The One With Older Baby Toys

Ok guys, in 6 days my babies will turn one. This is not acceptable. I'm really in denial. I thought I would do a post on some new toys that we have gotten for the girls as they get older. (9 months plus)

I'll have you know that I have stuck to my "toy guidelines" from a previous post, and that my girls still love their old toys as well! Hooray! I'm trying to get universal, gender-neutral classics that will last a long time. If you missed that post, it's here.  Here's hoping that these will get many more years of use!


Fisher Price Animal Sounds Farm

(pic courtesy of amazon.com)

My girls LOVE this farm. They can play with it together for like, 30 minutes at a time. At first, they just gnawed on the animals, but now they try to place the animals in the farm. They also love to drop the animals down the chute of the silo, then open the door and discover them at the bottom. The rooster slides horizontally and sings Old MacDonald (without lyrics, just music, so it's less annoying) and the girls bounce on their butts and dance along to the music.
Perks:
-It comes with 6 figurines (5 animals, one farmer, there is also a goat that isn't pictured above) that are wonderfully sized for a baby grip, yet are safe for munching.
-It makes animal sounds when you open the doors on the front. (It oinks when you open the pig pen, etc).
-It has a silo attached that holds all the pieces!! (Self-contained pieces? I'm sold.)
-It has batteries, but you can turn the sound off if you'd like.
-My friend has a 3 year old that still loves this toy! (We will get a few years out of this one!)

 (Emily putting the sheep in the barn loft, Charlotte examining the farmer.)

Leapfrog Fridge Farm
I guess I'm obsessed with farms? I didn't realize this until now. I really like this one. First of all, my kids are obsessed with the fridge and kitchen, so anything that keeps them occupied without mischief is a winner in my book. Leapfrog also makes a fridge phonics toy that tells you the letter sounds. I'm all about this as a teacher, but a) The girls aren't quite ready to grasp phonics yet, and b) I didn't want 26 little magnet pieces all over my kitchen floor. The girls love this toy.

 (All the animal options)

(See! Already pieces on the floor! So glad there aren't 26 letters.)

Perks:

-You can turn the sound on/off.
-Because the pieces are magnetic, the base kind of "sucks" them in more easily. The girls can actually put the pieces in the base with success!
-Sometimes my girls fight over the cool base, so I just let them play with the magnets on cookie sheets without the base. They still have fun attempting to match the animal head and butt.
-When you make a match, the toy sings, "You made a match! Look what you found! You made a match, hear a cow sound! Moo!" (or sheep or pig, etc) It also has fun facts about each animal, like "Did you know that pigs roll in the mud to stay cool?"
-If you don't make a match, the base sings, "You put a pig in the front, you put a horse behind, put them together, and what do you find? A pig-horse! That's silly!" I like that it still rewards them for placing the pieces in, yet gives feedback that they didn't make a real animal, just a silly one. I'm sure this will crack the girls up when they're 2-3 years old.



Little Tikes Activity Garden
Stop what you're doing and get this toy. It's amazing. Life-altering. Ok, maybe I'm being dramatic. This has been one of my favorite toys of all time. The kids I nannied had this toy. They had it in the baby room at Pine Cove. (Shout out to all my Creek Kids girls!)
It is everyone's favorite toy, and very highly coveted. The worst part? They don't make it anymore. The best part? I got it on Craigslist. If you get it on Craigslist, just make sure that it comes with all the pieces (3 pieces of mail, 3 vegetables). Or you can get replacement pieces on Ebay. When we bought ours, it was covered in crayon. Mr. Clean Magic eraser took it all off!

 Emily walks around the perimeter of the house.

Charlotte planting a carrot.

 They LOVE to play peek-a-boo through the mailbox! 

Super fun!

Perks:
-This can be an indoor/outdoor toy. It's made by Little Tikes, so it is durable enough for outside, yet cute enough for inside.
-Both babies can fit inside well.
-Cool features: It has a swinging door, a tunnel to crawl out of, a squeaky doorbell, a squeaky bird, spinning birds, floppy flowers to play with, a carrot, radish and onion that they can "plant" in the garden portion, and a mailbox with mail inside! The mailbox is BY FAR the highlight of the toy. It even has a little flag you can put up like a real mailbox.
-Even big kids that are 3-4 still love playing with this.

Melissa and Doug Jumbo Knob Puzzles
First of all, you cannot go wrong with anything Melissa and Doug. Ever. They just have the best stuff. I want to start working on the girls' fine motor skills, so puzzles are the way to go! I love their jumbo knob puzzles because they are easy for the babies to grasp the pieces.

-My sister got them this puzzle with the shapes and it is their favorite! I like the fact that you can put the shape in successfully, even if it is technically upside down. (The shapes are symmetrical.) The girls have already put pieces in correctly! Yay!

Instruments (any that are age appropriate)
Weee! We love instruments! (Me and my hubby were diehard band nerds! Drum major and drum captain? Nerdy musical destiny.) The girls love to make music. We have a musical tub that I get out once a day. It's full of loud and annoying (I mean fun?) toys that can help teach rhythm and give them a variety of auditory input. We shake our toys and sing our ABC's, jingle bells, or whatever cutesy song I can think of.  We usually play with this in the morning time and it magically gets cleaned up by the time daddy gets home from work. It helps the sanity over here.  I really want to get them a xylophone, but the thought of my 2 babies and mallets scares me. They are always somehow injuring each other. Plus, we have a bathtub xylophone and they would just gag themselves of on the mallets. Maybe when they are older?

(Sensory water bottles, jingle bells, maracas*, tambourine, rain stick, baby piano)

*Don't get cheap plastic maracas. If the plastic is thin, and your child hits it against something, it will shatter and you will have lots of tiny bead things everywhere. Mine are plastic, but it is very thick. (Lakeshore, $2.99)


FREE household things my girls love to play with:
-Blankets and pillows
-Tupperware
-Board Books (sometimes I sneak board books into their cribs once they are asleep. That way, when they wake up, there are fun books to look at in the morning!)
-Plastic Mixing Bowls
-An air mattress
-Diaper/Wipes Boxes (they love to climb on/push these around)
-Laundry in a laundry basket (emptying and filling over and over)

Ok, so there's my list of new fun toys. If you're not a mom, you probably just died of boredom. :)
Bye guys! Next post...birthday party post!!!

The One With the Matchy Matchy

Ok, so a few people have asked me about my girls consistently wearing matching clothes.  You see, when I was pregnant with the girls, I SWORE they would never match. EVER. People asked me if they should get me matching clothes, and I was basically offended. How could anyone be that cheesy? How could people strip the identity away from their children by dressing them as one unit? The horror.

That lasted about 5 seconds.

You see, after I had the babies I turned...how you say...neurotic about certain things.  Suddenly, after they were born, they HAD to match. I have no idea why. It literally stressed me out when they didn't match. I think it was because I was trying so hard to get them on the same schedule as each other that I was just dying for them to do something the same. They always had to be in the same room, too. (Which even typing that sounds weird now.)  I just needed this peace of mind seeing my unit of babies together, alive, doing the same thing. I needed some consistency.

Here are my thoughts about twin matching:

-My original plan was for my children to wear perfectly coordinating, yet not exactly matching outfits. As in, the same adorable dress: one pink, one purple. Ha. (I still think this is an adorable, yet unattainable goal.) They don't really make clothes like this very often. You really have to hunt them down. Then you have to hope and pray that these coordinating clothes come in the right sizes. Hunting for cute, coordinating outfits involves extra time and extra money. I lack both.

-When the girls wore non-matching outfits in the beginning, EVERY SINGLE PERSON in public would say, "Oh, a boy and a girl?" Clearly one of those babies in those non-matching dresses is a boy.  It was so awkward. I eventually decided to just agree with whatever conclusion people came up with. It was easier that way.  "Yup! Totally a boy right there! Well....see ya!"

-When putting on 2 non-matching outfits, I always felt secretly guilty that one girl got to wear the cuter outfit. (Let's be real, some clothes are just cuter than others.) I didn't want to have "favorite baby in cute outfit" and "deprived baby in a potato sack."
P.S. I know how dumb and shallow this sounds, but come on! Everybody has that shirt in their closet that you're like, "Sigh, I guess this is the only thing clean."  Now imagine deciding which of your 2 adorable babies has to wear the blah outfit. I felt so guilty. I rest my case.

-IT IS JUST SO MUCH EASIER.
Instead of thinking about 20 different, yet coordinating individual outfits, I just think about 10 identical sets of outfits. Amazing. The end.

-If my girls were identical, then I might not have them match. It would be super hard to distinguish them from one another. With mine, I can easily say, "Emily has hair." If they were identical though, it might be easier on friends/family if they didn't match.

-My girls won't always match. (Unless they want to.) When they are a little older, I will give them the choice in what they want to wear. I'm assuming some days they will want to match, and some days they won't. At that point, I won't care.
Side story: I hope they don't match forever. I was an R.A. in college, and some of my residents were twins and STILL MATCHED AT AGE 19. Same shoes, same purse, everything. Gross. It was a little much at that point.

-Neurotic confession:
I group the babies' matching outfits together in big, gallon-sized zipper bags. Then I clip the bags to a pants hanger in the closet. I do this because:
a) I'm psycho.
b) We don't have a dresser.
c) I loathe hanging things on actual hangers.
d) It's easy for my hubby to just grab a bag of clothes with all the coordinating pants/jackets/onesies inside.

   (Neurotic hanging bags. Hanging clothes on the right are unworn yet. I don't do hangers.)

-My girls look so different from each other that now people in the store say, "Oh, they are so cute! Wait... are they twins? Wow! They don't look anything alike!"  It makes me kind of glad that they are matching.  Maybe otherwise, people would just think they are just buds or something.

So for now, I'm just treasuring the times that my children can match.
It's a phase in life where matching is publicly accepted, endearing, and non-creepy.
Plus, it's freakin' cute.

The One With Baby Food

So...I'm kind of obsessed with baby food. I love trying to give my babies a wide variety of foods. It is adorable when you see the look on their face when they love the food. It's hilarious seeing the look on their face when they hate the food.

I think the source of my baby food obsession came from working with Emily. For a few months, Emily couldn't eat solid food, even though Charlotte was able.  Emily turned bright red, choked, gasped for air, and threw up every time. Even with just thicker purees and dissolvable puffs there would be a choking fit. Her physical therapist recommended her to see an occupational therapist, to make sure the anatomy of her mouth was correct and functioning properly. The therapist discovered that Emily was barely able to move her tongue, and therefore, she couldn't manipulate the food in her mouth to eat. Long story.
(With continued therapy she gained the strength to move her mouth correctly and she is all better now!)

Anyways, during the months of Emily's choking fiascos I was trying so hard to find food that she could actually eat and not choke and die on. Each time I found a new food, I was thrilled. Hence, the baby food addiction.

I recently have been taking pics of my baby food plates to show some fun ideas for those of you looking to spice up your menu. I'm a visual person, so this helps me remember better than a list. Oh, and yes, I'm obsessed with Skip Hop plates and bowls.

Breakfast Ideas:

                                         

Bananas*, Waffles with jelly, Yo Baby Yogurt

*banana tip my twin mom friend told me: Roll the bananas in Cheerio dust so for a better grip!                         

Egg Muffin (recipe in a previous post), Yogurt, Buttered Toast, Grapes (in mesh teethers)

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal (adult), peaches

Lunch/Dinner Ideas:

     

Peas (frozen steam bag), Northern beans (no shell to choke on) Cheese Ravioli, cut up (Annie's Organic) 

Colby Jack cheese, Veggie Burger Pieces (yay protein and secret veggies!), Watermelon, Graham Sticks

Turkey (shaved thin at the deli), cheddar cheese, applesauce

Drained Chicken Noodle Soup (natural, low sodium!, cut up chicken chunks VERY small), Pear Chunks 

Adult Casserole (this had brown rice, cheese, black beans, corn, and zucchini), mandarin oranges, blueberry apple sauce

Chicken (shredded thin at deli), grapes (cut very small, seedless), canned green beans (steamed/fresh are too firm), mashed potatoes 

Those are just some ideas of foods my girls like. If you think those are mega portions, don't judge. Remember, those are for 2 babies. And they are chubby. I'm usually not a fan of canned food, but when looking for canned veggies I always hunt for low sodium. As for fruit, I look for ones canned in 100% juice or water, rather than syrup. I'm so excited, because I haven't bought jarred baby food for the girls in probably about 2 months! Freeeeedom!

If you have other finger food ideas, please leave tips in the comments section! I would love to have an awesome, giant, collaborative list here! :)

The One with Adorable free Stuff

I'm having my very first GIVEAWAY!!!! Yep, I'm giddy.

I'm pretty excited because this stuff is adorable and could be used by anyone (not just moms).
I'll start with the non-mom stuff they have, and then get to the mom stuff.

The site is called www.CherryHillDesigns.com.  Their motto is "Label With Style". Who doesn't love labeling and organizing!?! Even if we aren't successful, we still strive to organize and have cute things, right? Thanks, Pinterest.

This giveaway is for a free $20 gift card!

What I'm newly excited about is their chalkboard labels. They are peel and stick, and are compatible with chalkboard markers as well. You can label just about anything with these. They come in a variety of sizes and shape choices (rectangle, oval, circle, scalloped). I know my teacher friends would think these are super cute! Sets range from $8.50-$10.50. Not bad! I want to order these so I can organize my pantry.

They also have address labels, gift tags, and other personalized household items. I appreciate that they usually give you a choice of cute fonts and colors.  I love their new iPad and iPhone cases!

For moms, they have the coveted waterproof labels. We own these. They can label anything from sippy cups, plates, pacifiers, bowls, toys, etc. We bought a set so we could tell the difference between Charlotte and Emily's bottles and pacis. They go through a beating! We wash them daily and they haven't peeled off in 8 months.  We also use the steam bags to sterilize their pacifiers and they still are sticking strong!

Labels are a "must" for moms of twins, or moms that have kids in daycare/church nursery.  These are much cuter than writing with a sharpie, and they don't rub off! We bought a set that has 48 mini labels for only $10, and haven't even used half of them yet! Adorable and affordable.

                                                                     (our tiny labels!)

They also have personalized melamine plates & bowls, diaper bag tags, clothing labels, and so much more. Their site shows you all of your font and color options.

I will randomly draw 1 winner of a FREE $20 gift card to this site!!!

Here's how to enter:
-Check out their website at www.cherryhilldesigns.com

-Comment below about what you would use your $20 gift card towards if you won! (anyone can comment, you don't have to sign in or anything)

-You get extra entries for:
           -"sharing" this blog link on facebook
           -liking Cherry Hill Designs on facebook
           -bravely commenting if we're friends on facebook but you're afraid to comment because you   think you're stalking me. You're probably not stalking me. It's cool. I like you. I deleted all the weirdos on my facebook.

Just leave a comment below for each one of these things you do. Example:

Comment 1:
Hey Liz! I'm Tina, your long lost friend. I'd buy a super cute owl label set for my baby with the $20!
Comment 2:
Tina again. I liked Cherry Hill Designs on Facebook.
Comment 3. 
It's Tina. I shared your blog link! Now I have 3 entries in your giveaway. 

The end. Easy, huh?
Get hypothetical shopping, people! :)

Giveaway ends at midnight May 9th (my birthday!)
Make sure you check back May 10th to see if you are a winner!

The one with stuff I like

It's "Stuff I Like" Saturday! It's where I tell you all about my favorite things.
But not in an Oprah way.
Let's just say that when I really like something, I want to tell the world about it. I get giddy about silly things. For example, my favorite pen of all time, the Bic Atlantis (go buy one now, you'll never go back).  If I like my food when we're out to dinner, I will REALLY want you to try it. Possibly to the point where it might annoy you.  I don't mean to be pushy; I sincerely want you to be as happy and giddy as I am at that very moment. So here goes...

Thing #1.  Duncan Hines "Simple Mornings" Blueberry Streusel Muffins

My hubby and I are trying to start family traditions now that we have the girls. We want to have "happy weekend mornings" in which we wake up, listen to upbeat music, and have a fun breakfast. (i.e, not cereal.) It gives us something to look forward to. We really want the girls to be excited to wake up on the weekends so we can be productive and spend quality time together. We want Sunday mornings to be positive for them, rather than, "Hurry up! We are late, throw some clothes on and sing to Jesus or you're grounded." Naturally, muffins, cinnamon rolls, or pancakes are the way to go. Some might call it bribing with food. Others might call it "providing positive correlations" via pastries.

Anyways, these muffins are really great for boxed ones. They are quick and delicious.  The best part is that it comes with this fun crumbly streusel topping that you sprinkle on top. Also, all the ingredients are natural, so there isn't any corn syrup bleh in it.

Thing #2. Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Products 

                                                        (my real life sink and laundry room shelf!)

I could go on and on. I use their hand soap, dish soap, laundry detergent, fabric softener, and countertop spray. Ironically, I heard about these products on a blog I read. Dang, that girl was more obsessed than I could ever be. With good reason.

The best things about these are:
a) They smell AWESOME. They don't have any crazy harsh, fume-y chemicals in them, and everything is plant-based and aromatherapeutic. I first started using them when I got pregnant and I was super sensitive to smells.  I love the basil, lemon verbena, and lavender scents. If people are coming over, I just spray down my countertops, wipe them down, and the house smells fresh and nice. When I had the babies and people came to help me, everyone always commented on my detergent smell!

b) The containers adorable. I know this might sound shallow. But I firmly believe that if you need something sitting out 24/7 in your house, it might as well be aesthetically pleasing. Nobody likes looking at a giant, 2-foot aqua bottle of Dawn at their sink. The packaging and graphic design have a retro look to them that is cute and simple, so I don't mind having them sit out all day long.

The cons are that they don't sell this stuff everywhere, although my Target carries a lot of their stuff now. I recently found the hand soap at my Wal-Mart! If you want a more extensive line of their products (toilet bowl cleaner, etc) you will have to go to Central Market or perhaps Whole Foods. Mrs. Meyer's stuff is more expensive as well, but it's not ridiculous.  I guess if you were feeling really "thrifty" you could buy the soap bottles for your counter and refill them with cheaper soap. That does defeat the whole good-smelling point though. I think the hand soap is around $3 and the detergent is $16 or something.  http://www.mrsmeyers.com/Products/Laundry

That's all for now. In the meantime, enjoy this of my children enthralled with my hubby's storytime.