Clouds and Stars Quick Zip Crib Sheets

What We Bought:  Clouds and Stars Quick Zip Crib Sheets

What We Think
I wish I had thought of this idea.  Whats the worst part of the crib sheet experience (or any mattress sheet for that matter)?  For me its taking them off and putting them on.  Trying to get that elastic around the ends of the mattress and making it fit just right is a massive pain.  But this crib sheet is genius.  Its a crib sheet that goes on the mattress like a normal crib sheet but the top can be zipped on and off.  Brilliant.  Really the only part of the sheet that ever gets dirty is the top part anyway!

Clouds and Stars Quick Zip Crib Sheet

We have two of them, a plush version for winter and a normal version for summer but to be honest, we've never really taken the plush one off except for maybe once or twice.  The girls are just more comfortable on the plush one so we go with it.

Highly recommended.  In fact, I kinda wish the sheet on our bed worked this way.

Movie: "Buried"

What we Bought: Buried (via Netflix)

What I Think
note: probably some spoilers... not huge ones.
Briefly, this movie is about a truck driver in Iraq who gets kidnapped and put up for ransom.  As the title suggests, he is buried.  We had heard good things about this movie: Its edgy, well made, and scary.  Really, only one of those things panned out; its fairly well made... especially given that they probably made it for about 10 grand.

Ryan Reynolds does a pretty good job of playing a guy in a box but for some reason I never really bought in.  I didn't get that claustrophobic feeling I got when Kiddo is buried in her coffin in Kill Bill.  The movie trades claustrophobia for impotence but on the screen impotence is less visceral.  I guess at the end of the day the box just wasn't small enough.

The movie also didn't give me enough info on the cell phone angle to be convinced that they couldn't find him.  Perhaps its my ignorance of the cloned cell phone world but I just can't see it being that hard to track him down. Hit your maps app to at least find where the cloned signal is coming from, right?

Still the story does work on a few different levels.  If you want to go the allegory route, having someone trapped in a box is a great way for setting up analogies to: The US in Iraq and Afganistan and/or the common working man in his life both of which could be extracted from this story.  For taht reason i like the movie, but i really can't recommend it.

Baby Cache "Uptown" Crib

What we Bought:  Baby Cache "Uptown" Crib (two)

Why: Twins needed something to sleep in.

What we Think:

My wife tells me that there are two types of people, people who buy from Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware or people who buy from Babys'R'Us.   The PB/RH crowd shell out good coin to get high quality cribs while the BRU crowd just need a crib.  Since she is pretty neurotic about quality and safety I'm pretty sure we would have been on the PB/RH track if we had a single... but we don't... we have twins and we weren't interested in spending two grand on cribs.

This is the list we had when looking for a crib:

1. No drop gate (by now a big no-no in all cribs I think)
2. Strong slats
3. Never squeaks or creaks
4. Have the option to convert to a toddler bed.
5. Remain rooted to the floor during the next "big one".
6. Pretty

We looked all over the place but the one crib that was just right was the Baby Cache "Uptown" crib.  This crib is kind of the middle ground between the lower end stuff and the super high end stuff.  Its really well made from good materials but it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

3/4 view

View from the front.

Bringing them Home

We bought one for each of our girls at a Babys'R'Us nearby and in preparation for obtaining them, I borrowed a friends mini-van.  The boxes were too big even for that so to get it home I actually had to take them out of box.  Not a huge deal but definitely something to be aware of.

Materials

Its solidly made with good material and a quality that you can feel once you get it all together.  All of the wood is good solid Maple and the four corners are hefty slabs that don't budge.

Putting them Together

On the topic of getting it together, I found it to be a breeze.  The instructions are clear and the materials are high quality and fit precicely so you don't have to worry about bad fits.  Pick the room you want to put them into wisely because they don't fit through standard doorways once they are assembled.  I'm now pretty intimatntly familiar with putting them together because we moved them from our room upstairs downstairs to their room.  During this move i took them "half apart" to move them.  They went back together just fine and are just as solid and non-sqeeky as ever.

Cost

Though these cribs go for a lot of money ($500-ish), places like Babys'R'Us are always sending out 20% off coupons.  We had two different coupons deals applied to the cribs plus a twin discount which, all told, allowed us to get two for the price of one.

Our Experience

These cribs have been rock solid for us.  They are a constant that is always up to the task.  The girls are over two years old now and jump, bounce, climb and generally beat up on them but the cribs remain unperturbed.  With the exception of a few very small nicks, I'd say they are quite literally as good as new.  I expect them to be a mainstay in the girls room at least until they outgrow the toddler/day bed version of the crib.  

Conversion
We haven't converted the crib to the toddler bed yet as the girls haven't really started jumping out of their cribs just yet (though I'm guessing they could if they tried).  I heard that Babys'R'Us doesn't carry the conversion kit but fortunately all you have to do to get it is call up the Baby Cache and order it.

Verdict

When the zombies come, I know exactly where i'll hide... I'll turn these cribs upside down and sit underneath them.  Highly recommended.

Kicky Pants Bamboo pajamas

What We Bought: Kicky Pants Bamboo Pajamas
Time Owned: About three months

What We Think:
We bought these bamboo pajamas because we needed something for the girls to where over the summer that wasn't too heavy but would still keep them covered up and cozy.  The funny thing is that the only reason we really thought of going with the bamboo material is because a couple years ago we bought bamboo sheets and loved them.  The material is soft, light and breathes well but at the same time keeps us nice a warm.

Anyway, these PJs have turned into an absolute gem.  As a Dad I have three main reasons I love them so much:

1. I think they are the easiest article of clothing to get over my girls' heads which is absolutely critical since that is the part of putting on clothes that they hate the most.  The material is so flexible that I can stretch it wide enough such that it doesn't even touch their heads as it goes over.  I know this sounds pretty trivial to many people, but this type of thing matters when you are in a hurry and the kids are grumpy.
   
2. They are soft and light in terms of weight but they keep the girls suprisingly cozy.  They are the goto pajammas for us when we think the night could go either way (too hot or too cold).  They just seem to be just the right temperature no matter what.  When you are trying to outrun the zombie horde, this is what you want to be putting on my girls :)
   
3. Even though we bought them really big the girls were able to wear them right away.  Honestly, they are so stretchy that i think the girls might wear them for two years even if they grow 10 inches during that time.

Bottom Line:  An awesome buy and highly recommended.

The Double BOB

What We Bought:  BOB Revolution (the "Double BOB")
Years Owned:  Over one year.
Why We Bought it:  Needed something easy to push over long distances.

What We Think
We've had our "Double Bob" for about a year now and really its been fantastic.  We got it to serve as our rugged "go anywhere" stroller to replace an older hand-me-down jogging stroller that had a non-swiveling  front wheel and was too heave for my wife to push long distances.  This is the stroller we take to the beach, on mini-grocery runs, to the zoo, and occasionally jogging :)

BOB Revolution with our
 26 month old twins.

First Impressions
When we first bought this I remember the first thing we commented on was just how light it is and how easy it was to roll.  It moved like a dream.  Suddenly short walks to the grocery store became non-marathon events.

Size
This stroller is big and burly but almost unbelievably light.  It might fit in your Mini Cooper but if it does, nothing else will.  In this instance big and burly is a good thing and its the reason that most people buy it.

For a while we were delusional enough to think that a sedan would be ok for a family with newborn twins.  What a laugh.  Anyway, this thing fit into the trunk of our sedan when we fully folded it up but it didn't leave a lot of room for other things.

That said, despite its considerable size when unfolded and in use, it gets pretty small when you fold it all up.  The key to getting it down to a really small size is that all the wheels come off pretty easily (I found that the back wheels come off much easier than the front wheel). Once you get them off, the profile becomes quite small.

Double BOB in our Odyssey
folded with wheels on.

BOB Revolution folded with
wheels off (next to a double McClaren).

Folding Process
Though the wheels do come off, we don't usually do this anymore because we've got a van and we don't need to get it down to its absolute smallest size.  In fact, I think what I like the most is how easily and quickly it folds and unfolds when you don't take the wheels off.  Its literally a 1 second process of "jerking" a hand cord and allowing it to click into place and you're on your way.  When the zombie horde is on your tail, this is the stroller you want to be unfolding.

Jogging
I've taken this guy jogging a couple times and its really quite easy to jog with since its so light.  The first time I went I forgot to lock the front wheel in place. This is a major mistake that should be avoided as it does not jog well when the front wheel can swivel.  I found that the suspension system gave my girls a nice comfortable ride as long as I wasn't running over ridiculous bumps.

Price
I'm not going to lie, the price hurts, but really compared to everything else out there its pretty reasonable.  We supported our local economy and bought it at a local toy store for $530 which isn't too terribly far off from prices you'll find online (with shipping).

Storage
There is actually a lot of storage in this puppy including two large pockets in the back and a big basket on the bottom.  To give you and idea of what you can put in the storage, let me give you the contents of my last grocery run in the BOB:  Two gallons of milk, an apple pie, eight yogurt cups, a box of cookies and a box of crackers.  All that plus my girls was a lot of weight and the BOB handled it like a champ.

Complaints
Really the only thing that bothers me is that its kind of tough to get a pump nozzle attached to the tire to pump it up.  I think I bloodied my hands a couple times, however, this could have been a function of the pump I was using at the time :)

Conclusion
Recommended for people looking for a really light yet tough stroller for jogging or just long strolls.

Why

I am going to start blogging about all the stuff my wife and I buy.  Over the last few years we've moved a couple times, changed jobs and had twin girls.  All along that ride we've consumed and consumed, using the internet as an awesome research tool.  I think its time to give back a little.  So, to that end, I'll be posting what we bought and we thought about a whole variety of things... from food, to strollers, to books, to video games, to electronics, and so on.