Road Test Citrus Lane Box & Local Adventures in the Bay Area

Road Test - Citrus Lane Boxes

As you can see from the happy boy in all the above photos, we are LOVING Citrus Lane. We've gotten quality, name brand toys, books, snack samples and coupons each month for the last three months or so. The photo above is Green Toys Tea for Two set, which I think was a Citrus Lane exclusive because you can only buy larger sets on Amazon or similar. He loves his tea set with actual Passion Tea from Starbucks. =)

The latest box came on a day that was taking a disastrous turn...a stroke of genius told me I should take the kiddo outside for a trip to our mailbox. We were rewarded with his latest Citrus Lane box full of goodies, the best of which turned out to be a wonderful game of dominoes by Janod. You've never seen a child more excited about sturdy cardboard!! We played dominoes for hours and hours and the day was saved! At first I questioned whether it was really worth the $30/month price, but now that I've gotten a few months in, we will probably sign up for the three month option to lower the price a bit ($24/month paid in lump sum). If you decide to try it, click here to get 50% off your first box! 

Local Adventure - Forest on First, Los Altos, CA

So, we went to Forest on First soon after they opened their doors because we are already BIG fans of the pricey yet awesome Bumble and the absolute little boy paradise that is Area 151. These three establishments, in addition to PLAY! (which we have not yet sampled) are all started by the brilliant parents/entrepreneurs/thinkers behind the H&H Company, so we know they're good. 

Taking a leap from structure to pillows below

At any rate, we made the trip to downtown Los Altos, which is about a twenty-five minute jaunt from our place in San Jose. They advertised a large indoor treehouse, farm-to-fork fare and fun for all ages. The first time we visited, it cost $5 for a wristband to get into the treehouse. If you visit now, you'll find it is now free for the kiddos to play in the treehouse. (My hunch is that it was too difficult to manage the wristbands since they don't have a person dedicated to the structure. Parents are to watch their own kiddos.)

Delicious and fairly-priced food!

The Treehouse is wonderfully designed as just a part of a lovely cafe that is enjoyed by parents and non-parents alike. Although, I must say, the non-parents tend to segregate to the outside, where the eating area is lush and green and there are less shrieks of joy from the babes enjoying their play. Like Bumble, the food is pricey. However, you know it is good, locally sourced food and that makes me feel a lot better about paying good money for it. You can see our half-eaten bowl of fresh summer fruit (couldn't get a picture of it full because we dug in too fast, but it was a good-sized bowl overflowing with freshness!) below. 

If you live anywhere in the Bay Area, you should definitely check it out!

That's all for today. Remember, try Citrus Lane for 50% off your first box to join in the fun!

Tune in soon for some more fall fun! 

Domestic Disturbances & Pinterest Road Tests

Hey all!

I've been away for quite sometime. A lot has been happening, not least of which is this (in case you missed it):

Yep, we've found out we've got another baby boy on the way, so I'm about to get a lot busier in the coming months! Little one is due mid-November, and I can hardly wait to meet him. 

Kiddo #1 started preschool for a couple of half-days a week, and the little homebody has had a hard time adjusting. He also keeps getting sick, which is like a school tax for the body. Ugh. This week is a nice runny nose with no other symptoms...except him screeching at me every three seconds to wipe his nose. Kill me. 

However, in the midst of all that, this also happened:

He turned three and got to get Potty trained!!

This kind of gave me an idea, because a lot of people were asking about my crazy guerrilla method of going about it:

We literally just stayed on that tarp ALL DAY on day one of training. Cold turkey, no diapers, no Pull-ups (ok he wore one for twenty minutes but that's a long story...), lots of watered-down juice and small candy bribes. And stuff to keep him busy. And that hot pink potty he wanted.

I kept offering that watered-down juice (a friend reminded me I could have given him salty snacks to keep him thirsty!) all day, kept him only in his undies and never more than two feet from the potty. In the morning I put the timer on for every ten to fifteen minutes and made him just try to sit. He usually peed, at least a bit, and got a chocolate-covered raisin, or a Whopper, or a gummy bear for his efforts. He got a double-prize for #2. In the afternoon, he didn't even need the reminder of a timer...he started to really get it right away and started to go all by himself! The only accident we had on day one was when we went to get some celebratory ice cream and there wasn't a potty nearby (but there was a fountain. Running water and potty-training toddler = fail.)

It worked super-well. He had one accident the whole first day. Then a couple the next day. Then NOTHING for like four days. Completely clean and dry: long car trips, two & a half hour naps, and even a bouncy house later!! Then a bit of a regression, so we're not completely there. He still sometimes forgets about pooping when we're not at home. (Yuck). But for the most part, he's doing amazingly well! So I'm calling it a success. We'll have to tackle night time training when he wakes up dry for about a week in succession. I'm not going rush anything. For now, that's the only diaper he gets!

I learned about this method (where else?) on Pinterest. So the idea I had was to have a blog segment every so often road-testing stuff I've seen on Pinterest to see if it actually works as advertised!

So here's the pin to the method we basically used:

And I can say that it DEFINITELY WORKED for us!! DAILY-Approved. 

Hope to be on here a bit more often, but we'll see how I'm feeling. ;)

Until next time...