Cynical Parent

Anyone who has children knows that, when you have kids, you sacrifice certain things. We sacrifice time, sleep, energy and everything else for the little people we bring into the world. It’s both exhausting and rewarding.

Unfortunately, some things that get sacrificed really shouldn’t be. For example…those first few weeks when you couldn’t remember when you last showered?

Sacrifice.

A good sacrifice? Maybe… it depends on who you asked at the time.

Another sacrifice I didn’t even realize I was making at the time: the smell of my home. I remember, before children, opening the door after work and being welcomed with the faint smell of the candles I had burning the night before.

After my children, there was a light scent of neglect and dirty diapers (far worse than the smell of not showering). So, in the spirit of renewing the smell of our homes I have researched and compiled a list of 10 really innovate ways to make your house smell good naturally – and they’re all things you can do yourself.

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Whether breastfeeding or bottle feeding is your plan with your little one, an electric bottle warmer can be a life saver!

When I was younger, warming a bottle basically looked like running hot water over the bottle while comforting a screaming baby for 10 minutes (or more!). Forget that.

One of my favorite conveniences as a new parent was using a bottle warmer. It made late night and “urgent” feeding times (those little buggers don’t often give enough warning) a lot easier to know a perfectly warm bottle was just a few moments away.

When I first went looking to add a bottle warmer to my registry, I figured they were all the same. We’re just heating water, right? But they’re not all same, and having the right one can surprisingly make a big difference.

Keep reading, and we’ll get into what we found to be the best baby bottle warmer (including a couple solid alternate options).

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Counting. Many of us don’t remember learning it, but this skill is something we use daily without realizing it.

Counting is the stepping stone to all other math skills, so as a parent, it is naturally on your mind to teach your child early. Early development of counting skills can be a great way to give your child a head start on their preschool class. Studies show that learning to count at a young age is a great foundation to future academic success.

Plus, the more comfortable they are with numbers, the more comfortable they are likely to be when introduced to other math skills like addition and subtraction.

Fortunately, teaching your child to count doesn’t have to be overwhelming or overly technical. Many of the best teaching items I have found are easily handmade or laying around the house already. The biggest key to success is consistency and enthusiasm!

So where do you start in teaching your little one to count?

Lucky for you, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide on how to teach a child to count.  If you follow all the tips and strategies here, your child will be a better counter in no time!

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With the holiday season quickly approaching, many parents are on the hunt for the “it” toy that is sure to put a smile on your child’s face.

Whenever I am shopping for my little guy, I know I want the best bang for my buck. I don’t want to buy a toy that will sit in his toy box or only hold his attention for 3 seconds while he quickly moves on to playing with the box it came in.

To help you prepare for the upcoming holiday season (or if your son’s birthday is coming up), we’ve put together a list of of the best toys for 2 year old boys.

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Congratulations! You just found out you’re expecting….again!

If you are anything like me, the little plus sign on that pregnancy test brought me a wave of joy and excitement, quickly followed by a mini freak out.

How exciting! A baby, they will be best friends and think of those tiny toes!…..wait….Two?! How am I going to manage two of them?!

I quickly found out that, like my first, I would be taking it one day at a time and use the knowledge I’ve gained from my first to help me prepare for my second.

So, in the interest of sharing from experience, here is my list of crucial things you need to know about preparing for a second baby.

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There are few things more stressful for new parents than traveling with a new baby.

Not only do you have to remember the baby (okay, we can manage to do that) and figure out what kind of travel crib to put them into,  but you have the whole “everything but the kitchen sink” issue.

When our daughter was a newborn, just to go anywhere, I would have her car seat over one arm, a diaper bag, my purse and often another bag for my breast pump on top of all that. In the end, I looked more like a frantic pack mule than the serene new mother you see in magazines or on TV.

Traveling to the grocery store can be stressful with a baby, let alone air travel! Having the right bag can make all the difference when you need something quickly to to take care of your baby.

We did a bit of research to figure out the best diaper bag for air travel and this is what we found…

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As you may have experienced if you’re on a low carb diet, it can be a challenge to consistently find food that fits the “rules” for every meal.  One piece of advice to stick to your diet is to eat the same set of meals over and over again, so they become routine.

This may sound boring at first, but it allows you to stick to the diet.  When you really think about it, you probably eat the same 5-7 meals with some consistency, over the course of a few weeks or months.

So, I wanted to make a big batch of something that would keep well in the fridge – something that I could eat as leftovers for the next few days (either for lunch or dinner).  I decided that some kind of bean salad would work perfectly, which is what you’ll find here today.

Let’s get to the recipe.

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As a parent (or anyone who has to look after young kids), you can really appreciate the value of quiet games.  And one of the easiest places to start is by teaching your kid(s) how to play Heads Up 7Up.  

It’s a super easy (and more importantly, quiet) game to learn.

Kids love to play it because, every time you play, there’s a different outcome.

There are actually a couple ways to play this game, so we’ll go through both of them below, along with what you can do if you don’t have enough kids for the traditional version of this game.

Let’s get into all of the details.

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I love grilling and I love avocado, so this recipe came natural to me.  While grilled avocado on its own is tasty (with the proper seasoning), I wanted something a bit more substantial – something that could stand on its own as a meal.

As I talked about in our 12 hacks for losing the baby weight, our diet primarily revolves around eating low carb foods and avoiding sugar.  This is another meal that fits perfectly with that goal.

This recipe, as written here, probably works better as a side dish, but there’s no reason you can’t double the ingredients and make enough for it to be your main entree (if you’re serving 3-4 people).

I found this to be both light and satisfying, a perfect summertime meal.

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Let me start this post by first clarifying the title: there’s a reason it’s about losing baby weight “as a new parent” instead of just “as a mom.”

Believe me, the baby weight doesn’t only apply to mom.  

Sure, moms will naturally have more weight after carrying a child – that’s just biology.

But what it doesn’t factor in are the first few weeks or months where both mom and dad are sleep deprived.  And in many cases, being sleep deprived leads to less exercise and consumption of food that’s probably not good for you.

So this is a post for mom AND dad. 🙂

And I know that not all dads will gain weight during their partner’s pregnancy, but many do. (It’s what some refer to as ‘sympathy weight gain.’)

In fact, a British research firm found that fathers gain, on average, 14 pounds during their spouse’s pregnancy.

So now that we got that out of the way, let’s move onto how to lose baby weight fast as a new parent – we’ve got a few hacks that you’re probably going to find useful.

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