When your kid screams at you, what to you do? Do you automatically scream back “Stop shouting!’? I caught myself doing that and it wasn’t helping, Eric would keep on screaming louder and louder.

When your kid slaps your face, what do you do? It’s really tempting to slap right back, isn’t it? Just to show him what it feels like, so he learns that doesn’t feel nice. Ok, let’s get this straight - it’s wrong and won’t teach him anything except that hitting is acceptable.

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1. Thanks so much for letting me include this for the holiday edition of THE BLOG CARNIVAL AGAINST CHILD ABUSE, which is up right now at my blog. This is an important area to raise awareness about. My son is almost 12 right now, but I babysit for a neighbor toddler once a week. I find with her, as with my own child, the old “Distract and Redirect” works so much better than some of those mistakes. Thanks for joining us for the carnival and I hope you will again soon!

   Comment by marj aka thriver — December 21, 2008 @ 4:42 pm

2. Thank you Marj for including my post. I’m with you 100 percent, people need to be aware of the child abuse issues. Your blog is great, congratulations on a job well done!

   Comment by Emma — December 21, 2008 @ 7:11 pm
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Secret # 1: Staying close to mommy. Sit on the chair and hold the baby in your lap to give him the feeling of security.

Secret # 2: Get hygiene issues out of the way. Ask to have the scissors and comb disinfected.

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1. My son will be having his first hair cut soon. I hope with this list, the hairdresser can cut his hair without any problems. Thanks for sharing this article, I’ll also try to bring his favorite toys.

   Comment by Infant Formula — December 11, 2008 @ 3:52 am

2. Good luck with that! You might want to bring a little envelope and ask to keep some of his hair. Many people like to hold on to their babies’ first hair :)

   Comment by Emma — December 11, 2008 @ 4:47 am

3. [...] a list like this, no wonder I gave my boy a haircut as soon as he needed it. How about you? When did you give / will give your baby the first haircut? [...]

   Pingback by When should a baby get his first haircut? @ Baby-Log| Learning to be a Mother, raise a Baby and live as a Family — December 24, 2008 @ 10:55 pm

4. Wow what a cool and rocking hair style you have collected and your collection is to good. It rocks

   Comment by different hair styles — February 3, 2009 @ 6:40 am
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there is a way to predict baby’s future height based on a simple calculation. For boys, take the biological mom’s height, add 5 inches (cm) and remember that number. The boy’s height will be between that number and his biological dad’s height. For girls, subtract 5 inches from her dad’s height – she will be between that and her mom’s height.

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Ever since Eric turned 8 months he refused to take bottles – so I started to teach him to drink out of a cup. We have tried them all – training cups with a spout that folds to prevent spillages, training cups with a valve that controls the flow, training cups with a straw that makes it easier for baby to sip - nothing worked. He would fold the spout instead of drinking from the cup, he would chew on the spout because the valve was making him suck harder and he didn’t like that, and the cup with a straw was spilling all over so I had to return it.

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Eric was approaching 11 months mark and I was still breastfeeding. To tell you the truth I never liked it and only did it because it was good for the baby. So once the level of “mom hormones” in my blood started to decline, breastfeeding became even less enjoyable.

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1. Thank you for sharing this. I am having a hard time weaning my baby. I will try what you did to your Eric with my baby. I hope this will help a lot.

   Comment by Baby Formula — December 4, 2008 @ 3:29 am

2. [...] was exclusively breastfed until the age of 8 months, and then I introduced solids. At 11 months I weaned him and started giving him formula. Frankly, I wasn’t too sure whether or not I should switch him [...]

   Pingback by Switching a baby from formula to cow's milk - all questions answered @ Baby-Log| Learning to be a Mother, raise a Baby and live as a Family — December 13, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
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I had a problem: Eric didn’t want to eat his lunch. He was turning the head from side to side, trying to escape from the high chair, when he was clearly hungry – really exercising my patience. I had to come up with something, so my solution was to let him make is own soup – yes, that’s right.

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Did you notice how quickly they outgrow practically everything? I had a couple of months when I was shopping for baby clothes every other week - and I hate shopping.

So here is some tips I came up with to reduce the shopping and the hassle to the minimum:

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1. District Cotton Logo Organic Apparel … join the district mailing list, win free stuff · Organic cotton · the district blog. The District …

   Comment by baby clothes — December 21, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
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Many moms, especially new moms, won’t accept used baby clothes even from friends. For some reason they consider offering hand-me-downs an offense - when in fact there are many reasons to say “yes, please” and be happy.

1) The most obvious reason - it saves money that can be spent on something else your baby needs.

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1. I really don’t mind using hand-me-downs for my son. He grows so fast and outgrows his clothes too. So, that means good savings for me which I can use to buy his other needs.

   Comment by Formula Coupons — December 6, 2008 @ 9:28 am

2. [...] presents 6 reasons to accept used baby clothes posted at [...]

   Pingback by Advice for Women from Women - Mid December 2008 « Advice for Women from Women — December 15, 2008 @ 10:06 am

3. Thank you for for your submission to the advice for women from women blog carnival.

   Comment by blackbv — December 15, 2008 @ 10:36 am
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At first I tried to sit on the mattress holding Eric in my arms and rocking him - but he was fighting and crawling away from me, so that clearly wasn’t working. Then I put him in the cot and he started to scream - I lied down on the mattress beside the cot, said good night to him, put my hand through the bars and near him and just lied still.

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Enough is enough - I had to get my baby to sleep like through the night and on his own, not in our bed. I think that our moving home created the opportunity for it - the familiar environment was changed and that made easier for me to break his sleeping habits. I tried to create new rules and get Eric accustomed to them.

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1. [...] This is the second part of “How my baby became a good sleeper in just one month” - you can read the part one here. [...]

   Pingback by How my baby became a good sleeper in just one month - part 2 @ Baby-Log| Learning to be a Mother, raise a Baby and live as a Family — December 13, 2008 @ 12:54 am
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