Generally, between the ages of 1 ½ and 3 ½ (probably closer to 3) it’s time for your child to move from the crib into a toddler bed or a twin sized bed. Though this may be true, the transition is not an easy one. The crib is small and has walls around it, and it feels more secure.

Moving To The Bed

A larger bed with no walls feels expansive and not safe. A good way to alleviate this fear is to make sure the bed is comfortable and inviting, you may even want to let the child help pick out the bed. Once you have the bed set up, keep things near it that the baby likes. You may want to set up the bed in the same room as the crib a good deal before the transition so the child gets used to it being there. Be excited about the bed and how wonderful it is that the child is big enough to get to sleep in it. Make it something to look forward to. Make sure that some playtime happens on the bed so the child associates the bed with good things.

The Right Time

If you feel your child is just not ready to move to the bed yet, don’t force the transition, let the child stay in the crib a little longer until he or she is more ready for the move. If the move is forced, the child may suffer an adverse reaction and moving will become much more difficult.

With helmet wearing a mandatory occurrence when kids are out bike riding, parents tend  to believe that will keep their kids completely out of harms way. But will it really?

Head Injuries Increases

While the numbers of children riding bikes have decreased, the numbers of reported head injuries have increased, a whole ten percent since 1991. This is under the conditions of helmet wearing haven risen sharply. So what’s happening? Are the helmets not working? No one is really sure why the numbers are what they are; however, safety experts still stress that while helmets do not prevent accidents from happening, they are very effective at reducing the severity of the head injuries when accidents happen. It is a rarity that anyone suggests helmet wearing is of no use and should be stopped and many experts say that helmets can reduce the severity of brain injuries incurred by as much as 80 percent.

Stay Away From Danger

Many advocates of helmet wearing say that the rising number of injuries coincides with the rising number of aggressive drivers on the road, others suggest that many riders may wear their helmets improperly or don’t follow the rules of the road.  Many streets that have no shoulders may still have cycle riders on them where it may be clearly dangerous to ride. Some even believe that because a rider is wearing a helmet, they feel a false sense of security that allows them to be much more bold in their riding practices than they should be. No matter what the reason, a head injury can change your whole life. Make sure you wear your helmet, wear it correctly and ride in a sensible fashion.

There’s absolutely nothing like the feel of a newborn baby’s velvety soft skin. When the baby is born, the skin may look a bit blotchy, it may even peel after the first few days, they may also get different kinds of spots or maybe a rash, this is all normal and nothing to worry about, everything should clear up in the first few days.

Sensitive Skin

A newborn’s skin does tend to be pretty sensitive and good care is a must. This doesn’t mean bathe the baby every day, doing this will tend to dry out the skin and cause it to begin flaking, spot cleaning is fine.

Product Labels

You will always want to read the ingredients printed on the labels of any products you are considering purchasing for use on your baby. Organic products are preferred, however there are plenty of products out there not listed as organic but still safe to use on your baby and will give fine results. Never buy anything that has alcohol, harsh chemicals, detergents or anything that could irritate the skin. If you’re not sure, move on to a product you can be sure of.

Use Sunscreen

It’s best not to use sunscreen on a newborn baby’s skin, it can be irritating and cause skin problems. It’s a much better idea just to keep your baby out of the sun or protected from it by clothing, a sun hat and a light sheet material over the stroller or carrier when out in the sun.

Diaper bags are often given as a baby shower gift but that doesn’t mean the gift is what you want. If you have had babies before it’s a pretty sure bet you know what you want, but if this is your first baby you may be a bit confused.

Space

Obviously, the first thing you want to make sure of is that the bag has room, lots of space to carry the items you will need while out. Spacious doesn’t have to mean bulky, you can still have a designer look without sacrificing the room. Just remember, if you’re looking at a designer name bag, you’ll be paying for the name and not the space or layout.

Consider More Than One Bag

You may actually want to get two bags, one for extended outings and one for quick outings. Pockets, pockets and more pockets, pockets are a good thing, the more the merrier. It seems that most bags don’t have quite enough pockets to organize everything. If that is the case where you’re concerned, you may even want to consider something like a little duffle bag, they’re durable and have lots of pockets, they also have scads of interior room for changes of clothes and other supplies.

The main thing is, just to choose a diaper bag that best suits your needs as you see them. You may guess wrong the first time, however you will learn from experience and choose an even better one next time.

Being an expectant mother means you are going to be full of anticipation and excitement over the soon to be arriving baby. You’ve probably been staying up nights figuring out names and attending baby showers. You’ve probably also done a lot of research on how to be a good mother. Now it’s time to focus and really get prepared for the arrival before the baby actually arrives. Your nursery needs to be set up and equipped.

Choosing Furniture

In choosing furniture, you’ll want to choose cleverly, many items can grow with your baby, that means less money spent in purchasing replacements such as cribs, when there are cribs available that will convert to a toddler bed. Other items may be a changing table with diaper pail, possibly a bath tub, definitely a stroller and a playpen. You will also need a car seat and maybe a baby monitor.

Accessories

You’ll need something to cloth your baby in and if you don’t know the gender yet, you can get clothes that will work regardless of the gender. You’ll want blankets, socks, mitts and general comfy clothing. You will also need car items such as diapers, wipes, ointments, shampoo and a baby body wash. You may want to take a quiet moment and write down everything you think you need in preparation for the arrival, then cross out the things you already have through gifts and purchases. What you have left will be your shopping list.

Ever heard of a yo-yo quilt? These are great little quilts that baby can play with as well as sleep with. Babies love to handle the rounded buttons and play with the hole in the center of each one. If baby is to sleep with this quilt, you may want to also add another light blanket as this one is rather airy.

Add A Personal Touch

Personalized items are fun and they can end up being keepsakes long after the baby has reached adulthood. Such things as changing mats or diaper bags can have the baby’s footprint imprinted on them along with the baby’s name and vital statistics. There are a large number of different articles available on the market that can be customized to your baby.

Pass Something On To Your Baby

Do you have anything of yours from when you were a baby? These baby items can become extremely special when passed down to the next generation, even things you might not imagine such as mom or dad’s hair from the first hair cut, mom or dad’s baby book that memorializes there first ours, days and years. Things like these can adorn the new nursery and when the child gets old enough it will become something very special for the simple fact that it was part of your life as a baby. Some things may be considered hand me downs, but things such as this don’t classify there, they are special keepsakes that are irreplaceable.

Musical Instrument Set

One of the hottest selling toys of the 2008-2009 season is clearly going to be the Amazing Baby Developmental Musical Instrument Set. This toy set features a soft sided rattling tambourine, a musical snail that plays the song ‘You Are My Sunshine’ it also has a kitty castanet and a fish maraca. Everything in the set is padded for safety and all of it is sized to fit a baby’s hand comfortably. This set is designed to ‘delight the senses’ of babies and encourage them to focus, touch, listen and learn. This is a developmental toy that helps with hand eye coordination .

Munchkin Mozart Magic Cube

The Munchkin Mozart Magic Cube is a musical cube that offers music from the violin, piano, harp, French horn and flute with a push of the buttons. The buttons can be pushed separately or all together. Each button also lights up to tell which one is currently playing. Babies can have hours of fun and it can teach a child rhythm and coordination.

Leap Frog Learn & Groove

The Leap Frog Learn and Groove Musical Table is another musical toy that really seems to keep children focused and entertained. The table has a wide range of features including songs and instrument sounds. It also has things that roll, slide and open and close. This little table can keep a child entertained for hours, while they learn.

Musical toys seem to be all the rage for 2008 and 2009. They are wonderful learning tools, the child can learn not only by sight and sound but also by touch.

Savings Bond

A great gift for a child that has everything is a savings bond for college. Generally a savings bond is not something that people normally think of so you are likely going to be the only one that is giving that as a gift. The money you spend now on the bond will compound as the child reaches college age and it cannot be spent before then so it will still be around when that time comes.

Tree

In this time of planet consciousness, another great gift would be a tree, purchased in his or her name, especially trees that are currently endangered. The child will be supplied with information on the tree as far as where it is and what it is. This is a great way to help the world that the child will be growing up in.

Photo Shoot

A photo shoot would also be a nice present and it will be something that will last well into the future. That may be more for the parents but at as a baby, and one who has everything, it might be nice to treat the parents to something nice, I’m sure the baby wouldn’t mind.

Star

There are innumerable stars in the sky and one of them could have the baby’s name on it. The star registry has been around for a long time and they’ve been registering starts for people all over the world. When you get a star named, they will send you the directions and pictures you need in order to locate it in the night sky.

If you walk into the nearest baby supply store, you will likely be overwhelmed by the selection of cribs laid out before you, many of them just waiting for you to fall in love with them and take them home. Stores are clever in their sales tactics and will dress the cribs up with the most aesthetically pleasing bed clothes they can. They will also do their best to talk you into the one that has you bedazzled, but should you buy it?

Purchase Before Your Due Date

You’ll want to purchase the crib well before you are due, you don’t want to walk into a store, decide on a crib and find they don’t have it in stock. Getting well before your due date will ensure you get the one you want rather than settling for what they have.

Safety Standards

An important thing to know and understand is that all cribs, regardless of price are required to meet federal safety standards if they are sold in either the United States or Canada. The regulations are very strict regarding cribs and this is the reason they all look very much alike. That doesn’t mean there aren’t benefits from purchasing a higher priced crib. You’ll likely get a better grade of wood that is more pleasing to the eye, thicker corner posts and hidden hardware. The drop sides are likely to be quieter and you may be supplied with under crib drawers. Some will even convert to a toddler’s bed when the time comes.

You thought Pampers were all the rage, now, for your designer enjoyment, you can purchase diaper covers with cute little pictures and a personalization.

Go Green

If that’s not enough to float your boat, you can also go green and get soy clothing and soy blankets in a myriad of colors, sometimes all on the same piece of material. Clothing and blankets for baby made out of organic soy are becoming very popular.

Colors

Also coming back in style are the loud and vibrant colors of the sixties. You will have no problem misplacing your child if you dress him or her in the color schemes of the day. Psychedelic children’s clothing can be seen blaring out from computer screens and store windows. Already there are multi colored children in strollers and trotting along side the family, bright oranges, blues and greens swirling around one another in a Crayola nightmare.

The Sixties

The sixties are coming back strongly right now in every facet of fashion. Some children’s clothes have printed themes on them that is very reminiscent of flower children and love struck hippies. Flowers seem to be very popular in clothes this year, for young and old alike. Don’t get me wrong, all of the traditional colors and designs are still out there, you can still find them if you look, you will just have to look around more vibrant colors of the day.