Looking for Musical Inspiration...

Help! I always thought I would be the mom who is constantly singing to her kids - play songs, lullabies, holiday tunes, etc. So now that little Franklin is here, my mind has suddenly gone blank! It's a good thing he loves the ABC song, because I am seriously lacking some musical inspiration!! Can anyone help? What are your favorite songs to sing to your kids? I'm particularly interested in any night-time lullabies that do not involve babies falling from trees.... Thanks!

Books

Here are three of our favorite parenting books so far:
1) Baby Bargains Book -- our go-to book for any baby purchase
2) Good Night, Sleep Tight -- we just finished this sleep program for our 17 month old after a rough month of waking up (and staying awake) in the middle of the night. We tried so many different ways to get her to sleep and none of them worked (even things that had worked for us in the past). This system worked and we are starting to feel normal again!
3) Sippy Cups are not for Chardonnay -- absolutely hilarious collection of essays on being a new parent that helped keep me sane for the first six weeks of Maddie's life

Pump on the Go

Did you know Medela makes a power adapter for your car to power your pump? Very handy in traffic when traveling from Orange County to LA. Need I elaborate? Probably not. Let me know if you need tips on pumping on the go - I think I mastered it this afternoon.

Bathing Beauty

We have reached the age where Maia no longer fits in her baby tub (the one that goes in the sink). We used this neato travel sponge bath thingie (see photo exhibit A below) for a few days, but then Maia discovered she could start rolling in the tub. Uh-oh! Then we switched to this bath ring which was a hand-me-down (see photo exhibit B below). This seems to work for about 3 minutes but it's difficult to get her in and out. Also, it just doesn't seem that safe to me; in fact, I looked it up on-line and it does have a few warnings against using it, so I'd like to move away from it. So what are we to do? We even tried the mommy and me bath, which was the most successful, but not sure I want to climb into the tub every night. Am I missing something in the world of baby bathing? How does everyone else deal with this?

Exhibit A - Sponge Thingie

Exhibit B - Not-the-safest Bath Ring

A Travel Must have!

I have travelled quite a bit with just me and the babe.. no hubby! So I have been constantly trying to find ways that I can entertain Ben, make the plane trip as pleasant for me and the strangers sitting beside me and not have to feel like I have packed Ben's whole room in my carry-on. I had been struggling because Ben is quite good if he can sit and watch a baby einstein, however using a portable dvd player was more of a hassle then it was a help. Ben would just constantly press the buttons grab the screen..it was extremely frustrating. But for our last trip my husband suggested I put some baby einstein videos on his old ipod. And then I found this!!! This case for the ipod.. makes it easy for Ben to hold, protects the ipod and the screen from spills or sticky fingers and BEST OF ALL.. it is WAY smaller then a dvd player and you don't have to take it out of your bag for security! Its enough taking the baby out of the stroller, shoes off, liquids out.. so one less thing to do! Anyways its been a lifesaver for me and my travel.. and I am sure with all the new ipod technology if your like my husband you have an old one sitting around or are waiting to upgrade!
To Check out all the fun colors and stickers to customize it for your little one CLICK HERE

Make Your Own Food

Maia will be starting with some solid foods in the next few weeks. I'm leaning towards making our own baby food and I recently received a recommendation to use the Happy Baby Food Grinder.



We have a Cuisinart, and I previously assumed I would just use that for preparation. However, the clean up is daunting and this new alternative is intriguing. Has anyone else used one of these or a similar device and would they recommend it?