I am on a mission to lessen our use of plastic. Especially for the children. And especially for things that end up in their mouths (which is most things they come into contact with). It’s a health thing for me, but there are of course environmental aspects as well.

I’m not going crazy with this but I am trying to make some changes:

GLASS BABY BOTTLES

I started with the most obvious: baby bottles. We’ve switched to Life Factory glass bottles.

I love these bottles. They make me so happy. They have lovely, sunny, cheerful colors in every shade of the rainbow. They’re easy to care for – you just wash them in the dishwasher. And they are solid and sturdy – they stand up to drops on the floor (thanks to the silicone sleeve) and they can take extreme temperature changes (as you might have when cooling a bottle of almost boiling formula for a baby). There are sippy cup tops for these bottles as well, so I’ll be using them as a sippy cup for Louis when he’s ready.

On the downside, they are significantly heavier than plastic bottles. I think it will be longer before Louis can hold his own bottle, but it’s no problem for Alec to hold these (although they really are heavy when full, even though the largest size is much smaller than the large plastic bottles we were previously using for Alec). So I am keeping a few plastic bottles to use for when we are out and about or traveling. I am also keeping a close eye on the nipples because I can already see marks where Alec bites them, which concerns me. I definitely think I will need to switch nipples more often than normally. However, I also believe that you can use any bottle nipple with these bottles, so we could just switch to another brand of nipples. Finally, Life Factory glass bottles are not cheap. But I think the fact that they will hold up much longer than plastic bottles will make up for this. We’ve invested in a good stash of bottles now (both small and big) and I don’t foresee us needing to buy any more baby bottles – just new nipples – ever again.

STAINLESS STEEL WATER BOTTLES

I’ve switched the whole family to Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles. These also come in a ton of delicious juicy colors and you can switch the cap from a regular closed cap to a sippy cap for toddlers, to a sport cap. I have a big one that I try to keep with me at home and a medium one to bring along with me when I am out and about. And Alec has a small bottle with a sippy cap. They’re lightweight, convenient to bring along, and easy to care for.

GLASS FOOD CONTAINERS

I think good BPA-free plastic containers are still the way to go for when we are out and about. But for food storage at home – in the fridge or pantry – I’m trying to use more glass and less plastic. We have some great square glass containers with lids from IKEA that I love – but they don’t sell them any more. So I am on the hunt for some new glass food storage containers (with plastic lids).

TOYS

This is a hard one, because Alec has a lot of great plastic toys that he really loves. I find it hard to make the decision to switch them all out for other materials. I do want to provide him with non-plastic alternatives to play with though. He has lovely wooden blocks, a brio train set, wooden puzzles, and some great learning toys by Plan Toys that I really like.

Louis also has a few plastic toys, but as his toys tend to find their way into his mouth, I am trying to have him play more with his natural rubber chew toys and wooden or soft rattles and other toys.

 

Is avoiding plastic something that you think about for your family too?

We recently switched Little Baby L from his stroller bassinet to a regular seat. Previously he was mostly sleeping when we were out with the stroller, but now he is obviously much more awake and not always happy to be lying on his back. So he’s in the seat all tucked into Alec’s old 7 AM Le Sac Igloo.

I have also taken some steps to lighten my load when we are out and about with the stroller – which can often be all day long. We often head out before 9, drop Alec (and his stroller seat) off at nursery school and then spend the day doing errands, walking, and having lunch and coffee and play dates with friends. We pick Alec up at 3pm and sometimes head to the park for an hour or so after that. On days like that, the children and I really live out of our stroller and I need to know that we have everything we need with us.

At the same time, our set-up with a stroller room in the foyer of our building and the smallest elevator known to man (fits two adults, but you would really want to know each other quite well), means that I don’t want to be lugging a huge diaper bag and a bunch of extras up and down with me every time I go out. Now that Louis is out of his cocoon, I have him in my arms as I maneuver both kids into the elevator with whatever we are carrying with us that day (and garbage bags, recycling etc), get ourselves into the foyer, unlock the stroller room, pull out as many strollers as are parked in front of ours, and finally drag our own stroller into the entryway to get both kids settled. Right now, I need my diaper bag to be as light and small as possible.

So I decided to follow some great advice (thank you Dulcinea!) from one of you readers (in the comments here) – I decided to pare down the essentials I need to have with me for each child (Alec, 2 years old, and Louis, 7 months old) and use a Bugaboo organizer strapped to each seat. Basically, the organizers act as the diaper bag for each child. For most outings, all I have to add is my wallet, phone and keys and everything else I need is already in the organizers waiting for us. On longer excursions, I just throw any additional items I will need into my diaper bag which isn’t already and constantly stuffed to the max now that most things have moved into the organizers.

Here is what each organizer contains:

ALEC’S ORGANIZER

(2 years old, potty-trained)

• Baby wipes, Boogie wipes, hand sanitizer
• A pacifier – in case of un-planned stroller naps
• Juice box, raisins, squeezie
• Restaurant kit – disposable bib, fork and spoon, table topper in a ziploc bag

LOUIS’ ORGANIZER

(7 months old, breastfed, just starting solids)

• A changing kit – a few diapers, wipes, diaper cream (I just carry a few sample packs because Louis rarely needs cream), a disposable changing pad, all packed in a ziploc bag
• Snacks for Mum and Dad – a couple of small bars of dark chocolate, a pack of mixed nuts, coffee money
• Nursing Cover

EXTRA BAG of BACK-UPs

I also keep a Longchamp in the under-seat basket with a baby carrier, a back-up change of clothes, and a few other back-up items – see the full contents here. I’ll be adding my high chair cover now that Louis is joining us at the table for some meals.

We have a Bugaboo Donkey – click here if you are on the hunt for the right double stroller and want to see our short list and read why we chose this stroller.

My diaper bag is an MZ Wallace Kate bag – click here to read all about it and why I love it so much. And click here to read what I am carrying in my diaper bag with one baby and one toddler and here for what I was carrying with one child (18 months old).

It’s that wonky, back-and-forth between seasons, neither-here-nor-there time of year.

The last few days it’s been sunny but windy and cold here in Stockholm and it’s snowed in Atlanta (thank you Facebook) and Italy (thank you football game). When my husband was in Barcelona last week it was freezing and he was completely underdressed for it. But in the north of Sweden it was a toasty ten degrees celsius.

This is the most frustrating time of year in Sweden. As most of the rest of the world eventually eases in to spring, Stockholm can be frustratingly back and forth, mixing gorgeous warm and sunny ice-cream eating days with sudden flurries. I have learned not to get my hopes up every time the sun peeks out and the locals come out in their shades and sit tucked under fleece blankets under infra-warmers outside every café and restaurant.Last year Alec wore his autumn overall well into May.

This winter has been saved by wool. Of course Alec has had wool inner layers during the winter months since we moved back to Sweden. But it didn’t really occur to me to get Louis all kitted up in wool until I noticed how hard it was to keep him at the right temperature when we were out and about. Occasionally he was cold when we came home but more often he was too hot and sweaty which is not so great in cold weather when you’re wearing cotton. As soon as I put him in wool onesies and leggings – problem solved.

These are our favourite woolens for babies and toddlers:

• Inner layers by H&M – This year H&M started selling wool long underwear for babies. They are great and so so cheap! The downside is that they are only available in onesie tops, which doesn’t really work for a potty-trained toddler. And they only come in cream, which doesn’t work for a toddler who spends all day at nursery school. But for baby, they could not be a better choice!
• Middle layers by Polarn O. Pyret – expensive but lightweight and good quality. Alec has a one-piece that he wore all last winter and part of this one, and he also has separates to layer up in
• Socks by Polarn O. Pyret – PoP socks are more expensive than almost anywhere else but they really are good. They last so you can pass them on to younger siblings, and they have the best anti-slip treads on the bottom. Their wool socks don’t have antislip thought which sucks. Joha makes wool socks with antislip but they seem impossible to get ahold of – always sold out in the size I need.
• Hats by Polarn O. Pyret – Windproof ones for autumn and spring, toasty warm ones for winter. And a wool helmet hat for baby to wear under whatever else is on.
• Wool Baby Mittens by Joha – Louis wears these little mittens under his bunting on cold days.
• Joha Wool PJs – Louis is so cute, and always the right temperature, in his wool pjs.

Besides clothes, this year we have really used lambskins and sheepskins to keep our babies warm. When we were in the country over Christmas and the first few days were absolutely freezing – both kids slept on skins and stayed warm. Alec has a lambskin on his seat in our stroller and Louis even has one tucked inside his 7.AM Baby bunting. Both kids also have gorgeous sheepskins in their rooms as a perfect spot to have a cuddle and a warm spot for changing clothes etc.

I haven’t bought anything from Nature Baby - but their collection of natural merino wool clothes look so so tempting.

Do your children wear a lot of wool in the winter months?

Little Louis and I have had a day in today. Last week when he was a little sick with a cold we had a day when we didn’t go out at all and it was fabulous! I didn’t realize how busy we are and how little time we actually spend at home during the day when it’s just the two of us until we actually spent a day in.

Being our second baby, Louis is actually quite good at entertaining himself a little, which means that I can get quite a bit done around the house while he spends time on his play mat or in the Jumperoo (aka “the Circle of Neglect”).

Today I caught up with some kitchen stuff and cleaned and sterilized all of the boys’ pacifiers. We have a lot of pacifiers, especially for Alec, so that we can switch them out often. I have some kind of hope that this might help to stave off some of the germs illnesses that we seem to go through constantly.

But sterilizing (pacis, bottles, pump parts) can be such a drag. It always seems to take forever for that big pot to boil and I always end up scalding myself when trying to fish out the parts. Which is why I love sterilizing in the microwave. I use Medela Quick Clean Micro-Steam Bags. You just clean everything off, dump it all in the bag, add water and plunk it in the micro for a few minutes. Easy peasy!

I have travel on my mind.

We just got back from a week in London with Little Louis. And it seems like all the moms in my mom’s group are escaping to the sun with their little ones in the next couple of months.

So this week will be about travel. I’ll share some baby-friendly London highlights with you. And a run-down of the best of my own city, Stockholm, for families! I’ll also share a baby packing list and a really amazing travel stroller.

To start us off, here are some travel-related posts you might have missed before:

Favourite Things for Travel!

My Best Tips for Traveling with Children

Packing for a One-Year Old: Carry-on

Packing for a One-Year Old: Gear, Clothes

Packing for a One-Year Old: Sleep, Care, Feeding

I have to add one piece of advice to my Best Tips for Traveling with Children, and that is to pack bottles with stage 1 or 2/slow-flow nipples. It can take ages for a big plane to make its descent and you want your mini to be actively sucking and swallowing for as much of that descent as possible. Giving them a bottle with a slow-flow nipples means they will have to suck that much harder and longer to empty it.

And to my favourite things I think I would have to add our city mini stroller and our new snap-n-go… More about that (and another stroller destined to become a new favourite) later this week!

Little A was back at nursery school today after three days at home with a cold. Getting to and from school (note how it is dark when he comes home from nursery school at 3pm!!) was a big highlight of his day since he joined the other neighborhood kids and was pulled to school in a sled instead of pushed in a stroller. He loved it.

Louis and I braved snowpocalypse and headed out early for a full day of Christmas shopping. Next week is going to be chaos and I’m determined to be done with all the gifts before then. But after just a block we actually had to be pulled out of a snow drift on the curb and I was terrified that we would end up under one of the huge piles of snow sliding off the rooftops on our street. Our new stroller has some sort of two-wheel snow mode (where I think you pull the stroller behind you), but I haven’t tried it out yet.

Normally we walk everywhere, but today we took the subway the four stops to NK.

We made some headway on our Christmas list and hopefully won’t be scrambling at the last minute like we normally are… If you haven’t got your gifts under control yet either – fear not! I’m going to get some gift guides up in the coming days with lots of great ideas. Don’t miss it!

The weather is CRAZY today. So crazy that we are not even considering going out. But yesterday Louis and I put on our winter best and headed out in the snow to run some errands. It was freezing so we had to switch some things up to go from autumn to winter.

Little Baby L had on his winter best (isn’t he so cute?!):

He was just wearing a regular onesie and footed leggings underneath, but I really need to pick him up some wool inner layers now that winter is here, considering how much time he spends in his stroller. Here’s what Louis is wearing these days to stay warm:

• Polarn O. Pyret Wool Inner Layer Helmet Hat. Wool is perfect as an extra layer under the very plush hood of Louis’ bunting. It’s the best temperature regulator.
• H&M Overall/Bunting. Louis is growing so fast, so I was really happy to find such a good overall at H&M – obviously at a much much better price than the Polarn O. Pyret overall he was wearing for fall. I like that it works as a sleeping bag (I don’t even really need to put his arms in the sleeves), but can also be easily converted (with just one zip) into an overall with legs for sitting in the car seat or carrier.
• Phil & Ted’s Cocoon. It’s actually pretty well padded, so I feel like it helps to keep Louis warm, especially when I zip it up properly.
• Lindex Booties. He had kicked one off when we got home, but his feet were toasty warm anyways.
• Wool Mittens by Joha. These are fab. They are wool, so breathable etc. There’s no thumb so they’re perfect for infants and they have a smart little drawstring so they stay on. Love them!

And I put the toasty muff on the stroller. I had the organizer on the handlebar before, so I’ll have to find another place for that, but it’s worth it to stay warm!

So Louis was warm. And so was I. Though not as cute as Baby L. I was sporting the giant parka I bought last winter to keep my bump warm. Must go shopping for myself at some point!

Oh my! I’m pining for this gorgeous lambskin bunting from Little Jalo! Wouldn’t little Louis be adorably cozy all cuddled down in his stroller in this!? I ADORE the mole-coloured one… Cannot get this out of my head!

Since I last shared the contents of my diaper bag (and stroller), we’ve added another mini (and with him, a ton of baby stuff) to our little family, and Little A has started nursery school and isn’t out and about with me in the same way as before. We’ve also switched from our old single stroller to our new double stroller. So our set-up has changed a little.

Here’s what I’m carrying around these days (two children, 23 and 3,5 months old):

1. Diaper Bag. Kate by MZ Wallace. I’ve raved about it here. I have a summer version in latte and a winter version in black. I love it. It’s a practical diaper bag – the perfect size. But it doesn’t look too mom-ish and I feel fine carrying it about even when I have a few moments out on my own without the kids. No one would know it’s a diaper bag. Expensive – yes. But I expect to get a ton of use out of this bag (as a gym bag, overnight bag), long after I’m done lugging around diapers and sippy cups. And it stills looks new after almost two years of hard daily use.
2. A Pashmina Sjal. I keep one rolled up in one of the side pockets as a stroller cover or extra cover-up/blanket for the minis or me.
3. Mobile Phone. I have a Sony Xperia Arc S with a huge touch screen and all the fixings that I LOVE.
4. Wallet and Spare Change for Coffee. At our wonderful playground you can actually buy coffee, fruit, yogurt and other snacks for kids and parents.
5. Pacifier. Louis has a Wubbanub for naps. Alec only uses his pacifier when he is sleeping and he generally only sleeps at home, so I don’t carry a pacifier for him.
6. Lovey & rattle. I love this lovey (you can attach it to a pacifier) and this Jellycat rattle. I also always carry one of these lovey-rags as a comfort object and to make breastfeeding easier on-the-go.
7. A nursing cover. Mine is this pretty one from Hooter Hiders.
8. Toddler snacks. Usually Alec has cheerios and oat cereal in his Munchkin Snack Catcher. I also carry small boxes of raisins, a squeezie or two from Ella’s Kitchen (Take & Toss spoons), toddler cookies, a juice box or smoothie and a piece of fresh fruit. When Alec is along, we always have a sippy cup of water with us. I also try to carry a couple of these screw-on spoons which have been a lifesaver when I’ve had to give Alec a little snack while carrying Louis.
9. Snacks for Mum. I try to keep a little bag of nuts/dried fruit or a bar in case of emergency munchies. I often carry a couple of lactation cookies.
10. Changing Pad. I use the one that came with my bag. I also carry a couple of disposable pads. They’re big so it’s easier to create a clean space to change Louis wherever we are. It also makes clean-ups easier for messy changes on the go.
11. Diaper Cream. I hardly ever use diaper cream for Louis – he hasn’t needed it. But right now I’m carrying a mild cream just in case.
12. Diapers. I usually carry just 3-4 Pampers Swaddlers/New Baby for Louis. I also carry one Pampers Pull-up for Alec just in case.
13. Wet Ones Antibacterial Wipes. Especially convenient for changes on the go. I like to use one before and one after each diaper change.
14. Baby Wipes. We use Natusan. I like that they are mild enough to use on Little A’s hands and face as well.
15. Boogie Wipes. I’ve raved about them earlier here.
16. Saline. Louis has been congested since forever so I carry a couple of these single-dose saline pods in case we need them before feeds or naps.
17. A change of clothes. A onesie, pants and a pair of socks for Louis.

I also have a bunch of stuff that stays with our stroller.

I keep a nylon bag in the bottom “basket” of our stroller, with the rain covers and some other “back-up” stuff that is often good to have when we’re out and about but that I don’t need to drag up and down to our apartment with me every time (our stroller lives in the stroller room in the foyer of our building):

1. Bag. Longchamp. I have a million of these and always bring one along when we travel since you can fold them up so they take no space at all and then bring them out if you over-shop. Which happens. The one we keep in the stroller basket is stuffed with water, a cashmere baby blanket and a thicker cotton blanket from Polarn O. Pyret.
2. A Baby Carrier. I use my shawl carrier both at home and out so it stays in the apartment. But I also keep a Baby Björn carrier in the Longchamp in the stroller in case I need it.
3. A Bugaboo Organizer. Attached to the handle bars. I always keep dark chocolate, antibacterial wipes, baby wipes, coffee money, sun screen and other little essentials in here.
4. Snack Tray. For Alec.
5. A cycle pump and lock.
6. JJ Cole Stroller Clips. These sit on the handle bars of our stroller and I can easily clip on shopping bags and packs of diapers to carry home.
7. Potty. Now that Little A is potty-trained, we’ll probably be bringing along a potty on some outings.

What’s in your diaper bag?