Training the Fussy Eater

Toddlers can be fussy eaters who refuses to try a new food at least half of the time. Approximately half of all toddlers fit this description, so it is no wonder that food issues are a source of stress for parents. 

Establishing healthy eating patterns is important to avoid problems such as obesity and eating disorders later in life. Various strategies can help your child accept a wider range of foods.  It may be necessary to offer a food to your child as many as 10 different times before they choose to eat it.  The problem is, many parents get frustrated and give up before the fourth or fifth try. 

Try to make foods fun.  Colorful foods like carrot sticks, raisins, apples, grapes, cheese sticks and crackers can all be fun and healthy choices for your growing toddler.  Explain to them that eating good food is important so they'll grow big and strong, and how it will help them run faster and play longer. 

Children learn behaviors from their parents. If you restrict yourself to a narrow range of foods, your child will take notice and mimic your caution. Don't limit your child's food variety to only those foods you prefer. It may be that your child's tastes are different to yours, and perhaps you are simply serving them foods they don't happen to like.  Try to set a good example and try a variety of foods in front of your child.  It could motivate them to do the same. 

If your child seems healthy and energetic, then they are eating enough. If you are still concerned, keep an eye on how much food they actually eat over the day. Children tend to graze constantly, rather than restrict their eating to three meals per day like adults. You may be surprised how those little handfuls and snacks add up. For further reassurance, check your child's growth and weight charts, or check with your child's pediatrician. 

Try not to worry, and remember, that unless a child is ill, they will eat.   Children are very good at judging their hunger and fullness signals. Try to stay relaxed about mealtime and offer your child a wide variety of foods, and most importantly, remember to set a good example by trying a wide variety of foods yourself.  You may discover you and your toddler share a new found favorite food! 

Do As I Say and As I Do

Children learn to imitate at a very young age.  It's how they learn to behave, care for themselves, develop new skills, and communicate with others. From their earliest moments they watch you closely and pattern their own behavior and beliefs after yours. Your examples become permanent images, which will shape their attitudes and actions for the rest of their life. 

It's important to be responsible, consistent and loving with your child.  This also holds true for the relationship you have with your spouse, your parents, and other family members and friends that are also a part of your child's life.  Own up to mistakes when you make them, and communicate open and honestly with all family members.  

It's also important to take good care of yourself.  When we're focusing on what's best for our child it's easy to neglect our own needs.  Your child and your family are counting on you physically and emotionally, so it's imperative that you teach your child by example that taking care of yourself helps you to take care of them and the rest of your family.  This shows your child that not only do you love them and the rest of the family, but you love yourself as well.  This is an important step in teaching your child about self esteem.  This may involve getting a sitter and treating yourself out to dinner and a movie, or doing another favorite activity on your own.  This teaches your child that you are not only their parent, but your own person with your interests and needs, and also gives them a chance to show you how well they can do without you with them for a while. 

It's also important to nurture your relationship with your spouse.  Let your child see you communicate in a positive and healthy manner with one another, and show love and affection for one another so your child can begin to learn early on what a healthy marriage should be like.  

You'll soon see your child patterning many of his behaviors after your own.  So make sure that what you say and do around your child will help build a strong sense of security and self esteem. 

Music for a New Years Party

If you are planning a New Years  party, one of the most important elements of the party planning is the music you plan to play at the party. Making preparations for the food, beverages, entertainment, decorations, favors and other elements of the party are all very important but the music at the party are critical to the success of the party and can help to determine whether or not the guests have a good time. This article will discuss some of the options for music at a New Years  party and will provide information on implementing these options. 

Hiring a band is one very popular option for providing music for a New Years  party. However, there are some considerations which should be mulled over before deciding to hire a band. One of these important considerations is the amount of space required for the band to set up and perform. This is important especially if you are hosting the party in your home. Before signing a contract with a band, you should have a representative from the band visit the space and determine if there is enough room available. The noise ordinances should also be considered when hiring a band for a New Years party. Again this is most important if you are hosting the party in your home. When hiring a band you should also consider whether or not the band will appeal to the majority of the guests at your New Years party. This is especially important if you will have guests from a number of different generations at your party. 

Another option for proving music at your New Years  party is to hire a DJ to perform at the party. This is a good idea because DJs typically play a wide variety of music and are skilled at reading the audience and determining which types of music will appeal to the audience. They are also typically good at encouraging audience participation. Again, it is important to consider noise ordinances when hiring a DJ to entertain at your New Years party. Your DJ will likely be aware of these ordinances particularly if he works in the area often but you should still discuss this with the DJ before signing a contract to ensure he will comply with these regulations.

One inexpensive option for providing music for your guests at your New Years  party is to be your own DJ. If you have an extensive CD collection, you can insert a number of these into a disk changer and set the changer to play randomly. Changing the CDs throughout the night will keep the music fresh throughout the party. Another idea is to ask each guest to bring five of their own CDs to the party. Each guest can then take turns playing DJ for a half hour to an hour. This is a fun way to provide music for your guests and also helps to ensure each guest will hear some music they enjoy during the party. Still another option for providing your own music during your New Years party is to set up a satellite radio system and attach it to speakers. You can set the satellite to a station featuring upbeat dance music or music which accompanies the theme of the New Years party. 

Still another inexpensive option for providing musical entertainment for your New Years party is to rent a karaoke machine and encourage the guests to provide their own entertainment. Karaoke can be a great deal of fun especially for a group of guests who are willing to participate in the fun. If you have a theme for the New Years  party, you can provide songs for the karaoke machine which relate to the theme. If there is not a specific theme for the New Years  party, you can select a selection of songs which are likely to be popular with your guests. 

Blogging Tips for WAHMs

Before becoming a professional photographer, I've been a WAHM (or work at home mom) for 3 long years, and one of my hobby as a WAHM was blogging. 

Credits: beautywithmary.com

Blogging is one of the best ways to start a WAHM business because it is so easy to get going. However, that does not mean that it is easy to make money from your blog. Don’t start a blog and expect to see money rolling in immediately. Blogging is an activity that will take time to build up to a profit level. It’s a good thing to start while you are working on other WAHM opportunities to let it build to a profitability level. With time and attention, your blog (or blogs) will grow into a business.

When you are blogging for profit, you’ll want to pay close attention to how you present yourself in your blog. There are literally hundreds of thousands of blogs out there, and there may be several hundred blogs that are related to your topic. If your readers can’t understand your blog and have trouble reading it, they’ll just move on to the next one. The following tips can make your blog more user-friendly and help you gain consistent readers.

First, pay close attention to the format of your blog. Readers want to understand how your blog works right from the start. Most blogging platforms have similar formats, with links and tags on the left or right margin, and the most recent post on top. Make sure to use the links wisely. Only put links up for blogs or content that is truly related to your blog’s topic. The point is to give your readers additional information on your topic. Keep the list short and sweet. There is no reason to overwhelm them with links to other sites.

Also, take careful consideration when choosing your blog’s background and font color. Although there are a lot of color choices that blogging programs offer, its best to stick with a light background and dark text. Studies have shown that the human brain can process this type of format better than light text on a dark background. Think about this before you commit to a black background and white text. It might look striking, but readers might not want to stay there for long. Also, use a solid background color instead of trying to use a pattern or design.

Proofread your entries before you post them to your blog. There is nothing that reduces your authority in the eyes of your readers’ more than bad spelling and grammar. The online world is a world of text, so take some time to learn commonly misspelled words and grammatical errors. 

Keep your blog fresh and interesting by posting at least once per day. With so much information available on the Internet, your readers may go elsewhere if you aren’t supplying daily content. If you aren’t sure what to write about, try posting a poll, a link to another blog, comment on a news story or post of list of helpful tips. Not every post has to be long and complicated, but you do need to post something everyday.

These tips will help keep your blog readable and interesting to your visitors. The more visitors you get, the more your blog will grow in profitability and importance. Just make sure to present yourself in a professional way and keep your readers coming back for more new content each day. In no time, you’ll have a profitable blog and then you can move on to create two or three.

Time And Tattoos

Last week, I decided to had my cover up tattoo. It was an impromptu decision. Good thing there's a real good tattoo artist around town. Session was long and a bit painful. Took 3 hours to finish. From preparation to stencil marking and everything. 

The moment that I wanted to backed out, cause the pain was already killing me.

 So, let me tell you something about tattoos and for how long have it been around. Did my research and found some infos that I am sharing with guys right now.

Throughout the course of time, tattoos have been used to personify and represent someone’s affiliations, personal preferences, and their creative outlook on life.  Tattoos are gaining in popularity these days as well with both men and women.  Research has shown that nearly 1 in 4 people have at least one tattoo on their body.

By definition, a tattoo is a permanent marking on the skin.  The ink is injected by needle under the skin, creating the image of the tattoo.  The needle moves very fast, puncturing the skin and depositing the ink into the epidermis.  As the ink is depositing into the epidermis, the skin captures the color of the ink.  The artist will continue to clean the tattoo as he works on it, wiping it off with antiseptic and disinfecting the wound.

Over time tattoos will chance with the skin on a constant basis due to the wind, sun, regeneration, water, and other things.  The way a tattoo looks and the design must also chance with the skin as it shrinks, stretches, and ages.  The pigment that makes up the tattoo must remain the way it is over time, although tanning and wrinkles can affect the color and clarity of the tattoo.

The overall length of time that a tattoo styles healthy and vibrant in color all depends on how well it was taking care of after it was completed and how the skin is taking care of.  Even though infection is always a concern with tattoos, you must also promote healing in the sense of retaining as much ink as you possibly can.  Most tattoos will heal completely within a few short weeks, although they must be kept moist to prevent scabbing.  If allowed to scab, the scab that forms will remove some of the color from the tattoo.

The number one enemy of tattoos is the sun.  Just like other colors that are exposed to sunlight, the pigments found in tattoos will fade.  Yellow and red are the hardest colors to maintain over time, blue and black are the easiest and most stable to maintain.  Tattoos are considered to be part of the organism of living skin and need to be maintained to keep the color alive and fresh.  If you are going to be out in the sun, you should always cover your tattoos and wear a quality sunscreen as well, just to be on the safe side.  

Tattoos that have been properly applied, properly healed, and protected from the rays of the sun can remain their best for years and years.  Although the colors will remain vibrant as well, time and the sun are definite enemies for tattoos.  No matter how well you take care of your tattoos and protect them, there really is no escape from changes that come as a result of time itself.

Well, there goes something about Tattoo. And let me show you the by-product of the painful session, but i tell you, it's all worth the pain. 

The before and after photo. :)