Mommy FTW

I did a post about Seamless Web in the past – have you tried it yet?!

Seamless Web is an online service which allows you to place food delivery orders via the internet.  I love it because it’s fast and easy – and it allows me to use my credit card to pay (lots of the places around here in Fort Greene only take cash, and sometime I just don’t have it on hand!)  Another useful feature is that Seamless Web keeps track of your orders and allows you to name your favorites, so next time you come back and you want to get the same thing it’s a one click process.  You can also request that a restaurant not include plastic utensils, napkins etc – usually we are eating at home and we don’t need these things.

Use the Seamless Web iPhone app in these areas!

I’m posting about Seamless Web again for two reasons – one in case you didn’t see my first post and haven’t tried it yet, and second (and more exciting!) Seamless Web just launched their iPhone App!  You can get it via the iTunes store.  And for you Blackberry folks out there, there is a version for you as well.  So now you can order your dinner while you are out and about, so by the time you get home with your little one it’s on the way.

Seamless Web serves 26 cities across the US – so check out their website and see what they have in your area.  It’s fast, it’s easy, and you can do it while your toddler is making noise in the background – believe me, it’s a lot easier than a phone call!

Posted from New York, New York, United States.

Our vacation is less a week away (!!) so I’ve been asking my fellow moms for advice when it comes to entertaining a toddler on a plane.  None of these are exactly groundbreaking ideas, but maybe some of these them will be helpful to you.

Stickers – lots and lots of stickers! – Cameron is really into stickers lately, so this idea made perfect sense to me.  We’ve been getting them after our weekly visits to Trader Joe’s and Cameron will spend the whole walk back sticking and unsticking them to his pants and anything around him.  I went to Target and picked up a bunch in the Stationary and Scrapbooking sections (on the first floor near the greeting cards).  We went for the truck and farm stickers, but there’s a big assortment.  I also ordered some Melissa and Doug stickers off of Amazon.  I got a pad of paper (also from Target) so that the stickers hopefully end up there instead of all over the plane.  I also plan to bring crayons.

Cameron picks out some stickers at Target

A new toy – I’m going for something blinky that involves batteries.  I haven’t quite picked out something yet, but I’ll keep you posted as to what I end up with.  But, I plan to keep it totally secret until we get on the plane, that way it will be all the more exciting.

Videos – I ordered a Yo Gabba Gabba DVD – It is Cameron’s favorite so I am hoping it will buy me at least an hour or so.  I went for the Dancey Dance Bunch, but I’m pretty sure any of them would do.  Cameron doesn’t seem to mind watching them over and over again.  I also have some Baby Einstein.  Cameron loves Baby Wordsworth, and Neighborhood Animals.

iPhone – Peekaboo Barn is still Cameron’s favorite iPhone App, but he also loves just flipping through the photos (most of them are of him) and pressing the buttons in general.

Snacks – lots and lots of snacks.  I think we all know that there isn’t much food on airplanes anymore, so don’t forget to pack an arsenal.  It was also suggested to me to try lollipops.  This isn’t something I would normally give Cameron, but when it comes to keeping a toddler quiet on a plane, I’ll go for pretty much anything.

Non-Refrigerated Milk (yes, they make that!) – I actually plan to bring this for not just the plane, but the vacation in general.  You can get it on Fresh Direct (it’s called Farmland Lil’ Milk Stay Fresh Whole Milk).  By the way, they also have 1% and 2% if your little one is no longer on Whole Milk.

Other Passengers – Cameron loves to make friends.  Hopefully some of my fellow passengers will be interested in making friends back!  If so, I plan to use them for as much entertainment as possible.

Books and Puzzles – Just like his videos, Cameron can play with his puzzles and books over and over and not get bored of them.  He also really likes his touch and feel flash cards.  I think I’ll stick with his most favorite ones (tractor, firetruck, dog, cat, ball).

Any of you mommies out there have other ideas to share with everyone?  I can use all the help I can get!

I’ve been wishing for a long time that Fresh Direct had an iPhone App – and recently, my dreams came true!  For those of you who don’t know, Fresh Direct is a grocery delivery service that us New Yorkers are lucky to have – and now we have it on the go!  The other day, I used the iPhone App to place a grocery order while Cameron was on the swings at Underwood Park.  How great is that!

Fresh Direct makes your life easier - again!

As far as I can tell, you can do pretty much everything you can do from a regular computer – reserve a delivery slot, check out what’s on sale, change your order, even shop from your favorites.  Now, Fresh Direct is even having a giveaway with $1000 in prizes – check here to enter.  And get the free iPhone App now!

FYI – Fresh Direct just launched their facebook fan page – become a fan and get a free delivery!

The iPhone App Peekaboo Barn was first recommended to me by a mom friend.  It took me awhile to get around to downloading it, mostly because I usually go for Free iPhone apps, and this one costs $.99  Well, when I was on the train ride home coming from DC with Cameron I downloaded it in desperation – and it saved me!  And it has continued to entertain Cameron through many sticky and boring situations.  Let me tell you, the $.99 price tag is well worth it.

The app is fairly simple: A barn appears and shakes, enticing the child to tap it.  Once tapped, the barn doors open an an animal appears.  Tap again a child says the name of the animal (in Spanish, if you like!).  Another tap closes the doors and the game starts over with a new animal.  The one main failure for me with this App (and every App) is that Cameron eventually just presses the button on the phone, exiting himself out of the game.  Hopefully he will soon realizes that brings the fun to an end!

Peekaboo Barn - Hours of Baby Fun

What is your little one’s favorite app? Leave a comment and share with everyone! Just click “Write Comment” at the top of the post.

Gowalla is a really interesting App for the iPhone that can help you meet up with other moms (or friends!) and it’s free.  Often used in conjunction with facebook, or twitter, but great just on it’s own, Gowalla encourages you to “Check in” places that you visit.  When you do this, it lets your friends who also have the Gowalla App know.  A message gets sent to their phone (like a text message – but not counting as one, for those of you who don’t have unlimited texting, like me!).  I think this has some pretty cool possibilities!

Tell your friends where you are...

...have an inpromptu lunch!

If you were at the Library the Playground, or out for a bite, you could check in at that location (create the location if it’s not already listed).  You can even add a description of what you are doing.  Your message would go out to your friends, and if they were near by, they could stop in.  It’s fun – and free, and might get you some unexpected playdates.  Gowalla works on the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.  FYI, if you have heard of foursquare – this is pretty similar, but I think it has a few features that make it better.

I love my iPhone, that’s for sure, but I do not love Apple’s weather App that comes with it.  So, I got the AccuWeather App, which is FREE!  It is 100 times more informative and accurate than the built in one (what the heck is a drippy sun, anyways).  Here are some screen caps hilighting a few of its features:

The current conditions - Does Cameron need a sweater?

the Hourly forecast - to go to the park, or no?

the 15 day forecast - will it rain for that birthday party this weekend?

Risk - should I chance going out without my umbrella?

I reference this app all the time when trying to figure out what to clothes to put Cameron in, if I should take the Ergo or the Stroller (pushing a stroller while holding an umbrella is NOT easy!) if we have time to make it to the swings at Camel Park, shall we go have a picnic in Fort Greene Park?  Its invaluable, especially since it’s free!  The only thing I think this app is not great for is checking the radar of the area.  For that, I refrence the Weather.com App, which is also free.  So why not get both at the App store!

Also, be sure to check out our other posts about great iPhone Apps!

I’ve been meaning to post more iPhone apps for kids (and mommies) but haven’t quite gotten around to it yet.

Chic Squirt Recomends

In the mean time, check out Chic Squirt’s recommendations!

This one’s for the mommies with the newborns.  You know when you leave the hospital and they tell you to keep track of all your babies pees and poos, and how much the eat… how many minutes, how many ounces?  It’s enough to make your head spin!  Throw in the lack of sleep you’ll be experiencing over the next few weeks and you’ve got one stressed out mommy (and daddy!)  My husband found the iPhone Application Baby Log to help keep track of things.

Baby Log

You just tap buttons on the screen to tell it when you’ve changed diapers (pee, or poo), fed the baby (Left breast or right, or how many oz), put them down to sleep or given them a bath. It then keeps track and gives you statistics like how much they’re eating and how many hours they sleep during a day.  You can export all the stats to Excel and other spreadsheet apps.  It also has a twins mode!

My husband and I would leave the phone out in the rocker so that when we changed shifts there wasn’t any need to explain what happened – it was all clearly written down.  And in those early pediatrician visits where I was asked for details on what Cameron was up to it was easy to supply them on command.  Although this app isn’t perfect (it can get a little slow once you’ve been adding data for a few months) it was really helpful in getting through those first few days and weeks.  At $4.99, I think it was worth the cost!