Wordless Wednesday Tuckered Out Mini Pony

Gizmo, our mini pony, is tuckered out after a day of eating hay and running around.

Go to Sleep, Sheep! Book Review

I received this book free to facilitate this review. Affiliate links may be in this posting. Thanks for supporting my blog.

Go to Sleep, Sheep! is a children's board book written by George Beahm and illustrated by Sydney Hanson. This book is part of the series, Bedtime Barn. Adorable sheep and rhyming verses grace the pages of this book to help lull your little one off to sleep. This book tries to help convince even the most stubborn to drift off to sleep with its silly story.

Zari enjoying the Go to Sleep, Sheep! book.

What We Thought:
This board book with sparkly cover has an adorable story about little sheep that try to delay bedtime. The colorful pastel illustrations are lovely and have not only sheep, but other animals that might be on a farm. The sheep have a bow, glasses, and scarf. Most pages end in the phrase, "Go to Sleep, Sheep!" as the mama sheep tries to get them to go to sleep.

This is very cute and most parents and little ones can relate to this story. I recommend this board book for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergartners most of all. My youngest daughter, Zari, who is in first grade also loves this book! It is the perfect size for little hands to hold and the sturdy pages are less vulnerable to tearing. She is learning to read and it has the perfect amount of words on each page for her. She also loves looking at the adorable illustrations as well.

BUY IT
Buy Go to Sleep, Sheep! board book, HERE.



WIN IT
Prize: Go to Sleep, Sheep! Book
Host: Harper Collins and FrontGate Media.
Who Can Enter: Open to US Residents 18 years or older.
Selection Process: 5 winners will be selected on 6/10/2018 and notified by email.
Where to Enter: Go to this link https://www.blessedfreebies.com/gotosleepsheep.html and fill out the form to enter.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received this product for free to facilitate this review. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

Putumayo Kids Latin Dreamland CD Review and Giveaway

I love music from Putumayo Kids! They are a great company that produces high quality music for kids that is both multicultural and educational. I received the Putumayo Kids Latin Dreamland CD for free to facilitate this review.

Latin Dreamland is a new album by Putumayo Kids that takes you on a dreamy lullaby journey through South America. This soothing CD has both traditional and new songs that are great for relaxing and for bedtime. I love this CD. It was nice to listen to when winding my kids down for the night. The only song I recognized was the last one. I am ashamed to say that I took 3 years of Spanish in high school and don't remember too much of it. I guess the saying that if you don't use it you lose it is correct. Fortunately for me the track note insert was filled with information about each track in English :)

The first song is about a little bunny and the lullaby its mother sings to lull it to sleep. The second is about the moon peaking in to see if the little one is asleep. The third is about the night. The forth is a love song about a pretty gardener who is sad because one of her flowers died. The fifth one is a sad story about a dove who sings for his long lost love. The sixth one is about echos in the Andes Mountains. The seventh song is sung to the children of the south from colder climates and is called Cradle of Ice. The eighth song is about a kind of tree that lives in the rainforest in Brazil and the Amazon and how it has survived a fire. The ninth song is about a waltz. The tenth song is actually traditionally sung in a style called ranchera and is played faster, but this is done slower here in a lullaby by the artist.

Track Listing:

1. Silvia Schujer with Julieta Szewach and Mariano A Fernandez - Este era un Conejo - (Argentina)
2. Maruca - Cancion de cuna - (Mexico) 
3. Márcio Faraco - Noite de Lembrar - (Brazil) 
4. Reginaldo Frazatto, Jr. - A Jardineira - (Brazil) 
5. Amanda Martinez - Cucurrucucu Paloma - (Mexico) 
6. Los Incas - El Eco - (Argentina) 
7. Pamela Rodriguez - Cunita de Hielo (por Triste) - (Peru) 
8. Helio Ziskind - Sorriso de Jequitiba - (Brazil) 
9. Luis Salinas - Un Vals - (Argentina)
10. Marta Gómez - Cielito Lindo - (Colombia)

BUY IT
Purchase Putumayo Kids Latin Dreamland CD from Putumayo Kids for $14.98

WIN IT
Prize: 1 winner will win a copy of Putumayo Kids Latin Dreamland CD free from Putumayo Kids.

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received product for free to facilitate my review and the opportunity to give another away to my readers. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review.

The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep by Harvey Karp, M.D. Book Review

I received The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep by Harvey Karp, M.D. for free to facilitate this review.

The author, Harvey Karp, M.D., is a pediatrician, child development specialist, and children's environmental health advocate. Besides this book, he is also the author of The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block. This book, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep gives simple solutions for parents to use with their kids that are ages birth to 5 years old. This book delves more into getting and keeping your child asleep during the night so you can also get better sleep too.

Everyone needs a good amount of sleep so that you don't feel sleep deprived and exhausted. Most new parents have trouble knowing what to do and are plagued with having little to no sleep at night. Dr. Karp's simple and straight forward techniques might just help you keep your sanity. Although people parent differently and so these techniques might not work for everyone because of this. I also know that every one of my kids and your kids are individuals and something that might work for one might not work for the other. Keep this in mind.

This book is broken up into parts and chapters. These offer tips on how to help your newborn, infant, or toddler get the rest they need, while debunking some of the most widely held myths about babies and sleep. There is Acknowledgments, an Introduction and then chapter 1 goes into the Science of Sleep. Then Part 1 talks about little babies sleep from birth to 3 months spanning from chapter 2-5. Part 2 is on babies 3-12 months of age spanning chapters 6-9. Then Part 3 is about toddler and preschool sleep from 1-5 years of age spanning chapters 10-13. Part 4 is all about tips on special situations and problems. Then there is an Appendix, Sample Sleep Schedules, Glossary, References, Resources, and an Index.

I found that most of Dr. Karp's methods were things that I had heard before, just not in sequence like the 5 S's approach the author teaches to turn on the calming reflex for babies. I am seasoned and fairly experienced in the field of motherhood since having 5 kids now. I totally agree with him where he says that it is wrong to assume that: babies need to sleep in total quiet and that the cry it out method works. I know that my kids sleep through the night now because I didn't tip toe or whisper to make sure they didn't wake up when they were younger. I understood that the stillness of our homes at night is so different compared to the sounds and movement in the womb. Like the author, I also don't believe that kids or babies that have too much love and attention can get spoiled.

However, I was not quite sold on the notion that a parent should always wake a sleeping baby, the wake-and-sleep technique. Although most of my children self soothed themselves after I placed them back in their beds/cribs after breastfeeding, changing and/or rocking them in my arms. Usually the jolt of being placed back into bed was enough to wake them for a moment and then they usually lulled themselves back to sleep. But I do believe that self-soothing is something that needs to be learned for good sleep. Also, it goes into the correct method of swaddling your baby safely and the importance of powering down (turning off TV, computers, cell phones, and other bright screens to not interrupt sleep with light). In the toddler section it goes into easy "no-cry" tips that end infant and toddler bedtime struggles in just days in which I thought were invaluable.

I don't believe what he says about colicky babies. I know for a fact that when my babies were screaming and they had all their other needs met it was from gas, indigestion, and/or stomach pain...I would have to burp them better or rub their little bellies and I could hear the loud noises their tummies were making. I also never used pacifiers with any of my kids and the author says to use them to protect against SIDS. I don't see how a pacifier would help, although I know a lot of parents that swear by them.

The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep does cover some interesting topics which I did not know. I did not know what the best and worst white noise to play while sleeping was until this book. I did not know that you can sleep train babies to sleep at least one extra hour from the first weeks of life.

All in all I have mixed feelings about this book and what it teaches. Overall it teaches things that probably would help and wouldn't hurt anyone to try. I cannot guarantee these techniques will help YOU specifically though. Like any parenting book that one might read throughout their parenting years this book's techniques might or might not help you and your children. As a parent I can say that going with my best gut feeling and my good instinct always helped me through tough spots.

If you would like to know more about the author's promotional tour click HERE.

DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I am participating in this book review campaign with One2One Network. I received this book free from Harper Collins for the purposes of reviewing it. I have not received any other compensation. My participation in the campaign enters me into a drawing for a gift card. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else.