Pregnancy Book

If you are expecting, you might have a lot of questions about what to expect during your pregnancy.  I would like to suggest a book for you: You & Your Baby: Pregnancy by Dr. Laura Riley, OB/GYN.

Dr. Riley is an author, the medical director of labor and delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and a mom to two daughters.  In her book, she talks about how a mom's-to-be body changes week-by-week and what symptoms expecting moms can experience.  She also offers advise on how to deal with the morning sickness, mood swings, and lower back pain. 

You & Your Baby: Pregnancy gives moms-to-be a good overview of the amazing journey that pregnancy is.  She suggests exercise programs, healthy diet, addresses safety issues in preparing women to progress through the pregnancy as healthy as possible, and helps them to conquer childbirth fears.

It is a great read full of very good information.

Make Your Own Greeting Cards

Yes, you can easily make your own greeting cards.  To help you start, reach for Easy Greeting Cards by Better Homes and Gardens! 

By making a card for a friend or family member you send a message that you care.  You not only remember the special occasion that the card calls for but also put a thought and effort into creating a special greeting.  Whether it is a birthday, wedding, or baby arrival, Easy Greeting Cards will help you start the project.  The book includes a wide collection of favorites from the editors of Scrapbooks Etc.that will give you a jump start and supply many super-easy yet one-of-a-kind cards for your loved ones. 

Decorating New Cottage Style

"Comfortable.  Relaxed.  Inviting.  Is it any wonder cottage style remains a favorite?  But today's looks move beyond these timeless traits.  Colors are fresher, collections are sparer, and rooms are more personal than ever."

Looking for ideas to refresh your cottage?  Reach for the New Cottage Style by Better Homes and Gardens to find a plethora of ideas, projects, and DYI's to spruce up your cottage with a refreshed look.
I especially liked the tips on infusing the living space with color and ideas on how to preserve the charm of the cottage while adding modern upgrades.  Cottage decor can be beautiful, stylish, and modern!  Have fun decorating your cottage!

Road Trip Apps for Kids

Sarah Combs

Car trips are like the ultimate test for any family, all of that time cooped up in a car can result in some serious: “I’m bored!” situations.  Beat the road trip woes by checking out some of these awesome apps for kids. They’re guaranteed to keep your weary travelers happy and engaged for hours. 

Apps for Toddlers


Buildo Rescue Sticker Book: It's essentially a digital sticker book done very, very right. It's a total creative sandbox where kids can create elaborate scenes, complete with sounds and side-scrolling action. This may look like it's made for little dudes, but there's potential for fun for every age and gender.

Jellytoon’s Birthday Countdown: This adorable little story is just too cute. The characters are more than lovable and there's enough content to keep kids entertained and engaged for at least a decent while. A side bonus is that this app even has the potential to be slightly educational. There's a read to me and read by myself feature and you can click on each of the words to hear them pronounced as many times as you'd like. Overall, definitely a great addition to any road trip.

Talking Tom Cat: There’s something about this app that is absolutely irresistible to little kids. Tom is a cat that responds to your actions, whether that means petting him, poking him, feeding him, or playing with him, he goes along with it all. He also repeats everything that you say, which provides never-ending entertainment potential for kids.

Apps for Kids

Cut the Rope: A beautiful game with adorable characters and a gorgeous user interface. It plays off of really interesting and intricate physics puzzles. If Pixar had made a blockbuster app, this would be it.  Although this app has been popular on Apple’s app store for a while, it is new to the Android Market.

Meteor Math: This is kind of a modern day take on Math Blaster, which I absolutely loved playing as a kid. Actually, I'm pretty sure this is where I learned the majority of my math skills, just as Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego taught me all I know about geography (and no, I don't know that much about geography). Meteor Math offers lessons and games in subtraction, addition, multiplication and division. Even though it's educational, I definitely spent way too long playing with it, and I'm an adult, so kids have to love it too, right?

World of Goo: 

This started out as a really cool, indie kind of PC game that was just too cute for words. But it doesn't just have looks, it has brains as well. Anyone in the family who loves puzzles will be absolutely enamored with this little game where blobs of goo are far more interesting than ever before. (Were they interesting before? Not sure.) This transfers so well to tablets and smartphones, it's as if you're holding a whole world of goo in your hands.

Sarah Combs is a writer for Famigo.com, a startup based in Austin, Texas that helps families find and manage mobile content. She has reviewed more toddler apps than she cares to admit, and will continue until the best ones are easily discovered by families. 

Compassionate Child-Rearing

Robert W. Firestone, Ph.D. – This eye-opening book, Compassionate Child Rearing, introduces the theory and underlying dynamics involved in family relationships. The author helps explain how even well-intentioned parents unwittingly injure their children’s self-esteem and psychological functioning based on their own childhood defenses and self-destructive tendencies.

By recognizing their own early life experiences and the internalized defenses they developed as a result, parents can better understand the effects they have on the emotional state of their children. The lesson of the text is that children deserve the same rights, respect and consideration as any fully grown human being. To raise their children in a healthy environment, where they are seen and heard as independent individuals, parents must come to understand the ways in which they hurt their children and the events from their own past that helped motivate their behavior, even on an unconscious level. This book helps parents to thoroughly comprehend their unique experiences and identify the impact they are having on their children, while learning to be a more nurturing and loving parent.

Reprinted with permission from www.psychalive.org