By Ariel In which Ariel delights in Boon's whimsical bath toys. This post contains affiliate links. By using them you help keep Busy Nest News up and running. Thank you for you support! Boon's Jellies, Cogs and Pipes Bean is an aquatic baby. She is happiest surrounded by water. Whether she is in the pool, the bath, the shower or even the occasional puddle – it doesn’t matter – she is in her element! So, here in the Bean household, we are serious about bath toys. Some of our favorites are made by Boon. Boon makes innovative and interesting products, but they excel when it comes to bath time fun! In particular, we love Boon’s Jellies, Cogs and Pipes.
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By Ariel In which Ariel breaks down the process of how her and her partner set both long and short term goals in order to keep their family on track to accomplishing everything they want out of their time together. How to Set Goals with a Partner, Co-parent or Co-parents Why you Should Set Goals with your Partner, Co-parent, or Co-parents Getting a group of people with conflicting goals to do anything is like herding cats. That is one of my favorite colloquialisms, because anyone who has ever been around multiple cats can instantly picture what you are talking about. This is especially true of parenting teams, whether you are married, divorced or somewhere in between. If your goals don’t align you may be going full steam ahead in opposite directions. Ultimately? This undermines everyone’s efforts.
For those of us who are married or in a long-term committed relationship, we like to think “my partner and I are so in sync and so in love that we are the exception to this rule!” I hate to burst your bubble, but you are wrong. Without purposeful, honest and consistent communication, we quickly lose sight of where we are going as a couple and as a family. And – for some of us – as individuals. I say this, because even though I am an obsessive goal setter, my husband is my sounding board, if I didn’t update him periodically on my personal goals, I would lose sight of my greater purpose. By Ariel In which Ariel expounds upon the Bilibo by Moluk - a strange looking toy with unlimited potential! This post contains affiliate links by using them you are helping to keep Busy Nest News up and running. Bilibo by Moluk In an ideal world every toy that enters my house would be sleek, minimalist, wooden and, preferably, not make noise – unless it is a musical instrument! But that isn’t realistic. Other people love my child and want what they think is best for her too. And while I would love to unleash my controlling tendencies- “Bring out the toy police! No Barbie for you!”- that isn’t healthy for me or Bean.
I can only reasonably control what toys I purchase. This Christmas I chose Moluk – the Bilibo to be exact. Sleek and minimalist? Check. Wooden? Nah. But I am willing to overlook that for a toy this incredible. By Ariel In which Ariel gets you all hyped to read a book about a boy and his duck and then reveals that it is in fact out of print. Though it may be harder to get your hands on, you won't regret it! This post contains affiliate links. To those who use them a hearty thanks! You have helped to keep Busy Nest News going. It's Useful to Have a Duck by Isol Perhaps I shouldn’t highlight this favorite of ours. It is out of print which is a huge bummer. I know. But I just can’t help myself! That is how much Bean and I love this board book. It may be harder to get your hands on this hidden gem, but if you can - whether you purchase a used copy or borrow it through your library - you won’t regret it!
It’s Useful to Have a Duck comes beautifully packaged in a blue and yellow slipcase. Already you can tell that this book is different. When you slide it out of its case, the book accordions out into a series of panels. Each simple line drawing is accompanied by straightforward descriptions of the boy’s interactions with his rubber ducky. “I use him for a hat. He can be a whistle of a straw.” With each illustration the readers is convinced of how useful a duck can be! By Ariel In which Ariel and Brianna discuss how influential the book Mindset: A New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck will be on their parenting careers. This post contains affiliate links. By using them, you're helping to keep Busy Nest News running. Thanks! Mindset: A New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Summary: Mindset Mindset: A New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck explores how something as simple as how we think about our talents and abilities can have a profound influence on our lives and the lives of those around us. Individuals with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities are largely unchanged from birth. Whereas individuals with a growth mindset believe we must consciously develop our abilities. We must grow them. The fixed mindset is limiting, while the growth mindset can lead to unlimited potential. Review: Mindset This book. This book will have a profound effect on my life. And if you let it, it may just have a profound effect on yours, too. But make sure you read the updated version! Dweck addressed many of what would have been my complaints about the original published text with this revised edition.
By Ariel In which Ariel makes a confession and then proceeds to make sure you never forget it. Hint: She really likes Christmas music. This post contains affiliate links. If you buy the featured products using our links, you're helping to keep Busy Nest News running. Thanks! The Twelve Days of Christmas So I have a confession to make. I unashamedly love Christmas music. I have been known to put it on during the “off season” as a means of cheering up a particularly dismal day. So when Bean fell in love with Elmo’s Twelve Days of Christmas last year I did not complain when she continued to pull it out all year long. I gladly sang it in the spring, in the summer and the fall. Anxiously anticipating when it would again be relevant! Now that I have the whole dang thing memorized, it’s relevant again!
In tribute to Bean’s all-time favorite book – yes all two glorious years of her life – I compiled a review of our favorite renditions of The Twelve Days of Christmas. Some are silly. Some are beautiful. One has monsters! But all are fun to sing. Come sing along with us! 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! Radio Flyer Deluxe Steer and Stroll I bought the Radio Flyer Deluxe Steer and Stroll Trike based on faulty expectations. I kept seeing parents strolling around my quaint suburban neighborhood with push trikes. As they passed my house they look so peaceful carefully steering their well-behaved tiny human. Now, while I realized that this is only a snippet of their walk and probably not representative of the struggle, I still thought that that could be me! So I invested in the Radio Flyer Radio Flyer Deluxe Steer and Stroll Trike. I was wrong. So wrong.
Developmentally and personality-wise the trike and Bean are not well-matched. She is too active to sit passively while I push her, but not physically capable enough to start propelling herself. Even on the lowest setting, her tiny feet don’t reach the pedals and she is in the 99th percentile for height. But she still loves it! The result is an incredibly frustrating experience for me. Suffice it to say, it is not the peaceful afternoon stroll that I had in mind. 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 & Bean's Chanukah Favorites Are you guys ready for the holidays? If you aren’t - like me - you better get your butt in gear, because Chanukah starts next week! We spent the last week perusing our stacks and picking out our Chanukah favorites. While we may celebrate Christmas predominantly, my brother-in-law is Jewish so we incorporate both holidays into our holiday festivities.
Now Bean and I have woefully different criteria for what makes a great book at the moment. This will be evident from our choices. Hers? Have to either have an animal in them or be sung aloud. Mine? I am a sucker for a clever story or beautiful illustrations. Below are our favorite Chanukah books this year. Let's check them out! 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! The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers: Reclaiming Our Passion, Purpose, and Sanity, By Meg Meeker, M.D.
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. |
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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