http://baybeans.net/blog Yet another Bay Area geek mom, two kids, minivan, you've seen it before. Sat, 13 Oct 2007 22:39:11 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en After all the numerous toy recalls this year I reached a boiling point a few weeks ago and started to clean out all the kids' toys. We own lots of Elmo, Dora, and Thomas, all kinds of stuff that has just narrowly missed being recalled, and since we have many ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/10/11/natural-toy-love-begone-big-noisy-pieces-of-plastic/ I am sitting down. One child is at school. One child is sleeping. I am not chasing a child while at home for the first time since I can't remember when. I am almost overwhelmed. This small window of free time is nearly panic-inducing. What to do with such a tiny ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/09/10/the-angst-of-freedom/ So in your opinion, what are the very best toys out there? if you have kids, what are the toys that have gotten the very most use in your house? if you don't have kids, what childhood toy would you name as your favorite above all others? just curious, as someone ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/08/08/best-all-time-toys/ I first got hooked on YouTube by searching for old Sesame Street clips from the '70s. I watch plenty of current Sesame Street these days, and it's perfectly fine, but somehow the magic of the show has waned over the years. I remember watching it as a kid and ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/06/14/essential-vintage-sesame-street-on-youtube/ A few months ago, we had reached a not-so-nice place in TV Land: the power struggle. My almost-four-year-old daughter had decided to push the limits of TV watching, bargaining and pleading for more shows and getting pretty upset when we didn't give in. Now I don't really mind television, having ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/05/02/parent-hack-tv-time-magnets/ Third time's the charm, right? I am happy to report that my third try at finding a new "staple" recipe was wildly successful. Thank you, thank you, Jamie Oliver! I own several of his books, but haven't gotten around to cooking many of the recipes yet; I flipped open one of ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/04/18/the-utterly-distracted-cook-victory-thy-name-is-jamies-chicken/ I was feeling so optimistic after making that tilapia earlier in the week. Hey, I can do this! I thought. I can pull it all together AND watch the kids! Well, pride comes before the fall, I guess. It certainly comes before the broccoli mushroom casserole. I selected this recipe from ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/04/12/the-utterly-distracted-cook-broccoli-mushroom-casserole/ Now that my diaper bag obsession is temporarily satisfied, I'm on to the next project: finding new recipes to add to our sadly limited repetoire of weekly favorites. This is not easy; Frances eats only a handful of foods and spends most dinners fidgeting, jumping out of her chair, feeding ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/04/09/adventures-in-cooking-1-broiled-tilapia-parmesan/ After my last post on diaper bags I discovered the world of the truly diaper-bag-obsessed. I took the plunge off the deep end and wandered into fantastic message boards filled with like-minded organizational lunatics. First of all, there's the Babybags Yahoo! Group. This place, a buy-sell-swap-discuss mecca of all things ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/04/08/diaper-bags-redux/ As promised, here's a list of what usually lurks in my diaper bag. Essentials: Diapers, 3-6, depending on how long you'll be out of the house. We use Huggies Ultratrim. Disposable package of wipes Diaper cream (Balmex) Plastic bags for disposing of dirty diapers. (I'm actually a big fan of the small packages of HandySacks ... http://baybeans.net/blog/2007/04/03/massive-list-5-diaper-bag-contents/