In Chicago Collection Magazine featuring my top kids picks for the holidays!

In Chicago Parent Going Places Magazine talking about the best places to go sledding in the city…

AND

In Chicago Parent Going Places where I found the best toy shops in the city to buy all of these great things!

I’m sorry I’ve been MIA but as you can see I’ve been a bit busy. As have all of you, but you are just a little nicer to your blog than I am to mine.

Hello, my name is Sara and I live in a food bubble.

I have access to and can afford pretty much any kind of food my family or I need. And if for some odd reason I cannot find what I need at the myriad of Whole Foods, Costcos, Jewels, Dominicks, Paulina Meat Market, Speedways, Specialty Grocers that surround me, I can typically pick up the phone and just order it.

The only food desert I have to worry about is when my corner Starbucks runs out of cinnamon scones.

I live in a food bubble.

The reason I’m talking about my food bubble is that recently, I was asked by The Center for Food Integrity to sit on a panel of mom bloggers and speak to an audience of agriculture and food manufacturers. Alongside me were my friends Vanessa, Emily and Michelle. We spoke and answered questions about how, as moms, we use technology, how we choose our food and how we track food issues. For a great wrap-up of the event and questions asked/ discussed, please refer to Vanessa and Emily’s respective posts.

Of all the many opportunities I’ve had as a blogger, this experience rates as one of the most interesting. It’s not often that I’m asked as a blogger to talk about my use of technology or what I think current trends are AND about how I feel about food. Because even though I don’t cook often, I do pay attention to what we eat or don’t eat. Swedish fish aside. We all have our vices.

But see, that’s the point. My vice is Swedish Fish. That’s a luxury to pretty much half the world who starve every day. Even in our own country. Did you know that the hunger level in the United States is at its highest in 15 years?

Swedish fish vs. Starving. Food bubble vs. Food desert.

I sort of wanted to crawl in a hole when one of the audience members, a really nice Midwestern farmer had a question just for me. It must have been sometime after I made the point that the Whole Foods “fishmonger” is my go-to resource for what fish is safe to purchase. Oy. (I was told that Seafood Watch, my what-seafood-is-ok-to-eat Bible is “fringe.” More on safe seafood in another post.)

In any case, he asked me point blank what I would think about his lifestyle of food choices. How where he lives only two cars pass by his house a day and one of them is his wife and one is the mailman. I’m not kidding.

I don’t judge others. I know I’m lucky. I live in a food bubble.

After more rousing discussion and myriad offers for Emily and I to visit pork farms (gotta love the visual of the Jewish girls and hogs), many of the audience members came up to us panelists to thank us for our time and opinions. I now have the contact information for a Fish Ph.d. from Greg at the Indiana Farm Bureau who I can ask all my questions about why I can’t eat tuna every damn day. I met a lovely dairy farmer Shelly, who wants to do an kid exchange – she WANTS her kids to see city food life. I think my son would just about pass out at the opportunity to get on a real tractor. I also met Leah Beyer. Just about the coolest woman married to a farmer that I’ve ever met. Ok, I have no one else to compare her too, but I wish we could have snuck away after the panel to walk the broad paths of the McDonald’s Campus where the panel was held and chit chat about working mom B.S. This woman rocks!

I now have a new appreciation for the food manufacturers who are using technology to make food manufacturing more efficient with technology. Food and tech always have a negative connotation, but not when you think about the fact that this technology helps to FEED THE WORLD.

And suddenly, I was out of my food bubble and into reality. Yes, I’m still going to watch what we eat. But I’m not going to be as cynical about it. I may never purchase a box of chicken nuggets again, but I’m also not going to cry if we don’t drink organic milk all the time. I’m just going to be thankful that we have that choice.

While I’m talking about choices, please use your ability to choose the Make Miracles Grow Foundation project the winner of the Edy’s Communities Take Root program. My friend Emily is in charge of the project on the south side to help eradicate just one of the many Chicagoland food deserts. So help her out.

It feels good to get out of that bubble.

I love having a garbage disposal. Much like my vacuum, my garbage disposal sucks down the garbage off my table and floor like a wondrous beast. I love it when the scraps and shards of meals, snacks, drinks and pretty much anything else food related goes down into that black hole of plumbing. I love that I can make the smell of onion go away with lemon down the disposal with just one click of the switch.

But, unlike my vacuum, my garbage disposal broke last week. It started with visions of creating a perfect family dinner. Flank steak, baked potatoes and yellow cake for the little guys. Nothing fancy, but as you know if you read my blog more than one time I RARELY COOK. So this was a big deal because my husband actually likes flank steak.

Then, the phone rang, I broke a glass across the counter top and I ruined the steak. The only one who ate it was the baby who will eat anything, including shoelaces. Disgruntled and annoyed, I put the disposal to the test by shoving $20 worth of organic beef down its plastic belly. And then this happened:

The disposal, my best friend other than my vacuum in waste and dirt disposal completely fell off the sink. As water poured down the hole in my cabinetry, I thought, well this about sums it up.

My recent vacation was the best of the best. A week of sunny, fresh-air bliss with my entire family. Last week was, well, reality. Kind of like the waste down my sink – wet, cold (that’s Chicago in March for you), and jammed up with errands, work and real-world commitments.

I didn’t quite fall of the sink amidst the chaos of getting our routine back together, but still, a week later, I feel like bolts aren’t tightened as much as they could be yet. Good thing they are on all secure on the garbage disposal. Because I can live with being a little behind on the daily grind, but I really can’t live without the grind of that beautiful machine under the sink.

In case you missed it on my twitter/ Facebook feeds, here’s my latest story in this edition of Chicago Parent Going Places magazine on the best cupcake shops in the city (+ one in Evanston) for kiddos.

And, yes, I’m back from my trip, but I’m slammed, so until I dig out of a mountain of email, all you’ll get is this filler post stuff. And it’s not even good cream cheese sugar frosting kind. For that, I apologize.

What I really enjoy about the articles I’ve written for Chicago Parent is that for everything I write, I learn something. This Fall, my story about parents who are “hands-off” versus “helicopter” was published and I cannot stop thinking about what I learned from the experts I interviewed. (It’s a theme, I guess.)

So last weekend, I coordinated a panel discussion with those experts for the Neighborhood Parents Network to discuss the topic in person. I’ll admit, the panel was as much for me as it was for those in attendance. I don’t measure my parenting style or information on what others are doing as much as what I believe is right and a little of what the experts believe. I have to think if you’ve made a profession of studying and analyzing children then you probably know what you’re talking about most of the time.

If I use those unscientific means to measure how I rank on the unscientific parental neuroses scale, I find that I end up in the hands-off camp more often than not. It really surprised me, as I’m a pretty neurotic person at the core. But here are some examples where I think I err on the hands-off side.

For instance, I don’t care that my eldest son still writes many of his letters or his name backwards more often than not. He’s not reading much, and that’s okay. He’ll read one of these days.

He’s not much of an artist, either. Most of his school projects that come home are masses of scribbles. Fine with me. He doesn’t love art and I’m not going to push it. I rarely make myself heard in his classroom. I figure, if he’s done something really terrible, I’ll hear about it soon enough. And I do.

He doesn’t want to play soccer this spring. That’s ok, he’s already signed up for t-ball, which he loves. The one non-negotiable is swim class — swimming is a life skill and I feel it’s important he knows how to swim. He actually does like to swim, so that helps.

If he doesn’t want to play a game at a birthday party, I’m fine with that, as long as he behaves alright. I suggest he eat at least one vegetable a day, but he can choose what it is. I have stopped caring about what he wears to school, as long as it’s clean. If he’s comfortable then we are all happier.

I’m not saying my style is right for everybody, but it works for us. Here are some takeaways the experts on the panel, Dan Gill, Sheryl Stoller and Karen Jacobson gave about parenting. (I’m sorry I cannot attribute exact quotes to each person, but they all agreed on each others’ perspectives.) I’d love to know where you guys all fall on my unscientific spectrum.

Key notes:

• It’s important to map out what kind of family you want, not what kind of family everyone else has.
• You should expose your child to different things and welcome failure – it’s good to try and fail and to grow from that. It’s all about the effort.
• Take cues and signals of your child’s behavior if they are resistant to certain activities – that’s ok.
• Kids pick up on our anxiety – the more copasetic you can be, the better.
• It’s ok if you and your spouse have different parenting styles – as long as it doesn’t undermine your marriage, kids can do well with different styles.
• You need to be empathetic with your children. Help them to self-soothe when they get upset and validate their needs.

If you live on Chicago’s north-ish side, then you’ve heard of Neighborhood Parents Network – one of the foremost parent organizations in the city. NPN does so many things for Chicago families – through NPN you can connect with other parents from your neighborhood, find a support group, access sought after school and childcare information, AND join lively discussions on the Discussion Forum – this only scratches the surface! Membership offers year-round benefits to all Chicago parents – new or seasoned – as well as parents-to-be.

Anyway, this coming Saturday, March 5, NPN is hosting its annual Wake Up & Boogie Down Family Fest! The fest includes:
o Live music by The Happiness Club & Bubbles Academy
o Cookie decorating with COUNTRY Financial
o Fun and giveaways with Contact Karma & Time Out Chicago Kids
o Rock-n-roll makeovers with Cultural Care au Pair
o Arts & crafts and games with Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum,
Shedd Aquarium, and Multi-Lingual Chicago
o Balloon Twisting with Mr. Bob
o Mini massages by Millenium Wellness
o Awesome photos by Think Leigh Photography
o Check your stroller with Stroller Strides
o Healthy and fun snacks for parents and kids provided by Sono
Wood Fired, Burger Bar, Square One Organics, Lifeway-Kerif,
Pirate’s Booty, Happy Baby Puffs.
o Sweet treats from Eli’s Cheesecake and Dairy Queen
o Great Julius Meinl coffee & Oberweis Hot Chocolate
o Unbelievable Instant raffle with loads of prizes!

It’s from 9:30 – 12:30 at The Cubby Bear – 1059 W. Addison. AND, best of all, I’m giving away a family 4 pack of tickets to the event. Just say hi in the comments! I’ll pick a winner Friday morning using Random.org.

I was given a Family 4 Pack of Tickets to NPN’s Wake Up & Boogie Down Family Fest in exchange for posting this on my site.

Earlier today, I got to put on some real clothes (they were trouser jeans, as Caitlin noticed, much to my happiness) and head out to a brunch put on by the ever-fabulous Bump Club and Beyond. I was on a panel of “the city’s leading mom bloggers” (HA! Don’t they know I’m a blogging slacker??) and my co-hosts Cindy, Linda and Caitlin and I had a ball giving some of our best tips around the city to Lindsay’s group of new moms.

My quick talk was about tips and tricks to planning your child’s first birthday. Because, eventually, all those cute newborns grow up to be cake-smashing, drooling one-year-olds. Because I forgot, unlike my counterparts, to actually print up and hand out my tips, I told everyone I’d post them on my blog. So, here, in no particular order, are my thoughts:

1) Make the party favor part of the party – if you have a musician, give each kid a maraca. The little babes don’t know what a goodie bag is – take advantage of that while it lasts!

2) Kids this age don’t need much for entertainment – a place to crawl around, 30 minutes of activity and somewhere between 20-30 to eat. By then, they’re pretty much wiped and will hopefully nap all afternoon for you.

3) I personally think a mid-morning, post first nap party usually works the best for you and for your friends – sometimes the afternoons are unpredictable! Well, at least they are in my house.

4) Pack two shirts – one for photos and one for after the cake – and bring a good bib! (This one, I admit, is pretty self-explanatory.)

5) My eldest got really freaky and nervous at his first birthday party. My youngster loved every minute of the party. Bottom line — don’t worry if you’re kid is nervous – it’s a lot of attention.

And you were waiting for the Chicago-specific stuff, right?

Best locations for a Chicago kiddie bday party:

• Just about any pizza joint – remember my baby’s first birthday party last year? At Pequod’s pizza. It was relatively inexpensive, I bought one of those foam letter mats and threw it on the ground so the kiddos could crawl around and it was a blast. And the dads could swill beer too. Happy Birthday.
• If you think a pizza dive isn’t quite for your family, there’s always the East Bank Club where I had my eldest’s party. Yeah, it was like a mini bar mitzvah. Best food I had at a first birthday! But notice, I didn’t repeat that one.
• For a smaller get-together I love Musical Magic on Roscoe. So sweet and cozy inside and so easy to manage.
• And then there’s the name-your-own-kiddie-gym-place like Bubbles, My Gym, Gymboree, Little Gym. All good choices.
• The park district also has many rooms for rent – I am partial to the one at Sheil Park because it’s close to my house, and it’s clean and a good size for a party. I think that sort of stuff matters.

Best entertainers to hire for your party (if you’re in to such a thing):

I can’t say enough about these three very fine kiddie entertainers…

• Miss Amiee Leigh. We took her class at the JCC for so many months and years I lost track along the way.
• Little Miss Ann. She is the best of the best. Book her. If you can.
• Mr. Singer. The kids adored him.

Ideas for how to gift the birthday baby:

• I recently got tuned into Echo Age by a friend of mine. Basically people donate a certain amount of money towards your gift which you can use to buy a few gifts of your choice, or to donate to charity. Really love this concept. Especially for a baby who doesn’t even really know what “cool Fisher Price toy” means yet.
• Buy the babe some books. They never grow old.
• Create a gift registry if you must. At least you’ll get what you want, right? Cuts down on those return errands and gift receipts.
• One thing I always did was test out toys my friends had whose kids were older. If my kiddos loved playing with them at a friend’s house, well, I’d just invite myself back over to that friend’s house. No, I’d put it on a wish list.

And with that, my favorite first bday toys:

• Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Door. It’s expensive, but worth it. My five-year-old still plays with it. Have the grandparents buy it or something.
• Any pre-walker push toy. Unless your kid is walking already. Good for my kiddos who were well over a year before they considered walking.
• Any Little People toy. Those things are indestructible.
• A set of wooden blocks. Basic but always good to have around the house.

How to invite all those people to your shindig:

• You may want an invite for your scrapbook, but those babies can’t open the mail, so save the money until they’re at least 2 – use evite, or, my new favorite online invitation store, Paperless Post.
• I must also mention my go-to printed invitation source – Tiny Prints!! You can even save money on your kids’ birthday party invites by using the code from my blog: AFF1105.

So meanwhile, aside from trying to find the perfect babysitter situation, I’m also working on and appearing at a few cool events in Chicago over the next few weeks.

This Sunday, I’ll be speaking on a panel with the area’s leading mom bloggers for Bump Club and Beyond. I’ve known Lindsay, the founder of BCB for almost a year now, and I’m excited to participate in one of her fabulous events!

Speaking of being fabulous, my pal Alison, a.k.a. Sassy Mom Chicago, is hosting an amazing moms night out on February 24 at Alhambra Palace. She’s got some incredible giveaways for the event, and the legendary Amy Tara Koch is going to be moderating a fashion show by Bloomingdales! Now, what to wear?…

And, something I’m really proud of – on February 26 from 10:30-12 at Flourish Studios (3020 N. Lincoln Ave.), I’ll be moderating a panel of experts on the topic of helicopter parenting at NPN’s Parent University. I wrote a story about “Hands Off Parenting” last Fall for Chicago Parent, and the topic resonated with so many of you, I just thought we had to bring it to life and get a live discussion going about it.

The experts on the panel are:

Dan Gill, MSMFT, LCPC from The Family Institute at Northwestern University is an expert on facilitating groups on life transitions, social skills enrichments and family matters.

Karen Jacobson, MA, LCPC, LMFT, founder of Parenting Perspectives, is committed to providing high-quality education to help parents and teachers nurture the healthy development and unique potential of every child.

Sheryl Stoller, PCI of Stoller Parent Coaching, helps parents integrate proven, research-based approaches and practical parenting tools with their own insights, values and dreams to nurture and empower their children.

Hope you can make it to one of these fabulous get-togethers!

This is part two in a series of four posts about K. Grace Childcare – Flexible and Convenient Babysitting in Chicago. Read part one on Caitlin’s blog.

One of the hardest things after you figure out what your childcare needs are – full-time, part-time, all-the-time – is finding that sitter that’s right for you. If you know me, or my blog, you’ll know that in the past, finding the right sitter has been, well, difficult for me.

That’s what I loved most about my experience with K. Grace Childcare. Not only do they have terrific options for flexible and convenient childcare – I like to call it “on demand babysitting” – but they have the staff and the methodology to match you with a terrific sitter for your family and the technology to make it happen.

When you first decide that you’d like to try K. Grace Childcare to find a babysitter, you fill out an online profile. It is like match.com for babysitting – brilliant!

I got to fill out exactly what I wanted in a sitter – job requirements, my kids’ favorite activities, questions about my kids’ needs such as allergies, special needs, etc. Then, once I filled out the form, I got an email confirming that K. Grace had received my information. Then, within what seemed like minutes, I received call from Erin, K. Grace’s Client Manager, but more like “Chief Awesome Babysitter Placement Specialist.”

Erin went over all the details of what to expect from the K. Grace experience – she is chief example of why K. Grace works – Erin has a soothing and calm demeanor that allowed her to understand just what I was looking for from a babysitting service amidst the screeches from my little guy in the background. Around anyone else I’d feel embarrassed about the chaos, but Erin assured me she’s seen it all before.

Then, the best part. I got my username and password for the site, and I was able to fill out, on my own, just when and what time I needed help. Again, brilliant! If anything changed on my end, I was able to control any schedule edits and even call an emergency number if I needed to, to make any edits.

A K. Grace sitter, Ashley. Isn’t she darling!?

After she got a sense of “me beyond my online profile” I finished the application process. K. Grace offers the same flexible kinds of pricing that go along with its flexible and convenient service. At K. Grace, you only pay for what you use in terms of babysitter hours. Monthly fees for usage of K. Grace vary depending on how many hours you use the K. Grace sitters.

You get what you pay for. Kayme Pumphrey, the owner of K. Grace childcare, takes time and energy to recruit the best sitters possible. Her sitters are recruited out of local colleges and many of them have backgrounds in psychology, education and social work. The young woman who came to my house is a music major, which came in handy since my little guy loves to rock out to any ol’ kind of music.

Kayme also prides herself on her extensive screening process – it’s the same background check company that NASA uses! The process takes multiple steps including applications, group interviews, single interviews, protocol and child development exams, reference checks, background checks, and CPR certification — so only the sitters who are truly committed make it to the end. (Approximately 70 percent of applicants don’t pass Kayme’s screening process so you know you are getting the best of the best.)

Kayme and her daughter Addison at nine months of age

Sitters all follow the same protocol at every appointment – they wash their hands when they enter the house, take their shoes off, and keep a log of all the activity that happens during the day when you’re out. It essentially eliminated my need for that hourly “check in” call when I was out doing my meetings. Because I’m all busy these days, you know.

The next thing I knew, Erin confirmed my request for a sitter, I was provided information about her and gave me the 411 on why she selected her just for my family, ok, me. When the lovely young woman showed up at my door last week, I was confident I’d met my match. In the best possible way.

Do you want to meet your perfect babysitting match? Want to try it out? K. Grace is offering a Chicago family the chance to experience their placement process for free (a $40 value). The winner will have the opportunity to experience what it is like to be a client at K. Grace (note that, in order to provide the best level of service to their clients, certain geographic limitations apply and the winner is responsible for compensating the babysitter for her/his time).

There are two ways you can enter to win: (1) leave a comment on this post (be sure to include your contact info so we can reach you if you win!) and (2) Become a fan of K. Grace Childcare on Facebook. So 2 total entries per person. All entries must be received by midnight (CST) on Monday, February 13, 2011. Good luck!

And don’t worry, there will be many more ways to win a free placement. Just check out next week’s post – part III in our series – on A Hen and Two Now Three Chicks next week!

Disclosure: I am working with K. Grace to help spread the word about their services and I am being compensated for my time. My experience with the K. Grace process and babysitter we had to our home, however, is all my genuine and honest opinion!