There are a lot of big daycare chains like Kindercare and New Horizons that have locations across multiple cities. Are these generally a red flag and bad to work at (or bad for the children), or can some locations be genuinely great? Just curious if the corporate tends to trickle down to cutting corners at many/most locations?
It’s hot here, so I can’t do the 2 hour stroller walks I’m used to for my 10 month old. And he’s sick (docs said just generic viral respiratory thing, negative for RSV, Covid, flu).
Seems mild. He’s congested, snotty/drooling, rare little cough, but also active, playful, giggly, moving all over.
Normally on a hot day I’d take him to the public library (great play space!) but I don’t want to expose other kids.
Any ideas for places we can get out that are air conditioned but also won’t seriously expose any others? Maybe that’s not a thing - my brainstorm comes up empty - but perhaps I’m missing something.
Little dude is sooo bored of our small home and I’m on the verge of wasting gas and carbon emissions driving in circles :/
So I have a fairly long closet (extends beyond the sliding doors a bit on each side) that has a bar up top for hanging shirts and such.
There's room underneath the shirts that'd be perfect for another rod where I could hang shorts / swimsuits (basically, a second, shorter hanging space), but I have no idea how to get a second rod there *without* having it go across the entire closet. Is there a way to do a lower rod just on one half of the closet? Or 1/3, or whatever?
Looking to make a dance party playlist. 10mo here, can sit and pull-to-stand and occasionally clap, but we need more physical interaction and experiences. (He's too addicted to being read to -- maybe 60-80 books a day? -- but we want him to be doing more with his body and gesturally)
We recently discovered Caspar Babypants and his top song is "Run Baby Run" which has a chipper beat, simple structure, and goes through actions that're great for toddlers, I'm sure, but also have been a hit acting out while holding my baby (and other times, acting out in front of him). It involves running, jumping, singing, spinning, swinging (slow down), running (fast again).
What other songs are good for basic actions that are fun and physical and work for infantsthat are being held (or danced to) in addition to working for toddlers?
Beyond the basic old-fashioned ones like "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" or "Wheels on the bus", though I'd love to have a good list of those basic, old ones too! But hoping to find ones the parents will enjoy hearing a lot and acting out as well.
Thanks!
Assuming you've sleep trained your baby and they go to bed well and *usually* go back to sleep okay for middle of the night wakes, what are the circumstances where you *would* go in to them?
(Age 9-10 months in my case, but curious for other ages too)
If they seem to be in pain from teething, would you go in and comfort them (or provide a cold item, tylenol occasonally, etc.)?
If they seem to be crying for a while, would you go in and give them some pats?
If they are on camera sitting up or standing up and don't seem to be laying back down but it's still the middle of the night?
Just curious if you ever go in other than morning? And (for 9-10 month old or so) did you do anything to signal "morning time", like an alarm or light clicking on?
Did you go in at exactly the same time every morning or did it depend on when they fell asleep successfully the night before?
Pediatrician said our 9 month old is delayed in fine motor skills. E.g., he definitely doesn't use a pincer grasp for anything I've witnessed. The ASQ-3 showed him as Failed for fine motor, and Monitor for a couple other categories (Communication and Social, I believe).
Can we introduce cheerios at this age? Does he need to have done other hard/crunchy foods first? Other good food options to get a pincer grasp practiced while staying safe for choking risk? We do give him "Bamba" puffs (peanut butter puffs for allergen exposure) but he uses the palmer grasp for them exclusively. Otherwise we've mostly done purees or occasional large objects like strip of egg omelet or strip of toast covered in something.
How about toys? Are there good toys for getting fine motor skills and for getting pincer grasp practice? He doesn't seem to pick things up that way, grabs objects more whole-hand, drops them rather than setting them down or handing them over.
We read like 100+ books to him a day (he's obsessed) but I'm worried we're not doing enough variety of other toys/play. He has toys all over, but mostly ignores them 90% of the time and brings us books or just wants to be held/crawl on us/stand and hold furniture.
And would you partake in a state program for developmental delays at this point, if one was on offer for free, or just try to practice new things at home? Pediatrician put in a referral, but wondering if that's really necessary (or taking up resources for kids who need it more)
9 month old, aiming for 2 naps when possible. Trying to get a schedule in order to do full-on sleep training (currently I bottle feed him to sleep most nights, but he sleeps through the night, puts himself back to sleep in the middle of the night just fine).
I'm fundamentally confused about how sleep managing works. I've been following wake windows (say, 3.5, 3.75, 4 as a rough goal, but sooner if he rubs eyes, bit longer if he's perfectly awake and it's too early in the day for bedtime).
But that means sometimes he wakes up at 5am or at 6am or at 7am and so the first nap is around roughly 8:30 or 9:30 or 10:30, and it lasts an unpredictable length (30 mins is most common, 1 hour sometimes, 45min or 1.25hrs sometimes). Then that starts the next wake window countdown. Depending on whether he falls asleep instantly or not and whether he sleeps 30 mins or 1.5+ hours, the next nap might start at 12:30pm or at 3:00pm. If the former, I have to decide if I should try to do a third short nap and wake him from it quickly vs. keep him awake for 6 hours straight and have an early bedtime. We'd love a consistent bedtime (7:30 or 6:30 or whatever), but based on this wake window system he's sometimes asleep at 6pm, sometimes 8pm or later, occasionally 5:30pm.
Our pediatrician at 9mo visit just recently implied it'd be better to have consistent times. Which, sure, that sounds ideal! I'd love to know ahead of time when he'll nap so I can actually make plans with other people or know if I can take him to a baby class or not the next day.
But how the hell do you have a set time for naps if the baby doesn't play by your plans? Like, if the baby only sleeps for 30 mins in the first nap, someone might say "oh well, make him wait until the second nap's normal, planned time", but now you've got a kid who is starting his wake window early AND has had less nap sleep to get him through that now-longer wake window.
Example: if I plan a 9:30am nap and a 2:30pm nap, hoping each will be an hour, but the 9:30 nap ends at 10am, then I now have a 4.5 hour wake window for an extra sleepy baby instead of the 4hr planned wake window.
Is that just how you do it? And force those longer windows when they're stuck with them? And force early sleep even when they're not sleepy? (Like if his first nap is 1.5 hours, it'd now be an even shorter-than-planned WW *and* he's less tired than usual since he's napped a lot already that day...so will he actually fall asleep at the "structured"/"planned" time for Nap 2?).
Do they just eventually adapt to the consistency? Or have you tried this and found they just don't plan by our schedules/plans and you still have to adjust on the fly?
Right now, most of my life is managing and calculating / backward-calculating wake windows, nap times/plans, tracking when he woke, etc. Am I doing it all wrong??