Moved to a New Blog!

Hi,

Thanks for being part of my blog community!… you guys have made my blog a success and now i have moved to a new blog 🙂 Would request you to visit my new blog, share your thoughts and join me in my new start!

www.mumsphere.com

Lots of love

Vandana

Ramayana I: The Tale of Four Princes!!!

Its a great play to  role-play with kids 🙂

Ramayana I: The Tale of Four Princes.

Finds: Let’s learn Hindi- Hindi varnmala App!

In today’s time, Parents are often scouting options to make kids learn in a fun way!!! Some like to learn through books, some through nature and others through gadgets!!!…I think educational apps are fun way to teach your kids that helps them learn, understand technology and keeps them busy for few hours 🙂

You may find many good apps to learn English or math but you hardly have any good apps to learn Hindi! Don’t you think we need more apps to help our kid’s learn Hindi…. Huh?

Let’s learn Hindi is a a Hindi varnmala flash card app for kids between 2 to 5 years and this one app is compatible with all apple products (Iphone, Ipad, Ipod generation 3).It’s a fun, lively, colorful and interactive app!!!!! The app uses simple images of fruits, animals and general things that help in building kids vocabulary.

When you enter the game Let’s learn hindi you see all the 36 letters! Choose any letter to enter into the letter’s world, each letter world contains three activities; one allows kids to investigate the interactive objects, another aids them in increasing their phonetics and vocabulary and, lastly you can practice your writing skills with tracing a letter feature!

As a kid tabs to enter the letter world he has this whole interactive world to discover where he has to press, tab, slide to explore. he ends up blowing balloons, cleaning teeth, and fly paper aeroplanes!!!!

Another good feature is alphabet tracing! It help kids learn how to write a letter and have different color chalks shades so that your kid can have some color writing fun too!

here is the quick video of the app!

Bottom line: I think its a very handy app for teaching kids hindi consonants. It has good UI, navigation and illustrations. For Indians staying abroad its a must-have app as its little tough to source Hindi books :-). Would have been nice if the app covered vowels and had more fun element like drawing or recording. But, still I think Its a very good app for learning Hindi varnmala for its price, USD 2. You can download the app from app store.

Vandana

To know more about them visit them at Let’s learn hindi and join there FB community Let’s learn hindi ON FB

Disclaimer: I received this product for review but all thoughts in this article are mine 🙂 and so may vary!!!

A letter at 7 months!

Lv, you are 7 months old now (u turned 7 months y’day) it’s totally, utterly hard for me to believe. It seems just yesterday we drive you home from the hospital…you were so tiny and fragile but now you are no more a newborn…You are my oh so grown-up girl and we had seven months full of joy with you!

7 hours old!

 

I am posting this letter a day later because we had a busy day! I took you to a birthday party and later we had to catch up for dinner at Nani’s house. They had their anniversary dinner party. I must admit you are a Social butterfly in making!!

When you turned 7 months!

Now, you look more like your dad..actually a xerox of him!

You are a charmer. Yes! To-tuh-ly!!!!!! Even in your worse mood…you will charm all the new faces you see around :-)…I love this thing about you!!!

You are a big time foodie! You like real food.. Yes…. what mum, dad n everyone else eats. You love fruits, veggies, oats and puddings… but your favorite is dad’s subway sandwich! You just can’t let him eat alone and you eat as if he will finish it and you will get nothing :-).. You still breast-fed 10 times a day and you eat twice a day… 🙂

You love being outside but can’t stay strapped in the strollers for more than 15 mins…and you love when I carry you in your baby carrier. These days you are enjoying your park dates with your Dadi :-)…You hate car-rides…. on our road trips we sometime have to stop and walk you around!

I think your favorite person is me! but after me it has to be Nanu…damn you go to him even when I am standing holding you and he’s sitting… you can lie on his tummy for minutes without moving :-). He’s the only one who can make you sleep without crying! You still get up every 2 hours at night but we manage 10 hours sleep :-).

You have the most curious mind now…you would want to pick, hold, grab, jump and taste everything that you see around you… you love your toys but you love our toys more :)… (jewellery, bags, ipad, iPhone, camera covers, remotes, blackberry you surely know how all of them taste :-)…You just can’t sit anymore, whole day we hold and make you walk 🙂… I think you will start crawling soon 🙂…and I keep debating should I get you a jumparoo or walker but you surely seem to be a walker baby who would love to cruise in her Beetle :-)…but what if you do bang bang boom with it …huh?!

You are really interested in conversations...you start babbling when I talk to someone on phone…you now look at me and say mum…ummuuumm..and you say this even more when you hungry!!

If you are happy and you know it clap your hands! this is exactly what you do when you happy..! you clap, babbles…bang your hands on table 🙂 we go crazy seeing you like that :-)..you mimic my good byes and claps too….:-).

You still bath in your puj! You seat there so cutely when we prep for your bath. You love bathing…and water is your favorite toy! (We should do some water fun soon) but, you totally hate dressing or changing diapers! it’s so tough to dress u up!!!

Your favorite spot in the house is your changing station! you hate to get change but you can spend hours lying and playing there…:-)

You have one tooth, weigh 7 kg and around 67 cms tall!!

The best thing is YOU STILL LET ME SNUGGLE YOU :-)

God bless you my baby!!

 

Finds: Buttons & bows Diaper cake boutique!!

Do you know what’s the must have in every mom’s list? …. Diapers! Yes, and lots of them :-)… can we ever imagine a life without them!! Be it disposable or cloth, a mom can never get enough of them.

On Lv’s birth my very close friend gifted me Diaper cake from Buttons & Bows……yes, a cake, non edible one, it that had loads of diapers and goodies for new born.

The one I received had a personalized message and was beautifully tulle wrapped. It had Diapers, Wrapping sheet, Baby Bib, Booties, Washcloths, onesie, socks and pair of mittens. It looked so stunning that I didn’t even open the pack for few days 🙂 and though it looked heavy but was light to pick and was very sturdy.

Why I think Diaper cakes make a great gift option:

• I generally dont like giving gift vouchers or cash and I spend hours searching for perfect gift that looks Great and is useful for moms. I think one can never go wrong with diapers; they are needed in excess and everything in that cake is usable!

• If you throwing a party for baby shower, baby announcement, baby arrivals or Birthdays it makes a great centerpiece

• You can get it 100% customized keeping in mind mom’s need, preferred brands and your budget.

• These diaper gift are created in 100% non – smoking and non – pet design studio so it makes it 100% safe for babies.

“Button & Bows” believe as each baby is unique so are their diaper cakes 🙂 so; get your own customized diaper cake!!!!!!!! They do lots of designs here are few favorites of mine!

 

 

They are generally priced between Rs 1500-4000 ( keeping in mind the design and goodies). Party favors and return gifts are priced differently keeping in ming the goodie costs.

For mumsphere readers they are offering 10% sign in discount 🙂  claim your Discount coupon @ Mumsphere offer page

To know more about them:

Visit Button and bows.

Button & bows on facebook

Much love,

Vandana

Disclaimer: I recieved this product as a gift and all opinions and views expressed here are mine.

Busy mom’s perfect exercise program!!

A new mom is always pressed with time and taking out time for her workout is just so difficult. You join gym but can’t keep up with your schedule because your baby was unwell or your husband was unavailable to babysit…and at the end your exercise routine and drive goes down the drain…. 🙂

“Busy mom’s perfect exercise program is the one that involves her and the baby”

 A mom always put herself last in her priority list and always choose her kid over her own needs so best is to combine her kid’s time with her exercise time!!!!

So, if you are a busy mom who struggles to find time to exercise here are some ideas:

• Walking with your baby secured in a sling, carrier or riding in a stroller is a great cardio exercise. It helps you stay in shape without making much effort, you should start walking at a comfortable pace and gradually increase the length and intensity.

• Stroller-exercises are very popular in the west where you have stoller exercise programs. Well, in India you dont have trainers for it but you can train yourself. So, snap your baby in stroller and you can walk, run, or do exercise.

• Baby Naptime can be used as your mom exercise time, you can run a mile on treadmill or skip a rope.

• Mom & baby exercise is another great option that you can do at home or outdoors. You hold, lift and pull your baby as a prop and he gets so excited with all the fun around him..

• Kegels our old friend can be done anywhere at anytime. You can do this while watching TV, making bottles or making your baby sleep …just make a conscious effort.

• If you love Practicing yoga, Pilate, Zumba, aerobics then do it with your baby. You can either request your instructor to teach you along with your baby or buy DVDs or download few videos and you are ready for a new workout!!

• Organize exercise park dates with your friends so that you can exercise together and take turns in taking care of baby and exercise.

So mommas if you have been lazy lately and not been exercising hope these suggestion help you find you your suited exercise regime…. gear on and get going……

If you do exercise and think it let you create balance and stay fit…share your mantra…:-)

Medela -Calma review!

Today, moms prefer to breast feed their babies longer to help them bond with their babies and with the help of great breast-feeding supplies it has become practical and possible.

Medela is a most sought after brand that provides, superior-quality breast pumps and breastfeeding accessories to nursing mothers around the world and when I heard they have launched Calma I was keen to give it a shot because I wanted to breast-feed without being overwhelmed and was worried if I give her expressed milk in normal teat bottles she might give up BF for the easiness of bottle. So here’s my review:

PROS

• In calma bottle baby need to suck the teat to get milk similarly when we breast-feed them.
• When the baby takes the bottle in his mouth he latches on so they don’t feel nipple confusion and learn to latch on better.
• Vacuum system and BPA free teat allows less air to pass through the bottle into the baby belly.
• They don’t leak when upside down so no worries on milk spilling.
• One size nipple is used for babies.
• Very easy to use, babies get hang of it very quickly.

CONS

• Its an expensive bottle, can cost you around INR 1600 in India, but if you get it from USA then you might get it around INR 800
• This tiny teat is made of 5 parts, makes it difficult to handle and clean.
• Nipple is quite long so sometimes you feel that baby might not able to suck but not a very significant issue.
• Babies fill up their mouth with lot of milk while sucking so you might have to be careful of baby choking.
• Bottle cap doesn’t snap properly so I constantly worry on loosing it.

MY TAKE:

• It’s a very innovative product and does mimic breast-feeding and It’s definitely for babies who have difficulty in transitioning between breasts and bottle-feed. So, for first you might buy the cheaper one and see if it works for you
• For working mom who wish to exclusively breast-feed, they should consider it.
• Would not recommend it for formula fed babies though I have seen few of moms using it. But, if you offer formula milk and BF then its fine but make sure it’s mixed well and has no lumps.

They retail at few Mother care outlets across India. You can even buy online at www.healthkart.com.

Disclaimer: I received this product for review and I have been using this product for past 7^th months. The views on this product are totally mine and so may vary.

Why stay connected to your non-mom friends!

 

Yes, your life is on different tangent, most of your day goes in taking care of kids…your only savior is your mommy friend with whom you plan play dates, go out for stroller exercises, catch up with mom & toddler program but don’t let go your non-mom friends…

Here’s why you should stay connected to your non-mom gang:

Mommies are always on a run, they don’t get a day off …but every mom needs time off and so do you!! Take time off from kids, family and other mommy friends… Go catch up with your non-mom friends.

They will check on your kids and love seeing their recent pictures but trust me your whole evening will not just go away discussing baby burps, poop & diapers!

Remember they are still not that boring lot, which world tag all mommies in… 🙂 you can be part of all things happening and realse that you can talk on other stuff too.

They will let you meet your old self. Yes, that girl with whom you can’t relate much… but she’s part of you and so are your friend’s. For a new mom life changes after baby and its natural that you lose touch with your friends but with little understanding in friends your friendship can really blossom!

Best part about this gang is that they can hangout with you!!! They are available to be with you for a quick round of coffee, spa or just shopping!

Mommies so how do you stay connected with your non-mom friends …share how you manage your relationships with them …… we love great tips!

I paint mama! I am your baby Picasso.

Baby’s first year is so special and is full of wonderful firsts! Right from their first cry to bath to smile …you have so many milestones and so much of fun to capture!

Lv did her first paint today, ya ya I know she still can’t hold a crayon…but you see she can hand paint and she went on painting the whole town red…. yellow, purple and green… 🙂

It all started when I was cleaning my craft supplies drawer and manage to break open a color bottle and Lv just got so excited, she wanted to touch the color on the floor and kept leaping towards it. She now gets curious and wants everything that she sees around, she wants to touch, hold and taste… She is an explorer!!!! And seeing her so excited I thought why not have some color fun…. and tada! …. I just got her some color (not edible ones, I am going to make some for her play date) and pulled a paper mat from next drawer and we were ready for some serious fun 🙂

If you push her for doing anything then she doesn’t want to do it at all. So, I kept the color plate next to her…making sure nothing goes in her mouth…. Soon, she picked the color and started doing squish squash with it; then I made finger expressions on paper and she did what she wanted to do…. banged her color hands on the paper, thrown color bottles here and there…. Ahh….What a fun it was!!! And I got her first masterpiece 🙂

Mommies get down and dirty with your munchkins and try finger painting, It’s a great play option that help your little one develop his sensory, fine motor skills and eye hand coordination.

Have fun Mommies and share your play options with us too!

Charlie’s Angel Drew Barrymore’s angel is here!!

Congratulations to new mom Drew Barrymore!

 

The 37-year-old actress and husband Will Kopelman welcomed a baby girl last Wednesday.

“We are proud to announce the birth of our daughter, Olive Barrymore Kopelman, born September 26th, healthy, happy and welcomed by the whole family,” the couple said in a statement.

“Thank you for respecting our privacy during this most special time in our lives.”

Barrymore and art consultant Kopelman began dating in 2010 and tied the knot this past June at her Montecito, Calif., home and honeymooned in Big Sur.

They’ve kept news about the pregnancy under wraps; in fact, the actress never even officially confirmed that she was expecting.

She did share that she definitely wanted to start a family with Kopelman during an appearance on the Tonight Show.

“We’ll start with one,” she said. “See how it goes and if we could be so blessed…that would be wonderful.”

Wondering how they chose baby Olive’s name? While it might just be a coincidence, back in 1999, Barrymore voiced the title character in the TV special “Olive, the Other Reindeer.”

(It just happens to be the most adorable Christmas movie in the entire world)

She most recently starred alongside John Krasinski in Ken Kwapis’ romantic drama Big Miracle.

Such an awesome gift for the newlyweds!

Article via:It’s a Girl for Drew Barrymore! | ModernMom.com.