Forward facing 'buggies' stresses babies?

I'm severely disturbed by this little bit of news that reads "Babies Stressed Out By Buggies". It appears on Yahoo UK & Ireland. There may very well be something about having babies and small children facing out into the world and how it affects them, but this so called study is hardly the one to herald trust-worthy findings.

The news reports of about 3,000 parent-infant pairs in the study, but yet when it came to the experiment where they concluded,"Our data suggests that for many babies today, life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and possibly stressful. Stressed babies grow into anxious adults," it only talks about 20 babies participating. What? Really? In an experiment with 20 babies, that's a heck of a bold statement to make. Either that or that 20 babies were picked from all the corners of the world, or at least representative of the population they're trying to represent.

early learning book for preschoolers

I came across this book at the store the other day and decided to get it in order to help my 3 year old review his letters, learn his lower case letters and learn to write. For $7.95, I find it to be the most useful activity book so far for this age. It has 320 pages (black and white) and includes one page of stickers. It has activities to help in reading, math, sizes and shapes, numbers and letters and sounds. The pages are perforated. I also bought a book of Disney's Cars stickers to help motivate my boy.

The first night I introduced it, I ripped 3 pages for us to do and he loved it. I gave him stickers for each page he completed. The next day, he asked to do the "big book", so we did 5 pages. Each page averaged 5 minutes for us to do and the stickers just added to the fun.

My son goes to preschool, so he is learning a lot. But I want to supplement his learning and work on the things that he is having trouble with, namely lower case letters and number recognition. But as I found out, this book has a lot more to offer, such as position words, sequence, rhymes, time and other other concepts.

For moms like me, who want to teach our preschoolers are lot but don't exactly know where to start, this is a great starting place. This book is a must have! Just look at my son's first attempt on his own.

the best play yard, ever!

If you find yourself having to constantly stop your little one from crawling somewhere dangerous, or somewhere you don't want her to be, then the North State-Super XT Portable Playard and Gate is for you. Or if you happen to have multiples, then this one is definitely for you!

When my twins started to crawl, I used a make shift barricade in my living room: pillows, chairs, etc. But several weeks later, they can crawl over everything so I could never find them where I left them! To preserve my sanity, I finally looked into a play yard and this is what I found.

I had to order it online from Wal-Mart, since it wasn't available in stores. But I did take advantage of their ship-to-store option. It came to me in a big square box with what you see in the picture. It folds up nice and flat and it is easy to put together. It came with 6 panels, which fit the twins and I (I can even lie down but can't stretch my legs if I do so), though we did go ahead and ordered the extension panels (the extension comes with 2 more panels). With the extension, it can fit both me and my husband (lying down with our legs stretched out), our 1 year old twins, and our 3 year old son with the kids able to play comfortably.

We have a carpet in the living room, so it pretty much stays in place. But if you have wood or vinyl, you'll have a problem with it moving. It is also great for travelling because it folds flat.

At Wal-Mart.com, SuperYard XT cost us $49.84. The extension cost $19.36. I paid nothing for shipping, but did have to pay for tax. I compared prices online and the best deal is at Wal-Mart.

Stride Rite for wide/extra wide feet

My son came out into the world huge and with his huge stature came big fat feet. We quickly found out that it is extremely hard to find wide shoes. That is until we found Stride Rite. They have wide and extra wide shoes. Yes, I said EXTRA WIDE. Thankfully, my son was only in the extra wide for a short time.

For little ones, they have shoes for whatever stage of mobility your little one is in at the moment. The sole is not too hard in order for feet to develop normally.

My son is now 3 years old and we still go to Stride Rite (though not as often as his feet are finally starting to thin out). But beware of the price. Shoes on average cost about $50. My son's feet grew very fast between 1 and 2 years old, so we bought a lot of shoes. Be prepared to invest some money into your child's wide feet.

don't waste your money on crib bumpers

They are pretty, they are chic, they match with everything else, but really, they're pretty useless and quite dangerous. Think about it, if you put your newborns in a crib, they are usually swaddled in the first 8 weeks of their lives. After 8 weeks, they become little escape artists: no matter how tight you swaddle, they still free themselves. By the time you decide that swaddling is no longer an option, babies are old enough to roll over every which way and at that time, bumpers are quite dangerous. Babies can get caught in between the matress and the bumper.

So, save your money and invest in other cutesy stuff. The little bumps that your baby will experience by rolling around is not enough to cause brain damage.

Yoo hoo, where are you?

If you want to find your crawling baby/babies where you left her, it is absolutely essential to get a play yard. You don't want the heart attack-like feeling that comes with not finding your baby where you expect to find her.