AA Gifts & Baskets Idea & Advice Blog

It was snowing. The snow came down in white sheets that went yellow in the street lights. At the end of the boulevard there was a monument to the wall. It was a great block of plain cement. On one side the back end of a big American car from the 1950s stood out in the circle of the street lights. There was a similar tail end coming out on the other side. The cars were covered with snow.

We walked down the boulevard. At one end there was the ruined church and the new church stood next to it. They left it, she said, from the war. She didn’t say, which war, because it was clear and everywhere you went the war was there even if no one spoke abut it.

At the train depot you looked at the names of the stations and that was the war as well but no one spoke about it and it was as if you were in a crowded elevator but no one said anything.

Every day the news was about the wall. There were crowds at the wall and people coming and going, but no one knew what was happening.

I waited with her and she became impatient. We went for a drive. There is no speed limit on the freeways and she drove very fast. She drove fast but other cars went by us in a humming-blur. You heard the hum, like a massive, bloated wasp, angry and determined was coming at you, and then there was the elongated blur of a car going by you.

We are Germans, she said, smiling with wry humor, we don’t know what to do, so we try to do everything perfectly.

We walked in the woods. It was bitterly cold. The ground was frozen. We walked down to a lake and the water was very still and sharply blue. We went to a restaurant that looked over the lake. We drank hot chocolate and spoke about nothing in particular. The waiters were gathering around the television behind the bar.

The next day she was up early, watching the news. She turned from station to station. Then she said, she couldn’t wait any longer and that we should go see it for ourselves.

There were people everywhere and barricades and television crews. On top of the wall, a lone East German guard stood, forlornly, looking at everyone. He was wearing a forest green winter jumpsuit. In his hands he held an automatic rifle. He looked confused.

We walked down the length of the wall. She translated the graffiti. Far down the wall, away from the crowd, we passed two young boys. They had a small pick and they were taking turns hitting the wall. She spoke to them. They laughed and the one with the pick handed it to her and she thanked them.

She hit the wall and the metal echoed in the crisp winter air. She hammered out two pieces of the wall. She smiled and handed the pick back to the boys.

Here, she said, this is for you.

She handed me a piece of the wall.

A gift, she said, from history, to you. 

Next, review your insurance policies.  For many people, life insurance is a kind of instant estate; its guaranteed financial protection for your family.

Term life insurance [temporary; bought for a specified period of time, or term] is often purchased by younger people who like the low initial premiums.  Remember that premiums for term insurance rise slowly through your thirties and more quickly thereafter.  For people in their sixties and beyond, term insurance rates may be out of reach.

Whole-life insurance [permanent; for your “whole life”] rates are about five times higher than for term insurance, but the premiums remain level from the date of issue.  Additionally, the whole-life policy acquires a cash value that increases over time.

You may want to look into newer types of life insurance that combine term and whole-life.  Such a policy typically will combine at least $10,000 of whole-life upon the head of the household with at least $50,000 of term insurance, all for a single premium.  Another innovative policy is adjustable life insurance, which allows the policy-holder to raise or lower the amount of insurance and vary the type of insurance between whole-life and term, as life’s circumstances change.

If you or your spouse is staying home or working part time, that person should also consider buying a term policy that would cover the daycare expenses that would result in case the stay-at-home parent dies.

What about your health insurance?  Many companies now offer membership in a health maintenance organization [HMO] as an option to the usual health insurance.  HMO s are corporations that contract with physicians and hospitals to deliver health care under a prepaid plan.  With these plans, employers can offer their workers enhanced benefits at prices comparable to traditional insurance.  Joining a HMO can make sense, particularly to a family whose members seem to be running to the doctor’s office every other week.  The costs of office visits, prescriptions, vaccinations, diagnostic tests, and hospitalization are often covered by an HMO plan.  Keep in mind that you have to use the HMO’s doctors and hospitals, so if you have a doctor that you particularly like, an HMO may not be for you.

A new wrinkle in employer-or insurance-plan-pondered health care is the Preferred Provider Organization [PPO].  As with an HMO, a PPO plan provides discount health care to members, offering co-payment arrangements and other incentives.  Typically, members contribute through payroll deductions.  As a PPO member, you can choose your physician and hospital from those included in the PPO group. Fees for services are covered one hundred percent.  If you wish, you can choose an outside [nonmember] physician or hospital, in which case you will be liable for a percentage of any fees.  Obviously, what makes PPOs appealing is that a member can select his or her caregivers. 

Check to see if you have adequate protection through work or Social Security in the event you become disabled.  If not, find out if you qualify for auto insurance that provides benefits for disability from traffic accidents, or for special private insurance programs that pay monthly loan or mortgage payments during a disability.  There are different definitions of what disabled means; an insurance agent should explain exactly what “disability” means in the policy.  The agent should also explain the policy’s “renewability,” or the conditions of extending the policy beyond its expiration date.

The whole point of insurance is to cover the “just in case” situations; you want to be sure your policies are appropriate for a family with young children. 

It is never to early to introduce books and reading to babies.

Reading aloud to your baby is a remarkable way of fostering brain development and important in the development of language skills.

Reading to your child is the most valuable thing you can do and babies benefit immensely. Not only does it help develop baby’s eye muscles through focusing on pictures but it helps to encourage language skills. Each and every baby learns by sight, sound and feeling. When a baby sees, hears or feels anything, brain connections form and eventually create a piece of knowledge.

Babies first learn words by association with objects and pictures, which help them to understand the world around them. Eventually these associations are developed into language skills, where they begin sounding out the word. Language skills then develop into a way of which a baby can communicate with their parents and others around them.

As your baby grows into a toddler there are many other benefits that reading provides, such as:

• Reading aloud helps your child to learn new words, associations and language skills.
• Reading aloud to children helps them to learn and understand about the world around them and events and situations that do occur in everyday life.
• Reading aloud to children helps them to develop their creativity and imagination.
• Reading aloud to children helps them to learn about values and moral concepts, such as honesty, sharing and teaches them right from wrong.
• Reading aloud to children is calming and soothing and is a fantastic way to bond with your child.

The benefits of reading to your baby and child are endless!

Establish a daily routine and read to your child. Life can never be too busy to set aside some reading time to your child and the rewards your child will reap are infinite!

Introduce the new baby in your life with a world of words and pictures with a wonderful baby book basket. The new baby will be delighted and the joy derived from books will provide countless hours of learning and pleasure.

Start reading to your baby today!

Sometimes choosing a gift for a new baby is one of the most difficult tasks that one can face. This is especially true with so many people buying gifts, and you want to choose something that is different. After all, everyone brings sheets, comforters, blankets, and the usual types of clothing for newborns, so what can you do that is different? There surely has to be something different that you can do. Even if it includes the same items, you can find a different way to package it.  

One gift giving idea that has become popular over the past few years is the diaper cake. For those who are familiar with this gift concept, you make a cake, often for a baby shower, using disposal diapers as the basis for the cake. Some people use the diapers with characters, but it works better if you use just plain, white Pampers or Huggies diapers. The diapers are to hold the cake together, but you can also roll and fold some little shirts, kimonos, sleepers, bibs, and other items to add to the variety of the cake. Small toys such as rattles and small stuff animals made specifically for newborns can be taped to the diapers as well.  Another gift idea that has also been used is using the bassinette as a carrier of gifts.

This can be a real bassinette that you buy for the mother-to-be or that you rent as part of your baby shower theme, but rather than having just the bassinette, you line the entire inside with various baby items such as clothing, bedding, toys, lotions, diapers, baby formula, baby food, bibs, and any other small items that you would like to include. If you choose, you can cover it with a nice colorful blanket or quilt, and add a toy to the top for decorating.   Personalized gifts are always nice to have as well, but these will have to wait until after the birth of the baby. Even if the parents have chosen names and been told they are having a girl or boy, it is always best to wait. In some cases, the position of the baby may cause the doctor to see a difference in the baby’s gender, so to avoid giving girl’s gifts to a boy, and vice versa, wait until after the baby is born to give personalized gifts.

There are several gifts from which you can choose, but one of the most popular is the personalized picture frame that the new parents can use for baby’s hospital photograph.  You may certainly come up with some ideas of your own; these are just some samples of things that you can do if you are fresh out of ideas. Gift giving for the new baby should come from your heart and your creative inner soul. If you have a great idea for a baby gift, share it with someone so that they, too, can give a gift that is different from the others the baby receives.

Planning a baby shower for the expectant mother is the best way to congratulate her blessed event.

Who plans the baby shower? Any relative, close friend or coworker can host the baby shower.

Most baby showers are held before the baby is born. Some are held after the conception but, more often than not, most baby showers are held toward the end of pregnancy. It is a welcome diversion for the expecting mom to have her baby shower in the last trimester. It also brings more enjoyment and fun as the new mom is sporting a big belly towards the end.

However, before setting a date for the party, ensure to consult with the parents-to-be first and foremost. It would be a shame if a party is planned and invitations are sent and then find out that the most important people cannot make it.

Send out invitations early enough to give the guests a few weeks’ notice. This allows the guests to free up their schedules as well as to shop for the perfect gift.

In the traditional way, baby showers were held for the mother-to-be. However, there is increasing popularity for co-ed baby showers. In my opinion, a co-ed baby shower is probably more enjoyable and it is wonderful if the father-to-be is included. A father often feels left out throughout the pregnancy and after the birth of the newborn baby. A co-ed baby shower is a wonderful way to congratulate the father as well!

Themed baby showers are also very popular and makes the party more festive. Plan your theme and purchase matching invitations, napkins, plates and decorations. Although it takes more work to plan, a themed baby shower can make the party seem more organized.

The most favorite and enjoyable tradition of a baby shower are the activities and games. Here are some popular and fun games:

• Baby Food Taste Test - Buy eight jars of baby food - cereal, fruit, veggies, and meat. Cover the jars with foil and write a number on the side of each jar. Pass out plastic spoons, paper plates, and paper and pencil for each player. Ask players to write the numbers 1 through 8 around the outside of the plate. Pass around each jar of baby food and have players drop a spoonful next to each number. They must taste the globs and try to identify each flavor. Remove the foil to reveal the answers. Whoever has the most correct answers wins a prize.
• How Big is Baby? - Bring a roll of toilet paper pass it around and have everyone tear off the exact amount that they think will go around the expectant mother. The person with the length of toilet paper that is the closest wins of course.
• Diaper Doo Doo - Take 6 disposable diapers and put a different kind of candybar (½ a bar will usually do) in each one and let them sit in the sun or a warm place to melt. Label them 1 through 6. Pass the “dirty diapers” around and the winner is the one who can identify the most correctly.
• Don’t say “Baby” - When the guests arrive, give each a clothespin to wear. Tell each guest that they can’t say the word “baby”. If a guest catches someone saying “baby”, they may take the clothespin away from them. If, for example, a guest has 3 pins from previously taking them away from others and someone catches her saying “baby” then that guest now gets to take all 3 of her pins. The person with the most clothes pins at the end of the shower wins the game.
• Baby Pictionary - This game is based upon the original Pictionary board game. Before the shower, place words relating to baby activities and items on small cards. (ex: Changing a diaper, giving birth, feeding time) At the shower, create teams and give each one a pad of paper and pencil. Let one member of the team see a card, then tell them to draw the word or phrase for their partners to guess. Use a timer or just play until someone guesses. When the time is up, the teams total up the number of words they have guessed correctly and the one who has the most wins a prize.

There are many, many other baby shower games and activities that you can choose to make your baby shower fun and exciting.

Lastly, what makes for a great baby shower gift? Chances are the new mother requires many baby necessities including clothing, bottles, a car seat, bibs, blankets, and more.

We have has charming baby gift baskets that are guaranteed to make the new baby squeal in delight, functional gift baskets filled with baby necessities that every new parent wants and needs and personalized baby gifts that make exceptional keepsakes of the blessed event. Be sure to browse our adorable musical crib mobiles and soft, cuddly baby blankets.

Make the new mom’s baby shower one to remember. This is a wonderful event in her life and what better way to congratulate her!

Moms tend to think about everyone but themselves, which is great for everyone around them but it can take a toll on even the most devoted mom. In order to keep your sanity it is important that moms take time out to relax and regroup.

I know it is easier said then done, there is always one more diaper to change, one more meal to cook or one more load of laundry to do. So what can you do to take time out for yourself and when are you supposed to do it? Here are a few ideas to help get your mommy time out started.

Ask your husband, a friend or a family member to watch the kids for a while. In just a few hours you could go see that movie you have been dying to see, minus screaming babies and frequent trips to the bathroom to avoid bothering other people. In just two hours you can get your hair done, a manicure and a pedicure. Imagine how relaxing just two hours of alone time would be.

Chances are you won’t be able to get someone to take the kids everyday for a few hours but it’s still important to take a mini time out everyday. By doing this you will spare the children from unwarranted outburst and yourself from slipping into depression.

• Leave the dishes, the laundry and the spill in the kitchen for just thirty minutes, maybe while the baby is napping or while the kids are watching a cartoon. Just taking thirty minutes to relax or work on a hobby will alleviate some of the days stress.
• Wake up and hour early or go to bed an hour late, the kids will be sleeping and you can spend sometime getting ready in the morning or watching TV.
• Exercise regularly can be a great way to get you going and keep you in shape for keeping up with your kids.
• Eat right, veggies and fruit will charge your immune system, the last thing you need is a sick mommy.
• Remind yourself that you can’t control everything. Don’t spend your mommy time out worrying about what is going on at the house, your husband is perfectly capable of handling the kids alone for two hours.
• Start a baby swap, a baby swap is when two or more moms agree to take each others children for a few hours to give the other some free time on a weekly or monthly basis.
• Share the load. Sit down with your family and divide the chores. By sharing the load you can make more time for everyone and by giving
• When hit overload just taking a few minutes to sit and think about the positive things in your life can make you feel better.

You don’t need to be busy every minute of the day. Stay home with your family. Don’t make a commitment unless it is important to you. Get in the habit of saying no to things you don’t want to, or don’t have time to do and don’t feel guilty about it.

While motherhood is a very rewarding experience and totally worth the sacrifice it can be stressful and with all that you do for your family it’s hard to think about yourself, but very important. By taking care of yourself, you also teach your children the importance of taking care of their own mental and physical health. Look at the time spent on yourself as an investment to make you a better, happier mom for your husband and your children.

Now that you’re parents, another human being will be dependent on you for all of his or her needs for at least the next eighteen years.

Hugs and kisses are free, but other things such as food, clothing, housing, medical care, and education cost money-lots of it.  To raise one child from birth to age eighteen will cost an average of nearly $100,000.  That figure covers just the basic necessities through high school, but many parents today want more for their children.

At age five, when most children begin school, the costs of child rearing begin to escalate.  About forty percent of the total expense of raising a child occurs between the ages of twelve and seventeen, which is good news for early planners who will benefit by beginning a savings program when their children are preschoolers.

Now is the time to arm yourself with information about how to prepare for your family’s future and to begin the steps to turn your plans into reality.

Begin by determining your financial condition.  Before you can plan intelligently for your child’s future, it’s necessary to have a firm grasp of your present financial situation.  It’s impossible to plan for the future if you don’t know what’s going on now.

Figuring out your net worth can be a very revealing exercise.  Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper.  Label assets on the left side and list them; include cash in checking and savings accounts, equity in owner-occupied real estate, bonds, stocks, cars and investment real estate.

Under liabilities on the right side, list mortgages outstanding, installment loans for cars, appliances or furniture, revolving credit card balances for department stores, and professional services such as medical and dental.  Include past due accounts and charity donations.

Then add up each column.  If you subtract your liabilities from your assets, you’ll have your net worth.  Don’t worry if your figures aren’t precise, just the fact that you’re sitting down with pen, paper, and calculator makes it all the more likely that you’ll take firm action when planning your child’s financial future.

Making a simple monthly budget to determine how you are spending your income can be another eye-opener.  By listing your income and your spending, you can highlight the areas where changes can be made.  For example, you may be surprised to find out how much you spend on long distance phone calls or how often you eat out.  Seeing those figures in black and white may spur you to reduce your expenditures, and channel the money to your savings account instead. 

Whenever your child is ill, your observations of what’s going on are very important. When you are assessing your child’s illness, you’re really looking at two different things-signs and symptoms. These terms have specific meanings to your doctor.

A symptom is something a patient complains about. A sign is something the doctor [or you] can see, measure, hear, taste or smell. So, if your child complains of her ear hurting, that’s a symptom; if she’s pulling on her ear, that’s a sign. Signs and symptoms are indications of illness, but they are not illnesses themselves. When your doctor treats your child, he or she may treat the signs and symptoms of the illness, the illness itself, or both. For example, aspirin or acetaminophen is frequently given to a child with a fever, either may reduce the fever, but neither affects the underlying illness causing the fever. However, an antibiotic given to your child when he has an ear infection, actually helps the body to fight off the infection and, so, is treating the illness. The earache [a symptom] and the fever [a sign] will go away because the infection [the illness] is being treated. Most of the medicines you can buy in the drugstore without a prescription treat symptoms but doesn’t treat the illness itself. So the “cold” medicine you may buy for your child doesn’t make the cold go away any more quickly, but they may make your child feel a little better. There’s an ongoing debate about treating signs and symptoms of common illnesses. Some doctors believe that unless the signs and symptoms are severe, you’re better off not treating them. Some of the symptoms of an illness may actually be beneficial and speed recovery. Every medicine has side effects, and sometimes these can be worse than the illness itself.

Sometimes the word offering is used as anything offered as a gift. It is normally used to mean something offered in worship or devotion, as to a deity; an oblation or sacrifice. An offering is a collection of donations during worship. An offering can mean a religious sacrifice of plant or food that one does not partake of. You give up enjoying the plant, food or money in order to gain favor with the clergy or the gods. The one item to think about is that this is really just a form of mysticism.

Mysticism - meaning the beliefs, ideas, or mode of thought comes from the Greeks as a means to “initiate or initiation” such beliefs. The gift of the mystic or mysticism is that it leads us to believe that reality and the unknown is really one thing. This is essentially a double edged gift, because it lets people feel that they have a control over both what they can see and what they can not see.

Recently, I heard an explanation for why many people get nervous about writing exams or taking tests. The reason many people get nervous about this, as it was explained, is that people have a problem about making choices and predicting outcomes. Human beings are not very good at predicting outcomes. If they were good at predicting outcomes, Casinos would cease to exist. It is difficult to predict the outcome of a test or exam unless you know the questions and their answers beforehand. As this is seldom the case, people get nervous about writing tests.

When human beings have to make a choice, and there are only 3 things to choose from they are normally pretty good at deciding which of the three items will have the best outcome. By that I mean which of the three items will give the best benefit or satisfaction to the person making the decision. If there are more than 3 items to choose from it gets a little harder to be certain which one will give the best satisfaction. It can be over-whelming to the point that the person making the decision cannot make up their mind and will defer the decision until some future time. Think of this when you are at a specialty coffee shop where they have 15-20 different kinds of coffee, espressos and lattes.

You could also feel the same way when looking for a gift or offering a gift to that special person. The optimum outcome is to achieve an increase in esteem in the recipient’s eyes. This will have the added effect of increasing your own feelings of esteem or self worth. Your subconscious mind may see an aspect or quality of something, which will make it an appealing gift for the recipient. Your conscious mind may not be able to see this quality and you will only get a subconscious get a feeling that this would be an appropriate gift.

So you may want to listen to those feelings when considering the purchase of a gift for that special someone.

As you recognize your life to adjust to having a baby, do not forget your own requirement to have some time for yourself, however difficult it may be to schedule. You need private time to be a person in your own right and not only a parent, a homemaker, a spouse, and perhaps an employee.

You need the time to build and maintain the self- esteem that makes you effective in all those roles and effective at being yourself. You need time to exercise, to groom yourself, to read, or to work on a hobby… or to look at sky or water and let your mind wander. Finding this time will probably never be easy for you again, but it will continue to be very important that you do find it. Always look on it not as a luxury or a reward, but as an obligation to yourself.

You won’t always be able to have the hour or more that would do you the most good and be the most enjoyable, but you’ll find that even a few minutes snatched from a busy day will refresh you.  If you are a early riser, at your best in the morning, you may enjoy a few minutes of peace and privacy over a cup of coffee before the rest of the family is awake. Your baby’s daytime naps may give you some precious time. Even later, when you may not feel the need to sleep every time your baby does, nap time should be for you, not for housework.

Evening is a wonderful time for a leisurely bath, even for a good read in a warm tub. And evening is probably also the best time for a quiet hour or two for spouses. As important as it is for each to have some solitary time, it is equally necessary for a married couple to spend at least some time together alone.