Begging my toddler for mercy

Dear Daughter,

PLEASE go back to sleep. Please please please. We were frustrated that you were up until 12:30 a.m. Mommy was up for a few hours after that, thanks to missing her window to fall asleep easily because you were still up. Eighteen-month olds need more than four and a half hours of sleep. Trust me, we'll both be cranky if you don't fall back to sleep.

Thank you for your understanding,

Your Mother

P.S. Pretty please???

Fork over the watermelon!

Mmm, good!

She ate all of her watermelon with her fork tonight. Pretty good for a little girl who was still working on the skill last night. It's as if she's grown up so much in the course of a single day.

(and yes, that's one of our Bumkins bibs. The Pink Nova Superbib.)

She used the potty! Twice!

We're 2 for 2 with #2. Peeing in the potty would be great too, but I'm thrilled that our newest potty is working so well! She's just 18 months old and I'm pretty impressed.

We've had a blue Baby Bjorn Potty Chair for a while and she sits on it while I go to the bathroom and some other times. We haven't had much success with getting her to use that potty. It's not too tall for her, but does seem more like a seat than a toilet for her.

Despite reviews that talked about it being too small, I decided to try a Baby Bjorn Little Potty. I'm so glad we did! It's definitely smaller, but it lets her sit in more of a squatting or crouching position. She seemed to feel like it was a good place to poop instead of a nice place to sit.


I highly recommend the Little Potty if you have a little one who isn't too huge. The simple design will prevent your little one from taking it apart and playing with the pieces (stack, unstack, stack, unstack). It's also too small for my 18-month old to stand in...unlike her Potty Chair.

My daughter is 32 inches tall and around 23 pounds, maybe with a couple of ounces. Tall and getting leaner every day. So many of the online reviews talk about using these little potties for really little babies doing Elimination Communication, so I opted to get the larger potty initially. If you want to compare sizes, Babies R Us carries them both in store, but you won't get the same color choices that you do online at Amazon and other places. I saw white (boring) and pink (girly) at my local BRU. I expect this simple, well-designed potty to last us for a while and I don't want to have a future child refuse to use it because boys don't use pink potties. I'm practical like that. And the blue matches my bathroom nicely.

Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself talking about our pottying success!

Rave: Bumkins Waterproof Bibs

These bibs keep the mess off your child's clothes without being stiff like some vinyl bibs. The unique material feels more like cloth than plastic. We received a few Bumkins Superbibs as baby gifts and I fell in love. I've since added a few sleeved bibs to my collection.

The Bumkins Sleeved Bibs are perfect for those really messy, self-feeding days. I've been known to insist on the sleeved bib when my daughter is wearing a stain magnet particularly nice outfit.

Amazon has a particularly good price on the Pink Supernova long-sleeved bib right now. If you don't have a girl or just don't care for the print, pay more now or watch for other prints to go on sale at random. My favorite boyish print is the green Urban Chaos print. There are plenty of fun options.

The warm days of summer will be ending soon, and stripping my kid down to her diaper for a messy meal just won't be an option anymore. I'm glad to have two sleeved bibs in the rotation, along with some superbibs. After all, learning to use a spoon is hard work.

I Heart Microfiber Cloths!

My love for these just keeps growing. They make great cleaning rags that grab dust rather than spread it around. When one of the resident klutzes knocks over a glass of water, they absorb more than a bunch of paper towels. I put one on the Swiffer I'd had sitting in a closet for ages because I was too cheap to buy refill "cloths". The microfiber worked great!

You can find microfiber cleaning cloths with the brooms and scrub brushes, but you'll get a lot more bang for your buck buying them in the auto department. Target has some great thick orange ones that are super-thirsty for spills. Walmart has a white and blue pack that are smaller and thinner and make great Swiffer or dusting cloths. I find more uses for my microfiber cloths all the time. You can help the environment and save money with these reusable products.

A cautionary note: I love the orange ones from Target, but if you wash them with other things on hot, be prepared to dye the rest of your fabric yellow for many many washes.