I was enjoying my lunch at 11:59 AM and at 12:01 PM, I was a new Mom.  At 3:00 PM, Sam & I walked into the adoption agency and Sister M handed Sam this little bundle (He was 2 months old)  and said, “Enjoy holding your son because the minute you hand him over to Sari, you won’t get to hold him for a long time.”  I did share, but it was hard.

Fortunately, I came from a large family and babies were no strangers to me.  I was child #5 out of 7, so I had lots of nieces and nephews.  Sam was a novice, even though he was the oldest of 4 boys, he grew up in a house where Mom did it all.  I will say that Sam did take well to bottle feeding and changing wet diapers, the messy ones were a different story.

I hope to do a series of blogs to give you the highlights of each baby stage and to show you wonderful toys for each age level.  But we must remember, babies love to develop at their own pace, some do things earlier than the books say and some do things later than the books say.  But, as Dr. Bibby used to say, they will all be potty trained by Kindergarten.

Thanks to someone who shared their fairy with me last year, we can all have a Halloween Fairy.  None of us want the kids eating tons of Trick or Treat Candy, and we don’t want to eat it either.  So, every Halloween night, after the kids get home from Trick or Treating, or parties, or grandma’s, have them sit down & choose 5 or 10 of their favorite pieces of candies.  The rest goes into a bag and outside the front door, waiting for the Halloween Fairy.  Explain to your child that there are so many children that can’t go out on Halloween and the fairy will bring the extra candy to them.  What a great way to get the kids to learn about doing for others that are less fortunate then them.  It is really hard to give away something that you want, so the fairy leaves a lettle something in place of the candy.  It should be something little, but something that helps to make them glad that they were magnanimous.

They also have to get ready for the new schedule.   Here are some tips to help everybody prepare for the changes.

• Sleep routine.  During the summer,  bedtime is much more flexible.  You want to start getting the kids ready for bed earlier.  Start bedtime 15 minutes earlier for a few days & then another 15 minutes for a few days, by then, hopefully you will be close to school night bedtimes.  Also, start to wake them up on the same schedule so that you get closer to wake up time.
• Before bedtime, have the kids select what they want to wear & lay it out.  this makes for a much smoother morning.  Remember to select the shoes also.
• Once school starts, have them pack their backpacks the night before so that it is just grab & run.

Shopping is so much fun for new shoes & clothes.  Remember, kids like to wear what their friends are wearing.  Only get a few new things, so that they can get the similar items that their friends have.  But, new shoes are always fun!  So are sharp crayons.

• The toy is safe for our children to play with.    I am so glad that I refused to carry Buckyballs.  The Consumer Safety Board just made this annoucement that ordered a halt to sale of Buckyballs magnetic toys on Wednesday, calling them a serious hazard in the panel’s first stop-sale order in 11 years. I refused to ever carry them.
  Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/07/26/cpsc-bans-sale-buckyballs-magnetic-toys-cites-hazard/#ixzz21l24xYcq
• The toy is age appropriate.   Our children are very smart.  They seem to learn things so much sooner because of the wonderful programs available on the internet.  But we must remember, they are children & they need to run, jump, manipulate, create, build.  All necessities to develop mentally, physically and socially.
• The toy engages the child.   The toy encourages open-ended play so that the child spends time playing.
• The toy grows with the child.  I great toy introduces and reinforces age-specific skills and helps the child advance from one developmental stage to the next.  I love The Smart Max Magnetic toy.  Sam & I gave it to the twins.  They stuck magnets on anything they could, now they are making long lines of magnets and balls, also learning that some pieces attract & repel.  Their parents are teaching them to make shapes, they talk about the colors, patterning.  Soon, they will be making bridges & arches.  Age appropriate, starting at 1 yr old.  Age range: endless.
• Is it fun?  If it has all of the above elements, it sure is.

I hope that you have enjoyed this blog.  Please share it and reply to it.  Look for more to come.

If your kids are like most, they inevitably are tempted by all of the eye-catching toys and trinkets that these places aggressively sell. But, when ticket prices often exceed $50.00 per person and then you add on food, travel and lodging expenses, spending more on frivolous souvenirs may not be what you want to do!

What’s the solution?

Give your children jobs to do around the house so that they can earn enough to buy with their own money the trinkets then want. Sam and I always told our children that we would buy then one souvenir, but they had to pay for whatever else they wanted. This didn’t include food or drinks, but when the children said, “I want,” we’d ask, “Ok, are you buying it, or are we?” It definitely made them stop and think.

Sam and I would inevitably buy them a special trinket – usually one that went on the shelf as a memento. But, the kids would buy smaller items with their own money.  They always returned home with money left over. I wish Sam and I could say the same! But, we helped teach our children the value of a dollar at an early age.

How do you handle souvenirs on your family trips? Please share your ideas with us on Facebook!