Babysitter in a Box - Restaurant

Walk into any kosher restaurant the week before Pesach and find them brimming with tables of families trying to keep it simple by eating out in an attempt to avoid the last-minute kitchen transformation. While it may save our pre-holiday sanity, taking kids out to dine is not always the easiest of family pursuits - especially when the chosen joint is bustling with heaps of rowdy other children. Keeping the kids happy, settled, fed, and in their seats is likely quite the challenge. Here's a few things to up the fun factor on a public family outing when the menu reads BYOE.

1. Jaq Jaq Bird Chalkboard Placemat

Table tic-tac-toe gets an upgrade from pen and napkin.

2. Hint Mints

After dinner mints that slip into everything - from the slimmest of evening clutches to the most overstuffed of diaper bags.

3. Chopstick Kids

The little rubber rugrats fit over all sorts of chopsticks to tame stubby digits and keep them going for more Lo Mein.

4. Pocket Origami Prints

Reach into your jean pocket and unfold a wreath of Asian artistry - just waiting for shades of  teenybopper color!

5. mOmma Rocking Sippy Cup

When BYOB crosses BYOE.

6. Hello Hanna Get-Set Placemat Sets

With stickers to customize and icons to recognize, these placemats just might teach them a thing or two about dining etiquette... for robots!

7. Strawz

Let them get a little beverage-crazy with these DIY crazy straws.

8. Think-ets

A tiny little trinket tin filled with directions for unlimited game-playing on the go.

9. Food Face Plates

Give peas and spaghetti some serious personality - food never got this much face-time!

Bacterial Bath Toys

I'm totally one of those obnoxious women who's "Pesach cleaning" gleefully erupts into a full-on dirt, grime, and invisible-dust busting euphoria. Oh! How I love scrubbing and sanitizing my way to disinfection heaven! Well, this year, thanks to my new cleaning help(!), I somehow managed to lay low in the sterilization station, and happily put my own elbow grease into things that actually make a healthy daily difference! For one, bath toys. It's never yet happened to me, but the sheer look of horror of other mom's faces when they tell tales of dark-greenish slime spurting from squirty bath toys during a sudsy bubble bath with the babes has got me grossed out enough to pick up on some proactive prevention!

I soaked the stash of bath toys in a solution of 4 parts white vinegar - 1 part warm water, but first i filled each little squirty with straight-up bleach! Just suck it up into the toy, and let it sit in there for at least an hour while soaking with the rest of the bath toy bounty. Bleach will, no doubt, fight off any impending germ-y buildup - gnarly or not.

But most important, make sure to ALWAYS squeeze out the water from each little rubber toy after every single bath session. We made it part of the bath routine. Thankfully Freida likes being helpful. :)

P.S. People are always asking me how I have time to teach Freida so much etc. While I'm supremely lucky to be able to work from home, I just want to mention how involving a child in every-day tasks - no matter how much harder it may seem to be - will prove to be easy, gratifying, and effective. There is no good-enough reason why all the Pesach cleaning should be done when the kids are napping or out of the house for the day. It's part of the way they learn and develop as social little people. Watching Freida scrub up the toys immediately brought me back to my childhood - washing down the little tykes rocking horse with a sponge and a bucket of soapy water. I felt like it was yesterday. These little things are all part of "teach them to your children"...

Tubular Matzah Tunes

Somehow the Macaroons always seem to fill in a hipster holiday music void in our house! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIAtJIHXqv0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOkexg5oiOQ&feature=player_embedded]

Small Suitors

Within Appaman's new hipster line of kids clothing for their Spring collection, are 2 darling and damn dapper suits for boys - perfect for a street-style dude's Passover holiday season! The suit comes in Vintage Black and Mist, and are likely the only boys dress suits that can function in so many different ways, including the sporting looks below! Appaman Mod Suit, $132.00

Weekend Round-up!

So glad to be wishing you a glorious spring weekend!! Here in our neck of the woods the temperature spiked to 90° (!!), and then dropped low again with an even drizzle... Weather's gone bipolar! Hopefully we'll be hitting the beach sometime in the next few weeks for the start of our Sunday-by-the-ocean-season. For now, we are enjoying (albeit interruptedly!) the freshness of the first of spring sunshine.

This weekend Freida is experiencing her first "sleepover". Her best-buddy-cousin Zali is joining us on his own for 2 days, and so far they've been a double delight! Zali has 3 older rambunctious brothers and I was curious to witness the many ways I'd see that difference in reference to Freida being a dainty only one in this family. For about an hour after we brought the little guy to settle in our apartment, I hardly heard a peep from either of them as they played sweetly (yes, I was spying) at the play-kitchen in Freida's room. After the first 30 minutes I decided to go in and check out the progress. There they stood, side by side, each holding a lid on a pot resting on the play-kitchen elements. Freida called out for me to, "taste my soup, Mama?" while Zali held the lid tight and declared with wide-eyes, "I caught a frog!". There you have it folks; a little boy and little girl. :)

Here are some things I've been meaning to share with you this week:

- The epitome of a simple + chic spring outfit.

- Most depressing thing I've come across all week.

- Liberty of London + Nike? Yes, please!

- Things like this not only make me sick, but force me to side with the feminists movement.

- #1 reason for needing a knitting lesson: this hat!

- I could live in these shoes all summer long!

- Supremely adorable music video for Kate Spade Collection.

Happy Spring Sunday!!!