MDO Gear

I think I've mentioned it on here before, but HUT is going to start Mother's Day Out twice a week this fall. We've decided that his preggo momma needs a bit of a break, and HUT needs to have some play time and interaction with other kids. It's for five hours, twice a week, and as it nears I'm getting more and more anxious. I love the idea of grocery shopping in peace while HUT gets some time to socialize and learn, but man oh man is it going to be hard those first couple of weeks... probably for both of us.

Anywho, back to my point of this post.

There are three items that I quickly needed to knock off of the agenda before we head out on our nearly month-long trip next week:

1) The Backpack - We already had this bag from our travels: 

{ Skip Hop Zoo Pack Little Kid Backpack, Elephant } 

Although it is smaller than your average backpack, I think that it will be just fine for HUT. It's got enough room to stuff diapers, wipes and some clothes (I hope). If he gets a folder, I'm not sure that will fit in there as well, but we'll just play it by ear and get a new bag if needed. Luckily, these will also be great for bringing along with us to restaurants and outings with all of his toys/distractions inside. Because going out without those these days is just asking for trouble.

However, I did buy another bag. And here's why. I found a matching lunchbox that I adored and because I'm crazy I had to have them both match. So, here's the new backpack:

{ Skip Hop Zoo Packs Little Kid Backpacks, Dinosaur }

2) The Lunch Box - Obviously, it matched the backpack!

{ Skip Hop Zoo Lunchies Insulated Lunch Bags, Dinosaur }

It also clips to the outside of the backpack, so it doesn't take away from the storage space inside the smaller backpack.

I'm toying with the idea of having the U's cousin embroider our last name on the items, but I'm so hesitant. I feel like once you tag things with your name permanently, it's then harder to give it away to someone else once you're done with it. And I'd hate to waste this stuff! But that's my whole other issue for a whole other post.

3) The Nap Mat - I had the hardest time searching for a nap mat. I'm going to do an entire separate post on this soon because I searched all over the darn Interwebs and found less reviews than I've found for most other baby gear items. I searched Google, Amazon, Etsy, etc., but decided to go with this because it looked a bit more modern and, big surprise here, the color somewhat matches his other items.

{ Urban Infant Tot Cot Daycare / Preschool Nap Mat - Clouds }

My other reasoning for this selection were:

 - it was a decent price, not the highest and not the lowest

 - the reviews were all pretty positive

 - it comes with an insert for both a pillow and a lovey, and I know that HUT will want one of his aden + anais giraffe blankies to sleep with

Although the reviews say that there is no padding because it's meant for a cot, the MDO program that we're going to provides the kiddos with mats to lay their nap items on, so I think that he should be fine, comfort wise.

So next up I'll write a bit more about my nap mat research. I'm also on the hunt for good containers for his lunch box because I'm going to attempt to do a little bento-style prep for his lunches. Attempt being the key word in that sentence.