misosouper, a shopping blog

So cute!  So useful!  I love these.

You may have seen products from The Bambu Company along the aisles of your local Whole Foods recently. I’m a fan of their sustainably grown and harvested, organically grown bamboo. Bambu’s quality crafted products caught my eye with their modern hand crafted designs and clever packaging. Yes, I am a sucker for good design and clever packaging. So much so that I impulsively bought a set of Bambu Baby Utensils at our local Whole Foods. I try to provide BPA-free dishes, cups and utensils during mealtimes. I thought these would be ideal for aesthetic and for health reasons. I thought that my daughter would use the utensils a couple of times, then they would fall apart or splinter and I’d just toss them in the composting bin. To my surprise these utensils have lasted at least six months and have held up perfectly in the top rack of my dishwasher. Kids also love them because they are not cold and hard like stainless steel utensils and they have soft edges which are gentle on the mouth. I can also rest assured that absolutely no bleaches or dyes were used and Bambu’s Bamboo utensils and dinnerware. They are FDA tested and approved. Also Panda lovers take note – this is not the bamboo eaten by the Panda and their food source is not depleted.

Save at Raspberry Kids with coupons from TheFind.com’s coupon site.

Almost every weekend this past summer our family ate corn on the cob. My toddler daughter loves corn and gets a kick out of eating it typewriter style. I found these adorable Butter Baby Corn Picks that make eating corn easy and fun for little hands. I love that my daughter’s hands don’t get buttery and sticky and that she no longer drops her corn onto the floor. The picks come in sets of four including a pair of yellow, pink, green and blue.

These corn picks also interlock for easy and safe storage and I just put them in the top utensil rack of my Miele dishwasher for easy clean up.

Save at Linen ‘N Things with coupons from TheFind.com’s coupon site.

Eventually, you’ll figure out how to feed yourself and the kid (this took us a good two months); you’ll even be brave enough to go to a restaurant, toting a small canister of baby food.  This Boon food dispensing spoon looks like so much fun that I can’t wait for the days of squirt and shovel to arrive.

Using this pre-spattered knife to chop veggies while you’re alone will make you smile; using it in front of others (hello, neighbor from down the street who already thinks my yard is unkempt and my judgment is questionable!) will make you snicker.

The best gifts to please screeching, barking, tired households like mine, short of free babysitting and maid service.

Sweet felt frames for all the birds in your flock.

Because as long as you’re bribing the kids with hot chocolate, you might as well take that Carnation instant cocoa to the next level.

A trick from my beloved grandmother, who hails from the pre-germ era:  kids love counting and rolling coins.   These colorful metallic trays are also perfect for making change when they play store.

Put your foot down once and for all.

Be the goose that lays this golden egg in their backyard.

The only foreseeable issue with these Lego-handled utensils is that the kids will insist on eating with them stacked in an awkward fork-spoon-knife combination. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Made from densely packed magazines, this bulletin board (no push pins necessary!) is the sharpest I’ve ever seen.

The ultimate rainy day entertainment: a 500 piece “impossible” puzzle based on an abstract illustration by Alex Beard.

These cards make traveling sew much fun.

Why freeze ice when you can freeze the cup instead?

This gigantic digital photo frame (15″!) makes that newborn baby almost lifesized.

While they’re not quite Anarchy in the UK, these punky monkeys are so much cuter than letting them stick a safety pin through their ear.

Bedtime battles be gone:  turn on this constellation maker and snuggle under the Milky Way tonight.

Memorialize the whole family on a stick-figure pillow that Mom and Dad will keep on their bed forever.

Yes, these are bugs encased in Lucite.  Is that creepy?

Feed their Bob Ross addiction with a paint-by-numbers set.  Just make sure it doesn’t end up in the garage sale by “accident.”

Use these spy sunglasses to confirm your long-standing conviction that they are indeed following you.  Even if “they” just happen to be, um, your parents.

Because after all this fun, mom and dad are tired.  Guaranteed.