Must Haves for Back to Preschool & Day Care
Wanna know what I wore for the first day of high school? A purple plaid shirt with puffy sleeves, purple corduroys, and my gold “W” necklace. Back to school time is a memorable time.
My baby girl just turned two. And I’m already deep in the preschool application process. Yup. No Joke. For the Fall. Of 2010. School is coming. For the wee ones and the big ones. Next year will be our first ever “back to school” season. I’m not sure what you call “back to school” time when you’re not coming back but going for the very very first time, but we’ll be in it. And here are the three must haves that my little Bean will not face the day after Labor Day without.
New Shoes. The Bean will definitely be sporting a new pair of kickers on her first day of preschool. If your wee one is off to preschool or day care this year consider shoes by Stride Rite or New Balance.
Stride Rite is well known for their incredible quality, durability and style, but they recently came out with amazing new shoes for early walkers based on cutting edge research into babies little feet! Based on their studies, they created “Sensory Response Technology,” designed to optimize the biomechanics of the foot and encourage development of a healthy and natural gait. Their SRT shoes come with a moisture-wicking lining, multi-directional flexibility, an amazing fit check system (just remove the lining and hold your wee one’s foot up to it–special marks will tell you if it’s time for new shoes), and rounded edges to prevent falls. The most amazing feature, to me, are the “sensory pods” in the bottoms of the shoes that allow your baby to really feel the ground. Also reducing falls. I don’t know about you, but if her shoes can keep my baby from falling down at daycare, I’m all for it.
And if you’re just looking for some super cute sneaks for fall, consider the new line of New Balance sneakers coming out in October…featuring the Peanuts! In general, I’m not a fan of slapping cartoon characters on shoes. But there’s something about the Peanuts characters that’s different to me. They are classics, and the scenes depicted on these sneaks take me right back to 1980–in a good way. I’m totally loving the shoes featuring Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. But you can also get this classic running shoe with scenes from Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving or Christmas. The shoes come sized for infants, preschool and grade school kids, are constructed with premium materials for comfort and breathability, and feature EVA cushioning in the midsole and heel and a solid rubber outsole for excellent support and durability.
A Lunchbox. OK I had a Charlie’s Angels lunchbox in 1977. I have no idea where it is. I miss it. To quote John Mayer (for the second time I believe…what’s up with that?) “whatever happened to my lunchbox?” I have, in general, been so emotional about the idea of my wee little baby (ok I know she’s two) eating lunch at preschool that I have weeded out all the schools that require 3 year olds to eat lunch. Snack she can handle. But lunch…without me?!? Well, the Citizenpip Soup to Nuts Reuasable Lunch Kit has come close to making me change my mind. I kinda shudder to think abut all the baggies that I threw away(in addition to two, count ‘em, two, retainers) in the 18 years my mom packed me pb & j, chips, a piece of fruit, and cookies. This super cool lunch kit is better for the environment and quite frankly, awesome. It comes with: 1 insulated lunch bag with nametag and carabiner that easily attaches to a backpack, 1 stainless steel water bottle, 1 stainless steel insulated food jar, 4 BPA-free airtight food containers, 1 stainless steel fork and spoon set, and 5 100% cotton napkins. Thank you so much Citizenpip for sending one for us to try out and put away for next year. We got the “Tasty” style and it is adorable. Looking for a wee kit for your wee tot? All the components are available a la carte as well. (And just a heads up…be sure to check back in September for a Citizenpip Giveaway!)
Ok, I guess she can have lunch school after all…
A Camera. Because the back to school photo is a definite must have. And if I were a better blogger, I’d have some old grainy photo of me and my brother to post here. But I don’t. Want to take that first day of school pic in style? Check out the new smart cameras by Samsung! These seriously tricked out cameras were designed for today’s seriously digital world. The DualView TL225 and TL220 both feature dual LCD screens with one on the front so you can see yourself in that awesome facebook pic you’re trying to take in front of your new minivan. Also, and get this, these cameras feature a child mode which, when enabled, plays a little clown movie on that front LCD to get your wee one’s attention and up the odds of him actually smiling for the camera. And want to get that photo to Grandma in a heartbeat? The Samsung CL65 features Wifi and Bluetooth so you can upload the pics directly–no computer necessary. Smile! This camera will be available in September…just in time for school.
New York is a strolling city. The general public may not promenade like once it did here in the Biggest of Apples. But for City Mamas, strolling is a way of life. We don’t put our kids in car seats, drive to the Super Target, get them out, strap them into gigantic shopping carts with racecar kid seats, and then push them down aisles wide enough to fit two Volkswagen Beetles side by side. Nope. We stuff them in jackets, hats and gloves, wrangle them and their strollers down the stairs from our third floor walk-up, out the ten ton door, and then down the precipitous cement steps to the street. But that’s just the beginning. Then we stroll the ten blocks in the rain or snow to the grocery store, hope someone will hold the door open for us as we go in, and then make the treacherous trek to the cereal shelves, through aisles that barely accommodate us and our strollers. Let alone more than one stroller or…heaven forbid…a stroller and an old lady cart.
- Did I say no particular order? Well, honestly, this is the stroller I see the most often of all. Maclarens are everywhere. We got a Maclaren Techno XT just like this photo for a baby gift (thanks Granny), and I honestly could not live without it. It is rugged and utilitarian but it drives like a friggin’ Porche. These are the most affordable of the top three NYC strollers. That said, they still aren’t cheap. But if you use your stroller every single day like I do, you need a good one. And this is a good one. The only slight bummer is that the guy at the Children’s Museum folded it up really ferociously once and the hood part at the top bent a bit. Still works fine. It’s small enough and light enough that you can fold it up and lug it on the bus or into the subway fairly easily. You won’t find the others on this list doing that so often. I can’t say enough about this stroller.
- Over six hundred dollars for a stroller??? Are you flipping kidding me!??! No. I’m so not kidding you. And let me just say that this is an incredibly commonly seen stroller. It is no bargain. But it is amazing. My friends who have these, love them. They are also everywhere in New York and for good reason. I don’t want to get into details about what exactly is in the big huge nasty crud-filmed puddles that line the curbs of New York City sidewalks. No one wants to go there. Especially not your precious tot. Now take a look at the wheels on this baby. This stroller was made for city streets. If the Maclaren is a Porche, the Bugaboo is a Ferrari. It drives like a dream. It has oodles of compatible accessories that all fit together beautifully (check out the 
last year and I got this one this year and have been really happy with it…aside from the fact that she’s learned how to unzip it so if she wants out of her stroller while i’m wrestling the stroller through four inches of dirty slush, she just opens it and pushes it away so that the Urban Bundle Me drags through the Urban Nasty Sludge.
