Gage is getting pretty heavy these days. That shouldn’t be a surprise to any of you who have dealt with 20 month olds. At that, he’s a definite lightweight when compared to many other kids in his age group. Heck, there’s a 5 month old we know that weighs almost what Gage does.

Being able to comfortably carry your baby or toddler is important. Strollers are great but there are times you don’t want to sacrifice the space in your trunk or try to push the stroller through the crowd. So when I saw this site for baby slings, it had an appeal.

When I was pregnant with Ariel we were given both a backpack baby carrier, a baby sling and a front carrier. The front carrier was what worked best for me, but I know other moms who swear by the slings as being more comfortable. I just couldn’t get it on right.

Choosing a Baby Sling can be quite personal. You want to balance comfort and whatever amount of style you’d like to have. You often aren’t certain which one will really work for you. As you can tell from my list of baby carriers, I’ve been through a few. Read the rest of this entry »

Guess I’m not on a very popular street here. We didn’t get all that many trick or treaters. That’s not to say there weren’t any in the area… just that they didn’t come down my street.

Read the rest of this entry »

Those of you who read a lot about blogging have probably heard about all the controversy surrounding the use of PayPerPost. Some bloggers feel there is something dishonest about accepting pay for posting about particular topics. I could point out that it’s little different from posting affiliate links in your blog but… oh, wait, I guess I did just point that out.

Yes, I am giving it a try. So long as I keep all my opinions honest, I see no reason not to. I know the very concept offends people, but unless I do it dishonestly there is no reason to be.

One of the great things about PayPerPost is that you can refer people to it. If you want to make money with PayPerPost, just head on over there and give them my email address as a referrer. I used info@aspectsofdesign .com (take out the space) to sign up, so that’s how they know me.

Let’s be honest here. One of the challenges with any website is earning money from it. Most of us struggle with it. This is a bit of guaranteed income. If it doesn’t work out or I don’t like what I feel about the opportunities, I can quit. But from browsing the opportunities I think there are some really neat websites and products to tell you about that you will appreciate.

Update:
They started a real affiliate program, so just click the image to the left in the sidebar… no need to type an email address in anymore.

[tags]pay per post[/tags]

As I mentioned earlier today, I’ll be checking out PayPerPost. This website caught my eye for those of you who love your books, DVDs, CDs, video games, etc.

The problem with buying all these things is that there can come a time where you don’t want them anymore. You want a different title and you want the excess out of your house. You have options, of course, such as giving them to charity or listing them on Freecycle. But if you don’t mind shipping and want to get something in return, titletrader looks like a pretty good option.

You may have guessed it all ready. You list the titles you’d like to get rid of, and in return you get points that allow you to request titles in return. Listing and requesting are all free. You do have to pay for your own shipping when you send your books, DVDs or whatever out. Read the rest of this entry »

My kids are so excited today. They love Halloween. There’s no reason for them not to, of course. Dressing up, taking candy from strangers… I’ve always thought Halloween was a bit of an odd holiday.

I’m hoping the Halloween costume contest on the forum will go well. I expect to see some more entries starting tonight or tomorrow.

We’re making Halloween cookies today. I bought some Halloween shape cookie cutters a while back in Target’s $1 section. I’m doing it the lazy way this time – store bought chocolate chip cookie dough and frosting. We have sprinkles for them as well, which is why the frosting matters.

This year it’s my husband’s turn to take the kids out trick or treating. Someone has to man the house, after all, not to mention the fact that Gage may only last a few houses.

Scary part is we don’t even have the decorations up yet. I need to get the cobwebs up, get the pumpkins carved, etc.

[tags]Halloween,costume contest[/tags]

Most families will at one point or another deal with someone who doesn’t want to eat their vegetables. It’s not always the kids either. Sometimes it’s the husband. Sometimes the wife too, I suppose, although I haven’t met many women who don’t eat vegetables.

I’ve been pretty lucky so far with my own children. Everyone does pretty well with vegetables. My kids often take them as snacks. My husband can be a bit more challenging, as he’ll gladly skip the veggies and go for the meat, but all I have to do is remind him he’s setting the example and he’ll eat what I put in front of him.

But there are some tricks to get your kids to eat veggies they don’t particularly care for. One of my simplest techniques is to simply make a sauce for stir fried vegetables, a kind my kids really like. I’ve noticed that kids who like vegetables pretty well will eat them even faster with a good sauce. You can also use catsup or salad dressing to encourage kids to eat their vegetables. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most common pieces of advice you hear when thinking about starting your own home business is to find your passion. It sounds like great advice, but how much thought do you really give to what that means?

Having a passion for your business means you have an emotional involvement. This actually helps you to succeed in a home business, as it means more to you.

Start out by thinking about why you really want to start a home business. There are all kinds of reasons, from wanting more time for your family to needing the additional income and so forth. However, keep in mind that your home business will likely take a lot of time and is a financial risk, so keep your expectations realistic, particularly in the challenging early days.

Finding your passion isn’t necessarily as simple as just thinking about what you enjoy. You need to think about whether you will enjoy doing something as a business. Read the rest of this entry »

This one comes as a result of how I spent my day today – helping my inlaws try to recover lost digital photos. So far as I can tell it’s nothting they did, aside from try to do a backup and have their computer go nuts and destroy the pictures instead. The files still appear to be there, but when they try to view them they get a “No preview available” message.

OK, so reminding you to keep your digital photos backed up as I tell you to keep yours backed up may sound kind of bass ackward, but it isn’t really. From reading online and following their exact steps it appears to have been a freak occurance that others have gone through as well, and no one has a solution that brings the pictures back, at least not that worked for us.

Here’s how it happened. They decided to try taking all their digital photos from the last 4 years and put them on a CD. They got a message saying that there wasn’t enough room on the CD for all the pictures, so they cancelled it but got a message popping up in a balloon reminding them that there were items waiting to be burned to CD, so they did what should have been the right solution and told the computer to delete the temporary files. This should have been perfectly safe. Read the rest of this entry »

Ariel always makes me laugh. At 4 years of age, the line between reality and fantasy really is thin.

Today she demanded that I pay attention as she watched Leap Frog’s Letter Factory. “See??” she demanded. “THAT’s how you get to the letter factory. You drive straight and then turn and then turn and drive straight.”

Yes, I had a very hard time not laughing.

She’s been after me to take her there, and my excuse has always been that I don’t know how to get to the Letter Factory. She doesn’t buy that I don’t know how to get to the Frogs’ house to start.

We had a little talk about television not being real. She is not ready to believe that yet. It’s sure sweet at times, though. Other times… well, I’ll be glad when she gets it.

[tags]kids,children,family,television,reality,preschoolers,letter factory[/tags]

One of the advantages of being an at-home parent is how much more time you have to do things with your family. There’s no rushing about trying to get everyone out the door first thing in the morning, clean and neat and well fed.

Yeah, right. Except when school’s in session.

In my opinion, in many ways it is harder for stay at home parents to get their kids going on school mornings. Not due to any particular failure on their part, but simply because many of them don’t have a morning routine. When the kids aren’t in school there’s little need for one. No rush for both mom and dad to get ready while the children do the same. It makes it a little more challenging sometimes.

But a good morning routine is very helpful, especially when it comes to encouraging good eating habits. Breakfast is a meal very easily skipped, despite its importance.

Routines will vary from family to family, but the most important point to consider here is the need to leave enough time for everyone to get breakfast. Read the rest of this entry »