Book Review: The Baby Whisperer Solves all your Problems

It's amazing how many times I have picked up this book in the past two years. It is absolutely the best book I have on taking care of your little ones.  I decided to write a review on this book, because once again, I have taken it off of the shelf to consult for our little C.  Little C is now 7 months old, and even though he has a big brother, I still like to look at the Baby Whisperer to remind myself of Tracy Hogg's amazing advice! 

The Baby Whisperer Solves all your Problems, by Tracy Hogg, is an incredibly practical, relatable and relevant book which lovingly guides you into caring for your child.  Tracy Hogg bases her child rearing on the acronym E.A.S.Y. and it is a life saver for any new (and old) parent! E.A.S.Y. is a simple routine that keeps everyone happy - Eat, Activity, Sleep and You time. In the book she gives  general schedule guidelines, eating practices, sleep routines, potty training advice and Q and A.  To be brief, it covers pretty much every topic and question you may have about the first year of life and into toddlerhood.

The highest praise I can give this book, however, is the results I had from it.  I followed the advice presented in this book almost exactly and both of my boys were sleeping through the night when they were 3 months old.  Little A began sleeping through the night at 2 months old!  I highly recommend this book, and have recommended it to other parents as well. I'm sure it will get well worn like my copy and it will serve as a reference book for you as your family grows. I simply can't say enough! 

Inside Activities for a Busy Toddler Boy

After a surprising month of sunshine, the rain has once again returned.  Outings to the park are now limited and our little family needs to find another way to let out some energy. Without some activity, my little A would not be as well behaved or happy as he usually is!

So, in order to keep little A happy (and my husband and I happy as well!) I started a search for different ways to burn off energy when the rain traps us inside. Here's a few of the activities we've tried:

1. Using couch pillows as a place to jump around, roll around, and have lots of safe, padded fun!

2. Getting all kinds of stickers and putting them everywhere!  Little A has just discovered stickers and is so proud of himself when he's able to peel them off on his own. He's happy for as long as 20 minutes with stickers.

3. Making roads for his hotwheels cars.  I got this ideas from a website, and it has been somewhat appealing to little A.  I took pieces of paper and made them look like roads. The paper, unfortunately, doesn't stick to the ground and little A gets a bit frustrated when his cars move the papers around.

4. Playing a magnet game with puffs and letter print outs (courtesy of Fab N' Free). He's a bit young for this, but he's liking it more and more.

5. Using Paper plates to jump over and jump on. I labelled each paper plate with a number and had little A jump on the different numbers, follow my lead and run around them.  It's amazing how much fun he's having with his paper plates!

There are still some more ideas I'd like to try and will let you know about them as we test them out!