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Like pp, I vote for Veggie Tales-plus the humor in there is fun for adults as well. All the Baby Mozart, etc ones are good. There are some out there like Baby Genius, but I don't have any.

Don't forget music-all kinds-it's enriching and you'll enjoy it as well.

Your local Christian bookstore could help as well-lots of great stuff w/ morals, etc-books, music, and DVD's.

But don't neglect the classic kids books for a LO-Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Gorilla, etc

LO's love to see your face, hear you sing and read to them. They are very easily entertained. YOu can probably wait a while on the DVD's-you'll be getting them for birthdays, etc anyway :)

Best wishes!

Best wishes!

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Veggie Tales are the DVD's with moral lessons in the stories. My son loves them, but he is 2 & 1/2. The Baby Einstein DVD "My First Signs" is great. It also teaches sign language; "Baby's Favorite Places" teaches about words around town, and also has sign language. Your right on track with Sesame Street, however my son doesn't really like the classic ones; Wal-mart carries all sorts of Elmo, & Bert & Ernie DVD's and every one of them teaches a lesson. I firmly believe this is where my son developed his passion to count, point out letters, and shapes. None of these will teach your child by themselves, but the exposure is a wonderful base to start your teaching of your child.
I am not sure where you live, but if you have a Dollar General get your books there. They have too many to list, but make sure you buy the board books with lots of pictures and limited words. My son will sit for hours "reading" his books, and loves to be read to.

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Hi K.,

Congratulations on your upcoming new miraculous event! Another baby!! Do you know if it's a boy or girl yet? Because as lots of others have already advised, TV is not the best thing in the world for kids until a few years down the road, NONE< not even seeing it on mute. So with that said, and before I go on, I used the moby wrap- http://www.mobywrap.com/
with my daughter and we were hands free and totally comfortable, it actually was better for me personally than the sling (though I think it can be made into a sling as well) because nursing was so tough on my shoulders that the sling concentrated too much weight on one side.

Anyway, I would start researching the best books. It is sooooo much fun to read to a little one and have them in your arms while you read, and they can learn so quickly how to speak by reading to them very often and very early- my daughter started passively speaking at around 9 months. We read one of her many books over and over and I always started by pointing out where the doggie was, and soon enough I could ask her, before she ever muttered one word, "Where's the doggie?" and she would point at it. And then we moved on to other objects, and it was great fun.

To this day, she's almost 3, she and I have the best time at the library, she's 2 with her own library card! And the best quality time during BOOKTIME, which is whenever, but ALWAYS before naptime and ALWAYS before bedtime for about 35-40 minutes.

Some of our beginning favorites were,
Big Red Barn, GoodNight Moon, GoodNight Gorrilla, Where's My Binkit, Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots (This is a big kid book, but this is the book I was talking about that we played the doggie game with, so don't confine yourself to board books, I bought my daughter real books and read them to her, she couldn't damage them, she could hardly move and later only crawled, so look at all the books- not just the ones they say you should have at a certain age, (and this was her absolute favorite) Do Princesses Really Kiss Frogs? Jamberry, Eric Carle's many books, but she really liked From Head to Toe, because it requires physical movement, A children's Book of Versus, some Sandra Boyle books like Wake Up! And Pajama Party or something like that...but very soon after she turned one, we were reading books like : Is there Really a Human Race, The Way I Feel, On The Day You Were Born...anyways, these are just a few to mention, but I am sure there are plenty of websites giving you award winning books and MUSIC for children. My husband is an incredible pianist and also plays the guitar, so he's been playing music to our daughter since she was in the belly- but as of today, we can't go to sleep with out the cd- On a Starry Night lullabies, they are beautiful, and were a gift, so I can't give you the place we got them from! Anyway, don't get too wrapped up in all the gadgets because it's overwhelming, one thing someone else did mention was a swing....well, we never got our daughter a swing, but for a gift someone gave us one of those super nice comfy baby chairs with some hanging toys on them- we took those off, but my MOTHER had told me that once I gave birth, my husband and I would never be able to eat a meal together or at the same time again until our kids were grown- well, after getting that wonderful chair, we put her in it every morning for breakfast and every night for dinner and she would sit happy as a clam watching her father and I eat together and chat about our day to come or day already gone. It was a life saver. So think about your needs and the really important things...even the diaper genie was a silly gadget- it's called a TRASH CAN!!! :) I have to admit though, we bought and used everything, we just realized in the end we really didn't need it, but the things we REALLY did need were things like a high quality mattress and very sturdy crib, a very comfortable armchair for book time and nursing, (also, the boppy did nothing for my daughter or I and it's been in the garage ever since) a diaper changing table, beautiful blankets, and books, as well as an aforementioned belly time toy, I forget the name but it's the one where it's a comfortable mat with an x that goes across it in a tent-like-fashion. My daughter spent hours there and it was a great time to lay with her and talk to her while she explored the world around.

Best of luck to you!

Take Care,

S.

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The Veggie Tales series is a good one.A couple I can think of right of is David and the Giant Pickle and it teaches Self-esteem. Rack,Shack & Benny and it teaches Handling Peer Pressure.Duke and the Great Pie War and it teaches a lession in loving your Family.There is a whole serious of veggie Tales teaching a lot of things. We have Raffi.it is geared for younger kids. kids love to sing along with Raffi.There is the Barney,Sesame street.Go to the Library close to you.They have a lot of stuff for young and older kids and get a idea from there of some of the things you might be interested in.Have fun looking for things and hope you find what you are looking for.My youngest twins are 16 now and they still watch the veggie Tales.Some of my older kids still do to.But have one on one time to playing togeather. Teaching toys ect,books. Kids learn a lot with one on one. and Talking to them from the time they are born. Even before they are born.

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I am a mother of a 6 year old girl and a 2 year old boy and I know how excited you must feel. I truly enjoy every moment i get with my children and thank God for blessing me. In response to your request I have found that both of my children absolutely love Veggie Tales, it is a Christian based animation with vegetable as the characters and they teach them morality and christianity at the same time,but if that is not something you are looking for then you might try v smile baby. My son absolutey adores his v smile from the minute he got it. It is a game that you can play with baby or baby can play alone and it teaches them shapes, colors and coordination skills. v tech makes a lot of good learning tools as well as leap frog. Give them a try and let me know if I have helped in any way. Good luck and congratulations as well.

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Perhaps you can look into the My Baby Can Read series that you can get online at http://www.yourbabycanread.com/. This series is awesome.

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We do not watch a lot of TV at home. One of my personal goals was to not plop my child in front of the TV as a babysitter, even if the videos were deemed "educational". I know Baby Einstein has done a great marketing job but I've also read that the TV provides too much stimulation for a child under the age of 2. Now, I'm not going to tell you that our son has never seen the TV, but I have found that he thrives so much more from interaction with real things, as opposed to watching figures and/or shapes on a screen.

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/archives/augdis.htm

Babies love to hear their parents voices, particularly their mother's voice. The best thing you can do for your child is read! And if you are consistent and read the same book over and over, they love that! I have also found that the LeapFrog brand offers educational toys.

Good luck and have fun!

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Hi K.! I know exacctly how you feel! I had my son in 1991 and then in 2005 I had a little girl...wow! We were absolutely elated and overjoyed to be expecting! It was a little overwhelming, though, to go shopping and realize how much baby gear and entertainment has changed over the years. We've figured it out as we go along, though. Here's what we like. Praise Baby dvd's are excellent. Veggie Tales dvd's are the best; they are bright and colorful and teach morals, values, etc. My whole family enjoys them! We also watch a lot of Miss Spider and My Friends Tigger and Pooh on Playhouse Disney. I love those shows! Miss Spider usually focuses on feelings and family values. Tigger and Pooh focuses on helping others and kindness. I don't like to keep the tv on all day (I'm a SAHM), though, obviously so it's also good to just turn it off and let her imagination take over. Another fun thing is to get the Fisher Price childrens cd's and pop them into the cd player in the house or car...we dance, sing, and get silly! If you have satellite, you can also go to the kids channels on Sirius Radio!
Congratulations and best wishes! It's so great to hear that there are other women out there that are spacing their kids out like I did! I'd love to talk to you about it! We're about to start trying for #3!

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I am so glad that you recognize the time that you are spending with your child during her formative years is so vital. So, with that in mind, remember that you are your child's best teacher, not the television, as much as she may seem to enjoy these programs she would rather be having one-on-one time with you and will learn so much more. The studies done on children under the age of two and television have determined that even "educational" tv shows can do much more damage than good, so do without it during those early days. The world of reality is what your daughter will find the most interesting and what will give her the greatest foundation for life. Fill her absorbent mind with language, shapes, colors, books, poetry, nature and music and her needs will be more than met. Congratulations!!!!

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