Widget Wednesday- The ITZBEEN

I thought and thought and thought about the right product to kick off my new Wendnesday tradition. Should I start with the bouncy seat I want to curl up in myself? The carseat and stroller that I love more than life itself? There are so many products that I love so much, want to share with you all! But which one to start with?

In the end, it was easy to decide. When I think of all the things I enjoy, I quickly realized that the first thing I need to tell you about is the thing that makes it possible for me to enjoy everything else.

It's called the Itzbeen, and it is amazing. Simple in concept, Exceptional in practice. It's a timer. That's it. It's very small...fits right in the palm of my hand. Like a fat little remote control. I am not kidding when I say that it is the one piece of baby equipment I cannot live without. It is, literally, my brain. If I leave the house without this guy, I have a mini panic attack. It keeps everything straight for me, without my having to think at all! Oh how I love it...let me show you the ways.

See those buttons on the side? When you change the baby, you press the diaper button. It starts a count of how long it's been (get it? Itzbeen?) since the change, and if you like, you can set a timer to go off at any interval between 1 and 24 hours to remind you to change the diaper (that's why in the photo, the light is blinking red.Time to change!). Same thing going down the column...the other buttons stand for feeding and sleeping, and the star button is a random timer...you can use it for timing between medication, solid food feedings, time between pumping sessions, when Dancing with the Stars is coming on, whatever. Also you no longer have to say "How long has he been awake? Is this a sleepy cry or a hungry cry?"

No more looking at the clock going "I am feeding the baby. It is four o'clock. I must remember it is 4 o'clock. Crap, what time did I feed the baby?" or finding a sheet of paper in the morning scrawled with the words "baby fd 3am 2mnlf5ouncefuss." (Yes, I wrote that note to myself when I was trying to get Ava on a routine when she was an infant. The other great thing is, you no longer have to write long notes to the babysitter or husband...just pass over the timer, say "feed the baby when you hear it beep and DO NOT FORGET TO PRESS THE BUTTON as soon as he starts eating!"

This is the flashlight on the Itzbeen. I wake up at night to pump and this flashlight lets me get hooked up without having to turn a light on at all. You can also use it if you are up late reading and don't want to wake everyone else. Stays on for 7 minutes, then turns off itself to conserve the battery.

The LCD screen lights up for about 30 seconds when you push the tiny circuolar button underneath the asterisk button. Lets you see what the screen reads in the dark, like when you wake up in the night freaking out because you have no idea how many hours you've been asleep.

If you're like me and you routinely figure out which side you last nursed on by poking each side and making an educated guess, you'll like this...when you finish nursing, just slide the tab over to the side you finished on.

You can set the timers to light up and beep when it reaches the preset time, or you can turn the sound off and the buttons simply light up. We leave the sound on...it's not intrusive at all, just a soft beeping that I always think is my cell phone or a bomb.

You can set the lock button so that the timer won't reset itself accidentally if it gets bumped, thrown in a bag, on the floor, or a kid gets near it. I love this button. It keeps me from going postal...the kids know that this is the one button they are not allowed to touch on pain of death. The itzbeen is acting as my brain, people...it cannot be reset!

There is a clip on the back so that it can travel with it's charge. Seth's stays on his bassinet at night, on his bouncy during the day, and on the pocket of the diaper bag when we're traveling. You'll often hear me shouting "Don't forget the timer! Not the tiiiimer!"

Best of all, it's $25.99. That is super cheap for a brain, people. God knows after 4 kids in 4 years I haven't got much of one left, and this is an awesome replacement, and leaves room in my head to think about the casting in Twlight and how cute Zac Efron is.

Now, if you all paid attention, you will have seen that the timer was reading 3:08 when I wrote this, and Seth is on a 3 hour schedule. Time to feed him!

What gear do you love?