If you’re a parent on the go with baby or simply a primary care giver leaving detailed instructions for someone watching your bundle of joy, you’ll often find yourself in need of a quick way to heat up baby’s food.

It’s a fact of life that when an infant starts crying, he or she wants food…NOW. That’s not the time to be fumbling with stove or contemplating using the microwave! You want something warm and yummy to shovel in immediately.

I’ve found a bottle and food warmer like this great one from Avent indispensable for all of those times.

If you’re pumping and storing breast milk you often find yourself leaving instructions to someone who is unable to, well, dispense body temperature nutrition at the drop of a hat or shirt, actually. So, this little heater can come in handy. It heats milk in less than two minutes and features a handy alarm for those times when a bottle has been hastily placed in it to heat while an adult runs around the room bouncy baby up and down in a futile attempt to soothe.

Since this isn’t exclusively a bottle warmer, it comes in handy later when you need to heat up those little frozen cubes of homemade baby food or slightly chilled jars.

Decorations?

Check.

Costumes?

Check.

Crafts? Ummm. Since I decided a few years ago that continuing to buy lots of interesting, electronic and plastic decorations for… each holiday… every year was a wee bit wasteful, we’ve been into crafts. Rather than buy and discard, we make one or two crafts each year to add to our growing stash of home décor. Admittedly, our home will not soon be featured in a major decorating magazine with our limited repertoire, but over the years our stash will grow and we will remember, not where we bought each piece, but when we made them

Since our skill levels, both mine and my child’s are not, shall we say, well developed, we try to stick to simple crafts. These Halloween suncatchers are easy to make,  and work well in just about any home, provided you don’t live in a cave. I’m looking forward to scattering these across the house, much to the annoyance of DH, of course.

These Halloween placemats are another good choice. We love placemats around our house, especially ones that last. Rather than purchase holiday-decorated paper cups and plates that will be pitched each year, we choose to decorate with reusable items that we pack away and take out again and again. Since these are also homemade, they meet both of my priorities!

Boo!

The absolutely best time to dress a child for Halloween is during the first few years of life. Why? Because you get to pick the costume!

Prior to the years of arguing about the appropriateness of various costumes (too sexy; too scary; too commercial) are sweet times carefully selecting an adorable outfit guaranteed to elicit ohhs and ahhs.

Unlike in later years, when laboring weeks over a costume results in a one-day wearing, for at least the first 5 or 6 years, Halloween costumes can double as dress up or even everyday wear. I try to look for costumes for infants and toddlers that are both cute and practical - no itchy materials or fussy accessories that parents need to hold or rearrange and can be used at least through the winter months before being handed down or lovingly packed away.

This snuggly Sock Monkey Costume fits the bill. This sweet costume is one piece with a detachable tail and tiny warm hat and, importantly, under leg snaps for easy diaper changes. Rather than promoting children’s TV shows movies which you’ll certainly get enough of in the ensuing years, this sock monkey costume is for the enjoyment of, well adults!

There are only a few years when you get to choose the costume…so make the most of it!

We are a frightened bunch these days, and with good cause. It turns out that federal oversight has been, shall we say, lacking. What exactly are our children ingesting and why have we been allowing this to happen?

Fortunately, companies are beginning to respond to our distress and it’s getting easier and easier to find products that are sturdy, affordable and incidentally not filled with nasty toxins.

Since pacifiers are often the first non-human material that enters a baby’s mouth, I kinda think is important that they be safe – don’t you? So, I was glad to find this Natursutten All-Natural Rubber Rounded Pacifier.

Made from pure, natural rubber, these pacifiers conform to European standards- important since their regulations are much more stringent than ours are in the US. The Natursutten pacifier is BPA (bisphenol-A) and phthalates free and is made not from PVC, but from rubber…like the stuff that grows on trees.

Since they are made from rubber and not latex or plastic they are much softer and even free from allergy causing substances (the protein that on rare occasions can provoke a latex allergy is eliminated during production).

And guess what? They even prevent those unsightly marks that babies tend to acquire after a long period of pacify-ing!

I’ve been reading up about soy bean fiber since I wrote about this cute soy bean fiber, plush penguin. Soybean fiber is both eco friendly and mom friendly as it is easy to wash and keeps baby really warm on cold winter days.

This 5- piece Ocean & Tea Hoodie Bundle is an everything-in-one gift. It includes a double layered blanket, a tiny kimono that works for both boys and girls and a soft and snuggly hoodie.  The kimono is one piece and features snap buttons all the way around…perfect for quick and easy diaper changes.

The matching socks and bib complete an ensemble that works particularly well for those autumn days where the temperature often changes. Since babies, in particular have some difficulty regulating their internal temperature and reacting to changes in the weather, it’s nice to have a complete matching set that can be mixed and matched on the go.

As an added bonus, this set is reversible. Blue (ocean) on one side and a light tan (tea) on the other, it’s simple to switch sides to cover up those inevitable stains. Makes you with you had one as well as stains too often end up on mom too!

I can’t get enough of Jim Weiss! No, he’s not a celebrity, except with Moms all over the country who, well love him! Why, he’s a good old fashioned storyteller.

In our hyper parenting culture, we parents are bound and determined that our children are not only well-behaved; they must also be, well fabulous. They must do well in school, excel at sports and be artistically gifted.

High goals, frustratingly unattainable, but we try.

I admit though, I want something more than a child that does well at school. I want one who is educated. And, that means reading, reading, reading a wide variety of books until I’m hoarse. And that’s when I let Jim Weiss take over.

His collection of audio books takes the best in children’s literature, fables and stories and puts them on CD. My son has been listening to Jim Weiss since he was3. He listens while he plays. He listens while we drive in the car. He listens in the bathtub now too because he begs. Tales from Cultures Far and Near, is one of his favorites, featuring stories from such varied places as Japan, Spain and Senegal.

And it shows. Educators highly recommend audio CDs for young children as it increases their vocabulary and helps them develop the ability to focus on the spoken word. These are, of course skills highly regarded by elementary school teachers trying desperately to wrangle a classroom full of feisty students.

Soon after my son was born I started loading up on the various first aid and medical items I thought I might need as a new mother. Thermometers and droppers; nail clippers and tiny band aids were all stored in a neat little bag.

 Then came the various liquid medicines, and treatments for a variety of illnesses. It wasn’t until he entered preschool that I realized that the bruises that he suffered during toddler falls were just the beginning. Big boys get big bruises!

Fortunately, I’ve had my share of bruises and at some point along the line my Western medicine, mainstream doctor recommended a homeopathic treatment to prevent or reduce bruising – Arnica.

This little gem is a natural medicine derived from, of all things, an herb belonging to the sunflower family. Just makes me smile to think about it. And, it has worked wonders for me for years.

For children, I recommend Hyland’s ArnicAid tablets. Hyland has been producing natural medicines for children for years and is a well respected name. The tablets, which taste like little sugar pills, dissolve quickly in your child’s mouth and really work at preventing unsightly bruises. Not merely an aesthetic remedy, they also reduce the soreness and swelling that often accompany a fall or injury.

I carry them in my purse at all times. You never know when they’ll be needed!

Around about kindergarten kids start to get interested in time. Well, that is they get interested in figuring out how to tell it. Obviously the motivation is being able to tell when you’re lying about it being bedtime when it clearly is still light outside.

If your house like mine is replete with digital clocks, digital time comes first to their understanding. Children of the new millennium say odd things like, “It’s 3:57.” and “We have to leave at 8:43 to get to school on time.” However, they get that deer in the headlights look when you casually ask them how many minutes it is until 9:00.

So, parents everywhere search fruitlessly around their homes looking for a good old fashioned clock that might perhaps teach them to tell time the old fashioned way, as in It’s a quarter to two.” and “We’re late, it’s ten after three.”

This sturdy and stylish children’s watch from Timex just might be the solution. Kids love to sport jewelry and this one fits the needs of both parents and the tiny wearer. It’s strong; it’s water resistant for those days when they just have to get wet. And it has cute little lizards on it!

The quartz movement and stainless steel design means it will last longer than the time it takes to get it home and the nifty nightlight is perfect for clicking on and off 100 times, during which hopefully the child in question will actually glance at the face and see that it might be telling him or her something.

Of course, now that September has barely started, we’re thinking about Halloween. If you, like me have a child that constantly changes his mind about what he wants to be for Halloween, September and early October are filled with pep talks and constant urging to make a decision.

Clearly this is inconvenient.

But, if you have a bit more malleable or even focused child, you may be actually able to buy a costume before the end of October. If so, there are some great ones out there. Toddlers, with their focus on their immediate community are fun to dress in traditional costumes. The letter carrier, the fire fighter, a pilot or chef are all great choices.

In our internet, buy on line society, I think this one is an even better choice – The UPS man or woman. What child of the 21^st Century doesn’t see that familiar brown truck pulling up everyday to dispense packages, bought through PriceGrabber of course, to every house in the neighborhood.

Available in toddler sizes, your child is sure to be happy to pretend to be delivering all of those boxes…of which I’m sure you have a few…to all the neighbors. Adults will love it too and be happy for the opportunity to chide their family member with the online shopping habit when they see your toddler coming.

I just wish it came in adult sizes!

Newborns are so fragile. We know that. We hear that before their birth. And then…ah, wow…these things really are fragile…yikes! And floppy and hard to hold securely…while trying to do just about anything else.
So, many of us, particularly those who subscribe to Attachment Parenting seek out a sling.

In the old days…say, 5 or 6 years ago, the options were limited. New parents sought far and wide to find anything resembling one, and then struggled with ill-fitting models and wiggly infants.

This is, of course no longer the case and new parents face a bewildering array of options. Wraps and slings and baby carriers of all types abound. Which is the best? Which is right?

Well, it turns out there is one sling recommended by Dr. Sears, well know pediatrician and the guru of Attachment Parenting.  The Serene Sling, a stretchy, one pocket sling that comes in…a whole bunch of sizes!

Since too many slings come in the basic, small, medium and large, too many of us struggled to find one that fit well enough to feel safe carrying our infants. Like those wonderful designers that actually consider that women come in different shapes and sizes and give us clothes that fit… Serene Sling gives us the option to find a sling that fits!.

I saw the Serene Sling in action last week and was amazed at how securely the infant fit into it. The stretchy fabric that is the other secret to the snug and super secure fit. The woven knit is certified by Oeko-Tex, an organization well known in Europe that tests for over 100 harmful substances, so you can be sure your baby is safe from nasty toxins. It’s environmentally friendly too!

Am I gushing? Perhaps I am, but a snug-fitting, environmentally friendly sling is on the top of my list  of essential baby items.