How to get your Baby to Sleep - Book Recommendation

Short story- 

When my son was 5 months I met a woman in the produce section of my grocery store. Her son was around the same age and she started to talk about her sons sleeping. She said I had to get this book "Healthy Sleep, Happy Baby" by Marc Weissbluth. 

She swore by it, how great it was and how well it worked. She spoke about how her son went to sleep every night early and slept through till morning. At the time, I was very tired, as everyone who breastfeeds knows, sleep is a prized commodity. I decided to give it a try, and ordered a copy.

 

She was so right! We were putting our son, who was in his crib next to our bed at the time, to bed when we went to bed, like 9-10 pm. We just figured that was convenient for all. According to the book, and his age, we should try 5-6 pm!! I was like, WHAT? That's crazy sounding.  So we tried it. It took 3 nights of letting him cry for 5-10 minutes, then silence. Silence for 4-6 hours! I was amazed. 

Since then, we recommend this book to everyone we know who has a child. My son is now almost 2, and is a wonderful sleeper to this day. He still goes to bed early, at the latest 7-7:30pm and sleeps all night. 

I HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!! Try it, at the worst your child might sleep more! (:

You can purchase this book at various online and book stores. And if you don't mind used, try Ebay or Amazon!

Great FREE Ipad Apps for 1-3 year olds Preschool

Yes, I did it, got an ipad, and am now sucked into the app world. And now having an almost 2 year old, I am on the search for some great FREE apps, preferably ones with some creativity and some accent of learning. So I went on a search and after downloading and deleting and downloading and deleting, I now have compiled a short list of some of my and my sons favorites. None of these apps are gender specific, so they are great apps for your little girls too.

My first app choice is Endless Alphabet. 

I can't say enough great things about this one. It's a very cute and creatively designed app. Little monsters run the show. You choose a word, the word appears, they say it , they the monsters come parading out and scramble the letters out so your toddler can drag each letter to it's appropriate spot. Once your toddler touches a letter, it comes alive, saying the sound of the letter while animated until it is in it's letters spot in the word, the letter is then said, and it continues until the word is spelled out. They then all cheer and say the word. Then a short explanation of the word is played out with the monsters animated and the word is defined.

 The narrator is a woman, she's nice sounding and silly at times. The monsters are cute and non threatening. The words are various and interesting. My son started doing it at 1 1/2 and is not almost 2 and still LOVES it. And I swear he has learned letters through this app. I found him repeating the sounds of the letters at his wooden blocks and it is fun for him in the process. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

You can read more and find it on their site

Another fun app is Pepi Tree

We found the version for free during a promo, and I'm sure you can still find it, or at least the mini version for free. It's a super cute animated app that takes place in a tree. There are 5 different levels of the tree. The app opens to cheery music with a hooting owl, where your little one can touch the animals or insects that appear in the owls vision and then are dragged into the puzzle place of each object. Then you can scroll up to meet a fuzzy catepillar ready to eat. He eats a leaf with the help of your child then wraps into a cocoon and turns into a butterfly. Once you take his picture, you can let another eat a pear and it goes on to an apple and a plum. Super cute.. There are 3 more levels down below the owl, one where you feed a squirrel family, another where you can grow things and feed a porcupine with a crazy rabbit and the lowest, with a maze.

Each level has a cute music jingle, you can't help but hum, while it's played. The animals are silly and cute and my son really likes doing all the tasks. A nice nature addition to the apps.

You can read and find it on their site

They also do a Pepi Bath app, where a boy or girl needs to be cleaned, so there is a laundry side and a bathing side. You wash their clothes in a washing machine and hang them to dry, or you brush their teeth, wash their hands, comb their hair, etc. Very cute animation and easy to follow. Also available on their website

A great App company is Toca Boca

They make a lot of good apps. Some are just entertaining, others better in the learning department. Some are available free while others have a fee. They have Toca Kitchen or Toca Monsters, where your little ones can learn to choose food and cook it in different ways according to the animal or person eating. There is Toca Band where they can choose band members, make them sing in different ways and choose to create many different bands, all singing variations of the same song. Toca Hair Xmas is a small app letting them cut Santa or a Christmas Trees hair, yes a tree. You can decorate with ornaments, trim them up, change the color and more. And we have Toca Train, where your child can be a conductor, running a train, picking up customers, collecting and dropping off parcels and even sipping a drink while blowing the horn. Very cute.

Overall, all Toca Apps are very impressive with their animation and easiness of use. My son figured everything out very easily, which is important. No ads popping up or annoying banners. Great Overall Apps.

You can read more and find the app on their site

There are many more apps I could list but I'd start with the above if you want some nice fun ones with easy learning ability and great animation.  Also 2 to mention are the PBS has their own app and the WWF has a nice app

Happy Apping!!