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Happy New Year everyone!

This new year brings some new activities for our little one.  Now into swimming lessons (aka scream and splash time) and reading time at the library she is learning to be more independant.  She will also be a mobile little tyke  very soon and will need to have some interaction with others her age so I would like to gather a list of things to do for a One Year Old around our city of Edmonton.  I will publish the list here so that if you need any ideas you can visit my site for help but it will take me a few weeks to gather and write the post so check back in February for this.

OK!

I’m going to get started on the list…as soon as the laundry is done, and the dry cleaning is picked up, and the bank run is complete, and the dog is walked, and the house is cleaned, and the bed is made, and peanut is fed and changed and put down for a nap. 

Progress notes: Peanut is now able to get up on all fours and is trying to make the move to crawling.  I can see her walking before she crawls as she has strong little legs.  She can pick up food with her hands and get it in her mouth almost every time.  No more bottles at night as she sleeps straight through to the morning.  Still addicted to Baby Einstein videos.  Nine month check up with the Doc is next week!

I receive stories and quotes from “Insight of the Day” in my inbox and the following story comes every Christmas.  Check out the link to the White Envelope Project if you would like to get ideas for a gift.  Enjoy the story!

The following story is a bit of a tradition with Insight of the Day just before Christmas. If you have not seen it before it is well worth the read. If you have, it is worth the reminder.

White Envelopes

It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas. Oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it, overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma, the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way. Our son, Kevin, who was 12 that year was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended, and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church.

These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in the spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved kids, all kids, and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse.

That’s when the idea of his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition, one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there.

You see we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more.

Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.

Nancy W. Gavin

This story is a true story and inspired four siblings from Atlanta, GA to start The White Envelope Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting this tradition and charitable giving. The White Envelope Project founders are regularly in touch with the family in the article and are thrilled to have their support. The Gavin family and now thousands of others continue to celebrate the “white envelope” tradition each year. For more information about The White Envelope Project or to honor a loved one through a “white envelope” gift this year, please visit their website: http://www.whiteenvelopeproject.org/

Click here for our printable version

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Bob Proctor
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Why a stay-home dad can be bad for boys (but not girls)

The Bristol (University) project - which was financed by the UK Government’s Economic and Social Research Council, came up with some correlation between kids who are brought up by dads and their marks in school, but only with negative effects found with boys.  Apparently dads are unable to mentally stimulate their sons at an early age and these ‘test subjects’ scored low on aptitude tests.  The actual study is not posted in the article but it would be interesting to see the actual controls and variables that were involved. 

“Dr Washbrook said: “I find robust evidence that boys - but not girls - who spent at least 15 hours a week in paternal care when they were toddlers performed worse on academic assessments when they started school.”

I wonder if there is any consideration that girls develop at a quicker pace in the early years than boys or has this only been found as a physical difference?  Girls tend to develop physically at a more rapid pace earlier than boys so maybe the same is true with mental development.

She added: “This cannot be explained by the economic or psychological characteristics of parents in these families, nor by the characteristics of the child.” “

It goes on… 

“women might be more confident and more skilled at bringing up children, and that there might be “harmful emotional effects” from the absence of a mother.”

I’m starting to believe the study may have been conducted by a group of female activists.  The suggestion that dads can’t fulfill the ‘emotional needs’ of their children as well as moms is absurd.  There is the “I carried you for 9 months” bond between mother and child but I believe fathers can have an equally as strong bond IF they spend enough time with that child. 

It goes on to say that the Government was investigating further laws to allow fathers “to be able to play a bigger part in bringing up their children”.  Maybe some think that the new laws allowing paternity leave may be a bad idea due to the findings of this study?        

One of the commenters on the article takes her owns personal experience and generalizes it to the male population as a whole.  Some people just shouldn’t post comments (it’s not like my post is a comment or anything), hahaha.

“…children benefit from their Mothers being at home, because ‘most’ Mothers are usually the more caring and warming people every child needs to experience within their homes. Yes fathers can be loving but not in the same way a Mother is.”

Enough about this but I thought it was interesting the UK government would advertise findings of a study that they don’t understand the cause of.  Then go on to blame dads for the negative findings.  The last point I would like to make is that the study shows a difference between boys and girls.  This study apparently proves dads are only ‘bad’ at helping their sons develop mentally and not their daughters.  I’m not sure how that works but I would suggest the study is possibly incomplete or missing something!

I’m sure there are differences between how females and males bring up a child but I would leave it at just that…different…not better or worse because everyone does it differently.

Another author talks about the study at the Society Guardian.

The no cost, use things around the house, approach to teaching and playing with your 7 month old has been touched on by the University of Minnesota Extension department.    They discuss the importance of blowing air and using the tongue in order to develop the basics for speach.  Naming body parts to help them identify easier in the future.  Spacial awareness using measuring cups so that the infant can learn to fit things together.  Read the full article.

The other approach is touched on by the big toy companies by mass producing toys that help infants learn the aforementioned skills.  The marketers and R&D at Fisher-Price have come up with an array of developmental toys to aid your child in learning.  So if you want more oversized plastic toys around the house then check out the link above to visit the fisher-price site.  There are plenty of other toy companies, fisher-price is just an example.

Shop by brand at the Canadian ToysRus site for your favorite toys.

As you probably noticed I prefer the ‘use things around the house’ method of teaching.  There are some purchased toys that are great for learning but there comes a point where your home becomes over-run with all this oversized plastic.  Some of the toys that are a hit around our home at the moment are:

• The Lamaze Mortimer The Moose
• The Tiny Love Gymini play pad
• The BabyEinstein DVD collection

With christmas just around the corner parents and grandparents are deciding on what gifts to buy.  If you need help deciding then try your luck at the following links:

• Top toys for 2008 as per CTV
• Canadian Toy Testing Council

If you have any toys that have been a hit with your kids or if you have any suggestions of ’around the house items’ that make great learning tools-share a comment on this post.

I’ve been told these are some of the best months in the way of new developments and interactions with your baby.  They start to scrunch their nose when they giggle and interact more physically with their parents.  It’s fun when they can reach for something with a purpose.  Rolling over is a new milestone around this age and some infants may even be crawling by this point.  I think our peanut will be walking before she crawls due to her disinterest of being on her tummy.  Some of the milestones at this time:

• Sitting without support
• showing signs of crawling
• Imitating parents
• scooting around on their bums
• introducing finger foods

We have been told that when it comes to giving solid foods it’s ok to mix and mingle just about anything with the exception of the high allergy potential foods like peanuts.  If there happens to be an allergy to something then at that point go back and eliminate foods to find out which food is the culprit.  I like this method better than feeding them one food and only one food for 3 days before moving on to the next.  Tofu has been a big hit with our little one which is rich in protein so we are hoping she beefs up a little more with that.  When it comes to meal times we make sure there is a balanced diet over the day and formula is still a staple. 

TIP: Relax a little and feed your baby plenty of different things.  They will let you know what they like and dis-like but remember to try dis-liked foods several times as they may enjoy it the second time around.

TIP: Blend foods and freeze them in ice cube trays for later use.  Foods like sweet potato, peas, pears, apples and carrots have been a big hit around our home. 

Is it really worth it’s price tag?

There are several sites out there that have commented on the Bugaboo strollers and several with user comments/ratings.  As with anything you get a full range of opinions and you have to decide for yourself if the pros outweigh the cons.  This is my opinion on the Cameleon stroller.

First off what are you willing to spend?  The Bugaboo Cameleon (BC) is going to be about 3 times the cost of the average stroller on the market.  Depending where you shop it will be anywhere from $1000-1200 and that’s without their overpriced accessories.  There are many decent strollers out there for under $400CDN.  What makes it worth so much more than the typical ride?

1. Style- Pros-Bugaboo has developed a stroller that appeals to many individuals including the growing number of male SAHD’s (stay at home dads).  In my opinion this stroller looks more stylish than many other plastic framed competitors and a little less generic.  So if you want different then you may like this unit.
2. Size- Pros-With it’s minimal looking frame the size of the BC is more manageable for manouvering in tight spaces and over different terrains.
3. Ease of use- Pros-The BC is extremely easy to push around and steer.  It has four wheels, two of which swivel and have mini shock absorbers.  Two are big and two are small giving you option as to which ones are in front.  Big ones in front over rough terrain and small ones in front for smooth terrain.  The two smaller wheels also come off turning the stroller into a pull cart that would be great through snow and sand.  No other stroller that I know of does this.  Most can’t make it through an inch of dirt (i’m comparing to push strollers and not jogging strollers).  You can also take the big wheels off to pack it up for travels.  The handle can be extended for someone with more height.  The adapter system to attach the seat/basinet is extremely convenient to use.  The optional car seat adapter is also easy to use but while vary depending on the brand of car seat you purchase.  We bought the Peg Perego SIP and it uses the similar (purchased seperately for about $70CDN) easy to use adapters.  Cons- Small carry pouch on the bottom and is hard to access when you have the bassinette on the stroller (easy with the seat on).  The way to collapse the unit is awkward at first but easy when you get the hang of it.  My biggest concern is the foam they use around the handle as grip and also around the frame of the seat/basinette.  At first it seems durable and is actually very comfortable to handle but it easily tears.  If anything rubs on it, sharp or blunt edge, it will likely tear.  A more durable soft rubber would be better suited here.  Another con is that you have to buy the cupholder seperately for the offensive price of $30-35CDN. 
4. Quality of Materials- With the exception of the foam mentioned above the materials used are top of the line.  Durable, soft, washable, rubber tires (the big ones), the smaller front tires are a lesser quality rubber compound that is wearing quickly.  The frame is lightweight and extremely strong.  This winter will test the rain cover in cooler temperatures.  Good mattress pad in bassinette and great fleece cover. 
5. Accessories- Pros-There are plenty of extras.  Comes with pump for the tires, wind/rain cover, mosquito net, bassinette and seat included.  Cons-  At an extra cost you can get a sunshade (which would be extremely useful).  This should come with the BC!  We don’t have this sunshade and at times we found it difficult to keep the sun out of babies eyes.  Cup holder, travel bag, diaper bag, footmuff, parasol, breezy sun canopy, wheeled board and car seat adapters are also at an extra cost.  And none of them are cheap!
6. Miscellaneous-Car seat adapters for Peg Perego seat are small and easy to use.  The other option is a Graco car seat but the adapter is one large unit.  There are many color options for the fabric and you can mix and match.  We have the sand color top and bottom which is a little boring but very practical.  The seat can be adjusted to 3 different angles from flat to upright.  All the adapters are ‘click’ in and very easy to use while also making it safe.  The brake is also easy to use and will not fail, there are two settings for this.   

Overall this stroller is a 4 out of 5 and really only loses points for the high price tag.  On the flip side of things not as many will be rolling around out there. 

We purchased our BC online at BabyGuru.ca, the service was great and the shipping was quick. 

This will be our first winter with Peanut around so we’ll have to winterize her asap.  Snow fell here in Edmonton on Saturday night which will prompt a shopping spree for things like gloves, warmer shirts, warm boots, toques and GroBags.  The grobag we ordered from E-children in Edmonton (also in calgary) but the really cool ones are on the UK site and are not available in Canada as of yet.  I think the one we ordered is stripped orange/red.  Off to the WEM we go for the rest of the things we need!

Our home is a bit of a hazard when it comes to little ones crawling about the place so we have started to ‘baby proof’ each room.  We have started with covering the outlets and securing drawers and soon we will be making sure that larger items can’t be pulled over by screwing them to the wall.  Here is an article on Buying Safety Equipment to help you identify issues and potential problems. 

My next post will be a review of the Bugaboo Chameleon.