Online Baby Shop

Since we decided to launch a website, we’ve wanted it to have a cool “games” section. This section is the last to get built; regretfully, it’s still in idea stage. But in the meantime, I can share this cool article I found on MSN.com that describes some great games to play with your baby, by months in age.

No matter what age, I try to keep “stimulation” in mind. The more new things you can introduce to your baby, the more pathways they’ll develop for future learning and growth. New words, new colors, new shapes, new sounds (that’s why I believe making silly faces and funny animal sounds is positively great for your child) - anything new will work.

And, one of the best things about having a child is using your imagination again. So make up any game you can think of, and guaranteed, baby will enjoy it, especially because it’s with you. Peek-a-boo and baby sign language are great places to start.

I think that life / work balance is a constant struggle for all parents; whether you run your own business or work outside of the house. We started our business for our kids and sometimes it’s our kids that sacrifice the most. There are days where we have no choice but to go full-throttle and we’re doing a lot of explaining to the kids about how it’s a work day and how we just have SO much to do.

But we’ve always been really adament about paying them back for their patience. Which always ends up paying us back for our hard work. Because it’s so good to be a family and it’s so good to get out for some family time.

Our year has kicked off with three major events, and while we did get the kids a lot of focused time; and they got to visit with their grandma twice, it’s been almost the whole month and a half since we’ve had quality family time. We finally got to enjoy some down-time yesterday; we got out and it was great. We are much-blessed to live where the temperature is 75 degrees in the middle of February, but we were much much much blessed to get out to the park and science museum yesterday.

Everyone had the best time, my daughter got to climb the biggest bridge-tree of her life and my son got to make an absolute waterfall of a mess down his shirt with his push-up ice cream. We got to indulge in some photography, perhaps our favorite hobby, and most importantly, we got to decompress and enjoy the best of each other.

I’m writing a quick blurb to share another list of top baby names for 2006. This one was compiled by babynames.com, based on member’s favorites over the year (I believe). This list is particulary interesting to me because my son’s name is number two on the boy’s side (hey, at least it’s on the boys side -ha ha).

Top 20 Baby Names of 2006 - BabyNames.com List

Caden. We thought that we gave him an unique name, and it turned out a whole lot of people thought Caden would be a unique name that same year. Maybe it was fate, my husband was intentionally named after the most popular name of the year he was born. Our son is following in his footsteps. I still love his name, and to know him is to know it’s the perfect name for him.

From the Name in Brights blankets that we’ve crafted over the year, I definitely agree with a lot of the top names on this list.

My husband and I have been frequenting the best-in-the-world Japanese restaurant for almost 7 years now, ever since we moved back to San Diego. The restaurant’s name is Sapporo and it’s in Ocean Beach, CA. My children have now been going for their entire lives. It’s one of our pleasures in life.

Sapporo consistently serves the freshest, most delicious sushi and fabulous, well, everything. As my husband said last night: “Do you realize we’ve been going there forever and have never once had a bad experience?” If that doesn’t say it all, nothing will.

Sushi is an odd food for kids, something they don’t typically eat. But Japanese restaurants have a variety of food that kids will take to more easily. Such foods include teriyaki chicken, edamame, rice, miso soup, noodles, and vegetable tempura. My daughter requests that we take her to Sapporo for dinner and her dinner consists of edamame (both of my kids enjoy the fun of popping the soy beans out of their pods), miso soup, and rice. The miso soup is salty, and the owner told us that in Japan they put the rice in the soup because the kids love the flavor of the soup and will eat more rice this way. It works like a charm.

My daughter turned 4 in October and last night was the first night she actually really, really wanted to try the sushi. We let her try a California roll; it’s merely imitation crab, cucumber, avocado, seaweed, and rice. Perfectly harmless. She took a good bite, seemed to enjoy it, but then couldn’t get much past the sea weed. Sushi is an acquired taste, and we told her we were proud of her trying something new, she didn’t have to like it.

The kids were SO good at dinner last night, and it’s been awhile since we got out for dinner, so it’s was extra pleasant. They really enjoy their time there, they really enjoy their food. Which is great, because we enjoy Sapporo more than any other restaurant in the world.

My children have given me a newfound love for blowing bubbles. I can remember blowing large bubbles with my mom as a toddler. Now, as a mom, I find its one of the truly enjoyable activities I share with my children. No matter how long it lasts, it’s quality time full of the kid’s giggles, and it magically transports me to the zone, where nothing matters except that the next bubble is a little bigger. In the moment. The zen art of blowing bubbles. And I really practice the art of blowing bubbles, being in the moment with my kids. Plus - cool bubble-inspired designs have popped into my head of late, so I really hope to introduce this line to you soon.

My daughter has expressed an interest in learning checkers. I’m looking forward to rediscovering another game that I haven’t played in a long time. And, speaking of my daughter, I have to send out some kudos to her for starting to read by herself this week. She is just over four and loves her newfound freedom, she’s been a book lover practically since she was born, so this is a thrill beyond a thrill for her. And it came down to me sitting down and taking some extra time to help her and kick start it. She was more than ready. Which brings me back to the bubbles, focusing on my children, even for just sprinkled, but quality, moments throughout the day gives us all a boost of energy and joy.

The end of the year is approaching and there’s no shortage of “top ten” lists going around. But, since we’re always interested in top baby names lists, we thought it’d be fun to share the first we’ve found for 2006:

Here’s MSN’s 2006 top baby name list.

There aren’t a lot of surprises on the list. We’ve made more than a few “Olivia” personalized baby blankets this year, that’s for sure.

Happy to see that our son’s name isn’t on the list this year (he’s two); we gave him a “unique” name that landed on at least some of 2004’s top ten lists. Naming your baby is a difficult thing, at least it was for us. Finding THAT perfect name you both feel is PERFECT isn’t so easy. I’ve come to the conclusion that there will be some nickname for every name and that there will be something wrong and something great about every name. The meaning meant something to us, even veered us from naming our son “dark one”.

I think naming your child is one of the big gut decisions we make in life, it just comes down to the one that feels right. Visit our friends at www.babynames.com for endless baby name ideas, name origins, and name meanings.

One piece of advice I wish we’d received with our first is not to share with family and friends your favorite name. Sounds cruel and unusual, but trust me, someone will have just the worst thing to say about your favorite name, and you don’t need to hear it. Once the baby is born, no one will say anything except “how cute”. Trust me, you’ll be happier this way.

I’m sure that there will be more lists after the new year, it’ll be fun to compare them for differences. There never seems to be consistency from one to the next.

A little off the fashion topic, more of a mom topic. Our daily fun activity this evening was playing with moon sand. Yes, I said Moon Sand. I don’t know why I’ve bought into the idea that there might be something better than play dough, but I’ve now tried both FLOAM and Moon Sand.

We got as far as taking the top off of the Floam, I’m not quite sure what that stuff is, but way too sticky for my kids, and way, way too sticky for me. I don’t get the mold it shape it part, it didn’t keep it’s shape at all. And the moon sand was basically sand. Yes, it sticks together, but it doesn’t stay together and I swear that both my kids looked like we just got back from the rainbow beach when they were done. Plus, I had to vacuum; NOT my idea of an evening fun activity. You can’t even pick it back up like play dough, it doesn’t exactly stick to itself…annoying.

The kids, of course, luv-luv-loved our hands-on activity, but it’s going to be awhile before we see that stuff again. My mom used to always make our play dough for us, and I think that was perfectly fine, right? Here’s a link to some home made play dough recipes…if anyone has tried these or has other play dough recipes to share, please add a comment!!! I’d also like to know if I did something wrong with the moon sand..and the floam for that matter…so if you’ve tried either of those modern wonders, please share…