Parenting & New Baby Advice Blog

Archive for July, 2010

Baby Time Capsule Gift

When there’s a new baby in the family, you wish you could capture every moment and freeze it in time. While no one can stop time, one way you can preserve this special time in your lives is by creating a baby time capsule.

The Idea

The concept behind the time capsule is not new. People have been preserving things for future generations to unearth since time began. The baby time capsule is an idea that’s recently become popular. It involves filling a tube or other non-degradable, air-tight container with mementos of baby’s first year. Then, you bury it for baby to dig up later when she’s all grown up.

Kits

There are some fantastic kits on the market that include everything you need to personalize a time capsule of baby’s first year. They include things like stickers to create photo album pages, certificates to note the baby’s birth date, stationery to write a “Letter to the Future” on and, of course, an airtight capsule to store it all in. Kits can range from the very inexpensive to very pricey, so choose one that best fits your budget. These make great baby shower gifts for expectant parents.

Do it Yourself

With a little ingenuity, you can make a time capsule yourself. Find yourself an air-tight container that won’t corrode or rust. A steel tube with secure lid works well. Don’t use anything cardboard or wooden that might get wet underground and damage the contents inside. If you have a unique metal chest, that would be perfect. Just make sure it has a tight seal. Store items inside the container that pertain to baby’s firsts—first time walking, first words, first outfit, picture of first pet, etc. You might want to include things from the whole first year of baby’s life, or just the first day they were born. It’s up to you. Then, store each item inside a sealed plastic bag. Some things to include are: a newspaper from the day baby was born, a picture of baby’s first day, a picture of the parents holding baby, an item of fashion of the day like shoes or an outfit of baby’s, pictures of the town on the day baby came home from the hospital, an unused cell phone (to show what cell phones looked like when baby was born), a record of baby’s first visitors (have visitors sign and write a note), printouts from the Internet of news stories the day baby was born, baby’s footprint keepsake frame, and a lock of baby’s first haircut. You can personalize this as much as you like. Try to include items that will have changed by the time baby opens the capsule in the future.

Leave Instructions

The fun of a time capsule is of course in finding it and digging it up. Be sure you leave a detailed letter of where you buried the capsule. You might want to place the letter inside a baby book you’re keeping for your child or another important place in the house. Include any landmarks that might be near where you buried it so baby can find it when she’s all grown up. Include a date when your child can go and dig for it. Make your letter as creative as possible. After all, you’re writing a letter to the future!

Mommy & Me Lavender Gift Basket

Every new mother asks same question: How am I going to lose all this pregnancy weight?  During pregnancy, women are encouraged to put on weight to ensure a healthy baby.  It is the healthy eating and weight gain that assure us that our new little loved one will have a better chance at a long and healthy life.  After the baby is born, things change dramatically.  New mothers are faced with the huge task of dealing with a newborn; this entails dirty diapers, sporadic sleep schedules, and putting your needs second to the newborn child.  How is one supposed to find the time to take care of herself having all these other needs that must be met?

Diet – The simplest way to lose weight and get back into shape is through a proper diet.  Diet plans are all over the web.  Gimmicks like pills, creams, and potions are not the way to go because if you are breastfeeding, these products may have adverse effects on your health as well as that of your new baby plus they often provide only temporary weight loss and the rebound can be significant.  Remember, if you are breastfeeding, whatever you put into your body, you are also putting into your baby’s body.  Oftentimes with a healthy diet comes a pricey grocery bill; eating right is not always cheap.  With a little planning and research, though, healthy foods can be purchased at great deals, especially when it comes to seasonal food.  The major food groups (meats, grains, vegetables, and dairy) all offer a myriad of options for low calorie, high fiber, and lean protein food choices.  Try to stay away from pre-packaged processed foods, as these tend to be loaded with sodium and other preservatives.  Stay with whole wheat products, high fiber, and lean proteins like chicken and fish, and remember, everything in moderation is the best motto.

Exercise – Are you ready to run?  The answer is probably not.  After nine months of carrying around a baby, there is a good chance that your muscles are weak or even suffering from atrophy.  It’s not your fault. This is a natural occurrence when carrying and giving birth to a child.  When you are ready to begin the exercise routine, remember to choose something that is within your limits.  Do not set your goals too high too soon.  Nothing is worse than over-doing an exercise routine and being so sore the next day that it actually hurts to perform your normal, daily activities.  This will actually slow you down rather than speed up your fitness goals. 

You might opt to consider a full blown exercise routine with a set amount of time for cardio with a set number of repetitions for each exercise.  However, this is not the only way to improve your physical health and well-being.  You might instead consider an afternoon walk after lunch with a friend, or perhaps light aerobics as instructed on television.  You might also use your new little bundle in your exercise routine.

Baby Workout – Jogging strollers are a popular way of obtaining exercise while entertaining the little tyke, but there are other ways to involve baby in your goal of getting back in shape.  You might do push-ups with the baby under you, so it becomes more like a game and less like work.  In the same manner, consider a bench-press using the weight of the bundle of joy.  Arm curls and military presses work in the same manner.  These are great ways to work on getting back in shape while loving your little guy or baby girl.

Photo shows a group of moms all working out together at a mall.  Groups of like-minded individuals are always great motivation!

While losing the baby weight may be a goal of many new mothers, don’t forget to have a little “me” time outside the exercise facility.  A day at the spa or a bath gift basket for Mom full of aromatherapy products also go a long way toward rejuvenating….remember mind is just as important as body!

Are you in charge of planning a baby shower in the near future?  Do you want a creative way to pull it all together?  If so, then consider one of these two themes for a day of fun and laughs.

Babify it!  Theme
Ok, so it is not a real word, but nevertheless, this theme can produce a truly wonderful baby shower.  Rather than simply choosing a few pastel colors for plates and streamers, consider ways to take the term baby and make it apply to everything.  Serve baby back ribs with a salad of baby carrots, baby corn, baby spinach, and baby scallions.  For dessert, consider bite-sized baby cheesecakes, or even go so far as to pick up a few of the nostalgic candies with baby themes- baby bottle pops and pacifier shaped candies.  You can even go one step further and serve drinks out of baby bottle bottoms.  Remove the nipple, pour and serve.  The best option for bottles in this case would be those with a large base, such as Avent bottles.  At the end of the day, wash them, sterilize them, and give them to the mother-to-be. Throughout the shower, play traditional baby shower games such as “name that baby food” and “diapering relay.”

 Tea Party Baby Shower Theme

Tea Themed Baby Shower Table Setting from Pixelpackinmama at Flickr

If you would rather opt against the over-the-top baby theme, then perhaps a tea party would be more suitable.  This party idea is especially successful for the mother-to-be that is expecting a little girl because mini tea sets, intended for play, can be used in the festivities.  Line up a number of the small plastic tea cups, and fill each of the small pots with a different flavor of tea.  Much like a wine tasting, allow the women in attendance to try a few sips of each flavor.  There are a number of excellent online gourmet tea sites that will provide loose teas in a large variety of flavors, or if you are looking for a quick solution, go to the local grocery store and peruse the tea aisle.  For a sit-down style tea party, the teapot place card holders shown to the right make excellent favors too.  You might also serve small desserts that would typically accompany a tea party and play games that would be featured at a child’s tea party. These might include musical chairs and a dress-up race.  For the race, place maternity clothes, shoes and socks in a large pile at the end of a long space; have women form two teams and lineup in their teams at the opposite end of the room as the pile.  One by one, women should race down, choose a full outfit from the pile, put it on and race back.  Have the next woman in line take the clothes that the other woman is dressed in, wear them, run to the pile and change into a new outfit.  This process continues until one team goes through their entire line. The winning team might be presented with a small tea gift basket.  At the end of the party, wash the tea sets thoroughly, and give them to the mother-to-be for more tea parties in the future.

If you know someone who lives too far away to visit, and she is expecting a baby in the near future, you are probably facing the fact that it is time to start considering the purchase and shipment of a gift.  Picking out a baby gift can be fun and exciting as your peruse the aisles of adorable clothing, bouncers, high chairs, car seats, toys, and more, but, what about the shipping?  This can present a myriad of problems, but with a little bit of research you can tackle this problem.  Depending on the time of year, the shipment method, and the gift you are sending, you will have to ship at different intervals in order to assure the gift arrives within a week or so after the arrival of the bouncing baby boy or girl, and that it arrives in one piece.

Shipping UPS or FEDEX ground   If the recipient is within your state, UPS or FedEx ground will get there the following business day. That means that the gift shouldn’t be sent more than a day or two before the day of the shower or the expected arrival date of baby.  If the recipient is out of that zone (zones are different areas of the country that delivery services have divided up to provide lead times for customers), then you can usually assume two to three days.  UPS or FedEx also charge by the weight and the size of the package, so you will want to be careful if your package is too big either dimensionally or from a weight standpoint.  UPS and FedEx have maximum weights and dimensions, weight is usually up to seventy-five pounds, and the maximum dimension varies, so be sure to check out their website for that information if you are shipping on your own, as opposed to straight from the manufacturer.  

Oops, I have waited too long  If you wait till the last minute, and you have to get that package out UPS and FedEx provide next day air red (NDA) or blue, which is two day air anywhere in the continental US.  This form of shipping can be very costly and depending on the final destination, the two day guideline may not apply. This is especially true of areas not within the continental U.S.; Alaska and Hawaii.  You can get freight quotes from these providers by visiting their websites and following the prompts on how you want to ship something.  

Making sure it arrives in one piece   The next step you want to think about when sending a package is packaging.   How many times have you received something flattened or damaged in the mail?  Oftentimes when you ship something, whether it is with an independent agency like UPS or FedEx or with the US postal service they will offer you the option to put insurance on the package.  The fee is usually pretty small and is worth the money when you if you have an incident often times will not be covered by the agency because you declined insurance options.  Claims with these companies are arduous and almost impossible when you think that these people are dealing with hundreds of claims a day and often with huge companies that have the clout to push them around.  So your measly claim gets pushed to the bottom of the pile.   Nevertheless, get the insurance because you will eventually be reimbursed if there is an incident.

Another option  The US postal service is a tried and true agency with a long standing track record of SLOW delivery speeds.  This agency is really for small mail and parcels.  If you have a large package, go with the two giants UPS and FedEx.  Depending on your location, one will be better than the other.  So go to their websites and price up your delivery. Often, you can even use one quote from one agency to pit against the other agency.  They usually will try to match one another and beat it by a percentage.  The upside of postal delivery is that it is affordable, but of course, the downside is that they don’t really have up to the minute package tracking and delivery can often be slow.

The easiest method  Of course, the easiest way to ship a package is to let someone like Baby Gifts & Gift Baskets do it for you!  We ship hundreds of gifts a day so all you have to do is order up your favorite baby gift and we’ll take care of the rest!

Photo Credit:  Baby Rocking Horse Gift courtesy of Baby Gifts & Gift Baskets

As with all my cake posts, I’m drooling by the time I finish my research!  Luckily, my husband’s birthday was earlier this week so I was able to indulge in a little cake, although it wasn’t quite as inspiring as the cakes shown below.  All photos were found on www.flickr.com

The adorable creation shown in the top left is displayed by mandott on Flickr.  The two layer design features a railroad track piped on the cake plate and a train pieced together with fondant chugging around the bottom layer.  The top layer has fondant mountains and the topper is a railroad crossing sign.

The top center photo is a colorful train engine created by bo_n_arro.  The cake was cut and pieced together, then skillfully iced with buttercream.  Although it was time consuming to achieve the texture seen on the cake, the end result was worth the effort!

There are many ways to add a train to your shower cake, as seen on the top right cake made by sharoncakes.  The fancy 2 layer cake has colorful fondant accents, topped with a cardboard train that is decorated with icing.

The bottom cake shown above is my favorite train cake because of the shape, color and display!  The display board was simply decorated by cakeboxsoc with green icing and small, simple flowers along with a curved train track created out of icing.  The train itself was covered in brightly colored fondant, then small details were added with colored icing.  Although the design is not the most complex of the cakes shown here, it’s still a successful creation.

The center cake in the collage shown above is a simple sheet cake, iced with a small train design in the center.  The train was modeled after the one on the tableware that was used at Linda’s Kitchen’s shower.

The top design in the second collage is a large train piece baked and frosted by bluecakecompany.  The large pieces were frosted and decorated with buttercream and fondant.  I especially love the gum paste babies that were along for the train ride!

The bottom left cake was made with cakes baked in a loaf pan, then cut, iced and decorated with cookies, graham cracker bears and candy pieces.  The tracks were made out of popsickle sticks and a toy conductor is perched alongside.  This cake was made by amanda p. wu, and I found a great instructional video illustrating how to make a cake similar to this – sponsored by the Betty Crocker Kitchens and Howdini.com.

The final cake in this post is a professionally decorated piece with zebra stripes and jungle animals riding inside the train cars.  I love the detailed fondant work done by Pacific Pastries.  She actually created the circus train out of rice krispy treats because they are easier to mold into shape than cake.

It’s always fun to have little gifts to hand out to your baby shower guests.  Whether they win it playing a game or you give them out at the end of the shower, make sure to have some matching favors that will highlight your train themed baby shower!

One suggestion is the beautiful crystal train shown here.  Each multi-faceted lead crystal design glimmers in the sunlight and makes a great decoration or paperweight.  My husband loves to buy me lead crystal favors because of the way they reflect light and create rainbows for my boys to chase around the house!  We also have train-themed candles to decorate your tables or to send home with each guest.

You may want to bake train shaped cookies for dessert at your shower, you can either use cookie cutters as a guest favor, or decorate and package each cookie to send home as a tasty guest favor itself!  Edible favors are always a hit, you can purchase a colored favor box, fill it with the mother-to-be’s favorite candy and finish it with a personalized train-themed sticker.  Create your own sticker at zazzle.com for as little as $.32 each.