Archive for June, 2008
One of the best parts of running What Every Baby Needs is hearing from our great customers. We’ve gotten so many great emails and pictures from you telling us how much you (and your baby) love playing in our clothes and with the toys that we offer, that we are putting together a page on the www.WhatEveryBabyNeeds.com site that shows off these wonderful pictures!
Have a pic showing off your beautiful little one wearing or playing with something you got from us? Please email it to us at cs@whateverybabyneeds.com and we will send you a coupon for $5 off your next purchase!
Keep coming back to check…we’ll have the page up in a couple of weeks with some of the photos we’ve already received!
All together, the journey made us better parents. We listened more closely to her as our usual busy lives laid dormant and, through experimentation, learned more about her cues and boundaries. I won’t hold back the whole truth, we had some scares along the way. A couple of times I wondered how anyone allowed me a license to parent (oh yeah, they don’t have those), but Flora survived. She even laughed, that dorky giggle she inherited from me but sounds a lot cuter on her, more than anything.
While my baby girl might not remember her first major road trip, her first time in another country (we went to Mexico for two hours), her first time at the ocean or seeing an armadillo or meeting a Voodoo Priestess or hearing a Cajun band or being in a cave or seeing the Alamo or meeting her cousins (yes, we saw some family along the way), I am convinced that all of this, this all encompassing experience, will help her, somehow, to be a better person. Her senses have been heightened by all the new experiences, her motor skills awakened by the intense traveling, her constitution endowed with increased adaptability and, of course, the best part, her bond with her parents stronger than ever.
Each place we went, we needed new tools to navigate with baby. In Carlsbad Caverns or Big Bend National Park, our Ergo baby carrier was indispensable while in San Antonio or Austin, we could not do without the stroller. At the Arkansas Wildlife Refuge where alligators looked suspiciously at our dog, our daypack became a diaper bag and in the electric humidity of New Orleans, a portable fan helped us all sleep better at night. We figured it out as we went along and considered every day a learning lesson.
In the end, the most difficult part of the whole trip was the adjustment of returning home. Flora was used to being within twenty feet of us at all times in the van so, in our house, she hated when we left the room. With more space to move, she quickly began doing so and we learned how much more cautious we had to be. The old tricks to get her to sleep we used before the trip no longer worked and we had to continuously employ the tricks we used on the road; i.e., driving in the car, walking with her in the carrier. While she used to sleep through the night before we left, her new separation anxiety prevented that. But that is life with a baby. Once you have it figured out, they change; and this too shall pass.
You already know how big of a fan we are of Green to Grow bottles, but I just learned about their Bottles to Babies charity from Petite Planet and am so excited to share it with everyone. Their charity collects gently used bottles as donations for babies in need–a great way to help out those in need once your little ones have weaned off their bottles. 
Bottles to Babies has two primary goals: to connect families who no longer need their baby bottles with local, non-profit organizations that accept donations for mothers who need bottles to feed their babies, but can’t afford them; and to provide an infrastructure for Green to Grow to realize their mission of giving back.
It’s a wonderful way of helping families who need a little extra support, doing your part to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, and experiencing the true joy of compassionate service. We will be donating all the bottles we switched out when we started using the Green to Grow bottles, and will donate the Green to Grow when Hannah is finished with them as well.
Check out more information on this charity and see where you can donate here.
As they recommend, once you’ve connected with an organization that helps families and children, consider donating other new or gently used items too: clothing, bedding, furniture, toys, food, etc. (Let your children join you when making your donation, so they can learn the value you place on generosity and conservation.).
We recently had the pleasure of talking with Susan Lazar, Designer and Vision behind two of our favorite baby clothing brands: egg Baby by Susan Lazar and Krawlers. Get the inside scoop on why she moved from designing for woman to children, her design inspirations, and what to expect in the Fall!
What Every Baby Needs: You previously designed Women’s Sportswear. Why did you make the change to children’s clothes?
Susan Lazar: I still love designing for women – but I thought that designing children’s and baby clothes could be fun – and more emotional as a brand – families/babies and the connection/love between parents and their kids is one of the strongest most important bonds in life- so on a personal level its very fulfilling.
What Every Baby Needs: What inspires you when designing your children’s clothing lines?
Susan Lazar: Colors, educational messages, organic fabric and interesting sourcing opportunities.
What Every Baby Needs: What are the ideals behind your brand, Egg?
Susan Lazar: Connection love purity – like an egg which is the beginning children and a new life represents purity and potential. All eggs look the same on the outside its whats inside that counts.
What Every Baby Needs: How about Krawlers?
Susan Lazar: Krawlers is also about protection and love ( with protective knee pads, etc.), but in a sport active way.
What Every Baby Needs: What do you consider to be the most important design elements of children’s clothing?
Susan Lazar: Safety, comfort, natural.
What Every Baby Needs:Why do you often use Organic Cottons for your clothing?
Susan Lazar:Better and healthier for the baby.
What Every Baby Needs:What color/style trends should we expect this fall?
Susan Lazar:The theme behind the collection is farming – growing – taking care of the land. Lots of earth tones with pops of yellow and purple and red.
What Every Baby Needs: Do you have any children? If so, how do they impact your design thinking?
Susan Lazar: Not yet, but I have a nephew and he always inspired me when I see how much he really moves around! And also I like to see what he likes to wear.
What Every Baby Needs:: Thanks so much, Susan!
Sleep; the all consuming and precious commodity of parenthood. If I have any advice to offer, it is this: do not deviate from baby’s sleep schedule. This was the secret to a winning road trip with baby. Drive during nap times. Stop for feedings and play time. Get back on the road for nap time. Stop early enough to make dinner, keep her bedtime routine and put her to sleep in her bed promptly. This makes for one slow road trip. Our three week plan turned into five weeks. We drove about four hours a day, six on a good day. 
Remember those road trips you two took before you had children when you drove all night traversing eight hundred miles in a day? Well, consider those days over. Even if you have a fancy mini-van with DVD player and video games and fully reclining seats, those little ones need to get out of the car or they will go batty. And sometimes Flora did go a little batty in which case, if we were unable to pull over because we were just ten miles from our destination, I would sit next her and amuse her, usually with tambourines and all the songs with lyrics I could muster until we arrived. When desperate, I would force the dog, her most favorite thing in the world after breast milk, to entertain her. Unfortunately, he does not appreciate her as much as she does him.
My 2 1/2 year old granddaughter must be going through another growth spurt. For the past year or so she’d go to bed around 8 or so and sleep through till the morning. Recently she decided that she could only sleep with the light on. So my daughter gave her a night light. However, even this little bit of light interrupted her once peaceful sleep.
So I decided to look for a light that would offer her the comfort she was seeking without the intensity of a bright light. Her mom and I found the perfect solution. The Twilight Turtle light. Not only does it project just enough light on the ceiling to sooth a sleeping child its educational as well. It projects 8 different constellations through little pinholes of light.
It appears that everything is back to normal. Sleep has been restored to the household.
