New baby in the family?
Request a baby birth greeting from President Obama! With this being a historic presidency I thought it would be a great keepsake to add to Little Peanuts scrapbook. I do have to admit I was a little underwhelmed when it arrived but it’s neat to have none-the-less.
You can also request them for weddings, 80+ birthdays and retirements.
Here’s how you can get one too.
Send a letter to:
The White House
Attn: Greetings Office
Washington, D.C. 20502-0039
Include in the letter:
-baby’s name
-birth date (dd/mm/yyyy)
-baby’s address
-your name
-your phone number
Just make sure you send it within the baby’s first year and that the recipient is a US citizen.
More info here.



2) Use a baby carrier / toddler harness – before my son turned 1, we put him in a baby carrier at the airport. It was great because it allowed our hands to be free to get through security and it also gave him a great view of the airport! Now, we use the toddler harness to keep him close by our side as he tends to go “exploring”. I’ve seen those travel backpacks that can actually carry a toddler so I’m going to have to check that out for our next trip!
1) “First Year” album – if you have a digital camera, it will be easy to organize your child’s pictures (from birth to present) by month so that you can pick and choose which ones you want to print for your album. And if you use a scrapbook album like I did – the one where all you have to do is add the pictures (believe me, by the time you get to putting the album together, your kid won’t let you do the real scrapbooking with all those embellishments!) – this project will be a cinch! Every now and then, I’ll flip through the album and be amazed how small my son was…and now that he’s older, he can actually recognize himself!
5) Growth chart – my idea for making growth charts actually came from a gift idea for my aunt’s child who is my son’s age. It was so cute that I had to make him a boy version (hence the Isaac and Sophie growth charts!). He’s been extra curious about the chart lately, especially when I added his new height markers. I’m glad I re-designed them b/c now he can’t pick them off! Anyway, it’s a great way to track your child’s height progression and something to add to the next idea!
When my husband and I had our house built, we went with tile flooring on the main floor. We thought that wood flooring would require more upkeep and seeing visible scratches and dust bunnies just didn’t appeal to us. For the most part, we’re happy with our decision–it looks nice, it’s durable and the dust is not so visible. I bet my son would say otherwise! When he started crawling, we noticed that once he’d get to tile area, he would just stop. And then when he decided that he didn’t want to limit his crawling area, he developed what I would describe as this “crab crawl”. He’d crawl with his right foot planted on the floor while his leg was underneath. It looked quite funny, but then I decided that my son was very smart for adapting to the harsh surface! I felt really bad so I brainstormed what I could do to make his knees feel better when he ventured out onto the tile floor.
What I did was this: I took a pair of tube socks my son no longer wore and cut the foot part out, leaving a tube with both ends open. I slid it onto his knee which fit snuggly and inserted a nursing pad onto the knee area and voila! I made some knee pads from existing materials I had in the house. My son thought it was a little weird at first, but he soon adjusted to wearing them. Now that he’s walking, it’s great for cushioning his falls too. Now I know I can’t prevent all his bumps and bruises, but I’ll do what I can while I still can 