Naptime Lifestyle: Everyday Favorites for Everyday Life

Before I started The Naptime Chef I worked at The Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. I helped Society committees raise money for all of the departments at the hospital. One of the ways we raised money was by writing and selling a charitable cookbook. Park Avenue Potluck: Recipes from New York’s Savviest Hostesses, was published just before my daughter was born. I will always consider that my first cookbook project. I loved being in charge of managing its production and my first published recipe, Mom’s Mac & Cheese, is in it! I also did plenty of direct and event-based fundraising. One of my personal favorite fundraising events was the Bunny Hop. It is a benefit thrown each year by The Associates Committee at FAO Schwarz in mid-town Manhattan. All of the funds raised go toward Pediatrics. What a better way to raise money for kids than by throwing a party for kids?! Though I don’t work there anymore, last week I attended this year’s Bunny Hop, which was sponsored by Tiffany & Co., with my daughter and we had a blast. Here are some of the highlights:

I am lucky enough to have grown up with a mother who is a knitter. Not just an occasional craft knitter, the real deal hand knit sweaters and afghans every winter kind of knitter. She is the kind of person who can knit in front of the television without ever looking down at what she is doing – that is how good she is. Not only does she knit for herself and her kids, she also knits at quite an astonishing pace for her grandchildren. My kids have multiple baby blankets, not a mention an amazing collection of handmade hats, sweaters, ponchos, and more. When she was visiting earlier this month she even measured my daughter’s stuffed dogs to make them each hand knit coats (!) One of my favorite things she has made my children are these adorable knit animals. She makes one for my daughter every year and now she has started making them for my son.

I like to think of Valentine’s Day as a holiday that is meant to be fun and sweet. In our house we try to stick to thoughtful gifts, especially of the homemade variety, that don’t come with high price tags. Here are some of my favorite gift ideas for family and friends. They are all really fun to give and are especially appropriate for foodies! (Stay tuned tomorrow for a fun Valentine’s Day giveaway where you can win gifts for your child’s classroom!)

Lately, perhaps more than ever, I have been really appreciating my iPad. In the past I’ve had a lot of fun playing with cooking apps and using it for email, but these days it has become a lifeline. I am on it day and night, not only for email, but to keep up with the outside world, order baby products, and pretty much organize my whole life. Here are of the few the apps I’ve been relying on the this year. I am curious, do have any apps or websites you rely on?

I always struggle with the proper balance of screen time for my preschooler. My husband and I generally lean toward keeping her exposure fairly limited. Like most things with kids, we think (hope) that if it comes in measured amounts it will be constructive in all the right ways. For example, she is obsessed with the iPad. So, when we let her play with it we make sure she gets engaged with an age-appropriate learning game. We were pretty psyched when she got interested in maps based on Stack the States and she ended up asking for a globe for her birthday. As for movies, she likes all the normal ones for her age. I can never deny her the classic Mary Poppins late on a snowy Saturday afternoon. I remember loving that movie as much as she does. It is especially poignant for me when she dances around the room to the soundtrack and sings the songs from memory.

Welcome to my new (website) addition: Naptime Lifestyle! Not only do I love to cook and feed my family, I also have other interests like gardening, reading, decorating, kids, design, and crafting. I added this column as a place to put these things that I love in my everyday life. I also suspect I’ll have a lot of baby stuff to talk about this winter so I think this would be a great place for that topic too.