Weekly Baby Pictures

Babies grow and change so quickly- especially the first months.  As delighted I was that my child was growing, I was always a touch sad with each passing week and month anniversary that passed.  I found that taking a weekly photo helped me to remember the early weeks- from the chicken leg stage to the thunder thighs and chubby cheeks.  While we can't freeze time, it can be awfully fun to look back at our little ones and see how they have grown.  

With each of my kids, we took a weekly picture, with the child next to (or holding, or gnawing on) a notecard with the date.  Here are a few of my favorites (and yes, I just hated the task of going back through baby photos...awww!)

Isn't it amazing how fast they change?

We printed out each picture and hung them around the room in chronological order.  In our first house, we hung them on a little clothesline we attached to the wall.  Our current house already had nails in the wall, so we used those...perhaps the former owners did something similar?!

We usually took pictures until roughly 20 odd weeks...when I stopped remembering and the baby started eating the paper, it was time to stop.  When it was time to free up the nails for the next set of baby pictures, I turned the photos into a collage to hang above their beds.  They like seeing themselves as babies...and so do I!  I put a current picture on there as well, just for fun, to see how much they have grown.  

I consider this art, memory-making and a touch of post-partum therapy all in one.  It makes a nice facebook album for those friends and family who don't get to see you little one every week.  I have used them as decorations for first birthday parties as well.  You can never have too many pictures, right?!


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Our Sleep Manifesto

The Handley Family Sleep Manifesto: 

The Greatest Sleep for the Greatest Number

Now generally we don't identify with communist ideals* at the Handley home, but when it comes to sleep, the idea works for us.  Whatever gets the greatest sleep for the greatest number is the way we go.  There are ten bazillion books written on getting children to sleep.  There are countless articles on the undeniable benefits/undeniable dangers of just about every sleep option out there.  Caring parents ONLY sleep with their kids.  Caring parents ONLY put their kids in their cribs.  Caring parents swaddle.  Or feed to sleep.  Or have siblings share rooms.  Or do kangaroo care.  Or bedshare.  Or babywear.  Or do bedtime in a swing.  Use crib bumpers.  Don't use crib bumpers.  Or a carseat.  Or drive their kids around at night.  Or set the car seat on the dryer.  Or give a bottle at night.  Or a pacifier.  Or use an apnea monitor.  Or don't.  

Baloney pants.  

Caring parents figure out what works for them and go for it in a safe and flexible way.  They realize that what works today won't necessarily work tomorrow.  And they don't judge other parents for doing what works for them.  

Some ways we have begged pleaded coerced bored swindled tricked soothed our children into sleep:

On Daddy

On a park bench, homeless style

In the stroller

In the Ergo

On the airplane

Futon-a-thon

Being carried through a cave

Zipped into a plane bassinet

On the floor

On a walk dressed as a flower

In a sling while big brother rides a horse

Great Gramma's lap- highly recommended!

In the baby swing

In a toddler bed

In the hospital

On the kitchen table

Camping, surrounded by stuff bags

In a carseat

Okay- this one definitely does not work

So in conclusion...do what works for you.  Do it safely.  And try to get some sleep.  Good luck!

*Upon further research, I have just learned that "The greatest good for the greatest number" is in fact a Utilitarian quote by Jeremy Bentham, not a Communist quote, as I had previously thought.  Who knew.

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Fine Motor Fun!

At 15 months, Beatrice is starting to develop some awesome fine motor skills, so we made her a little game to practice.  It was SUPER easy to put together...it took ten minutes, tops. Here is what we did:

1) Take a piece of scrap wood and sand it smooth.  

2) Drill pencil-sized holes (we used a 9/32 inch drill bit to be very exact).  

3) Put glue in each hole and hammer an unsharpened pencil into each hole (I used pliers to remove the erasers first)

4) Find big beads, spools, empty tape rolls, canning lids...anything not chokeable with a hole in it...and show your child how to put them on the pencils.  

VOILA! 

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