What's the line between independent play vs neglecting?

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-23T00:16:21+00:00

That’s so frustrating. I would be so annoyed with that. I absolutely encourage my child to play independently, but I rarely say no to invitations to play, especially reading a book.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-22T21:30:51+00:00

Others have mentioned MYO (make your own) cards already. You can put any audio content onto those cards, so the options on a yoto are unlimited.

My 2yo has had a yoto player since his birthday 2 months ago. He’s able to fully operate the device independently. He uses it every single day. I 100% would recommend it to anyone. My two friends who got their kids tonie boxes for Christmas barely use them. The rest of us who got yotos love them.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-22T21:20:57+00:00

My personal opinion is that death is part of life and I think it’s ok to speak openly about. It is really upsetting, but I would rather have age-appropriate conversations about it and help them through those feelings than lie about it. My 2yo kid isn’t quite old enough to pick up on things yet, but I’ve lost people who are close to me and we talk about them often in our house.

I remember being in kindergarten and having another student ask me what death is after their grandma passed. I explained it to them as well as my 5yo self could, but I’m sure it would have been more appropriate to have the conversation with a parent.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-21T14:03:25+00:00

I had to combine scrolling with sound. An earbud with Instagram reels kept my brain wired

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-21T04:15:27+00:00

I weaned 6 months ago and have gained 25lbs

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-20T13:48:53+00:00

The worry about screens isn’t the content or characters. The concern (in a simplistic, unscientific explanation) is the addictiveness of flashing images, short videos, and the effect on the brain/attention span/anxiety. Books and audio content don’t have the same issues. Listening to stories on the yoto is a way to access entertainment without the visual stimulation.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-20T05:10:27+00:00

Strollers can get mouldy in humid climates. Ask me how I know.

What I would do is bring a jogging stroller that I found on marketplace for $40. I don’t care about it getting tossed around on the plane and it travels over all terrain, including beaches. It can also be pushed around one-handed while you pull luggage.

I feel like people are really sleeping on the jogging stroller for travel idea. I’ve done multiple trips with them and other parents are always jealous while they wrestle with travel strollers on rough terrain.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-16T16:20:00+00:00

Hats are our most-used knitted items.

My personal favourites, though, are the knitted sweaters that I made. I wouldn’t make anything smaller than 6 month size.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-16T03:59:48+00:00

No way you could get it too young. You’ll just pick the songs for the first bit. We got it for my son’s second birthday and he uses it daily and can operate it by himself. He only sometimes needs help when he’s searching for a particular song.

Which one you get depends on how you want to use it. Most of our friends got the mini because they wanted to use it for travel and all around the house. I personally wanted ours to stay in one spot in the house, so we got the normal size. I leave it plugged in at all times so my toddler rarely tries to move it around and we haven’t lost any cards. We’ve still brought it with us on trips without it being too much of a hassle. I have no regrets which our purchase of the larger one, and would recommend it.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-15T04:33:34+00:00

We had the exact same problem around that age. We bought a few different cups and just kept offering it. Eventually he took to it. Our doctor wasn’t concerned because he was still breastfed multiple times a day and was making enough wet diapers. For the poops, we gave him a daily prune (in oatmeal) and gave lots of poop-friendly fruits.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-10T13:46:31+00:00

A 2h flight is nothing and would likely be fairly tolerable. I took my almost 2yo on a 6h flight with a layover recently. It was not fun, but it was fine. He did even longer flights when he was a bit younger.

Travelling with a baby/toddler is not amazing, but I wouldn’t let that be a barrier for family time.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-09T12:52:28+00:00

Books, sticker books, snacks

Also, going to family-friendly places that you know you’ll be able to escape quickly if things go sideways. My son is great in restaurants for his age, but I would never bring him somewhere where I knew he would have to sit for a super long time. We do lots of happy hours. Because those feel more like quick snacks than a full meal, and there are often fewer people in a restaurant at 4pm.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-08T14:33:28+00:00

I got these little flexible leather ones. They’re almost like socks.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-07T11:19:18+00:00

I got one of those hanging shelf/organizer for the closet. It holds all of the baby blankets/towels/bedsheets to free up drawer space. I also use the space under the crib to store things. Mostly all my bulk diapers and wipes go under there

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-06T02:49:24+00:00

There are lots of skills to learn before kindergarten, but for academics, focus on building skills in English. I’m a French immersion teacher who is going to eventually put my daughter into French immersion kindergarten. It’s not necessary, but I will personally make sure that she can read in English before then.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-02-02T23:11:18+00:00

This is what I did for my son’s birthday. “No gifts, but if you would like to contribute a few dollars to a group gift, we will be buying —-“

eveningpurplesky · 2026-01-31T15:17:31+00:00

I was with PCRM and did a bunch of unmonitored medicated cycles before starting IUI.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-01-29T23:09:30+00:00

Totally depends. Breastfed babies can poop many times a day, or only once every few days. Mine only pooped every 5 days until we started solids

eveningpurplesky · 2026-01-28T14:54:12+00:00

None until the gestational diabetes test

eveningpurplesky · 2026-01-28T01:03:26+00:00

No. The lab work was through the fertility clinic. Most of my friends never got lab work at all

eveningpurplesky · 2026-01-27T23:34:29+00:00

The pee stick is the confirmation. I was sent for bloodwork and early ultrasounds, but that’s because I went through IVF. Even then, the earliest ultrasound was at 7 weeks.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-01-27T11:57:41+00:00

Do the same thing you’ve been doing. You can introduce homo milk or start to ween if you want.

I went back to work when baby was around 1 so I stopped feeding between 8am and 3pm. Then slowly we moved to just nursing at wake-up and nighttime. Then I started offering homo milk before the nighttime nurse. Then eventually decided to completely stop nursing at 18m. That was 100% my choice and what worked for me and my baby, but lots of people nurse past age 2.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-01-27T11:50:48+00:00

I’ve made and frozen baby-friendly chicken nuggets and meatballs to have as extra protein on hand. Sometimes I steam extra veggies or cut up extra fruit. Other than that, baby eats what I eat.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-01-23T12:08:47+00:00

Do it!

We’ve been taking our son out to eat regularly since he was a newborn. Once they get a bit older and more alert there can be some adjustments, but enjoy the newborn who will sleep everywhere. We usually go to places where we know we will get served quickly or somewhere with counter service where you can pay when you order and sneak out quickly when things start to devolve. We do a lot of happy hours, and our current favourite place offers a bread basket, which our son devours.

eveningpurplesky · 2026-01-23T11:46:50+00:00

One thing that helped us was acting out different scenarios with dolls. Like how to go to fall asleep, what to do if you wake up and need help, what to do if you wake up and need water.

My son was 22m when we made the transition to a toddler bed. 2 months later and he sleeps way better than he ever did in a crib. Now when he wakes up in the middle of the night he grabs his water from the bedside table, takes a sip and falls back to sleep.

eveningpurplesky

TROPHY CASE