I have a little secret.

Since Christmas, bedtime with Jackson has been…quiet. The monitor has been filled with silence, or gentle babbling, 98% of the time. I put Jackson down, close the door, and that’s it.

So what’s the secret? Well, I’m pretty sure it’s this guy:

This is the Twilight Turtle. He’s pretty awesome. Actually, scratch that, he’s INSANELY awesome.

In case you haven’t seen the Twilight Turtle before, or his cousin the Sea Turtle, what you get here is a plush animal that TRANSFORMS into a mini planetarium when the lights go down. This one has 3 colors you can choose: blue, green, and amber. Press a button, choose a color, and your little one can stare at their own colorful starry sky until they fall asleep (or 45 minutes, when the auto shut off happens, whichever comes first).

Since we got the Twilight Turtle, bedtime has been amazingly different. Jackson rarely, rarely, rarely fusses once we put him down. He may chatter to himself, but the starry sky seems to entrance him enough to keep him laying down until he falls asleep.

But don’t tell anyone ok? It’s our little secret weapon.

Like most new parents, we have had in our arsenal the standard bulb sucker. Which, you know, fine whatever. It’s a tool designed to suck snot from a little person’s nose, it’s not supposed to be glamorous or anything.

But I think I was bulb sucker-impaired. Because it just..well, it just never sucked enough. Which was fine when Jackson just had the sniffles, but then he got his first real cold. And let me tell you, that bulb sucker just did not cut it.

Luckily, during our mass FSA spending spree, we had gotten what would turn out to change my snot sucking life.

Guys, this is the Nose Frida:

Ok, so the Nose Frida is kind of intimidating and gross sounding when you first read/hear about it. You put one end in babies nose and with the other end you–yes YOU, as in your own lung power–suck out the snot.

Seriously, sounds disgusting. My husband almost gagged the first time he saw me use it. But folks, I’m here to tell you that 1) no snot comes anywhere near your mouth and 2) this thing is FREAKING AMAZING.

The amount of gunk this thing gets compared to the bulb sucker is astronomical. When Jackson got sick, the bulb sucker couldn’t keep up, whereas the Nose Frida? Well, she (why yes, I’m pretty sure it’s a she) was cutting through that nonsense so my kiddo could breathe again. I love her.

Now, there are some downsides. For starters, at least for my kid, Nose Frida is not accepted with any more goodwill than the bulb sucker. Yeah, I think that one just comes down to kids not liking having their noses forcibly emptied. Secondly, this thing can take a fair amount of lung power…so you know, take breaks so you don’t black out trying to get all the snot.

But overall? This snot sucker changed my life

(You can purchase Nose Frida at various retail shops, as well as at drugstore.com, diapers.com, amazon.com.)

This has not been a paid post–I just used this thing and love it and think you should know about it. If that’s ever not the case,  you’ll be the first ones to know!

My kid loves to open and close doors. He can entertain himself with a door for like 30 minutes straight if we let him. Open, close, open, close.

But, like most toddlers, he has no sense of danger or self preservation. NONE. So, of course, his door habit has its dangers–closing the door on his fingers on one side and pinching his fingers on the hinge side.

Now, dealing with the door closing side is pretty easy–there are lots of products you can find to deal with that side of the door. It was the door hinge side that kept causing us problems. I looked for what felt like weeks, before I finally found it.

This is the Safety 1st Prograde Finger Pinch Preventer and it has been a HUGE help at our house. Jackson was getting his fingers pinched in the door hinge side more and more until we finally, FINALLY found this guy. Here’s what it looks like in action:

With the U shape, it can actually fit on both sides of the door–for the hinge side, you put the little ends into the gap, for the knob side, you put the wide side around the door. But we mostly use it on the hinge side.

The door can still close about 1/2 way with this thing in, but not enough to actually pinch little fingers. It’s saved Jackson’s fingers, and my stress level of being afraid for his fingers. For a $6 product? Totally worth it.

When I first came home from the hospital with Jackson, I made a point to do my makeup everyday. It was the one thing, amidst all the leaking and crying and post c-section ickiness, that made me feel somewhat human.

Now, my makeup routine has ALWAYS been on the lazy side–I’d rather sleep an extra 5 minutes than spend a long time on my “face”–so doing my makeup meant at MOST 5 minutes. The components? Powder, blush, eyeshadow, mascara, and a tinted lip gloss. Super easy.

But during this time, I found myself looking for even more shortcuts. Which I found, in the lovely guise of cream eyeshadow. One little swipe, and you’re done. In theory. But a lot of them ended up creasing throughout the day (or, in some cases, after a few minutes).  I kept using them for months, for the ease, but would find myself disappointed in how they looked after a few hours. Until I found this stuff.

Benefit Creaseless Cream Shadow/Liner
(shown in RSVP, which actually is less pink than this looks and is more of a champagne-y color).

This stuff is wonderful. Flat out wonderful. It’s one of the only cream shadows I’ve ever used that never creases on me. I wear it all day long, and no creasing. And this color is amazing, a neutral that’s flattering on me, with just a hint of sparkle.

Now, I’ll admit that it’s spendy. I actually got hooked on it with a sample that came free with something else I bought, because I’m rarely going to spend $19 on eyeshadow. In fact, I’m still using that sample pot MONTHS later.  But when it runs out, you can bet that I’ll be buying more. Here’s my justification though: 1) a little goes a really, really long way, so the pot lasts a long time  2) it’s a super versatile shadow that can be worn day & night, for running to the grocery store and a night out and 3) every once in a while, a splurge on something that makes me feel pretty is worth it.

So, if you feel like splurging on yourself for a pretty great eyeshadow? This is a great one to try. (but if you can get a sample, that’s even better!)

At least for the moment, Jackson is pretty good at restaurants and we actually take him out a fair amount (of course, by restaurants 90% of the time I mean Chick Fil A and Rubios). But he is a bit messy, as babies his age tend to be–food drops all over his lap, he likes to smush it around on the table, it’s all over the place. To help combat that, we have one little line of defense–meet one of my diaper bag items:

Summer Infant Tiny Diner Portable Placemat

That’s right–a placemat. That little thing down at the bottom is part of the reason it’s in my diaper bag–it’s a “scoop” that hangs off the edge of the table to help catch dropped food! AND, the rest of the mat rolls up to fit inside that scoop–perfect for diaper bag size.

Other bonuses: it’s got suction cups to try to help keep it on the table, it’s a silicone-like material (free of phthalates, lead, PVC, etc.) that makes it easy to clean, and it’s relatively inexpensive (about $11).

Now, it’s not perfect. The suction cups aren’t perfect–when Jackson is done eating he loves to pull it off the table completely, whether the food is off it or not.  And the scoop, which I love, does mean that the high chair can’t be as close to the table as it might be otherwise.

But honestly, this little $11 item has made it so much handier to eat out with Jackson. And I’ll take whatever help I can get!