Shop local, buy on line.
Babyshere.com a local Arlington Virginia company that offers environmentally friendly baby announcements, shower invitations and thank-you cards on 100% recycled paper is working with Arlington Baby Community to sponsor a give-away. The winner will receive a $50.00 gift certificate to Babyshere.com.
Send an email to Carolyn@arlingtonbabycommunity.com and include a valid email address to enter the lottery.
The winner will be announced on October 19, 2008.
Arlington Baby Community readers will save 15% off orders of Isabooties by using the coupon
code falltime08. The coupon code expires September 31, 2008.
IsaBooties are non slip footwear for babies. They are animal-free, formaldehyde-free, made in the USA, recyclable, printed with soy ink and are machine-washable. Oh, and they are adorable, too. Isabooties are created and designed by 2 mom who were local Arlington residents for many years.
Long before my Peanut was ready to start school and long after I was heading back to school, I referred to all fall shopping as “back to school shopping”. I mean, is there anything more fun than back to school shopping? The excitement of a new year, a new wardrobe, a new you.
Well, this year, Peanut is embarking on a new adventure: Pre-school 2 mornings a week. And, we couldn’t be more excited. School starts Monday and I have had his little backpack packed and ready by the door for days. His first day of school outfitt is washed and ready to wear.
I will post a picture of him on his first day. I doubt he will cry as I leave him on his own in his new classroom. But, I am sure that I will.
(update: we both cried.)
As usual, Nanna and Pop-Pop came bearing gifts. Along with his new tricycle, Peanut loves his new Splash! book. It is made from natural renewable resources such as recycled paper and soy ink. The board book has bright pictures and just the right amount of words to hold his interest. It even has a handle allowing him to carry it around the house with him.
No nap for my son the other day. But, he did manage to use the time to practice his stripping skills. I found him dancing around his crib buck naked but for his ankle socks. Clothes, diaper and all shame thrown out of the crib. As I took his picture, he mugged for the camera, sticking his little tushy out and yelling, “cheese”.
Eating breakfast, especially cereal, when ttc and when pregnant makes little boys while eating no breakfast and less calories in general makes little girls. Or so a new study has concluded.
So, did my almost 70 pound weight gain from eating almost exclusively breakfast foods make my Peanut a Peanut and not a Peanuette? Or did all of those pancakes, omeletes, french toast and Cheerios just contribute to his egg and peanut allergy?
Since we are hoping for a girl next time, my new lower-calorie diet has eliminated all cereal. The first time I planned the horoscope of my baby to-be and next time I will try to influence the gender as well. My control issues are, perhaps, getting a bit out of control.
But, the 3rd, that one, I am throwing caution to the wind. No trying to plan control horoscope signs, gender, food allergies and all the rest. Whatever will be, will be. My husband says not to worry, there will never be a 3rd. But, I say, you can’t control everything.
I love my play group. We have met almost every Tuesday for the past 15 months. A few of the moms have become my closest friends. And Peanut has started to learn to play nicely with the other kids and not take their toys. That last statement was a lie. Any day now…
Besides just making our weeks more fun, apparently, play groups have given Peanut another benefit. This article from MSNBC explains a recent study showing that day-care or playgroups may help protect children against leukemia. Kids who attended playgroups or day-care before age 2 had the highest rates of protection against the disease. The article states that children who attended day-care or playgroups had as much as a 30% decreased risk of contracting leukemia.
Check out our section on local Mom’s groups and get out and have fun.
At home, Peanut is a genius. He tries to imitate everything we do. He is a problem solver and figures out how to get or do what he wants when he wants. He rarely never gives up.
O.k., it is true that his vocabulary is rather limited. I am “Da” rather than Mama, all animals are “woof-woof’s”, and he still has not cracked the complexities of yes and no. But, we applaud all of his achievements as if he had just won the Noble Prize.
When we were visiting Peanut’s grandparents, he ran around the house chasing the “woof-woof” (cat) for hours chanting, “woof-woof”. One morning, Peanut saw Grandpa play with the cat with a piece of string. Later that day, when Peanut finally caught the “woof-woof”, he knew just what to do. He picked up the string and dangled it in front of the cat to play with him just like Grandpa had done. We could not get over how astute this was for a 16 month old. He saw what Grandpa had done to play with the cat and copied his actions hours later. I would be lying if I did not admit that the word Harvard was thrown around. More than once.
The following week we were at our friend’s house where their 17 month old daughter sounded out most of the letters of the alphabet on command. She could tell me what an A sounds like, what a B sounds like, etc. Suddenly dangling a piece of string in front of a cat while calling him a “woof-woof” didn’t seem all that impressive. The imaginary ivy league applications were put on hold.
All confidence in my son’s intellect was restored later that evening at home when my husband called out that Peanut had managed to put the bedroom television on himself. This is no small feat. The installer did not set up a universal remote for this t.v., and, in order to turn it on it is necessary to push the right buttons in the right order on the right clickers facing the right direction with the stars alligned just so. As I ran in and saw that he had indeed successfully turned on MSNBC, any lingering doubts of Peanut’s intellect were put to rest. My husband and I looked at each other and whispered at the same time, “brilliant.”
