Craft ideas for younger kids

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Kids of all ages love to craft. If you have younger kids, here are some really fun craft ideas to try with them:

FINGER PAINTING
All kids love the messy feeling of finger painting. Put an old shirt or paper apron on your kid before giving them the paints. For an even less-messy clean-up, take your kids outside and sit them under a tree in the cool shade to paint.

PLAYDOUGH ART
Another favorite of kids is play dough and clay. Lay newspaper on the floor and give your kids small tubs of their favorite-colored play dough. Encourage them to create sculptures with their fun dough.

SOCK PUPPET SHOW
Sock puppets are easy to make. Just glue on a pair of wiggle eyes and make a nose and mouth from felt. Then add a sprout of hair, made with colorful yarn. Make several of these sock puppets out of different sizes of socks and let your kids put on a sock puppet show for you.

PIPE CLEANER FUN
Buy a couple of packs of colorful pipe cleaners and let your kids create art with them. You will be amazed at what they can make from something this simple!

NOODLE ART
Give your kids a sheet of construction paper and a mound of dry macaroni noodles (any fun-shaped dry noodle will work for this craft). Let them draw a picture on their paper with a pencil or crayon first. Then glue around the outline of their picture with white school glue. Let them place their noodles on top of the glue to create a fun noodle art picture.

Baby Teething Remedies

Teething normally occurs in babies between the ages of six and nine months. Some common symptoms of teething include cranky moods, swollen gums, drooling, fever, and excessive biting on objects.

You should expect your baby to be fussy, as her gums are in an extremely tender state during the teething process. She might even refuse to eat or take her bottle if she is uncomfortable or in pain.

Here are some common baby teething remedies that will help ease your baby’s discomfort:

* Rub his gums with your finger. Remember to wash your hands before doing so.

* Soak one end of a clean bath cloth in water. Place the wet cloth in a refrigerator. Once chilled, let your baby bite or suck on the cold cloth.

* Chill a teething ring or teething toy in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Let your baby chew on the cold toy.

* Offer your baby a frozen banana (with adult supervision). Be sure to freeze the banana thoroughly before giving it to your baby. Cut the banana in half to make it easier for your baby to hold.

* Use an OTC (over the counter) teething gel. These gels are specially formulated to be safe for your baby. Read and follow the instructions on the package carefully before applying the gel to your baby’s gums.

* Administer Tylenol or Motrin, for pain and fever as recommended by your pediatrician. If your baby has trouble sleeping at night, consider giving them a dose of pain medication just before bedtime. If you’re unsure of what pain medications to give your baby, make sure to check with your pediatrician first.

Anti-Aging Basics

Getting older is a fact of life, but we don’t have to look it. Defy the wrinkles, pursed lips, and dry skin. Here are a few tips we all can start following now, to lessen the effects of aging.

Drink more water

Our bodies are over ninety percent water. Our tissues can’t get enough of it. Water gives our inner body a good shower every day. Water also cleans out the toxins in our systems and gives our skin that healthy glow that even the best lotions can not. Women should drink anywhere from eight to eleven glasses of water a day for proper body function.

Wear your sunglasses. When you first enter the light, the tendency is to squint. Over time, squinting leads to those lovely wrinkles beside your eyes called crow’s feet. To keep that pesky black bird from walking all over your face, wear wraparound sunglasses. Most people don’t realize that sun can be seen peripherally unless there is something there to block the light. They don’t have to cost over a hundred bucks either. If you find a drugstore pair, they will do the job just as well. Pop them on each time you leave the house to avoid direct sunlight and glare.

Nothing reduces the skin to the consistency of an old leather shoe faster than the sun. A good tan can be achieved without resorting to the sun or the tanning bed. Jergens makes a line of Natural Glow products for the face and body. Depending on your starting skin tone, the formula is designed to gradually darken the skin’s tone by at least two shades. A healthy sun-kissed glow can be maintained all over without the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation.

Less makeup is actually more. Having too much makeup will help to outline and define those wrinkles instead of hiding them. Try a concealer pen instead of a liquid foundation which will slip into those facial lines as the day wears on. Lightly line your lips and use a softer color. Bright reds heavily applied will bleed into the lines around your lips. At any age, those that wear makeup should not look like they do.

We each can do something at every age to keep from looking our age. Taking care of your body is a key to a longer and more satisfying life. Get started today.

Blog Rush

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Here is your opportunity to get your blog distributed free around the internet and expose more bloggers to your blog. This is a win win situation for all who participate. This new tool can literally explode your blog to an unlimited number of bloggers.

Go to the snippet in the side panel and click the add your blog posts free url.

Becoming a Grandparent

Every parent waits for the day their child gives them the exciting news that a grandchild is on the way. This is a chance to relive their parenting days without the need to parent. They are now free to simply enjoy all the wonderful moments they many have missed or forgotten while raising their family.

Empty nesters go through a dilemma when their children suddenly are gone. Even if the transition has taken many years to complete, suddenly they are alone. It's time to redefine their life and who they are now. Maybe take up new hobbies they never had time for; reconnect with old friends or even make that big decision to move to a smaller house.

Whatever they are doing and however they are resolving the internal issues, it always comes back to family. Your mind is free to wonder and suddenly you are back in your child's soccer years; or those hours spent at the ballet studio; or the hours you spent chauffeuring them to all the different activities, or the times you couldn't
make specific events because you had to work..

Then the questions start popping up; did you do enough; were you too busy; did they know how much you loved them back then? And then suddenly, after all the self doubting, living through memories you did not want to relive, you find you are going to become grandparent! Ah...this is why you have had all the memories. It's time to pass them on to the next generation.

Now is the perfect time to tell your stories to your new grandchild. Search on the Internet, cruise your local book store and invest in a journal that best suits your needs. You'll find hardbound, quilted, paperback and even software applications you can use on your computer. Some are made especially for recording grandparent memories.

Now all you have to worry about is how much you can fit into the journal before you decide it's too much. Why not make the decision to create a keepsake journal for each grandchild that arrives so they each have their own grandparent journal? This way, they'll all know how special they are and how giving you are to have shared your thoughts, feelings and your life stories with them.