As old fashioned as it sounds, blocks are great developmental toys for babies and toddlers.  Blocks with bright colors that have contrast and patterns will visually stimulate your baby.  As they grow older, they will start to learn shapes or objects that may be printed on the blocks.

Another great developmental toy is the ones that sort shapes.  These usually come with stars, circles, squares, and triangles and the child places the pieces into the appropriately shaped holes.  With some of these toys, the baby may hear a sound when they place the right shape in the right hole.  This helps the child learn cause and effect as well as improves their hand-eye coordination.

Puzzles are also great developmental toys.  Choosing a puzzle with large, knobbed pieces helps younger children improve their hand-eye coordination.  It also helps them learn shapes and objects, which helps enhance their vocabulary.

For babies, a keyring teether toy is perfect for helping them develop their fine motor skills by learning to grasp the teether and manipulate it.  The soft books are also great for babies.  They often come with mirrors, squeakers, or things that make crinkle sounds.  This helps encourage the baby’s hand-eye coordination, tactile exploration, and self-discovery.

Dolls are another great toy for children, whether it is a boy or a girl.  Dolls help younger children feel more secure and cuddling a doll helps stimulate the child’s tactile exploration as well as helping them to learn grasping skills.

If you need a creamy soft scrubber for the bathtub, simply mix ½ cup of baking soda with enough liquid detergent to make it creamy like frosting.  

Instead of buying Windex, make your own window cleaner by mixing ¼ - ½ teaspoon of liquid detergent, 3 tablespoons of vinegar, and 2 cups of water.  Pour all the ingredients into a spray bottle and shake lightly. 

If you need an all-purpose cleaner, combine 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of borax, 2 cups of hot water, and ¼ cup of liquid detergent.  Put everything except the liquid detergent in a spray bottle and shake.  Add the liquid detergent and stir gently.

You can make your own furniture polish by combining ½ teaspoon of olive oil and ¼ cup of vinegar or fresh lemon juice.  Mix the ingredients in a jar and dab your rag in it before polishing.  When finished, seal the jar and you can store it for later use.

Do you want to freshen up your carpet?  Combine ¾ cup of baking soda, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, and ¼ cup of perfumed talcum powder.  Sprinkle it on the carpet; let it stand for about 15 minutes and then vacuum.

There are also single ingredients that will work around the house.  Use white vinegar to cut grease or remove mildew and odors.  You can use cornstarch to clean windows, polish furniture, or shampoo carpets.  You can also use vinegar or lemon juice to remove rust stains and hard water deposits.  Just let it sit on the stain until it removes it then rinse.

Aside from that, it is important to teach children to take care of what we currently have.  For too many years, we have used aerosol cans, plastic bottles, insecticides, and other products that are just unhealthy – for our planet and us.  By teaching our children to be environmentally responsible, we give them hope – hope for a future in which their environment is stable and healthy for them.  By teaching our children to recycle and conserve, we are setting a foundation for them to teach their children so generations to come will have the knowledge to do what it takes to preserve the environment.

This means teaching children to conserve energy, conserve water, recycle, use natural cleaners, buy organic foods, avoid using products that contain chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and work towards saving endangers species and plants.  Get them involved as young as possible with helping.  Talk to your child about being environmentally responsible as well as let them watch television shows or browse web sites that talk about saving the environment.  There are also books geared toward all ages to help children understand the problem and learn how they can help make positive changes.  There is no better time to teach your children about saving the environment than now.

In the bathroom:

• Take shorter showers to conserve water.
• Turn off the water while brushing your teeth and washing your hands.
• Reuse a towel for repeated showers (less laundry to do).
• Use real cups instead of disposable Dixie cups.

In the kitchen:

• Use hand towels instead of paper towels.
• Wash your clothes in cold water instead of warm or hot.
• Replace bottled water with filtered tap water.
• Use natural products for cleaning.
• Set your refrigerator to 37 degrees and your freezer to 0 degrees.
• Replace your paper coffee filter with a reusable filter.

Around the rest of the house:

• Keep the lights off as much as possible –open your curtains on sunny days.
• Lower your water heater to 120 degrees.
• Set your thermostat to 78 degrees during the summer.
• Replace your traditional light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs.
• Unplug unused appliances and electronic devices (even when not used, they still draw energy)
• Use both sides of printer paper before discarding.

Going green is not only good for the environment, but also good for your wallet.  Just take a little time to notice things around you and you can find many easy ways to conserve around the house.

There are a couple of ways to find out the latest toy recalls.  First, most stores post recall notices at their customer service desk.  This is usually located near the entrance of the store, so when you walk in, make it a habit to check the board that list recalls.  If there is a recall on a toy you have purchased, the notice will tell you how to get a refund or new product. 

Another way to find out the latest toy recalls is online.  Use your favorite search engine to search for “toy recall” and you will find many sites.  While you can usually find toy recall information at the home page of the toy manufacturer, one of the best resources is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Hazardous Toy Recall page.   This page lists all toys recalled. Each link lists the toy, a picture of the toy, the manufacturer’s name, product number, where the toy was sold and during what time periods, what the hazard is, if any children have been hurt and how, and what to do if you have a recalled item.

Remember when you are looking at recalled toy notices that you make sure that your purchase date coincides within that listed on the recall information sheet and that you have the exact product numbers listed.  There are times when you may find you have an item that looks just like the one recalled, but you bought it at a different time or it has a different product number.  These items will not be affected by the toy recall.

Now I am not so sure about drinking them anymore.  I was watching Good Morning America this morning and there was a story about how diet sodas make you fat.  Purdue University recently published a study linking artificial sweeteners to an increased likelihood for weight gain and other health problems.  The study used rats.  (As an aside I think it’s hard to say that what happens in rats will happen in humans but who am I?). 

In the simplest terms I could understand, the study found that artificial sweeteners confuse the brain and can alter the body’s metabolism.  I guess that when you eat something sweet your brain recognizes it and the fact that it is probably full of calories so it reves up your body to burn the calories.  With a product sweetened with a calorie free sweetener the body gets all ready for the calorie intake but finds nothing.  This confuses the brain and can lead to problems. 

The study could not say if any products with artificial sweeteners caused this problem or if it is only diet soda alone.  The researchers said that even having one diet soda a day can lead to problems.

I’m not sure if I believe this or not, but here it goes – I’m quitting cold turkey.  It’s just after 2:00 in the afternoon and I have not had one sip of diet soda today.  My head is killing me and I’m really wanting some but so far I’m staying strong.  I don’t want t to take the chance of having health problems because of my habit, so I figured better safe than sorry.  Even if the research comes back that this study is wrong I’ll still be better off by drinking more water.  As a parent I think that you need to try and be healthy to show a good example to your children.  What kind of message was I sending when I had a diet soda with my breakfast every day?

I looked at a recent email I got and it was a recall for toy garden rakes sold in home improvement and toy stores nationwide.  It listed on the email the name of the product “Backyard and Beyond Garden Tools”.  I don’t know about you but I never save the tags from the toys I buy for my kids.  I mean if it’s a toy like a Fisher Price farmhouse or something that is immediately recognizable, then yes I would be able to identify it in the event of a recall. 

But how many times do we pick something up quick for our children?  Say you’re at the store buying something for yourself and see a cute display of sunglasses for your daughter?  Do you remember the name on them, or when you bought them, or even when you got them?  I can’t remember every single thing I’ve picked up for my kids, let alone what the name on the tags were!

So I guess it’s coming down to a point where parents are going to need to write down what they buy for their children, when they buy it, what the name on the tags were and what store you purchased them at.  But is this really feasible?  How many parents have the time or the energy to do this?  How many times are you at Wal-Mart or Target with your kids and pick up something to amuse them?  Would I remember to note all the information before ripping the tags off it at the exit to prevent the inevitable crying for the new toy?

Have we, as Americans, gotten to a place where the cost of a toy is more important than the safety of our children?  Are we so consumer goods oriented and materialistic that we need to buy everything for our children, and since we must have everything we must get them at a good price?  I’m really not sure what all the toy recalls say about us as a group.  Is it the fault of the manufacturers or is it our fault, demanding everything for our kids, not willing to pay a lot of money?  Or is it that we are teaching our children the wrong values at an early age – sure honey, you can have everything you want as long as it’s cheap.

I know this is a rambling post, but the last email I got has really caused me to think.  If you are interested in signing up for the recall notices from the CPSC, you can go to their web site and select what alerts you want to receive.

One thing I have noticed is that the behavior gets worse when they are tired.  Now I subscribe to all the parenting magazines, have my books on parenting toddlers, and surf the internet and I’ve read all the articles that say when toddlers get tired their behavior goes down the toilet.  I just hoped it would not happen to me.

I started to wonder why exactly this happens.  Is there some physiological phenomenon that happens in a child when they are tired that turns them from my dear, sweet angel to a demon?  I immediately opened up my internet browser and typed in a search when I started to think about the whole situation from a different perspective – from my point of view.

I am a sleep deprived mother.  I know, hello – welcome to the club.  All mothers are sleep deprived to some extent.  Of course I think I have it the worst, but so does every other mother.  And then I started to think about how I act when I haven’t had a lot of sleep.  I’m cranky, I’m moody, I want to sit on the couch and do nothing.  Would my toddler boys really be any different?

But I have one advantage that my children don’t have.  I understand what is going on.  I can put words to my feelings and be able to say to my husband or friends “I’m sorry I’m cranky but I did not sleep last night.”  My boys have speech delays.  Even a child who did not have a speech delay is not going to be able to sort out his or her feelings and put into words what is going on.

When I’m tired I don’t want to do anything. Are my children any different?  When I ask them to do something and they defy me or ignore me are they really exhibiting bad behavior?  Or is this the only way they can control a situation they are unable to describe or understand?

My sources I see in the magazines will tell you to make sure your child gets enough sleep.  Sometimes I think that is easier said then done, especially when you have twins or multiples.  One gets up, the other wants to get up too.  Every once in a while I’d like to see the “experts” come into my home and figure out a way to get both of the boys to sleep when one does not want to sleep.  But I digress.

I guess the only answer to this problem is to recognize the fact that these children are toddlers and hopefully when they are able to better express themselves I won’t see all the defiance and poor behavior when they are so tired.  Or maybe the answer is for me to go to sleep and let daddy be in charge tonight.  I think I like that idea better!

I was really worked up over the fact that they can open the gate.  They don’t climb over it, mind you – they actually lift up the arm and open the latch!  It had happened several times (and times when my husband put it on the door and when I put it on the door so I know one of us isn’t putting it on wrong) so I know it’s a fluke.  I thought I was going to be at the time when I’d have to go gate-less and no protection and then I had a thought:

What if I put the pressure mounted gate on the door upside down?

It was worth a try, right?  So one night a few days ago I sat there and tried to work it so I could put it on upside down.  It’s a challenge to do and takes more time than the right way but it can be done.  And so far my children haven’t been able to disengage it!  I’m thrilled for right now but have another concern:

How long do you think it will be until they figure out they can climb over it?

OK, you get it – I hate laundry.  But I did hear a really good tip that has helped me with keeping the laundry under control.  I heard it from someone at the hair salon a few weeks ago and it really works.  She suggested that you get rid of hampers, or if you use a hamper you clean it out every day and bring the laundry for the entire family to one central location.  Get three laundry baskets and sort the clothes by lights, darks and whites.  I actually do four because I wash towels and sheets separately.  You sort the clothes out at the end of ever day and then whatever basket is full you do that load of laundry that day.  Some days you might have two loads, some days you might not have a full load and don’t do any laundry at all.

What this does is save me time and energy.  If I run downstairs after the boys go to sleep I can throw a load of clothes in quickly.  If I forget to put them in the dryer that night before I go to bed, I go and throw them in the dryer first thing in the morning.  I try to time the dryer cycle to end while we are having breakfast.  The boys are in their booster chairs and I fold clothes while they eat.  Once they finish breakfast they help me to put their clothes away.

I know this might sound silly or stupid, but it really does work.  You don’t have to struggle carrying heavy hampers down the steps to your laundry, or sort through piles of dirty clothes to get your loads together.  Plus this method puts an end to those days when it seems as if your washer and dryer are running constantly.  I don’t think it cuts down on the number of loads of laundry you do – I think it just makes it easier on the person responsible for doing the laundry.