Parenting & New Baby Advice Blog

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.

When decorating for a train-themed baby shower you can go with bold, bright colors or more muted tones.  Since trains are a very popular birthday theme, it should be easy for you to find tableware and decorations that can also be used for your train baby shower.

Once you find train themed tableware that you like, I suggest accenting these pieces with single color balloons, streamers and/or napkins.  Pick an accent color from the design – score bonus points with the mother-to-be if you can use her favorite color!  Many of the train items I found online are appropriate for a baby boy or girl, but most train-themed showers I researched have been for a boy.

I believe that reading to babies makes them smarter from the time they are conceived, so I try to find ways to tie books in to a shower theme.  There are two perfect book selections for a choo choo train shower – The Little Engine that Could and Thomas the Train.  There are a number of Thomas books based on different themes (sharing, friendship, etc).  Purchase one of these books as a shower gift, use it as for decorating or take phrases out of the book as inspiration for a shower game.

If you want to go all out with your train theme, turn the food table into a food train!  Start with a blank tablecloth and draw tracks winding across the table.  Before sketching out the design, you may want to set up each tray to see how wide the tracks should be.  Use square or rectangular-shaped serving platters as the train cars.  Add Oreo cookies or Ritz crackers for the wheels on the cars, and link them together with licorice whips.  To make the display more realistic you can add an actual train engine at the front and a caboose at the end.  You can also decorate the tablecloth with phrases like “All Aboard” or “Thank You for riding [mother's name] Baby Train”.

If your shower will include guests that may not know each other, print some train-themed name tags and ask each person to fill one out when they arrive.  You can also create or purchase a choo choo train diaper cake that is filled with useful baby items for mom.  These diaper cakes make an amazing centerpiece and a useful gift for your guest of honor!

Our first home was close to the railroad tracks.  When I mean close, I mean that our backyard ended where the tracks began.  We were also near a railroad crossing, so the trains heading east would blow their whistles right in our backyard!  Thankfully our firstborn inherited my “heavy sleeper” gene so the early morning whistles never woke us up.  When my husband’s work asked us to choose a personal design for our baby’s blanket (a standard gift from his office), it was an easy choice – a choo choo train!  The blanket is still in his keepsake chest, a treasured reminder of his birth date and the home where he spent the first 2 years of his life.

Trains hold a special meaning to me – I especially love the old steam locomotives and colorful train cars.  Boys young and old love trains too – from Thomas the Train to The Little Engine That Could to the fancy Silver Bullet.  If you need some inspiration for a baby boy themed shower just start here!

Get your train shower rolling with a ticket-themed invitation like the one seen here.  You can create them yourself, or simply enter the information and order them from Personalized Party Invites.  Use phrases like “All Aboard the Baby Train”, “Chugging Along”, or “Choo Choo Baby”.  You can even ask guests to show their ticket for admittance, then give them a gift if they remember to do so.

For a fun themed shower game, line up guest chairs from front to back and have the guests ride the “baby train”.  Starting with the first person in line, ask each guest to name an item they would bring along (bib, pacifier, diapers, etc).   The next guest in line must repeat everything that was previously mentioned, then add an item of their own.  By the time you get to the caboose, there should be a long list of baby items.  If the last person in line can repeat everything that’s on the train, reward her with a prize!

Decorate for your shower with train themed partyware and choo choo party favors.  Select primary colors and use Thomas the Train decorations, which can easily be found at a local party store (look in the birthday aisle). Wind a train track or toy train around the food table, for even more fun have the train running on the track during the shower!

Help out your guest of honor by providing her with a list of all the passengers onboard her baby train.  Pass around a clipboard titled “Mom’s Baby Train Manifest” and ask guests to fill in their names and addresses so mom has them close at hand when writing thank you cards.  You can even provide the thank you cards for your guest of honor, there are a number of adorable train thank you cards online.

Wrap up the party with a big thank you to all who rode the guest of honor’s baby train!  Let them know there were some interesting stops along the way (games, gifts, food) and invite them to the next stop – baby’s arrival!

If you’re planning a baby shower on a budget, not only do we offer a wide selection of reasonably-priced shower favors, we also give you baby shower games for FREE!  Simply print one or two of your favorite games and enjoy!  The free games we offer are:

1. Name The Nursery Rhyme – We list 20 short phrases included in popular nursery rhymes.  You may think it’s easy to fill in the rest of the rhyme along with the title, but we’ve found a few that are pretty challenging.  Don’t worry, we also provide an answer key!
2. Baby Shower Word Jumble – 20 words associated with pregnancy and babies have been jumbled and it’s up to your guests to decipher them.  To make this game even tougher, put a time limit on it.  The person who comes up with the most correct answers in 5 minutes takes home the prize.  Again, we provide the answer key in case there are a couple tough jumbles.
3. Who Knows Mommy Best – See who knows the mother-to-be best by having guests answer questions like “What is mommy’s favorite color?” or “What is mommy’s shoe size?”  While guests work on their answers, have the mother-to-be fill in the correct answers.  You may be surprised at how much – or how little – guests know in a short time period!
4. Baby Shower Categories Game – Similar to Scattergories, this popular game can be played individually or as a team.  Guests must come up with words that start with a specific letter and that fit into a specific baby-related category such as Baby Boy Names, Baby Products, Baby Food Flavors or Items Found in a Diaper Bag.
5. Baby Shower Guest Discovery – A great ice-breaker, this game should be handed out to guests when they arrive.  As they mingle, they will try to find someone who shares their shoe size, who has gone on a blind date, etc.  The one who fills in the most answers wins!
6. Baby Shower Purse Game – One of my personal favorites, this game rewards the guest with the most “junk” in her purse!  The sheet is basically a checklist of items – mundane to eccentric.  Guests receive points based on how many items are in her purse.  One point items include keys, a pen and a credit card.  Guests can earn 20 points if they are carrying a spoon, socks, earrings or a jar of baby food.
7. Baby Animals Game – We’ve listed 25 adult animal names and your guests will have to fill in the baby name.  The animals start out easy (Cow/Calf), get a little more difficult (Goose/Gosling) and end up extremely challenging (Penguin/Fledgling).  The guest to score 25 out of 25 deserves a truly special prize!
8. Baby Shower Bingo – The last free game we offer is also our most popular.  The game set includes 25 different bingo cards along with 75 bingo names.  Simply cut the names apart and place them in a hat.  Draw out names one at a time, then wait for someone to shout “BABY BINGO”.  If you want to play more than one game, provide candies or diaper pins to cover the names as they are called.

The cupcakes pictured here are perfect for a Blooming Flower Baby Shower, but you don’t have to wait for a baby shower to make them!  The creative designs are so easy that they can be made for no reason at all.  The pretty cupcakes are fun to look at and delicious to eat!  Special thanks to my cousin Ashley – whose cupcake creations are an inspiration to me.  Some of her designs are shown here along with great homemade cupcake photos from Flickr.

The top left design is shared by Frostedbites on Flicker.  The cupcakes are covered with white frosting, then decorated with marshmallows that have been cut into petals.  The sticky inside of the marshmallow is perfect for catching colored sugar sprinkles, and a Pez inserted into the center of each cupcake completes the design.

The remaining 3 photos shown above are all cousin Ashley creations.  The top right photo shows cupcakes dipped in colored sugar and decorated with miniature candies such as jellybeans, mini M&M’s and colored candy sprinkles.  To get the teardrop shape, insert an M&M sideways into the frosting so only the edge shows.  The bottom left photo is by far my favorite because I love sunflowers!  The cupcakes were initially frosted with light green icing.  Ashley then used Oreos (regular and mini sized) to create the sunflower bases.  She used a petal tip and decorator’s bag to form the petals, and finished the flowers with red M&M ladybugs.  The leaves are gummy candy.  The bottom left photo shows miniature cupcakes, created for a very special birthday tea.  The mini cakes were frosted with a green base using a leaf tip for texture.  Ashley then cut out miniature gum paste flowers and dusted them with edible pearl dust to make them sparkly.  The dot in the center is a small candy bead.

1. The pink and white floral design shown above (far left) is a little more labor intensive than the other designs, but once you get the hang of using candy melts it’s a lot of fun!  The cupcakes seen here were made by mommy golightly, but check out bakerella’s blog to see how to make these neat cupcake toppers.
2. The orange and yellow flower cupcakes are easy to make, and perfect for anyone who loves licorice!  Here the bakers at Betty Crocker Recipes show us how to create brightly colored flowers using varying lengths of licorice sticks, some white icing and chocolate candy sprinkles.
3. The third design is another use of marshmallows for flower petals.  This time the cut side of the marshmallow is set on top the frosting, so the rounded portion is showing.  The center is made with colored M&M’s.  Kids of all ages can help with decorating these cupcakes, which are displayed by Us3Crew.
4. The fourth design (far right) is all in the placement.  The chocolate cupcakes are simply dipped in icing, then sprinkled with colored sugar and artfully arranged on a cake board.  The flower stem is a piece of green licorice, and the leaves are gummy candies.  This floral pattern was created and shared by lars hammar.
5. The sprouting flower design is another one of my favorites – the cupcakes are brought to life with the use of pretzel sticks, miniature flower-shaped cookies, M&M’s and gummy candy leaves.  The bakers at McCormick Kitchens will help you through the process on their Flickr page.
6. The final design I chose to spotlight shows yet another use of marshmallows for flower petals.  This time the marshmallows are simply cut in half, then placed around the cupcake in a circular pattern.  The center is again a colored M&M candy.  The hot pink frosting creates a dramatic background for the white flower.  These pretty cupcakes were made by hopskipjump.

As you can see by the designs shown here, it just takes a little creativity to make fun and tasty desserts for your Blooming Flower Baby Shower.  Virtually any type of sweet treat can be used for flower petals, leaves or stems.  Even if you’re a novice baker or decorator you will be able to make these beautiful cupcakes, and if you make any mistakes all you have to do is eat the evidence.  Happy Baking!

It’s always nice to send your shower guests home with a little favor to remember the special day.  I love personalized favors that are useful even after the event – like the mint tins shown here.  Our mint tins are all about choices – we offer two tins sizes, 6 tin colors, 8 filling options (breath mints, candy mints, sweet sour tarts, mint gum, candy ducks, bubblegum, sugar free cinnamon candy or sour apple candy) and your choice of personalized message on the label.  Priced as low as $2.50 apiece, these favors are a fun and functional option.

A great personalized favor that ties in perfectly with your Blooming Flower theme are our wildflower seed packets.  Filled with enough seeds to cover 20 square feet, these favors provide a beautiful living reminder of your shower.  The packets are also customized with label designs, colors your own shower message.

You can’t have blooming without a little buzzing, which makes our ceramic honey pot favors a fitting choice.  The beehive-shaped pot comes with a honeycomb stick for guests’ to drizzle honey over their favorite snack!

Flower cookies are a delicious favor option, you can package them in a simple plastic baggie that is tied with colorful curling ribbon and a flower-shaped tag thanking guests for attending.  Cupcakes are a tasty favor also, but they are more difficult for guests’ to transport so you may want to serve them as dessert instead.  Stay tuned for some easy and beautiful flower cupcakes!