Starting a Blog for Your Baby

As a new parent, it’s not always easy to find time to record a baby’s early life in their baby book.  Create a blog for your baby to help you to complete the missing information in their baby book later and give them an interactive window into their early childhood as an adult.

Choose a blogging website and sign up for a free membership.  There are many blogs to choose from.  Find a blog that is easy to use and one with enough features to suite your tastes.  Consider making the blog private and only sharing it with your spouse.  Keep the whole project a secret from your child until they are much older.  It will be a sweet and unexpected surprise for your son or daughter to receive access to so much information about their childhood.  Verify that you are able to download backups of the blog to your computer and do so frequently.

Take lots of digital photographs of your baby.  A mobile phone with a built-in camera is extremely handy for this.  Remember that pictures taken with a camera phone will typically be low resolution and perfect for displaying on the blog, but will not make good printed photographs.  If you wish to print many of the pictures that you take of your baby, buy a decent digital camera and keep it close by at all times.  If you take mostly high resolution photos of your baby, use a photo editing program to make lower resolution copies to post to the blog because they will take up far less space and load faster in your web browser.

Post interesting and detailed blog entries every day.  Write as though you are speaking to your child directly.  Don’t write, “Ate applesauce for the first time today.”  Make the post interesting and discuss things that were happening, not just with your child, but also with family members and friends whom they will be able to relate to later in life.  Don’t share any negative or personal feelings about anyone and don’t talk about your problems or worries.  Keep the experience positive and upbeat.  You can also add brief clips of current events, but remember not to just link to other web sites.  Most websites change constantly, so you’ll want to make snapshots of pages or find files that you can save on the blog or link to.  PDF files are a great format to use for capturing pictures and text in a single document because they display the same way, no matter which browser you use to view the file.

Upload short, compressed video files or sound clips to the blog.  This will require additional equipment, like a digital video camera and the appropriate editing software, but the results are well-worth the investment.  Your child will one day have the ability to watch their first steps or hear their first words by simply logging into the blog, which will be far more interactive than their baby book could ever be.

How to Pour a Carbonated Beverage With Minimal Fizz

Pouring a refreshing beverage can be so aggravating when half of the drink fizzes above the rim of the glass and then all over the counter. I have a trick that will eliminate this problem!

If you are going to include ice cubes in your beverage, save them until last. Do not place them into the glass at this point!

Hold the glass in one hand and tilt it so that the sides of the glass form an approximate 60 degree angle with the floor.

Start pouring the beverage slowly into the glass. Aim about halfway down the glass so that the beverage makes contact with the side of the glass and then starts to fill the bottom. You should already begin to notice that the fizz is not nearly as thick or there may be no fizz at all if you pour it perfectly. As you pour, increase the speed of flow and also begin to tilt the glass slowly back to it's upright position.

If you are adding ice cubes, don't fill the glass all the way up. Also, you may encounter some fizzing as you add the ice cubes, so add them one-by-one.

If done correctly, you should notice a drastic improvement in the amount of fizz in your glass. This method reduces the number of times that you will have to clean up a sticky mess from your counter. Now enjoy your cool, tasty, beverage!

Making Your Car Safe for Children

Inspect your car, both inside and out on a weekly basis.  Follow all routine maintenance schedules for your car as advised by the manufacturer, including oil changes, and tire rotations.  Keep your state vehicle inspection up-to-date.  Check the tread on your tires and also check the tire pressure regularly.  Look for puddles under the car that may be indicators of serious problems.  A puddle of water from the A/C is normal, but a puddle of oil or transmission fluid is not. While you are spending some quality time with your car, go ahead and wash it and clean all of the windows to provide maximum visibility.

What's in your front seat?

Remove or secure loose objects in the car.  In the event of a wreck or roll-over, loose objects will become projectiles and can seriously injure you and your children.  This includes toys, tools, mp3 players, and anything that would hurt if thrown at your face with force.  All of these things can either be stored in the glove box or in the trunk.

Have your car checked immediately if it begins to handle differently or make any strange noises.  Extreme heat and cold are hazardous conditions for young children.  Always crank your car several minutes prior to letting your children get in and let the temperature adjust to a comfortable level.  Check all metal belt buckles and wait until they are cool to the touch before allowing your children to come in contact with them.  Do not, under any circumstances, leave your child unattended in the car for any length of time!

Buy a new car seat or booster seat from a retail store.  It’s perfectly acceptable to buy second-hand clothes and toys for your child from a consignment sale, but car seats are constantly being recalled for safety issues.  You don’t have to buy the most expensive seat available, but if you buy a used one, you have no information about the history of the seat or whether it has been involved in a crash.  Read the instructions for the new seat and install it to the best of your ability.  Then, before placing your child in the seat, drive to the nearest fire station and ask if one of their “car seat certified installers” will give your seat a proper inspection.  Keep all instruction manuals that came with the seat and check periodically for recall notices from the manufacturer.  Many manufacturers will now let you register the seat and they will send an email alert to you if a recall is issued.

Talk to your children about being safe while riding in and exiting the car.  Don’t allow fighting or yelling or anything that is distracting to the driver of the vehicle.  Buckle your children’s safety belts or harnesses the moment they get into the car and do not let them unbuckle themselves until they are exiting the car.  This may sound extreme, but there is a possibility that another car could impact your car, even while you are parked, and if your children are not buckled, they could sustain bad injuries.  If you parallel park your car, tell your children to stay in the car and then let them exit on the side opposite the street.  Do not allow children to run around in parking lots or parking garages!

Practice safe driving habits and make good choices.  Always drive at or under the speed limit and constantly check your mirrors.  If you identify a bad driver approaching you, do everything that you can to allow them to pass you and go on their way.  Avoid causing or participating in road rage.  Don’t speed up to try and make it through yellow traffic lights.  Always leave early enough to make it to your destination on-time without driving fast.  If you are going to be late, then just be late.  If you cause an accident and hurt your children because you were in too much of a hurry, you will look back and wish you had just taken your time, so always think proactively in order to avoid all of that.  If you will be driving with your children in the car at any point in a given evening, don’t drink alcohol at all!

Evaluate the cars of anyone else who will transport your child.  Give them a safety checklist and see that they follow it.  As a parent, it is your responsibility to keep your children safe, regardless of other people’s opinions or bad habits.  If someone else’s vehicle or driving habits are unsafe for your children, do not let them ride with that person, regardless of what they say or whether it hurts their feelings.  If this person loves and respects your children, they will make the effort to keep them safe too.