Review: Love You Forever

Mama's Rating - 5/5

Kid's Rating - 5/5

I read this book to my daughter every night this week at bedtime. She loves this book. It's a simple story but touches my heart every single time. The first time I read it, tears came to my eyes.

The story is so simple but it is a reminder of a parent's love for their children and that no matter how old you are, you're always their child. It talks about life and death in a simple way that I can explain to my daughter.

One of the best books I've read to my daughter.

Crying It Out was the best thing I did

Cry It Out or the Ferber method for sleep training a baby is one of the most controversial ones out there. I read about the positive aspects of it and the negative aspects of it. Scientifically, it can't be proven one way or the other.

Both my kids were Ferberized, as it is called. I tried everything else to get them to sleep for more than an hour at a time and eventually got too exhausted and had to try CIO. My older dau
The first few days of sleep training are excruciating. This is what I did -

1. I bought a video baby monitor. The thought of my baby in a room alone with no way for me to see her was too scary for me.
2. Follow a bedtime routine. It doesn't have to be elaborate. With m y older one, I had a long bedtime routine but with my younger one, I didn't have the time.
   1. Long Bath, Lotion, Put on PJs, Read 2-3 books, Sing 3-4 songs, Rock her for 10 mins, then put her in crib and leave the room
   2. Short bath, Lotion, Put on PJs, Sing Songs, Rock her for 1 minute and then put her in crib and leave the room
3. After putting them down, they would scream and cry. Check on them every 2, 5, 10, 15 minutes. I modified this according to how bad the screaming was and the situation.
4. My older daughter ended up sleeping sitting up for the first few days. So did my younger one.
5. After a week, my older daughter had started sleeping through the night. It took my younger daughter longer to sleep through the night, about 10 days - 2 weeks.
6. It took longer to sleep train them for naps but eventually the night training kicked in during the day as well.

At the end of it, I was glad I had done it so we could all get some sleep. I still get only 6 hours of sleep every day and I have a video monitor next to me at night so I can always keep an eye on her.

The hardest part of CIO was listening to them cry all night for so long. And each time I would go to check on them, seeing the tears on their eyes would make me cry. But I had to stay firm and my husband really supported me at that time.

Both my kids slept better and deeper after they had been sleep trained. I don't regret it at all. This may not be appropriate for all kids and I'm not suggesting you do it for your kids but it worked for me and my family. I only did it after I had tried everything else for both kids.

Life Advice from Kid's Entertainment

I'm a huge fan of Disney movies and cartoon characters and my husband has frequently caught me watching my daughter's shows along with her. :)

Here's some great life advice from beloved kids's characters by AAA State Of Play

My personal favorites are from Olaf, Dory, Edna Mode and Dumbledore.

Review: Melissa & Doug Reusable Sticker Pad

My daughter recently received the Melissa & Doug Reusable Sticker Pad as a take-home gift from a birthday party. She has played with it before when she was around 2 years old and she did love it then but she would put the stickers in her mouth then and I had to keep an eye on her and she didn't quite fully get the concept back then. 

Now that she's 3 years old, she played with the stickers by herself for more than an hour and knowing my daughter, that's saying something. She picked each type of habitat and was happily removing the stickers and sticking them. The best thing is that the stickers are reusable and they only stick to the sheet which comes with the book - they are easily removable and repositioned. Also, this means less time spent cleaning up after her stickers for me. 

I anticipate that she will get hours of enjoyment out of this reusable sticker pad. 

There are other themes as well - My Town, Vehicles and Play House.

I highly recommend this sticker pad for 3 year olds and it's a great gift idea. 

Early Potty Training: Review

I received the book Early Potty Training as part of the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle which I recently bought. As I was skimming through the list of books, I came across this one and chose it to be the first to read. My daughter's almost 3 and while she has been introduced to the potty and sits on it occasionally, she's not keen on potty training yet. My personal feeling is that she's not physically ready yet. 

The book is a short and fast read with tips on how to potty train a young kid - younger than the standard accepted age of 2.5-3 years old. While I personally do not want to potty train younger than 2.5 years, I believe in each to their own. 

The main steps for potty training that the author uses are:

1. Take child to potty as soon as child wakes up, before child goes to bed and at nap time
2. Start changing diaper every 2 hours
3. Then take child to potty every 2 hours before putting on new diaper
4. When child's dry most of the time, switch to training underwear or regular underwear
5. Continue diapers for naps and nighttime till completely dry when up after sleep

I read this book to primarily get some tips on how to potty train and how I could get started with my daughter. This would probably more useful for somebody who wants to potty train a 1-yr-old but the tips would apply to any age. 

What I've Been Reading Lately

Unique Difficulties That Women Face with Weight Loss :- This was a good article and had good information about why women find it more difficult to lose weight. It made me feel better about not losing any weight last month.

Protect your child's credit :- Made me think about AGirl's credit too. I made a note to check her credit report when she's older, especially before she goes to college so she doesn't have any issues.

Questions for the modern playdate :- This was an interesting read. My daughter's not old enough yet that I would drop her off at somebody else's place for a playdate. But at some point she will be and this is something I should think about before she does. Gun control & vaccinations were never thought of as issues when and where I grew up but in today's world, we need to ask these questions.

To Vaccinate or Not to Vaccinate?

Over the last few days, I've read and heard so much about the measles outbreak and people coming out to talk on both sides of the issue.

I'm vaccinated and my daughter's vaccinated. My personal viewpoint is that parents should have a choice in whether they should vaccinate their kids or not and when making that decision, they should think about how their decision affects others too - not just their kids but their neighbor's kids, the kids they go to school with, anybody they come in contact with.

That said, here are some blog posts and other articles that I read recently that made me think more about this issue.

I Wish My Mom Had Vaccinated Me :- Talks about how she was not vaccinated as a kid and how she caught whooping cough, was not treated for it and suffers to this day because of side effects.

Enough is Enough with Blaming “Anti-Vaxxers” :- I have very mixed feelings about this one. I don't agree with a lot the author has to say but she has a few valid points too.

Dear Parents: There are more unvaccinated kids than you think

This Dad's argument for Vaccinations is a Game Changer

Lack of diversity in books and movies

I came across this article and it got me to thinking. The Indian American population is about 1% in the US and more concentrated in certain areas like New Jersey, New York, Silicon Valley, etc. We don't have any books or media that Indian American children will be exposed to as they grow up.

While most Indian American children are exposed to their culture when they visit their roots or at home or through their community, not everybody is able to do that. Whenever I visit India, I try to stock up on books about indian history or mythology or moral stories around indian culture so that when my daughter grows up to an age when she can understand these stories, she still gets the indian influence and indian culture and doesn't feel alone.

The Indian American population is one of the fastest-growing population groups in the US and at some point in the next few years, I hope to see some books and media around this cultural group.

How many gifts for Christmas?

All year, I buy gifts for my daughter. Whenever I see something I think she may like, I get it for her. So I have quite a stock of gifts for her for Christmas. However, I don't want to be wasteful in my spending for her either.

I came across an article on Hip2Save which had a reader tip in it about how many gifts to buy for Christmas? 

Something you wantSomething you needSomething to wearSomething to readAnd something from Santa. 

This struck me as a really nice idea. 5 distinctive gifts with a different purpose. 

Immunity Boosting Meal Suggestions for Kids

My daughter hates veggies and is very choosy about the food she eates. She just recovered from a long-lasting low-grade fever that lasted for more than a week.

So I want to give her some foods that increase her immunity but which she will eat. I came across this article on WhatToExpect.com on immunity boosting foods. Here's what I got from the article.

Main foods to aim for seem to be foods rich in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, food which has live cultures, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, antioxidants, Omega-3 fatty acids and Zinc. But how to get these foods inside them? Here are some suggestions from the article.

Suggestions on how to serve:

• Steamed baby carrots or broccoli
• Mashed sweet potatoes with some maple syrup if they need the sweetness
• Fruit based smoothie with spinach or kale and tablespoon of flax oil
• Greek yoghurt & serve with granola, fruit, nuts or honey
• Oatmeal with cinnamon and honey
• Whole grain toast with jam and nut butter
• Yoghurt with berries and walnuts on top
• Chicken noodle soup
• All-natural Almond butter on apple slices
• Peanut-butter and jelly sandwich

(Disclaimer: This post is just what I got this article. All credit goes to the author of the original article.)