wheelers, but this folds like a dream), the Microlite Toro (very interesting, but doesn’t feel sturdy), the Quinny Zapp (also not sturdy) and the Orbit (so expensive, also the toddler chair looks weird to me, like something for kids who have been institutionalized).

We settled on the Bee (the other Bugaboos don’t fold in one piece and are 10 pounds heavier with the bassinet) and LOVE it. Roy insisted on taxi cab yellow, which wouldn’t have been my first choice, but which he points out is very visible for drivers. Point taken.

Gear Recommendation: Maxi Cosi Carseats December 5, 2008

This is not a great picture, but this is a great carseat.

When we were researching what we needed to have on hand immediately following the birth of Ari, we obviously gave a lot of thought to car seats. There are a couple of ways you can go with little babies– the infant carriers that can be strapped into the car are one option. The convertible car seats another. We went with the latter, figuring we’d need to buy one eventually anyway, agreeing to try it out and buy a smaller one if it didn’t work out.

After a lot of research (again, safety, design and materials), we settled on this one. Maxi Cosi is the #1 car seat company in Europe (and EU standards are far more straightforward than American– think BMW vs. Ford, need I say more?), though at the time we bought it, this seat did not appear on Consumer Report lists. That seemed like a problem until we went to the store and compared it to the highest rated American seats. Honestly– this one is just nicer all around. Better design, better colors, more stable, etc. Instead of padded filling, this has gel, making the seat far more comfortable. At least it seems that way to me.

Using it as our only seat was totally great until we planned a bunch of travel, at which point we decided we liked Maxi Cosi so much that we’d buy the portable seat. Turns out the U.S. version of that seat doesn’t work with our stroller, so I ordered this one from the UK.

It didn’t arrive in time for our trip to New York (fingers crossed it makes it for our Israel trip), so we ended up buying (and leaving at Shula’s for future use) one of the Graco infant seats. Our verdict? Good in a pinch, but not for regular use. It didn’t feel sturdy compared to the Maxi Cosi, and the materials were no where near the quality.