Ode to Golden Gate Park

There are so many things I love about living in San Francisco. Golden Gate Park has always been a favorite place and, now that we have Cal, I am falling in love with it all over again. From Koret Children's Quarter Playground (complete with vintage carousel!) to The California Academy of Sciences, to Stow Lake and Bison Paddock, there are so many amazing features to this truly remarkable oasis in the middle of the city. Cal has just started his park adventures and we look forward to many more to come!

Snappy Storage Solutions

It’s no secret that little ones come with a lot of stuff. As residents of a typical and not so spacious San Francisco abode, we have been fanatical about curtailing clutter in an effort to stop our cute little apartment from becoming overwhelmed with baby gear.

In addition to Cal’s bedroom shelves and adorable toy chest, we registered for storage bins that we knew we'd be happy to see in our living room. I love the bright punchy fox design on the  canvas toy bins from Three Sprouts and think the two we have add some fun to the apartment (they do contain toys after all!)  

We recently purchased a few additional soft collapsible boxes (on sale!) for the bottom section of our bookshelves so that when Cal becomes mobile (any day now!) he can access his toys easily and safely.

Here are some cute clutter toy containers – all are soft fabrics, collapsible (in case we want to easily store our storage down the line) and machine washable because, let’s face it, wash friendly is a prerequisite for pretty much everything we own these days!

Snap these goodies up top left to right: transportation, Dr. Seuss alphabet, owls and forest, brown geometric, blue and white print, blue stripe, fox, plain white canvas, yellow and white geometric 

Back to Bumpers

If you’ve had a baby recently, you are probably well aware of the controversy surrounding crib bumpers. When Cal was a newborn we read some pretty disturbing articles connecting an increased risk of SIDS to bumpers and promptly ripped the cushy little pads off of his crib. Oh evil bumpers – we wanted nothing to do with their potential airflow restriction and banished them to the top of our closet.

In the past few weeks, however, Cal has taken to rotating around the crib at lightning speed. Not one for gentle rolling, he propels himself with true gusto across his bed and must mush himself into the most contorted position possible before surrendering to a deep sleep. Many a night I find myself sneaking into his room in the wee hours and diligently re-positioning him into the recommended “back is best” location in the center of the crib only to find that, by the time I return to our bedside video monitor, he has flipped onto his front and is sprawled on his tummy, arms out,  a defiant starfish.

His nighttime romps recently became increasingly volatile. Last week, we were awakened by a panicked yelp and rushed to his to crib to find the poor guy had his arm stuck through the crib bar all the way up to his little shoulder. After a real tongue lashing from our bundle of rage, and a quick chat with our pediatrician, we conceded that a return to bumpers was necessary.

Our wild baby man can now flip himself across the crib with abandon. We have accepted that at this age - and given this baby’s activity level – the bumper is friend not foe.  This supports my general assumption that, as soon as we think we’ve figured something out, our little monkey will throw us a new curve ball.

I am no expert on bumpers or the potential dangers associated with them. Please consult your pediatrician for an expert opinion on the matter! 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to the amazing love of our lives and the cutest dinosaur in town! CALoween (yes, I went there) 2012 brought some super scary hurricane weather to Auntie Rosi and Grandma Rosie in New York and some spooky sniffles to our little family of thee here in SF.

Cal has, so far, managed to steer clear of the yucky cold Nick and I picked up (knock on a giant forest right now, please) and attended music class today outfitted appropriately along with an assortment of other costume clad cuties.

Thinking of our loved ones back East this Halloween and hoping for a safe and quick return to business as usual as soon as possible! 

Super Solids

This month, we started Cal on solids. Given our poor little munchkin’s bout with a pretty severe case of GERD in his early weeks of life (check out my tips on how to navigate that super fun journey here), we held off on this new adventure until he turned exactly six months. Since then, we have been introducing a new food every four days and so far so good!

I use the Beaba Babycook and this little gem has made steaming, blending and reheating extremely easy. I prepare the food on weekends, measure portions out into individual freezer trays, and we are all set for the week ahead!

Watching his little face as he explores new tastes and textures is truly a priceless experience. We started with rice cereal and then moved on to banana, avocado, butternut squash, and sweet potato. So far, I think avocado is the front running favorite but stay tuned as things progress!

Here are a few tips that have helped us along the way: 

1. Timing is everything. We aim for Cal’s happiest times in the day when he isn’t too hungry or likely to fuss. 

2. Simplify your spoon. Cal did not take to the spoon right away so we found feeding him from our finger worked well until he became more familiar with the process.

3. Model the method. Cal was happy enough “trying” solids early on but it was pretty apparent he didn’t actually know what to do with the food. We started taking a spoon ourselves and exaggeratedly “chewing” and swallowing and pretty soon he was following right along.

4. Bring a friend to the table.  To avoid restlessness, we bring a toy or two to the high chair to distract and refocus if he gets a little cranky.  

5. Know when to call it quits.  If Cal is over it, he is over it – and trying to proceed once we reach a frustration point is discouraging for all of us.  As with so many things, best to move on to something else and try again later!

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The Sitter’s Sitter

Last week, Nick and I indulged in not one, but two nights out of the home past 7pm at the same time. This is quite a remarkable feat for us having spent the last six months socializing in shifts so one of us is home to put the little one to bed.

The amazing Grandma Patti and her friend Nadine (a truly dynamic babysitting duo) took care of Cal on Saturday night so Nick and I could attend a party. Celebrating one of Nick’s good friend’s engagement was definitely a great reason to raise a glass, or four, but what I learned from this second night out was that the temporary freedom afforded by a wonderful care taker has its limits. Specifically, those limits become quite apparent at 5am when the wonderful babysitter has long since departed and you have a little early bird eagerly chirping from the room next door announcing his enthusiasm to start his day.

There is not enough water, Advil, and coffee in San Francisco to fake the energy needed to pull off this kind of early morning wake-up call with true gusto. Upon reaching the realization that the little bugger was not going back to sleep, I found myself whining into my pillow for Mary Poppins (or at that point, let’s face it, a Poppins intern on their first assignment would do) to magically appear and whisk little Cal into the living room for a few hours of quiet playtime while we slept off the night before. What I needed was a sitter’s sitter -someone to finish the job!

While at six months we are definitely turning a corner in terms of being more comfortable leaving Cal at night, I have to remember that, upon our return, our wonderful care takers will turn into pumpkins and we will ultimately be left with our own little pumpkin who has no idea that it is the weekend or that we might really need him to sleep in just 2 extra hours just this one time! I may have been too ambitious with two nights out in one week - take it easy with that return to socializing after hours, easy does it. 

Indian Summer

Summer has made it to San Francisco! As usual, the warm weather is showing up fashionably late around here providing a true Indian summer.  With the rest of the country breaking out the fall sweaters, we are soaking up some much deserved sun and today the high in the city reached 77 degrees!

While Nick and I stole wistful glances at the bright sunshiny day from our office windows, Cal beat the heat with Nanny R down the hill at Washington Square Park. With a little picnic blanket playtime (ahem –  note the unaided sitting position!) and a nice shady spot for lunch and follow-up nap, our adorable little munchkin really had it made.

We know the fog won’t hide out for long but we’ll happily take the t-shirt and bare leg weather as long as we can!