Home And Family

Were you given a beautiful velour crib sized baby blanket at your shower? Did you try wrapping that tiny baby in the blanket, only to find you were cuddling lots of blanket and very little baby? Here are some tips to help you decide a good size blanket for the age of your baby.

Usually, a crib blanket is about 36″ x 52″, and will cover a standard crib mattress. While this blanket is wonderful for covering baby’s crib, it’s not quite as wonderful covering for baby. A crib blanket is just too big for swaddling a newborn. And we all know that a swaddled baby is a happier, more content baby.

Many lightweight, cotton receiving blankets are about 30″ square. They’re inexpensive, and can found in almost any department store. While that size is great to place under baby on the changing table to prevent any mishaps, it’s not great for swaddling a newborn–it’s just too small.

A baby blanket that’s about 34″-36″ long in both directions, and is made of a light-to medium weight hypoallergenic fabric, like cotton or baby-weight fleece, is probably the best choice. It’s large enough to swaddle a newborn, and small enough for an older child to sleep with at night. An additional plus is that, if the fabric is lightweight enough, you can roll up the blanket and stow it in a diaper bag without too much trouble.

If your looking for a gift for that next baby shower, or want to give your sister a keepsake for her new baby, consider a personalized baby blanket, about 34″ – 36″, made out of a light or medium weight, hypoallergenic fabric. If you want to find a baby blanket for an older baby or young child, consider buying a larger, crib size blanket. If you or someone you know is a new mother for the first time, a package (or more) of cotton receiving blankets is always a great choice.

As our population’s life expectancy increases, more and more of us are burdened with the task of caring for our aging parents. This task can be especially difficult if you are an only child, or have your own children at home to take care of.

Being responsible for both your kids and your parents at the same time can be a daunting task, but the following tips can help make it easier.

One rule of thumb is to relax. Don’t panic, or get overly stressed about the situation. If your home is conducive to having your parents stay with you, do so. If they are in good health, having them in your home could be an advantage. Older parents can make great baby-sitters.

Moving your parents into your home is not a decision you should make lightly, or on your own. Make sure that you discuss the possibility with your spouse and children. Having your spouse comfortable with your parents under the same roof is vital to keeping the situation positive. Your children should also realize that they may need to make sacrifices of space to accommodate the new house members as well.

Your parents may, however, be of the mindset that they do not wish to leave their house or apartment. This will require an alternate plan. What this plan entails will depend in part on the age of your children. If your children are small, you may not have the time to devote to caring for your parents outside of your home. In this case, you can contact Meals-On-Wheels, or another social service in order to ensure your parents are cared for properly.

With teenagers, or grown children, they can help share the burden, by making frequent visits to ensure that your parents are eating properly, and have everything they need to remain healthy and independent.

In certain cultures, it is usual for parents to live in their children’s home through the end of their life. Unfortunately, in Western cultures it is more typical to remand aging parents to senior citizens or nursing homes. It can be difficult to make this choice, but for some, there are few options. If your parents are unable to remain in their own home, and their children do not have the space to accommodate them, an institution may be the only option. You can do your part by thoroughly investigating the opportunities available, and making a wise and confident choice.

It is possible to care for both your kids and your parents at the same time, with preparation, discussion and planning. Having siblings that can participate in the decisions can be a great help, but this is often not possible, either because of distance, or disinterest.

Whatever your situation, you can be assured that there are many resources available to help you find the best care for your parents, no matter their health or status.

Once you start to develop your rose garden, a time will come when you start to think about adding some rose gardening accessories. These might be aesthetic additions, or they may be accessories that will help you maintain a healthy rose garden more easily.

The word accessories is a rather vague one. You need to think about what exactly it is you’re looking for when it comes to rose gardening accessories. Do you mean tools that aren’t essential for developing or maintaining your rose garden, but would certainly make life much easier for you? Or would you like to add some decorations to your rose garden, to help improve its appearance.

If equipment is what you’re looking for, there are many different products that you can use to help make taking care of your rose garden easier, and even more enjoyable. Some people find that once they get started on a rose garden, it just seems to keep on getting bigger. If that抯 you, then you may want to trade in your garden claw and get a good quality auger instead. You can even use a drill with your auger, if you buy the right one, which makes loosening the soil a much easier job. Plus it’s a good excuse to use a power tool! Stakes are another great accessory, and make it much easier for small, flimsy rose bushes to develop a strong, upright pattern of growth.

There are also a huge variety of decorative garden items available, if that’s what you’re looking for. Garden gnomes are always popular, and nowadays you can buy small concrete statues in a huge range of creatures and colors. Fairies are wonderful if you’ve got hidden nooks and crannies in your garden. Perhaps you want to buy an accessory that’s both decorative and practical – such as a miniature picket fence. This can look very attractive around the border of your rose garden, but at the same time keeps your pets or small children away from the thorns. Nightlights are also great for enhancing your garden, and you can buy all sorts of interesting designs such as castles or lighthouses.

If you’re looking for rose garden accessories, the best place to start is in your local nursery or a home and gardens store. Have fun making your rose garden more beautiful!

Long Island is a beautiful, fun filled place to spend your retired years: With miles of beaches, hundreds of places to go shopping and enough good food to go around! The following are a number of reasons that make Long Island the greatest place to retire!

1.With lots of ocean front and lake edge real estate, Long Island has very fresh and clean air. Away from the noise, stress, and busy streets of New York City, you can enjoy calm lazy days uninterrupted. Go for a walk along the water’s edge, enjoy a book on your patio, and invite a few friends over for a game of cards. The weather is beautiful and your days will be equally gorgeous.

2.There are a large number of retired seniors living on Long Island: Meaning you won’t be alone! There will be lots of people your age who share your interests. There are also a lot of places that hold senior activities like bingo, cards, dance classes, craft groups, senior citizen trips, and senior aerobics. You may be retired, but you’ll never be bored!

3.Living on Long Island means you’re close to just about everything you could possibly want or need. For example, retiring at an Assisted Living Facility in beautiful Lake Ronkonkoma, you are only an hour and a half away from the stunning Montauk Point! Montauk is a great place for a day trip: Pack a picnic lunch, bring your walking shoes, and enjoy the view! It’s also only an hour and twenty minutes from Orient Point, where you can catch a ferry over to Connecticut for a weekend vacation. Dropping you off in New London, you are minutes from Mystic, a great little town filled with nice affordable accommodations, lots of shopping, and great food. You can also head over to Mohegan Sun for more shopping, a little gambling, and amazing shows and concerts! And even closer than all that is New York City, which is about an hour away (depending where you are on L.I). And with a train station near by, the trip is a breeze! I don’t think I need to tell you about the plethora of places to go, things to see, and stuff to do in the city!

4.Long Island is home to some of the most beautiful beaches around! With miles of sandy shoreline, rolling waves, and clean warm air what’s not to love? Plus, the sunsets are beautiful too! Long Island also gives you the choice of two shore lines. The South Shore, which is your typical sandy bottom kind of beach, and the North Shore, which is covered in rocks, stones, and even larger boulders. (Honestly, it’s a rock collectors dream come true!) Not to mention, some of Long Island’s beaches are placed on the top 10 list of best beaches in America!

5.There are lots of great places to eat scattered all over the island. Plus, Long Island is home to some of the best pizza and bagels in the country! With plenty of fast food establishments, delis, cafes, diners and fine restaurants, there is always something to satisfy your taste buds!

6.Long Island is also home to lots of great wildlife. With places like the protected Pine Barrens and wildlife refuges like the one located in Quogue. There are miles of trails to hike and animals to spy! A great place for bird watcher enthusiasts, photographers, and wildlife lovers of all types!

7.Still not convinced? Look at it this way… many people choose Long Island as their vacation destination, and extremely wealthy celebrities own homes in the Hamptons. If it’s worth vacationing to, it’s definitely worth living! You can make other people’s vacations your life!

One of the most fascinating hobbies is the raising of trees from seeds sown directly in a shallow container. Bonsai for beginners can be a most satisfying task. If the seedlings are allowed to grow for a few years, they appear like a miniature forest; the same may be done with cuttings, which often produce beautiful bonsai specimens.

The following trees and shrubs may be sown directly in shallow containers or boxes, less than four inches in depth; Japanese maples, birches, beeches, Pomegranate, Yeddo Spruce, pines and many other conifers; also Wex-Tree (Rhus succedanea), Lacquer-Tree (Rhus ver-niciflua), Maidenhair Tree (Oinkgo M-loba), Cryptomeria japonica, Ilex serrata and Zelkova serrata.

When the young seedlings are established they may be transplanted thickly to another shallow container or singly to a pot. The single planted ones in thumb pots should be shifted to slightly larger pots every two or three years. Two or three such transplantings should be enough.

Pinching
During the growing season pinching off growing tips should not be neglected- otherwise, whether seedlings or old dwarfs, the trees will be unsightly in form and disproportionately long branches will be produced. Generally, pinching is practiced and begins when young shoots are an inch or so long. Only one or two leaves are allowed to remain on any one branch.

In the case of conifers such as spruces and pines, pinching should be done as the soft new branches elongate and begin to show their new needles. Every new twig should be pinched back, except the ones desired to improve form or to fill a gap; only a bit of elongated shoot should remain, from which the new buds are formed. Unsightly or deformed dwarfed potted trees, often seen at the novice’s home, are in most cases the result of wrong pinching or neglect of pinching.

Bonsai for beginners involves selecting densely twigged trees such as elm, maple, pomegranate and zelkova, and pinching them during the growing season whenever the twigs attain one or two inches in length. Always remember to retain one or two leaves on each branch.

The flowering shrubs such as azalea, enkianthus, rose, quince and jasmine, or fringe-tree and crabapple, contrary to the preceding, should not be pinched even lightly. Pinching back of these varieties removes the flower buds and prevents flowering.

The weeping willow and tamarix trained in weeping form are better if all the new twigs are cut off in the middle of spring. When new growth starts again, – the weeping branchlets that are produced will be more slender and delicate.

Varieties
Now, I feel it is better to select a few trees which would probably be of interest to readers and try to describe in a few words the essential points on their culture.

Flowering Cherries. Japanese flowering cherries are nicer as garden trees but sometimes well known garden varieties are attractive as dwarfed potted trees. In dwarfing these trees, the general practice is no pinching or pruning. Among the flowering cherries, the best is Primus incisa and its varieties. This densely-twigged dwarf shrub is very lovely with little single blooms. Prunus kurilensis is good, too. Over-watering may kill the whole plant or destroy most of the branches.

Flowering Crabapples. Among these the most popular is Hall’s Crabapple, known for over a hundred years in American gardens. The tree is easily trained to one or two feet in height by bending or coiling the long shoots. So trained, these produce many flowering spurs and become very floriferous. Every spring the trees are a beautiful sight with their lovely rose-colored blooms hanging gracefully on long, slender, reddish flower stalks.

Fanciers love the aged trees of Malus baccata var. hondoensis with copious small bright fruits, Malus prunifolia and its varieties with yellow or red fruits, and Malus sieboldi, all of them known in American gardens for many years. If bushy growth is desired, all or nearly all the leaves on the current growth should be picked off in early summer; subsequently every auxiliary bud comes into growth. In the autumn the sprouted twigs are shortened to two or three buds.

Bonsai for beginners is very enjoyable.

Herbs are a very good attraction if added to your garden. Apart from this they also give your garden a very nice fragrance. Also, you can put them to good use in adding taste to the food you cook as well as for the therapeutic benefits that they provide you.

There is a very large number of herbs which you can choose from. There is the edible kind like Basil and Oregano. There are also herbs which can be used in medicine. These include lavender and chamomile. It is completely up to you to choose the herbs which you want to grow. I suggest you research the different herbs to start herb garden planning.

There are quite a few herbs that grow very easily and which flourish without much maintenance. Also, there are quite a few varieties of herbs from which you can choose. You will not have much problem in finding a few that you will be able to grow comfortably in your garden. You can use these herbs to create borders around the flowers you grow or in the center of a rock garden as well as to add a little variety to your container garden.

Herbs are very versatile as well. They can be grown outside during summer and you can shift them inside during the cold months. You should plant the herbs outside during summer although you can choose to start herb garden designs indoors at any time during the year. All you need to ensure is that they get sufficient sunlight. There are quite a few people who move their herbs outside during summer so that they can improve the yield they get from them.

There are others that like to get head starts on their garden and they do this by planting the seeds inside their houses during late winter. But, before you consider doing this you should ensure that the varieties that you have chosen can be easily transplanted without causing any harm. Herbs can be planted in any sunny location outside.

They can thrive in a vegetable garden as well as a small corner in your yard. They can be planted in rows or in patterns that help you to add aromatic beauty to your landscape. Before you begin planting the herbs though you should ensure that the area where you wish to plant them gets enough sunlight regularly. Also, you should ensure that the herbs are not planted in swampy locations. You should also remember that if you are going to be using the herbs for cooking then you should plant the herbs near your kitchen so that they can be accessed easily.

You should be careful as every herb is not suitable to every climate. Nonetheless, all of them grow quite easily and do not have any such problems irrespective of the zone in which they are grown. If you are not sure of the type of herbs that will survive in your region, you should talk to various local garden centers near your house. They will be able to help you choose the herbs that thrive the most in your region and give you the ideas to start herb garden planning.

It is a very common problem when babies have a hard time falling asleep and sleeping through the night. Hopefully, this article will help new parents to find a solution to this serious problem that affects whole families.?/p>

As a mother of three adorable kids (one of them is still a toddler), I know how hard it is for new parents to deal with sleep problems. All of my children, as babies, had a hard time falling asleep and sleeping through the night.燗fter many sleepless nights me and my husband were depressed, exhausted and had a constant sleep deprivation. 燘abies of our friends had been sleeping through the night already, but not my firstborn daughter. Trying to find solution I read many books, looking for answers.營 found many proven attitudes and time tested techniques which worked good with my babies. Here are some of them: ?/p>

• You shouldn’t force a baby into sleep. Sleeping should be a pleasant state to enter and secure enough to stay in. Parent’s goal should be to help baby develop a healthy attitude about the sleep.
• Try to avoid advices that recommend letting your baby to “cry it out”, especially in the first six months. It can harm in developing sense of trust between baby and parent.
• Stay flexible, because none technique works all the time for all babies. If specific techniques aren’t working for your family, skip them. Every baby has different nighttime temperament. What doesn’t work one week may work the next. That is why it’s so important to follow your heart. Eventually you will find the best solution.
• Breastfed babies need to eat more frequently than bottle fed infants, usually every two to three hours. That prevents them from sleeping smoothly through the night until they are between three to seven months.

You can try the following sleep enhancers that worked for my children:?/p>

1. Keep right bedroom temperature and humidity. Best are around 69 F and 50% of humidity. Dry air can cause stuffy nose and lead to increase incidents of allergies among the babies. All this can disturb baby’s sleep.
2. When you put baby to sleep create darkness in a bedroom. Try not to turn on lights or TV while you are feeding her.
3. It is very important to recreate a cozy, snugly environment similar to that in uterus where baby has spent nine months. So, if your baby seems to be uncomfortable in the crib, try to use a bassinet, a cradle, or a stroller to provide a snugger fit. Swaddling or wrapping your infant can make him feel more comfortable, secure and prevent from jerky movements which can wake him up. It is also helpful in calming some colicky babies.
4. Try rocking your baby to sleep in a rocking chair. Walking with infant and massaging or patting her back while singing lullabies can be very soothing.
5. Sometimes sleeping without background noise can be difficult, because during nine months babies are used to mother’s uterine sounds. So help your baby to fall asleep by turning on a fan, an air conditioning, a vacuum cleaner or a musical mobile that imitates uterine sounds like white-noise machine.
6. Swinging can be helpful, especially with high-maintenance babies. A monotonous motion may be more sleep inducing then familiar routine.
7. Another good alternative is driving in a car until baby falls asleep. Cold night air and constant motions help baby to calm down.
8. For some babies it is helpful to put them into sling or carrier and wear around house. Rocking will help your infant to settle down.
9. It is very important to create consistent bedtime’s routines. With familiar rituals babies go to sleep easier and sleep longer.燜or example, bedtime rituals of warm bath, massaging, rocking, feeding, singing and etc. can teach him anticipation and help to fall asleep.

Pay close attention to medical causes of sleeplessness. If you are tried all these techniques and nothing work for you be aware of different medical conditions that can interfere with sleep, such as Gastro Esophageal Reflux (GER), respiratory problems or various allergies. Discuss this with your pediatrician to find right solution.?In the conclusion, all above techniques will not only help to get your baby asleep but also create a healthy, positive attitude toward sleep that lasts for lifetime. The baby will learn that sleep is a pleasant state to enter and secure state to remain. The right sleeping habits will make happy not only the baby but also the parents.

Inexpensive baby shower favors will help stretch your baby shower budget. While it’s nice to save money, you don’t want to scrimp where your party guests are concerned so here are five great ideas for inexpensive baby shower favors:

1. Homemade Cookies – A cookie cutter shaped like a baby carriage, bib, or other baby themed item can be used to make sugar cookies which are then decorated and placed in decorative plastic wrap and tied with pink or blue ribbons.

2. Hand-dipped Pretzels – Buy a bag of pretzel rods, some candy making chocolate (that can be melted down), and some decorative sprinkles. Melt the chocolate and dip one end of the pretzel rods in the chocolate, roll in some sprinkles, and place on a wax paper covered cookie sheet until the chocolate hardens. Place in decorative plastic bags and tie with ribbon.

3. Votive Candles – Buy some fancy scented votive candles, some tulle, and some ribbon. Wrap each candle in the tulle and tie a bow with the ribbon. For an extra touch, add homemade tags thanking the guests for coming.

4. Favor Boxes or Bags – Buy favor boxes or bags and fill with M&M’s, mixed nuts, Jordan almonds, or any other filling. It’s a classic shower favor that won’t break your budget.

5. Small Lotions or Shower Gels – Small bottles of lotions or shower gels tied with a decorative ribbon are another inexpensive idea. You can usually find them at your local dollar store. In fact, the dollar store is a great place for all kinds of finds that will work great as inexpensive baby shower favors…manicure sets, candles, bags of candy and tulle for wrapping, and more can be found there.

A little ingenuity can go along way when it comes to coming up with inexpensive favors for your baby shower!

We know Sealy, Serta, Simmons, Stearns and foster, Tempurpedic and many more as the best mattress brands today. But what is not yet absolute is the best brand of baby mattress. We still do not know which one is really the best.

In this case, we would have to take the word of the parents who have bought baby mattresses so we can identify the best one.

Colgate Beddings For Babies

Colgate is one of the few mattress companies that specialize in baby beddings. They offer various beds, cribs, cots and many more for babies, toddlers and older children. Because they are a specialty company, we can be assured that they know what they are doing. They know what is good for children.

What can settle the score here are the numerous awards given to this company because of their superbly crafted mattress for babies. Also, the reviews given to it commend this mattress for the comfort and support it provides for their young ones and its durability. They also offer hypoallergenic and non-allergenic mattresses safe for children to use.

Sealy Posturepedic For Babies

If you think Sealy is just a good mattress for adults, think again. There is still a debte on whether or not Sealy is the best. But when it comes to their baby mattresses, it is absolute. Their mattresses have heavy gauge steel border rods to ensure that the edges are firm and promote security to your baby.

The vertical supports included inside the mattress supports the key areas in your baby’s body. Also, this helps distribute their weight evenly so they can find comfort even when they are just in bed half of the time.

American Baby Company

This company also designs well-thought out mattresses for babies. They feature water-proof mattresses for your convenience and for the comfort of your little one. You will find their products reliable and dependable to use.

Naturpedic Mattresses

They offer organic and chemical-free mattresses. I believe most parents today understands the need for naturally manufactured mattresses. A bed with a lot of chemicals can trigger allergies. Having this mattress assures you that your precious one can have nights of undisturbed sleep sans the threats of allergies.

These brands of baby mattresses have been deemed the best. If you want only the best for your baby, why not check these brands out and sift through the product models they are offering. If other parents have found them ideal, you too will find them exceptional.

Are you one of those people who open up a new model tank and catch yourself thinking about what you might do to make that tank a one of a kind? If you think that the decals that came with the tank are for beginners and prefer to give the model your own personal touch then you can definitely do so by applying a custom paint job. It is not hard to do so and will just take a little extra planning and preparation. The end result will be a tank that you can call your own.

Some of the techniques for painting can be a little involved but with practice it is not impossible to learn them. The first thing you must do is to decide whether you want to hand paint your model or airbrush it instead. Airbrushing can produce a great looking paint job; however, it can be hard to add specialized strokes on smaller models. If you will be painting your model a solid color then you can bet that airbrushing will do a great job.

Hand painting your model can be great for adding all sorts of small detail into your paint job. If you are painting a camouflage motif to your tanks then it may be the easiest to use since airbrushing can be very difficult without the use of many different masks. One of the drawbacks to hand painting is that you can easily get the paint too thick or too thin. It can be much harder to control the flow of it as well which can lead to runs and may require a bit of cleanup work.

No matter which technique you use it is very important to allow plenty of drying time between coats so that you get a better looking job. By painting over areas that are still somewhat tacky you can cause runs and smears in the paint job. Another important consideration is whether or not you should use primer. It is not always necessary to prime the models before you paint them but it does allow the paint to adhere much better. It can also help you to find any flaws that could be present in the models.

Before you assemble and paint your model you should clean it. Use some lukewarm soapy water but make sure that it is not too warm. If it is then it could possibly warp the plastic. By removing all the foreign materials from the model the paint will go on much more smoothly.