Category — Baby Activities

Halloween is only 58 days away, so it’s time to start thinking about ideas for baby Halloween costumes. More specifically, it’s time to start thinking about what costume you can convince your tot to wear that won’t induce a temper tantrum. Here are a few suggestions to kick off your search:

The 2008 Tom Arma Halloween Costume Signature Collection has several costumes that can do double duty as adorable outfits for Christmas parties, like an Elf costume, a “Snowbaby” costume and a Santa costume.

Older kids are going crazy for this Wall-E Costume. Shop early for Wall-E costumes to avoid disappointment and panic on Halloween.

Vegas-bound babies will love the Elvis costume, which they can also wear while performing drive-thru weddings. Hail to The King, baby!

Stay tuned for more Halloween costume updates in the next few weeks!

Celebrating it’s tenth birthday is the Baby Einstein Disney line. You may know of its hit TV series or even the tons of toys, CDs, books and DVDs they produce that center around providing fun ways to learn about music and sounds for infants. They recently began targeting toddlers and will have a new line called “Einstein Pals ™” coming out in the spring made just for them. Also coming in 2009 will be the releases of two interactive DVDs called “Grow With Me” and “Select Your Segment”. These will have a focus on world music (vs. just classical music) and different cultures.

Meanwhile you can pick up two new DVD fall releases (that were center of attention during the anniversary celebration at Disney’s Concert Hall), “Baby Mozart” and “Baby Beethoven”, which have a cute puppet show and performance by the Glendale Youth Orchestra. If you aren’t already a part of the Baby Einstein mom fan train, you might want to hop aboard. I personally enjoy the DVDs and have seen my growing son singing new songs and even identifying instruments.

It was potty training with toddler time on The Baby Borrowers last night, leaving the teens grimacing and gagging their way through 3 days of disgusting sights and smells on pretty much every surface of their homes. Fun times!

While last night’s episode of The Baby Borrowers has all kinds of difficult-to-watch moments (many involving the utterly clueless Daton and Morgan), I was most disturbed by Sasha’s complete and total profanity-strewn meltdown at the end of the episode. Everyone in the neighborhood heard it, so I am pretty sure little Luke heard it, and I think that upset me more than watching Morgan drag the kid with the dirty diaper off the couch. ( I have seen plenty of parents drag mid-tantrum kids down aisles of Toys-R-Us, and those kids were fine, so I don’t really see the big deal here.  The kid even seemed to enjoy it.  Though it’s not something you want happening every day, of course.)  Sasha’s meltdown was on par, however, with Morgan not wiping the poop off the baby before re-diapering him: whatever baby Luke heard may linger with him longer than a poop-induced rash, and might be just as painful. Kids are little sponges, Sasha - they absorb everything, so watch what you say and how you say it!

The previews from next week’s episode show Sasha with her bags packed and ready to go, but I hope in spite of it all she sticks it out until the end. She does have a way with kids in general. And to Sasha’s credit, I thought she might be in trouble with Luke from the moment his mom started telling them how easy and fuss-free he is, how if they just lay down with him, he’ll go to sleep etc. It was a little too much “My son is perfect” and hinted that no matter what Sasha did, she was not going to be good enough for this mom’s tastes. However, as good as I think Sasha can be with kids, her response to criticism from Luke’s mom was WAY over-the-top and immature. She definitely needs to get that in check. Kudos to her boyfriend Jordan for stepping in and defusing the situation, though.

I am really looking forward to next week’s episode: pre-teens and pets, including a snake. Should be good! I hope Sasha sticks around!

Here’s a great idea for kids who can’t yet read numbers but really want a cell phone: the Nakamiki Children Phone. It has four pre-set speed dials, one on each of the teddy bear’s paw, and actually allows parents to tune in and listen to their child’s surroundings without alerting the child. It’s marketed for kids from 5-15, so I can understand the appeal of the parental monitoring, especially with teenagers, but I don’t think kids over 10 can be easily convinced to carry a teddy bear phone instead of a real cell phone.

However, it does seem great for younger kids. In addition to being easy to use and super cute, it has a toxin-free exterior, so it’s safe while providing safety. Pretty cool!

I am getting ready to start my long weekend but I wanted to do a quick post to say Happy 4th of July! Hope you have a fantastic celebration and a great weekend! Here are a couple of firework safety tips to keep everyone healthy and happy:

Firework Safety for Kids

CPSC Presents Firework Safety

Fireworks Safety Month

Enjoy your weekend!  See you Monday!

Here are some cool, lead-free toys that help kids learn while playing:

• Tieramid CircleSet Creative Blocks

• Dado Cubes

Or check out these great links for more safe educational toys:

• Kangarooboo
• eBeanstalk
• Leaps and Bounds

Finally, some Tips for Choosing Safe Toys.

I think that it generally is a really good idea to have some kind of activity classes for parents and kids, because it is a great way to bond and relax and get out of the house for a while. I love the idea of mom and baby yoga classes.

My quest for information on baby yoga made me wonder if they made workout clothes for babies, and I found these adorable yoga pants, made in sizes for newborns up to size 4T:

And these awesome yoga mats:

I think they will go great with Mom’s yoga pants at Mommy and Me yoga.

Here are some great baby yoga resources:

• Yoga Baby
• Itsy Bitsy Yoga
• Yoga Journal: Yoga to Bolster Baby Development