By Ariel
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy the featured products using our links, you're helping to keep Busy Nest News running. Thanks! Ariel's Thoughts on a Doe-eyed Explorer
To be frank, I originally purchased Little Owl’s Night for me. I simply fell in love with the doe-eyed bird aptly named Little Owl. For about a year on roughly month long intervals I would reread the book, hoping that Bean might now share my enthusiasm. Nope. Nada. Not yet. Until a month ago when voila, Bean loved Little Owl as much as I did! I promptly bought Little Owl’s Day to celebrate.
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By Brianna
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Shoes, by Elizabeth Winthrop and William Joyce
When Monkey started walking everywhere, we knew she would need good walking shoes. My mother came to visit at about that time, and she went to the mall with us to find some sneakers for Monkey. Monkey’s grandma bought her two pairs of shoes that day; white sandals with small flowers, and sneakers that were purple and hot pink. Much to my surprise, Monkey loved trying on lots of shoes, and when the sandals fit, she refused to put them back in the box. She clutched them tightly in her hands, while we pushed her stroller around and tried on more shoes. Since then, Monkey’s grandmas have gotten her more sandals, sneakers, and- arguably her favorite- boots. I suspect boots (both rain and snow boots) are her favorites, because they’re so easy for her to put on by herself. Every morning, Monkey pulls on her boots, grabs her backpack or a purse, and heads for the door, proclaiming “Let’s GO!”
By Ariel
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy the featured products using our links, you're helping to keep Busy Nest News running. Thanks! Palermo White Noise Machine
So when it comes to Bean’s sleeping habits we haven’t always been so lucky. True, she sleeps through the night now! But that didn’t happen overnight. It was a struggle.
Living in an apartment in Korea we first had to overcome the hurdle of noisy upstairs neighbors. Elephants all of them! Enter the noise machine. I know. I know! You are supposed to get your child used to sleeping with occasional disturbances. Well it wasn’t happening, so I chose parental sanity over possible sleep problems later on down the line. Do you ever get the feeling that that is all parenting is? Do I deal with this problem now or later? I thought we might be able to retire the noise machine when we moved back to the states. But I forgot how noisy the suburbs are, especially during the summer time. Sprinklers, lawn mowers and fireworks oh my! By the time we made it through Korean apartments and the suburban cacophony Bean was hooked on the noise machine. We have been through several noise machines so far. One stopped working. One came broken. Though I haven’t found the perfect one, I have found the right one for now- the Palermo White Noise Machine. By Ariel Celebrating Overseas For those of you that don’t know, I spent the last three years living in South Korea. Do I miss it? Absolutely. But am I glad to be home? Yes, especially now that the holiday season approaches. It is hard enough to be separated from your loved ones during the holidays. That feeling only got worse for me without the comforts of my culture to fall back on. Having weathered a few holiday seasons abroad, I can confidently say it got easier each time.
So whether you are relocating for work or following a spouse abroad - like I did - this post is for you - the reluctant, the reticent, the excited, the ecstatic, the nervous, the ambivalent. I was all of those things - usually within the same hour. Simply moving across the country can feel just as overwhelming! Stick around these tips are applicable to anyone living outside their comfort zone this holiday season - the expats and the out of staters - we’re all in this together. Yes, I did just quote High School Musical. I learned how to make the most of my situation and – dare I say – embrace it for what it was. You can too. By Brianna This post contains NO affiliate links. If you choose to try these apps, we won't get anything for it, but we'll be really happy you took our advice. We really believe in them, so give it a try and let us know what you think! Glow and EveI could review every period tracking app I’ve ever tried, and maybe I will someday, but today is not that day. Today, I’m going to review the only pair of cycle tracking apps that knocked my proverbial socks off. I say pair, because it’s two sister apps, created by the same company. Glow is the original, intended to help women become pregnant by tracking every fertility metric known to humanity. Eve is Glow’s sassy little sister, meant to help all women track everything to do with their sex life, with very little focus on fertility and more on frequency, pleasure, and period prediction.
By Brianna This post contains affiliate links. If you buy the featured products using our links, you're helping to keep Busy Nest News running. Thanks! Proven Picks for the Littles on Your ListWhen shopping for the holidays, simply walking into a store and hoping to find good ideas for the little in your life can get overwhelming fast! There are so many toys available in early winter, and the malls and stores are packed with people. Likewise, shopping online can get a bit harried, too. You’re being inundated with ads everywhere from your inbox, to your social media account. You can certainly pick the most adorable clothes or toys you come across, but you might be disappointed by how little they get used after the wrapping paper has been discarded.
As you're shopping for presents this year, don’t be afraid of getting toys or books that are a little bit of a reach for your favorite littles. Rather than watch our kids play with everything until January, and then never touch any of it again, we opt for things that we can watch them grow into throughout the year, and hopefully enjoy for another year or two to come. This is a list of toys and products you can expect to put some miles on. Everything is at least useful, and hopefully beautiful as well. Let’s take a look. By Ariel This post contains affiliate links. If you buy the featured products using our links, you're helping to keep Busy Nest News running. Thanks! Gifts for the Mom-to-be on Your Shopping ListWhen you’re shopping for the pregnant lady in your life, please avoid falling into the trap of gifting exclusively to the coming baby. A few gifts for baby are, of course, nice and appreciated, but don’t forget that there’s a woman there who likes presents, too! I will admit during the hormonal rollercoaster that is pregnancy I may have become unreasonably irritated receiving only gifts for the baby - all the time! Not that I told anyone this.
Growing a baby is hard work, so this holiday season calls for next level pampering. The gifts we’ve selected are so indulgent, we’d love to get most of them even when we aren’t pregnant. If you’re stumped for ideas, start here!
By Ariel
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy the featured products using our links, you're helping to keep Busy Nest News running. Thanks! Encouraging your Plastic Paleontologist
When my little lady began showing an interest in dinosaurs I jumped on the chance to encourage it! Neither of my parents were particularly dino-crazed, so I never gravitated toward the scaly monsters. I was strictly a bugs and faeries girl. While this wasn’t a bad thing, I just felt like maybe I was missing something. Unfortunately – or fortunately depending on how you look at it – my mother, aka Nana Bean, also wants a paleontologist in the family. So, Bean became the proud owner of – not one but – two dinosaur sets within one week. Lucky duck! Nana Bean was the clear winner in the competition for best dinos though. She bought the Boley Dinosaur Figurines. While I bought the Pretex Dinosaur Figurines. I chose? Poorly! ![]() By Brianna This post contains affiliate links. If you buy the featured products using our links, you're helping to keep Busy Nest News running. Thanks! Getting to know Jan Brett's workDo you know who Jan Brett is? If you said no, I bet you’re wrong.
Do you remember, as a kid in grade school, reading a book about a kid who loses a white mitten in the snow? The animals of the forest, knowing cozy outerwear when they see it, climb in one by one, each animal bigger than the last. And then you all cut out mitten shapes from paper and got to use the STAPLER to stick the two pieces together into a mitten-shaped pouch, into which you popped your colored-in animals, thus replicating the story before your very eyes. I KNOW I am not the only one who did that at least once growing up. If you have a very similar memory, you can thank Jan Brett.
By Brianna
This post contains affiliate links. If you buy the product using our links, you're helping to keep Busy Nest News running. Thanks!
Uncle Goose Wooden Blocks
Blocks play such a huge role in childhood development. The simple toy is highlighted in milestone lists again and again. First, babies enjoy chewing the blocks and feeling them in their hands. Next, they knock the blocks together and revel in the sound of wood on wood. Finally, they start building. Their structures begin with just a couple of blocks stacked on top of each other, and gradually develop into art sculptures and homes for toys. Kids have been playing with wooden blocks pretty much forever. We’re excited to tell you that the ubiquitous block has gotten an upgrade.
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AuthorsAriel and Brianna are friends who met while working in a library. Now they collaborate to develop life-enhancing book club experiences. Archives
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