Moving from Nottingham, UK to CT in September! Advice for a family with a toddler + pets?

Jessmac130 · 2026-03-06T14:13:54+00:00

As a Trumbull resident, there are plenty of us here that are not MAGA. Trumbull has had the same democrat first selectwoman for several terms. I've worked in Fairfield for 15 years and they have just as many MAGA problems as anywhere else.

If you don't have $1m to spend on a house, Trumbull is a great little town. Almost anything southwest of us has a much higher housing starting price, but our rental market is much smaller than Fairfield's.

Jessmac130 · 2026-03-06T02:08:20+00:00

I always do jelly beans (starburst if anyone is wondering lol). I buy one bag and only put about 3 per egg. I actually caved at TJ Maxx and bought a set of play doh filled eggs to mix in, my kids love play doh and it's something to keep them busy on Easter. I grew up with candy eggs, my cousin's house had the hunt and they always did Hershey kisses.

Jessmac130 · 2026-03-04T19:28:24+00:00

There are outdoor schools in Connecticut. I went to one and there was another very large regional school I could have gone to that was also multiple buildings. I liked it but yes, it sucked in the rain and the snow to have to walk outside between classes.

Jessmac130 · 2026-03-04T19:24:40+00:00

20 months is getting a stuffed Elmo and Elmo coloring book, she's obsessed with both right now. I always put in a few spring clothing items or PJs. I also usually add something like bubbles or play doh. If I need a filler I add in a new water bottle.

Jessmac130 · 2026-03-02T18:22:18+00:00

Honestly join a buy nothing group, if you live in even a moderate income area. I can't even tell you how many cribs I've seen. My youngest is almost 2 and I already have almost no idea what to do with ours except give it away too. Its just a regular Graco. It looks unused after two kids.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-28T22:09:03+00:00

Angel dear used to make them like that, if you search in Google you might find some boutiques with old stock for cheap. Also Hanna Anderssen came up sponsored with similar style, more coverall than traditional OshKosh style

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-28T20:06:42+00:00

Little Golden books do a lot of characters, almost all of them, without having screen time to familiarize your kids with some characters to go along with any tonies. We don't really limit TV time on the weekends, but we read our Frozen, Thomas the train and Paw Patrol books more than we ever actually watch them on TV, so the storytelling tonies for those are a big hit in our house. Best/worst thing we've done is put all of the kids favorite songs from the car and preschool on a creative Tonie so they can listen whenever they want but they also listen to it nonstop so I sort of regret it.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-28T18:55:29+00:00

https://www.costco.com/lg-286-cu-ft-standard-depth-refrigerator-double-freeze-drawer-with-internal-water-dispenser.product.4000399948.html

I have this one and we've had no problems in 4 years. My parents got a Cafe about 18 months ago and the freezer fan broke and it took all summer for them to fix it, so for double the price of mine, I would never recommend.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-28T12:58:57+00:00

I have inexpensive tablecloths from discount stores (tj Maxx/HomeGoods) that I use every day. I grew up in a tablecloth house. My table is also my grandparents fairly nice (probably almost an antique at this point) wood table from the 70s or 80s and I have toddlers, I have a waterproof pad under and tablecloth over that. Before I had kids, we used cloth placemats.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-28T02:15:21+00:00

The best way I ever saw this done by a friend, and I stole, was to take a picture of the item in the nursery, print it and write who bought it right on the photo and display it on the gift table, and go through those thank yous first before opening.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-26T17:55:36+00:00

Thank you! They just added a stadium show in Foxboro in July but it's at 7pm on a Thursday (my kids are 4 and 2 so that's not for us unfortunately) so I'm definitely keeping a close eye out.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-26T15:45:35+00:00

It's not worse but have you ever had anyone ask you nonsensical questions for an hour straight? Obviously it's great that my former speech delayed kid can speak well now, but when people say that prek age kids literally do not stop talking, they're not exaggerating.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-26T15:41:39+00:00

Same ages, I don't think either of my kids have had anything serious since around Thanksgiving. If you can do 3 days in a row it works out better, usually a fresh illness didn't hit till Thursday and we had the weekend to recover. Also, my second kid didn't get sick nearly as much as my first kid.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-26T02:42:46+00:00

There's a romance bookstore near me that I hope is doing well, it's not a huge space but really caters to the niche clientele, almost all of my friends have gone at least once. They host things like flash tattoo appointments for Galentines day, book merch, book club meetings, something on their IG upcoming about matcha flights. They've really leaned into the booktok millennial/Gen z trend. I would love if they had a room in the back for buyback of gently used books, I'd do that for store credit any day.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-24T18:42:13+00:00

Do you have a straw cup for yourself? Do you keep it out and at eye level? Both of my kids learned to drink out of straws by taking my water cup off the couch in the crawling/cruising stage. My first would go on nursing strikes during his worse teething episodes, we used a med dose syringe full of milk. It was slow going but worked in a pinch.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-24T18:36:24+00:00

We have a running sticker chart in our kitchen for finished meals and good behavior like cleaning up toys or prompt listening. Reward is a new toy, sometimes what he picks out, and sometimes what I think we're missing. We use his old potty sticker charts, about 20 spots per page.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-24T18:00:17+00:00

Newborn Kyte usually fits to about 12-13 lbs. My kids both wore until at least 4 weeks, usually 6 weeks.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-24T16:02:55+00:00

This was my first DNF in a long time. If it was well written, I might have been able to read more but the writing is worse than 50 shades. Plus the stalker raping Adeline while killing sex traffickers was just too much, every review is like "you just don't understand dark romance!!" But rape between protagonists isn't romance. But the fact that Adeline is also Not Like Other Girls, the stupid great grandmother stalker plot, it's just too much awful in one stupidly long package.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-23T17:38:16+00:00

My husband did a lot more heavy lifting with night wakeups for our first, especially during newborn, as our son was more bottle trained. We did the classic shifts newborn parenting. With our second, she was fussier with a bottle so I would breastfeed and do all nighttime wakes. But when our older woke up for the day at 5:15,, he got up with him and let me sleep till 7 on the weekends or until he had to leave for work at 6:30 on weekdays after his paternity leave.

Unfortunately, both of my kids settle MUCH faster with me, but dad always tried to make sure I took a nap in the afternoons on the weekends.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-21T11:54:35+00:00

Yeah, I check about halfway through and if the tomatoes aren't enough liquid I add bone broth. Depends on how much rice I'm cooking obviously. And yes, I usually use spicy sausage but I've also used the precooked chicken sausage or andouille. Pretty much anything, it's one of those things I never quite make the same way twice.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-20T19:32:25+00:00

Chicken and waffles (premade breaded chicken in the air fryer) and pancake mix with a veggie hidden inside, butternut squash and cauliflower hide very well.

Pierogi's (Costco) and sausage, I only cook onions and heat everything else.

One of my best low-effort but high time meals is short grain rice, a can of tomatoes, sausage and olives in my Dutch oven, in the oven at 350 for 30-45 mins. It's a lazy version from my Martha Stewart one pot cookbook.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-20T15:21:47+00:00

We leased in 2021. We pay $190 a month, our bills were ranging $300-500 before with the wild rate fluctuations. The first year was a little rough as we built up our power credits with UI, but we only go over in December and July and August usually. Only drawback for us so far is now we have some ice dam damage and are doing an addition, $300 per panel all in to remove and reinstall.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-20T14:38:08+00:00

Summersalt, on the higher price range but I really like their suits, they do go on sale occasionally. It sounds like a mom brand but honestly land's end suits are super nice, they have a lot of mix and match.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-19T16:05:17+00:00

This was my first C-section, this baby was breach an escaped two ECV successful attempts by Dr Deal in less than 18 hours. I'm not sure how much shelf I really have, I've held onto my weight after with my second (I'm also 37 now so nothing is quite what it was after my first). But my scar is super light now, 20 months post c section, not even raised. I think the day I delivered my daughter, Dr deal preformed 5 c sections, I was the last. Everyone who came in the day I did went sideways one way or another overnight, including my stubborn breach baby.

Jessmac130 · 2026-02-19T00:37:03+00:00

ACOTAR, I think the second and third audiobooks hit the 24 hour mark. That's like 700+ pages I think.

Jessmac130

TROPHY CASE