Adorable Diaper Cakes

More great submissions to Martha Stewart's Baby Shower Idea page.

I love the block letter and the green rubber ducky on top here. Very chic and gender neutral without being too pastel.


Classic, simple diaper cake with great choice of ribbon.


Again, the block letter here is a great touch.


The ribbon could be done better, but I love that they included a book and other great items in this cake.

Baby Shower Food Ideas

Martha Stewart is running some sort of competition for baby shower ideas. Deadline for photo submissions is Jan 1, 2009. The pool of photos has some great ideas already. Here are some great food ones.

Cake Baby Blocks


Adorable jungle themed cookies:



Watermelon Fruit Basket- made to look like baby carriage!

Make your own favor- paper cones to be filled with mom-to-be's favorite candies. Very clever!

Rickets Makes a Comeback

A NYTimes article out yesterday reports cases of rickets showing up in infants and toddlers recently. While rickets is a common childhood disease in many developing countries [1], in the US it is not often heard of.

Rickets is defined as a softening of the bones in adolescence. This can lead to fractures and deformities such as bow-legs and wrist widening. However it is easily preventable with proper nutrition- specifically vitamin D.

And here enters the recent problem- doctors are suggesting that infants aren't getting enough vitamin D, even with proper diet. Dr. Catherine M. Gordon, director of the bone health program at Children’s Hospital Boston, says

"I completely support breast-feeding, and I think breast milk is the perfect food, and the healthiest way to nourish an infant... However, we’re finding so many mothers are vitamin D deficient themselves that the milk is therefore deficient, so many babies can’t keep their levels up. They may start their lives vitamin D deficient, and then all they’re getting is vitamin D deficient breast milk."

Dr. Frank Greer, chairman of the committee on nutrition of the American Academy of Pediatrics, adds that, “Historically speaking, we probably got it from the sun, but now we’re afraid of the sun and we don’t go out as much.”

While rickets is still rare in the US, the number of cases has been cropping up in recent years. Talk to your pediatrician about possibly adding supplements over the wintertime when sun exposure is down and make sure when breast feeding that you are getting adequate amounts of vitamin D yourself.

Ikea Finds!

IKEA- that wonderous place with reasonably priced cute furnishings for every room of the house. Here are some of their new stuff for kids rooms.

Hanging wall organizer for $9.99


Adorable black and white sheets to match any room $19.99



Cute rugs for $34.99



New Fabler series features all kinds of plush toys from 2.99-9.99

National S'more Day!

Yes, according to some (Holiday Insights, About.com, wikipedia) August 11th is National S'more Day. The only real trivia associated with s'mores is that they were first mentioned in the Girl Scout Handbook in 1927, claimed to be inspired by Loretta Scott Crew's campfire treats. I suppose the rest is history, since these tasty treats are so unanimously popular.

Grab some graham crackers, marshmallows and Hershey's bars and teach your kids some S'more trivia tonight.

(Tip for city folk- the microwave works just as well as a campfire. Place the chocolate on and nuke for 15 seconds, then add the marshmallow and go for a few seconds longer. Watch carefully! The once marshmallow swells to great size its done.)

Summer Mocktails

It's summer. It's hot. It's Friday and you would like drink. What's a pregnant girl to do? While you may have friends and family who tell you "It's perfectly ok to have just one", the verdict is still out. The Center for Disease Control still insists on the following:

* There is no known amount of alcohol that is safe to drink while pregnant. All drinks with alcohol can hurt an unborn baby. A 12-ounce can of beer has as much alcohol as a 5-ounce glass of wine or a 1-ounce shot of liquor.

* There is no safe time to drink during pregnancy. Alcohol can harm a baby at any time during pregnancy. It can cause problems in the early weeks of pregnancy, before a woman even knows she is pregnant.

* About 1 in 12 pregnant women in the United States reports alcohol use. And about 1 in 30 pregnant women in the United States reports binge drinking (having five or more drinks at one time).

*FASDs are 100% preventable. FASDs are 100% preventable. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are 100% preventable—if a woman does not drink alcohol while she is pregnant.

Meanwhile, there are a slew of those who argue that drinking during pregnancy is perfectly safe. Check out this article for several sources.

If you can't decide or choose to abstain there are several good recipes for some tasty mock-cocktails you can have instead.

Temperance Tantrum - 3 oz. cranberry juice, 2 oz. orange juice, squeeze of lemon, ginger ale. Blend the juices with ice until smooth, then top up with the ginger ale.

Acapulco Gold- 2 shots freshly pressed pineapple juice, 1 shot freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, 1 shot coconut milk, 1 shot fresh cream. Shake all of the ingredients together with ice and then strain into a cocktail glass to serve.

Tornado Twist- 12 fluid ounces cranberry-raspberry juice, 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage. In a pitcher, mix cranberry-raspberry juice with lemon-lime soda. Pour over ice and serve.

Raining Men- Put 1/2 glass of ice, 4 oz. orange juice, 4 strawberries, 1 banana into a blender.
Blend until smooth. Garnish with fresh fruit as appropriate.

Coconut Cooler- 4 parts coconut milk, 4 parts fresh lime juice, Sparkling water, Sprig of mint. Combine the coconut milk and lime juice in a cocktail shaker and shake well. Pour over ice cubes into a Collins glass. Top up with sparkling water and stir gently, garnish wth the mint sprig.

More recipes here and here and finally here.

Great Kids Style Blogs

I love finding new blogs that show how parenting can be the opposite of what many 20-somethings fear. It's not the end of style, fun, or social lives. It doesn't make you boring. It can be fantastic and pretty darn cute at the same time. Here are some blogs that I have recently discovered that help me prove my point.

Apartment Therapy's ohdeedoh
Tagline: Home. Design. Children.
What to check out: Their nursery tours. Tons of real nurseries in a variety of spaces and styles.

KidsHaus
Tagline: Blending kids + Design
What to check out: They've got tons of great kid friendly art work and crafts. Pictures are worth a million words here.

tutus and turtles
Tagline: A frilly-to-functional collection of all things baby and child
What to check out: This site is always giving great stuff away. I don't know how they do it!

Cookie Magazine's Nesting
Tagline: Exchange home design ideas with our editors and one another
What to check out: Everything. These guys are great.