Jenni
www.jenniferlabit.com
Author Archives for Jenni
During the last year I have been reading up on Car Seat Information. I even briefly considered taking the course to become a Certified Car Seat Safety Technician, but the class fell on a week when I was 36 weeks pregnant and one of my babies was starting kindergarten… I just couldn’t miss that! Since I am not certified or really the one to ask about these issues here is the first part of my interview with Maryanne, a CPST. How did you become interested in Car Seat Safety? Maryanne: Thanks to some online parenting forums, I found out that
Author Archives for Jenni
There are as many ways to approach potty training as there are children in diapers. Even in the same family, different kids will require a different way of learning. But there is one thing about potty training that I think needs to be made very clear: Potty training is a process, not an event. Think of it like weaning your child to solid food. You wouldn’t ever expect them to go straight from getting all or most of their nutrition from bottle or breast to getting all of it from solid food. Their little bodies, minds and habits need to
Author Archives for Jenni
I realize that in many places Spring weather hasn’t yet hit. But here in my neck of the woods it is creeping up fast. One of the difficult things about Spring is that I never know what to wear. In one day the temps can go from cold to hot and back again and while that is only a minor annoyance for a grown-up, it is a little trickier for babies. Cold babies are crabby babies, hot babies are crabby babies, but babies who are just right are happy. And since happy babies make happy parents, we want to dress
Author Archives for Jenni
Phthalates, BPA, mercury, dioxins, smog, sunburn vs. vitamin D shortage, MSG, developing too slowly/too quickly, hormones in meat and dairy, pesticides on foods, trans fats, child too chubby/too skinny, too short/too tall, breastfeeding, bottle feeding, when to start solids, vaccines, antibiotic resistant bugs, just plain BUGS, did he just eat dirt, do hot dogs cause cancer… The list of things we worry about as mommies is very nearly infinite. I am sure you can dream up new ones to add to my list. And that list was just the things we can worry about with a small child, is seems
Author Archives for Jenni
I had hoped that the time would stand still. Breastfeeding is going so swimmingly with Lily, I hate to add the complication of other foods. But the clock never stops, nor does Lily stop growing into her own little person. In the spare moments I scrape out of my day before falling asleep I have been reading Child of Mine by Ellyn Satter and I am finding it remarkably full of common sense. It is a breath of fresh air and gives me hope that the current problems I am having feeding my 3 year old healthy food (he would
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So now Jr. and Little Sis are all strapped in and ready to go, how do you keep from losing your marbles? For that matter, before you even get in the car there looms the chore of strapping everyone in snug and tight. How will you get smoothly to the car and get everyone buckled, and once buckled, how can we keep everyone happy on the way to our destination?
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… or maybe it was in this galaxy, on this planet, car seat laws and recommendations were a bit different than they are now. When my first child (who is about to turn 18) was a baby, my pediatrician told me I could face her forward in her car seat as soon as she could sit up by herself. So she faced forward from about 6 months on. But I thought I was doing pretty good because a good friend of mine faced her child forward from birth. Just before she
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Several years ago, a friend showed me an article in Welcome Home magazine about laundry. The article was entitled, “The Laundry Dance” by Barb Warner and talked about how she worked so hard to get her laundry done. She would pile it up on the couch to fold it but would get pulled to do some other thing and the pile would sit unfolded. After a day or two she would fold the clothes and move them to the bed so she would HAVE to put them away before she could get in bed at night. But, inevitably, the kids
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A good friend of mine once pointed out to me that there is just something about a baby in a white onesie. It took me a while to really understand what she meant, but it is true. There is something so pure and perfectly simple about a baby, especially a freshly bathed one, in a white onesie. There are millions of beautiful baby clothes out there, why something so boring as a white onesie? I think that it is because when your baby is in a white onesie, what you look at is just the baby. There is nothing to
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Last year, when the first few recalls came out for toys with lead, I barely blinked. The toys mentioned were not toys I tended to buy on a regular basis, so I just blew it off. I did notice that a few were from brands that are well known and I would tend to trust inherently. They were big brands, brands I would look for and expect quality from. So my confidence in them was knocked down a notch, but that was about all the thought I gave it. But as a few more recalls rolled out and Christmas was
