Jeff – Page 3 – MostRoyal.com

Perfect Poached Eggs in 2 min

One of the hardest changes for us was finding time for simple things like breakfast. Each morning has become a tightly choreographed routine and most of the dance is focused on feeding the little one.

I found my wife, Steph, reverting back to college living and eating bowls of cereal every morning, and then again for lunch and again at night before bed. As you might guess, Steph is not into cooking. She can make amazing food if you give her a recipe. She’s got a great binder full of cookies, cupcakes, lasagna, chicken curry casseroles and more but those aren’t exactly quick bites she can throw together. …nor are they healthy. So, I set about looking for healthy and filling alernatives to cereal.

Today’s recipe is for super simple microwaved poached eggs. In the time it will take you to make toast you can have a delicious and healthy breakfast.

The recipe also has super simple clean up allowing us to get right back to chasing our Little Prince as he toddles around.

Step 1:

To make microwaved poached eggs you will need a coffee mug and an egg. You can also make this with two eggs in a larger mug. Cooking times will be tricker though (more on that below). To be honest I usually make one egg, remove it and then cook the second. Maybe this is easier, or maybe I’m lazy, but I still finish cooking the eggs before the toast is done.

Step 2:

Fill the mug halfway with water. Crack the egg open and add it to the water very carefully so that you do not break the yoke. Add a pinch of salt, if desired. I find doing so makes everything cook a bit more evenly.

This is also when I toss some bread into the toaster. I like my poached eggs with rye bread.

I can hear your concerns about clean up now. Don’t worry. When it comes to clean up you will be thrilled to know that when you dump this water there is almost zero residue left behind in the mug. A quick rinse, wipe of the inside and into the dishwasher it goes!

Step 3:

Place the mug into the microwave and cook on high. The general rule of thumb is to cook your egg somewhere between 1 minute and 1 minute 30 seconds. I find that 1:20 works great for my microwave.

This is where things can be a bit tricky.

If you don’t cook you egg long enough the whites will not have set. If you cook for too long the egg will “pop” shooting water and egg goodness all over the inside of your microwave oven. This is when the simple clean up stops being simple. Doh!

You may also try cooking for 2 min at 50 percent power.

This is really going to depend on a few factors such as the power of your microwave and the size of the eggs you buy. I also cook using the cold filtered water that we keep in our fridge.

The first time you do this recipe you should be prepared for a potential mess so you might want to take this on after the little ones have gone to bed so you can experiment freely. Once you know the cooking time for your set up, you will be able to replicate it time after time.

MicrowavedPoachedEggs4 — Round and a-round we go!

Step 4:

Using a slotted spoon or a large soup spoon carefully remove your egg from the water. Drain off any excess moisture and place on a plate or small bowl.

This is also when I dump the water, refill and crack a second egg into the coffee mug. Back into the microwave it goes!

If you are going to cook two batches make sure you dump the old water and pour fresh into the mug. Otherwise it will have a tendency to boil over due to the water already being hot.

MicrowavedPoachedEggs6 — I tossed a little basil chiffonade on top for pretty pictures, but you don’t need to do this.

Once the toast pops I cut it into strips and add to the bowl. Usually the toast pops right before my second egg finishes cooking.

Step 5:

Add salt and pepper to taste. EAT!

MicrowavedPoachedEggs7 — I’m not a food photographer, but you get the idea.

NUTRITION FACTS:

2 eggs with a slice of rye toast (no butter).

Calories: 220
Total Fat: 11.5g
- Saturated fat: 3g
Cholesterol: 370mg
Sodium: 380mg
Total Carbs: about 15g depending on the bread you use
Protein: 14g

21 Must Own Baby Board Books

If there’s anything we do, it’s a lot of research. This list of 21 must own baby books has been curated after days of scrutiny. We combed through our personal collection, read countless Amazon reviews, talked with other parents, pulled from library shelves (a great resource!), sourced teacher recommendations, dug through blogs and forums.

In short, if you own these 21 books – or even half of them – your babies’ library is off to an excellent start.

Is every book listed here perfect for everyone? Maybe not. In fact, we included one book that drives us nutty. But, since everyone else seems to love it we wanted to squash our harsh negativity and give you the chance to love it too. (We’ll let you know what book it is below.)

When possible, we have linked to the Board Book version being sold on Amazon.com.

So, here they are, MostRoyal’s 21 Must Own Baby Books:

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Let’s be honest, as a parent you are required to own this one. This is a no brainer. It defines the entire genre and with good reason. The story has a nice flow, the illustrations don’t grow tiresome and best of all it works great as a bedtime book. I personally like all the little details. For example, check out the clock. According to the watch face it takes this kid two hours to fall asleep! …I can relate to that.

Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann

A story that relies heavily on its illustrations, and doesn’t disappoint! The rambunctious gorilla sneaks away the keys from his zookeeper and silently releases the other animals of the zoo from their cages as he says goodnight to each. All of the animals then follow Mr. Zookeeper home for the night. This is a book that is wonderful to share with your newborn and your toddler.

Where Is Baby’s Belly Button? A Lift-the-Flap Book by Karen Katz

This is a cute lift-the-flap book for toddlers, helping to teach body parts and concepts such as “behind the cup.” As with most lift-the- flap books our son loves to be involved in lifting the pages to reveal the babies’ belly buttons and mouths, etc. The illustrations are colorful and cute, and our son loves to find our belly buttons now and point his out too. I look forward to him growing with this book for many more months.

Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book by Rod Campbell

This book is really cute. It’s about a child looking to find his perfect pet, so he writes to the zoo and they keep sending him different animals. Some are too big, some are too tall, etc. Finally they send him the perfect pet that he decides to keep. Someday maybe our son will get one too!

Guess How Much I Love You by by Sam McBratney

Okay, this is the one book we can’t stand. To be fair, the story is super cute and the illustrations are very well done. My complaint is in the author’s decision to write out the characters names in full each time they speak. Saying “Big NutBrown Hare” and “Little NutBrown Hare” doesn’t roll off my tongue. (My mom also can’t stand it and had to switch to a different book midway.) That said, this book comes up time and time again in lists, reviews and discussions of great baby books. It came up A LOT. So, maybe it’s right for you. Just not me.

Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book) by Dorothy Kunhardt

This is the classic interactive touch and feel book for kids. Main characters Paul and Judy can do all kinds of things, and they invite your little one to do the same. Children love the interactive nature of this book and enjoy doing the activities along with Paul and Judy. One word to the wise, it is recommended that you do not purchase the plastic comb bound version of this book, as children can very easily pull it apart. Why anyone would bind a children’s book with a plastic comb binding is beyond me… This is a cute book for kids and a must have for any library. Your children will be playing with it for a long time.

Peek-A Who? by Nina Laden

A colorful and surprising peek-a-boo book for little ones, this colorful book has an animal hiding behind cut out pages allowing your little one to anticipate the turn of each page. With colorful illustrations and rhyming text, this book will keep your child entertained every time you read it, and for some that could be multiple times a day!

A Good Day by Kevin Henkes

Really cute and straightforward illustrations are paired with a wonderful story of four creatures who start out having a bad day. Everything turns around for the characters and in the process they learn that life will get better. Essentially a, “Don’t cry over spilled milk” message that kids can easily understand.

Black on White by Tana Hoban

No words. Iconic images. Simple, strong, and oddly interactive as the work is on you and your child to point to the illustrations, talk together and bond as a family. The others in the series are very popular too, but this one stands out as the best after researching the general consensus.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. & Eric Carle

Iconic illustrations by Eric Carle are paired with a nice rhythmic text from Bill Martin. This book is part of themed series, each starting with a different bear (Baby Bear, Polar Bear & Panda Bear). We find Brown Bear to be the strongest of the set. This book is also a good reason to do some research before buying. We had picked up another book by Eric Carle assuming it would be just as good. Nope! So it’s best to stick with this series and one other listed below.

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow

Everyone needs a good counting book. “Five Monkeys” provides that with a nice lyrical text, charming illustrations and a great ending. In short, the story is that Momma tries to put the monkey children to bed, they start to jump on the bed when she leaves, someone falls off and hurts themselves and she tries all over again. I won’t give away the ending but it’s very cute.

I Kissed the Baby! by Mary Murphy

Much like Black on White, this book is filled with illustrations utilizing contrast and well placed color. As a result this makes for a great infant experience. The story builds as the barnyard animals all ask about the newly born baby duckling. This one is filled with a sweet tenderness that parents and children will enjoy.

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch

This one will give you a serious case of “The Feels.” The tender text starts with, “”I’ll love you forever. I’ll like you for always. As long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.” This book may put a lump in your throat and tears on your shirt as you think about your own parents and begin to understand how the love you feel for you own child was first felt by them for you. Highly recommended.

Moo Baa La La La by Sandra Boynton

Selecting a single book by Sandra Boynton is a difficult task. Her works come up all the time in “best of” lists. You can’t go wrong with Moo Baa La La La. Beyond this perennial favorite we personally like the silly Hippos Go Berserk!, the beautiful message of Happy Hippo, Angry Duck and our bedtime standard The Going-To-Bed Book (read our full review).

On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman

This book articulates many of the emotions a parent feels for their child without becoming too saccharin. There is a great magical quality to the illustrations – although sometimes the “composited in photoshop” look feels a little strong for me. This book makes a great present for new parents and would make a fantastic addition to any baby shower gift. Another popular Tillman book is The Crown on Your Head, for which we wrote a full review.

Orange Pear Apple Bear by Emily Gravett

A delightful book tacking concepts about shapes, colors and sequences. The entire text is made up of only 5 words (4 in the title) so you can imagine the creativity involved in telling this story. A very clever book that will make you laugh.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

The Design! OMG. The design and illustrations are just fantastic. The text lives up to the challenge with a great rhythmic pulse and playful vibe telling the story of a young child waking up to find freshly fallen snow and his adventure exploring. This book was also the 1963 Caldecott Medal winner. Much like Goodnight Moon this is a must have.

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Helen Oxenbury and Michael Rosen

One of the best parts of researching this article was finding this book. I had never heard of it before. I know what you’re thinking, “Well this can’t really be about a bear hunt.” Nope, it is. The story is based on an old camping chant/song and it’s a playful romp as a father and his four children go trekking through vistas in search of a bear, find it, and then get chased all the way back home. A great read-aloud book.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

This is the most popular book by Eric Carle and there is little question why. The very hungry caterpillar eats his way through the pages of the book in bright bold colors. Also, kids seem to love butterfly metamorphosis stories. So, start with the best.

Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss

You need to have some Dr Seuss! This board book has an excellent text that’s full of silly sounds. This will be something your child will want you to read for many years and eventually they will want to read it out loud themselves. A classic.

Munch! by Matthew Van Fleet

Yes! Yes, just buy this one. We love this book so much we wrote an entire review about it. Our kid loved this the first time we read it when he was just a few months old. Not only has the story held up, but his enjoyment continues to deepen as he has grown older and begins to explore the tactile elements. Of all the Matthen Van Fleet books (and they are all worth owning) I also think this one has the strongest writing. Great rhythm to the words and a super fun read!

Is this Freight Train or Soul Train?

Freight Train, by Donald Crews, is a simple book. At first I was skeptical for its lack of story and simplicity, but we have really grown to like this one. The illustrations are great. It is perfect for a young child. Just basic enough to teach them about a train, with illustrations that are slightly abstract – and wonderfully dated – to help keep their attention.

We love the funky 70’s beat poetry vibe to the text. There is definitely a rhythmic feel and I our son really responds to that. It also makes it fun to read because it gives you excuses be playful with your interpretation and to pause and point out the groovy illustrations.

The length of this book is just right too. It goes by rather quick making it a nice bedtime and nap book. In fact, if our Little Guy starts to get fussy the story is conducive to skipping pages. For those nights when you need a bit more activity you can easily drag it out and point at the pictures, as mentioned above.

This is definitely worth picking up for your little one. Especially if they are into trains (or iconic graphic design from the 1970’s, obviously).

4 out of 5 stars

How to protect your kid against lead poisoning!

We live in Brooklyn. We live in an old building. We live in an old building with nightmare plumbing.

Can you see where this is going?

A friend of mine recently bought an old house and during his inspection he found out that the the old pipes had lead solder. His lawyer told him that if he ever rents out the property he needs to put a lead clause in his rental contract. It’s a standard thing to protect against legal actions from renters. I’m sure I signed something like this when we moved into our place.

My son was only a few weeks old when he told me this. I wanted to filter our water to be safe.

We were supplementing breastfeeding with the occasional bottle and we knew that eventually our son would ween. A regular Brita pitcher doesn’t filter lead and to be honest we didn’t even change the filter enough (twice a year is better than nothing I guess).

The Culligan FM-15A Advanced Faucet Filter Kit was a perfect solution. This filter kit installed easily (make sure to check your faucet type for compatibility) and has worked flawlessly since then. It screws onto the spout on your faucet and when you want filtered water you pull out a little knob and – TA-DA – filtered agua!

Not only does it improve the water’s taste and smell, it reduces lead, lindane and atrazine, sediment, and particulate class 1. Do you boil your tap water for tea? Pasta? Soup? Well as the steam evaporates you only end up concentrating water contaminants. So your water might not show up as having lead when tested, but simmer a pot of homemade stew on the stove for 2 hours and suddenly you have a different story.

The life of the filter cartridge, FM 15RA lasts up to 2 months/200 gallons. This manufacturer’s rating has proven to be true and thanks to Amazon Subscribe and Save a new filter arrives every two months without even having to think about it. It’s great!

Like all filters of this type, near the end of the cartridge life your water will start to run slow. I like to think of all the filth it has captured. This makes the wait tolerable. My wife likes to sing a song called, “Old-Man Pissing” to the tune of Old-Man River. Maybe not the most appealing concept but it makes us laugh.

My only complaint is that this filter doesn’t attach to pull-down faucets. My mom wanted to buy one for my brother but it wouldn’t have worked on his sink. Culligan does make an under the counter filter systems for these situations. Since we live in an apartment the Culligan FM-15A Filter Kit was a great way to add a powerful filter without making modifications and losing a security deposit.

Highly recommended. 5 out of 5 stars. MostRoyal!

The World’s Best Sippy Cup? [updated]

Want a sippy cup that doesn’t leak? I think we may have finally found it. And, fingers crossed this time because we are about to lose our mind from leaks.

Imagine the scene: Mom and dad in a heinous truckstop bathroom trying to change a poo-splosion diaper that’s barely clinging to the underside of The Little Prince.

MOM: “GET ME A DIAPER, STAT!”

Dad frantically digs in the diaper bag.

MOM: “HURRY, I can’t contain this anymore. The wipes have burst into flames!”

DAD: “I can’t FIND them!”

MOM: “At the bottom! Quickly, it’s like the BP Oil Spill over here!”

Dad finally connects with the clean pampers only to discover that they are already busily soaking up a leaking sippy cup.

DAD: “%*$H!T %Dh#R@F& $&!@$%”

This bring us to our review of the Munchkin Sesame Street Character Cup, we pray to you, o’ blessed vessel of water and toddler refreshment.

We love this because:

Easy to assemble.
It has a face, thus you can make it sing and dance if your are desperate. If you have taken a long car ride you understand how helpful this can be!
The lid and handles stay attached and don’t leak.
Unlike some of the other cups we have tried, our little guy took to this straw right away. It may also be the first time he didn’t choke and water board himself. The straw has a 1-way valve to prevent leaks and this seems to help control the flow of liquid.
He loves the handles. We have some other cups that leak when you use the handles. Not the case here.
BPA-free.
Top rack dishwasher safe.

Some people have complained that the straw doesn’t have a cap. Seriously? We have not found this to be a problem. Even if it did have a cap, how long is that going to last before we lose it? About 45 seconds. Then two weeks later The Little Prince is going to find it under the couch and shove it in his mouth. No cap? Not a problem for me! As listed above, the straw has a one-way valve and we have had zero issues with leaks; a cap would be excessive.

Now, is this really the PERFECT cup. No. Nothing is. But so far these have brought some sanity to our lives. We did have one leak incident, but that seemed to be our fault as we apparently didn’t put the lid on all the way.

Give these cups a try. We think you will love them. Also, Amazon sells it as a two pack!

Update:

After several months of use, we are sadly finding this cup leaks more and more. Particularly out of the straw when cold liquid is exposed to warmer air. It appears that the one way valve that prevented this at first is becoming looser and softer after repeated toddler abuse.

Here is a pro tip for sippy cups in general, if you fill a sippy cup with ice cold liquid and the cup gets warm it will create air pressure inside the cup. Air has to get out and it will force it’s way out, often taking liquid with it. It’s like microwaving leftovers with the tupperware lip still locked. It will heat up, pop the cover off and throw food everywhere in the process.

Preventing this is super easy. Use room temp liquids or keep your cup cold. This worked well when we were just filling Elmo with water. But now that we are using cold milk out of the fridge we can watch it creep out of the top and dribble down the side as it begins to warm.

When we take “Elmo” on a walk in the blistering city heat we keep him in an insulated pouch surrounded by ice. This seems to resolve the issue when traveling. But sadly, it’s when we are at home and our son is carrying this cup around and it’s not in a little cooler, well… leaks happen.

It is no longer my favorite sippy cup due to the durability of the one way valve. That said, our son loves it so much that we keep it in rotation. It’s very easy to get him to drink out of this cup and that’s extremely helpful on days when he is being fussy.

Revised score is: 3 out of 5 stars.

Best dSLR camera for Parents

I often get asked by expectant parents what advice I can give as a new parent. My answer is always to take as many photos as possible. Our little guy has grown up so fast
and without some of the photos I took we would have lost many memories to the blur of time sweeping past us. That first month… Wait, that was a MONTH? It felt like a week.

I also recommend that you take photos of everything. You won’t know what you needed to record until it’s too late. I remember when our son was a few months old and we noticed a dime sized red mark on his scalp.

“Had he always had that? Did he have it at birth? Was it getting darker? Is it a rash! IS HE OKAY!?“

We reviewed the photos… yep he’s always had it. Oh, and it’s actually getting fainter. How had we never noticed it before? Are we just that tired? (Yes.)

Besides shooting tons a photos and videos with our iPhones, having a nice dSLR camera has helped me create some really stunning photos of our little guy. Granted, I’m a bit of a photo nerd, but if you can afford it I HIGHLY recommend the following gear:

Canon 70d dSLR camera.

This is basically one step away from being a “pro” model – and 5 years ago a camera with these specs would have be pro. The 70d provides excellent image quality, great accurate focus, and a really nice burst mode so you can rapidly take photos and catch the perfect moment. This camera also has tons of shooting options from fully automatic to detailed manual controls.

To me, the selling point of this camera is the video mode. This is the first dSLR by Canon to offer a super accurate automatic focus system when in video mode. Up until now dSLR cameras had horrible auto focus when shooting video and almost always needed you to manually focus them… This was not a great situation for mom and dad who are trying to capture first laughs, steps and words. The new autofocus on the 70d is so easy and perfect you won’t even think twice about how to use it. It just works.
This camera also includes a great touchscreen and super sensible controls compared to some Nikon models I’ve used.

This version of the 70D ships with a long telephoto lens that will take you from a nice wide angle 18mm to a close up 135mm. This kit lens is a huge improvement over previous models. As to be expected from a zoom lens, it can be a bit big and bulky. So, what do you do when you want something smaller and lighter?

Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM Lens

This newly released lens is often called a Pancake because it’s so thin. This fixed length of 24mm is perfect for cramped interiors and walking around parties as it mirrors your natural field of vision when mounted on the 70d (due to the camera 1.6 crop factor). The lens is known for it’s super sharp images, light weight, tiny size, and for having a fast aperture of 2.8. The lower the aperture number the more background blur.

An aperture of 2.8, combined with the high ISO options on the 70d, will also allow you to shoot photos indoors without a flash. This is something I found very useful when taking pictures of a newborn. I didn’t t want to blind the poor kid! All this for $125 dollars. You may find that you use this as you main lens because it’s so good. Should you still get the kit lens? Yes. You will want the ability to zoom and if you were to purchase the zoom separately you would pay far more that the bundled price. Canon also makes a 40MM version of the pancake lens. I love using this version as well (I own both).

Transcend 32 GB High Speed Class 10 UHS Flash Memory Card

You will need a memory card with your new camera. I strongly recommend the Transcend 32 GB SDHC memory card. I’ve shot with a ton of memory cards over the years and speed does matter, especially if you are shooting rapid fire bust images. This one delivers and the price is amazing.

You will get way over 1000 picures in both Jpeg and RAW file formats. That’s great because if you remember my #1 tip: take photos of EVERYTHING.

Secondary options:

I know not everyone will be able to afford the 70d. As a lower priced alternative I recommend the Canon Rebel. They tend to introduce new models every year, each better than the last. While I have not used the most recent version, the reviews are very positive. This camera is also compatible with the Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8 lens I listed above. Also, you can now purchase this camera with the same 18-135mm zoom sold with the 70d!

For years I took photographs on a very old rebel and people were always impressed. You can, and you will, get great pictures.

If you want to go the other direction and spend even more money, I would always recommend buying higher quality lenses before a more expensive camera body (lenses last longer). The all time greatest lens by Canon (in my opinion) is the 70-200mm F 2.8 IS II. This telephoto zoom will create beautiful pictures with razor sharp focus and gorgeous bokah (blurry backgrounds).

Happy shooting!

Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920

Grandparents live far away? This webcam combined with Skype (or FaceTime) was a great investment for only $70. The HD webcam was plug and play easy to set up, the image/sound quality is EXCELLENT, and it comes with a super long six foot cord.

The cord is actually a big selling point for me as it allows the camera to be moved around the room to capture the action. The mount contains a standard tripod screw making it easy to attach to any tripod and it also unfolds into a little “claw” that you can use to hook the webcam to the top of your TV, Laptop, crib, etc. Just make sure Jr can’t grab the camera! 🙂

The autofocus feature works extremely well. We could sit on the sofa with the baby and then bring him up close to the camera without the camera searching to try and focus on us. The close focusing distance is very good too. When our son would spot the camera, crawl over and inspect it the image was always in focus and hilarious for those watching his curious face on the other side.

MOST ROYAL! 5 out of 5 stars!

Gretsch G9126 Guitar Ukulele

Wow, I can not express how wonderful this 6 string Ukulele has been. Our kid LOVES it!

Because it’s has six strings, like a guitar, this uke is super easy to pick up and play all the normal songs you know without having to think of ukulele chords.

I bought a wall hanger (Hercules GSP38WB) so I can keep the uke hung up in our main playroom. It’s been super useful. I can quickly grab this mini-guitar and sing songs to our one-year-old son’s delight. He also loves to sit in front of me and carefully strum the stings with one finger while I make chords. He will actually squeal with joy at this. As a dad who hopes to teach his son guitar, these moments are just precious. Finally, there was one day a few months ago when he was having a temper tantrum and we were unable sooth him. Suddenly I saw the Uke, grabbed it and began singing. He immediately stopped crying and began to smile and laugh. Worth. Every. Single. Penny.

This thing sounds great too. I’ve been very happy with the tone, especially for the size. It is very well rounded with a nice punchy feel. We also spent one afternoon around the pool and this little uke got passed around the deck as we sang songs. Super charming. I also like the fact that as our son gets older the size and soft nylon strings will make this a great beginner instrument.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!

How to keep your sanity. (6′ iPhone cable)

As new parents we have our phones with us at all times. We Google symptoms of illnesses, play white noise to get the kid asleep (Pro-tip, remember that one!) we browse Facebook and Instagram at 3am while the kid sleeps in our arms, and most common of all we text our spouse from the other side of the house to say, “Is he asleep yet?” and “I need help” and “HELLO!??! I NEED YOUR HELP, GET THE F BACK HERE. WHY ARE YOU IGNORING MY TEXTS!?”

There is only one problem. When your phone dies. We all know it. We are trapped under a sleeping baby and the phone craps out. Now you get to sit in the dark for another 30 minutes until you can sneak him in his crib. …I mean, you don’t want to chance it and wake him before he’s in a deep sleep! Or should you? Quick Google it. WAIT, MY PHONE IS DEAD! NOOOOOOOOO!

So, order a handful of these 6 foot long iPhone cables (or similar if you have an Android phone). What a life saver these have been for us! The standard iPhone cable is so short you can’t move more than an inch from the wall outlet. These let us sit in the rocking chair or on the far side of the bed or on the toilet for a moment alone. “What are you doing in there for so long?”

We have tried a few brands. They all started to fray and break after 3-4 months.

So far the Cable Matters® Lightning Cable in White 6.6 Feet/2 Meters has lasted without any issues. Fingers crossed. But at this price, even if it does die I will just order another.

4 our of 5 stars.

Points taken away because:

It’s another thing to baby proof around the house. Make sure you keep these coiled up and out of the way.
Because other brands, including Apple, break over time I suspect that will happen with these too. At this price it’s more of a hassle than a deal breaker. And as I said above, so far these have NOT broken!