Evan Porter

Imagine this: Your baby transitions from using a bottle to an open cup effortlessly overnight.

Wouldn’t that be perfect?

Sadly, this isn’t a perfect world, and making the switch from bottle or breast to a proper cup can be challenging for a lot of new parents and their babies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends giving up a bottle somewhere between your baby turning 12 and 24 months old. But there is a learning curve involved in using an open cup, and understandably so.

So until your baby has perfected drinking from a cup, you could expect ample spills and messes to clean up!

This is exactly where sippy cups come in.

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There’s so much to buy and think about before you bring a new baby home.

First things first, you’ll need to stock up on diapers!

But when you start shopping, you’ll quickly realize buying diapers can be pretty complicated. You have to choose between cloth and disposable, and even then there are tons of varieties of each.

Let’s break down all the different kinds of baby diapers and make them easy to understand.

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There’s so much to think about when choosing the right bottle set for your new baby.

But along with considering bottle size, shape, and material, you’ll have to figure out what kind of nipple you want your bottles to have. And the choices there are nearly endless!

What type of baby bottle nipple is right for you?

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Introducing a baby to a bottle for the first time is tricky, to say the least.

There are tons of options for different kinds of baby bottles on the market, but the choice isn’t simple.

The variety can make choosing the right baby bottle for your little one overwhelming. After all, there are so many shapes, materials, and sizes – how do you know which one is the best?

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When you were a kid, a pacifier was a pacifier.

There were not many differences between the styles, and from household to household, most babies had the same exact pacifiers.

Well, things have changed!

There are now many different types of pacifiers, and some parents could go on for days about which one is better.

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When most of us think of a kid-friendly yard, the image in our head usually starts with a luscious lawn.

You know, a place where the kids can run, play sports, fall without hurting themselves, and play without a care.

But how do you make your yard as kid-friendly as possible without grass?

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Adding a play set or swing set to your yard can be an amazing gift for your kids.

It turns what would otherwise be a decent space to run around into a magical place to have adventures each and every day!

But play sets, being outside 24/7, can easily become infested or overrun with pests — that can make them no fun for your kids to play with, at best, and extremely dangerous, at worst.

So how do you deal with pests? What’s the best way to keep bees, spiders, ants, and other bugs away from your swing set area?

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When you bring a new baby home from the hospital, priority number one is figuring out how to feed it.

Formula-fed babies will need plenty of bottles handy, and even breastfed babies will need a few available… at least so mom can have a break every now and then!

Shortly before your baby turns 1, she’ll transition to a sippy cup, but why?

You might be wondering — why can’t a baby just keep using a bottle? And can babies just use sippy cups from the start? What’s the difference between a bottle vs sippy cup anyway?

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A swing set for your backyard is no small investment.

Expect to pay (for a good one, at least) somewhere upwards of $1,000 for a fully feature play set with swings, slides, a fort, and more.

Your basic metal swing set can cost a bit less depending on where you buy it.

In any case, you’ll want yours to last until your kids outgrow it — but that might not happen if the metal components on your swing set starts to get eaten away by rust.

How do you prevent rust on a play set, and what’s the best way to remove rust from a metal swing set?

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Sometimes, okay maybe a lot of times, going out to eat with your kids can be anything but relaxing.

You just never know what to expect or how your kids will behave.

Choosing the right restaurant can mean all the difference between a pleasant eating out experience and an absolute disaster.

If you live in Arlington, Virginia, lucky for you, you have choices — there are a number of family-friendly restaurants in Arlington!

So what are the best kid-friendly restaurants in Arlington, VA?

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