With all the emphasis on eco friendly living these days, it’s nice to know that there are ways you can raise your baby in a manner that’s non damaging to the environment. What’s more these methods are not just great for the ecology, but safe for baby too.

Organic unique baby gifts and baby shower favors and toys that are made of organically grown cotton and other toys that are made from sustainable sources like woof or recycled paper are all the rage in tree hugging families. The appeal isn’t hard to understand. With all the scandal over lead poisoning in toys, it makes sense to avoid toys that are brightly colored or made from PVC or other toxic materials. This is even more important when you consider that your little baby will in all likelihood put every toy that he grabs into his mouth, raising the possibility of ingesting harmful colors and chemicals.

With organic baby toys, you don’t have to worry about him swallowing residues of chemicals from the surface of the toys. Unlike a few years earlier when green families didn’t have that wide a choice of organic baby toys, nowadays parents have an extensive selection of wooden grasping toys, soft cotton baby toys and other toys made of cotton and wood that are eco friendly and 100 percent harmless to your baby. Plus eco friendly doesn’t have to mean boring – these organic baby toys are colorful and fun!

Organic cotton that’s used to produce soft stuffed animals and other playthings is also used to create exquisitely soft baby girl/baby clothes. These organic baby clothes are made of cotton that hasn’t been treated with chemicals. This makes the cotton not just stronger but chemical free ensuring that your baby’s tender skin is safe. As with organic toys, these clothes aren’t restricted to T-shirts and shorts. You can choose from a wide range of nightwear, outerwear, body suits, play wear and soft comfy pajamas. Your baby will love the soft snugness and you’ll love that it’s 100 percent organic and natural.

Organic baby girl clothes and baby boy clothes, and toys don’t have to be expensive or difficult to source. Every toy store worth its name has an organic toys section while online stores will offer organic toys and clothes that are gentle on baby’s skin and your wallet! Check out some of our organic baby gift baskets for some more ideas.

Planning a baby shower takes time, effort and money. However, having a theme makes everything easier and more fun! The Pitter Patter theme is a great idea if you are into handprint and footprint keepsakes!

Invitations

You can make your own handprint footprint invitation by simply searching online and finding a free stock image to use and then simply printing it on good quality paper. You can choose pink or blue ink if you know the gender of the baby or yellow if the gender is a surprise!

Decorations

You can purchase a footprint stamp at any craft store and a simple plain white tablecloth and then just stamp the white table cloth the the footprint stamp. You can customize your table cloth as well with other phrases or words of encouragement for the new mom as well.

Another great idea is to create a bouquet of baby booties for the new mom and make it look like rose centerpiece for each of your tables.

Baby Shower Favors

As a favor, you can purchase little soaps that are made to look like baby’s footprint or handprint to hand out as favors for your baby shower guests. This also a useful item that is sure to be favorite among your guests.

Baby Gifts for the Mom to Be

And since your theme is pitter patter, you can also suggest to your guests to bring gifts that match the theme. There are so many different items that are perfect:  Handprint Footprint Frames where you can create a mold of your baby hand  or foot and treature it forever. Or a handprint footprint keepsake box that will allow the mom-to-be to take an ink impression of the new baby! Any of these items are sure to be a hit as those tiny footprints are always great to remember later on in life. You can also create your own baby gift baskets to match your handprint footprint theme. Simply purchase frames, onesies, a bottle and some teddy bears, decorate your basket and it’s surely to bea hit!

Food

Another way to add on to your theme is to make cookies that look like little feet or hands! Simply purchase a cookie mold and you can bake the rest.

These are few great ideas to get you started on your way to planning a great baby shower for your friends or relatives. They are sure to enjoy and appreciate the gifts and all your hard work!

Ever since I gave birth to my child, I almost can’t imagine my life without her in it. She is the best baby gift I could have gotten. She makes my days that much better and my joys that much greater. Before in my life, I had a great life where I went to work and earned my money and have a great relationship. Thinking back on my previous life I can’t imagine it without her. At first there was a lot to get used to because she played dirty guerilla warfare tactics and sleep deprivation but now sleepless nights seem like a walk in the park.

Recently, more specifically this weekend my daughter decided all on her own that she would take the next step and start clapping. We were all sitting down watching a rather crazy movie and as she was sitting on her father’s knees watching the movie it came to an end. The next part is rather amazing because I don’t understand how it happens but she just started clapping for no reason and without anyone showing her how. It’s weird because as we realized she was doing something she hasn’t done before, she just kept on going. After she started clapping we decided to encourage her by rolling a ball at her and letting her play with it. Every time she would catch the ball we would start to clap for her showing her that she did something good. After that she would start clapping on her own with us. It was so amazing. It’s like receiving a baby shower favors that just touches your heart and makes you remember the day forever.

Just thinking about it for a second is really interesting. Clapping isn’t something that’s too difficult to do. All it really is is slapping your hands together to make a sort of noise. So why is it so amazing to see a 8 month old baby do it. Well for starters when its your first child and she does something so amazing that you didn’t think she could do it is simple for lack of a better word amazing. You don’t really think a child that young can just start to do something out of nowhere for no apparent reason. Its just such an amazing thing to watch and it makes it all that much better when she is your own daughter.

All those nights that I had to get up and try to figure out why she was crying and what was wrong become more and more worth it as she does new things every day. I can’t believe it but soon she will be all over the place. First this week she finally crawled and now at the end of the same week she is clapping. Both things require a lot of coordination. My little baby is growing up so fast.

This author lives in Flemington, NJ with her husband and 5 month old daughter and is an expert contributing author for a luxury wedding favors boutique offering variety of beach wedding favors, destination wedding favors. This author and WeddingFavorStation.com is also dedicated to providing valuable and informative articles on wedding planning, wedding party ideas, wedding dresses styles and wedding etiquette.

Are you going to a baby shower? Gifts for babies are always so cute. Here are some ideas to create gift wrapping that is just as adorable as the baby gifts you are giving.

If you know the baby is expected to be a boy or a girl, sometimes it is a good idea to wrap a gift in a nice blue or beautiful pink but don’t become complacent with your colors. There are many other colors you can choice from. Here are some other options to get your creative juices flowing.

Are you going to a baby shower where you know the mother isn’t sure of the gender of the baby? Wrap the baby gift in white paper and tie the gift with two ribbons instead of one. For this idea you can use a pink ribbon and a blue ribbon. Tie the blue and pink ribbons together and tape to the back of the package. Then have the ribbon form a bow on the front of the package from the two colors of ribbon.

Want to add a cute topping to any baby shower favors packaging? There are many things you can add such as a rattle, teething ring, baby mittens, hair bow, small picture frame, or a small stuffed animal. All of these items can be fastened with the ribbon you tie the gift with and these items can also be used by the baby.

If you like anything teddy bear such as teddy bear baby gift baskets, do a teddy bear gift wrap! Use gift wrap paper that has teddy bears on it, or a soft cocoa colored gift wrap paper. But a small teddy bear on the top of your package and tie with a brown or a white bow. You can often find teddy bear rattles or teething rings that have teddy bears on them. You can also take this idea and apply it to any sort of animal. For example, wrap with a duck theme. Use yellow paper or paper with ducks on it and tie with a large orange ribbon. Top your gift with a traditional yellow rubber duck.

For a pretty look for a spring baby shower consider a very floral look. Wrap a gift with floral or plain but colored paper. Use a green or purple ribbon and tie it in a bow. Top the package with some fresh spring flowers. Cut the stems of the flowers very short. Add the flowers the morning of the baby shower for best presentation.

Does the baby have an older sibling? Consider giving a small sibling gifts for the new brother or sister. A new baby is often a hectic time and seeing their new brother or sister get so many gifts can sometimes be overwhelming, and leave many children feeling a little forgotten. Consider getting an older sibling a storybook or a stuffed animal as a special big brother/big sister gift.

Women in nearly all cultures have a tradition for celebrating the mother to be and soon to be born new baby. In the Navajo Native American tradition, a mother to be is sung over in a ceremony performed especially for expectant mothers. In this Native American culture, this is called the “dine bizzaad”, and is usually translated as a “Blessingway”.

One idea to make your baby shower fun is the create a peas in the pod activities for your guests or as some like to call them baby shower games. One such games is Name that Baby Food. The way it works is: you buy eight jars of baby fruits or vegetable. You cover each jar’s label with paper and number each jar. To play, you have to give each player a paper plate, a spoon and a pencil. Ask her to write the numbers 1 to 8 around the rim of the plate. Then stick a baby spoon in each jar and have the players pass the first jar around and place a spoonful of its contents near the number 1 on their plates. Then just repeat the process for all the baby food jars and ask the players to write down what they think each baby food is near the corresponding number on their plate.

Award a baby shower favors to the guests who get the most correct answers.

If you want to make this game even more challenging, choose baby foods that combine more than one fruit or vegetable in each jar.

So there you, these are some great baby shower games to entertain your guests and even have some fun for yourself. Your guests will love these ideas and activities and may actually enjoy going to more baby showers you host. Stay tuned for some ideas on how to create a theme for your baby shower gifts such as those baby gift baskets and baby gifts that your guests will bring and you can be sure the mom to be will be put them to good use.

We just love stork baby shower themes all around. From the baby shower favors to the decorations to the menu and baby gifts themes and baby gift baskets, the stork is the most celebrated baby icon across the world. Here is a unique idea on how to create a stork baby shower cake:

The ingredients you will need:

Two 9-inch round cakes and one 13by9 ich cake, cooled.  Prepare the cakes from packaged mixes.
Three 16 ounce cans white forsting.
Yellow and red food coloring
1 Large marshmallow
1 Blue M&M
Fabric baby sling

Carefully remove the cakes from the pans. Wrap each cake in plastic wrap and freeze the cakes for 1 hour to  make for easier cutting and fewer crumbs. Remove the plastic wrap from the cakes. Cut the cakes in two circles, and other shapes to create the body parts of the stork. and place the pieces on a cake board that measures at least 32 by 22 inches. Mix yellow and red food coloring into 2 cups of frosting and use the orange frosting to color the stork’s beak, legs and feet. Decorate the rest of the stork’s body with white frosting. To make the eye, cut the marshmallow in half and nestle the M&M into the top of one half. Set the eye in place on the stork’s head. Complete the cake by positioning a fabric baby sling from the stork’s beak.

This recipe makes 24 servings.

Now go enjoy yourself and make sure you have a good time. Your guests and the mom to be are going to be in SHOCK when they see the beautiful baby shower cakes you’ve created in the new arrival’s honor.