It's funny, before I was a parent, there were products that seemed completely ridiculous and like a waste of money. Now that I have a super active toddler, I'm rethinking my stance on some of these. Don't get me wrong, there are some that I still think are a total waste of money, like cart and high chair covers...don't get me wrong, I do wish I had come up with it first, as I see these everywhere. Whoever came up with them is likely very well off financially. But I won't be purchasing one, partly because I need one more thing to carry in my diaper bag like I need a hole in my head. The other reason is that I am not germaphobic at all. I can hit the cart with a baby wipe or cart wipe if I feel like it needs it, and I truly believe that germs cannot live long enough on hard plastic and metal to make my kid really sick. Some of the things I thought were good ideas but not worth spending money have turned out to be some of my favorite travel items. We spend a fair amount of time in the car...to and from daycare and other local outings and also one to two hour rides to visit family on a fairly regular basis. So we have to have at least two Munchkin snack cups and Dwink juice box holders - one for each car. In reality this means we have more, because they come inside to ride through the dishwasher and sometimes to be used in the house. We limit food to the kitchen for the most part, so the snack cups are not essential for in the house, but are a life saver in the car. They get used pretty much every single day either for cereal on the way to daycare or animal crackers or Teddy Grahams or similar as an after school snack. Juice boxes tend to be an away from home thing too, since we use cups at home...and juice is more of a treat than a regular thing. I also like to water it down since I think it is too sweet undiluted, and so I like the little Fruitables juice boxes that combine fruit and vegetable juices. These are 66% juice, but looking at the ingredients, it appears that this is because of the addition of filtered water, so I believe they are watering them down for me. If I am wrong about this, please correct me, as I would like to know if I am missing something here. Anyway, these are only 4 oz, so I was concerned that they wouldn't fit in a juice box holder. The Dwink is perfect though, because you just turn the little Fruitables boxes sideways and pop it right in and it holds it firmly. I am not a fan of having a juice fountain spraying all over when out in public (or in the backseat of my car), so I love this product.
Now I just need to find the best sippy cup...though I am starting to think we own every sippy ever made. Some day I'll find it. Probably the day before my daughter stops using sippy cups altogether!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
February Blahs
Happy Valentine's Day! Or...welcome to mid-February! Valentine's Day isn't a big deal in our house, though it was fun cutting hearts out of red construction paper with my daughter and letting her color all over them for her friends. She had a blast, which I love. I think she will be asking to make more hearts for the next few months though. It took us a couple of weeks to make 10 of them, so she doesn't seem to associate them with just one day. That's alright. Hearts are within my repertoire. Hearts and snowflakes. That's pretty much the extent of my artistic scissor skills. I think I have another year or so before my daughter outgrows both of those. One night when we were working together on the valentines, my daughter started responding to questions with, "Yes, ma'am." At first, I thought I heard her wrong. It's now a regular part of her vocabulary. I think it's cute, especially because she uses it to respond to her daddy also.
February is my least favorite month of the year. It's the shortest, but grayest, month in the mid-Atlantic region. Though this year hasn't really been that cold, which has been nice. I love snow, don't get me wrong...in fact, this time of year, I actually prefer snow to rain because at least snow is pretty. It covers up all the gray and beige dead grass and mud. I am not missing that bone chilling wind that we usually have this time of year, that usually comes with the snow. I'm thinking that we guaranteed it won't be super cold this winter by putting an insert woodstove into our fireplace. I LOVE the woodstove. I can't say it enough. Warm and toasty, pretty, energy efficient. All fabulous things. The less oil we have to purchase, the happier I am. A beautiful flickering fire is one way to fight the winter blahs.
Another way to fight the blahs is to go somewhere warm on vacation. Generally, this is not something that we do because 1) it is expensive and 2) flying or spending a long period of time (more than 3 hours) in a car with a small child is not my idea of relaxation. So we found somewhere close to home to get that warm weather illusion. We spent a few days last week at Great Wolf Lodge out in the Poconos. It only took about an hour and a half to get there, which is perfect. Of course, no trip is without it's kinks, but we got those out of the way early this time...our toddler refused to take her nap in the car on the way, despite the fact that it was naptime and she was exhausted, and I realized when I went to check us in that I didn't have my wallet with me. Both things worked themselves out. Happily, my husband had his wallet with him and the lodge let us switch over to that without issue. Our room was ready early, thank goodness, and so we went and napped before hitting the waterpark. Yup, that's right, the appeal of this place is that it has a big indoor waterpark which is always 84 degrees. It's also open until 9 pm, so we felt no pressure to gamble with skipping naptime or pushing back meals. It was so relaxing. I was a little worried that they wouldn't have much for a small 2 year old to do, but there was a ton of stuff. She's a water bug. She loved it there...she would live there if she could.
THE GOOD:
There were a couple things that were really great about this place. The biggest advantage? You don't have to leave the building. You can walk around in flip flops and shorts for your entire stay. This provides a nice illusion of summer. The water park was really clean, and there were plenty of lifeguards who were clearly well trained. I feel like I am qualified to make that statement, having been a lifeguard for a little over 10 years in the not so distant past. There are slides for all ages...short slides, long slides, kids only slides, slides with tubes for one or two, slides you didn't need to drag a tube upstairs for, a four person tube slide...I think that's all of them, but I'm probably missing one or two. There are many pools, a tree house, you name it, they have it in the waterpark. We hit most of it. There were a couple slides that were for two people over a certain height requirement, so we didn't get to those. Maybe next time we'll join forces with another family, it would give us more options in terms of the adults getting to go on slides.
My daughter's favorite was the wave pool. She treated it just like the ocean - she walked right in and kept going, because she thinks that she can swim. She can't. She's too little to be able to keep her body afloat on her own still. But she's on her way, and I think now we are going to join the YMCA and start going to the swimming class for her age group.
We had pizza the first night that we were there. They have two pizza places, one is their own, the other is a Pizza Hut Express. We skipped the Pizza Hut, as the in-house pizza was really good. It's a takeout place, so we ate in our room, which had a dining table. I'm pretty sure that all of the rooms had a wet bar, which I thought was silly until we got there. It's really just a counter with a sink, a microwave, and a nice size small refrigerator. It came in super handy for rinsing and filling up both regular and sippy cups. Next time we will definitely bring some food with us to cut down food costs/increase healthy eating.
Something they had that I really liked because it was super convenient was that the room key was integrated into the waterpark wristband. So easy, and always on your person. No getting locked out of the room, which was a definite plus. I liked that I didn't have to schlep anything to the waterpark. Just us, in our bathing suits and cover ups. They had towels there for us, still warm from the dryer.
I also noticed some random things while we were there. The staff were very helpful and friendly. They were both well-trained and genuinely nice to us. One of my pet peeves is forced and insincere courtesy. If these people hate their jobs and that they had to put up with me and my family, it didn't show. It was a refreshing change to experience true customer service. The other random observation was that they had recycling receptacles all over the site, including in the room. I love that! I hate having to put a plastic bottle or paper in the regular trash just because I am on vacation. If anything, I consume more bottled beverages on vacation than at home, so it really bugs me. I have had to consciously talk myself into throwing bottles into the trash at hotels or amusement parks because I hate doing it. Recycling is like putting on my seatbelt when I get in the car - it is ingrained so deep that it is really hard for me to reverse it. I am the same way about composting at home, but I am not to the point where I expect to see compost buckets in public places. Yet.
THE BAD:
It can be expensive - we did really well booking an early bird special, and the prices clearly go up around holidays and spring break. We went during the week and left on Friday, I can only imagine how crowded it must be on the weekends. It was exponentially more crowded as we were leaving than it was during our stay.
Something that we didn't have to deal with was the blatant marketing of 'extras' directly to kids. There were stuffed animals, a story wand scavenger hunt type thing, a costume shop, a kids' spa, a bowling alley, an arcade, and a monstrous gift shop, all clearly designed to have children begging from the instant they step through the door. If we go back when she's bigger, there will be clear expectations set ahead of time on what will be out of bounds.
THE UGLY:
Yeah, I really don't have anything for this one except that the wolf/bear/moose southwestern deco themed wall paper, upholstery and carpets was pretty ugly. In some parts of the lodge it was headache inducing. So don't look to hard at the carpet or the walls. :)
THE JURY IS STILL OUT:
There are a few things I can't comment on because we didn't try them. There is a spa, which looked very nice from the outside (I walked past it on the way to the waterpark), but I never actually set foot inside. We also didn't go bowling, visit the kid spa or basically do anything else that cost extra. We also didn't eat at the buffet for lunch or dinner.
All in all, it was a great little trip. Only one tantrum, which may be a record, and she was over tired when it hit, so I kinda saw it coming. She slept the whole way home. I arrived home more relaxed than I usually do from vacation, and would love to go back. I think I'm going to be keeping an eye out for Great Wolf special deals from now on...
February is my least favorite month of the year. It's the shortest, but grayest, month in the mid-Atlantic region. Though this year hasn't really been that cold, which has been nice. I love snow, don't get me wrong...in fact, this time of year, I actually prefer snow to rain because at least snow is pretty. It covers up all the gray and beige dead grass and mud. I am not missing that bone chilling wind that we usually have this time of year, that usually comes with the snow. I'm thinking that we guaranteed it won't be super cold this winter by putting an insert woodstove into our fireplace. I LOVE the woodstove. I can't say it enough. Warm and toasty, pretty, energy efficient. All fabulous things. The less oil we have to purchase, the happier I am. A beautiful flickering fire is one way to fight the winter blahs.
Another way to fight the blahs is to go somewhere warm on vacation. Generally, this is not something that we do because 1) it is expensive and 2) flying or spending a long period of time (more than 3 hours) in a car with a small child is not my idea of relaxation. So we found somewhere close to home to get that warm weather illusion. We spent a few days last week at Great Wolf Lodge out in the Poconos. It only took about an hour and a half to get there, which is perfect. Of course, no trip is without it's kinks, but we got those out of the way early this time...our toddler refused to take her nap in the car on the way, despite the fact that it was naptime and she was exhausted, and I realized when I went to check us in that I didn't have my wallet with me. Both things worked themselves out. Happily, my husband had his wallet with him and the lodge let us switch over to that without issue. Our room was ready early, thank goodness, and so we went and napped before hitting the waterpark. Yup, that's right, the appeal of this place is that it has a big indoor waterpark which is always 84 degrees. It's also open until 9 pm, so we felt no pressure to gamble with skipping naptime or pushing back meals. It was so relaxing. I was a little worried that they wouldn't have much for a small 2 year old to do, but there was a ton of stuff. She's a water bug. She loved it there...she would live there if she could.
THE GOOD:
There were a couple things that were really great about this place. The biggest advantage? You don't have to leave the building. You can walk around in flip flops and shorts for your entire stay. This provides a nice illusion of summer. The water park was really clean, and there were plenty of lifeguards who were clearly well trained. I feel like I am qualified to make that statement, having been a lifeguard for a little over 10 years in the not so distant past. There are slides for all ages...short slides, long slides, kids only slides, slides with tubes for one or two, slides you didn't need to drag a tube upstairs for, a four person tube slide...I think that's all of them, but I'm probably missing one or two. There are many pools, a tree house, you name it, they have it in the waterpark. We hit most of it. There were a couple slides that were for two people over a certain height requirement, so we didn't get to those. Maybe next time we'll join forces with another family, it would give us more options in terms of the adults getting to go on slides.
My daughter's favorite was the wave pool. She treated it just like the ocean - she walked right in and kept going, because she thinks that she can swim. She can't. She's too little to be able to keep her body afloat on her own still. But she's on her way, and I think now we are going to join the YMCA and start going to the swimming class for her age group.
We had pizza the first night that we were there. They have two pizza places, one is their own, the other is a Pizza Hut Express. We skipped the Pizza Hut, as the in-house pizza was really good. It's a takeout place, so we ate in our room, which had a dining table. I'm pretty sure that all of the rooms had a wet bar, which I thought was silly until we got there. It's really just a counter with a sink, a microwave, and a nice size small refrigerator. It came in super handy for rinsing and filling up both regular and sippy cups. Next time we will definitely bring some food with us to cut down food costs/increase healthy eating.
Something they had that I really liked because it was super convenient was that the room key was integrated into the waterpark wristband. So easy, and always on your person. No getting locked out of the room, which was a definite plus. I liked that I didn't have to schlep anything to the waterpark. Just us, in our bathing suits and cover ups. They had towels there for us, still warm from the dryer.
I also noticed some random things while we were there. The staff were very helpful and friendly. They were both well-trained and genuinely nice to us. One of my pet peeves is forced and insincere courtesy. If these people hate their jobs and that they had to put up with me and my family, it didn't show. It was a refreshing change to experience true customer service. The other random observation was that they had recycling receptacles all over the site, including in the room. I love that! I hate having to put a plastic bottle or paper in the regular trash just because I am on vacation. If anything, I consume more bottled beverages on vacation than at home, so it really bugs me. I have had to consciously talk myself into throwing bottles into the trash at hotels or amusement parks because I hate doing it. Recycling is like putting on my seatbelt when I get in the car - it is ingrained so deep that it is really hard for me to reverse it. I am the same way about composting at home, but I am not to the point where I expect to see compost buckets in public places. Yet.
THE BAD:
It can be expensive - we did really well booking an early bird special, and the prices clearly go up around holidays and spring break. We went during the week and left on Friday, I can only imagine how crowded it must be on the weekends. It was exponentially more crowded as we were leaving than it was during our stay.
Something that we didn't have to deal with was the blatant marketing of 'extras' directly to kids. There were stuffed animals, a story wand scavenger hunt type thing, a costume shop, a kids' spa, a bowling alley, an arcade, and a monstrous gift shop, all clearly designed to have children begging from the instant they step through the door. If we go back when she's bigger, there will be clear expectations set ahead of time on what will be out of bounds.
THE UGLY:
Yeah, I really don't have anything for this one except that the wolf/bear/moose southwestern deco themed wall paper, upholstery and carpets was pretty ugly. In some parts of the lodge it was headache inducing. So don't look to hard at the carpet or the walls. :)
THE JURY IS STILL OUT:
There are a few things I can't comment on because we didn't try them. There is a spa, which looked very nice from the outside (I walked past it on the way to the waterpark), but I never actually set foot inside. We also didn't go bowling, visit the kid spa or basically do anything else that cost extra. We also didn't eat at the buffet for lunch or dinner.
All in all, it was a great little trip. Only one tantrum, which may be a record, and she was over tired when it hit, so I kinda saw it coming. She slept the whole way home. I arrived home more relaxed than I usually do from vacation, and would love to go back. I think I'm going to be keeping an eye out for Great Wolf special deals from now on...
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