The holiday season is a time of year during which families often rely on traditions. Even with young children, there are traditions that can be started now and last for years to come. The most important part of these holiday traditions? They bring families and friends together to celebrate their connections and love. Here are some of my favorites...

Holiday Baking: So many holiday traditions center around good food, and many of those dishes are prepared year after year. In my family, it wouldn't be Christmas without my mom's peanut butter balls, seven layer cookies, and peanut butter crinkles with the Hershey kisses - yum! Start a tradition within your own family of making these cookies together year after year. Even the youngest child can help, from pouring ingredients into a bowl to frosting cookies to just going along for the ride in a baby carrier.

Special Stories of the Season: There are books that are unique parts of the holiday season, and sharing them each year can be a family tradition. The Night Before Christmas and The Polar Express were two of my favorites growing up, so I was sure to pick those books up for our family's collection our first Christmas. This story time can also be a good time to share the traditions of holidays other than Christmas, such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. One of my favorite books about Hanukkah is One Candle, and My First Kwanzaa is a great introduction to that holiday for young children.

Reindeer Food: Everyone has heard of leaving cookies for Santa, but this is the first year that I have heard about sprinkling reindeer food in the lawn for his reindeer! The food is a mixture of rolled oats with some red or green sugar (which sparkles so the reindeer can find the food). Sprinkle it on the lawn on Christmas Eve for a special reindeer treat!

Giving: The spirit of the season is really all about giving, and not just the presents under the tree. There are so many people out there who need our help, and this is a fantastic time to start a tradition of giving back. I read of a family who each year made a "global wish list," a list of changes they wanted to see in the world to make it a better place, no matter how big. Then, they picked one to help with. For example, if the family chooses to help end world hunger, they can donate food to a food pantry or serve food at a soup kitchen.

Looking for more ideas on traditions to incorporate into your family's holiday celebrations? Check out the links below.

• Christmas Eve Traditions for Kids - Ways to make the night before Christmas more kid-friendly


• 10 New Holiday Traditions from Family Fun Magazine - Unique ideas to build ritual into your yearly celebrations


• Holiday Traditions: Our Children Need Them Now from NYMetroParent - Outlines the reasons why traditions are so important for children

Have a holiday tradition that your family loves? We would love to hear about it - please share it below! - Sara I.

Although it may sometimes seem surprising with all the stress placed on putting babies to sleep on their backs, "tummy time" is essential for newborn growth and development. Allowing babies to spend time on their tummies promotes correct growth and strengthening of neck and back muscles as well as helps to prevent flat spots on the back of the head (plagiocephaly) or tightening of neck muscles from continued facing to one side (torticollis).

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has a downloadable article on its website titled “Tummy Time Tools.” It is a great resource outlining different ways to incorporate tummy time throughout the day. When reading through the different activities, I found that holding a baby in different positions can actually work as part of a baby’s daily tummy time by helping to stretch and strengthen neck muscles. To get more ideas, you can get your own copy of the article in PDF format here.

There are many great products out there to help engage infants during tummy time. HABA's Dwarf's Land playmat is a wonderful choice. Baby can laugh at himself in the mirror, grab at the houses and trees, move around the car, and more. What I like most about this mat is that it is designed to engage children well beyond their first year, and with quality HABA construction, it should last, too.

Additional information about tummy time:

• For strong babies, make playtime 'tummy time' - Liz Szabo, USA Today


• Too little tummy time slows infant development - Reuters via MSNBC

- Sara I.

Life at home with a newborn can be challenging. Once you get past all the feeding, diaper, and sleep issues, there are times when the baby may actually be awake and ready for something to do! I always feel horrible mommy guilt when my little one is wide awake and yet I try to put him in my wrap or his swing so I can try to get things done around the house. Of course, there are times when things must be done, but if I am ready to play, too, then the question becomes, "What can I do with a new baby?" Here are a few ideas!

1. Lap games.Games like "peek-a-boo" and "this little piggie" are wonderful ways to interact with baby. Other fun games include "patty cake," "sooooo big," and "the itsy-bitsy spider."


2. Infant massage. Infant massage has many benefits for both parents and baby, not the least of which is that touch helps parents and children to bond. Jenn previously reviewed one of her favorite books on infant massage.


3. Take a bath. Like with infant massage, baths allow for lots of touch between parents and baby. Water also often calms infants, and the time spent bathing can be a great chance for parent-child eye contact and conversation.


4. Go on a "safari." None of my boys have ever been willing to just sit somewhere for very long. They always want to look around and see new things. (My dad has compared them to Johnny-5 in the movie Short Circuit as he yells "Input! Input!") To help quench this thirst for knowledge, we go on a safari. This involves simply walking around the house with the baby in a position to see everything going on. We talk about all the things we see, whether it is a kitty, Daddy making dinner, or a tree outside the window.


5. Take pictures or videos. When I am at the end of my ideas for things to do with my little one, we oftentimes pull out the camera. Not only do I get a lot of interaction with the baby as I try to get a smile out of him, I get a lot of wonderful keepsakes, too! In September, I reviewed some of my favorite how-to books for taking pictures of kids.


6. Have a "conversation." This is one of my current favorites. Taking time to talk with your baby is a great way to teach them about the flow of conversations. My baby and I have a lot of conversations while we change diapers. I say something to him and then wait quietly for him to respond. Sometimes it takes a little while for him to respond, but once he does, I am sure to smile and talk more. We continue our back and forth for as long as he is willing.


7. Sing. Babies do not care how well their parents sing, but they do love to hear their voices! Songs can be anything you like, from Raffi favorites to The Beatles.


8. Dance. Dancing is a great way to get both mom and baby some exercise, and research has shown that babies first begin to recognize the beats and rhythms in music from rocking and dancing with their parents. Again, the music doesn’t matter, just as long as you are both having fun; we here love Billy Joel and Barenaked Ladies!


9. Read. Study upon study has documented the importance of reading to children, and the benefits start building at birth. Reading is a great way to improve baby’s language skills and spend time together.


10. Snuggle. Snuggling can be easily incorporated into many of these other activities. However, just taking the time to be in the moment with the baby, looking each other over, smiling, holding hands... it definitely has a value all its own.

What do you love to do with your baby? - Sara I.

Adding a new baby to a family is a big step for everyone, parents and children alike, and getting big brothers and sisters ready for all the changes ahead is an important part of the process. When I was researching how to get B and E ready for the arrival of their baby brother, everyone I spoke with had positive experiences reading books with their children. There are many books that explain different aspects of adding a new baby to the family, from mommy and baby being at the hospital to the fun of being a big brother or sister. Here is a quick run-down of some of the books I've enjoyed, as well as one commonly recommended by other parents.


What Baby Needs by William Sears, Martha Sears, and Christie Watts Kelly

This book is one of my favorites on the subject of new babies. The focus of What Baby Needs is on helping big siblings make friends with the new baby, and it addresses all the things that big siblings can do that babies can't. The book is especially good for nursing families because it includes a picture of the baby nursing and talks about mommy providing milk. The foreword at the beginning of the book addresses how to personalize the book to your own family, and it is fairly easy to use the sidebar topics to make the book more on the level of elementary-aged children, too.


I’m a Big Brother and I’m a Big Sister, both by Joanna Cole

Written at a toddler level, these books talk about the fun of being a big brother or sister. They also stress the fact that mom and dad will always love the big brother or sister.


Mommy’s in the Hospital Having a Baby by Maxine B. Rosenberg

This is the only book I found to really address mom and baby being in the hospital for the baby’s birth. I personally think this book is most valuable for the photographs of mom and baby in the hospital, including pictures of a mom nursing and a baby with its blackened umbilical cord stub (which both of my boys immediately asked about). It is a bit outdated in that it talks about the baby spending a significant amount of time in the nursery, which isn’t the case in most hospitals today. But it does address many other hospital issues like the special bed mom gets to sleep in, the baby bassinets that roll up and down the halls, calling mommy (or having mommy call you) when she is in the hospital, and what it will be like to visit mommy. This definitely wouldn’t be my only baby-preparation book, but it has been great to give my fellas a glimpse into what will happen when I am in the hospital with the new baby.

Have you found books that have been especially helpful in preparing for the new baby? Share them here! - Sara I.

There is so much going on during the first year with your first baby, it is hard to think about building traditions with your growing family. I don’t think I woke enough to even think about things like that until my twins were almost two!

Luckily, there is a book out there to help even the most bleary-eyed parents come up with ideas of how to begin traditions in their families that will be treasured for a lifetime. The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays and Everyday by Meg Cox has been a great resource for our family. Ms. Cox outlines ideas to develop traditions in your family, and not just for the major holidays and celebrations. She also writes about rituals involving daily routines, like dinner and bedtime, and on celebrating milestones from transitioning from bottles to cups all the way through graduations.

Ms. Cox interviewed diverse families from across the country for more than three years in her quest to find rituals and traditions on which to build her own family. This means that all of the ideas in her book have been put into practice by real families, which has given me a little more confidence to try some with ours. One of my favorites? I love the birthday balloon countdown when children pop one balloon on a chain each day until their birthday arrives.

Do you have special traditions already established that your family holds dear? In the continuing quest for more ideas to involve ritual in my children’s lives, I would love to hear what ideas you embrace in your home, too! - Sara I.