Tag: Baby

Is there anything worse than seeing a toddler at Walmart at 2:00 in the morning, sleepy and screaming? I don’t think so. It’s the stuff horror movies are made of.

While I realize that, under extenuating circumstances, it can be necessary to snatch your child out of bed and rush to a 24 hour store for some unusual reason, it is really frustrating to see children wailing in helpless exhaustion while their parents fill the cart with beer, bologna, and canned vegetables.

So much of the time the child gets yelled at or worse, when all that really needs to happen is that the parents need to take junior home and put him to bed.

I will sound old here I’m sure, but when my children were small, parents generally had some sort of schedule and shopping was done prior to bedtime. If it was necessary to shop after bedtime then you arranged for someone to watch the baby while you headed off on your midnight quest. It wasn’t always convenient but naptimes or bedtimes were usually the priorities.

A child who is having a tantrum in a store in the middle of the night does not need discipline – she needs her bed. Not only is it distracting, irritating, and frustrating to other customers, it is unfair to the child and adds unnecessary stress to the parents.

Tired, stressed parents combined with a tired, cranky baby? Well, that’s just a Child Protective Services moment waiting to happen.

If you must take your child out to the store late at night, then be prepared to have unending patience. Realize that babies do not handle exhaustion in a reasonable manner and that tears, screams, and temper tantrums are normal, and even expected, behaviors in this situation and don’t yell or smack your child – he is merely responding to the situations in the best way he knows how.

Have you ever had to make a run to the store with an exhausted baby? What are your tips for getting through it?

photo credit: Jan Tik

One of the hottest baby party/baby shower trends today is the gender reveal cupcake. It’s a fun way to let people know the sex of your baby. If you are very patient you can even surprise yourself with the help of your sonogram tech and the neighborhood bakery.

There isn’t a specific way to do it – no rules, no constraints. Some parents-to-be ask their technician to keep the secret, opting to carry a sealed envelope containing the information from the ultrasound to their favorite bakery. The baker opens the envelope and secretly creates a special cupcake filled with either pink or blue cream – a surprise to even the parents.

Other couples prefer to know ahead of time and the color found inside the cake is only a surprise to the guests at the party.

If you want to make the cupcakes yourself, it isn’t hard. Just bake your favorite chocolate or vanilla cupcakes (either from a mix or from scratch). Let them cool completely and then cut out some of the cake in the middle – just enough to leave a space for a filling.

Tint non-dairy topping either pink or blue, depending on the sex of your baby. You can also use vanilla pudding but it will not give you the clear color that the non-dairy topping will.

Cover the filled cupcake with your favorite chocolate or vanilla frosting so that the colored filling is completely hidden. Decorate the treats with pastel sprinkles in both pink and blue so that no one knows what color lies within until that very first bite.

photo credit: Theresa Iovcheva

Many women today are waiting on having children until they are well into their 30’s and some are even waiting until after they are 40. There are many advantages to waiting to start a family; parents are presumably more mature and better equipped to handle parenthood, parents are more financially secure and have had time to travel the world and grow in their relationship with their partner.

All of these qualities lend itself to a solid foundation for raising a family. It sounds perfect, right? Read more…

Oh Etsy how I love thee…

It is my go-to spot for handmade and vintage anything. I love that at the stroke of a key, I can find something with a unique and personal touch. I only wish I were so crafty.

When it comes to our little bundles of joy and those of our friends, Etsy is a fantastic place to find the perfect items. Below I have 5 Fantastic Etsy Finds for those little girls who are sugar and spice and everything nice. From their rooms to their diaper bag and their first year photo, you will find an item that is fitting. Read more…

Becoming a parent is a momentous occasion. It’s a step in life where you and your significant other take that next great leap into your future. But, there are so many unknowns and so many things that come to mind when attempting to prepare for such a journey. So what are the “must-make” decisions every parent should decide on before baby arrives? Well, as a mom of three, I have narrowed down the seemingly endless list to a manageable starting point. Read more…

As much as I hate to admit it, my second born gets shafted. Being a second daughter myself, I swore up and down that I wouldn’t treat my kids any differently, but of course we all know where good intentions get you.

I used to read the newspaper to my first daughter, I was so excited to read to her. She was barely out of the womb, then, but I wanted to read to my baby, so I did. And each day our reading material got more and more exciting (to her) with more pictures and fewer words. She would sit, attention rapt in the book and I would regale her with multiple voices, hand gestures – the works.

Now, my second daughter – no less enthusiastic about books – is lucky if she gets a quick shared read of Where the Wild Things Are or Everyone Poops before we’re off again having a tea party or digging gopher holes. Admittedly, those books are way beyond her interest!

The big sister is quickly embracing her inner general, so she lines up all sorts of adventures to have each day. She calls them “ventures” because she thinks we say “a venture” instead of “adventure” – little 3 year old minds are so cute, aren’t they?

So what does this have to do with Marilyn Janovitz and her new book, Baby, Baby, Baby?

The other day Sourcebooks sent me a copy so that my little one can have a book all her own! I didn’t realize how deprived this poor child was (of course, as deprived as a fawned over, smothered with love little child can be). As I sat down in the rocking chair and opened the book, there she sat attention trained on the cover, eyes expectant as if to say, “what??? A book for moi?”

It’s hard not to sing this book. I had no intention of singing or making up funny little voices but out came a high pitched sing-songy tune as I read the first page. My audience ate it up, too, egging me on.

Try it yourself. Here’s the first page:

Bitsy bouncy baby
On a bumpity lap
Mommy’s little baby likes to
Clap Clap Clap

See! Such fun for babies!

While new to me, Marilyn Janovitz is no stranger to the children’s book club. She’s authored over a dozen books, including Can I Help?, Is It Time?, and What Can Be Keeping Santa?

Because I’m such a fan of this book of hers you can bet I’ll be checking out the others – especially the Santa one seeing as Christmas (please say it isn’t so!!!) is just around the corner.

You can buy Baby, Baby, Baby at Amazon:

Introducing what may be the weirdest baby invention of the year: the Peekaru! I can imagine the inventor of this thing sitting around with friends (drinking heavily) saying, “I need a new pull-over but what about the baby strapped to me? I know, instead of taking little Tommy OFF before dressing, I’ll just make a jacket with a HOLE in the front…for the baby!”

Who needs baby clothes when mommy and baby can wear the same clothes?!? Because, really, as a pregnant woman I haven’t had my fill of really large clothes with extra fabric for the baby in the past nine months…

You gotta see for the demonstration:

I know what you’re thinking…If it looks like a bucket and acts like a bucket, what could it be? A baby jacuzzi! I have got to hand it to the inventors of this baby hot tub by Spa Baby.

Those first baths for baby are really quite stressful and most babies that I’ve seen don’t like to lay there on their backs having water poured on them. This baby spa solves this problem – you can submerge your baby up to his shoulders in warm water, much like what he experienced in the womb. No more squirming baby.

Only, I’m not sure if I’m being duped in to buying something that I could readily find under my sink…not that I would just dump the baby in any old bucket…but still.

At 16 1/2 months, my daughter is an expert walker. In fact she even runs on occasion, though not nearly as fast and often as her friend, Sadie (pictured at right) who seems to prefer to run every where she goes, little pigtails bouncing with each step.

With my daughter firmly in Stage 5 development (according to Dr. Maria Montessori it is from month 12 to month 18), I thought I’d weigh in on a few of her developmental milestones to date. (FYI, for a really good list of all of the neurological and physical developments go HERE for the mommybahn’s take). Of particular interest to me are the following advances made possible by the “right brain” and “left brain” formulation… a phenomenon about which all the artists in my family are all a twitter.

One development is heterolateral movement – meaning that the brain can navigate movement on alternating sides of the body like stair climbing or swing your arms while walking. Right now Sophie either walks like a Frankenstein baby with her knees locked and her body stiffly swaying in the direction her feet are moving or she swings her upper body from side to side while walking with such glee that she invariably knocks herself off balance. It’s utterly endearing. I did manage to capture all this on tape so that we can look back and remember how she learned to walk. I fear all these little experiments with movement and balance will cease as soon as she masters walking, never to be seen again unless on video.

Further evidence of the communication between brain hemispheres is hand dominance. Unfortunately, since I’ve broken my right hand Sophie has been mimicking my left handed movements so it’s hard to tell which hand is dominant for her yet. She seems quite ambidextrous at this point.

And finally, cross-patterning. The brain can now, in Stage 5, manage to navigate your hand across your body to do something. Think shaking hands, reaching over your plate to grab a spoon, opening doors.  Ahh, the opening and closing of doors. This activity is done repeatedly all day as often as possible. In fact, Sophie so enjoys this that she doesn’t even realize she’s closed herself into a closet or the bathroom until she realizes that she can’t grab the edge of the door to open it. It’s a wonder we spend any money on toys!?!

All this to say our little one is progressing right on target…however, as I read more and more about milestones I’m learning that I care less about the time frame that she masters said milestones and more about her discovering new possibilities. It’s easy to get caught up in the constant competition of comparing who is doing what and when they do it. I know, I’m guilty of it myself more than I care to admit. Only, if I take a step back and just watch Sophie and her discoveries, I find that I’m more inclined to share in the wonder of them with her rather than gloating about them.

I have an affection for raising our daughter in the Montessori way and have tried, as you may have figured out, to follow the rules but wind up modifying them to fit our needs. I’m certain Maria Montessori would turn over in her grave if she knew we called what we do “Montessori.”

Regardless, this is how it breaks down in our house. We research what the method is, attempt it, and then retro fit the method to our reality. With eating and feeding, these modifications happened quickly with much mess. I pilfered these rules from my Montessori Guru cousin whose blog has excellent info on all things Montessori.

1. No high chairs or propping up in a seat. We tried lap sitting – i.e., Sophie sat in my lap and either I fed her with my free hand that wasn’t holding the food or my husband fed her. While it does work, this method is exhausting for everyone! What with squirming, head shaking, hand waving and general mayhem, the food made it in our little one’s mouth, and all over us, and the table, and the floor.

I stopped to think about what we were teaching our daughter…what I intended to teach our daughter was family dinner time, and this wasn’t it. So, we opted for a high chair that uses our table as the “tray” and Sophie now eats dinner (and lunch and breakfast) at the table, with her own placemat. Teaching her not to throw food overboard on to the floor is an entirely other matter and deserves it’s own post.

2. The container must be see through so the child can see the food. This teaches a child that the food exists outside of them, then through the act of eating, the food goes inside of them. They are just learning about food, so the clarity allows them to see the food as it actually exists, not as purple oatmeal. Also, with all of this talk of BPA contamination, I opted for clear glass tiny bowls and they work perfectly for freezing, microwaving and washing. Also, same goes for water. We uses a small votive glass and it works amazingly well. It can’t hold too much water, so when the glass goes flying, as it inevitably does, it’s really no biggie. I have taken to holding the water for Sophie and letting her use her hands to guide the water in, just to save time with clean-up…again, not a strict adherence to the rule.

3. You offer the food to the baby and the baby either eats or doesn’t eat. No games or tricks. Generally, with patience, this works well. However, Sophie goes through phases of refusing to eat anything unless we eat it. So I found that a few tricks do in fact work and I resort to these when I worry that Sophie will waste away to nothing after 2 days into a food strike.

5. Food is served solo – no mixing. Oatmeal gets one bowl, peas get another. Mac and cheese is served separately from small bites of chicken. I find this one of the hardest to maintain. Sometimes oatmeal won’t cut it, but oatmeal with apples and some cinnamon goes down easy. Also, how am I supposed to get Sophie to eat anything green besides peas if I just serve it to her plain? I don’t eat like that, why should she? Plus, if she will only eat something I’m eating, well, then, you can guess why we break this rule all the time!

Basically we approach feeding the same as we do most things. We figure out the lesson we want to teach and go from there. Keep things simple.

On the quest to find the perfect diaper bag, I found a really cute new style from Oioi.  It’s a little pricey for me but I love the style.   It comes in black, too, which is a great choice if you want a neutral bag, but I really like this canary yellow.  Check it out. You can find it on the Oioi website, but I found it a tad cheaper HERE.