Get your baby ready for the beach this summer with these baby products:

1. Mustela SPF 50 Water-Resistant Sun Cream For Sensitive Areas

2. Space Cruiser Sunshade Baby Float

3. “Beach Buddies” 3-Piece Bathtime Bucket Gift Set

This gift set has it all! With a light-blue hooded terry towel, white terry spa slippers, and a sea-foam blue plush octopus all in a little yellow bucket, this is a must-have for your next pool or beach outing with baby!

4. California Baby Swimmer’s Defense Shampoo & Body Wash

Canned baby food can be expensive and Organic might not always be an option for you.  Here are some wholesome homemade baby food recipe’s that you can whip up in no time right at home!

Avocado-

Creamy Banana-Cado Baby Food: 4-6 months

Peel and de-pit a ripe organic avocado
Cut “meat” out and mash with a fork
Peel and mash 1 organic banana

Place in a blender or food processor and puree until desired texture is achieved. Avocados and Bananas do not need to be cooked.

Mango-

Creamy Mango Puree: 8-10months

Ingredients:
1 Ripe Organic Mango
Plain Organic or Vanilla Yogurt OR Organic Apple or Pear Juice or plain filtered water

Preparation Directions:

Peel, Deseed and Mash Mango until smooth.

Add Yogurt (or juice or water) until the proper consistency for your baby is achieved.

** If your infant is currently not eating yogurt and/or you do not wish to use any juice, simply peel, deseed and mash the mango the proper consistency for your Infant – with or without water.

Peas-

Minty Peas and Rice: 8-10 months

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth (try pacific natural organic!)
3/4 cup instant organic brown rice
1 1/2 cups frozen organic peas (6 ounces)
3/4 cup sliced organic scallions
1/4 cup chopped fresh organic mint
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:

Bring broth to a boil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add rice and bring to a simmer; cover, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 4 minutes.
Stir in peas and return to a simmer over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook until the peas are hot and the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, about 6 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in scallions, mint and pepper. Cover and let stand until the liquid is absorbed, 3 to 5 minutes.

Pumpkin-

Pumpkin Puree Baby Food Recipe: 6-8 months

1 organic sugar pumpkin
water
cinnamon, nutmeg (optional – sprinkle into the cooking water or when you puree/mash)

Pumpkin is best when baked though you may peel, cube and steam it. Bake a pumpkin exactly as you would bake a winter (Acorn, Butternut etc.) squash. Pumpkin is after all a squash.

1. Halve the pumpkin, de-seed
2. Place halves face down in a baking pan with approx 1-2 inches of water
3. Bake between 375-425 F for approximately 40 minutes to 1 hour
Skin should be “puckery” and/or wrinkled and pumpkin should feel soft when pressed
4, Scrape out the pumpkin “meat” and then mash or puree as needed for your baby.

Sweet Potato-

Sweet Potato Pancakes: 8  months

2 tbsp organic, unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup cooked organic sweet potatoes, mashed
1 organic, free-range egg (or 2 egg yolks)
1/3 cup organic all-purpose flour (use graham flour for a nice taste.)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup organic milk (or more)

Mix sweet potatoes in a mixing bowl with egg. Stir in the flour and add the baking powder.
Add up to 1/3 cup of milk while stirring. Stir in 1 tbsp butter.
The mixture should have the consistency of thick, lumpy sauce like an “instant” pancake mix.
Place a non-stick or heavy iron skillet over medium heat on top of the stove and add 1/2 tsp butter.

Spoon batter into the skillet and cook until bubbles rise to the surface of the pancakes and break. Approx. 1 to 2 minutes.
Using a spatula, flip the pancakes and cook another 2 minutes.
Remove pancakes from the skillet and keep warm on a covered plate in the oven. Freezes Well.

Muted pink and blue tones and crisp white set the perfect palatte for the lace details like a vintage lace curtains, a lace inspired rug and a delicate lace bunting.

For an extra special touch, stencil a lace design on one wall to bring it all together.

Links: 1. Paint Me White 2. Decor Pad 3. Chinz 4. Corner Stork Baby Gifts 5.Royal Design Stencils 6. Hideminy 7. Urban Outfitters 8.Urban Outfitters 9. BHLDN

Most new moms and dads have already gone to friends and family for baby advice before they even have their baby, however, there are many pieces of information that go left untold.

Here are the top parenting “firsts” that no one tells you about:

1. The first time you handle a blow out diaper.

2. The first time your baby pees (and then poops) on you.

3. The first time your breastfeeding baby bites your nipple.

4. First time your baby smacks his head into your nose and you get a nose bleed.

5. First time you have to suction out your sick baby’s nose and snot gets everywhere.

6. The first time your kids get “too quiet” and you go to check on them and discover that they got flour all over the living room / painted the dog red / got into your makeup, etc.

7. Your first time parenting while hungover.

Check out the biggest stars who are expecting this year:

BUSY PHILIPPS

The Cougar Town actress revealed she and husband Marc Silverstein are expecting their second child. The new baby will join the couple’s 4-year-old daughter Birdie.

Share your love of travel with your baby or child with this wanderlust themed room. With maps and framed quotes on the walls, they’ll be inspired to explore different places, and throw in other travel themed elements like a hot air balloon mobile and a few throw pillows that fit the theme.

Links: 1. Jump Off the Page 2. Loud Waterfall Photo 3. Corner Stork Baby Gifts 4. Cocon 5. Lonny 6. Oncie Hope 7. Cavalier 8. Ikea

Well, even in the old days there was pregnancy advice being given that may have seemed sensible at the time, but actually may or may not be completely ridiculous.

Dr. George H. Napheys was a doctor from the 1870’s who shared pregnancy advice and child-rearing advice to women, that today we may believe to be completely crazy!

Here is some of Dr. Napheys advice for pregnant women:

How to ensure the sex of your baby

Whenever intercourse has taken place in from two to six days after the cessation of the menses, girls have been produced; and whenever intercourse has taken place in from nine to twelve days after the cessation of the menses, boys have been produced.

Don’t worry about labor — or else

A tranquil mind is of the first importance to the pregnant woman. Gloomy forebodings should not be encouraged. Pregnancy and labor are not, we repeat, diseased conditions. They are healthful processes, and should be looked upon as such by every woman. Bad labors are very infrequent. It is as foolish to dread them, as it is for the railway traveller to give way to misgivings in regard to his safety. Instead of desponding, science bids the woman to look forward with cheerfulness and hope to the joys of maternity.

How to have beautiful children

During pregnancy the mother should often have some painting or engraving representing cheerful and beautiful figures before her eyes, or often contemplate some graceful statue. She should avoid looking at, or thinking of ugly people, or those marked with disfiguring diseases. She should take every precaution to escape injury, fright, and disease of any kind, especially chicken-pox, erysipelas, or such disorders as leave marks on the person. She should keep herself well nourished, as want of food nearly always injures the child. She should avoid ungraceful positions and awkward attitudes, as by some mysterious sympathy these are impressed on the child she carries. Let her cultivate grace and beauty in herself at such a time, and she will endow her child with them. As anger and irritability leave imprints on the features, she should maintain serenity and calmness.

On having smart kids

It is a matter of daily observation, that parents gifted with bright minds, cultivated by education, generally engender intelligent children; while the offspring of those steeped in ignorance are stupid from birth. It may be objected, that men the most remarkable in ancient or modern times, as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Shakspeare, Milton, Buffon, Cuvier, etc., have not transmitted their vast intellectual powers to their progeny. In explanation, it has been stated that what is known as genius is not transmissible. The creation of a man of genius seems to require a special effort of Nature, after which, as if fatigued, she reposes a long time before again making a similar effort.

On twins

It has been asserted that compound pregnancies are more frequent in certain years than in others. But that which seems to exert the greatest actual influence over the production of twins is the age of the mother. Very extensive statistics have demonstrated that, from the earliest child-bearing period until the age of forty is reached, the fertility of mothers in twins gradually increases. Between the ages of twenty and thirty, fewest wives have twins. The average age of the twin-bearer is older than the general run of bearers. It is well known that by far the greater number of twins are born of elderly women. While three-fifths of all births occur among women under thirty years of age, three-fifths of all the twins are born to those over thirty years of age. Newly-married women are more likely to have twins at the first labour the older they are. The chance that a young wife from fifteen to nineteen shall bear twins is only as one to one hundred and eighty-nine; from thirty-five to thirty-nine the chance is as one to forty-five,–that is, the wives married youngest have fewest twins; and there is an increase as age advances, until forty is reached.
Race seems to have some influence over plural births. They occur relatively oftener among the Irish than among the English.

On how to get your figure back after the baby is born

This is a matter of great anxiety with many women; and it is proper that it should be, for a flabby, pendulous abdomen is not only destructive to grace of movement and harmony of outline, but is a positive inconvenience. To avoid it, be careful not to leave the bed too early. If the walls of the abdomen are much relaxed, the bed should be kept from two to three weeks. Gentle frictions daily with spirits and water will give tone to the muscles. But the most important point is to wear for several months a well-fitting bandage–not a towel pinned around the person, but a body-case of strong linen, cut bias, setting snugly to the form, but not exerting unpleasant pressure.

Rules for nursing

The new-born child should be nursed about every second hour during the day, and not more than once or twice at night. Too much ardor may be displayed by the young mother in the performance of her duties. Not knowing the fact that an infant quite as frequently cries from being overfed as from want of nourishment, she is apt to give it the breast at every cry, day and night. In this manner her health is broken down, and she is compelled perhaps to wean her child, which, with more prudence and knowledge, she might have continued to nurse without detriment to herself. It is particularly important that the child shall acquire the habit of not requiring the breast more than once or twice at night. This, with a little perseverance, can readily be accomplished, so that the hours for rest at night, so much needed by the mother, may not be interfered with.

On the influence of breastmilk

Nervous agitation may so alter the quality of the milk as to make it poisonous. A fretful temper, fits of anger, grief, anxiety of mind, fear, and sudden terror, not only lessen the quantity of the milk, but render it thin and unhealthful, inducing disturbances of the child’s bowels, diarrhœa, griping, and fever. Intense mental emotion may even so alter the milk as to cause the death of the child. A physician states, in the Lancet, that, having removed a small tumour from behind the ear of a mother, all went on well until she fell into a violent passion. The child being suckled soon afterwards, it died in convulsions.

On bathing the baby

An infant should be immersed in its tub every morning. Besides the regular morning bath, it is often advisable to put the child for a few minutes in tepid water in the evening. This will quiet the nervous system, and induce sleep. The bath should not be too long a one, for fear of exciting perspiration; nor, for the same reason, should the water be too warm. If the child be of a delicate constitution, the evening bath will be especially useful, and can be made more so by the addition of two table-spoonfuls of salt to the water necessary for the bath.

Make use of normal garden items for your decor – use garden gates to hold up garland and garden caddies to carry cute little drinks.

Another fun way to dress up a garden party is with beautiful paper flowers – which are growing in popularity in the DIY community. Hang them on the walls or attach them to gifts for a fun and simple way to decorate.

And don’t forget to dress your little girl in a pretty dress – a frilly white dress would look perfect among the array of colors the flowers give.

Links 1. Icing Designs 2. Berin Made via Beyond beyond 3. Elli 4. House that Lars Built 5. Corner Stork Baby Gifts 6. HWTM 7. Kimbery Chau 8. Studio DIY 9. BHLDN

Well, one mom found an even more adorable way to post pics of her little one that has gained plenty of attention…and smiles!

The concept of baby mugging first began when one mommy blogger, at MommyShorts.com, decided to post a photo of her little girl appearing as though she was popping out of her morning cup of joe.

The picture turned out so cute and gained so much attention on Instagram that a request went out for more photos to be submitted and there was an overwhelming response.

Here are some of the cutest #babeinamug submissions: