The New Parents Guide Blog

If this is your first holiday season with a baby in the house, you might be feeling more than a little overwhelmed by how you’re going to manage everything. So I thought that some encouragement might be in order. Here’s a few reasons that handling the holidays will never be so easy again.

–Children who [...]

There’s something about rocking horses.  They’re just irresistible to toddlers and preschoolers.  It’s like having your very own amusement-park ride, right in your family room. 
My kids had a very cute wooden rocking horse.  They’re all too big for it now, but that rocking horse still has plenty of years of riding in it.  We’re [...]

Recently we were visiting with our Back Fence Neighbors. The 5 children we have between us were climbing over the fence, playing in both yards and having lots of fun.
Their toddler daughter had just gotten a Barbie fishing pole for her birthday. Instead of a hook, there was a plastic fish, about 3 inches long, [...]

One of the best toy investments we ever made was the Little Tikes Shopping Cart.
Stable enough for even the unsteadiest toddler to push around, this cart is great for way more than “shopping!”  It’s handy storage for those little treasures that your little one just can’t get through the day without (a blankie, favorite [...]

You know it’s a good toy when your child’s older siblings and friends of older siblings still want to play with it.  There are lots of toys that are targeted for a single, narrow age group.  But there are so many others that last and last.  Here are some of the classics that have been [...]

It’s Columbus Day, so it’s time to think about the needs of our little explorers:  the toddlers among us! 
Once children are learning to walk, a whole new world opens up to them.  At the same time, we adults do a whole lot less sitting as we hurry to stay one step ahead of our [...]

All three of my children were always interested in music.  And right from the start, they each had their preferences.  My oldest was hooked on a Sesame Street lullabye CD that featured James Taylor, Carly Simon and the Doobie Brothers.  (Is it any wonder that he taught himself to play guitar as a teenager?)
My [...]

A lot of different toys have come and gone into this house over the years.   And I’ll share my dirty little secret right up front:  the ones that go the fastest are the Noisy Toys.
I’m not ashamed to admit that  Noisy Toys drive me nuts.  Unfortunately, I’ve observed that the Noisy Toys have the [...]

It’s always an adventure when babies get mobile.  My oldest child spent his whole first summer able to sit, but not yet able to crawl.  It was great.  I could put him down in the center of a bunch of toys, and he’d still be there playing happily when I turned back around.  His sister [...]

No matter how hard you try, it’s inevitable that your baby’s toys will wind up taking over more space than you could ever imagine.   Who would have dreamed that such a small person would accumulate so much bulky stuff?  And if you happen to have more than one child, the mess just seems to [...]