Fastidious moms and dads now have one-click access to a complete report card of all available child car seats on the market. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) unveiled its new 5-Star Ease of Use rating system for kid car seats. It covers all types of car seats available for your kid - infant rear-facing seats, toddler forward-facing seats, convertible seats and booster seats. The rating system is based on four categories of evaluation; evaluation of instructions, vehicle installation features, evaluation of labels and securing the child.

This will help parents eliminate the guess work of choosing a good car seat for their kid. At a glance, it is surprising to see how many seats on the market only receive one star - parents beware. Perhaps this roll-out is in lieu of the recent Consumer Report Magazine testing that found that ten of twelve rear-facing infant carriers failed government safety standards. By the way, the two that passed the test are Baby Trend Flex-Loc and the Graco SnugRide with EPS performed well in the magazine’s tests.

As a side note, listed under “Quick Clicks” is a link to their Child Safety Seat Inspection Station. I have found this is a great resource. If you or anyone you know ever has a question about the installation of a child seat in an auto you can drive down to your local inspection station and have someone give you a free evaluation. I have found most inspection stations tend to be your local police station, fire station or car dealership.

Also take note of the NHTSA Child Seat Recall Section. It’s not organized very well, but most current web browsers allow for a page search so it may be wise to double-check that the car seat you latch you kid in every day hasn’t been recalled - you know, considering we are living in the Mighty Age of the Recall.

Sited Links;
NHTSA | 5-Star Ease of Use Rating System for Child Car Seats
NHTSA | Child Safety Seat Inspection Station Finder
NHTSA | Child Seat Recall Section
CNN.Com | Most Infant Car Seats Fail Crash Test

   

The first recorded use of a toothbrush was found in 16^th century BC Chinese literature. As far as 3500 BC, Babylonians used chewing sticks fashioned from the twigs of particular aromatic trees. These glorified toothpicks were supposedly used to pick out food and freshen breath. The first bristled toothbrush did not appear on the scene until 16^th century AD in China. In 1780, William Addis of Clerkensald, England is given the credit of manufacturing the first modern bristle toothbrush from cattle bone and swine fibers. In the US in the late 30’s, the bristles were eventually replaced by nylon .

Today we have a dizzying array of choices when it comes to oral hygiene - the old school toothbrush, the water-pick, the rotary or power brushes, flossing sticks, and a whole isle dedicated to toothpastes and mouthwashes at the pharmacy or grocery store. As parents, it is our job to teach and maintain our kids oral health so they can develop healthy habits to fight against plaque and gingivitis, right?

Chronic gum disease is called periodontitis, which occurs when waste material or plaque collects around the teeth and irritates the gums. A build up of plaque around the gum-line leads to gingivitis but plaque can be kept in check with good habits. The health community is starting to link poor oral hygiene to a number of major health problems in adults that we, as parents, should be aware of - (more…)

   

If you are a day late on a single payment with a credit card most of them have reserved the right to charge a late fee and/or change (i.e. increase your APR). What a lot of people don’t realize is that it does not hit your FICO unless you are 31 days late on a payment - then they notify the respective agencies (Experian, TransUnion, etc.). The thing that really boils my blood is the egregious practices they have with these APR increases - particularly the ones our family have experienced in the recently.

We were a day late on a payment (the auto-pay was set to go on a Sunday, so it delayed to that Monday - thus making us late), so our APR bounced up to a whooping 31%! I know this is not an isolated case since there is a history of credit card companies having to answer to the Senate and Congress for such practices. It has me thinking I should cut up all my cards and transfer the amounts to some type of secured loan, like payday loans or the like of. Just think of the money to be saved by tearing up those cards!

   

Babies love creepin’, crawlin’ and sleepin’ in these super comfy, 100% cotton jersey knit Infant Creeper. Three snaps there in, three snaps they’re out.

(Via LittleGooGoo.Com)

   

As a parent it is easy to get lost amongst the day to day minutiae of child rearing. Buying the groceries. Driving the kids here and there. Doing the laundry, again. Buying more groceries. Driving to and from soccer practice - the list is seemingly endless.

Here’s a reminder for all of us (including myself) - don’t forget to squirrel away some money for the kid’s college years. Current financial sources have placed college tuition projections for kids graduating high school between 2011-2022 between $85,706 - $153,486 (based on average college expenses, and tuition for public college or universities with adjusted cost inflation rate of 6%)! By the way that means if you start saving for your newborn’s undergraduate degree right now (he/she enters college in 18 years or 2020) you will have to sack away $710 dollars a month for the next 18 years to cover their college experience!

For parents with teenagers prepping for SAT’s now the issue is all too pertinent. As you may be aware there are a number of online options available to you. One of the biggest scholarship programs out there is the Bill Gates foundation. It was initially funded in 1999 by a one billion dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Check out Scholarships.Com for a fresh listing of resources and scholarships. Their expansive college scholarship database is updated constantly, offers relevant and accurate scholarship & grant information.

   

The Adiri Natural Nurser Ultimate Bottle is 100% polycarbonate-free and bisphenol-A free, and retains the features babies and parents love in the Breastbottle Nurser, as well as offers the latest high quality materials, a graceful design, and the new Fill, Twist and Feed system, engineered so that a parent or caregiver can quickly prepare a bottle, even with a hungry infant under one arm.

(Via ZoeBOnline.Com)

   

Here’s a great opportunity to spend some quality time with the kids, perhaps learn something and save a few buck in the process. Here are some PC Kits you can custom order online for a fraction of what they cost in the stores. They include plain English (gosh, I hope so!) instructions with lots of illustrations and full manufacturer warranties.

You can also get upgrade kits to increase your ram or replace your CPU. All you need is a screwdriver and we can help you save $100’s. The basic kit comes with a 2.2G Core 2 Duo, 2G SDRAM and a graphics card option - that’s a pretty good start and it’s definitely a kit with room to grow.

   

Props to John over at My Family Loves It!. Here’s directions for how to create a skating rink in your backyard. At least this way you don’t have to worry about the kids falling through the ice at the local pond and you’ll always know where they are - they’re in your backyard!

Directions are complete with tips on how to keep that hose from freezing and how to make a Rink Rake for under $20 bucks using PVC and some PVC cement and primer, sweet! Thanks John!

(Via MyFamilyLovesIt.Com)

   

Our wedding anniversary is coming up. It’s not on Valentine’s Day but it is close. Put it this way - we wanted to get married on Valentine’s Day but we didn’t want to get married on a Wednesday. I was just reminding myself of our upcoming anniversary on the drive to work this morning and remembering the freshness and spontaneity we had back then. We still have those things - I’ll just say it’s a bit different with a bunch of babies chasing you around.

Yes, being romantic when there is so much love and attention being directed at those little one, right? Yes, we will probably go somewhere great for dinner and so on and so forth but the bigger challenge for me is coming up with a way to celebrate our marriage all the time - to remember to be romantic this is the challenge when you constantly have splotches of food and other mysteriousness on your clothes and have been carrying around your youngest son’s soiled diaper for twenty minutes now.

I am not one to write poetry or play a song, that would be comical. It makes me remember all the half-baked things I did when coping with a break up in the past. Oh how I’ve evolved - thank god.

I’ve just decided to secretly celebrate the twelve days of our wedding anniversary as an advent of my love for my wife. I will do something special for my wife for the twelve days leading up to (and including our anniversary). Who knows, maybe it will become a habit.

DULY NOTED:
When mothers are expecting babies they start finding out lists of baby girl names and baby boy names. They consider a baby layette. They want to buy crib bumper for their new born. They wish to buy a baby book for their baby boy. They plan to hire for nannies for baby sitting if they think they cannot manage their babies alone or if they can afford it.

   

This year, the effort will be to concentrate on the fun of a family Valentine-making project, without driving all over town looking for supplies. Here is an afternoon of fun for the little ones all in one kit. The kit comes with:

• Thirty sheets of construction paper (15 red, 15 white)
• 24 white heart-shaped doilies
• 12 red heart doilies
• Textured tissue paper in red, white and pink
• 32 full-color floral hearts
• 63 red-foil heart stickers
• Over 100 tiny red-foil gummed hearts
• Colorful glitter
• Glue stick
• All packed in a handy storage box, along with patterns and child-tested tips

(Via HearthSong.Com)