Andrew Shue CafeMom

Remember Andrew Shue from Melrose Place? He played Billy. Well, I was reading an article about how he is getting married to the Today show’s Amy Robach. At the end of the article was an update about what Andrew has been up to since he was on Melrose Place. Apparently he has "co-founded the nonprofit foundation Do Something, an organization that encourages volunteerism, and the social networking site CafeMom." Yeah, he operates the website CafeMom. I had no idea he was involved with that. It's a very impressive website. It is doing very well. Good for Andrew! His sister Elizabeth Shue is even a member.
Lots of times I've done Google searches and CafeMom has come up in the search results. It's a very useful parenting site.
You can join groups, set up a profile, create a journal and share info. I haven't gotten into it too far yet, but it looks like a great site to connect with other parents. It looks like there is quite a bit of useful parenting information available. Good place to ask questions and get parenting advice.


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How to Help Baby Sleep With Music

Baby having trouble sleeping? Well, I lucked out with both of my boys. They are both great sleepers. I really have no idea how that happened. Maybe they just take after me. I LOVE to sleep. lol. I think a routine is a big part of it. We have a set feeding schedule. Breakfast when they first get up. Morning snack 2 hours later. Lunch 2 hours after that. Nap/quiet time for 2 hours. Afternoon snack when naptime is over. Dinner 2 1/2 hours after that. Bath time and bedtime snack and bedtime. I work at home, so the boys get lots of unstructured play time. They are excellent at keeping themselves occupied. My oldest son enjoys building sheds with his Legos for his Thomas and friends trains. Very creative little boy.
Anyways, during the day, they are super busy, so I think that helps wear them out, so they are ready for bed when the time comes.
One thing I have done is play music for them at bedtime. For my youngest's first year, I would put on Bob Marley. I read that babies are supposed to like Bob Marley. My son did seem to enjoy it, but for my oldest son, I used Journey's Escape cd. He would always fall asleep before the cd was even over. It was a rare occasion when he would still be awake when it was over. Shortly after my youngest turned 1, I decided to give up on Bob and switch him over to Journey. For a while I noticed he would still be awake after the Bob Marley cd was over. He would occupy himself, but it would take a little while longer for him to fall asleep. Well, I switched him over to Journey and he is now sleeping well before the Journey cd is done playing. I'm very impressed. If you have a baby or toddler who is having trouble sleeping, I highly recommend playing the Journey Escape cd for him. Who knows if it will help, but it is certainly worth a try.
BTW, music is great for stimulating a babies brain to develop.
To get a baby to sleep through the night, you might also try using a fan, or I use a humidifier, turned on high. The white noise of the fan or humidifier sometimes helps. I know the humidifier noise has helped my son sleep while he's been sick.



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How To Remove Crayon From Walls

How to remove crayon from walls is something I had to learn recently. When my 4 year old was about 2 years old, my little budding artist took his crayons and drew some nice designs on a couple of walls. Shortly after he turned 3 years old, his brother arrived and after learning how to draw mountains from Blues Clues, he decided to draw the Rocky Mountains allllllll the way down the hallway. At first it was cute and I was quite impressed with his imagination. After all, I do try to encourage his creativity every chance I get. Who else has walls with this very unique mural?
Well, it's almost 2 years later and I just want my white walls back, lol, so I've been working my way around the walls removing the crayon using a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. That thing is the best. It cleans anything. All you do is wet the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and scrub away. Every so often, rinse the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser out. One thing you have to be careful of is that you don't scrub too hard. Otherwise, you will scrub right through the paint. Scrub lightly though, and you will remove the crayon from the walls very easily.







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Developmentally Delayed

My little baby is now 19 1/2 months old. My oldest is 4 1/2 already. Unbelievable how fast time goes. Especially when the second baby comes along.
At my youngest's 15 month checkup, his doctor thought he was developmentally delayed. He wasn't walking yet, not too many words and he refused to feed himself. His doctor recommended getting Early Child Intervention involved. To encourage him to walk they suggested a walk behind push toy, which we already had. They also suggested taking him outside to walk on the grass.
To feed himself, they recommended lots of finger foods, such as peas, carrots, small pieces of fruit, cheerios, crackers, etc.
For his vocabulary, they recommended lots of reading. As you read, point to the pictures and name the objects and ask him where is ... and ask him to point to it. One book I bought is Happy Baby Words. It's a nice book. Full of pictures. He seems to enjoy it.
Also, whenever he does do something, take a few steps, feed himself a bite, etc., just encourage and give him lots of praise.
Well, he has come a long ways in the past few months. He was a late walker at 17 1/2 months, but he's running around like a mad man now. He feeds himself now, although still with his fingers. His vocabulary is growing, although I'm still not convinced he's saying as much as he should be. Sometimes his speech is a little hard to understand, but he's still young yet. I did buy him a dvd for speech development called Baby Babble 2 - First Words: P B M.
It's a nice dvd and really captures his attention. Even his brother enjoys it. This is the 2nd dvd developed by two speech pathologists. This one focuses on learning words which start with the letters P, B and M. The dvd also contains sign language chapters and a tips for parents chapter. It's pretty mellow. Background music plays as different toys and objects are shown and the names of the objects are given. I do think it has helped my son. One day he said papa out of the blue and as the video plays I've heard him jabber along with it.
The first dvd, Baby Babble - Speech-Enhancing DVD for Babies and Toddlers, focuses on more than just P, B and M. It's not quite as new, but still relevant. I plan on buying it sometime soon.
Another thing I've done to encourage my son's brain development is feed him lots of berries, blueberries, strawberries, etc. Blueberries are brain food and are pretty affordable when bought frozen. Frozen food is actually more nutritious than fresh because it is frozen as soon as it is picked. Fresh food loses nutrients in transit.
Berries are also full of antioxidants to keep everyone healthy.



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Child Constipation Remedy

Just want to mention I updated some information in an earlier post about child constipation remedies.

Potty Training, How to Clean a Potty Chair

My 4 year old has been potty trained for quite some time. I'm very proud of him as he pretty much did it on his own. Potty training is something you just can't push. You can guide them, but you pretty much have to wait for them to be ready. I figured night time would take a while since I wasn't about to wake my son during the night to go. One night he decided he didn't want to wear a diaper, so I let him go without one just to test him. He stayed dry for a few nights, then would be wet, then dry. It didn't take too long before he just stayed dry every night.
I opted for the potty chair over the toilet seat potty only because my son is very curious and would get into everything in the bathroom.
The potty is a pain in the butt when it comes to cleaning. Even though I keep it empty and rinsed out, it doesn't take very long for the potty bowl to become stained. I tried spraying it with lysol cleaner, letting it set a bit and then scrubbing. That works pretty good, but what worked the best was white vinegar. Just fill the potty bowl with white vinegar, let it set overnight and rinse with water. The potty should be remarkably clean. I know I was impressed.
BTW, if you are trying to choose a potty, buy a plain cheap model, as you will probably just want to throw it away once potty training is over. Even though I try to keep it clean, the potty isn't something I'm going to hang on to. Some potty chairs have all the bells and whistles with sounds and make believe flushing that sell for about $50. Watching my son's poor aim at times makes me glad I just opted for the cheap model.


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Picky Eater

Got a picky eater? My 4 year old is an extremely picky eater. He pretty much lives off of cheese and crackers. He hasn't touched a vegetable in months and is now starting to reject fruit. He also eats meat sparingly. He's in the 10th percentile for weight, so he's thin, but not underweight at least.
While doing some Christmas shopping at Amazon.com, I came across a book called The Sneaky Chef. Great book! You puree various fruits, vegetables and beans and add them to various recipes. So far I've made the mac n cheese, pizza and chocolate chip cookies. I was very impressed with all 3 recipes. The mac n cheese contained carrots and sweet potatoes. The pizza contained white kidney beans, carrots and sweet potatoes and the chocolate chip cookies contained white kidney beans and dried berries. In all 3 recipes no one would ever guess the secret ingredients. If you ask me, everything tasted better than the normal recipe. Unfortunately, my son wouldn't eat the mac n cheese or the pizza, but he chowed down 3 of the chocolate chip cookies when they came out of the oven. Today he did even ate a tuna fish sandwich with wheat germ.
Next, I'm going to try burgers with spinach and blueberries, brownies with spinach and blueberries and french fries with cornmeal.
I don't like sneaking secret ingredients into my son's food, but everything else I've tried has failed, so I'm really glad I bought The Sneaky Chef. It's a good way to ensure your child or you or your spouse eat healthy.

BTW, I just discovered the author, Missy Chase Lapine, has a 2nd book out. The reviews say it is even better than the first. I will definitely be ordering it.