UrbanBaby Buzz

New York Times best-selling authors Karen Tack and Alan Richardson of Hello, Cupcake! and What’s New, Cupcake? are back and this time, it’s not just cupcakes. Cupcakes, Cookies & Pie, Oh, My! includes some surprising and spectacular projects that turn pound cakes, cookies, pies, cheesecake, and Jell-O, into entertaining desserts.

As you’re busy planning Valentine’s Day treats for your loved ones, you might be inspired to prepare something a bit more unique this year with chapters that include: build a pet, make ‘em laugh, animal planet, guys and dolls, life of the party, and holidazed.

If you’d love to meet the authors and watch them work their magic with high heeled cupcakes and more, join them for an event in at Sur La Table, NYC on Feb. 15th (click here for more information).

Available at Amazon.com and Independent Booksellers

Peas of Mind is a San Francisco company started by a mom who despaired of finding healthier snack (read: junk) food for her family. The result? Found in the frozen food aisles of Whole Foods and Targets nationwide. Peas of Mind offers Puffets, hockey-pucks of rice, pasta, and vegetables, Veggie Wedges, French fries made out of things other than potatoes, and new Peas of Pie, with broccoli and carrots kneaded into the crust.

The vegetable content is not that dazzling really: 1.5 vegetable servings for pies that supposedly serve 3. Considering that most moms think of “sauce” as the vegetable in a pizza, a tiny bit more vegetable content isn’t that thrilling. However, after buying a Peas of Pie cheese pizza at a local Whole Foods store and giving it a try, I’d have to say, it’s pretty good. If you didn’t know to look for them, you’d never see the veg-flecks, and the crust is tender and well-flavored, the sauce tangy but not spicy. I’ll buy it again.

Highlights from the boards for the week of Jan 26th – Feb 1st:

Baby Subconsciously Wants to Spend More Time with Nanny… (18 Reply)
DB always sleeps later on days when I’m home vs when the nanny is here. She also naps better for me. Do you think she subconsciously wants to spend more time with her nanny than with me? Signed, First Time Mom.

WOHMs: Who Supervises Your DC’s Homework Progress… (35 Replies)
Who supervises your DC’s homework progress if you don’t get home from work until about 6 or later? Anticipating needing to at least sit down with DC once he starts to have homework next year, just to help teach him good habits and set up a good pattern that he can later do on his own. But if I get home after 6, then we do family dinner at 6:30 or 7, then bath, then bed by 8pm, I just don’t see when or if I can help him. What do other WOHMs do? Does your nanny (if you have one) help with this?

Tuition Entitles Me to Tell the Teacher What I Expect… (13 Replies)
Private school moms: Do you feel like because you pay tuition, you’re entitled to “tell the teacher” what you expect, etc? My DC goes to a wonderful religious school in CA. I was surprised when another mother was talking after school today that the reason she sends her kids to our school is because she feels that she’s paying them to hear what she has to say about how the school is run–and more importantly, how it should be run. Does anyone else feel this way?

Babysitting MIL Invites Friends Over When Watching My DCs… (7 Replies)
I know this really isn’t a big deal but my mil (whom I adore in general) helps us with dc sometimes. She’s great with him (if way lax with the rules) the thing that gets me is that she keeps inviting people to hang out with her, whom I don’t know really well. I don’t get advance notice so the house is a mess and sometimes I only find out after. I don’t want to say anything because we’re so grateful for the help but I just wish she’d give a days notice. Yesterday I had bras drying in the bathroom, the house needed a vaccuuming and there was no bread in the house. It just embarasses me.

Miscellany

What Will You Do to Prevent Your DS from Teenage Pregnancy? (25 Replies)

Career Moms: What are Your Opinions on Working Past 5 pm? (54 Replies)

Raise a DD Comfortable with her Body & Values Health Over Simply Being Thin (5 Replies)

We’ve seen robot matryoshkas. We’ve seen punk rock matryoshkas. We’ve seen monster matryoshkas, Rolling Stones matryoshkas, and male matryoshkas. But no one’s ever seen the best matryoshkas of all: the ones featuring your family.

Chalkboard Matryoshkas come blank, with blackboard coating on the outside, and several sticks of chalk to draw yourself (or whatever you like). If you’re a family of 6, draw all the kids inside mommy and daddy, or use the extra to draw pets, friends, or whatever you think would go nicely inside the family pod.

Chalkboard Matroshkas, $15.50

Tori Spelling is not exactly known as an icon of taste and style. Which is why I was so surprised to love the pieces of her Little Maven line. Apparently, Tori goes in for silkscreened fool-the-eye patterns. They’re all over Little Maven, including ones with scarves, purses, and very cool old-fashioned suspenders.

Spelling, or whomever’s designing for her, also has a nice eye for colors. They’re just off-kilter enough to be interesting, but not screaming/jarring like Hannah Andersson’s or the eye-gouging palates at Gymboree. There are a lot of comfortable high-quality knits, and upscale touches, like enclosed seams, piping, dress linings, and very soft fabric tags. Prints are often inspired by vintage designers, like Missoni or Marimekko. There’s a general casual beachiness to the clothing, and it washes and wears very nicely.

Unfortunately, the distributor that dealt with Little Maven, Hartstrings, went out of business last year. Little Maven’s website has been under construction ever since. Plenty of pieces are still out there in stores, however, and online. Best Dressed Tot has a bunch, as does La Bella Flora Children’s Boutique and, as always, eBay. Worth seeking out.

Is your household a bit too reminiscent of a “Nanny 911″ episode that you’d like? If you could all use a refresher course in how to talk to each other calmly and reach solutions, you might want to reach for a reliable source, now updated for this generation.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish is now available in the 30th Anniversary edition with new insights as well as paperback and e-book format.

It has been hailed as the “parenting bible” with over 3 million copies in print across 30 countries worldwide. If you haven’t read it yet, there is no excuse (there are even cartoons). It will help you build a solid foundation with your child as you solve everyday problems together. Learn how to:

* Cope with your child’s negative feelings.
* Express your strong feelings without being harmful.
* Set firm limits and maintain goodwill
* Use alternatives to punishment that promote self-discipline.
* Resolve family conflicts peacefully.

It’s still January after all - the season of making resolutions for the New Year. Maybe the skills and practices in this book are just what you need for creating a more peaceful year for the whole family.

Have you been buying applesauce and other fruit in squeeze-packs for your baby or your kids’ lunches? They sure are convenient! But evil. The squeeze packs are both made from non-sustainable materials (namely, plastic made from petrochemicals) and non-recyclable after use. Kind of a burden on the ol’ landfill just so you can give it to him without a spoon, huh?

But there is a reusable alternative. Beaba Babypote is like a soft silicone version of those packs. You put purees or mashes in the wide-mouthed top of the jar, screw on the top, and baby sucks them out. Yes, you’ll have to collect and wash it at the end. But isn’t two minutes of your time ladling in pre-made applesauce, yogurt, or your own purees easier than that convenient squeeze pack enduring in a landfill for thousands of years?

Beaba Babypote, $15

Highlights from the boards for the week of Jan 129h – Jan 25th:

How to Keep Kids Healthy... (24 Replies)
Desperate question: How do you keep your kids healthy? Mine are ALWAYS sick. 4 yo in nursery school, 2 yo in a 2s program 2 days a week and 6mo. Baby just got over RSV during holidays and is sick again. Any tips?

New MD Suggested I Stop Taking Multivitamin… (11 Replies)
Advocates getting I what need from my (healthy) diet. Any MD moms here? What do people think of this advice? Am 34 and hope to begin family planning in 1-2 years. Like this new MD, but am nervous about this.

My DD’s Nice Mormon Friend is Not Allowed at Our House Anymore… (56 Replies)
DD, age 8, has a Mormon friend in her class. The friend came over for a play date and the girls get along really well. Both are well-behaved and academic equals. My dd and I could pass for Mormons (not that we are). Our values and lifestyles are very similar. We are a very traditional normal family. Today DD came home and said her friend was sad because her mom told her she couldn’t have any more play dates at our house. DD doesn’t understand why. Is it because we are not Mormon? Or, is there something I am missing?

DH Obsessed with Money and Security… (15 Replies)
My dh grew up wealthy (new money) and now is obsessed with achieving what his parents achieved. I respect it, but the obsession is starting to interfere with our life. He is miserable everyday, never sees dc, doesn’t want a 2nd child and we never go/do anything. We are certainly not poor. Our house is paid off and I stay at home and we save roughly 100k/year.

Miscellany

What Do You Call MIL (24 Replies)

Freaked Out About the Boys Today Who My Daughter Will Date in High School (96 Replies)

Teaching Our Boys to Respect Women and Treat Them Well (10 Replies)

When an infant has a cold, you’d do just about anything to get his nose clear so you can all sleep. Up to and including jamming one of those mucus-sucking syringes into his nose while he screams. Only, they don’t work. All they do is make baby cry harder.

NoseFrida works, even though the idea is completely gross. It’s basically a tiny gas-siphoning setup. If you’ve ever hung out with delinquents you’ll recognize it. One end goes in baby’s nose, one end goes in the parent’s mouth, a filter in between makes sure you don’t actually get anything gross in your mouth. Two minutes later, baby’s breathing freely again, and there’s no need to spend the rest of the night in a hot, steamy bathroom.

NoseFrida, $15

Released during Disney’s late ’70s doldrums, when material like The Black Hole and Robin Hood was failing to connect with audiences, 1977’s The Rescuers actually didn’t do badly at the box office. The tale of two heroic mice who rescue a plucky orphan girl from a wicked villainess had everything going for it: star power (with voices from Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor), a terrific source novel written by Margery Sharp, and beautiful animation.

Yet over the years, The Rescuers has faded from attention. It’s ready for another look. The old-school animation is stunning; every bit as lovely as that from acclaimed indie art films like The Triplets of Belleville. The story, an adventure yarn about the ultimate underdogs rescuing a hapless human, is exciting without being nightmarish. Characters are vividly drawn, and unique: Miss Bianca, for example (Eva Gabor), one of the titular Rescuers, is high-class and elegant, yet doughty and courageous enough to volunteer to take on the dangerous task of rescuing orphan Penny from Madam Medusa. Medusa is intent on using the girl to find a mysterious diamond for her. Can you stand a spoiler? She doesn’t end up with the diamond.

The Rescuers is available on DVD and will be released on Blu-ray in March.