Making craigslist buying easier

Part of the reason that I feel strongly about buying used and/or less for kids is not just for the immediate green cred. It's also about setting an example for kids from the earliest age. I know that buying used can be a real drag, though, since you have to constantly comb for the item you're looking for. So here's a way to make buying used a lot more convenient.

You can subscribe to something called an RSS feed from craigslist. That lets you type in your search terms, even the geographic area you're looking in and you get live updates when an item is posted that meets your search query.

All you do is go to the craigslist home page for your area. Say you're looking for a used Maclaren Volo in the east bay. Click on "baby and kids" and then type in "Maclaren Volo" and choose the east bay tab. You'd get a screen like this:


That screen above is hard to read, but the key item is the small orange highlighted link in the lower right-hand corner. Clicking on that gets you to the RSS feed for that particular query. Once you click on it you can choose how you'd like the information delivered. If you have a google account you can have the updated search info delivered to your customized homepage. Or you can choose "Live Bookmark" and that will create a special bookmark tab in your browser that you can pull down occasionally to see if the item you're looking for has been posted and is available.

Any other helpful hints to buying used out there? I'm eager for them...

A Year Without Shopping

I mostly get my news from the radio. This story seemed right up the alley of this blog. It's about a family that is on a "consumer fast" this year. They're going to pare back their purchases and get what they do need used. They have two kids, including one that was 9-months-old when they started their fast (which does have a few exceptions, like food and toilet paper).

This is the first part in a series -- apparently the show's host has been interviewing them over the course of this year and we'll find out what they learned from their experiment. It ran this weekend on the pub radio personal finance show Marketplace Money.

One of my biggest questions is how they dealt with the issue of buying gifts. Also, I'm curious if they found some great tricks for buying used. Tomorrow I'm going to post my own tip about how to use the RSS feed on craigslist. That allows you to get updates when something you're searching for has been posted for sale. Which means you don't have to constantly on craigslist searching for those hard to get items.

The Casual Conservationist

I just learned about this book: The Casual Conservationist.

It sounds like a great read. I'm going to put a hold on it at our library and look forward to posting some of my favorite tips and a mini-review in a later post. In the meantime, for those with older kids, you can download a game from the book's website. You have to create an account with your name and email to get it, but the end product is a .PDF kit with stickers and a chart, where you can give kids a reward for everything from "taking public transportation" to "turning off lights" and "saving paper towels."

5 foods that make a difference

This isn't about consuming less, but consuming differently. The NY Times health blog lists 5 foods that one pediatrician claims can have a big impact for you and the environment if you switch to organic.

The quick roundup:
1. Milk
2. Potatoes
3. Peanut Butter
4. Ketchup
5. Apples

Their full explanation:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/22/five-easy-ways-to-go-organic/

Little tissues for little noses

My little girls have the sniffles. Fortunately they don't seem too uncomfortable, but we end up going through lots of tissues as I try to keep their noses wiped and their germs separate. I know the most eco-friendly alternative is a handkerchief but I find that practically I mix them up and never have them handy and when they have active colds, I don't find it so sanitary. So because with babies most of the tissue goes unused I'm trying to tear a bunch in halves or quarters at the start of the day and put the pieces in a baggie that I can carry around in my pocket. It's not a huge resource savings, but it's something!

And on the subject of colds, not that they've taken the infant cold medicines off the shelves, here's an article from CNN and the Mayo Clinic about how to handle the common cold in infants.

Twinsight #6: What to do with a hoarding twin

Gimmee your ear!

We've been having a problem since about 6 or 7 months with one of our daughters stealing toys from her sis and hoarding them. Yup, she's the one who's grabbing her sister's face in the picture. She just adores her sister, but that seems to translate into her wanting and taking anything her sis has. Fortunately the one who has things taken is really laid back and doesn't get worked up about it. But I was concerned about what to do and asked for peoples' advice. Below are some of the different answers I got. They certainly helped me and hope they might be useful to you.

As far as what happened in our case, things have calmed down a bit from the initial stage. Either that or we've gotten used to it. I just try to make sure that they both always have something to play with. As they've gotten older I spend more time telling the hoarder "stop" and trying to get her to understand that. Interestingly, the more laid back sister has started to crawl first, maybe to get away from her sticky fingered sib?

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We have the same issue with my boy/girl twins that are 15 months old but this started about the same time as yours.

Ann "steals" Jake’s toys. Jake is pretty laid back so when he was younger it didn't bother him too much, but I would still separate them by distance (with me in between) so that Jake could play with his toys without Ann butting in. Ann has a shorter attention span so she gets bored with toys more easily so Jake can snatch them back. I’ve been glad he’s more laid back because he tops her by at least 5lbs.

As time has passed, Jake has become more assertive in keeping Ann from grabbing his toys so I would think yours might be the same. I will warn you that as they go through terrible teething that if someone grabs a toy from the other and their teeth hurt--watch out! They will grab back that toy back with a bite if I’m not fast enough.

I’ve also been a little concerned because they play pretty rough with each other, more than I’ve seen singletons play, but I have credited that towards being with each other from the start including kicking each other in the face pre-birth.

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My girls did this at that age too. And it was also Alma, who couldn't crawl, who was stealing all the toys. Bea, who crawled sooner, was always having everything stolen. I just let them have at it and didn't worry too much. As soon as their coordination shifted, this behavior changed. (Now at one they are equal opportunity thieves). I would just continue to feed toys to both so that they always have something. I think they like to watch each other move and act, so I guess I always felt like at that age, the "victim" was somewhat entertained by watching her sister take and manipulate an object.

I could see going a different route, but that's my two cents!

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We had a very similar experience at a young age. I would separate them for periods of time. We had a pack-n-play in our playroom and would alternate putting a kid in there with a bunch of toys and it worked pretty well. I would sometimes put them at different ends of the room when they weren't crawling very much.

It got really tough around 10 months when my son (the toy taker) was crawling very well and my daughter wasn't. I was really worried, too, that she would become conditioned to have things taken from her and that my reaction might reinforce the "victim" role. There were times when I'd intervene a lot and get toys back for her, but also taught herself to immediately start playing with a toy she didn't want, he'd take it, and she'd take back the toy she was playing with. I was amazed that before 1 yr. she had figured out that strategy.

When they were starting to get verbal (and were totally mobile) around a year, we worked a lot with our daughter to put out her hand and say "no!" when he was approaching her to take a toy. We also encouraged her to get the toy back from him, while simultaneously telling our son that taking toys wasn't okay, that he needed to ask, or trader her for something else she wanted. When they were about 18 months it got really bad -- he would snatch and
run with the toy and leave his sister in tears. We continued hardcore with the strategies mentioned above and started using the counting method with our son -- he had the count of 3 to return the toy to her or I would take it away.

It was a lot of work, but I'm happy to say that now at 2.5 there is very little escalated toy taking and it has continued to get better since they were about 22 months. They tend to work it out themselves (while I force myself to hold back) and I rarely have to intervene. When I do, I find that when it happens it is usually b/c our son is tired, needs a diaper change, or is hungry. I also found that when our son was about to take a developmental leap the toy snatching and biting (he started biting her around 7 or 8 months and it would go on for a few days every 2-3 months) increased.


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I can't remember exactly at that age but, oh yea, mine are definitely interested JUST because sister has something. At a young age I probably would just separate them, use distraction and redirection.

I know by 16 months old they knew how to ask, "share?", "my turn" and "trade?". I also taught the one who was getting bullied to say, "enough!" (you could use "stop" or "NO!" too) They mostly play well but sometimes I have to separate them or distract them. I also end up buying two of the same thing a lot of the time now, depending on what it is.

I think it would be ok to tell A, "no, B is playing with that, have THIS instead". It will probably take a lot of repetition.

Another thing I read in a twin book which I found helpful.. is not to worry too much about one being "dominant" over the other. That can and will change over time. You can give them the tools to stick up for themselves, certainly, but, let them "own" their own relationship.

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We have been dealing with the same issue since our girls were about 7 months also. They are now a little over 2 and nothing has changed all that much. Astrid still wants whatever Billie is playing with. We still do the same thing we did then. We gently ask Astrid to give the toy back to Billie and explain that Astrid was playing with it first. Now we have a rule that you have to wait until the first person is done playing with the toy.

Like you, we were worried that the more submissive daughter would never fight back. As she has gotten older, she definitely fights back for items she wants to keep playing with. However, in general I would have to say that Billie does not seem to care as much about "stuff". She is really into people while Astrid is definitely more interested in and attached to material objects. Looking back, this may be why Billie never really fought back.

Reusing baby food jars

Once twins start solid food, you start drowning in baby food containers. I reused them as much as possible for the food I made for the girls. Even so, I had way more jars than I needed and wanted to find something useful to do with them. If you find yourself in a similar situation, instead of throwing them in the recycling bin, contact your local children's arts program. I found many art centers are eager for baby food jars for painting and crafts projects. Ditto with neighborhood schools. FYI, if you happen to be here in the East Bay, I just found out that MOCHA - the Museum of Children's Art - will always accept your baby food jars.

A second saved

Here's a tip for making clean up after those initial solid food feedings easier. I put some Baby Aquaphor around the girls' mouths before their solid food feedings - at least for the first 3 months. This helped create a barrier so that they were less likely to get a rash from any acidy food that I'd then have to deal with. And the Aquaphor also helped make clean-up easier. When I'd go to wipe their mouths clean, the dirty food all just wiped off easily since it was on top of the layer of Aquaphor.

Waste not? Buying bulk food...

Even though our two additions are small, it feels like our consumption growth has been BIG since they arrived. Just our utility bills alone… more heating, more laundry, more dishes. So every month I’m going to try to make one new small change towards reducing. This month, in order to cut back on the packaging we have to toss, it will be buying as much in bulk as possible… from the girls’ oatmeal and farina cereal to my cocoa. Nuts, dried fruit, lentils, too. The place I shop even has oil and maple syrup and such in bulk. I may try that and see how it goes while I’m at it, but that seems like it could be messy.

I’d love to collect peoples’ ideas for me to try in my attempts to be lower impact! Suggest away…

How to post all those photos?

To be honest there aren't a TON of the photos. I'm convinced twin parents take fewer pictures of their kids than singleton parents, just because the ratios aren't in favor of the picture takers. Nonetheless we still have a number of good pics to send around at the end of the month. But I'm now facing the question of how to do that. This is an issue, it appears, of the generation gap.

Our siblings who are all conversant in facebook and PDAs, etc. want us to use a site like flickr so that they can download the photos and put them on their iPods to share. They have no use for the likes of Kodak Gallery where the parents and grandparents want us to post, so they can order prints on-line. Anybody have any ideas for sites that will allow us to make both camps happy?

This doesn't solve that dilemma but I have been toying with the site tabblo. It allows you to create these cute narrated collages (below) and also print postcards and posters from your tabblos:

Networking aid

I just came across a great site for printing up calling cards or mini-business cards. This isn't exactly a twin issue, but I have found that I often want to exchange coordinates with parents I meet and I rarely have a hand free, not to mention pen and paper handy, to exchange info.

The printing site is called moo.com. It's based in England. I learned about the site when I was trolling for a great, cheap, quality place to print business cards as I reenter the workforce. I really loved the moo minicard designs (a vivid graphic on one side and simple text on the other), but worried they might not be taken seriously enough. It turns out my husband's boss (coincidentally a mother of twins) has them and he told me they're the ultimate hip symbol in the business world right now. So I got some with a business-like design and then some with a more irreverent design to use as a calling card with friends and people I meet and want to be in touch with. The beauty is you pay $19.99 for 100 and then you can have as many different designs on those 100 cards as you want. The images can be from their team of graphic designers or photos you upload of family or anything else! And while the paper isn't recycled, it's sourced from sustainable forests.

On-line diaper discount code

I tend to buy my diapers on-line. I tried cloth diapering at first and couldn't swing it, though I admire my twin parent friend who does. So anyone out there expecting twins who is wondering if it's possible: yes it is!

When I switched to disposables I quickly realized that ordering cases of them on-line was way easier than buying them at the store. My usual go to sites are amazon and diapers.com, as I suspect many parents use. I use amazon when I only want diapers since their minimum for free shipping is less. But I find diapers.com has much faster shipping, so if I need them in a hurry I order from there and just buy one other item, like wipes or shampoo to get me above the $50 free shipping minimum. Diapers.com also has a per unit calculator which makes it easy to compare prices.

For anyone who hasn't used diapers.com yet, they're offering $10 off any new customer's first $50 purchase. You enter the code: PARENTING7 to get it. I'm not endorsing the site at all, just hope to pass on the savings since I wasn't eligible.

Ergo-MOM-ics

Meet my ergonomic nemesis:
I was just tested for rheumatoid arthritis. It came back negative as I knew it would, but somehow my health care provider wouldn't listen to my plea to talk to a physical therapist about my hand pain until I ruled that out. I don't visit the doc lightly. It was only when I couldn't squeeze out a tube of toothpaste because of the pain that I decided to go in.

I'm not the only one out there with such complaints... in fact based on discussion on our local twin parents listserve it's quite common with twin parents. And as bad as it is for moms, I know it can be worse for dads who are the primary care giver because they don't have hips to use as backup for overtaxed arms and hands.

I just found this article about ergonomic tips for new moms. The only thing I can add is that I think in my case it would have helped if I'd stopped using the infant car seats earlier than I did (which was around 6 or 7 months). Lugging those around really did a job on the joints in my hands. And as much as I was dreading life without the snap n go feature, all is well (well, except for my aches and pains).

Twinsight #5: Airplane packing list with 6 month old twins

Gimmee your ear!

This list is meant as the guide I wish I could have worked from when we traveled around this age. It assumes you have access to laundry/sink, because while it’s not inconceivable this could get you through 6 days, there’s also the chance that lots of accidents = need for washing.

[NOTE: If we’re not staying in a hotel with cribs to borrow, we ship two Pack n plays ahead so we don’t have to deal with them in transit. I just bought two on eBay ahead of our first travel with the girls and had them sent directly to the relative we were staying with. From there we shipped the pack n plays to our next destination where we knew we’d be in 2 months time. From there on to the grandparents for Christmas time. A great option for shipping is FedEx Ground, which you can do at almost all Kinkos. They have long open hours.]

My packing list for 6 days, 5 nights with 6 month old twins

Luggage:
Double umbrella stroller - gate check
Car seats – check only one at counter if planning to use the other onboard
Baby carrier, like Ergo
Diaper bag (contents see below*)
Small backpack (contents see below**)
Suitcase to check

Babies
Clothes/equipment in checked bag:
+ 2 full outfits
+ 8 tops
+ 8 pants
+ 2 sweaters, 2 hooded sweatshorts or jackets
+ socks/shoes if needed
+ 8 PJs
+ 3 hats (sun hats if summer, warm hats if winter)
+ 2 burpclothes (more if you use a lot)
+ 2 blankets
+ orajel, aquaphor, infant Tylenol, any other baby medicine you might possibly need
+ manicure set
+ Bjorn (or any other baby carrier)
+ 12 bibs
+ 4 baby spoons
+ 4 little washcloths
+ 2 sleepsacks
+ any stroller accessories: rain cover, sun shade, etc.
+ 2 Pack n Play sheets
+ breast pump + bottles

*diaper bag for plane:
+ 2 footed onesies
+ 2 short sleeve onesies
+ 2 hoodies
+ 2 extra pants
+ 2 burpclothes
+ x-tra diapers (lots!)
+ travel wipes (filled up!)
+ 2 toys
+ pacifier, leash, backup pacifier (for our baby who uses one)
+ the girls’ “blankies”, any other transitional objects
+ bottle with milk for plane’s descent
+ sunscreen


**Parents accessories
+ empty water bottles (to fill on the other side of security)
+ phone/phone charger
+ camera/camera charger
+ food, more than you think you’ll need in case of delays
+ magazine, sudoku? (ha, ha)

Advice on On-line advice

I think everyone has their favorite on-line sites for advice when things seem overwhelming as a parent or during pregnancy. Sometimes it's a challenge to weed through and find the ones that match your parenting philosophy. Here are two that I usually find really helpful and not too alarmist:

http://altdotlife.com/archives/category/parenting/
You have to go through a quick registration process to access it, but their alt.mama forum has lots of great info.

http://parents.berkeley.edu/
Some of this is very region-centric, but a lot of the parenting forum info is applicable to anyone, anywhere.

Baby-parent food: Kabocha-Spinach Soup

I really like to cook so I always imagined I would make my own baby food. While there are twin parents who seem to be able to do it right off the bat, I found getting my girls eating was enough of a challenge. Making their food was something I put on hold for a bit. Now that they're 9 months and happy eaters of lots of different foods, I'm trying to figure out recipes I can cook for THEM and US. Multi-tasking is the name of the game.

This is the first recipe that I tried that has made a meal for all four of us. It's Kabocha Squash-Spinach Soup.

Soup for the girls (left), Soup for the grown-ups (right):

It's long been a favorite of mine and I've served it to lots of company and everyone always loves it. Pair it with salad and bread and wine and done. It's perfect for twin parents: you don't have to peel Kabocha squash since the rind is edible (and tasty) so that's yet another time saver. And the flavor is very rich without any stock, so it's just straight up water and veggies. I just took out a couple ladles full of soup to puree for the girls before adding the salt and pepper. And voila! It even freezes well for them.