Good To Go Baby Gifts

I got an e-mail from a mother asking me what a swarovski crystal was as I have a swarovski crystal baby bracelet on my website.  I had to research the internet to find a definite answer.

The definition given was “Swarovski Crystal was first created by Daniel Swarovski in 1892 and is manufactured in Austria.  It is not a natural crystal, rather it is a glass containing about 32% lead oxide and is cut into very precise and beautiful shapes.  Swarovski Crystal….has great cutting techniques and, therefore, many consider them to be the highest quality.

I knew the swarovski crystal looked beautiful, but now I know why.

I just got an e-mail from a young mother (She e-mailed in the middle of the night.) who just had their fourth little girl.  She is so busy (We won’t even go into the economy aspect.) that she is afraid she won’t get her holiday shopping done and have a personal touch to it.  Her three older girls love the new little baby but she knows that they also feel that they don’t get very much individual personal time. 

She is ordering the three personalized baby bracelets that are all different.  The one year old is receiving the Sterling Silver My First Identity Bracelet.  The two year old will get the pink My First Swarovski Crystal Baby Bracelet since she loves everything pink and the three year old will receive the Percious Pearls Personalized Baby Bracelet.

All of the bracelets fit up to four years old but I talked to the jeweler in our town and he said he could add links to the bracelets to make them bigger as they grow.  I’m sure most jewelers would be able to do that.  The three little girls will receive a personalized gift this year and the mother didn’t have to even leave her home.  

The mother is going to sit with them individually when they open their personalized baby bracelets to show them that she is always thinking about them even though she is so busy.  They are going to be the first gifts they open so they can wear them over the holidays.

Here are a few ideas for baby’s first birthday gifts:

~Personalized Baby Bracelets; these unique items come in silver, gold, or other metallic colors and can be personalized for a little one. 

~Stuffed Animals; the infant will start to recognize shapes and colors at this age, stuffed animals serve as cuddle companions and lovable friends who the baby will remember.

~Cribs; the infant will usually be out of the basinet at this age, so a crib is great for a growing baby if mom and dad don’t already have one. 

~Strollers; babies are on the go past age 1, often not quite walking, but certainly crawling around, and loving to explore and travel.  

I got an e-mail from a mother who recently had a little boy.  She constantly calls him a “sweet one” as he is such a good baby and she waited so long to have him.  She has friends that think calling him a “sweet one” is feminine sounding!  She saw that I had products called the Sweet Baby Boy Gift Baskets and asked if I would call a baby boy a “sweet one.”  I’m sure you can guess my answer.   Yes, of course, I WOULD and she SHOULD. 

I got an e-mail from a friend whose one-year-old is going to another one-year-olds birthday party.  The whole theme is pink and they asked for personalized baby gifts.  I suggested the pink t-shirt with the name stitched on the front.  They ordered it in the size 12-18 months and put the little girl’s first name on the t-shirt.  It fit perfectly and was a hit at the one-year birthday party.  The friend thanks me for enabling her to order right from her computer and saving the gas and time!  She now put in an order for her own child!

I got an e-mail asking me what item would be good for a baptismal gift for a little baby girl.  The usual baptismal gifts were already being given by grandparents, parents, etc.  I didn’t have to think very long as the sworovski crystal baby bracelet came to mind.  Since it is personalized, it will be unique from all the other baptismal gifts.  Also, the little girl will be able to wear it for a long time.  The gift givers were elated with the gift and the parents of the little baby girl were too.

While doing some reading I came across the statement, “We are designed to play all of our lives.”  ”Designed” is the key word here.  We start playing with our babies as soon as they are born and then they learn to play on their own.  As adults we play sports and continue with work-out exercises all of our lives.  Our bodies are designed for physical exercise and more research is showing that it is crucial to exercise all of our lives. 

Baby girl gift baskets and baby boy gift baskets are a good start with play things.  They are perfect for shower gifts or for grandparent gifts.   The baby can play with these toys and then graduate to toys requiring more physical exercise as they get older.  They will be on their way to playing all of their lives!

I’m sure I am like many of you and have been watching the Olympic Games on TV.  While reading about the USA athletes, I saw the statement that Natalie Coughlin, swimmer, had made.  She said that “all competition is self-competition.”  At an early age she was helped with self-competition. She had her first feel of pool water as a baby at two weeks and was swimming competitively at age 5.  She always felt that she was competing with herself and not with others.

Parents of little ones should take a lesson from Natalie’s parents.  Some parents get so concerned about comparing their children with other children that they can’t see the individual strengths of their own child. These parents are constantly having their children compete with other children instead of having their children competing with themselves.  Let them play with unique baby gifts and let THEIR games begin!    

I got a call from a customer telling me that they had been using the baby bath robe for a swimming cover-up all summer long and wanted another bath robe to use for the bath.  They loved the idea that the first robe had the initials of the baby on it because then it didn’t get lost at the pool.  They wanted the second one to just be plain with no personalization.  They also wanted the other color.  (They had the pink one at first.) 

What a novel idea.  I wished that I had thought of using the robe for a swimming cover-up before they did.  Oh well, now you know and now you can save yourself a bundle of money with no personalization.  You might be able to put your own personalization on the baby bath robe if you are handy. 

By the way, they said that they swim every day so they have washed the baby bath robe every day and it still looks new! 

While watching a TV show yesterday it told about a school in Chicago where the children read to dogs.  Those who read to dogs increased their reading speed to 24 words per minute compared to the 9 words per minute that they had read previously.  The school also stated that the children’s behavior had improved and they started to work together better.  All of this happened because the child could read better.

The very early beginnings of reading are when a mother, father or any adult turns the pages of the books for the baby and reads to the baby.  The baby then starts to turn the pages by herself/himself.  Then the child points and makes sounds while looking at the books to mimic reading.  During all of this time the child is being read to by adults or other children.  Then the child chooses a “reading place” and begins to read on his/her own.  A personalized kids rocking chair is a perfect place to be the “reading place.”  Of course the child will also still want to be read to and learns more and more as they read and as they are read to.