Do Brain Building Toys Make Babies any Smarter? on Yahoo!

The study concludes that brain development before 3 is inconclusive. Thanks, but this should make parents feel a bit better about not rushing out and breaking the budget on every ‘genius’ toy out there.

If stimulation is the key, there are plenty of other things out there that are free. A public zoo and funny faces come to mind. Use your imagination.

The 1st birthday party gifts introduced us to some fantastic new books that my son loves to flip through by himself and have his mom and dad read to him. Just thought I'd share them with everyone else!

If you haven’t heard of them and want to read something besides I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly twelve times a day, check these out.

• Bear Snores On - A brown bear slumbers in his cold, dark cave while all the other animals in the forest have a party. This one is a TON of fun to read and act out, especially when the bear finally wakes up.
• Baby Einstein Alphabooks - A book for every single letter of the alphabet. Each one has three words and pictures associated with the letter. My son loves to go through all of them and open them himself. It’s a great way to teach the alphabet, we work on the same five letters every day for memory. And then he has fun surprising himself when we go through the rest of them for fun!
• Baby Cakes - This one always gets my son moving when we sing it to him. It’s a catchy rhyme that you can easily act out and get them to play along with as your baby’s toes, nose, hug them tight and laugh out loud.

Buy it today for $9.99

Wish your baby came with a manual? Here it is. A day-by-day guide to surviving the craziest year of your life - your first child's first year.

You can learn from our hands on experience of being first-time parents. It's the next best thing to going on a dry run at having a baby.

From day 1 to day 365, you'll find answers to real questions that you thought there wasn't an answer to or were afraid to ask:

• How do you eliminate a nighttime feeding
• What should you do if your baby has a fever?
• How do you raise a smart baby?
• Should you breastfeed when you're sick?
• What should you be feeding your baby as they grow?
• What do you do with a picky eater?
• How do you help your baby sleep through the night?
• What are the symptoms and remedies to common sicknesses like ear infections, the flu, pneumonia?
• Is it O.K. to switch brands of baby formula?
• Plus the answers to many, many more typical parenting questions

You'll find the answers to all these and more, based off my experience, inside.

You can read a tip every day and discover something new as your baby grows, or you can read them all while you're waiting for junior to arrive.

Buy it today at the special Minti Member price of $9.99

A full year is over and we're all grown up! Not really, actually, toddler years are staring us right in the face.

This blog has outgrown it's space on Blogger, and it's moving to a new domain. So update your feed readers, your rss subscriptions and bookmarks.

You can now find us at http://365parents.com.

Update your subscription using any feed reader.



And be sure to update all your bookmarks at the new site.

A little shameless self-promotion here...

I just started a new blog, The Average Idea for creative types who haven't found "The Big Idea" yet. Like me!

I know a lot of people on this site run their own blogs, businesses, etc, and I'm hoping it can be a nice little resource for writers, artists, filmmakers, business innovators, etc. to use to stay inspired.

Check it out if you get a chance!

Well, it's been awhile since I posted. That's because the past few weeks have been a flurry of activity - My wife, son and I moved to Chicago so I could take a new job.

Needless to say, between getting our house in Michigan ready to sell (anyone want to buy?), moving to Chicago, getting a new apartment, finding a new day care, pediatrician and dealing with fitting into the new office, and not to mention having intermittent internet access, I've sort of let the parenting blog slip.

I'll be attempting to get it back up to speed over the next few weeks, so bear with. Lots has happened since posting last, learning to crawl, stand, clap, etc. etc.

Please excuse the huge influx of posts. While I was out in the great city of San Francisco last week, I didn't have internet access. Just didn't seem right to be in the interactive capital of America and have trouble logging on.

Oh well. Here comes the advice!

Being a parent for the first time is freaky...trust me, I know! That's why I decided to start a blog where I post a tip every day for other parents in the same situation I am.

Check out the 365 Parenting Tips

Every day I learn a million new things, but only the most useful one makes the cut. Hopefully I can help you out a little bit or at least give you an idea of what to expect.

Happy parenting!