Becoming a mother made me more frugal and brought me back to basics. Fortunately, play dough is surprisingly easy to make from scratch! I love knowing what’s in it and that it is truly non-toxic, and I love experimenting with different colors and scents! I find homemade dough to be superior to store-bought. It’s smoother, smells better, and can be made in large quantities. The recipe below can be halved if you want to make a small amount of a variety of colors, or it can be doubled to make a gallon-sized bag worth. It takes about 15 minutes to …read more

In accordance with my belief that a new parent’s job is to focus on the baby at the expense of the house if need be, I have developed some shortcuts to getting the cleaning and cooking basics done while maximizing time with the baby. Here are five tips for being as efficient as possible:
1. Wear your baby. Babywearing keeps your baby safe and happy while giving you two hands free to get some work done. If you can master carrying your baby on your back, you can even accomplish some more rigorous cooking and cleaning jobs. Just the other day …read more

Here’s my philosophy on balancing the responsibilities of a baby and the housecleaning: Your only job as the parent of an infant is not to cross the line from untidy to unsafe. I have found that being the type of parent I want to be has required me to lower my standards when it comes to keeping a home.
When my child is an infant, my child comes first — first before the dirty dishes in the sink, and first before the unfolded laundry. Those dirty dishes don’t pose a hazard to my baby, nor does the unfolded laundry. So when …read more

October is Attachment Parenting Month and I could not pass up this opportunity to talk about some ways to stay close to your children after they have weaned. Attachment Parenting International explains:
“Attached at the Heart Through the Years” is the theme for AP Month 2009 and a statement that healthy, secure attachments between parents and children is a dynamic process that extends throughout childhood and does not end with baby bonding. During AP Month, parents are challenged to re-examine their daily activities and traditions and learn new ways to grow with each other and remain close and …read more

Tell me what you would do in this situation. It’s not breastfeeding-related but it falls under the parenting/mothering/discipline topics we talk about here sometimes. Let me set the scene: You are at the zoo with your child(ren). You enter the ladies’ room and watch as another mother hustles into a stall.
Then you hear the mother furiously whispering to her child, “Hold on! Stay still! Be patient! Stop it!” and other things along those lines. You’re not sure what is going on there — perhaps the child is resisting a diaper change; perhaps the child is running wild around the stall. …read more

I snapped this photo with my BlackBerry just after nursing my toddler back to sleep. Check out that belly full of milk (hers, not mine)! I am glad I captured this moment because about two seconds later my 4-year-old woke the baby up when she came to tell me that the banana muffins we had made were ready to come out of the oven.
I hadn’t heard the oven timer beep so it was a good thing my little sous chef alerted me before the muffins burned. There was no more sleeping after that, but my baby had …read more

Some women breastfeed for the health benefits for their babies and themselves. Some women breastfeed for the cost savings. Some women do it as part of a parenting style. And some women do it for a combination of those reasons. Me? I do it for the applause.esterday my 14-month-old nursed on one breast, popped herself off, sat up and clapped! Then she leaned in and hugged me before she switched to the other side. When she was done on that side, she popped herself off again, sat up, clapped, and hugged me again! When she saw my delight at this …read more

International Babywearing Week runs from September 21 to September 28, 2009. Personally I celebrate babywearing all year long! It has been such a blessing to be able to wear each of my babies in a sling or other baby carrier from birth to toddlerhood and beyond.
Babywearing and Breastfeeding
When it comes to breastfeeding, the benefits of babywearing are many!
!. Babywearing a newborn keeps the baby close to the breast during a critical time for establishing breastfeeding. Many babywearing advocates talk about how gestation lasts 18 months — nine months “in” and nine months “out” with both skin-to-skin contact and …read more

Now I have no idea whether there is such an “official” thing as a “13-month sleep regression” — a general tendency for babies to wake more frequently at night when they turn about 13 months old, but I am too tired to look into it. My toddler just turned 14 months old and the last month has been a challenge in the (lack of) sleep department. I noticed other mothers mentioning that their toddlers were night-waking more often too, and I am not surprised. There must be a few different factors playing into it.In my case I think …read more

My family just moved from a rental home to a new home we purchased one town away. Out of all my family members, I would say my 13-month-old has handled the move the best. Not only has she survived, she has thrived. She is excited about all the new places to explore and she thinks we’re on a grand adventure.
I believe that breastfeeding allows her the ability to thrive in this new environment because breastfeeding (and the closeness with me) is a constant. She knows that she is free to explore but she can always come back to the security …read more