Resources

I thought I'd take a moment here (mostly for my own reference) and make a note of a few bloggy resources I've found that have been uber-helpful to me as I navigate the world of parenting.

Ask Moxie

Back in the day when Kaycie was totally uncommunicative and I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on with her sleeping/eating/teething/etc., I would generally go to this site and search for posts on whatever was going on. The language is occasionally not family friendly, but the advice is usually quite good, whether it's from Moxie or in the comments from her readers. She often admits that she has no idea how to help somebody with a problem, but puts it out there for others to chime in. She also provided me with the motto that helped me survive the difficult sleeping periods - "Nobody has ever had to move to college with their kid to rock them to sleep every night. They will, eventually, learn to sleep." I can't tell you how many times I searched her sight for the phrase "sleep regression." I also picked up a couple of books recommended on her sight, such as The Wonder Weeks. This is my top pick for common sense approaches to parenting freak outs.

Rookie Moms

Rookie Moms is more activity related than problem solving. I didn't find it as useful, but I think it will be moreso as Kaycie gets older and more into structured activities. They've started a new series to challenge new moms to do a certain activity with their infant each week. I wish they'd had that series when Kaycie was itty bitty.

Wholesome Homemade Baby Food

Ok, that link isn't to their blog, but they do have one. This was my go-to site for feeding Kaycie when I started her on solids. It was actually pretty easy for me to make her baby food at home, and this had handy guides on what was safe to feed her at certain ages, as well as recipes for more interesting things to fix and methods for fixing it. Now that's she's grown out of "baby" food I've started following the Weelicious blog, but Wholesome Homemade Baby Food does have a toddler section, too.

Baby Cheapskate

Awesome resource for sales and deals on diapers, formula, clothes, and baby gear. They have a weekly post for best diaper and formula deals and a ton of posts all week about sales online and in-store for baby/toddler/kid and maternity wear as well as toys and baby gear as well as coupon codes, etc.

Goddess in Progress

This one isn't particularly geared toward taking questions or providing a resource, but I got hooked on it when Moxie linked to the post on the uber-swaddle, which saved my sanity when my child was a couple of months old. She has twins who are (I think) 4ish and one on the way, which makes her life way more interesting than mine.

Most of my recent finds are more activity related for toddlers. I found two main sites that linked to a whole lot of other sites, and I've added a ton to my feed reader in the past two weeks to follow and see which ones are most appropriate for what I'm looking for. Instead of listing all of those, I'll list the two main site:

1+1+1=1 (mostly the section called Tot School) and the related site Totally Tots. From these sites I have added a lot of blogs of moms who participate in the Tot School program. It's basically a more organized system of what Kaycie and I spend a lot of time doing, but has a lot of new ideas for developmental play. Since I really have no idea of what I types of skills she should be developing at this stage, I'm finding these resources extremely helpful. My favorite site from Tot School so far is Chasing Cheerios.

The other set of activity based blogs is from Play-Activities and Pink and Green Mama. A lot of their stuff is going to be too advanced for Kaycie for a while, but I like getting a look at what's ahead!

I found some of these sites through the Raising Playful Tots Index, which lists a ton of useful, educational sites. Several of the blogs I'm following now are Montessori based, which I find interesting and hope to learn more about if I can ever find some of the books I'm looking for. I have no intention of going all strict-Montessori on my kid, but the ideas and concepts look challenging and I think some of it could be incorporated into our fun time!

Ok, I think that covers most of what I've been reading online lately, other than a big list of photography and food related blogs! I doubt if those will be very helpful to anybody but me at this point, but at least I now have a list for myself.