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.

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.

How to Protect Pictures and Video of your Family

Digital cameras continue to grow in popularity.  It is becoming the norm for precious memories to exist exclusively in a digital format.  The average person copies photos to their computer and saves them, but how many of those pictures are ever printed on photo paper? What happens when that computer eventually crashes?

One method for sharing, organizing, and storing photos, which is becoming very popular are the online photo sites.  They allow members to upload, organize, share, edit, and print pictures.  The problem with these sites is that once the photograph is uploaded to them, the member will eventually have to pay that company each time photo prints are needed.  That’s fine as long as the company stays in business, as long as their quality remains intact, and as long as the member doesn’t need pictures in an hour.  These are several things to consider and should encourage everyone to at least keep backup copies of photos whether the online photo websites are used or not.

Saving pictures exclusively to the family computer that everyone uses is not very secure or reliable either.  A computer that is used daily to connect to the Internet is exposed to many dangerous threats that can corrupt data and ultimately destroy, not only pictures and precious memories, but any hard work which is stored there.  It’s alright to save files and pictures to that computer, but precautions should be taken immediately to protect them.

Use a hardware firewall to protect that computer from the Internet.  Firewalls are available at all electronic retail stores that sell computers and are easy to install and configure.  Use a trusted antivirus program to monitor the computer for harmful viruses, Trojans, and worms.  Install a spare hard disk drive into the computer and either manually copy important files to it or use a software backup utility to do it automatically.

An even better idea is to build a stand alone computer that is used exclusively for storing pictures, important file, and videos.  Do not connect this computer to the Internet and be sure it is password-protected and logged-out when not in use.  Install a DVD writer in this computer and make DVD backup copies of all important files and keep the DVD’s stored in a locked box or filing cabinet in a temperature-controlled room.  If this computer needs to be networked to the computer that uses the Internet, then it is possible to block Internet usage on the backup computer and still send files back and forth between the two.

How to Travel with Young Children

If a road trip is in your future and you have young children, it is imperative that you are prepared.

Plan your route carefully.  Know where you are going and how long it will take you to get there.  Now add time for rest stops and eating.  Pack plenty of snacks and games to keep the children satisfied.  Learn how to play several games that may be played on-the-fly.

While traveling, if you approach a rest area, be sure to ask your spouse and kids if they need to stop.  You will be sorry if you pass up a rest stop and then find out that your children need to use the restroom when you are in the middle of nowhere.

Keep plenty of refreshments on-hand and make sure they are easily accessible without having to pull over.  One good idea is to fill several plastic bags with their favorite cereal.  Be sure all drinks are served in containers with resealable tops.

Teach your children to play some games before the trip.  Take some crossword puzzles or word find puzzles along as well as some of your children’s favorite toys.  Play the “alphabet game”, which involves spotting and calling out letters of the alphabet as they appear on billboards.

Stop often for stretch breaks so that everyone stays as comfortable as possible.  Enjoy traveling with your children and make every trip an adventure.

Always Remember to Remove Your Baby from the Car

I am heartbroken each time I watch the news and learn that another parent has forgotten their baby in the car and returned to find that something horrible has happened. I will be a parent soon and these are the things that keep me awake at night. After careful thought, I would like to offer some free and relatively easy solutions that may help new parents to overcome unexpected diversions that too often direct your attention away from your baby.

Develop a new routine to always check the back seat of a vehicle before you leave it, whether it is yours or not. Another important thing to do when you approach a vehicle is to look completely around it for hidden obstructions like children or toys. When you reach your destination and exit the vehicle, immediately open the back door and look into the back seat. Do this whether you know that you have your baby in the car or not. It is imperative that this becomes a habit for both parents and for anyone who will ever transport your child. If you are certain that you dropped the child off at the daycare or if you know that today is not your day to drive them, remember... making a careless mistake on the wrong day has needlessly cost the lives of too many young children.

If you are an employer, you have the ability and should make it a priority to watch after employees who transport young children prior to coming to work. Designate several rows of parking spaces for parents only. Have a few people routinely walk through the parking lot each morning to check those cars for forgotten children. This is a perfect job for security guards whose job is to patrol the parking lot anyway. Offer them an incentive to perform these checks. Also, post signs in the entrance of your building with a reminder about leaving small children in vehicles unattended.

Become better acquainted with your co-workers and develop a habit of asking other parents of young children how their children were doing this morning and what color shirt did their teacher have on this morning. Just that type of reminder may cause a person to remember that they never actually dropped the child off. Pay attention to small details. When you walk into the building from the parking lot, keep an eye out for car seats and casually look into cars as you walk past.

For the parents of small children who take them to daycare daily, be sure that your daycare has a list of emergency numbers, including several work numbers. Ask that they call each number and let someone know if you have not dropped your child off with them after a certain time. Check your cell phone each morning after arriving at work to be sure nobody has left messages for you. If you use Microsoft Outlook, set daily reminders asking whether you remembered your child. If you carry a briefcase with you to work, always put it in the back seat in the floor beside your child's car seat. That way, you will have to open the back door to retrieve it and you may discover an important surprise when you least expect it.

Hopefully, some of these tips will help parents to remember what is most important. If work becomes too stressful and you have difficulty focusing on the things that you are supposed to do, stop for a moment. Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly and ask yourself, "Why am I at work?" Your most obvious response is "to make money." Why do you need money? To take care of your family because they are important to you. Do not forget this! Take an extra 10 seconds out of your hectic morning commute to simply check the back seat of your car!

If you are a parent and you are reading this article at work, stop what you are doing and go check your car. Do it right now! Tell your boss that you need a breath of fresh air. If this article helps save just one child, then it will be the most important thing I've ever written for this website.

Tips & Warnings

• Your family should be your top priority!
• Protect them and think of them every minute of the day!
• If you carry any one particular item with you to work that you will need throughout the day, be sure to place it in the floorboard in the back seat, beside your child's car seat.
• If you are a parent and you think that this could never happen to you... you are WRONG!
• Be sure that your daycare has multiple emergency numbers and that they know what time to start calling them. Take a sick day sometime and put them to the test.