Van d'Eau

Every once in a while you'll get an idea/inspiration from somewhere that's so simple but so GREAT. This happened to us last weekend. On Saturday we were passing by a neighbors house at 8PM (way too late to be out w/the kids walking but Saul dilly-dallied at the park shooting pix) and she was bringing out a small bucket of water and some (art) paintbrushes for her daughter Jenna to play with. I thought wow, what a great idea, "painting" with water on the sidewalk. Now let me step back, painting can bring about thoughts of messes and cleaning so we usually saved painting with Miles for warm days and we've never let the babies paint because, well, they're only 20 months but they've just started experimenting at daycare. Now that the weather has turned it's perfect painting outside weather (no I don't know if we'll ever let our 3 monkeys paint inside), but the mess issue still causes us to pause with concern over such a project. BUT thanks to Jenna's house, I thought let's let our little artists "paint" with water when we were in the backyard yesterday on a very hot pre-summer's day.

What a brilliant idea. They amused themselves for quite a while as Saul and I hung out sipping wine and not doing a thing. No paint, no mess, just water and paint brushes on the ground and the kids loved it. I have an idea we'll be bringing out the paints this Summer but until the perfect time/day hits us, the kids will be painting with DWP's finest.

Managing TV Time - The Sanity Sanity Saver

Kids TV programing can be awful. For $5 or $10 per month you can get DVR through your cable company and there's absolutely no reason your household needs to be subjected to Teletubbies or Barney. Our kids are young enough where they don't understand that there are a number of shows on at any given time. We pick shows out that we like to watch, record them and let the kids watch what we like/want. And all 3 have learned sign language thanks to Signing Time. Here's what the kids "programming" is on the Lewis family TV:

Jack's Big Music Show (Noggin)
Backyardigans (Noggin & Nick Jr.)
Wonder Pets (Noggin & Nick Jr.)
Miss Sunny's Spider Patch (Noggin)
The Upside Down Show (Noggin)
Signing Time (PBS)

We give them their TV Time/Downtime here and there for their enjoyment and our sanity, and in between our favorite Pixar movies and Pee Wee's Playhouse DVD's this is all they get on TV (oh maybe except for Mom's cooking shows and Dad's motorcycle racing). And luckily Saul and I can handle these shows and I usually catch Saul immersed in them too. My favorite is turning on Jack's Big Music Show where we can all get silly and dance and sing.

Free Your Chi

I found a site that is Saul's worst nightmare. It's a blog called Unclutterer that has some great tips and tricks for staying organized and uncluttered. It's the key to free flowing Chi you know... Anyway, it's awesome and I have to get on the ball and organized and uncluttered. What happens with us is that each pile of give/throw away that needs to go to Goodwill/consignment or the dump becomes another piece of clutter so we live in utter disarray. I hope/plan to change that someday.

One of the highlights I found is an organization Freecycle that has groups around the world and you post locally things you want to give away for free that someone else will find useful. This is particularly good for Saul who hates to throw away things, and thinks that he can find someone who can actually use it. So Freecyle is for him. But you can't write it off, so you have to weigh how "good" minded you really are in helping others:-) http://www.freecycle.org/groups/

Tri Angles

Dane

Miles

Sophie

Saul posted some updated pix on his blog of the kids, but they're burried beneath his various amusings. So I thought I'd post them on mine so that they can be immortalized in a different way than Saul's blog:-)

Bento Time

Gastrokid is definitely one of my favorite sites as a parent. It appeals not only to my sense of gastronomy into my family life and interesting things to feed the kids and family. It's entertaining to read as well, written by 2 men both English but one is in LA and one is in England. They've got a great tone and I enjoy reading their posts. I found this from one of their posts and it made me think about how our kids love their Japanese food and how I love this Bento box that I found for them.

There is a woman Mimi Ito, who has most days since 2008 taken a photo of the school lunchbox she prepares for her children and published it onto her Flickr blog. The kids are older (6 and 9 I think) but it's never too early to think different about what to feed the kids for lunch when we're not with them. Apparently here kids love what she makes and don't want the food at school - nice! http://flickr.com/photos/mimiito/tags/bentoblog/

Where to buy Bento Box:
www.plasticashop.com

iTunes Playlist for Kids

We are lucky enough to have kids that like our music. We expose them to a wide variety of music and they bop their heads along to nearly all of our music. Saul is so happy to boast that Miles favorite band is the Ramones. I decided to make a playlist for Miles on my iPod since he knows more songs and can recognize more than the twins. They love the playlist too but it was created for Miles with his tastes in mind. There's some traditional kids music with some non traditional ones that both kids and parents can enjoy. Here's Miles has on iPod playlist:

I Like To Move It - From Madagascar
You Are My Sunshine - Johnny Cash
I'm Gonna Catch You - Laurie Berkner
Spider Man - The Ramones
I'm Me and You're You - Laurie Berkner
The Candy Man - Sammy Davis Jr.
Kitty - Presidents Of the United States of America
My Energy - Laurie Berkner
I Know A Chicken - Laurie Berkner
Rock Lobster - B52s
Coconut - Harry Nilsson
Itsy Bitsy Spider - Carly Simon
Somewhere Over The Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
You Are My Sunshine - Ricky Nelson
Number One - Hot Peas 'n Butter
Johnny Quest/Stop That Pidgeon - Reverend Horton Heat
California Sun - The Ramones
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones

Keeping Your Sanity on Rainy Days

Keeping 1 toddler let alone 3 small children entertained on a rainy day is a challenge. The museums are mobbed, the mall is mayhen and Target is way too busy. We found a kids tunnel at a gargage sale in our neighborhood and bought it. It was the best $5 we spent on the kids. They have so much fun crawling and hiding in it that it provides a bit of relief for mom and dad on a rainy day. Miles likes to put his cars and toys in it so that no one else can go in there, but he's learning to share:-) Sophie zooms in and out and Dane squeels right behind her. The tunnel collapses and we keep it under the couch for quick access. If you have the room, I'd definitely purchase one of these if you have children under 5.

Keeping 'em Busy in The Kitchen

We spend alot of time in the kitchen. We have 3 kids to feed and we love food. Santa brought the kids a play food set for Christmas and all 3 kids enjoy playing with it. Miles is quite the chef and enjoys taking over the kitchen. Sophie's natural female instincts take over and she starts mixing and putting food onto plates. And Dane just enjoys touching the food and looking at it. When I need a little extra time to prepare something that requires a bit more than microwaving or pan heating, I bring out the play food set and they have a blast. It gives me a break from entertaining, I end up being entertained by watching them play.

The Essential Car Seat!

We spent the good part of a year thinking about and researching car seats. Once Dane and Sophie got out of their infant seats, we neede a way to get 3 car seats into the backseatr. Well let me back up. We had the twins and Miles was in his convertible Britax seat. We got rid of my 11 year old (sometimes unreliable) SUV and got a minivan. We kept our BMW 525i in hopes we could fit 3 car seats in the back. 2 infant seats and a Britax Marathon will fit in the back of a 5 series. When the babies grew out of their infant seats we tried 2 larger convertible seats and 1 booster for our 3year old which didn't quite fit well (or legally). So I drove the car and Saul drove the minivan (it really is a great car and served an incredible purpose plus those automatic sliding doors were so helpful). When we had all 3 kids we could only drive the mini-van, which worked well for us most days since we had a nanny and no need to transport all 3 kids during the week. Over the next year or so and many discussions about kids going to the same daycare the need for 2 cars that fit 3 car seats in back, etc. we bought a Chevy Tahoe and were about to sell the BMW to keep the minivan. Then I discovered the Sunshine Kids Radian convertible car seat. No I'd never heard of it, but it was described as a thin, safe seat that could fit 3 into the back of a car. I looked at the dimensions previsouly and measured in our car but they didn't seem to work. I bought one and tested it with our booster and our convertible. And YES they fit into the back of the BMW. We're going to buy another one because they work so well and are a great fit. We'll have the twins in these and Miles in a booster or perhaps we'll get him one too.

The folks at EliteCarSeats.com were so helpful with our questions about the seat. Their site is great and you can compare different seats. What we found amazing about the Sunshine Kids Radian convertible car seat is that it's SAFER than the Britax Seat. I know everyone wants the "name" and "prestige" of Britax but Sunshine Kids is the only car seat made with a full, steel alloy frame, for incredible strength. Britax does not have side impact protection and Sunshine Kids does! AND it's foldable in case you need to travel or fold your seat forward. I can't say enough great things about it - and it's only $199 and will last you up to 65 lbs (they also have one up to 80 lbs).

Why Baby Blabber?

I enjoy my other blog but I don't think it's the right forum for kid stuff. And if you know me, you'll know that I am full of lots of kid knowledge thanks to Miles, Dane, Sophie and our family of 5. Alot of what I've learned in 4 short (and sometimes very long) years is useless and meaningless but I have had a steep learning curve on children, child care and products/services that fit a specific necessity - 3 kids under 3. It forces you to be a bit of a know-it-all about more children stuff then you ever thought you'd know. How do you fit them into a car, how do you feed them all at the same time, how to entertain them and countless other details that have come out of our surprising scenario. So I thought I'd start a second blog, which I have absolutely no time for, with my blabbing about kids and babies. It's not just for people who have twins or 3 toddlers, it's stuff that I enjoy and have learned that I want to share. I will probably interject some Lewis family pix and things that amuse me that the kid have said or done too, because that's what make Baby Blabber intresting (I hope).... Enjoy!