Chopsticks
March 8, 2009
Benk and Ginny and I took a trip to Albuquerque, and all agreed that we needed to visit Ta Lin Market. This is where you can stock up on Irish tea (and even Lucozade), achiote paste from Central America, pad thai noodles, Japanese ponzu sauce… While we were there, Benk and I went to the tiny-random-dishes section and found these “rookie chopsticks” for $1.95; we each bought a pair for our kids, but I mostly bought them because, wow - what a cool shape! If you don’t have a version of Ta Lin, you can get them here
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Rock-a-bye Baby
May 7, 2006
Rocking is not only for antique collectors
My mother insisted that a rocking chair was a crucial item of baby equipment, but all I could imagine was the rocking chair she had when I was little, with turned spindles and a quilted seatpad, that looked like something you’d find in the Walton’s farmhouse.
So I didn’t buy a rocking chair. Then, when Finn was 7 months old, I was over at a Janie’s house for a neighborhood meeting. Finn became tired and fussy; there were 60 people all talking about how we need a trail along the river and she’s naturally curious, and social, and she couldn’t fall asleep. So I went into Janie’s daughter’s room, sat in her rocker, and in about ten seconds, Finn was asleep.
The most expensive baby item so far?
I went home and started scouring the internet for rocking chairs. And here is what I found: there are rocking chairs and gliders, and they are not the same (Janie had a glider). And there are rocker gliders, and I have no idea what that means. And some gliders swivel, and swiveling can make you sick to your stomach.
Here is another thing I found: rocking chairs (and gliders) are expensive if you don’t want something that looks like crap. Even if you’re ok with something that looks like crap, they’re still expensive.
So we bought a less-expensive model from Babies-R-Us (rocker? glider? I’m still not sure) and found out something else: an inexpensive rocking chair is still $319, which is a lot of money, particuarly if what it buys you is made out of particleboard and is stapled together rather than upholstered and rocks at a cockeyed angle while trying to pitch you forward onto the floor. We returned the rocker/glider/rocker-glider to Babies-R-Us. I had ignored the poor reviews. Do not ignore the poor reviews; do not buy this!
I feared that we’d have to buy the even-more-expensive Pottery Barn rocker (this, it turns out, is actually a rocker and not a glider) which is probably very nice if you have $650 lying around, and a month to wait while they custom build it. But while we were in the throes of rocking chair hell, we took a trip to IKEA.
Our solution
IKEA’s Lillberg rocking chair is not on the IKEA website (but matches the Lillberg sofa, so take a look); we bought it through catalog sales. For $99, it’s amazing – comfortable cushions, basic modern design, solid wood. Since I’m short, I have to lean against a pillow, which makes the rocking not quite as smooth, and the arms are wood, so I’ve draped a blanket over each one so that Finn doesn’t bump her head while she’s falling asleep. But for the money, and the styling, and the removable cushion covers – this rocking chair rules. (Add IKEA’s Pallbo footstool for $30 and you’ve got an entire system for helping your baby fall asleep).
If you don’t have style issues, buy a glider, but if you don’t have style issues, why are you reading this website?
Memories… (My Baby Book Criteria)
March 22, 2006
At first I thought, “I’m a creative person. I should make my own baby book for Finn!” Afterall, I have a degree in cutting architecture. But I thought the same thing about a wedding album, and we still don’t have a wedding album. So in the interim (now going on three years) I decided to buy a baby book.
These are my criteria for a perfect baby book:
- it should be non-denominational
- it shouldn’t be too cute
- no proprietary cartoon characters
- it should leave enough room to be able write something meaningful
- it should trigger you to record milestones, events and thoughts that you wouldn’t normally have thought of
- places for Dads to write things, too
- open enough to allow you to free think
- doesn’t play into gender stereotypes
- logically organized (unlike this list!)
Poppy and Mimi makes a great baby book, with a colorful cover and sophisticated pages. It’s a little pricey at $60, though, and doesn’t leave a lot of room for writing long rambling explanations, which I tend to do. The pages I’ve seen look nice, but there are only 30 pages, and the book is only 9” by 9”, so maybe it isn’t quite as comprehensive as I’d like.
The way I feel about Finn’s baby book is that I’m recording this information for her, so I don’t think the book needs to look like it was designed by the Bauhaus; it can have a typeface that is not Futura and I’m ok with kid-friendly illustrations as long as they’re not Winnie the Pooh, Elmo or some other recognizable tv or movie character.
We bought Oh Baby!: A Journal for Finn. It is written by Helene Tragos Stelian and illustrated by Theresa Case (I’m giving credit here, because I think they did a great job of creating a book that is sweet yet not cloying, comprehensive yet not difficult to fill out, and meaningful yet not hippy-dippy).
Not that you can judge a keepsake this way, but at 12 cents a page (v. $2.00 a page for Poppy and Mimi’s version), it’s a bargain, too!
Rock’n'Roll
March 9, 2006
Rocking is not only for antique collectors
My mother insisted that a rocking chair was a crucial item of baby equipment, but all I could imagine was the rocking chair she had when I was little, with turned spindles and a quilted seatpad, that looked like something you’d find in the Walton’s farmhouse.
So I didn’t buy a rocking chair. Then, when Finn was 7 months old, I was over at a Janie’s house for a neighborhood meeting. Finn became tired and fussy; there were 60 people all talking about how we need a trail along the river and she’s naturally curious, and social, and she couldn’t fall asleep. So I went into Janie’s daughter’s room, sat in her rocker, and in about ten seconds, Finn was asleep.
The most expensive baby item so far?
I went home and started scouring the internet for rocking chairs. And here is what I found: there are rocking chairs and gliders, and they are not the same (Janie had a glider). And there are rocker gliders, and I have no idea what that means. And some gliders swivel, and swiveling can make you sick to your stomach.
Here is another thing I found: rocking chairs (and gliders) are expensive if you don’t want something that looks like crap. Even if you’re ok with something that looks like crap, they’re still expensive.
So we bought a less-expensive model from Babies-R-Us (rocker? glider? I’m still not sure) and found out something else: an inexpensive rocking chair is still $319, which is a lot of money, particuarly if what it buys you is made out of particleboard and is stapled together rather than upholstered and rocks at a cockeyed angle while trying to pitch you forward onto the floor. We returned the rocker/glider/rocker-glider to Babies-R-Us. I had ignored the poor reviews. Do not ignore the poor reviews; do not buy this!
I feared that we’d have to buy the even-more-expensive Pottery Barn rocker (this, it turns out, is actually a rocker and not a glider) which is probably very nice if you have $650 lying around, and a month to wait while they custom build it. But while we were in the throes of rocking chair hell, we took a trip to IKEA.
Our solution
IKEA’s Lillberg rocking chair is not on the IKEA website (but matches the Lillberg sofa, so take a look); we bought it through catalog sales. For $99, it’s amazing – comfortable cushions, basic modern design, solid wood. Since I’m short, I have to lean against a pillow, which makes the rocking not quite as smooth, and the arms are wood, so I’ve draped a blanket over each one so that Finn doesn’t bump her head while she’s falling asleep. But for the money, and the styling, and the removable cushion covers – this rocking chair rules. (Add IKEA’s Pallbo footstool for $30 and you’ve got an entire system for helping your baby fall asleep).
If you don’t have style issues, buy a glider, but if you don’t have style issues, why are you reading this website?
Crib Notes
February 19, 2006
Why is furniture overdesigned?
When we lived in Dublin, Ireland, there was a furniture story on Mary Street where they changed the window display on a regular basis; week after week it was more horrifying, with more complex furniture. One week there was a living room suite with whitewashed Louis XIV details and pearlized beige upholstery. This was not inexpensive furniture.
In search of a coffee table
When we came back to the US we found a similar problem with American coffee table design. We just wanted something simple. What we found were coffee tables with distressed edging, pop-up tv trays, Mexican nailheads, Queen Anne legs, multiple wood species, smoked beveled glass and metal pulls. All in the same table! And these, amazingly, were not inexpensive!We could have bought an IKEA table, and believe me, we have a lot of IKEA furniture, but we really wanted something more permanent, that we could have for a long time. Something not made of fiberboard with wood veneer.
We eventually had to have a table custom made (cheaper than the tables we saw at Mor Furniture for Less). I describe the style as Hip Asian Restaurant.
In search of a crib
I was really worried we wouldn’t be able to find a crib. After a trip to a baby superstore an hour from our house and careful internet search, we found that most cribs looked like rejects from Sleeping Beauty’s castle; way too complex for my taste. We decided they were guilt-cribs for parents who felt like they couldn’t give their children enough.
There are a lot of cool cribs out there (check out some of the models on the giggle website) but we didn’t want to spend $750 and up for a piece of furniture we’d only use for a few years.
My favorite inexpensive crib
We finally found a relatively plain crib from Pali. The model is called April, and although it’s not as spare in design as I’d prefer, after we removed the gold-colored casters (sacrificing convenience for aesthetics), I really like the look.
The crib does not convert from a crib into a toddler bed into a child’s bed and then into a dog house and later a wet bar. But it’s very sturdy, basic and unadorned, and under $350.
