FitBit

22 Replies

It feels a little as if EVERYONE has a FitBit, so perhaps this post is unnecessary. But if you DON’T have one and you’re wondering what it’s LIKE, then I will tell you in time for you to add it to your wish list.

I have the clip-on FitBit (as opposed to the bracelet style). It’s the least expensive FitBit option and it looks like this:

(photo from Amazon.com)

I chose the green one. It was an agonizing decision.

You may notice it looks different in its two pictures: this is because it’s shown with and without its little protective case (the case has the clip on it). I think the case makes it look even prettier, because it’s a complementary shade of green that takes it from “is this green, or is this yellow?” to “green—a yellowish green, but it’s green.”

You can clip it to your bra strap, or you can clip to your pocket. I tried it both ways, and I much preferred the pocket; my mother prefers to clip hers to her bra, but this does make for an amusing sight if she’s trying to check her steps while we’re out in public. If you clip it to your pocket, you’re supposed to clip it to the INSIDE of your pocket: that way if it falls out of its little clip-case, it drops safely into your pocket. It also means that all you see from the outside is the little one-inch-by-1/4-inch stripe of clip, rather than the whole FitBit. This is something to take into account, though, before ordering one of the brighter colors: the green would be very noticeable against my jeans if I didn’t always wear long shirts.

I’ve had the FitBit for just over 2 months now. I wondered if I would even like it, but I DO. In fact, I really, REALLY like it. And you know I am not an Exercise Person.

Here is what I like: it uses the kind of methods that are effective on me to encourage me to do the exercise I feel like I ought to be doing. I like the feeling of having someone monitor my good behavior approvingly: if I walk to my parents’ house instead of driving, someone NOTICES and makes a little SMILEY FACE about it. It’s why I like the Wii Fit, too: I like that someone is KEEPING TRACK. I get CREDIT. And I don’t know why it would be motivating to have a computer keep track uncaringly of steps or minutes or whatever, BUT IT IS. The downside is the same as for most such situations: it increases the feeling that if the monitoring stops, there’s no point behaving. If the FitBit stopped working one day and I knew it wasn’t recording my steps, my motivation would PLUMMET. Buuuuuuuuut….”plummeted” is near my USUAL level of motivation, so not much lost, and lots gained.

Here is what the dashboard (on the computer) looks like:

(screen shot from FitBit.com)

When I first set it up, I changed the step goal to 2000 because I didn’t have any idea how many steps I might already be doing, and I didn’t want to get discouraged right off the bat. (The miles and active-minutes goals are also adjustable.) After awhile, I raised the step goal to 5,000, and then to 7,000, then to 10,000.

You get badges (little pictures on your dashboard) for meeting milestones: your first 5,000 steps in a single day; your first 5 miles; etc. They’d be more fun if there were more of them: after meeting all the early goals, the later goals feel so unlikely. Also, I don’t like the feeling it gives me that NOTHING IS EVER GOOD ENOUGH. “You went 30,000 steps in a single day? Great! NOW DO MORE.” Also-also, I want to see all my badges in little rows like on a Girl Scouts vest, not just the one they consider “top.”

I like that it differentiates among the intensities of different kinds of walking. Like, if I am strolling around Target, leaning on the cart handle indolently while sipping a coffee and barely lifting my feet, those steps are orange (“light”); but if I am out on a walk, those steps are yellow (“moderate”) and/or green (“very”). The colors can be a little tricky because each line’s color represents the steps done in that 15-minute period. So you can do 5 minutes of fast walking and 10 minutes of sitting down and end up with an orange or yellow line, no green showing—and yet the Very Active Minutes dial will still count those 5 minutes. (Someone who is Very Active Indeed may resent the level the FitBit considers Very Active: if I walk just over 2 miles/hour, it registers as Very Active.)

There was a calorie tile, too, but I took it out because I found it perplexing/upsetting/unhelpful, and because my latest attempt at improving overall health is trying not to get discouraged and give up when healthful moderate exercise doesn’t seem to result in being willowy and underweight, and trying to focus on exercise being good for overall health ANYway, especially now that I am in my Elder Years. But it’s interesting because it tracks ALL estimated calorie usage, including while you’re asleep, not just “exercise calories,” and so maybe I will use it later on.

You can see over to the right of the dashboard screen that you can be friends with people and see their steps, and it ranks you in order and declares a weekly winner. But I think I would find that kind of competition discouraging and/or upsetting and/or annoying. I MIGHT add Paul, if he were to get a FitBit—but I can picture getting annoyed and unfriending him.

I worried that it would be a pain to set up, but it was not. I wish I could remember how much personal information it asked for, because that’s the kind of thing I like to know before setting up something online. I notice that my weekly email from them is addressed to “Kristen Surname Initial,” so presumably it doesn’t make you put in a full/real name. I think it’s first and last name (though I used an initial) and user name and password; also I think height and weight. Then you plug a little nubbin into a USB port on your computer, and you hold up the FitBit, and it syncs up. Thereafter, it automatically syncs every time you get near your computer. (There are separate instructions for setting it up with a smartphone or tablet.) My mom almost never checks on her computer, and always looks at the FitBit itself; I almost never look at the FitBit itself, but I have the FitBit window always open in a tab on my computer.

The email level is nice. FitBit emails once a week to tell you your previous week’s summary: how many total steps, how many total miles, how many average steps/miles per day, highest/lowest daily steps/miles. It also nags you to set up the sleep tracker, but the type of device I have doesn’t DO sleep, I don’t think. FitBit also sends an email each time you earn a badge.

So! The FitBit is one of those devices that seemed very expensive to me for something I wasn’t even sure I would LIKE or USE—but now that I have it, if it broke I would buy a new one WITHIN THE HOUR and I would pay extra for overnight shipping. It’s made a significant difference in how I feel about exercise and how willing I am to do it. If I have to park far away, I think, “Yay, more steps!” If I JUST came upstairs and realize I need something else from downstairs, I think, “Well, I’ll get more steps.” If I’m at 8,000 steps for a day, I’ll think, “Hm, maybe I’ll go for a little walk!”

It takes me from “Very Unmotivated to Exercise” to “Just the Right Amount of Motivated.” That is, I feel a little uncomfortable if I don’t meet the step goal, but I don’t change my life in negative ways (finking out on other plans, staying up past bedtime, forcing myself to exercise even when I’m sick or hurt) in order to meet it. I’m not sure I would recommend it for anyone who feels they might get a little obsessive about it, or who finds themselves prone to “Nothing is ever enough” feelings.

This would also not be ideal for someone who gets a lot of physical activity in non-step-taking ways: I imagine it would be quite frustrating to lift weights all afternoon and then have a frowny-face on your FitBit as if you’d been eating Reese’s Peanut Butter Trees and reading People magazine.

Goodwill Shopping

30 Replies

Yesterday at Goodwill I found a purple velour skirt-and-shirt set for Elizabeth. I’m never sure what she’ll end up liking/disliking, but she went NUTS for it. It was extremely satisfying: I laundered it yesterday evening and she put it on first thing this morning and was dancing around with happiness. It cost $3.59, unless that was one of the ones that rang up as half-price, in which case it was more like $1.79.

I also bought a pair of flannel-lined Gap cargo pants for William. They cost $1.79, which was weird because right next to them was a boring logo Gap t-shirt in so-so condition marked up to $3.99 (everything in the kids’ section is $1.99 unless otherwise marked) (and then I get another 20 cents off because I have the $10/year Goodwill card that gets you 10% off). The pricing is a little inconsistent.

AND I found Edward a great Gap sweater, dark green with pine trees so it’s nice for Christmas but also nice for the rest of winter, $1.79. AND some other things, but I forget what. Which brings me to this:

Monique writes:

I was at Goodwill the other day and felt very lost. I thought of you and wanted a Swistle tutorial of how to shop at goodwill, including the the things you look at when you pick out clothes, how you know the clothes are good finds and how to pick the clothes you know your children will like. I know you have done posts in the past but I felt so very lost.

So it was just a thought if you felt like it.

Ah! I am new to this as well: our Goodwill opened only this past February. (Though we used to have one near us back when we were first married.) And it can definitely be overwhelming. It can also be UNDERwhelming: some days I go and I find NOTHING. Or I find lots of good stuff, but it’s stuff we don’t need. Or I find lots of good stuff, but it’s all been inexplicably marked way above usual prices. Or I find the entire atmosphere of the store depressing and I leave feeling sad.

Are you a list person? I find it very helpful to have a little list of things I’m looking for. For example, the first time I went to the new Goodwill, William needed sweaters: he was wearing the same three sweaters over and over and ignoring all his other shirts. Goodwill had ONE MILLION men’s sweaters, $4.99 each but many marked half price: each day a certain color of tag is half off. Many of them were the same Gap and Old Navy sweaters I’d been upset to see for $20-30 online, so I walked out that day with many, many sweaters.

Or, like, right now, Elizabeth wants knit jeggings. They have to be stretchy, they can’t be baggy. She’s quite particular. They have some jeggings like that at Target for $12.99, but while I wait for those to go on clearance I’m keeping an eye out at Goodwill to see if I can find some for $1.79 instead.

It happens pretty often that I go to Goodwill and I don’t find anything I’m looking for but I do find something else I want. This is the category a lot of people try to avoid (it’s a good way to end up with Too Much Stuff), but it’s how I ended up with a happy purple-velour daughter this morning. Or, like, Edward and Henry don’t really need any more shirts per se, but when I found a Mini Boden shirt in Edward’s size for $1.79 and a Lands’ End rainbow tie-dye hoodie in Henry’s size for $.89 ($1.99 but it was the tag color of the day plus I got the additional 10% off), I went right ahead and bought them and felt happy about it.

Goodwill was especially great when I was trying to get Elizabeth set up for sleep-away camp. I didn’t want to send clothes I minded if she lost/ruined. So I looked through the racks and specifically kept an eye out for the half-price tag color, and I got her a bunch of shorts and pants and shirts and a couple of sweatshirts, all in the $.89-$1.79 range.

I tend to look for BRANDS. If I like something I’ll buy it even if I don’t recognize the brand—but I already know I like Old Navy and The Children’s Place and Gap and Lands’ End and L.L. Bean, and I’m basically familiar with their prices, so I’m more likely to buy those. Periodically I find brands like Hanna Andersson or Mini Boden, and that’s always a thrill.

I check for rips and stains. I TRY to remember to test zippers and snaps and make sure all the buttons are there, but this is my biggest area of forgetfulness. Still, I’ve only lost one or two things that way.

Here is my usual path through the store, with what I’m looking for right now or have looked for recently:

1. Men’s section ($4.99 unless otherwise marked or tag-color-of-the-day). Sweaters for William (EXCELLENT success: I think a lot of guys get sweaters as gifts and never wear them, so I get new-looking Gap sweaters for $2.49 minus another 10%). Shorts and pants for Rob (medium success; a good way to see what 31×32 is like in a variety of brands). Barn jacket for Paul (no success yet). Sleeping pants for Rob (good success: $4.99 is too expensive considering after-Christmas clearances, but I’ve found several nice-condition, nice-brand pairs for $2.49). Hooded sweatshirts for Rob (no success yet). This is also where I found Rob a pair of great dress pants for $4.99 when he needed them for graduation, and I found Henry a tie for $.99 when he wanted one for a school event. T-shirts are $2.99, which is about what I pay for them on clearance at Target, but sometimes they have fun ones, or better brands than Target’s.

2. Kids’ section ($1.99 unless otherwise marked or tag-color-of-the-day). I basically go through the entire section from size 6 (Henry’s size) up. Right now I’m particularly looking for pants for Elizabeth, but the three little kids can usually stand to have some new clothes: the boys particularly are the third and fourth to wear the handmedowns, and sometimes styles have changed, and sometimes I’m just sick of some of the items. And Elizabeth would be happiest if she had every single clothing item in every single color and pattern, so this is a good way to increase her wardrobe. I’m especially happy when I find an item I’d like to own but am unsure if we’ll really USE—a raincoat for sleep-away camp, for example, or a nightgown when Elizabeth has been wanting a nightgown but I don’t think she’s going to like it, or see previous paragraph about the tie Henry wanted.

3. Dishes. This is where I found the Swistle-blue mugs (“Does this MUG coordinate with my WEB SITE?”). I don’t usually buy things in this section, but I always like to look.

4. Stationery/knickknacks/misc. I don’t usually find anything, but I like to look. The kids sometimes find something to spend their allowance on: a little animal figurine, a shaped candle.

Sections I don’t usually look in:

1. Books. Most of them are in the $2.99 range, tons of close-outs/remainders. More importantly, the books are in a huge unorganized jumble. I understand why it isn’t efficient to spend the time organizing them, but it does mean I don’t feel like looking at them.

2. Shoes. They don’t appeal to me, and I usually find them at 50-70% off at Target.

3. Toys. Huge messy aisle, and always crowded, and everything looks broken and lost-piecey. But the kids look here while I’m looking at clothes, and sometimes they find something and I buy it. We also had great luck with Beanie Babies: $.99 each, with tags.

4. Linens. They don’t appeal to me, and it’s too hard to figure out sizes.

I often glance in the women’s clothes, but the plus-size section is small and depressing (elastic waists! decorative sweatshirts!) so sometimes I just skip it.

I think Goodwill works especially well if you:

1. Enjoy that kind of shopping: it can take a lot of browsing to find good stuff, and if the browsing is unpleasant I doubt it works out as a money-saving strategy. Also, if the LOOKING isn’t also fun, then it seems like it would be way too discouraging to keep going back after those days where you find one single thing, or nothing at all.

2. Are relatively unpicky—or are picky in a way that meshes well with Goodwill. The Lands’ End hoodie had a little rip near the hood, and sometimes something has a small stain. I don’t really care about that: most of the kids’ clothes are handmedowns and ALREADY have little rips and stains. I also try to keep in mind how much worse clothes look when they’re in a big used jumble instead of prettily arranged on store racks, and how much better they look once I get them home.

3. Have relatively unpicky kids, and/or are good at keep straight what they will/won’t wear. Edward will wear anything. Rob won’t wear button-downs. William loves sweaters. Etc.

4. Don’t mind things occasionally NOT working out. If I get something home and think, “Oh, crap, I forgot to check the zipper—and it’s broken,” I’m disappointed, but I’m fine with tossing it out and losing the $1.79: I think of it as a donation to Goodwill, or as a Careless Tax on myself. Or sometimes, just as with things I buy at Target or Old Navy, the child doesn’t like the item and I end up donating it back to Goodwill.

5. Are willing (and have the space) to store things that are too big. It’s pretty common for me to find a great sweater in the size above William’s size, or a dress two sizes too big for Elizabeth. Sometimes I’ll pass it by, but sometimes it’s good enough to be worth the trouble of putting it aside for later.

6. Are in a lower income bracket than the average household in your Goodwill’s area. If you mostly buy Target clearance but your neighbors are donating Hanna Andersson and L.L. Bean and not shopping at Goodwill, you’re going to be very pleased with the goods/prices. If instead your whole community is shopping clearance sections and Goodwill, you might find nothing but pilly scraps.

I do like my Goodwill card, but it’s not a good deal for everyone: you have to buy $100 worth of stuff at Goodwill in a year just to BREAK EVEN on the $10 annual cost of the card.

Goodwill can be overwhelming at first even if you’re going to love it in the long run: it takes awhile to figure out the pricing system, and where things are. If you ARE going to love it, soon you’ll start feeling happy to go dig in your usual treasure-map places, and you’ll start bringing things home and feeling happy about your finds every time you see them come through the laundry.

Gift Ideas: Elementary School, Pre-Teen (Originally: 9-Year-Old Boy)

2 Replies

(An earlier version of this post originally appeared on Work It Mom / Milk and Cookies; I’m in the gradual and painstaking process of moving a number of them to this site.)

Last week, Stimey asked on Twitter for gift ideas for a 9-year-old boy. She was asking for a birthday, but the holidays are coming up. I’ve had two 9-year-old boys so far, and they do vary from boy to boy, but here are some of the things that have been successes:

(photo from Amazon.com)

Magic tricks. If you can stand the “Mom, look at this! …Oh, wait. Okay, now look! …Oh, wait. Okay, NOW,” it’s a great gift.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Sculpey modeling compound. This is Play-Doh for big kids: it’s significantly more expensive, but is also better to work with for fine details, and it doesn’t set until it’s baked. At our house the rule is that we make BIG things with Play-Doh, and we use Sculpey for small, careful projects.

(photo from Amazon.com)

InstaMorph. [Originally I linked to ShapeLock, because that’s what we tried, but when I looked on Amazon to see if they had it yet, I got results for InstaMorph, which looks like the same thing but without the high shipping cost.] This is not the most intriguing photo, but this stuff is AWESOME. It’s this hard plastic stuff, and when you put it in warm water it softens like modeling compound. And when it cools, it’s back to being hard plastic. We first bought the sample [of ShapeLock] (it’s free, but with $5 shipping, so I find it happier to think of it as a $5 sample with free shipping), and liked it so much we bought the biggest tub of it. The sample is enough to give as a small gift, since the big tub is a lot of money if you’re not sure if the child will like it.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. All the books in this series were well-liked at our house [by the kids, I mean], but I’m highlighting the journal-style one because normally I don’t think of journals as good gifts for boys, but this is one William saved his OWN MONEY for. When my boy-girl twins are older, I plan to do one birthday where Elizabeth gets a diary with a lock, and Edward will get this Boy Journal. [We’re doing that THIS VERY CHRISTMAS!]

(photo from Amazon.com)

Plasma ball. My dad chose this gift for the boys, and it was the hit of the party both times. It’s one of those things where when you touch the globe, “lightning” goes from the center to your finger.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Rock hammer. I don’t mind telling you that this gift scares me. I don’t even like the LOOK of it. But Paul chose it for William’s 9th birthday, and William has spent many, MANY happy hours shattering rocks in the driveway. We also got him multiple pairs of safety goggles, and a jeweler’s loupe for looking up-close. Scariest/best gift ever. [This was a long-term hit.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

Rubik’s Twist. My first boy liked Rubik’s Cubes, but my second boy found them frustrating. He had a lot more fun with the Twist, which doesn’t need to be solved and can just be played with.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Chemistry set. This is one of William’s ideas, which we decided NOT to get him—but we’re reconsidering for Christmas. [By Christmas, he was no longer asking for it.] I was worried about two things: (1) He’d find as boring as I found my own childhood chemistry set, and/or (2) he’d take the finish right off the table with it.

Gift Ideas: Elementary School and Pre-Teen (Originally: 9-Year-Old Girl)

Gift Ideas: Late Elementary School, Pre-Teen, Early Teen (Originally: 10-Year-Old Boy)

1 Reply

(An earlier version of this post originally appeared on Work It Mom / Milk and Cookies; I’m in the gradual and painstaking process of moving a number of them to this site.)

William turned 10 recently, and he had his first Big Friend Party (that is, the party was big: his friends are all standard-issue sizes), and he got a lot of presents he liked. This is the sort of thing that seems like it would make a good resource, since it seems like I am constantly feeling desperate to think of a good gift idea for a child I don’t know—especially when MY child, who is allegedly a friend of the birthday child, shrugs when asked what the birthday child might like.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Toysmith Crystal Mining Kit. This was the biggest hit, I’d say. It was a block of plaster with crystals hidden inside, and William spent several intense sessions working on chipping them out. It was a bit messy, but cleaned up easily. And there were more crystals in his chunk of plaster than were advertised on the box, which was pleasing. And now William’s older brother is saving his allowance to buy his own kit, and William’s younger sister has been saying she hopes she gets it for HER birthday. It’s under $10, so I’m also buying one for the gift shelf for future birthday parties my kids attend. [The kids still remember how fun this was; William still has the crystals in the little bag.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

Klutz Create Anything With Clay kit. This picture doesn’t show that the book (1) is spiral-bound, and (2) comes with 8 chunks of Sculpey. Those are pretty major selling points, especially since Sculpey is so expensive: I can’t remember what I’ve paid for it, but my guess is that after subtracting the price of buying that Sculpey separately, the book hardly costs anything. William was a little cheesed that the brown that came with the kit was a different shade than the brown shown in the book. [This started an on-again-off-again Sculpey fad at our house.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

Painting on Rocks for Kids kit. I can’t tell if the product I’m linking to is the same as William’s: a customer has added photos of the rest of the kit William received, which includes paints and brushes and rocks and a carrying case in addition to the book, but the product description doesn’t include those items so….? I guess I’d write to Amazon before buying. Or, there’s also a Klutz version.

(photo from Amazon.com)

4M Brush Robot kit. Everyone in our family thought this guy was SUPER CUTE. The kit also requires two AAA batteries and a small Philips screwdriver, so I would tape the batteries to the box if I were giving it as a gift—I guess I wouldn’t go so far as to buy a screwdriver. Reviews are mixed: apparently there is some problem with quality control and making sure everything is in the box. Also, as people mention, the robot is small—perhaps smaller than you’d expect. For scale, the brush is a little larger than a fingernail brush.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Scientific Explorer Magic Science kit. This is one of the first things William opened. It’s a nice blend of chemistry and magic stuff. As with the robot, above, the reviews indicate that there are some problems with making sure everything is in the box—but everything was in ours, and people are more likely to go online to say something was missing than they are to report that everything was there.

Gift Ideas: Late Elementary School, Pre-Teen (Originally: 10-Year-Old Girl)

4 Replies

(An earlier version of this post originally appeared on Work It Mom / Milk and Cookies; I’m in the gradual and painstaking process of moving a number of them to this site.)

William, Robert, and Elizabeth have all been invited to a birthday party this weekend, so I need to come up with three presents for a 10-year-old girl. She likes cats, and she likes anything cute or fuzzy. She likes Phineas & Ferb, and SpongeBob Squarepants. She likes crafts. She plays soccer. She’s William’s age and grade [at the time, this was age 10 and grade 5) and is mostly William’s friend, but she plays with everyone when she’s here. Normally I aim for about $10 for a party gift (in this case, from each of the three children) [and these days I aim a little higher than that], but I’d be willing to go a little higher because she’s a family favorite.

(photo from Amazon.com)

First candidate: Wild Republic Floppy Orange Tabby Cat. Most households already have more stuffed animals than they can handle—and yet, the sight of this cat reduced our household to “OHHHHhhhhhhhhhh!!!”s of cuteness.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Second candidate: Rory’s Story Cubes. These look fun—but maybe they’re the sort of thing that look fun to the grown-ups, but make the kids think of school. Still, William thought they looked neat.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Third candidate: American Girls Bears Sew and Stuff Kit. William found this and liked it. There’s also owls and raccoons, but William thought she’d like the bears best.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Fourth candidate: Toysmith Crystal Mining Kit. William got this for his 10-year-old birthday, and I think it was probably his favorite gift. There’s an assortment of pretty crystals buried in a block of “rock” (more like compressed sand/glue), and you chip away with little tools until you dig out the crystals. It makes a bit of a MESS, but the sand stuff is dry and easy to sweep/vacuum up, and then you have the crystals to keep in a little bag.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Fifth candidate: Plasma ball. This is getting more expensive than I had in mind—BUT, if two of the kids chose less-expensive gifts, it would average out to being okay.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Sixth candidate: Beanie Ballz: Guinea Pig and Beanie Ballz: Penguin. They’re grapefruit-sized, very very silky soft, and all the kids are losing their minds over how cute they are. I think we’d get these two (yes, yes, two Ballz, I get it, ha ha, very funny), but there’s also a monkey, a hamster, a panda, a dog, a pink cat, a bee, and a ladybug. [Follow-up: We DID get these, and they were such a hit when they arrived, the children could barely stand to give them to the birthday child. We now have the guinea pig at our own house, as well as the penguin in FOUR SIZES.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

Seventh candidate: Temporary tattoos: mini butterflies, Temporary tattoos: henna butterflies. We’d choose a bunch of different tattoo books.

Two Things You May or May Not Know About Jam; The Diaper Bag Grows Up

11 Replies

Two things I had to discover by accident about jam, but maybe you have known all your life:

1. Grape JAM is completely different than grape JELLY. Grape jelly is the stuff that’s translucent and kind of like jell-o and doesn’t go on smoothly. Grape JAM is opaque and, after swishing the knife around in it, goes on smoothly. I didn’t learn this until my late twenties; I always just thought I hated grape jam because I was thinking of jelly and didn’t know there WAS a grape jam. But as anyone who has made jam or jelly knows, jelly is basically gelled fruit juice, while jam has the fruit in there.

2. Seedless strawberry jam could instead be called Big-mushy-strawberry-lump-less jam. The seeds don’t bother me so I never bought seedless. Then either Paul or I bought the seedless by mistake—and it was a revelation like the grape jam: it’s LOVELY. Because they have to strain out the seeds, you don’t get those unspreadable big mushy strawberry lumps either. (If those are your favorite part, then you’ll want to avoid the seedless.)

********

I have a small diaper bag I bought long ago on clearance at Lands’ End, thinking it might be useful even though I didn’t like the color. It ended up being the Emergency Car Diaper Bag: it was just the right size for two to three diapers, some wipes, some hand sanitizer, and a fresh onesie. It saved my bacon many a time.

Tidying the car recently, I found it under the driver’s seat. The bag is still in good shape, but what to use it for, especially since I don’t like the color? THIS is what:

Screen shot 2013-11-14 at 10.06.08 AM

It is now an Emergency Car Bag for teenagers.

This idea started when I picked a child up from school for an orthodontist appointment, and as he got into the car I made the immediate and uncharacteristic decision to RISK BEING LATE: instead of driving directly to the appointment, we stopped at home to have him change his shirt and put on deodorant, because LORDY. A clean shirt won’t fit in the bag, but a travel pack of diaper wipes and a thing of deodorant would help considerably if we didn’t have time to stop at home.

Also a comb, hand sanitizer, and a snack, which are potentially useful for ANY of us (as are the wipes).

Gift Ideas: Late Elementary School, Pre-teen, and Early Teen (Originally: 11-Year-Old Boy)

1 Reply

(An earlier version of this post originally appeared on Work It Mom / Milk and Cookies; I’m in the gradual and painstaking process of moving a number of them to this site.)

Oh, man. William has been invited to a birthday party this weekend. Furthermore, he got the invitation yesterday, which means there is not much time to think. And William is the sort of child who, if you ask him what his BEST FRIEND SINCE FIRST GRADE’s favorite color is, will say “……Humm. Maybe….blue?” And if you say, “Well, what does she like to do? Does she have any hobbies?,” will say “…..Humm. Uh….” So on the topic of this weekend’s birthday child, a classmate he has known only since school started this year, I feel very lucky that he happened to know whether the child was a boy or a girl.

And eleven is a tricky age to buy for. I don’t even know what to get my OWN children in that age range. Well, there is nothing for it but to dig up some candidates, which is something I had to do before Christmas anyway.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Crafting With Cat Hair. I realize this is odd. I realize this is the sort of item that may need some further explanation, or perhaps would have been better suited to an assortment of unusual gift ideas. But this item is actually IN MY GIFT CUPBOARD RIGHT THIS MINUTE, because we have bought it for William for Christmas (he has already been experimenting on his own with making short pieces of yarn out of cat hair) (I know, but I don’t know whose genes to blame/credit), so I could have him give it to his friend and then buy him a new copy. [This book was a hilarious hit at our house. I don’t think anyone even actually made anything with it, but just READING it was fun. And William opened it in front of my sister-in-law who is allergic to cats and also frightened of them, so her reaction made it even more hilarious to everyone.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

Talking Hands Animal Tattoos. These are on my gift-idea list for William. It seems like the sort of thing he might love, and so maybe his friend would also love them, and at $10 they’re right in my birthday-party-gift range [they’re more like $6-7 now, and my range has increased to more like $12-15]. Plus, they’re fun but then they get used up and don’t create clutter.

(photo from Amazon.com)

AirZooka. I gave Paul one of these a few years ago and it was SO WEIRD. You “shoot” it at someone, and a second goes by and then they get PUFFED in the face with a surprising wallop of air. Like a SPHERE of AIR. Or if you aim it at a curtain, it looks like someone threw a beach ball at the curtain except the beach ball was invisible. Freaky.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Balloon-Powered Vehicle Kit. Considering how endlessly funny the children seem to find it to blow up a balloon and then release it and watch it splutter around the room, it seems like a pointless waste of money to pay more to get a little car and a little propeller. But…that’s exactly the kind of money that turns something into A Gift To Bring To A Party.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Magnetic Aquarium Sculpture. The only tip William has been able to give us so far is that his friend “likes to fiddle around with stuff, like paperclips.” (In fact, William suggested a box of paperclips would be a good gift.) This is fiddly! But is it the kind of fiddly that ends up leaving tiny little pieces all over the house? We once received as a gift the kind with thin flat pieces (moon and stars) as a gift, and those sharp little suckers broke a vacuum cleaner. These shapes seem less dangerous.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Disc Shooters. William wants these himself. But I feel a little uneasy giving a gun-related toy when so many families have a policy about such things.

I also consulted some of my older posts, and now I’m also considering the Create Anything With Clay book, the Hexbug Nano starter kit, a Rubik’s Twist, or the Crystal Mining Kit.

Gift Ideas: Older Elementary School, Pre-teen, and Early Teen (Originally: 9-12-Year-Old Boys)

1 Reply

(An earlier version of this post originally appeared on Work It Mom / Milk and Cookies; I’m in the gradual and painstaking process of moving a number of them to this site.)

The biggest gift-giving challenge of my parenting years: buying gifts for Rob, the year he was 11-almost-12. [This has since been matched by 12-almost-13, 13-almost-14, and now 14-almost-15.] It took me a month to come up with even the paltry pitiful assortment of possibilities you see below, but a paltry pitiful assortment is better than no assortment at all.

(photo from Amazon.com)

1. Hexbug Nano. My 11-year-old and 9-year-old boys were so excited about this, they joined forces and saved their money to buy the habitat set, despite me saying desperately, “Wait! Wait! Don’t you want to wait until after Christmas to spend your money?” There’s a battle set I think they would have liked even better if they’d known about it, and if you want to spend more like $40 (the other two sets I mentioned are around $25) there’s the 3D Elevation Habitat Set. [The Hexbug sets are intermittently popular at our house: just as I’m concluding no one plays with them anymore, the kids get them out again.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

2. Rubik’s puzzles. Rob likes difficult puzzles like the 4×4 and the 360. William (age 9) prefers the easier Twist. They both love the Magic. If you try the harder puzzles, may I also suggest getting a book to help solve them? One of our funniest moments last Christmas was when Rob opened the 5×5 Rubik’s, tried to solve it, said, “I’d need a BOOK to solve this one!”—and then his next gift was the book. This year we got him this kerazy one (it says it’s a Square One, but a reviewer says it’s a Square Two)—it’s not a Rubik’s, but it’s similar.

(photo from Amazon.com)

3. MP3. This is the main gift we got Rob this year: the 4GB SanDisk Sansa Clip, and a $15 Amazon MP3 gift card (that link brings you to all the gift cards; the green one is the one that says MP3 on it, though it can still be used for anything on Amazon). [Follow-up from three years later: we were a little worried about getting a second-string brand, but it held up beautifully. It had one apparent malfunction, which we solved easily with the troubleshooting section of the website—I think it just had to be reset or something like that. We finally replaced it this year, only after its SECOND trip through the washing machine. I had Rob try my iShuffle but he didn’t like it at all: my iShuffle doesn’t have a display, but the SanDisk does.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

4. Phineas and Ferb stuff. This show is SUCH a hit at our house: the kids think it’s hilarious, but SO DO WE. Unusual. We considered a DVD, a Christmas DVD, a transforming Perry toy, a joke book (heaven help us), wall stickers, the soundtrack….but we went with the MP3 player instead, and got the joke book as a stocking stuffer. (We got the transforming Perry toy for William.) I think I might get the soundtrack for the car sometime. [I did, and got a second one too, and we liked both a lot.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid. These are a hybrid of “book” and “comic book.” Rob and William have both been on the library waiting list for the newest one (Hard Luck), so I got it for them for Christmas. [Edward is gettng the Do-It-Yourself Wimpy Kid book this year—that would make a good gift paired with one of the novels. (Also, notice that boys do not keep DIARIES, heavens no. It is a do-it-yourself! Like a home improvement project!)]

(photo from Amazon.com)

6. Perhaps it is not on every 11-year-old boy’s wish list, but I think this crochet book is going to be one of Rob’s favorite presents this year. [He did like it, but I don’t think he did much with it. He likes free-form crochet better.]

Toy Gift Ideas: Baby, Preschool, and Early Elementary School (Plus One for Grown-ups)

9 Replies

(An earlier version of this post originally appeared on Work It Mom / Milk and Cookies; I’m in the gradual and painstaking process of moving a number of them to this site.)

I can make lists of toys I’m considering for the kids this year, and I likely WILL make such lists. But I also like to see lists of toys someone else has actually opened and played with, so that’s the theme of today’s grouping. This is mostly toys I’ve RECENTLY [er, as of two years ago when I wrote it] been surprised by and pleased with, but I’m also putting in a couple that our family has found enduringly fun to play with, and also one that I recommend you buy not for an actual child but for a grown up who likes miniatures/dollhouses (or MAYBE for a VERY CAREFUL child of the quiet and meticulous sort).

(photo from Amazon.com)

Melissa & Doug Magnetic Hide and Seek Board. A couple of times a year, my mom and aunt go shopping to stock their gift shelves and the toy rooms they’re responsible for freshening. This is one of the toys that most impressed everyone when we opened it up to try it out. They’d already realized that each door opened to reveal something inside (cookie inside the cookie jar, car inside the garage, etc.), but we hadn’t realized the item inside would be a removable piece. And in typical Melissa & Doug “impress ’em by going one better than they even knew they wanted” form, the pieces are magnetic so they don’t scatter everywhere if you tip the puzzle.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Caring Corners Nanny Oakes Interactive Nursery. This is another of their finds, and I think what most impressed me about it was how little I thought I’d like it, compared with how much I did like it. I don’t think I would have given it a second glance in the store: the big face on the tree doesn’t appeal to me, nor does the color scheme, nor do the babies seem particularly cute to me. BUT, when we opened it up and started playing with it, I couldn’t BELIEVE how much fun stuff there was to do, and how many little compartments and special features were hidden from the at-first-glance overview.

The idea is that it’s a daycare where a tree (Nanny Oakes) takes care of the children. Nanny’s voice is an electronic feature that can be turned on or off; if on, it suggests ideas for playing (“Who wants a snack?” etc.), and also plays sound effects (lullaby music when the cradles are rocked, etc.). A little table has a rotating layer under the tabletop, so that you can see either snacks or crafts laid out. A clump of branches opens up to reveal a tub for bathing the babies. There’s a little elevator that goes up and down in the trunk, and there’s room for a family of squirrels to live in there too. There’s a swing that holds SIX babies. Only two babies come with the set, but there are smaller supplemental sets that have more babies. My mom and aunt also found that many of the little animals from their Calico Critters collections (here’s a set of bunnies and a set of hedgehogs to look at) fit perfectly, which made it more appealing to me: I prefer the idea of a tree taking care of little woodland creatures, rather than actual babies. I get a little nervous thinking about babies being left in care of a tree, even if the tree IS sentient.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Melissa & Doug Magnetic Fishing Game. We first encountered this toy when our eldest child was a toddler receiving special services for motor and articulation delays. The therapist brought this one with her, and he loved it so much we bought it for him for Christmas. It’s looking pretty beat-up at this point, and we lost one of the pieces for good, but it’s STILL a toy I’m willing to play with and that’s after playing with it with 5 children.

(photo from Amazon.com)

I cannot explain the sheer wonder I feel when I look at the Li’l Woodzeez General Store. They have this in-store at our local Target, so I recommend going to your Target to see if you can take a look at it there. (Also, the Target price is something like $20, instead of the $37 on Amazon.) There are, like, ONE MILLION wee little pieces to arrange in the store, including tiny canvas shopping bags, jars of candies, loaves of bread, boxes of produce, plates, bolts of fabric—all the little supplies the little animals would need to shop for.

Oh, heavens, of course I’m not recommending buying this for actual CHILDREN! Ha ha! It would be a disaster within SECONDS! No, I think you should buy this for yourself and put it up where children can’t reach it but you can still gaze at it, and maybe leave the packaging on so things don’t fall off the shelves accidentally. It is so, so, so charming. There’s also a bakery, and my mom and I go back and forth about which is better. (BOTH. BOTH ARE BETTER.) [My mom bought the bakery, and she plays with it with the children, but it takes active adult participation to keep pieces from getting lost.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

K’Nex Buddies. I first encountered these when Rob and William were about 5 and 3 and I needed one more thing for each of them under the tree. Target had some K’Nex buddies sets on a great clearance, so I bought one set for each of them. They’ve been a HUGE success, and we now have several more sets—which makes it even more fun to build creatures. This is the kind of toy that gets forgotten for awhile but then taken out again and all five kids are sitting on the floor playing with it.

I chose the monster set to link to because I thought it looked fun, but I suggest buying two different sets, whichever sets are the least expensive while still looking like they have fun pieces. The real fun is the mixing-and-matching anyway, and one set is skimpy for that. If you have more than one child, this is a good opportunity for Sneaky Gift Doubling: one set for each of two children means a larger set for both of them. [We gradually bought more sets over the years; it looks like they don’t have as many anymore, but they were a fun toy.]

(photo from Amazon.com)

Manhattan Toy Put and Peek Birdhouse. I bought this for my niece back when she was a sitting-up baby, and it was so fun to play with. The birds are so charming, and have charming little feeties, and it’s fun to show a baby at the “put things in, take things out” stage of development how to…put the birds in. And take them out.