Public transit with kids, babies, twins

My girls and I have taken the buses a bit, though mostly with their Dad, too. They've also hit the rails a few times. I think public transportation is a great activity with kids... besides being a new experience they get to interact with lots of people and things that "go" are always a hit. So I'm trying to integrate that with our outing plans a bit more.

It does take a few tries to get right. For instance knowing whether the buses will let you get on with an open stroller is key (AC Transit (in SF East Bay) says YES, NY City buses, NO). Definitely traveling off peak is key so you can have more room is important. With twins I favor carrying one in a pack and pushing just a single stroller. And in our area, going from the East Bay to SF, I tend to favor the transbay bus over BART, but that's because we can just walk to the bus and you don't have to deal with any elevators that may or may not be in service.

I noticed this Public Transportation site a few months back, and thought it looks like a handy thing. It offers comprehensive information about transit systems nationwide. I'm thinking that when we are traveling riding the bus with the girls could be a fun activity.

Getting a funny odor/smell out of SIGG bottles...

... or probably any metal water bottle for that matter.

I love our SIGG bottles, but occasionally if I leave my water bottle half full in a warm car it gets a funny moldy smell or taste. I've found using hot water and soap fades that. But then I went and left milk for the girls in a bottle and forgot about it. The sour milk smell just would not leave.

I tried the trusty water and vinegar approach. Filled the bottle up 1/8th of the way with white vinegar and then the rest of the way with water (same basic solution I use for cleaning off toys that need it). Closed the cap, shook it and let it stand almost a day. The terrible odor was gone when I rinsed the vinegar solution out. I'm sure it would work wonders on the plain old moldy issue.

In a way I wish it hadn't worked because I wanted to test out this other cure I'd heard about: denture cleaning tablets. It's supposed to be a cure all for SIGG bottle smell. My one reservation is that it's basically bleach in a fizzy matrix. Wasn't sure about how I felt about putting bleach into the girlio's water bottle. That caveat aside, you can sanitize the bottles for far less cost by just using a teaspoon of bleach in a liter of water (can add 1 tsp. baking soda too). The whole denture cleaning tablet trick is what some people use to clean out those Camelbak water hydration systems.

Oh, and apparently the risks of bacterial and fungal growth are higher if you use the bottle with a drink that contains sugars. So make sure the wash out the bottles immediately and well after putting juice or other sugary drinks in them.

Hope that's helpful... (though I'm running the risk of turning this into a blog of all things smelly).

Organizing a toddler friendly seder

I finally get around to this post as Passover draws to a close. But hopefully this will be useful to someone for next year.

We had 11 adults and 6 toddlers (from 14 to 20 months old) at the seder this year. My husband was pretty intent on hitting all the key elements, too, so we did a little figuring ahead of time on how to do this and keep the kids engaged.

First, finding the right haggadah was key. Some attendees were brought up in Orthodox households, some have very little connection to Jewish traditions. We're pretty happy with the haggadah we ended up with: Family Haggadah: A Seder for All Generations by Elie Gindie. It has Hebrew for those who prefer, plus English translation AND transliterations. The musical notes are written out for the song lyrics in case you have instruments around. There are great pictures to hold kids' attention and a pretty pared down service. People arrived at 4:30 to get situated, we started the seder at a little after 5 and wrapped things up by around 7:30/8.

This was our order of events:

• Gather around to bless the children
• Candle lighting and then promptly taking the candles behind a baby gate.
• Kiddush - drink wine to steel your nerves for all to come
• Four questions - sung by all, all musical numbers at this age are a hit
• The Passover Story - main points
• Plagues - have photocopies of an illustrated version of the ten plagues for parents to show the children
• Dayenu - another great sing along
• Discuss/bless/eat the symbolic foods - even one year olds can take part in this. Just use potatoes instead of parsley (OK by ashkenazim) and make sure the charoset is nut-free. We didn't give them the maror.
  
• MEAL - ours was toddler friendly and veggie. I'll post about that another time.
  
• Post-meal highlights (reconvening on the living room floor): singing Eliyahu Hanavi and opening the door, and a chorus of Next Year in Jerusalem. Chad Gadya for tots with real stamina.

Only other notes for a baby/toddler friendly service. The stuffed seder plate and matzah set (above right) was fun. And my girls are way into this new children's book "Five Little Gefiltes". It's a Five Little Ducklings parody that's part early Yiddish indoctrination and part Where's Waldo played out with gefilte fish. Whaddaya talkin'?! Go and get it!

I'm Back

One of the first "New Life's Resolutions" I made when the girls were born was that I wouldn't make excuses or apologies as a mom of young twins. Suffice it to say, life has thrown a few curve balls the past month and a half. I'm glad to be back blogging...