Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: This is Laura Vandercamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist,
Speaker 2: and speaker.
Speaker 3: And this is Sarah Hartunger. I'm a mother of three,
Speaker 3: a practicing physician and blogger. On the side, we are
Speaker 3: two working parents who love our careers and our families.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds.
Speaker 2: Here we talk about how real women manage work, family,
Speaker 2: and time for fun, from figuring out childcare to mapping
Speaker 2: out long term career goals. We want you to get
Speaker 2: the most out of life.
Speaker 1: Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura.
Speaker 2: This episode is first airing in mid January of twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four. We're going to be talking about kids, stuff
Speaker 2: that lasts or that has become favorites in our families
Speaker 2: over the years, because we found you know, when you
Speaker 2: go into parenthood, you wind up buying a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2: We're getting a lot of stuff sometimes from people, and
Speaker 2: it's hard to know what's going to be a winner
Speaker 2: and what isn't. I bought one particular pricey stroller was
Speaker 2: that hit thing of two thousand and seven, I guess,
Speaker 2: and it didn't wind up lasting as long as a
Speaker 2: cheap twenty dollars umbrella stroller that I just picked up
Speaker 2: at babysarus one day. On the other hand, you know,
Speaker 2: it's great when you have stuff that lasts, but some
Speaker 2: stuff just isn't going to last, and you kind of
Speaker 2: have to make your peace with it. I mean, you're
Speaker 2: probably not going to wind up with heirlooms sweatpants, So
Speaker 2: that's a pretty high bar to set for yourself. But
Speaker 2: now that both of us have seen multiple kids go
Speaker 2: through early childhood, we wanted to share some thoughts on
Speaker 2: what might be worthwhile in some of our favorite items.
Speaker 2: I mean, because Sarah, you're seeing a lot of stuff
Speaker 2: get used again, as with your youngest versus your oldest, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, there's definitely stuff that didn't make it,
Speaker 3: and then there are a number of things that did,
Speaker 3: some even in almost like new condition, despite the fact
Speaker 3: that you know, there may be seventy eight years between
Speaker 3: when they were first bought and now they're still being used.
Speaker 3: So it's been really interesting, and some of it's not
Speaker 3: been what I necessarily would have predicted, but it's always
Speaker 3: nice to see something in the hands of a younger
Speaker 3: kid that was used for many years by consecutive children.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's always funny to me.
Speaker 2: I mean, because there are certain books and toys that
Speaker 2: you get and then kids don't use them, and they
Speaker 2: just sit there and I know maybe eventually they get
Speaker 2: thrown out or give it away or something. But then
Speaker 2: there are things that do get revisited again and again.
Speaker 2: We want to go through a few different categories. We'll
Speaker 2: start with books and magazines and media. I guess we'll
Speaker 2: start books first and then we can trade off with
Speaker 2: other media and such. But some of our favorite I
Speaker 2: think we have a subscription to baby Bug magazine, which
Speaker 2: is a little magazine from Cricket, which created is already
Speaker 2: a magazine for children, but baby Bug is actually for babies,
Speaker 2: like toddler type children. And we got a subscription in
Speaker 2: early twenty fourteen. Would have been two at the time,
Speaker 2: and she loved it. Alex was into it, Okay, who's
Speaker 2: somewhat a little bit more mixed. But Henry now loves it,
Speaker 2: so he still has a subscription. I guess we've been
Speaker 2: getting this thing for ten years. They've repeated some of
Speaker 2: the stories, I will tell you that, but he's kept
Speaker 2: reading it. So we'll show it to a shout out
Speaker 2: for that. A couple of my boys have actually liked it.
Speaker 2: Used to be called Boy's Life. It's now called Scout
Speaker 2: Life because boy Scouts became Scouts. But it's the magazine
Speaker 2: of the boy Scouts. And you might think it would
Speaker 2: be like a little bit, i don't know, cheesy because
Speaker 2: it's only about scouting or something, but it's not. They
Speaker 2: actually seem to get little boys in a good way.
Speaker 2: Like there's lots of jokes and things like that in it,
Speaker 2: so we've enjoyed that as well. Do a quick shout
Speaker 2: out for a few books. There's a few that are
Speaker 2: seasonal that we've really liked. Christmas Farm about Christmas, sugar
Speaker 2: Bush Spring about Maple's syrup making in New Hampshire and Vermont,
Speaker 2: Night of the Moon, Jellies, the Summer Book, and then
Speaker 2: Fletcher and the Falling Leaves for Autumn. We have also
Speaker 2: found that kids really like books that have a bit
Speaker 2: of an edge. So a lot of children's books are
Speaker 2: kind of syrupy sweet or trying to teach a moral
Speaker 2: or something like that, and we don't really like that
Speaker 2: as adults so much, and it's boring for kids as well.
Speaker 2: So a couple that we've enjoyed the Gruffalo, which is
Speaker 2: about a little mouse that conquers big animals by being scary.
Speaker 2: There's a really funny book that was originally in French
Speaker 2: called I Really Want to Eat a Child that is
Speaker 2: told from the perspective of a misbehaving crocodile, and so
Speaker 2: it's about a little crocodile throwing a fit. So if
Speaker 2: you have children who grow throw fits, you might like that.
Speaker 2: The Dark by Lemony Snicket. Obviously Lemony Snicket has books
Speaker 2: for older children as well, but that's a picture book
Speaker 2: about Laslow who is afraid of the dark and then
Speaker 2: goes to visit the dark when the dark comes to
Speaker 2: visit him. And John Klassens various Books on Hats, which
Speaker 2: is about animals possibly eating each other when they have
Speaker 2: stolen each other's hats. So kids don't like to, you know,
Speaker 2: have things be too sweet, so we'll go with those,
Speaker 2: how about you, Sarah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, probably one thing that has surprised me is
Speaker 3: that sometimes books that don't necessarily seem like they're targeting
Speaker 3: really young kids have been a hit with like three
Speaker 3: year olds. So I will share one such series that
Speaker 3: has tended to appeal throughout my kids ages, which is
Speaker 3: called Dory Phantasmagory by an author named Abbie Hanlin, and
Speaker 3: they actually just released a new one that I bought immediately,
Speaker 3: and as I was reading it to Genevieve, the other
Speaker 3: two kids are like suddenly appear in her room because
Speaker 3: they want to hear it too, because it's just like
Speaker 3: so appealing, and also I think fits in that category
Speaker 3: of like not sickeningly sweet Doris a little offbeat. She's
Speaker 3: got some very wide imagination and it is a graphic
Speaker 3: novel that's illustrated in really cute ways. So that's one
Speaker 3: that we love. Moe Williams. I mean probably if you
Speaker 3: have kids, you already know who he is. But I
Speaker 3: will say his books do tend to be read over
Speaker 3: and over and over again.
Speaker 4: In our house.
Speaker 3: The knuffle Bunny series makes me cry every couple readings.
Speaker 3: So but really those books just really do seem to
Speaker 3: stand the test of time. Both of my girls have
Speaker 3: been really into two series books, the Pink Delicious books
Speaker 3: and Fancy Nancy, and then the Russell Hoban Francis books
Speaker 3: like Brennan Jim for Francis, Bedtime for Francis. I love
Speaker 3: them like I love them, love them.
Speaker 4: They have little songs.
Speaker 3: I've made up melodies to all of them, and they're
Speaker 3: aim towards kids. But like there's just like little Easter
Speaker 3: Like it's like almost like watching the Simpsons or something.
Speaker 3: There's like a whole layer of it that like there's
Speaker 3: a kid layer and then there's like the adult layer.
Speaker 3: Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I absolutely
Speaker 3: love those and I have those. I have a couple
Speaker 3: of them separate, and then I also have like a
Speaker 3: one you can buy it as an addition that has
Speaker 3: multiple stories in one, and that is like one of
Speaker 3: our most requested books. We've done the illustrated Harry Potter
Speaker 3: reading together on various occasions, and that's been a hit
Speaker 3: at times as well.
Speaker 4: But yeah, those are the books we pick up again
Speaker 4: and again and again, and I'll just say, oh yeah.
Speaker 3: Graphic novels in addition to Abby, Rena Telgemeyer is kind
Speaker 3: of like, you know, a very popular graphic novel writer.
Speaker 3: She did a lot of the Babysitters Club books and
Speaker 3: then also did a lot of standalones like Guts and
Speaker 3: I Forget. There's a bunch of them, but my kids
Speaker 3: have all loved them, all three of them. At different ages.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll do a shout out for the Bad Kitty
Speaker 2: series of graphic novels. That's another one that it's not
Speaker 2: syrupy sweet Tit's about a misbehaving kitty, as you might imagine,
Speaker 2: and the various adventures they go on. We particularly enjoyed
Speaker 2: the one where they won a visit to an amusement
Speaker 2: park and it was really a horrible amusement park. The
Speaker 2: whole Diary of a Wimpy Kids has actually been read
Speaker 2: by multiple of my children. They collected the whole series
Speaker 2: and have not fought reading that at all. I mean
Speaker 2: shout out to graphic novels because of particularly kids who
Speaker 2: want complex stories but may not be quite ready for
Speaker 2: an entire sea of words on a page. It's just
Speaker 2: a great thing. And so you know, we've tolerated all
Speaker 2: sorts of Diaper Baby and whatever Captain Underpants, but kids
Speaker 2: like them. I mean, I will do a shout out though,
Speaker 2: for Magic Treehouse series. As a first chapter book series.
Speaker 2: The first few are kind of short and not that exciting,
Speaker 2: but they get She did ones that were then aimed
Speaker 2: for slightly more advanced readers.
Speaker 1: A series of them.
Speaker 2: They had a different title, but now they've all been
Speaker 2: folded into the same baity. So if you sort of
Speaker 2: start in the middle, you will get the longer ones
Speaker 2: that are just more exciting, like the more stuff happens
Speaker 2: and you learn more in them, So shout out for those.
Speaker 1: And then also that the Guinness Book of.
Speaker 2: World Records will get read by multiple kids poured through,
Speaker 2: you know, then they'll compare, like if you buy them
Speaker 2: every year, you can look back at what was the
Speaker 2: record in twenty fifteen of this and if it changed
Speaker 2: by twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: So that's been exciting, Sarah.
Speaker 2: What television shows would you say have stood the test
Speaker 2: of time for your kids?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I would say Bluie gets the gold medal
Speaker 3: for this in the one that I don't find terribly grading,
Speaker 3: and a lot of kids watched it for like maybe
Speaker 3: longer than you might have expected that they would watch it.
Speaker 3: The music is really good, the accents are really good. Again,
Speaker 3: there's kind of like a layer of adult humor buried
Speaker 3: in there, so that definitely gets a shout out. Thunderman's
Speaker 3: on the Disney Channel, I believe, and maybe also available
Speaker 3: on like Netflix or Amazon Prime or one of the
Speaker 3: other streaming services is also one of the things that, like,
Speaker 3: my kids have watched every episode multiple times and they
Speaker 3: will all watch it together, which is always amazing. And
Speaker 3: I have to say just Disney Plus in general has
Speaker 3: been so nice to have, I mean, access to every
Speaker 3: single one of those movies. There's a number of shows
Speaker 3: on there, like usually they can find something that appeals
Speaker 3: to most of them, and it's just a nice It's
Speaker 3: a nice repository to have available. So I'm glad that that.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't think that existed when Annabel was
Speaker 3: a little kid, but it's been nice to add that
Speaker 3: to our toolbox as they have gotten older.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I also have to say, oh, go ahead.
Speaker 1: It could keep going, keep going.
Speaker 3: I was just going to mention that I have been impressed.
Speaker 3: I guess this does not apply to like young young kids,
Speaker 3: and in a way that was what our initial angle
Speaker 3: of what this episode was going to be. But I
Speaker 3: just want to say that the classic like nineteen nineties
Speaker 3: early aughts movies have been more of a hit with
Speaker 3: my kids than I expected. I'm talking about Mean Girls, Clueless,
Speaker 3: Bring It On, Legally Blonde. There are absolutely dated, like
Speaker 3: inappropriate jokes in some of them, but in some ways
Speaker 3: that's actually not the worst thing because you can actually
Speaker 3: pause it and then talk about why that joke is
Speaker 3: no longer okay, or the kid may point it out
Speaker 3: to you that that joke is no longer okay, and
Speaker 3: so you know, in a way that can just be
Speaker 3: fodder for conversation. But at the same time, the material
Speaker 3: in them, I mean, there's a reason that we watched
Speaker 3: them so many times and we want to watch them
Speaker 3: again as it all, and some.
Speaker 2: Were bit into movies and musicals and all the musicals
Speaker 2: of all of those. Yeah, I would say I'm just
Speaker 2: gonna mention the Backyard Agains because it's one that people
Speaker 2: may not have seen, especially if you have really young kids,
Speaker 2: because it was kind of like in two thousand, like
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and four or something
Speaker 2: was the peak years of when the Backyard Agains were created.
Speaker 2: And so it's kind of funny if you are watching
Speaker 2: the clips on YouTube, some of them, it's very clear
Speaker 2: that it was made before a lot of the high
Speaker 2: def television became so common. But the production numbers are
Speaker 2: really good. Like if you watch the characters dancing, they're
Speaker 2: actually doing like actual dance steps.
Speaker 1: There's just they thought through.
Speaker 2: All sorts of things with these, and the storylines are
Speaker 2: a little bit more interesting than a lot of cartoon
Speaker 2: and they're not again trying to teach the syrupy sweet morals.
Speaker 1: It's like the Backyard agains.
Speaker 2: These kids are having adventures, you know, discovering things and
Speaker 2: playing with their friends. And so I will do a
Speaker 2: real shout out for those, and then you know if
Speaker 2: your kids like it. There are a whole tie in
Speaker 2: series of Backyard Again books that tell similar tales, and
Speaker 2: so we have wound up reading through those with Henry,
Speaker 2: even though I know they were passed down from my
Speaker 2: older brother who had bought them for his children who
Speaker 2: were children in two thousand when they were watching The
Speaker 2: Backyard Again. So those have stood the test of time.
Speaker 2: So another show for older children you might want to
Speaker 2: check out is Avatar The Last Airbender. It's sort of
Speaker 2: a fantasy series about this civilization where they did air
Speaker 2: bending and water bending and worth bending and the various elements.
Speaker 2: But it has held their attention for a long time.
Speaker 2: There's many shows in the series, so you can watch it.
Speaker 2: There are some tie in books. People will go out
Speaker 2: in the backyard and start fire bending. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: just the kind of thing where people it really captures
Speaker 2: their imagination, and there are a few that are a
Speaker 2: little bit more sort of violent than others. So again
Speaker 2: it's kids definitely eight plus, And maybe other people have
Speaker 2: stricter standards than I do and might say it was
Speaker 2: more like ten or eleven plus, but I thought it
Speaker 2: was something that they watched enough that I would do
Speaker 2: a shout out for it.
Speaker 3: Cool.
Speaker 2: Well, let's take a quick ad break and then we'll
Speaker 2: be back with more of our recommendations of kid things
Speaker 2: that have stood the test of time. All right, Well,
Speaker 2: we are back talking about our favorite kid things that
Speaker 2: have stood the test of time that my five children
Speaker 2: now have watched or played with. Sarah's got three kids
Speaker 2: spanning the age from about twelve down to six, so
Speaker 2: she's seen a lot of things go through different iterations
Speaker 2: as well. And so Sarah, maybe you could talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about the toys that all three of your kids,
Speaker 2: or at least some of your kids, multiple of your
Speaker 2: kids have played with and enjoyed.
Speaker 3: So you will notice when we we exchange notes back
Speaker 3: and forth, I didn't put a lot there because you
Speaker 3: had mentioned so many of the toys. So I don't
Speaker 3: want to steal a lot of your thunder, but I'll
Speaker 3: share a couple of them that have just absolutely I
Speaker 3: think we just have a lot of common favors, which
Speaker 3: must mean they're really good toys.
Speaker 4: Like they are really good.
Speaker 3: So Magnetiles, I mean we had those. I mean I
Speaker 3: feel like we were just sort of starting to phase
Speaker 3: out of them, but Genevieve, we'll still get them out
Speaker 3: sometimes and build something and it's a super fun thing
Speaker 3: to play with with younger cousins and stuff like that too.
Speaker 3: But magnetizs are these little magnetized clear pieces and they're
Speaker 3: not the cheapest. But if you buy a set and
Speaker 3: then you use it for ten or so years, then
Speaker 3: you've probably gotten a good amount of value out of
Speaker 3: that set. And it is one of those things where
Speaker 3: the more you have, the more fun they can have
Speaker 3: with it because you can make bigger and more elaborate structures.
Speaker 3: So definitely stood the test of time for us. You
Speaker 3: mentioned a wooden play kitchen. Agree, we have always had one.
Speaker 3: We just get like the Ikea, like nothing super fancy.
Speaker 3: I don't think ours is anything great, but they really
Speaker 3: have enjoyed it, and Genevieve actually asked for like.
Speaker 4: Updated stuff for it.
Speaker 3: For her, I think it was her fifth birthday, Like
Speaker 3: it wasn't that long ago that she still really was
Speaker 3: into it, so that was big. And then I'm gonna
Speaker 3: steal one more of yours, which is the Nintendo Switch.
Speaker 3: So my kids also enjoy playing that a great deal.
Speaker 3: And there's there's some good like collaborative games that they
Speaker 3: can do all together. They like one called Overcooked, where
Speaker 3: you're like in a busy kitchen trying to keep this
Speaker 3: restaurant going. And then they'll do like different variations of
Speaker 3: Mario Kart, Cameron's gotten in a Zelda, et cetera. And
Speaker 3: then I'll say the one computer game that they've been
Speaker 3: at for years, well, and the girls have been at
Speaker 3: this one for years. Cameron is he'll delve into it occasionally,
Speaker 3: but he has other things that he likes more.
Speaker 4: But it's called Toka Focal World and.
Speaker 3: It's basically a very chill world building game where you're
Speaker 3: like building a house and character isn't dressing them up,
Speaker 3: and it just looks like a digital dollhouse. And I
Speaker 3: don't understand exactly what the poll is because to me,
Speaker 3: I'm like, wouldn't that get.
Speaker 4: Old doesn't seem to get old.
Speaker 3: The only downside is there are like packs you purchase
Speaker 3: to upgrade all your stuff, and so they'll be coming
Speaker 3: at you, Oh I need can I buy this ninety
Speaker 3: nine cent thing?
Speaker 4: Whatever? But you know it's not violent. It's really chill.
Speaker 4: There's not a lot of flashing lights.
Speaker 3: And to captivate a six year old and an almost
Speaker 3: twelve year old is pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: Do they play that on iPads?
Speaker 3: Then? Is that usually on iPads? And that's been for years, Like,
Speaker 3: it's not like they just started this. It's been like
Speaker 3: a long time.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We wound up paying for the Doctor Panda app because
Speaker 2: Henry loved it so much, and I know that other
Speaker 2: of my children have played with it too. I think
Speaker 2: Ruth and Alex both played with Doctor Panda because there's
Speaker 2: all these different worlds you can do, Like there's a
Speaker 2: Doctor Panda veggie patch, and there's a Doctor Panda restaurant
Speaker 2: of like a pizza restaurant and a sushi restaurant, and
Speaker 2: so you could make different things. And it's non word based, right,
Speaker 2: it's all pictures. So a child who is preliterate can
Speaker 2: play it, which you know, sometimes it's harder for involved
Speaker 2: games to fit with younger kids. So something that we've
Speaker 2: done during car trips for sure.
Speaker 1: So yeah, one of our early.
Speaker 2: Investments, I guess on toys was the Thomas the Train
Speaker 2: train tracks, and so Melissa and Doug makes the set
Speaker 2: of the train tracks. You can buy those and then
Speaker 2: the Thomas the Train. Make sure you're looking for the
Speaker 2: wooden ones. I found the plastic ones are sort of
Speaker 2: set specific, and then they have a ton of the
Speaker 2: plastic ones, but we really like the wooden ones a
Speaker 2: lot better because they just lasted longer. But we got
Speaker 2: a little train table and multiple children have built train
Speaker 2: track structures. Some kids got more into the engineering than others,
Speaker 2: doing multiple layers of bridges and stuff, and then some
Speaker 2: kids were more into the collecting aspect, right because there
Speaker 2: are a ton of different Thomas trains, and so you
Speaker 2: might set up all eight that are mentioned in the
Speaker 2: song that brings it in, or you might decide that
Speaker 2: you like the different colors, so you're gonna get Rosy
Speaker 2: or Billy or I think he's the yellow one or something.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 2: But you can collect them and then people ask for
Speaker 2: them for birthdays and add to the set.
Speaker 4: And so forth.
Speaker 2: That's the upside of the magnetiles too, because you can
Speaker 2: get sort of a starter pack, like you get a
Speaker 2: kid a starter pack for like a third or fourth birthday,
Speaker 2: and then various relatives could give you a set to
Speaker 2: add to it for the next several birthdays or Christmas.
Speaker 2: Henry got a Construction Magnetiles set, and he got a
Speaker 2: Arctic Animals magnetile set for his birthday and Christmas this year,
Speaker 2: so he could.
Speaker 4: Add that to the set that he had.
Speaker 2: The upside of the wooden play Kitchen, as we were
Speaker 2: talking about as well, is that then again you can
Speaker 2: also add to it over the years, like this year
Speaker 2: you get the Melissa and Doug spaghetti making set, or
Speaker 2: this year you get a toy mixer set, and that
Speaker 2: can kind of add on to the play with that.
Speaker 2: I will do a shout up for giving some sort
Speaker 2: of dress up station and now there's no need to
Speaker 2: buy like a kit. I mean, that's sort of like
Speaker 2: a little funny that people have, like a dress up
Speaker 2: kit that yourself just make either a you know, like
Speaker 2: a big hamper, or we now have a little garment
Speaker 2: rack that you can put hangers on with the different
Speaker 2: outfits so you can see them and then pull them
Speaker 2: off and put on your dinosaur outfit or your capes
Speaker 2: or your princess dress or whatever it happens to be,
Speaker 2: and that can get a ton of play. As you
Speaker 2: add onto that. Over the years, we actually used their
Speaker 2: electric cars. So this is another one you might want to,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe if you have generous grandparents, ask for
Speaker 2: But we bought.
Speaker 1: Like a tractor, an electric kid tractor, and.
Speaker 2: They love that thing, like they played from it from
Speaker 2: age you know, about two or three is when they
Speaker 2: can start riding on with their older siblings, Like a
Speaker 2: three or four year old can start learning how to
Speaker 2: drive it. But it's you know, something that a kid
Speaker 2: can definitely play with from about age three to seven,
Speaker 2: and particularly if you have a playdate. It's a really
Speaker 2: good thing to drag out. If you have like a
Speaker 2: two seater a Nintendo Switch, and you can buy the
Speaker 2: like Nintendo Labo kits that add on to it. That's
Speaker 2: just if you don't mind the idea of your kids
Speaker 2: playing video games, you just don't want them surfing the
Speaker 2: entire universe of the web something like the play The
Speaker 2: Nintendo Switch is great because it is limited to games
Speaker 2: for the most part, and I would just do a
Speaker 2: shout out for Lego sets and particularly Lego Friends, which
Speaker 2: Legos were sort of I mean, their legos are for anyone.
Speaker 1: I love them growing up, but they definitely had.
Speaker 2: A slight more of a boy toy kind of vibe
Speaker 2: as you got older, Like it was definitely aimed at
Speaker 2: like the Star Wars type things, you know, and then
Speaker 2: now it's the Lego Friends have been developed in such
Speaker 2: a way that I think it really reflects how a
Speaker 2: lot of little girls like to play, Like the characters
Speaker 2: are developed, like you can pause in the middle of
Speaker 2: building to have a scene set up instead of having
Speaker 2: to race through to the end. So we've really enjoyed
Speaker 2: doing those. But you know, Legos last forever. Sam got
Speaker 2: the Lord of the Ring set for Christmas and he
Speaker 2: has been building that and he is fourteen and it
Speaker 2: is awesome. So it's something that can last for a
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 4: I'll say.
Speaker 3: Duplo like for the younger kids also have a fairly
Speaker 3: long lifespan. And if your kids are at the age
Speaker 3: where they're going to like stick something up their nose
Speaker 3: or something, then if your bigger kids are playing with Legos,
Speaker 3: you can have build little kid play with duplos, so
Speaker 3: they have their own thing. But I will say also
Speaker 3: like it's not like at age five all of a
Speaker 3: sudden they hate their duplos. Like they can continue to
Speaker 3: enjoy those past what you might think.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and especially if you have like a younger guest visiting,
Speaker 2: the older kids will probably really get into it again
Speaker 2: because they are fun. I mean, it's fun to build
Speaker 2: with and it's a little bit less complicated than the
Speaker 2: small ones. You can sort of quickly put a structure together,
Speaker 2: and they really enjoyed it. As we're transitioning into big
Speaker 2: kid world in my house, we've actually made a choice
Speaker 2: to sort of set up some big kid areas of
Speaker 2: the house. And so in the basement there was the
Speaker 2: person who lived here before left their pool table, but
Speaker 2: it needed some work, so we actually went ahead and
Speaker 2: resurfaced it so that it is now really good for playing,
Speaker 2: and bought a ping pong table, which is again it's
Speaker 2: not cheap, but they're not over the top expensive. There's
Speaker 2: definitely ones you can get or by used. There's probably
Speaker 2: somebody moving who wants to get rid of their ping
Speaker 2: pong table. But between the ping pong table the pool
Speaker 2: table and the dartboard we put down in the basement.
Speaker 2: It is now like tween and teen Central, like if
Speaker 2: you have friends over, it's something that they can go do.
Speaker 2: And yeah, they're gonna wind up on the Xbox as well,
Speaker 2: And there's nothing wrong with the Xbox playing Fortnite, but
Speaker 2: it gives them sort of a screen free options too.
Speaker 2: So moving into like baby stuff, so you know, if
Speaker 2: somebody is thinking about what they're going to buy for
Speaker 2: their babies, Sarah, what did you like in.
Speaker 1: Terms of baby raps, like baby carriers, baby raps.
Speaker 4: Oh, I was with you.
Speaker 3: I was so super into Ergo, Like I I think
Speaker 3: I might have used I know, I think I gave
Speaker 3: it away, so I think I had two different ones.
Speaker 3: But and then they got the Ergo three sixty. But
Speaker 3: I know those that's not like a traditional like stretchy wrap.
Speaker 3: Those didn't work for me. My baby's got really big,
Speaker 3: really fast, and I'm like, this is a heavy lump
Speaker 3: in this stretchy fabric.
Speaker 4: I can't deal.
Speaker 3: But the Ergo works from like birth to over age one.
Speaker 3: And like on every single vacation we took, there's like
Speaker 3: a million pictures of me. If there's like a baby
Speaker 3: under the age of one, and they're always like in
Speaker 3: the Ergo, either asleep or like happily looking around.
Speaker 4: Like I never had a kid be upset in that thing.
Speaker 4: It was kind of magical.
Speaker 3: So love, love, love the Ergo, and I would buy
Speaker 3: that for anybody having a baby that is interested in
Speaker 3: a caring option that's really really versatile and works for
Speaker 3: a lot of people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we definitely like the Ergo.
Speaker 2: I had borrowed it when Ruth was a baby from
Speaker 2: a friend because we were making a Disney trip and
Speaker 2: I had my two older boys and a double stroller,
Speaker 2: which was the Phil and Ted's double decker stroller. So
Speaker 2: shout out here if you think you will need a
Speaker 2: double stroller, if you are having two children, if you
Speaker 2: plan to have two children, if you have you know,
Speaker 2: a cousin who comes with you on a lot of things,
Speaker 2: or whatever it is. The double decker version is just
Speaker 2: so much more convenient to move around because a side
Speaker 2: bar side double stroller is just so wide you can
Speaker 2: wind up with like problems with doors sometimes or anywhere
Speaker 2: that is a narrow sidewalk or whatever, whereas a double
Speaker 2: decker stroller, I mean, granted, the smaller child's view is
Speaker 2: not that great because they're on the bottom, but maybe
Speaker 2: you can put a picture up for something, or talk
Speaker 2: to them, or you know, they can still look out
Speaker 2: the side and they can see the world going by
Speaker 2: that way. It was just so much more flexible for
Speaker 2: moving around places. But you know, did that baby in
Speaker 2: the ergo and you know you're transporting three children without
Speaker 2: taking up a huge footprint of space, which has a
Speaker 2: lot going for it. We actually bought the baby Katan
Speaker 2: for Henry and found it was good. He would sleep
Speaker 2: basically only in that, which has benefits sending it sent
Speaker 2: its downsides, but the upside is we were passing it
Speaker 2: around like it was a me Michael. We had a
Speaker 2: different summer sitter then because our baby was our normal
Speaker 2: nanny was out on maternity leave actually as well.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the katan was passed around. Each of us
Speaker 1: would wear it.
Speaker 2: He would sleep on anybody in it, but that was
Speaker 2: the only thing he would sleep in.
Speaker 1: I would say that in.
Speaker 2: Terms of changing supplies, you can get this from anyone,
Speaker 2: but a portable changing pad that folds up and has
Speaker 2: a small wipes container on it. And then we actually
Speaker 2: the one we use was from Baby boom. And it
Speaker 2: had a little pacifier container on the side as well,
Speaker 2: so that you could throw an extra passy in there.
Speaker 2: And that's just if you had a child who was
Speaker 2: into their pacifier. Having an extra attached to it.
Speaker 4: Is really good.
Speaker 2: But the idea is it was small enough with just
Speaker 2: this small wipes container, small foldable portable changer, you could
Speaker 2: just throw it in your purse.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: You can put that and two diapers like in a
Speaker 2: ziplock bag in your purse, and then you don't actually
Speaker 2: need like a full on diaper bag maybe, which I
Speaker 2: never really liked carrying around diaper bags.
Speaker 1: All that much.
Speaker 3: So I had a backpack, a regular backpack. Actually we
Speaker 3: still use it sometimes because it's just a black backpack.
Speaker 3: And it happened to have exactly what you're saying, like
Speaker 3: a foldable week long since gotten rid of that part
Speaker 3: of it, but it had like just a cute matching
Speaker 3: foldable thing that went in the backpack.
Speaker 4: And yeah, I liked being hands free. I didn't want
Speaker 4: anything slung around my body.
Speaker 3: I often would have the baby on the front and
Speaker 3: then the backpack could go in the back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, balance it out.
Speaker 2: You know, this is how we line up with back
Speaker 2: trouble later in life. I get carding around all these
Speaker 2: heavy babies all the time. So in terms of so
Speaker 2: we use the event bottles and we like those, And
Speaker 2: then I just want to say, like baby cups, like
Speaker 2: for kids, like once they start being able to use
Speaker 2: straws weirdly enough, and we have kept using them. Now
Speaker 2: we still have them, the freebie cups from Sesame place
Speaker 2: and from Chuck E Cheese, Like both of them come
Speaker 2: with straws and lids and they can go in the
Speaker 2: dishwasher and they have lasted perfectly fine. We have kept
Speaker 2: using those from you know, when the kids are like
Speaker 2: two and stop using sippy cups, through to like six,
Speaker 2: when they can start using normal cups and not spilling
Speaker 2: all the time. We have just used those sometimes. You
Speaker 2: still even use them for older kids without the lids.
Speaker 2: But it was no need to spend extra on that.
Speaker 2: You just throw a party at Chuck E Cheese at
Speaker 2: some point and you wind up with like ten of them,
Speaker 2: and your dishware needs are solved for the next six years.
Speaker 4: Apparently, there you go. We went a little fancier.
Speaker 1: I guess what did you use?
Speaker 3: We used Zoli for these straw cups and we had
Speaker 3: them for many many years. They're not They lasted through
Speaker 3: like one kid each, so I'm not sure they fit
Speaker 3: this category. Because they have a silicon straw. You can
Speaker 3: technically replace the straw, but it's hard to do and
Speaker 3: my kids would cheo through it, but it would last
Speaker 3: a couple of years and they were good. And the
Speaker 3: nice thing is they didn't spill when the kid like
Speaker 3: threw it across the room, so that was nice. And
Speaker 3: then Pura was my favorite, like baby water bottle, because
Speaker 3: it had like a nice thing you could like they
Speaker 3: would like to chew on it, I don't know, and
Speaker 3: it was metal. I like try to avoid plastic if possible,
Speaker 3: although tho Zoli cups were pla So those were our favorites.
Speaker 3: We actually still have a couple of Pura that we
Speaker 3: converted into like they have different tops so water bottles.
Speaker 3: So it's a pretty long lasting option, longesting option.
Speaker 2: And then in terms of pumps, I'm going to do
Speaker 2: a shout out here for the Medella pump and style.
Speaker 2: So I bought this baby in two thousand and seven
Speaker 2: and proceeded to use it through to twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: with slight gaps in there. I replaced all the like
Speaker 2: pump parts. Obviously, I rebought the tubes and rebought other
Speaker 2: things because they you know, that's a long time to
Speaker 2: imagine things will last in a clean condition or anything.
Speaker 2: But it worked fine, and in fact, for Henry, I
Speaker 2: bought one of those hands free new pump options they had.
Speaker 1: I didn't like it.
Speaker 2: Maybe there are people it works for, like if you
Speaker 2: have a job where you really need your hands and
Speaker 2: can wear it for a long time because you know
Speaker 2: it's not necessarily going to be the quickest thing in
Speaker 2: the world. But for me, the Medella was it's just fine,
Speaker 2: Like it served the purpose it was supposed to serve.
Speaker 2: And I brought that thing everywhere for a long time
Speaker 2: and now now it's finally done with it.
Speaker 1: But yes, it's uh, it lasted.
Speaker 3: I think technology still has work to do in this arena.
Speaker 3: I mean I didn't think any of them were that great.
Speaker 3: None of them were as good as a baby, Like none
Speaker 3: of them are for me anyway, Well you say, of course,
Speaker 3: I mean for some people they're better than a baby,
Speaker 3: and they have trouble with the baby, and they're great
Speaker 3: with the pump. For me, like, I kept upgrading or
Speaker 3: changing it to feel like this one's gonna be awesome,
Speaker 3: and then like, yeah, they all kind of worked, but
Speaker 3: they all were kind of torture. So I had the
Speaker 3: Pump and Style, a hospital grade Medela, which I don't
Speaker 3: think was in retrospect much better than the Pump and
Speaker 3: Style and was like a rental and very expensive, and
Speaker 3: then a Spectra, which I feel like was the pump
Speaker 3: DuJour in like the late what do you call the
Speaker 3: twenty tens, the late twenty tens, And now I feel
Speaker 3: like there's all these hands free ones that people like.
Speaker 3: So actually I do feel like I'm not qualified anymore
Speaker 3: to weigh in here, and I'm just someone tell us
Speaker 3: that there's something awesome available now, because I would just
Speaker 3: hope that that's coming down the pike.
Speaker 2: And we had a disagreement over the diaper Genie, so
Speaker 2: this is another thing people off and buy when they
Speaker 2: first have a kid. We just it didn't seem to
Speaker 2: really contain the smell for us, and then it just
Speaker 2: be you know, one more thing to think about, like
Speaker 2: when you have a kid and you're there with the diaper,
Speaker 2: like having to twist it into there as opposed to
Speaker 2: just like throwing it in a trash can and then
Speaker 2: taking the trash out frequently. That tends to be what
Speaker 2: we wound up doing. When you're a busy household, you're
Speaker 2: taking out the trash pretty much every day anyway, so
Speaker 2: it's not lingering in there all that long.
Speaker 4: So you know, that was our experience. I love that thing.
Speaker 4: We kept it.
Speaker 3: We use it for all the kids. Yeah, I felt
Speaker 3: like it did eliminate the smell. And I guess in
Speaker 3: like kids rooms and stuff, I don't usually pick out
Speaker 3: the trash every day. We take out like the kitchen
Speaker 3: trash every day. But it was able to contain things
Speaker 3: for usually several days in a row. I mean, I
Speaker 3: did hate when you get to the end and you're like,
Speaker 3: goddamn it, like it's this is the worst diaper and
Speaker 3: now like I have to, you know, empty it just
Speaker 3: when this baby is like crying and sitting on the
Speaker 3: thing whatever. So it had its downsides, but we actually,
Speaker 3: we actually did get a lot of use out of
Speaker 3: our diaper. Genie.
Speaker 4: We did not have a snow. Did you have a snow?
Speaker 2: I bought the snow for Henry because you know, why not.
Speaker 2: It was the hip thing, right, like going to try
Speaker 2: it out.
Speaker 1: It was okay, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean it was there were occasional times when I
Speaker 2: think it maybe soothed him a little bit. But remember
Speaker 2: this is the kid who only wanted to nap in
Speaker 2: the guiton, so it was just not going to be
Speaker 2: the equivalent of napping on a human being no matter
Speaker 2: what you do.
Speaker 1: And so I.
Speaker 2: Mean it was fine, but I don't know if I
Speaker 2: would call it a miraculous.
Speaker 4: Sort of thing. So not a magical solution. Not a
Speaker 4: magical solution.
Speaker 3: Well good, it makes me feel better that I never
Speaker 3: tried it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, why do we go ahead to clothes? Can
Speaker 1: we move on to close? I mean, just a real
Speaker 1: quick thing here.
Speaker 2: I mean, one of the first things you realize as
Speaker 2: a new parent is that your kid grows out of
Speaker 2: those newborn and zero to three month things like fast,
Speaker 2: probably probably in less than three months, which is not
Speaker 2: a long time anyway. So you know, you can wind
Speaker 2: up with a lot of zero to three clothes if
Speaker 2: you're thinking like, oh, that's the first size I should buy,
Speaker 2: and then you know you might not even wear some
Speaker 2: of it because it just you know, your kids in
Speaker 2: pajamas all the time or who knows, just onesies if
Speaker 2: it's warm. But then so you can ask for bigger
Speaker 2: clothes for people you know, or just get a few
Speaker 2: hand me downs of the zero to three size and
Speaker 2: like something cute for a photo, but then you don't
Speaker 2: have to worry about it that much and pass them
Speaker 2: on when you're done as well.
Speaker 3: That's true secondhand for zero to three, especially if you
Speaker 3: want to get some like higher end things. Often they're
Speaker 3: like unused because people do get so many as gifts
Speaker 3: that then they use thirty percent of them and the
Speaker 3: rest of them go on eBay or Poshmark or whatever.
Speaker 3: So that that is a great place to say about
Speaker 3: I do feel like I have like fond attachments to
Speaker 3: some of my kids newborn outfits and zero to three,
Speaker 3: not that I have them physically, like I don't keep
Speaker 3: that stuff, but I like the pictures and like those
Speaker 3: are going to be the pictures you look at again
Speaker 3: and again and again during those very special like first
Speaker 3: month periods, And so I'm kind of glad that we
Speaker 3: did have a few really nice things. But I agree
Speaker 3: you do not need high volume whatsoever. So maybe just
Speaker 3: a couple of really cute, memorable outfits and again looking secondhand,
Speaker 3: maybe great for that age range.
Speaker 1: What brands have you found?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Have you because I know you've used some for
Speaker 2: both of your girls. Oh yeah, Oh my gosh. The
Speaker 2: number of Mini Boden and Tea collection items that have
Speaker 2: made it from Annabel to Genevieve is actually a high
Speaker 2: high percentage. Dresses, even legging, sometimes sweatpants, jean shorts, like
Speaker 2: sweater everything, so those tend to last more than the
Speaker 2: target stuff that gets like stretched out and just doesn't
Speaker 2: seem to make it, or maybe it's trendier. I don't
Speaker 2: know what it is, but their stuff really does seem
Speaker 2: to last. I love Gap for like really durable basics
Speaker 2: like pajamas and swim and that kind of stuff. And
Speaker 2: I would say Land's end is like a very if
Speaker 2: we need something utilitarian like a fleece or a school
Speaker 2: uniform stuff, I feel like they have good stuff at
Speaker 2: really nice prices. And for shoes, Natives and Crocs and
Speaker 2: then Nike Flex Runners. I don't know how many of
Speaker 2: those I've bought. They're actually not the most durable shoes
Speaker 2: or I have very.
Speaker 1: Rough well kids shoes.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's a that would be a
Speaker 2: high bar if you could like last and pass those down.
Speaker 1: I mean, kids wear them, they get dirty, they.
Speaker 4: They're passed down.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, I've just bought a lot of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a brand. Yeah, We've done a lot of
Speaker 2: Nike Flex Runners too. I mean, because they slip on
Speaker 2: and kids like not having to tie. I mean, I'm
Speaker 2: I feel like tying maybe like a skill that children
Speaker 2: don't even learn anymore. I mean because I mean we've
Speaker 2: done like kissick shoes as well for some of the
Speaker 2: kids that you just slip them on this maybe throw
Speaker 2: them for a loop when they're finally like needing athletic
Speaker 2: shoes or dressed shoes, like, wait, I have to tie this?
Speaker 2: How does that even work? There'd be lots of bunny
Speaker 2: or something in adults. I would say that just a
Speaker 2: couple of things that we have used a lot. We
Speaker 2: have this one baby bigosh snowsuit that's like an eighteen
Speaker 2: month snowsuit and literally my older brother's kids wore it.
Speaker 2: My kids all wore it. It has just lasted this
Speaker 2: whole time. We also have this Lllbean full body fleece
Speaker 2: that is again it's about an eighteen month size, and
Speaker 2: the kids could wear it because it's you know, it
Speaker 2: doesn't need to be a certain size necessarily.
Speaker 1: They wore it from about the time.
Speaker 2: There were nine months to two years, more or less
Speaker 2: if you get the eighteen month size, but it's a.
Speaker 1: Full body fleece and we called it the Snoogie.
Speaker 2: And little children obviously you can't put blankets in the
Speaker 2: crib with them because it's a hazard. So they need
Speaker 2: warm stuff on them, and you know it's hard to
Speaker 2: make the house warm for comfortable for them and the
Speaker 2: adults sleeper or whatever. So you know, you put them
Speaker 2: in pajamas and then put the snoogie over it when
Speaker 2: you are in the winter months, and it helped them
Speaker 2: sleep better because they were nice and cozy. So big
Speaker 2: shout out to that. And again it's one of those
Speaker 2: things that my older brother's kids wore like. I have
Speaker 2: this distinct memory of my niece, who would have been
Speaker 2: twenty months old, coming to say goodbye to me when
Speaker 2: I got on the bus to go to the airport
Speaker 2: to go to Australia for several months her study abroad.
Speaker 2: She was in this fleece and my brother joked about
Speaker 2: it being sort of elf gear because it's got a
Speaker 2: pointed hat and now my babies of all warn them
Speaker 2: Like I had a baby wearing this in like twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one. So this thing went from the year two
Speaker 2: thousand to the year to twenty twenty one with not
Speaker 2: continuous use obviously, but a lot of use during that time.
Speaker 2: So shout out to Elbean for doing that. And that's
Speaker 2: truly stuff that lasts. Shout out to the name Snoogie Snoogie.
Speaker 2: Well know, my kids were all snooky bear too. I
Speaker 2: call them snooky bears. They're in they're snoogies, So.
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 2: Those the nicknames wind up lasting too, which is a
Speaker 2: funny thing. And then so real quick, just a shout
Speaker 2: out for some food items. Obviously food doesn't last, but
Speaker 2: things we've wind up using a lot of if you
Speaker 2: happen to have highly selective eaters, I'll just do a
Speaker 2: shout out here that Kirkland makes a brand of pouch.
Speaker 2: This costcos brand pouch apple sauce that has veggies in it,
Speaker 2: like spinach puree, carrot pure If there's no other way
Speaker 2: you're getting veggies into the kid, that's one way to
Speaker 2: do it. And Stonyfield Yogurt also has a brand in
Speaker 2: pouches that has a beat berry flavor, which is fine
Speaker 2: for kids who like berry flavored yogurt. And they also
Speaker 2: have a peach mango spinach one where spinach pure is
Speaker 2: again it's like the second or third ingredient, so there
Speaker 2: is some in there if you're not getting it into
Speaker 2: them anyway.
Speaker 3: Both of those so many many times, you're right, those
Speaker 3: are classics.
Speaker 1: That is the way to do it, Sarah. You have
Speaker 1: some lunch stuff that you guys use, and.
Speaker 3: They've been mentioned on the podcast before, and then I
Speaker 3: always get a million emails because like they're like, wait,
Speaker 3: what but we've had our metal metal boxes for sorry.
Speaker 1: I interrupted yet, Okay, all right, it's coming. Okay.
Speaker 3: They're called lunch bots b ot st as in tree,
Speaker 3: so not lunch box lunch bots. You can get them
Speaker 3: on Amazon. I think they have their own website as well,
Speaker 3: and they're metal lunch containers. And I think we got
Speaker 3: them when anibubble was like in preschool, and we still
Speaker 3: have them, like many of them, and just year after
Speaker 3: year they just go in the dishwasher. They don't rust,
Speaker 3: they don't stay, and they don't collect food. They just
Speaker 3: last and last. The only problem with them now is
Speaker 3: that my kids are eating more than they fit, and
Speaker 3: so we still use them. We just pack additional items,
Speaker 3: so lunch bots with all kinds of snacks in it
Speaker 3: plus a sandwich instead of like that being the main lunch.
Speaker 3: But they're just they're great, and we use neopre lunch sacks.
Speaker 3: I've we've talked about that before because I like my
Speaker 3: lunch pouches to be able to go in the laundry,
Speaker 3: washer and dryer because my kids are very messy and
Speaker 3: this helps awesome.
Speaker 2: Well, this has kind of been an all love of
Speaker 2: the Week episode, so I guess we don't have a
Speaker 2: separate love of the week.
Speaker 1: Do we have a question?
Speaker 3: I thought we did, but I don't see it here,
Speaker 3: So I think we can just call it because we're
Speaker 3: at forty minutes and it alone or by now you
Speaker 3: want to check off this episode and move on with
Speaker 3: your day, We.
Speaker 2: Move on with your day exactly. You're at work now,
Speaker 2: you've major forty minute commute. You're done, all right, Well,
Speaker 2: this has been best of both worlds. We've been talking
Speaker 2: lots of our favorite kid products and things that have
Speaker 2: lasted over the years. You know, if you have a
Speaker 2: specific question about any of these or If you have
Speaker 2: a recommendation of something that has lasted for you, feel
Speaker 2: free to email me. It's Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 2: I would love to hear about it, or you can
Speaker 2: post on either of our blogs. I'm Laura vandercam dot com.
Speaker 2: Sarah is the shoe Box, so thche s h U
Speaker 2: b o X dot com. We would love to hear
Speaker 2: your recommendations because probably there's some other helpful product out
Speaker 2: there that we didn't make it through even with eight
Speaker 2: children between us, so we'd love to learn about that.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, we will be back next week with
Speaker 2: more on making work and life fit together.
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3: You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com
Speaker 3: or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you.
Speaker 2: Can find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This
Speaker 2: has been the best of both worlds podcasts. Please join
Speaker 2: us next time for more on making work and life
Speaker 2: work together.