Car seats for children are an absolutely awesome technology that can help you keep your child safe. The hardest part about the car seat, though, is knowing what kind of car seat and how to install it. I recently came across a video on Youtube that made me realize the importance of the 5 point harness system with car seats. I will caution you that this video WILL make you cry. But, for those of you who are parents of young kids, it’s an awesome opportunity for you to learn the importance of keeping your child in a 5 point harness system. The family of Kyle David Miller would like to make sure that you know the importance of this system so that his death was not in vain.
This past weekend, I got to see my very first movie at the movie theatre in almost exactly 2 years! I had the privilege of taking my sweet little 4 year old boy to see Horton Hears a Who - and we both LOVED it!
My son is a big fan of Dr. Seuss books and this book is particularly one of his favorites - his favorite line of all in the book is “A persons a person, no matter how small”! All parents should remember that on a daily basis!
Anyway, it follows the book pretty closely with some different twists in there - I mean, come on, it’s a short book and the original version of the movie is only about 30 minutes long. I think we’ve seen the original version no less than about 50 times. And for those of you who have “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” on DVD, take a look at the Extra Features - the original “Horton Hears a Who” is on there. Which makes sense because the Grinch, after all, lives in Who-ville.
Anyway, not very many “G” movies come out these days and so when they do, we try to take our son (our daughter will be 2 soon so she’ll be getting to go in a few more months as well). It’s a cute movie and enjoyed by both children AND adults!
A little over year ago we made a major purchase that I just want to document and say was WELL worth it! We purchased the swingset you see below made by “Gorilla” from Home Depot. And, let me just say that it was a fantastic purchase. The children are on that swingset EVERY day when the weather is nice - which, fortunately is often when you live in sunny South Carolina.
What do we like the MOST about it? It’s sturdy - we can swing on it and it doesn’t move. It is safe - everything is either hidden or covered so it’s hard for children to hit a nail or a screw (actually, nearly impossible). I also like the fact that my children’s cousins who are 8 and 9 come over and love to play on it too. So, I think for the money we spent, we will get MANY years of use and enjoyment out of it.
By the way, this is NOT a paid advertisement - just my personal opinion.
A friend of mine told me about a group called “They Might be Giants” that has some really fun music for children - the music is geared towards learning and both of her children love the music. Well, they have quite a few videos on YouTube and here’s one I found that my son LOVES! I think I’ll be getting some of their CD’s!
Well, the whole goal (at least for us at Christmas) is for the children to get toys that are imaginative and fun that they will play with for more than 1 hour. I think we’ve been successful at that! I’m going to give the top 2 toys our children received this Christmas.
We got our daughter the Fisher Price “Grow with Me Kitchen” which has turned out to be a HUGE hit. Last year after Christmas, I bought a bunch of pretend food and serving dishes at Target (I spent about $5). We bought the kitchen (picture is below) from Toys ‘R Us on sale for $49.99 and used PayPal which offered a 20% discount on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Well, our 20 month old daughter has not stopped playing with this kitchen. The cool part is that it’s a “Grow With Me” and so right now it’s about half the height you see below. She LOVES it!
Our son just turned 4 and his aunt got him the HotWheels 4 way race track that you see below. It has been a HUGE hit also. He loves cars and hasn’t stopped playing with his race track since he opened it up!
You’re not surprised, are you? It’s yet ANOTHER recall in the Chinese made products problem. The following excerpt is from FoxNews
NEW YORK — Toys “R” Us has recalled 27,000 crayon and paint sets made in China because the packaging of the wooden box contains lead, as does some of the watercolor paint within, company and government officials said Thursday.
I do hope that all of the parents out there are really taking this seriously and looking into purchasing more of their toys from US toymakers.
The toy recalls are becoming so common now that don’t even seem to be getting major headlines. See my screen shot below of where I found this article on Fox News. To be fair, I didn’t even find the article on the main page of CNN or MSNBC.
WASHINGTON — An Ohio importer recalled nearly 250,000 SpongeBob SquarePants address books and journals manufactured in China because the bindings might contain hazardous levels of lead paint, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday.
Martin Designs Inc. notified the agency that tests of the metal spiral bindings turned up lead content above the level considered safe for children, the CPSC said. Under regulations, children’s products found to have more than .06 percent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.
FoxNews has an article title Buy American: Toys Made in the USA. In light of recent events in China, and Mattel’s attitude that they have no intention of changing their relationship with China, I will be seeking out more American made toys and products than ever before. Here are some American toy manufacturer’s. Let’s all do our best to support them. Anyone have experience with any of the vendors below?
Melissa and Doug - I LOVE their products - especially their puzzles.
Based on this article. The headline is : Company has no plans to stop doing business in China.
I’m in shock that Mattel doesn’t appear to be even considering any other options. I plan to do some research and write some letters…. I’ll be back on this topic soon.
There is a good reason that formula manufacturers are putting DHA into formula. The more we find out about docosahexaenoic acid, or commonly known to us as DHA, the more we realize it is good for us. It naturally occurs in fish and mothers breastmilk.
MSN has an article about the benefits of fish and DHA. In the article they talk about how they treated Randal McCloy. He was the 27-year-old coal miner who was buried for 41 hours in a coal mine but survived. Here’s an excerpt from the article.
While McCloy was being given oxygen infusions in a hyperbaric chamber, Dr. Bailes was struck by inspiration: He ordered a daily dose of 15,000 milligrams (mg) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) for the miner. In layman’s terms?
“Fish oil,” says Dr. Bailes.
Several weeks passed. Then, unexpectedly, McCloy emerged from his coma. This in itself was amazing, but he wasn’t done. In the weeks that followed, he stunned even the most optimistic experts by recovering his memory and gradually regaining his ability to walk, talk, and see, a turnaround that many in the medical field called miraculous.
Although Dr. Bailes believes the hyperbaric chamber may have worked some magic on the myelin, he thinks much of the credit belongs elsewhere. “The omega-3s helped rebuild the damaged gray and white matter of his brain,” says Dr. Bailes, who now takes his own medicine, swallowing a fish-oil supplement each morning. On his orders, McCloy, still recuperating at home, continues to take fish oil daily. “I would say he should be on it for a lifetime,” says Dr. Bailes. “But then, I think everybody should.”
Our pediatrician is a big fan of breastfeeding for a number of reasons but he always talks about how much the brain grows in the first 2 years of life and how incredibly important the omega-3s are. And, it’s always better to get ANY vitamin naturally as it occurs - in this case, as it occurs in breastmilk.
We try to eat fish in our family and we also take omega-3 supplements. This article just reinforces our belief that omega-3’s are incredibly important. Looking for an omega-3 supplement? Here is some advice from the article:
Dosage
Ignore the total milligrams (mg) of fish oil, and focus instead on the combined eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). You want a supplement that contains at least 500 mg per dose or serving. If you’re on blood thinners, talk to your doctor about the best dosage.
Form
Your choice is basically capsules or a liquid. They’re equally effective at delivering omega-3s to your bloodstream, so go with the form you think you’ll take on a daily basis.
I’m always one to try and learn something new and find homeopathic remedies. I have another eye infection - I think that’s what it is. I’m going to the eye doctor later today. It’s like pink eye and it’s in an eye that I hurt pretty badly about 5 years ago. I was hurt so badly that the emergency room thought I was going to have to have surgery on my eye but fortunately I did not need it.
Anyway, so I was talking to a lady that runs a coffee shop and she recommended colloidal silver. She suggested that I dilute it with water just a little bit and put a few drops in my eye. She also said that it used to be used as an antibiotic in the old days but that it got to be too expensive to produce the colloidal silver. I am not a fan of antibiotics. We need them and I am very thankful that we have them - but I think that they are needlessly prescribed. It’s the “solution” to everything when you visit the doctors office.
I’m going to visit my eye doctor and then do a little more research. I’ll ask him about the colloidal silver but he may not have ever heard of it. My pediatrician had never heard of Gentian Violet when my daughter had thrush but it was the ONLY thing that cleared that up!
1. eHarmony.com - Since I’m happily married, you can imagine that this is not a site I have ever visited. But, what I’ve heard about the site is that they have a scientific way of matching up couples. Interesting…. Here’s what Time Magazine says:
Our main beef with this online dating site is its power to cause utter despair. eHarmony claims its more “scientific” approach to matchmaking differentiates it from competitors — its users complete extensive personality questionnaires, in order to connect them to others based on compatibility.
Can you imagine if you filled out the survey and it matched you up with NO ONE??
2. Evite.com - I can relate to this because I have received many invitations from evite - I’m not a fan - maybe because I’m just a little old fashioned? I still like to receive an invitation via snail mail. Time Magazine actually likes evite.com saying:
We’re only mad at Evite because we need it so much, and we know it could be so much better. The site, in short, is crying out for an overhaul. With more and more sites emphasizing flexibility and user control over content, Evite’s fill-in-the-blanks approach feels clumsy and dated.
3. Meez.com - OK - I’ve never heard of this site so I quickly visited the website and it had 3 steps: 1. Create a digital persona, 2. Animate with one click and 3. Export to web profiles, blogs and more. Interesting! I’ve participated in something like this but it created a very small graphic of “me” that I could then use on a bulletin board I participate in. I have a feeling Meez.com is more for kids? Here is what Time Magazine had to say about Meez.com:
We understand that digital signatures have a practical use, particularly when they provide the kind of info you’d see on a business card. And we don’t doubt that, for some people, a U2 lyric can express how they feel better than they could. But the 3-D animations and other digital doodads created with the help of Meez and other sites of its ilk — Blingee, Iconator — are just plain annoying. They also clog the recipient’s inbox with unnecessary bits.
4. Myspace.com - If you haven’t heard of myspace.com, then you MUST live under a rock! It’s a popular place and has been for awhile - especially for kids. But the joke I’ve heard about myspace lately with kids is that they left myspace for another site (not sure where?) because there were too many adults hanging out at myspace!!! Here is what Time Magazine had to say about Myspace:
It seems the community has become infested with marketers and other opportunists who create false profiles and essentially spam other users, all under the guise of “making friends.” Of course, there have always been loads of MySpace profiles of fictional characters, created to help market a movie or promote some other brand. But it’s the bait-and-switch tactics from these leeches (Want to be my friend? Buy a ring tone! Fill out this survey!) that have taken things to a whole new—and sad—level.
5. Secondlife.com - Alright - I haven’t heard of this and when I asked my geeky co-workers, they said I must live under a rock! It looks like an online reality virtual game. Looks like fun - but I really don’t have time to play games these days. Here is what Time Magazine had to say about Secondlife.com:
We’re sure that somebody out there is enjoying Second Life, but why? Visually, this vast virtual world can be quite impressive, but it’s notoriously slow to load (it runs on free software you have to download) and difficult to navigate, even with a broadband connection. You interact in the space through an avatar, but creating and personalizing this animated representation of yourself is tedious. Movements feel clunky and there can be a terrible lag.
I just found out about a company called Blurb that allows you to do your own self-publishing! According to their website, you download their Blurb software and create what it is that you want to publish. Then you are ready to share it on Blurb and purchase a copy yourself.
This is really exciting to me because I maintain a private blog of my children and I’m keeping it for 2 reasons:
1. Keep family and friends updated about the children
2. Keep a diary that I eventually intend to print out for the children to keep
Blurb gives me a fantastic way to print this out and create it in either a soft cover or hard cover book. This is the first I’ve heard of a company doing this so I’m anxious to see if there are others out there.
I am SO impressed by not only the quality of toys, but also of puzzles that Melissa and Doug have created. Their products are always so rugged and top notch quality.
My 3.5 year old son has the following puzzle completely mastered:
And now, he’s working diligently to do this puzzle - it is a BEAUTIFUL puzzle when put together. It’s 100 pieces and at 3.5, my son will sit with us patiently for over an hour doing this puzzle!
Stop by Amazon and purchase some of these puzzles for your children. They are awesome!
Jennifer over at The Lactivist found some software made by Babble Soft called BabyManager. This software gives parents the ability to track the exact date and time for everything about their baby - when they eat, sleep, poop, take medicine. It charts everything out for you - I think it’s over the top!
Here’s a quote off of their site:
“Babble Soft is a sight for sore eyes for parents adjusting to the numerous, often tumultuous changes a new bundle of joy brings to their lives. We create and provide software solutions that help families connect and help parents ensure that their baby is getting what he or she needs.”
You know, I have to say that I think we make having children sound like the hardest thing in the world. And we paint this horrible pictures to new parents about what it’s like to have children. The other day I witnessed a parent of 2 teens telling a newly pregnant (and very nervous) Mom, “Get your sleep now! You’ll never sleep again.” Why do people feel that they have to tell people their life is going to change drastically when they have a child. They KNOW that. The Mom ALREADY knows that because her life has already changed drastically because of the pregnancy.
And I have to say, there are just too many parenting books out there trying to dictate to parents “how” they should manage their children from birth all the way through their teens. As a civilization, we have been raising babies for thousands of years without books, clocks, watches, pens, PDA’s, and computers. How did they raise them? QUITE simple! They learned to communicate with the baby and when the baby was hungry, they fed them, and when tired, they put them to bed. And you know what? It WORKED! It’s REALLY that simple. Since the birth of both of my children, that has been the philosophy in our house. And we’ve also adopted the “whatever works” philosophy or our pediatrician! I remember being a nervous Mom of a 6 week old and talking to my pediatrician about whether or not we should swaddle, or use pacifiers. Our pediatrician was awesome - he’s older and wiser and has 4 grown children of his own. He said, “Your job as a parent is to love your child and take care of them. Make sure they are warm, fed, and safe. Crying is the only they can communicate that sommething is wrong. Sometimes they are wet,hungry, hot, or cold, and sometimes they just need to be held. Enjoy those times because the day will come soon when they won’t want you to hold them.” You know, Dr. Lee is a wise man and is so right! We can definitely tell how much our 3 yar old son is changing and we knwo that in probably a year, he’s not going to let us hold him as much as we even do now.
So, my advice to new parents? Throw all those books away! When your baby is hungry, feed him! When it’s tired, rock him to sleep! Enjoy every last minute of it because before you can blink, these days will be over and you’ll wish you could sit down and rock them again!!
