My babies have always wanted to feed themselves…from day one. So, at the young ages of 6 & 7 months I never really fed them that much. But I do love it when they get to be about 8 months old and can start picking up tiny chunks of soft food. This is where we are with our little boy right now. He is 8 months old and tonight he ate soft, mashed up cantaloupe and loved it. I usually have to give him food on his tray to keep his hands occupied while I spoon feed him but I’m not worried about him getting full from solid food because breastmilk is and should be his primary food.

Feeding a baby is really simple. I think the best thing to do is give them as little food as possible until they are about 8-12 months old. I see so many parents feed babies food they shouldn’t be eating, digestion is a hard thing when a little tummy is used to only one or two different things like breastmilk and rice cereal. I always go to Wholesome Baby Food for answers to my questions about what my baby can eat. Check it out, it’s my favorite baby food related site.

I love soft soled baby shoes. I think that they are the best thing for little babies since they crawl and toddle around, flexing their toes, moving their ankles in every direction. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to wear a pair of thick, heavy tennis shoes and move like an infant or toddler does. Soft sole infant shoes haven’t always been all that cute, though.

I bought robeez for my daughter and loved the little fleece lined booties they have for winter until I found Soft Star Shoes. Soft Star’s winter boots hold up so much better and they don’t get unsightly “folds” in the leather. There slip on shoes are really cute too but pediped has put a new twist on the fashion of soft soled infant & toddler shoes.

Even though my daughter is now three, I still love to buy soft soled shoes for her. She loves them too! My son who is an infant right now will be decked out in pediped shoes this year.

My favorite thing about any of the shoes mentioned above, they all last through a number of children and have a great resale value on www.ebay.com. So you can even check eBay for used soft sole leather infant and toddler shoes. Then you can get them for just about the same price you would pay for synthetic hard sole shoes.

As a stay-at-mom who makes a valid attempt at being frugal, I have learned to make trades for the things me or the family wants and needs. Make trades? What I mean by making trades is that if we find ourselves wanting or needing something, then there is probably something we can get rid of to help pay for the new addition. With the internet auction sites that are now available like eBay, it is very easy to do this. You can start selling online today by opening a storefront on eBay! Your items don’t even have to be new to have a store. Read more…

Although cloth diapering is fairly easy and requires only a bit more ‘fuss’ than disposables…there are definitely days when I tire of cloth diapering. Maybe it’s those days when laundry is piling up and then here comes the load of cloth diapers. Even more so it’s probably the days when you are away from home and get a poopy diaper and you can’t get rid of it so easily. But I do hang in there and keep going, the feeling only lasts for a few minutes! Read more…

I was at the park today with my children and there were several other children there of all ages. One thing stood out to me though…there was a little girl, probably 16 or 18 months old who was climbing on the play structure. It seemed so difficult for her to do this as she had to lift her legs very high and when she attempted to put her foot down, she would stumble because she just couldn’t get a grip with her big, hard soled shoes. Like I had x-ray vision, I could just see her tiny toes inside those shoes trying to balance her and help her climb. But through the thickness of the shoes, they weren’t able to do their job.

This really made me realize how much our small children really need soft soled leather shoes. The reason I say leather is because leather allows the feet to breathe whereas faux leather does not. Even if it’s not for the healthy development of feet, parents should put soft sole shoes on their children just so they can get around easier. Even if they aren’t leather, go ahead and get them because most of the thick, hard sole shoes aren’t leather either.