Baby Mia Needs a New Heart!!!

My friend Christy recently told me about a sweet little family in Seattle, Washington who needs help!

Their baby girl, Mia McDonald, was born with a heart defect that means she will need a heart transplant at only a few months old.

Already she has been waiting months for a donor heart in Washington state, and it costs $450,000 for them to get her on the national waiting list which will greatly increase their chances of getting her a new heart.

If she is lucky enough to get a donor heart, the financial strain on her family (young parents Mimi and John McDonald, and Mia’s elder brother and sister) will be immense.

Mia has been featured on two Seattle news broadcasts (Komo 4 and King 5), but those stories were both months ago and I worry that awareness of Mia’s struggle has faded with the newness of her life. If you are interested you can follow up on more of her story at http://helpbabymia.blogspot.com.

If you can donate anything, even a single dollar, please do so! You can find donation information at the Help Baby Mia Blog.

Also, if you’re willing to post a blinkie on your blog, please copy & paste the following HTML on your site to help spread awareness:

<a href=”http://helpbabymia.blogspot.com/&#8221; mce_href=”http://helpbabymia.blogspot.com/&#8221; target=”new”><img border=”0″ alt=”Photobucket” src=”http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj186/neparker99/BabyMia.gif&#8221; mce_src=”http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj186/neparker99/BabyMia.gif”/></a&gt;

xoxo

Annie

Fun Ways to Teach Kids About Voting

I’m so excited about the enthusiasm voters have this year–election day has never been so exciting for me! I voted absentee last week, but my hubby went out to vote early this morning and I’ve been trying to keep from avidly watching the reports on CNN since so many people haven’t even voted yet!

Get out and VOTE!

Speaking of voting, do your kiddos understand what’s going on? My little bun is still way too young, but I’m getting excited to teach her about our privilege to vote when she gets bigger. Luckily there are a lot of fun ways to teach your little ones about voting!

The Teddy Bear Elections

Kids respond to pretending–it gets their creative juices flowing and lets them take on the grown-up world at their own pace. That’s why a teddy bear election can be a fun and exciting way to involve your kids in politics!

Let them choose two stuffed animals, and help them create platforms that speak to them (more picnics? later bedtimes? less broccoli). They can make posters, have a teddy bear debate–take it as far as you want, and let them involve their friends!

At the end of your “campaign” why not let all their stuffed animals vote? Your little one can tally them up and make the big announcement!

Schoolhouse Rock ROCKS for Mamas with No Time!

Remember those catchy little Schoolhouse Rock songs about grammar, numbers, and American government that came on between Saturday morning cartoons? They’re probably the only way I could ever remember what a conjunction is–and now they have a DVD focused on teaching about the election through song! So if you can live with hearing How a Bill Becomes a Law sung loudly every night at the dinner table, this is a great way to get your kids to learn and remember about our country, even if you don’t have time to mount a full-scale teddy bear election. 🙂

Take them to the Polls!

There’s nobody your little tike looks up to more than his parents, so lead by example! Take your kids to the polls with you, show him how a voting booth works, and have him explain it to daddy when he gets home from work or grandma on a special phone call. Explaining the process to someone else will help your kiddo soak in the info (plus explaining things to grown ups makes kids feel important, and who doesn’t enjoy a little confidence boost like that?!)

So get out there and vote, mamas!

xo,

Annie

photo: Stars and Stripes by Dave Hiebert

Fall Back: Daylight Savings & Baby Bedtimes

I used to love the “Fall Back” daylight savings time–until I had a baby. Suddenly my carefully crafted bedtime routine (and WORSE, my precious morning sleep time!) is out the window, because while I’m on new time, my little one’s internal clock is still an hour ahead.

What to do about this little dilemma? Here are a couple ideas:

Be Consistent at Bedtime

Before you choose a strategy to change baby’s bedtime, resolve to have a consistent routine for him every evening. Whether it’s bathtime, rocking, and bedtime or just a soft song and a kiss before snuggling down in the crib, make sure you give your baby that transition time so he knows its bedtime. Babies really seem to respond to this! I’ll talk more about bedtime routines (and how they worked for us) in an upcoming post.

Adjust Naptime

If you’re brave enough to tinker with naptime, you could risk waking your baby early or letting her take a little catnap later than usual to adjust her to her updated bedtime. According to the book Sleeping Through the Night young babies typically go about two hours between naps, so waking your little one two hours before new bedtime could help you get her down at the right time.

Move Bedtime… Slowly!

If you decide to shift bedtime itself, it might help to do it slowly. If your baby is used to going down at 7 and the time change means his body clock says “bedtime!” at 6, put him down at 6 the first night. Transition slowly (you can determine the gap, whether it be 5 minute of 15 minute blocks) each night until you have your new bedtime ready to go.

Move Wakeup Time

This is likely to be much harder than moving bedtime. At night, babies are already tired from a long day, but early daylight savings time risers will probably be pretty rested and may resist going back to sleep.

Our little bun used to wake up at 7:30 every morning (pretty nice!)–too bad the daylight savings time switch means that is now 6:30. So, how to get that time change adjusted for your little sweetheart?

I’m not a fan of leaving baby to cry–that often just makes them worry and fuss even more. Instead, try training them to sleep longer by making that extra awake time boring and soothing. Go into her room and rock her without making eye contact or interacting (cooing, talking, etc.). Just quietly rock her. Hopefully she will drowse or even fall asleep. You may be able to lay her back down, but more likely she will need to be rocked to stay asleep. You’ll probably have to repeat this for quite a few days to get any potential results.

If a large block doesn’t work, try to get her to sleep for any extra amount of time. If she naturally starts moving her wakeup time back as you do this, try to add five minutes more each day until you reach the wakeup time you want–but keep in mind that once she is well rested, she’s going to wake up… so don’t even bother trying to get her to sleep until noon! That’ll have to wait until the teenage years…

Any of you shy mamas have sleeping tips for us? If so, do tell!

xo,

Annie

photo: Fall Maples by Patrice Dufour