Ten Reasons to Travel with Kid

(Even if it is only to the corner market, and even if I do live in tropical, exotic Costa Rica.)

1.To get out of the house before my 2-year-old determinedly achieves making my head and/or my husband?s into a flat-board for his diving expertise.

2. To avoid hearing my son demand I draw his hand on any random surface, AGAIN!

3. To see new places and teach him something other than ?do you need to go pee-pee/ca-ca??

4. To wear him out so he can develop a big hole in his belly and finally eat without me ripping my hair out or crying for him to take just one teensy-weensy morsel of the food I?ve slaved over for hours so he can have some ?spice? in his life, because god-forbid if a toddler eats something with less than eight words in the title. And, of course, the reason for his NOT eating is because ?y cooking is too boring?for him and I have to cook up extravagant concoctions of mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, pasta, and meats!

5. To wear him out completely on someone else?s turf so he can sleep like a ?baby?.

6. For me to see something other than my four walls which have become miraculously, and too quickly, covered in chalk, crayons and marker. (My husband and I are totally opposed to this, but if we say no the full-on temper tantrum awaiting us is by far more taxing than the hours of scrubbing the walls clean.)

7. To know that there is a world out there with real people other than Barney, Mickey, Clifford, Dora?

8. To interact with real, live people and kids who will be great distractions for my son as he attempts another round of climbing our shoulders via stepping all over my body and face, or having us fly him around like an airplane. (He only weighs 30 pounds!)

9. To have a reason to take a shower (other than because I am too stinky even for myself) and throw on clothes bought in trendy stores than my glorified robes and PJ sets. Besides, I?ve realized dressing up for any reason at all when my little man joins me is fruitless. He manages to leave footprints, paint prints, food prints on me no matter how hard I try to run from him.

10. To dress up ?the-light-of-my-life? (my son) in the numerous designer outfits my family and friends eagerly bestow upon us. They actually think my life is as exotic as the country I live in!

I'm a US expat living in Costa Rica with my husband and mixed-up little toddler trying to figure out the trials and tribulations of motherhood and living abroad.

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How To Keep A Happy Baby.

Whether you are expecting your first child or you are a veteran parent with years of experience raising kinds you have probably asked yourself the question ?how will I go about keeping my baby as happy and smiling as possible??

Well. I can?t give you a definite answer to that question because there are probably as many different answers as there are babies in the world. Every single human is unique but we do still have some things in common that you can benefit from.

Firstly you will have to provide your baby with the basic human needs. This includes the right amount and the right type of food, enough sleep, shelter etc. Without these basics you will have a hard time keeping your baby happy and you will probably experience more crying and screaming than you will see smiles and hear giggles.

Secondly you will have to spend your time. Time is unfortunately on of the things that most people will never have enough of and the one thing that every human will certainly run out of at some point.

By ?time? I mean that you will have to spend your time with your baby. After all you are the parent and I trust that this is in your own interest as well. One thing that is extremely important is that you do not you spend time because you ?need to? but that you actually ?want to?.

A baby or a child is a very sensitive being and they will see right through you if you don?t want to be with them. They are extremely good at reading ?between the lines? because they still have their intuition.

When you provide you baby or child with genuine love and care you can be sure that it will come back to you ten-fold. If it doesn?t then you might want to take a look in the mirror and ask yourself the question ?have I really given my unconditional love and care to my baby??

If you feel that you have then you are on the right path. Surely there can be situations where other aspects kick in. The child can become sick, have slept poorly, have had to little to eat etc. Some of these things are just ?life? and we all have to live with them.

The point is that love and care goes a long way and if you haven?t already tried it then I suggest that you give it a try. You might be surprised.

About the Author:

Find unique baby boy names at Unique-Baby-Footprint.com. Great resources for unique baby names

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A Baby Footprint Makes A Great Baby Shower Invitation

If you are like many peo0le you can easily get stuck when it comes to the baby shower invitation. Finding the location, creating the guest lists and buying a cake can seem easy compared to picking the right invitation. The baby shower invitation will be the first impression that the guests will have of the event. It is therefore important to convey a message through the baby shower invitation. One really fun and very popular way to do this is use a baby footprint in the invitation. It is hard to resist the charm of a tiny little baby footprint. Baby shower invitations with a footprint are so irresistible be will just have to come to the shower.

So here are some creative ideas that you can use in creating your own baby shower footprint invitation.

1. Printed - A simple printed baby footprint can be a ton of fun. You can use a silhouette of a baby footprint to make the design. This will show the heel, toes and side of the foot. It will look as if a baby stepped in ink and then stamped the card with their feet. You can find clip art online by searching, use a stamp, use a real baby or even just freehand draw your own.

To put a little action into the baby shower footprint invitation you can make a series of footprints and make them decrease in size from large to smaller. This will give the illusion that the person leaving the prints is walking into the card. This is a great way to draw the attention of the viewer into the card and then place your important text information right above this.

2. Stamps - Stamping has become a very popular craft and is use widely among printers and crafters in the business of making invitations. You can easily purchase baby footprint stamps of varying sizes from your local craft store or on the Internet. These can make a fun and fancy decoration to the invitation. There are so many things you can do by varying the colors, size of the stamp and the paper the possibilities are really endless.

For example pick a cute pink (for girls) or a blue (for boys) ink pad and stamp a tiny border made up of footprints all around the invitation. Don?t worry to much about making them all straight or in line just have fun and stamp at random. This will give the invitation a light fun feeling.

As an alternative you can purchase a large stamp and simply stamp a big filled in silhouetted image smack dab in the middle of the invitation. Then you can creatively with fun colored pens write all around the footprint following the outline of it. This makes another fun creative and even whimsical invitation.

3. Embossing - This is where the baby footprint is raised from the page. There are two types of embossing. The first is by using a professional printer and paying to have the cards done. A printer can actually emboss the paper and have a raised footprint right in the paper. A baby footprint embossed onto a beautifully textured pure white piece of paper can look very elegant!

If you are the do it yourself type it is very easy to purchase an embossing powder in stamping or craft store. These come in all kinds of fun colors but often gold or silver embossing powder can look very elegant! With embossing powder you will need a stamp and some ink. You start by stamping the invitation with the baby footprint stamp first. Then before the ink dries you poor some of the embossing powder on the stamped area. The embossing powder will stick tot he wet ink. You can then hold the piece of paper over a light bulb or use an embossing gun to heat the powder. Once it gets hot it will melt and adhere to the paper. This makes a fun and easy way to have a very elegant gold embossed baby footprint shower invitation.

4. Cut Out - With this technique you will want to find some stiff paper. Then you will pencil in an outline of a baby footprint and cut it out. You can also make a simple stencil suing a file folder and then quickly trace around the stencil and cut out to speed up the process and make the results more uniform. Then on the baby of the cut out footprint you can write all of your important baby shower details. Where it will take place, RSVP information and so forth.

Either way that you choose the important thing to remember is to have fun in creating the baby shower invitation footprint. Get some friends to help you if you plan on making your own invitations as this will speed up the entire process. It can also be more fun with a group of girlfriends around a table talking and having a good time then cutting 25 baby shower footprint invitations all by yourself.

As an addition to the fun, baby shower footprint invitation, it can be lots of fun to continue with the footprint theme in decorating for the part. You can use the same stamps and decorations that you used on the invitation in other places to decorate for the shower.

About the Author: Have the best baby shower!

Baby Shower Guide: themes, invitations and more. For more info try

Baby Shower Footprint Invitations

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