Unsolicited: Parenting Stories and Advice

I used to think that the purpose of board and cloth books was to make texts easier for babies to grab and hold.  While I still think that's partially true, now that Leo is older and grabbing everything in sight, I have witnessed how his chubby, soft baby hands can turn into tools of paper destruction.  Leo is great at grabbing ; he's still working on the finesse of holding .  Clean, smooth pages of a book don't hold up well when they are seized upon with the same grip that someone might use when they are hanging from a cliff.   Consequently, while we have many wonderful books in our library, I've decided to keep to those of the board and cloth variety for the time being.  While I could read to Leo from our paper books and just keep them out of his reach, I like to give him the opportunity to hold the books and turn the pages himself.  He seems to enjoy this as well!   I can always tell when Leo loves a board book because he, a)becomes really quiet and still when we&

Month Five (June) Oh, man! We can't believe how big our little guy has gotten!   Likes: moving all over the floor, grabbing things and putting them in his mouth, Itsy Bitsy Spider, almost any nursery song, being carried in the carrier facing out, smiling and laughing, being kissed, people trying to eat his feet, baby in the mirror, baby crunches Dislikes: 6:00 - 6:45 pm (most fussy time of the day) New Developments: laughing, rolling both ways easily, sitting up while leaning against something, using his legs to wheelbarrow himself across the floor(the arms aren't getting in on the action yet! Leo has changed so much this month.  He's now sleeping in the crib full time and putting himself to sleep all of the time (no more rocking!).  Our bedtime routine consists of giving him a bath, bottle, reading him Hug Time , The Going to Bed Book , and Goodnight Moon , putting him a sleep sack(no more swaddle!), singing Leaving on a Jet Plane, and then putting him

Welcome to the Beaton Baby Blog!  We'll be tracking all of Leo's developments and milestones and posting pictures.  Enjoy!  Here's an update on Leo's first four months: Month One(February)       Likes: Sleeping in the vibrating chair or on people and drinking from a bottle.         Dislikes: Sleeping in the crib, nursing       New Developments: Able to hold his head up for .3 seconds. First trip outside of the house(aside from doctor's appointments) was to the bris.  Second, was to Le Pain Quotidien to see other moms and babies!  Obviously, Rachel felt that Leo was the cutest one there! Leo's first month involved a lot of us fumbling around, trying to figure out how to take care of a baby!  The first two weeks were pretty challenging, considering that Leo was not a great nurser and so he was hungry ALL. THE. TIME.  Eventually, Rachel started pumping more and we began feeding him from a bottle.  Both of us walked around in a daze for most