New Moms and seasoned mothers of little ones share some of the same issues, one being, what car seat to pick. It can be confusing with how many different kinds there are, and how they fit into different cars differently, and how many one can get across the back of a car. It can be near heart breaking to buy 3 new perfect car seats only to after hours of trying have to give up on getting them installed because they just don’t fit. It happens. Thankfully there are people out there who live to solve such issues!

Car Seat Laws

Care Seats can be further complicated by the different laws that countries and states have. It is now law where I live that children must be rear facing till age 2. This is a great law but one I notice many parents not paying attention too. Maybe they have a car set that is not made for rear facing that long such as some of the bucket seats? They need help. Once you figure out the rear facing dilemma paired with the right car seat till age two or beyond you are then soon faced with the booster seat issues. 48 states in the USA have booster seat laws, all but Florida and South Dekota. In Maryland, where I live, the law right now says that a child must be over 8 years old, over 57″ and over 60 lbs. This means a few of my shorter kids might well be in booster seats till they are just about teens! Safety first though and that is what is important. Finding seats rated for as high as we might need though, that might be tricky if I don’t ask the right people for help. Thankfully I know the right people to ask.

Car Seat Moms

You the know the ones I am talking about right? The ones that seem to know everything there is about car seats. I am not one of them. I do so adore their passion and how they help me keep my children safe. These experts often put the supposed experts to shame. I was lucky to have such a Car Seat Mom help when we went to the fire department to make sure the new car seats were installed right. The trained expert there wanted to put my 3 year old in a bottom booster. My car seat expert Mom though educated the lady and in the end it all got sorted out so that the kids had the proper seats installed the proper ways. I have to say, I love you Lori, thank you so much! If you know of a car seat expert mom, please do ask her about your car seats and situation, I have found they love to help. It is what they do!

Picking the right Car Seat

There are whole websites and forums dedicated to this topic. Looking at car seats from BambinoDirect I can see why. There are so many kinds of seats now, and so many beautiful ones too. I have learned from the car seat moms though that a higher price does not always mean a better car seat, it is all about the fit, both for the baby and the car. Getting the car seat installed right can be complicated but if you ask others on the car seat forums, they can often get you videos on how to do it, maybe even videos with your kind of van and that kind of seat in the position you need it to be in. Car Seat Moms want to help. They love car seats and find every aspect of keeping children safe while driving to be fascinating. It is well worth talking to them and letting them help you. If you need help finding a car seat mom to help, let me know! I love being helpful too!

SmartLab Toys is a very smart company that strives to help kids learn as they play.

They specialize in gifts for ages 4 – 12 but even adults love their toys. I am glad to introduce them to you in this holiday gift guide and hopefully help you finish your holiday shopping.

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Also be sure to check out this SmartLab Toy review and learn about the great toy offered in the giveaway below!

Some of the toys you might want to consider:

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Why Bingo?

As a child, watching some of the adults in my life disappear once a week talking of this game bingo and sometimes coming back excited with plans of spending winning I never really thought about the history of the game, or the benefits beyond possible winning. All I saw was a game I was not allowed to play, and I wanted too. Bingo has roots reaching all the back into 1530 in Italy. It was then popular in some form in France and in Germany it was used in education to help teach children letters and numbers ect.

Beyond being fun, as a child I didn’t also know that bingo was helpful for learning and for those who are adults the game is beneficial in other mental ways. Too often elderly people will stop doing things they enjoy and it is important for them to not do that, they need to keep active. Bingo helped my Grand Mother to keep active.

One of my Grand mothers, my step fathers mother to be exact, was a public school teacher before retirement. She was also a military wife, and later a widow. I spent years watching her and some other adults in my life disappear to go play this game. Finally when I turned 18 they asked if I would like to go with them and I jumped at the chance.

The large pool halls, filled with people and excitement, and also smoke, was some how inviting. Everyone was so nice to me. I was surrounded by much older people who all seemed to want to help me figure things out. I watched as some had an arms width of bingo cards and I couldn’t picture how they kept up with them all. I had three cards, always three as that is the number my grand mother thought I should stick to. She on the other hand had many and she was so fast! There was chatter and drinking and friendship. I understood then why each week she went.

She died years back, the smoking and smoke being the thing the killed her in the end. I am glad so many places are now smoke free so that people can enjoy the game and keep their health. I don’t think she would have changed playing though had she known what it would cost her. It was how she kept busy and I think what gave her hope.

Hope

There is more to Bingo than just a game, it is hope. When one is old I think hope might be hard to come by. The game though caused those I knew who went to bingo halls to have hope. It was wonderful to watch. I think that hope alone has great value and is important.

Not everyone can get out of the house though, and they still need hope. Bingo is no longer a game just for the elderly, specially because of the internet. Now the game brings some form of hope and entertainment to anyone who wants to play and the internet. Ladbrokes offers gaming at another level and popularity with it is growing. I think my grand mother would have enjoyed learning to play bingo online. She was very smart and loved the game as much as she loved books. Books and Bingo where the only things that took her attention away from my little sister whom she dedicated herself to taking care of. When ever Grandma won bingo, little sister got a new toy. It was adorable. I think this is something many grand parents like to do with winnings. I bet some day when I am in my retired years I will be online gaming and trying to win to buy toys for my grand babies too!

I miss you Princess. (What I called grandma)

I am a Mommy that needs a timeout.

Time outs are a tool parents sometimes use in hopes that taking a child away from a situation will give them time to think about things and make the right choices. It is contended though that taking a child away from a situation, putting them alone in a room or corner, does not cause them to think clearly at all but rather makes them feel neglected, misunderstood, bad about themselves, angry at others, and can break ones soul, a minute at a time.

As crunchy parents my husband and I try not to use timeouts like that. We don’t want our children to feel alone, we do not want to shame them, and we do not want to give them time to let anger grow in them. Anger can do so much damaged when one does not know how to use it and children I do not believe can think critically enough, their brains not fully develop, to understand their anger and use it to be helpful.

The timeout I need though is one a step away from social media, not all together away, just some distance. I have found that I have had little patience for certain things. I have found that my own pain condition has made it hard to be clear minded. I feel grumpy. So when I read so many things that seem so selfish to me on social media, I snap back, I post things that I believe to be right. I feel like I need to make space in my social media areas to be who I am, and post what I think, but on my personal wall those things have been snarky, they have been less about what I believe and more a reaction to what others have posted. I keep thinking if I read one more “Reason for the season” from someone promoting their own belief and putting others down I am going to scream. It seems so selfish and so closed minded and so many of those people have no understanding of history and how so many of the traditions they follow are so much older than their religion even. They push their religion on others and I feel like I have to push back, and make space.

I am not feeling like I have that space, or maybe the truth is the space I made, is just so negative I do not see myself in that space anymore.

I do not feel like myself.

So I need a timeout of sorts. Years ago I was able to get some training in NVC. Non-violent communication. It helped me feel like myself as it helped me change my thinking. I went to classes, and I was in a group for NVC and learned so much about others and myself. It was a safe space and I learned how much self blame I had. I spent too long thinking about how others would judge me. Blame is tragic and rather useless. Like an Angry child in a corner, it doesn’t help, and it can grow and eat ones soul so to speak.

There is power in language.

There is such power in language, when we change the language we use, we can change our thinking and if we change out thinking, we can change everything. While I was trying to make space for myself on my facebook wall, I was not filling that space with who I am but rather negative thinking. It was not helpful, not to anyone. It didn’t meet the need. I am thankfully that I see that what I was trying didn’t work and have the time and space to see how I can change this.

I don’t have it all figured out, but I see the issue. I am glad to be able to put myself in timeout of sorts to gift myself some empathy and go back to working on NVC.

These images let my mind wander and wonder and some of them make me smile. We have had a few warm days here in Maryland and no snow yet this year. I badly want to see snow but until that day comes…

To the joy of a nation and many around the world the Princess Kate Middleton and her Prince are expecting. The news hit surrounding the princess going to the hospital for acute morning sickness, or rather Hyperemesis Gravidarum.

I was rather shocked and saddened to see so many comment on her sickness as if she was some how not strong enough for pregnancy, or playing things up for the media. I don’t think most people understand what a danger Hyperemesis Gravidarum is. Maybe I wouldn’t understand if I had not had it with one of my pregnancies as well.

It can be life threatening and is very dangerous to both mother and the baby. Symptoms include nausea and vomiting, dehydration, rapid weight loss, and then of course the body starts to shut down. Women are hospitalized for it and put on medication. It can be very hard to control and often women will not seek treatment till they have lost a lot of weight because they are told it is normal and that they need to put on their big girl panties about it. I am glad that the Princess went and got help, she is not weak, she is ill and I hope it gets better. She might though have near 40 weeks of misery and worry. It is something I wish on no one, specially not her. I can not say I follow her life like others, but I have not read anything but good things about her and it has to be hard being in the public eye specially when your suffering something like that and so few understand it.