Baby Shower – Page 182 – Marisa Meidle's Baby Showers

Prepare Early For A Special Gift

It is a joyous occasion when you learn that you are going to be a new parent. In a short time there is going to be a new baby and you will have responsibility to take care of that child and meet his or her every need.

Those first few weeks, the human baby is very helpless and will depend on you for food, protection, warm clothing, diaper changes and every other need of life. However, in only a few short months, you will find that you are shopping for toddler baby bedding.

Months turn into years and soon you find that that baby is beginning school. Then they are getting driver’s licenses and graduating from college. Each step along the way, you use your camera to capture pictures. Some may have been with older film cameras, but others will be with your digital camera. Each of those photos will have special meaning.

Now with all the free time that you have on your hands as you enter the empty nest portion of life, what are you going to do? Why not purchase a scrapbook album and relive all of those great memories.

While it is impossible to display all of those photographs of your child in a frame, you will be able to use many of them in a scrapbook. The album will be a place where you can display coming home from the hospital as well as college graduation. There may be photos with grandparents or special teachers that have great meaning to your offspring. Every special day and trip can have its own page in the album.

Once you complete the scrapbook you may want to display it in your own home or give it as a gift to the star attraction. A well organized scrapbook is a meaningful birthday or anniversary present to your family member. It allows them to enjoy many of the special events. You work will make a special presentation for your loved one.

It is important to choose acid free papers and other embellishments for the scrapbook. This helps to preserve photographs as well as your hard work for many years to come. Even glues that are used in scrapbooks should be acid free for the longest life of the materials.

If you are still at the expectant parent stage, you may want to begin collecting things now that will eventually go into a scrapbook. While you are going to be very busy the next few years, find a special spot to keep those memories so that you can present a complete scrapbook to your adult child.

Equip Your Nursery To Keep The Baby Safe And Happy

If you are planning a new nursery, then you want this room to be a place that you baby is both safe and happy. There are some important considerations that will help to ensure the baby’s health, safety and happiness.

A baby safety monitor will allow you to know when the baby is awake without ever opening the nursery door. Baby safety monitors are available that offer both sound and video signals or sound alone. You can hear what’s happening in the nursery but the baby cannot hear you. As soon as the baby is awake, you can be in the nursery so that he or she is never unattended.

As for the baby bed, be sure that it meets standards for the new beds for babies. Older beds had the slats on the sides that were spaced too far apart and made for a hazard for the baby. In addition, be sure that the bed is put together and secure. Incorrectly assembled beds are hazardous for your baby and could allow him to fall.

A changing table makes changing the baby’s diaper a safer operation. The table should have a safety belt that helps to keep your baby in place when you are changing the diaper. This will help to prevent the baby from accidentally rolling off of the table.

While you will want to be sure that the nursery is warm enough, avoid use of the portable space heater. These heaters are great in many circumstances but are not recommended in the nursery where the might be used when unattended. The heater plug may overheat and cause a fire if used when unattended. Crawlers might be burned by the heater.

In addition to the items you would normally think of for a nursery, here are a couple you might overlook. Both make the nursery a more pleasant place to be. The first is the automatic diaper disposal. This pail for disposable diapers is designed in such a way that it keeps smells inside a plastic bag. The bag can be removed when full without the diaper aroma ever setting off your nose.

A second nice item is the diaper wipe warmer. Diaper wipes are invariably cold. Put a cold wipe against a baby’s warm bottom and you are sure to have a baby that does not enjoy changing time. Plug the warmer in and set a packet of wipes on top and they will be warmed to the perfect temperature to help changes go smoothly.

Each item that you need for your nursery is often available in coordinating themes. These will give the nursery the most professional decorated look.

Drawing, coloring and toddlers!

To the casual observer a child who is drawing or coloring in, is merely scribbling. The marks seem to be decidedly random, almost meaningless. But there is more going on in your young child’s mind as s/he engages in the physical act of drawing and coloring.

In fact, examining children’s drawing may give us important insights into how drawing fits into the overall physical, emotional and cognitive development of the young child. From toddlerhood through to primary school, children choose to draw and color, but the process actually starts much earlier – during toddlerhood.

At around the age of a year and a half toddlers become interested in scribbling. It seems to provide sensory enjoyment, but the child is also interested in the marks that are made. The act of scribbling can serve several useful purposes for the young child. Small muscle coordination and control improve with practice, cognitive abilities are exercised, opportunities for social interaction arise, and the physical movements provide emotional release.

Because a toddler’s small muscle control is not fully developed, he or she may approach the coloring sheet by grasping the marker with his or her fist and may well find it difficult to place the marks exactly where he or she wants them. Movements are typically large, involving the entire arm with very little finger or wrist control. This is due to the fact that the pattern of physical development proceeds from the center of the trunk outward.

With practice, your child will naturally improve his or her control. Full control, however, will not be achieved until much later. A few toddlers rest the forearm on the drawing surface to give them additional control. A repetitive scrubbing motion is common among two-year-olds. This provides them with sensory enjoyment and making drawing a very physical act.

By providing children with the materials and opportunities to scribble we can promote physical skills. Just as babbling is a natural way to gain language, scribbling is the precursor to muscle control and coordination.

Form an intellectual point of view young toddlers care about both the process and results of their art. They do not intend to represent objects at first. Instead, they are mainly concerned with color and line. However, they may look at the marks and scribbles they have made and, in surprise, recognize a shape and name it. While they may not have intended to draw a car, a house or a tree, the scribbles suggest the shapes. Children interpret, rather than intend. This is called fortuitous realism and becomes common as a child approaches three years of age.

As a parent you can encourage your child to draw and color by offering him or her opportunities to do so. Let them loose on blank sheets of paper or provide them with a coloring book or coloring sheets, many of which are available online. Little boys may enjoy coloring images of cars and trucks or of favorite characters such as Spiderman and at sites like Spiderman Coloring you’ll find Spiderman Party as well as coloring pages, funny pics and more. For little girls search for coloring pages of princesses or fairies or anything else she may be interested in such as Disney characters or even trucks!

Remember however that toddlers need constant supervision while coloring due to the choking hazard that crayons pose.

Let The Sunlight Give Light: Punch Up Your Ankle-biter’s Nursery With Amber Color

Yellow crib bedding continues to be a widely preferred option for babies’ rooms, especially for people who want a room that will work for either a boy or a girl. Still, designers have traditionally favored yellow when decorating a cheery, relaxing room planned especially for a girl. Yellow can be easily matched with just about any other color, and decorators are discovering how to use yellow in a variety of new and interesting ways.

Modern coordinates play on contrasts, they include yellow with dark prints like chocolate or a deep violet. If you love traditional design, there is a wide array of girl’s nursery bedding choices decorated with charming nature motifs in homey fabrics like gingham and calico.

Crib bedding for boys , many time uses quite a bit of yellow. Consumers should not purchase any blankets or bumpers that are excessively thick or puffy, even though they appear very interesting because these can cause suffocation and the babies may not be able to pull their tiny faces away from them.

You should follow standard crib and toddler bed dimensions while selecting your daughter’s bedding items. This can save you from re-structuring poorly fitted sheets that may slip off a mattress often since they are uniform in size. Be careful when choosing comforter size that you do not pick a larger size than recommended since the excess fabric can cause a suffocating hazard.

Baby bedding should be made of linen that is baby safe, and to ensure this, only the highest quality should be used in your baby’s crib. For parents with time constraints, all the items for s coordinated feminine nursery, including crib bedding and even room decorations, can be purchased as a bedding set.

The tasteful well matched bedding collections are the best option for those on a limited budget. If your plan is to decorate a nursery in sunny yellow, try shopping around until you find the store which offers the best prices so as not to break the bank.

Grandparents Who Are Responsible For Grandchildren

Although grandparents have helped with the rearing of their grandchildren throughout history, an all too common trend in the United States today is that of retirement age grandparents having full responsibilities for their grandchildren. Suddenly, these grandparents or even great grandparents are dealing with baby bath toys while the new parent continues living reckless lifestyles.

In this growing problem, it has been estimated that over eight million grandchildren live with their grandparents with the parents out of the picture. This common problem seems to be growing on a daily basis.

Grandparents need to consider some of the legal issues when raising their grandchildren. If you are able to gain legal custody of the child or children, you will be able to ensure a more stable life for the child and provide needed health insurance for them. Without this, you may be legally responsible for their healthcare without insurance coverage.

If you are a grandparent responsible for a grandchild, you may need some help coping with all the extra work that this task brings your way. Suddenly, you find yourself packing school lunches and in the role of soccer mom once again. If you are not careful, your relationship with your child, the grandchild’s parent will suffer.

While there are still limits, many social agencies are more helpful to grandparents that they were in the past. Many advocacy agencies have worked hard to bring about grandparents rights. You may want to consider joining one of these support groups.

Although there are many costs to be paid by grandparents raising their grandchildren, most find the experience very rewarding.

Most grandchildren that are being raised by a grandparent are very grateful for the stable home life that the grandparent offers. In fact, some studies show that these grandchildren are much less rebellious than one’s own children. They recognize that the grandparents are doing all that is possible to keep things together and are willing to help.

Retirement years may take on a new role as a grandparent raising a grandchild, however life often requires that we adjust. As a grandparent with a grandchild that needs you, what other choice do you have. The task may not be easy, but it is your chance to provide for a child that is in need.