I think the best thing about the page is the search feature.  You can search by city, average entrée price, cuisine type, service type, food type, ordering type, whether they take reservations or do banquets and special occasions, which meals they serve, and drink types.  On the restaurant pages they list the hours they are open, too.  This could definitely come in handy, and I really wish I had known about it when I was an executive assistant and had to have various meals and meetings catered frequently. 

Yes, I think I have all the items marked up $1, so if you buy something from the store you'll be supporting me for good or for ill.  Be sure to consider this before you buy.

We have used it and it's totally saved us several times.  Colin is diabetic, so he has to have his eyes checked often to make sure he's not having problems, so he goes several times a year (normally that costs $70ish per exam).  I've been a couple times a year, and we've both been to see the doctor for eye infections and irritation without appointments and without bringing any money several times, and we still have a year on our memberships. 

Now, if your prescription never changes or you only go once every couple years to buy new glasses or if there's no America's Best near you, then it's probably not a good deal for you.  I wouldn't get it just for the glasses and contacts discount, either.  But since we go a couple times a year (two to five times each) and there's a store right down the street from us, it's been great. 

Redbox is a big vending machine/ATM machine-looking thing at your local McDonald's or Smith's grocery store.  Instead of candy bars, soda, or cash, it vends DVDs for only $1 per night.  Yes, even new releases.  They update the movies often.  And it gets better…

You can rent your Redbox movie at any Redbox and then return it at…any Redbox.  That's right, you can rent a movie in Orem, UT, and return it in…Denver, Colorado, or Houston, TX, or New Haven, Connecticut!  And it gets still better…

There are never any late fees.  Not ever.  It's $1 per night for as many nights as you keep it, up to somewhere around 25 nights, then it's yours forever to keep.  Pretty cool, but it gets even better…

You can go online and see what movies are in the Redbox you want to go to, then rent it from home so that the machine won't rent it to some other smart person like you, then you go pick it up!  You can see movie ratings and reviews while you're there on their web page, too.  And the best part…

You can rent Redbox movies for free!  Lots and lots of them.  In a brilliant marketing ploy, instead of spending millions on commercials they email passcodes to customers good for one free night's rental, then tell you to email the passcode to your friends so that they can use it, too.  You can find passcodes here at insideredbox.com.  And I personally saw a FOX newscast where Redbox officially said they think that insideredbox.com is great, so you can use the codes with a perfectly clear conscience.  The only things to know about using codes is that it charges your card first, then refunds the money if you bring it back after one night.  And if you keep it for two nights, it's charged as if you never had a code in the first place.

We've been using Redbox for months now and haven't ever had a problem.  They have kids' movies and exercise videos (who would want one for one night?  I'm not sure…I guess if you want to see if it's any good or something) and new releases and action movies and dramas.  Enjoy!

I have to explain that Dr. W doesn't recommend letting all kids cry themselves to sleep.  In fact, his book is designed specifically to help you to not have to do that by not creating sleep problems in your baby.  We tried letting Degen cry himself to sleep once when he was about 3 months old.  We let him cry for exactly 38 minutes, as we hid in the bathroom and tried to ignore the sound coming through the walls.  He just got more and more angry and cried harder and harder.  So we gave up on that method of teaching him to sleep…until we read this book. 

Dr. W explains that you have a responsibility to teach your child to soothe himself to sleep.  When he has a sleep problem, there are a couple of ways to help him learn to soothe himself: one, to go "cold turkey" and ignore him till he goes to sleep, no matter how long it takes; or two, to do the gentler method of letting him cry for gradually longer periods of time and soothing him in between (five minutes of crying, go calm him down, six minutes, calm, seven minutes, calm, etc. until he goes to sleep).  Because Degen had already transitioned to a toddler bed and because I didn't believe in the sleep-deprived condition I was in that I could be perfectly consistent, we chose to go the cold turkey ignoring route.

The first time we tried it Degen cried for over two hours, screaming and banging on the door to his room.  The second time it was about and hour and a half.  A week later it was about half an hour.  Now, five months later it's usually zero to five minutes of crying, with an occasional bad night.  I told Colin tonight that it's still agonizing for me to leave him in his room and close the door at night when he's calling for me.  His response was that it's hard for him to, that we have no real assurance that it's not scarring him for life, but that we're doing our best.  Small comfort…

However, the benefits are immense, both to Degen and to us as parents.  When we started, Degen refused to take naps and regularly wouldn't go to sleep until 11pm or 1am, then would wake up around 3am and scream for an hour until we took him downstairs to watch TV until he fell asleep again around 4 or 4:30.  Then he would sleep until between 7am and 9am and repeat the cycle.  Poor Colin was sleeping with him on the couch practically every night.

Within a couple of weeks of reading this book, Degen was taking 1-2 hour naps every afternoon, going to sleep by 5:30pm and staying asleep in his room until 7am and sometimes later, with the occasional 5-minute wakeup cry in the middle of the night.  It's made a huge difference in his mood and his ability to get along and play with others.  Now that he's a little older and more well-rested, he goes to bed around 6-6:30pm, but he still takes his nap and he rarely wakes up at night.  And Colin and I get a normal amount of sleep and are much happier and better able to cope, too.

For Degen, I'm grateful for the benefits of this method of getting him to sleep, but still uncomfortable about letting him sit in his room in the dark by himself.  The next step is to teach him to stay in his bed at night and not come to the door…  I'm gearing up for the fight in the near future.  After that, we'll start putting Maggie in the crib in his room at night.

Besides the benefit to Degen, Healthy Sleep Habits has helped us prevent problems with Maggie!  We learned about normal sleep patterns, how to tell when a baby is sleepy and not yet overtired, what to expect, and how to help her learn to soothe herself in a normal way.  And it's working!  Maggie sleeps for 45 mins to 1 hour every 1 1/2 or 2 hours and sleeps through the night most nights now.  Sometimes we have to leave her in her bassinet for a little while, but I've never had to leave her there for more than 10 minutes before she went to sleep, and most often she just drifts off after a couple of whiny protest yells.  It's wonderful!  And it makes me feel good that we're sort of getting it right with our second kid.

So, hopefully we haven't scarred Degen for life.  In any case, I recommend this book to anyone who has a child (the book talks about how to deal with problems up to age 16) or who is expecting a child.  It's a real education on how sleep should happen, how it gets messed up, and how to fix it.  And for those of you with colicky babies: first, I'm so so so sorry, and second, this book might be a lifesaver for you since he spends much of the first chapters discussing that particular problem. 

Happy sleeping!

I've been babysitting once a week for a lady down the street who has a son about Degen's age, and we've been debating a good compensation/trade and finally decided on her taking our kids Friday nights while we go on a date.  At the moment I'm feeling like we're getting the better end of the deal, so we may have to go to every other week or something, but I think it's a good start.  Anyway, we got to go on a date last night while our kids got a free babysitter and got to play with friends! 

After going to the temple, where there were long lines, it was a nice cap to the evening to arrive at Magleby's and not have any wait at all.  A host named West (interesting name, that's why I remember it) seated us immediately in a booth next to the bar that overlooks the cooking and preparation area.  It was fun to watch the chefs and the managers and waiters working while we ate, but the TVs above the bar showing the BYU basketball game were kind of distracting for both Colin and I.  We found out from our waitress that the guy who looked like the main chef was named Dennis, not Tevye (he looked exactly like Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, especially with his chef's hat on). 

Doc, the owner, was there.  I like Doc because he's a happy old man and he's confident enough to do whatever he wants.  I like him enough that I ordered "Doc's Blueplate Special" in his honor.  It actually comes on a blue plate, and includes a soup or salad, cole slaw, an entree that changes daily, potatoes, and a Twinkie.  Yes, a real Twinkie in the wrapper.  The entree last night was chicken breast with chunky marinera sauce and a thick layer of mozerella cheese melted on top.  Very yummy.  Colin had the Burger of the Day, which yesterday was a Jalapeno Burger, and he liked his meal, too.    

Our waitress was a cute blonde Oremite three weeks off a mission to Poland and she glowed the whole time.  I never asked her name, but she has a degree in Home Ec. teaching and is looking for a teaching job in the Fall.  We liked her so much that Colin asked her to email him so that he can refer her to Pinnacle.   Hopefully she will, because I'm sure she'd be a great teacher there.

For dessert we ordered the chocolate cake and shared it (but we couldn't eat the whole thing after all that dinner).  It's a huge piece of cake with three scoops of vanilla ice cream and a raspberry sauce on the side.  The cake isn't the best I've ever had, but it was good and was just what I wanted to eat.  The raspberry sauce was really, really good and was just the right thing to add interest to the dessert.  It had the added appeal of reminding me that Spring is coming.

Good job Magleby's!  Fast seating, an intriguing chef, a charming waitress, great food, BYU won their basketball game, and we left thinking good thoughts.

First, Wal-Mart really does have the cheapest prices for diapers (even on the name brands), at least around here.  And it's not just by a few cents–usually they beat everyone out by a dollar or two.  Costco is also a pretty good choice, but still not as inexpensive as Wal-Mart and you have to buy in huge quantities.  So, keep that in mind when you start shopping.

Next, I think that disposable swimming diapers are great for the pool, but that there needs to be more competition in that segment of the market.  Right now Huggies has a corner on the market (maybe they have a patent or something that prevents competition).  You probably don't want to buy them from Amazon since it's about $10 less to buy them at your local grocery store if you count shipping and such, but the link above will take you to some reviews that may be useful.  I haven't tried the washable or reusable swimming diapers, so let me know what you think of them if you've used them.

Probably the most important factor in buying disposable diapers is size.  Go by the baby weight range printed on the package since they vary a little bit from brand to brand.  I've found that the smaller the size, the less effective generic brands are.  In other words, if your baby is a newborn the fancy Huggies Supremes will prevent leaks and work better than the generic brand, but once your kid is a size 3 or so the brand won't matter a whole lot.  Some brands have gathered, elasticized areas around the legs to keep things fitting closely, and that seems to be helpful in preventing leakage, especially when your baby is still small and it's hard to find diapers small enough. 

The next factor to consider is the tabs at the top of the diaper that hook it all up to stay on the baby.  I like the tabs that have some sort of elastic in them to make them stretchy.  This keeps you from tearing the tabs off when you're hurrying to put the diaper on a wiggly baby, and the manufacturers say it makes it more comfortable for the baby (my babies never complained either way).  The tabs used to all be just tape that sticks to the diaper (which made it almost impossible to un-tape and re-position the tab if you put it in the wrong place or didn't make it tight enough, etc.), but most tabs now have a velcro-like hook system that makes it easy to re-position.  Some tabs have both the velcro stuff and the tape, which is fine too.  Just make sure you don't get the tape-only kind. 

I'm not convinced that those brands that advertise having an "extra-absorbent core" are really any better than the ones that don't.  They seem to be pretty close to the same absorbency, and you want to be able to tell when it's time to change the diaper anyway.  If it absorbs too much, you'll have a kid running around with a heavy, saggy diaper before you or they notice that they're wet.

When you buy diapers, the quantity you should buy is tricky because you don't know how fast your baby will grow, but you want to buy the largest quantity (for the quantity discount) without buying more diapers than you can use.  The younger they are, the faster they grow.  Maggie went from Newborn, to size 1, to size 2, to size 3 by the time she was 3 months old, to give you an idea.  My babies were about average weight at birth (7 lbs 11 oz for Degen and 7 lbs 12 oz for Maggie) and they were both out of newborn diapers in about three weeks.  The rule of thumb for number of diapers used per day on a newborn is 6-10, so plan for somewhere in there and then adjust to your baby's needs.  My kids stayed in size 1 until they were about 6 weeks old, then size 2 until about 3 or 3 1/2 months old.  Then there's the size three plateau, which lasts until about 12 months.  Degen is 25 months and still in size 4.  So, there's an approximate guide (every kid is different) to how to plan your diaper purchasing.

My husband likes to buy diapers based on the cartoon printed on the front of the diaper, especially now that we have two kids in diapers (only a size apart now!) and have to somehow differentiate.  One kid gets Sesame Street, the other Blue's Clues or Lion King or Care Bears.  You get the idea.  It is nice when you have multiple kids in diapers to buy two different brands for the sake of fast identification.  Also, Degen is now at the age where he's starting to care about cartoon characters and like certain animals, so he's slightly more cooperative when I say "let's put on your lion diaper now" than if I say "let's put a diaper on." 

Speaking of diapers and cartoon characters, I've got updates to our potty training efforts that I described earlier here.  We bought some Cars underpants with Degen at the store the other day and he's pretty pleased with them.  More than wearing them, he likes to carry them around with him, though.  He's made quite a bit of progress in the potty training area even though he doesn't like to wear underpants very often yet. 

We bought a new Safety First 3-in-1 potty chair and step stool for Degen and we use it as an adapter for the toilet seat and a step stool.  Every night before he takes a bath he stands on the stool and goes "wet" in the toilet and now he even sits on the toilet, though the times he's gone "poo poo" I think have been pretty much coincidences.  He's getting the idea as we go along, though.  He likes to sit there and then wipe himself (there's nothing to wipe most of the time, but it's good practice).  Then he gets to the favorite part where he gets to flush the toilet and say "bye-bye poo poo!"  Then we move the stool to the sink so he can wash his hands with his special foaming soap. 

My biggest problems in all this so far have been getting him to sit on the toilet seat adapter (which is solved now–he just needed time to get used to seeing it there and then try it a couple of times in a calm atmosphere when I wasn't being pushy), not getting upset about the toilet paper being unrolled, and not getting impatient when he wants to spend more time playing with the potty.  I think we're doing pretty well if those are our biggest problems!