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Baby Halloween Costumes: Bellefit's Picks!
We found some of the most adorable, original, innovative and clever Baby Halloween Costumes that we just had to share with you! Babies are cute on their own and we know you want to show them off already, but Halloween is the perfect time to express your creativity….and probably score some candy out of it too! Some of these really are just too cute for words. What costumes have you chosen for you baby in the past? Are there any here that you might try this year? We can't wait to hear what other fabulous Baby Halloween Costume ideas you've come up with. Enjoy!
A Day in the Life of a Stay at Home Mom
Have you ever had anyone tell you "Oh, you're a stay at home mom? Must be nice to have so much free time"? We bet it made your blood boil! We know that being a stay-at-home mom is a LOT of work.
Let's go ahead and take a look at an average day in the life of a stay-at-home mom. Luckily there are lots of resources for stay-at-home mom advice, including here on Bellefit.
Check out the rest of our blog for more information on being a mother.
How You Start Your Day
You wake up in the morning before everyone else so you can have a decent cup of coffee and the bathroom to yourself for at least 10 minutes. The kids and hubby wake up and you spend the next hour making breakfast and cleaning up the kitchen while hubby helps get the kids dressed.
Everyone eats and hubby leaves to take the older kids to school and he goes to work and you stay home with your toddler and the baby. You get the little ones cleaned up and dressed and head to the playground so your toddler can get some playtime (and spend some of his super energy.) Chase him around for an hour with your baby strapped on the baby carrier.
A day in the life of a stay at home mom
Lunch Time Madness
You head back home with a dirty and exhausted toddler and a cranky baby. So you feed the baby and put him in bed for a nap and rush to bathe your toddler before he falls asleep all sweaty and dirty.
After a good bath, you give your little fella a quick snack and he falls asleep on his chair, so you carefully carry him to his bed but when you put him down he wakes up and refuses to go back to sleep…and the baby wakes up from all the noise.
Now both little ones are up, so you feed the baby again and place him on his swing and your toddler on the couch to watch some stimulating cartoons while you attempt to clean the house and cook lunch.
You finish cooking and your toddler eats two bowls of food because he’s super hungry. hen he falls asleep in his chair and this time you leave him there because you’ve learned your lesson.
Feeding your baby and toddler at the same time can be a challenge for a stay at home mom.
Baby Naps, Mommy Naps Too, I Think Not!
Now the baby is ready for a nap too. When he falls asleep, all you want to do is take a nap too, but the house is still a mess and there are piles of laundry to be tackled. Then you spend the next hour and a half cleaning, doing laundry, paying bills, and making a grocery list.
You sit on the couch for a second, exhausted, admiring your super clean house and just as you start to nod off, both little ones wake up FULL of energy.
Outings with Kids
So you wash your face, feed the baby, give your toddler a snack and head out to the grocery store to tackle the list you made earlier. You somehow make it through the grocery store after battling with your toddler who wants you to buy him everything.
You load up the groceries in the car and head to the school to pick up the big kids. Then You sit in the car line for a good 15 minutes until finally the kiddos get in the car and you all head home.
When you get home, you carry the baby carseat on one arm and ALL the groceries on the other using all your mom arm power.
When you go in the house, it looks like a tornado of backpacks, shoes and papers has stormed through your once super clean house.
You somehow manage to put all the groceries away while giving your kids snacks and listening to their day.
Then it’s time to make sure everyone does their homework. (Good luck with that.) Now it’s time for showers, baths and dinner…OMG dinner!!! You sit all the kids in front of the TV while you whip up dinner making sure it’s something EVERYONE likes.
End of The Day
Hubby gets home from work exhausted from his long workday and you serve him and the kids dinner while feeding your baby at the same time. While everyone eats, you get the baby to bed and finally get to sit down to eat your dinner, which is cold by now. Since all the kids are done eating, they all take their dishes to the kitchen and head on to brush their teeth and go to bed.
Then your hubby goes to take a shower. You finish your food and go to the kitchen only to find it looks like a scene out of a natural disaster documentary so you spend the next 30 minutes washing dishes, pots and pans and cleaning up.
You do one last look around the house picking up dirty clothes and throwing toys back in their respective bins. Lock all the doors, close all the windows and head on to the bathroom to take a shower.
After your shower, you get in bed with hubby, completely drained from your day. Then you lie on your fluffy pillow and hear the baby crying on the monitor. So you get up one last time, feed him and change his diaper. Now you head back to bad and FINALLY get to sleep.
The best part? You get to do it aaaaall over again the next day. Free time? We think not.
5 Tips for Dads-to-Be about Pregnancy
When a woman is pregnant, she is pretty much in charge of taking care of the entire baby-making process. However, men who are actively involved in their partner's pregnancy can fulfill a very important and much appreciated role.
Here are 5 tips for dads to be about pregnancy:
Be a good listener to your partner and let her express herself during this time of change.
1. Be a Good Listener and Talk to Your Lady
When your lady is pregnant, she is experiencing a lot of changes in both her body and her mind. There is a lot that she thinks about and a lot that she feels. Be there to lend an ear when she needs to vent and engage in conversation with her. This will help you be on the same page and know how she'd doing all of time. Your connection will get stronger and the bond that you will create will solidify the foundation that you will have ready when the baby is born.
Help her around the house with cleaning up or by cooking a few times a week.
2. Help out around the House
It's pretty clear that during pregnancy a woman needs a lot of help with much of the basic tasks of her daily life. Help her out around the house, cleanup after yourself, cook a meal at least once or twice a week and when she's exhausted from a long day, encourage her to put her feet up and relax. Be aware of her needs, she will appreciate it more than you can even imagine!
Pack your bag for the hospital, be prepared for the days you'll be there.
3. Pack Your Bag
When you and your lady head to the hospital or birthing center to deliver the baby, she will be taking a hospital bag with everything she needs for the next few days. You need to be prepared as well, so get packing! In your bag you should include items such as: a change of clothes, pajamas, undies, a good book, a copy of the birth plan and comfy shoes. Have this ready to go so you won't be scrambling at the last minute.
Learn about what your partner is going thru during pregnancy so she feels more comfortable knowing you understand what she is going through.
4. Educate Yourself
earn as much as you can about pregnancy. If you are confident in what your lady is going through, this will ease her mind from having to worry about explaining things she doesn't think you will understand. Plus, you will always know what she is going through and how you can help. This is especially true for labor and delivery since it is very likely that you will be her #1 birthing partner.
5. Have a Contact List
When your lady goes into labor, one of your duties will be to let everyone know. Coordinate this properly with her so that you know exactly whom you should be contacting and when. You can even setup a buddy system with a close friend or relative so they can do this for you.
Following these 5 tips will help ensure that you have a positive experience during your lady's pregnancy. Trust when we say that she will be overjoyed to see how much you care.
5 Tips For Planning a Family Vacation
Traveling with children during the summer can be stressful for any parent. Although as adults we are aware of the way things work when traveling, children are pretty new at it, so preparing them (and yourself) as much as possible is a must.
Being well prepared, involving everyone and being flexible can make the difference between making good and not so good memories for your whole family.
Get organized so you can have a successful trip with your kids.
Get Organized
Planning a trip is the most important step in making sure it is a success, but keep in mind that being flexible can be a great way to make sure that everyone has fun.
Before you head out on your journey, aside from packing all your most important essentials
Clothes
Documents
Snacks
Trash bags
BABY WIPES, etc.
Make sure you talk to your children about the trip. Talking to them about it will take away some of their anxiety about what is going to happen.
Show your children a map with the route of your journey, talk about how far you are from your destination and how long it will take to get there. This knowledge will make it easier to deal with the "Are we there yets" that happen along the way. There are plenty of teachable moments for you to enjoy with your children in the process that will make your trip much more enjoyable.
Safety
It is important to talk to your children about safety and the most important rule of all: stay together! With busy airports and rest areas during the holiday travel season, it's best to have a plan to keep children safe by making sure you show them just how to do so.
Teach your children:
Your phone number
Full name
Your address and the address of your destination so in case you do get separated, they will know how to reach you.
A great tip is to evenly distribute or assign the children between the adults to make sure everyone is always accounted for.Also, be sure to keep any medicines, important documents, currency and valuables at hand or in your personal bag to ensure easy access. Knowing that everyone is well prepared, will give you peace of mind throughout your journey.
Go over the travel schedule with your kids so they know what to expect.
Travel Schedule
When taking time off from work to travel with your family, every single minute counts! A travel itinerary should be fitting to the age of your children and how much travel they (and you) can handle.
Try to avoid overwhelming distances with younger children
Avoid planning trips that are so jam-packed with activities that it becomes an unpleasant experience.
If traveling by car:
Be sure you have plenty of time to get to your destination as well as plenty of time to travel back home.
Factor in rest area stops, meal stops and overnight stops.
If traveling by airplane:
Make sure you arrive at the airport early and have all of your arrangements confirmed before you leave home.
Online check-in is a great convenience to avoid unnecessary standing in line with your children
If your trip allows it, be flexible with your schedule and have a back up plan in case you need to make adjustments.
Keep your kids entertained with games or an iPad so everyone enjoys the trip.
Entertainment
As we said before, being well prepared will make things easier when traveling with children. Bring along activities that your children can stay busy with to pass the time. They can each bring:
a small book bag with some favorite toys
drawing pads
if they are old enough, portable gaming devices, a Kindle, iPod, iPad or other kind of tablet.
With the ease of their portable devices, children can choose games and activities to download into their devices before you leave your home. This will give them a few hours of screen time during the trip & keep them entertained.
Of course, no parent wants their children to miss out on the sights and sounds of travel with their noses stuck on their devices the entire time.
To make things interesting, make a list of age-appropriate games to keep in your pocket that you can pull out for inspiration. Here are some of our favorites:
iSpy - Look around and pick an object you can see either in the car or along the road. Then give others a clue such as, "I spy with my little eye… something green." Continue to give more clues until they can guess what it is.
The Alphabet Game - This one works best in car trips, but can work at airports during wait time. Start with the letter "A" and find one on a sign, truck, building or license plate, say the word and then move on to the next letter. You can do this as a competition or together as a family for the younger beginner readers.
Drawing games - Have pads and pencils (or crayons) handy to play several games including hangman, tic tac toe or to just draw silly things.
Once Upon a Time - This game is fun and allows everyone to use his or her imagination. The first player starts telling a story, and then suddenly breaks off and the next player has to continue it.
Yes/No Game - Children LOVE this game. Players take turns asking questions and answers have to avoid using YES and NO.
Audio Books or Stand up Comedy Audio - As simple as this sounds, it works! Children can be surprisingly drawn into a good story or a good standup comedian (family friendly, of course).
iPads! There may come a point in your travels where a little quiet time will be greatly appreciated (and needed), when this happens, have your iPad fully charged and ready to go with your child's favorite games.
Cherish Every Moment
Last but not least, our favorite tip for parents traveling with children is, stay off the phone! Sometimes taking a phone call, worrying about taking photos, or even sharing status updates can make you miss beautiful moments with your children.
Before you know it they will be all grown up with families of their own! Make every second count. We hope you find our tips for parents traveling with children to be a helpful step towards an awesome journey.
Bon Voyage and don't forget to send a postcard!