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Stroller Mod – DIY Stroller Liner & Packing Pouch
Make a stroller seat liner to keep those muddy feet away I decided to make a stroller seat liner for our Uppababy Cruz 2 to combat the dirts that my toddler constantly dragged onto the stroller. (See our full review on the Uppababy Cruz 2) And then a friend recently became a new parent, so I thought I better make her one, too. Since she has a pre-loved Uppababy Cruz that was given to her through the local Buy Nothing group, I decided to make a set of seat liner and packing pouch to match the Dennyson red of her stroller. (Check out our Smart Parenting Shopping Strategy post for…
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Budget Parenting- When & Where to buy Kids Stuff?
This is an example shopping timeline for a child born in Oct. For example, assuming all previous clothings have been acquired before birth, in Nov of his/her birth year, parents should be shopping for Size 18-24 months during Black Friday Sales. Move the Month Bar on the chart to suit your child’s birth month. Kids grow so fast! Their need for new clothes and stuff is relentless. Although it is fun to shop for cute children’s clothes, it can get pretty expensive very quickly. After three years of experimenting, we have come to a shopping pattern that has saved us a fair bit of money. (See the Example Shopping Timeline…
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Choosing Child Restraint – What’s after infant car seat?
So many car seat products! What are they for and when do I need them? In North America, even with living in a very walkable city, occasional travel by car is still unavoidable. Children car seats are the most popular and effective safety gear used to protect our precious cargo in an event of a collision. Outside road transportation, air travel also benefit from the use of car seat for convenience and comfort. But for urbanites like us that relied mostly on public transport and ride-share services, constantly installing and hauling these very sizeable objects around is not an easy task. Our scenario Our daughter has been travelling with her…
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Montessori Bed – A More Affordable Set Up
As the first step toward independence, we wanted our daughter to have more access to things in her bedroom. This includes being able to get in and out of bed by herself, but also doing it safely. While the Montessori Method encouraged the use of accessible bed from birth, our previous compact apartment did not allow for this type of set up. However, once we moved to a more spacious home, we were determine to make it happen. When our daughter was 18-months old, we moved her from her crib to a floor bed. The Montessori beds we saw online are really cute but they are very expensive! We also…
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Oh Crap! Potty Training at 25 months old – WEEK 1 & 2
A few months ago, I picked up a copy of the Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki at my local library just to get some background information on this inevitable topic. Then I realised that we were right at the critical age of 20 – 30 months for toilet training. Initially, we were not planning to get straight into the training yet. We were busy doing a few home improvement projects, and the little one had only just turned two. There will be plenty of time, right? So, despite the book advising us to start training within 2 weeks, we procrastinated for a couple of months. Until one…
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Essential Winter Items for 0 – 24 months
Layering is the key to keeping warm in winter! Winter is here and we are rugging up~ Our daughter was born in late autumn. Having lived in the subtropical climate all our life, we had no idea how to dress our baby for the Philadelphian winter. Throughout her infancy, we were constantly concerned that she might be cold. After two years of practice, I developed a winter clothing strategy to suit our comfort level (see table above). When dressing our child for warmth, we layer clothing of different warmth level to achieve an overall target value that suit the outside temperature. This minimised the guesswork of getting dressed and allowed…
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Toys For 1-2 Years Old Toddler
Small Home – Big Playground Our baby is now TWO!!! *Eeeek* In this strange and isolating time of year 2020, we have had to acquire more “tools” to keep our daughter appropriately stimulated. We have long been a fan of create-more-buy-less philosophy, as well as having lived in small dwelling for much of our life, we have always try to be very conscious of our purchases. A great YouTube channel The Parenting Junkie has a very informative video on Minimalism and Toys which outlined ten categories of toys to inspire children of all ages. For us, we found that the list had helped us immensely on choosing the type of toys…
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Review: Lenovo Active Pen 2
I have been drawing illustrations for this blog for a while now. The 3-year old Lenovo Flex 5 (a.k.a Yoga 520) that I use has a pretty nice touch screen that I could use my finger to draw directly. The illustrations were decent but generally lack line weight distinction. Feeling like I should up my drawing game a bit, I decided to purchase a fine-point stylus. My research advised me that there are two different types of stylus available on the market. In a nutshell they are: 1) Passive stylus Pros: No battery required. No need for paring. Cheap! Cons: No shortcut function. No palm rejection. 2) Active stylus Pros:…
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Stroller Mod – Raising the Canopy
My girl had a growth spurt recently and all of a sudden she is pushing the height limit of the stroller canopy! We have had our Phil & Teds Voyager 2019+ for a year now and we have both been very happy with it. (See our full review on the stroller) So far the only gripe we have is that my almost-two-year-old seems to be reaching the seat height limit already. However, while trying to remove it for cleaning one day, I realised that the stroller canopy can be mounted at a higher position! With a little modification, we are able to increase the height limit of the canopy by…
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What you need for Breastfeeding – A Retrospective
A FIRST-TIME MOTHER’S RETROSPECTIVE ON BREASTFEEDING After breastfeeding our daughter for a full year, I found that the only things essential for successful breastfeeding are: BABY, MUMMY and A GOOD ATTITUDE TO LEARN. RESEARCH BEFORE HAND Being a first-time mother, I obviously knew nothing about breastfeeding prior to the birth of our daughter. I knew that I want to breastfeed for as long as circumstances allow, so I did my research before the birth, including attending online breastfeeding classes. You may forget everything the minuet your newborn arrives. However, the learning process increases your confidence. And having these resources on hand, especially visual guides for feeding, e.g. pictures and…