Family Travel: A must-know setting for your iPhone

This is a bit random for me, but I figured I’ve shared this with enough mom-friends lately that it was time to write a post. File this under “Tips for Flying with a Toddler.”

First things first: I confess, we resort to screen-time with Hudson in travel situations. (Mock gasp.) Long trips in cramped, crowded, confining situations? Time to break the rules.

If you’ve ever handed over your iPhone or iPad to a toddler for distraction on a plane (or in the doctor’s office or while making important decisions in furniture stores… or anywhere else), then you’ve probably cursed Apple for not having a screen-lock option.

And guess what? The last operating system, iOS 6, introduced an accessibility feature called Guided Access. It’s like they finally listened. It’s game-changing. It may as well be called “kid mode.”

It allows a parent to control screen-time and limit access to one app (or video) by disabling the Home button, and by giving the option to restrict touch input on certain areas of the screen.

Simply go into Settings and tap General>Accessibility>Guided Access to turn it on and select a 4-digit passcode (that you’ll have to remember to get in and out of the locked screen).

The next time you open the app (or start the video) you want to run for them, triple-click the home button and choose which restrictions you want in place. I usually circle the top row and bottom row of the screen so that all of the touch-screen options (like “share” and “pause,” etc.) are off-limits. This keeps him from accidentally pausing or exiting an episode of Caillou every five seconds. Or firing off random tweets. Or deleting personal photos.

To stop the session (even if it’s just to adjust the volume), you triple-click the home button again, enter your passcode, and select end. You can use the triple-click/guided access trick any time, once you’ve set-up the option in Settings.

Finally. Right!?

No judgment. There’s still plenty of time for this.

P.S. Top tips for flying with a baby or toddler, favorite travel gear for small kids, and packing a diaper bag (early on).

High/Low: Cross-body Satchels

The perfect, guaranteed-for-life, American-made cross-body satchel—the Mini-Legacy by J.W. Hulme ($390). And the pretty-darn-great, will do-for-now version from Zara ($99).

Both would look awesome slung across a chunky fisherman’s knit sweater this fall, or across a breezy sun-dress next spring. Oh! And I personally discovered that the little handle on the Zara bag is just right for hanging from a stroller (and that the leather looks even better in person). So there you go.

P.S. Another dreamy bag from this heritage brand, the J.W. Hulme Mini-Excursion bag.

Local Daytrip: Bogle Vineyards on the Sacramento Delta

It’s fast-occurring to me just how numbered these beautiful October weekends are; Aron and I have been talking about all the things we want to be sure and do, all the places around here we want to be sure and visit, before the days grow shorter and the leaves fall from the trees. A return trip to Bogle made this imaginary list.

We’re surrounded by wonderful wine. Davis is just 45 miles from Napa, 55 from Sonoma. Our friends introduced us to another wonderful spot to visit—Bogle winery—in Clarksburg, only 25 miles away, in our very own Yolo Country, on the Sacramento River Delta just last fall. (You may notice Hudson’s baby face in these photos.) It’s a beautiful place to spend an afternoon picnic’ing—and one of the few tasting rooms I’ve visited lately that doesn’t charge a fee.

The name was certainly familiar—it’s the 14th largest winery in the country. But I no idea the vineyard was, so-to-speak, in our own backyard.

We also had no idea what a hold Bogle had in Davis until we arrived for dinner at our friends’ house our first week in town. Pardon the teasing guys, but Aron and I recall the start of the evening going something like this: “What would you like to drink? Bogle or Bogle?” Next guests arrive: “Hey, I brought some Bogle!” And the next: “Here’s a bottle of Pinot from Bogle.”

With good reason, this family-operated winery clearly has a lot of local fans.

P.S. What’s on your fall must-do list? Pumpkin-patch scouting? Apple picking? Leaf peeping? Costume sewing? …