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This post is part of our Three Gs For The Holidays event. Visit the announcement post to get involved in fun giveaways, get shopping ideas from our Gift Guide, and learn how you can help children in need this holiday season!

Just because you may not see a toy on the shelf in a store, doesn’t mean it is out of stock. Use these nine tips to find even the toys that are the most difficult to get your hands on.

1. Communicate with your local stores to learn their stocking patterns.

2. Talk with store stockers just to learn how they run their store.

3. Store employees are more likely to talk with collectors than dealers - I don’t recommend lying… but, I would be careful of the wording. They will figure out that you are a dealer/reseller when you visit buying the same things over and over.

4. Talk with customer service folks - Don’t assume all employees have the same level of information. Sometimes they have information the stockers don’t have. Where a stocker may not know when they are getting a shipment of a specific toy, the customer service folks may be able to tell you.

5. Avoid the big stores - check out drug stores, grocery stores - even smaller online toy stores.

6. Visit grocery stores/drug stores in less affluent areas.

7. Visit Out of the way cities.

8. Look behind other toys on the shelves.

9. Look under shelves in hidden storage areas - and places employees would hide toys.

Jenni Hunt is the author of The 2008 Holiday Toy Guide which provides you with a list of the most popular toys - many of these toys are going to get harder and harder to find as we get closer to the holiday season. Be sure to use these tips to find these great selling toys.

We’d like to help out those who are less fortunate this holiday season, so we’ll be donating some toys to Toys For Tots! But, since there’s only so much we can do, we encourage you to make a donation also. You can donate toys or cash to Toys For Tots, at your nearest Toys For Tots drop-off location. You can also donate a cash gift online via credit/debit card by visiting the Toys For Tots Online Donation page. With your help, there’s no limit to the amount of smiles we can put on childrens’ faces this year!

It’s never too soon to instill in your children a love of books and reading. Of course, when they are infants, that love begins with the sound of your voice! Reading aloud is important to the development of your child’s hearing and recognition of basic phonetic sounds which will later assist in language development.

As your child gets older, reading aloud assists them in learning new words as well as understanding different situations and characters. Hearing new stories also helps them make the connection between their experiences and the experiences of the characters in the book, which in turn helps the child to develop feelings of empathy for others. Knowing all this, take the time read aloud to your child every day.

Here are some recommendations for books for infants and younger toddlers. I’ve read many of these books to my children and still do!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Author: Bill Martin Jr, Illustrator: Eric Carle

This is a wonderful book! The repetitive text, vibrant full page illustrations and the element of “surprise” makes this book a classic for infants and toddlers alike. It is also helpful for learning colors and animals.

Golden Bear

Author: Ruth Young, Illustrator: Rachel Isadora

A lovely story about a boy and his adored stuffed teddy bear will help children to recognize that everyone has a favorite toy or doll. The large illustrations are perfect for the little ones and all children will love the depiction of familiar situations.

Goodnight Moon

Author: Margaret Wise Brown, Illustrator: Clement Hurd

Now who doesn’t love Goodnight Moon? I’ve read it so much to my children that not only can they recite it along with me, but I’ve nearly memorized the entire story. This is a great story to help reluctant little ones say “goodnight”.

Moo, Baa, La La La

Author/Illustrator: Sandra Boynton

My children love Sandra Boynton. We have most of her books, and apparently many of her books have been set to music. This is a simple book with funny rhymes and even funnier pictures. I do have this one memorized and I used to recite it to my daughter to calm her when she was around 9-10 months old.

Peekaboo Morning

Author/Illustrator: Rachel Isadora

What a cute, simple book! A little boy plays “peekaboo” with various toys and people around his house. This is a book to read aloud for sure and the illustrations are lovely.

Most of these books are available either from a local bookstore or of course can be ordered online at major book retailers. My recommendation as a frugal mom is to check out www.alibris.com or www.half.com to find these books at a discounted rate.

Happy reading!

Christine Lowe Woolard is an at-home mom of three, a former educator and current natural bath and body maker. Check out her site at www.sheaproducts.info.

Within your baby’s first 2 years, several things can disrupt his sleep, making him sleep-deprived and possibly cranky, and all the while also making you a tired parent. Sleep deprivation has been linked to obesity, depression, and other health concerns. And, adequate sleep for our children is also very important for their development and behavior/mood. Here is a list of common disruptions and what you can do about them.

Teething

Babies can begin to teethe as early as just a few months old, but it might take awhile before the actual tooth even appears. Some babies won’t skip a beat when they get teeth, while others will feel every single one. It is best for both your sakes to continue to get as much sleep as you can even during the height of a tooth popping through.

It is best to develop a (rough) “plan” you decide ahead of time on how you will handle teething episodes. If you have a great sleeper who only has sleep problems during teething, this is an easy plan to make. Simply make him comfortable as much as possible and give him extra comfort. He will go back to sleeping well after the tooth pops through.

However, if you have a challenging sleeper even on the best days, this won’t be your best plan as teething can spiral into weeks and months of poor sleep. Your plan may need to be more detailed such as you give him a teething tablet (or Tylenol or Motrin or Orajel with pediatrician approval) at bedtime and re-dose through the night if he needs it, staying with him for 30 minutes for it to kick in, and then putting him back to bed promptly for him to sleep the rest of the night. You would not want to have a plan to stay with him for hours because that can lead to marathon nights even after teeth pop through!

Read more about how to handle teething and your baby’s sleep.

Milestones

It’s so exciting when your baby starts to roll over, crawl, or stand! We cheer them on and they become movers and shakers. It’s so fun! Until…it’s 3am and she won’t sleep! It is very difficult for their brains to shut off and continue to sleep well when there is so much to do! But, sleep is essential for proper development and so you still need to encourage optimum sleep even during this exciting (for both of you) time.

The key here is you need to set limits. Kids thrive on limits! They all must have them. They can’t play in the street. They can’t have a cookie before dinner (most of the time). They can’t stick a fork in an outlet. And…they can’t play with mommy at 3 a.m. just because she is up because she is excited about crawling. She needs her sleep and you need yours to be an effective parent. Some parents do find they are in a darkened room trying hard not to play with their baby, but she isn’t going back to sleep. Even you being there is enough to set the expectation that you will do that every night. You may want to re-think that one.

Traveling

It is common to hear of parents who have children sleeping well before a vacation and when they come back, all of a sudden, their baby no longer sleeps well. Keep in mind that vacations are usually very active (most people need to rest after vacation!) and most likely he didn’t sleep the best on vacation or even if he did, with all of the activity, it may have not been enough. It’s also common to create new habits while on vacation because many of us need to do what works when in a “foreign” place.

The first thing to try to get back to normal is to put him to bed extra early for several days. The #1 problem after vacation is usually that he is overtired and needs extra rest. After that, see my paragraph above about setting limits.

Whether it’s teething, a milestone, or traveling, make sure you prioritize your baby’s sleep. They are depending on us to do that for them. Their primary needs are to eat, pee/poop, interact with us and sleep. You would not deprive them of the first 3, so I challenge you not to deprive them of the 4th, either.

Enter for a chance to win a free copy of our e-Book, Help Your Child Sleep, a Detailed Guide by leaving a comment letting me know how this guide would benefit your household! You may also be interested in our free guide titled 5 Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night. This giveaway will end on August 18th 2008 at 7PM CST. U.S. and international residents may enter!

Nicole Johnson is the owner of Pick Nick’s Brain - picknicksbrain.com - specializing in sleep products and consulting services for children. Nicole is a wife, mother of two, Full-time work-at-home IT consultant and now, an entrepreneur. She attended UC Berkeley where she received her B.A. in Computer Science and received her MBA from Ohio State University after the birth of her first son. She received her Master’s in Sleep Deprivation when her first son did not sleep and made it her mission to help other parents help their children learn healthy sleep habits, too.

Don’t worry. This is not going to be another post about how you need to buy baskets to put inside your baby’s cupboards to contain his socks and then baskets to put on the closet shelves to hold her jackets and then more baskets for the floor to hold the dirty laundry. Nor is it going to be a post telling you that you don’t need that rocker or glider or crib or basket, because after all babies are simple creatures and we only need three diapers and a lambskin throw to take care of them. This is not going to be a post about (organizing) stuff.

I can’t tell you how to organize your dwelling because, after all, I don’t know you. I don’t know if you live in a mansion, an apartment, a shack or a house. (Anyone else remember the game MASH?) I can’t tell you how to organize your possessions because I don’t know what you possess!

This is a post about (organizing) life.

As a mom to three young kids, with a busy family schedule not to mention interests of my own, I use the following principles to help guide my life. Things aren’t always sunshine and roses, good mama and happy kids days. But the ‘M’ rules do help me get things done, enjoy my children and maintain a semblance of sanity. I find that if each day has a bit of each of the ‘M’ rules, I feel balanced and successful in all that I do.

Morning time or Midnight time Are you an early bird or a night owl? Using these two distinct blocks of time well and appropriately can will help you be more productive. I like to get up early, before my children, so I have time to wake up and face the day. This is the perfect moment, for me, to unload the dishwasher or bring in or hang up the laundry. I’m not quite awake enough yet to attack my inbox or work on my blog, so mindless tasks fit the bill. In fact, if I don’t do these chores then, the chance of them getting done is much lower. After my kids go to bed is when I’m most creative. I do design work, polish the posts that I’ve been mentally writing all day long. I feel resentful if I have to use this time for mundane routine tasks. Knowing my strengths helps me use them wisely, and use my time well.

Me time Remember you? That you who existed before this current incarnation? That other you does exist and you need to take time to nourish it. To do so, I try to do something that is a real break from my normal activities, even if it’s just for fifteen minutes. For example, my kids are all taking their midday nap so it’s the perfect time for me time. I lay on the couch for a while and read a book, a book that I’ve read a thousand times before, but that seems like an old friend. It could be listening to music, reading, exercising, crafting, DIY- whatever replenishes You. Doing something for myself, myself and no one else is a necessary part of my day.

Mama time In the same way that I need to take time to take care of myself, I need to take the time to take care of my kids. I’m not talking about diaper changes and serving meals, but taking the time to really focus on them, to give them my undivided attention. This can be difficult to do- I work at home, so I don’t really have a separation between the two activities. I also have three children so giving them each my undivided attention can be tricky. But they need and deserve Mama time every day, as do I. Sometimes we work on stories together, or we read books. My two oldest are into drawing at the moment, so we often draw together. Often I just go and sit in their room with them while they play and just by being there, they integrate me into their imaginary worlds.

Multi-tasking time There often aren’t enough hours in the day. No, strike that: there are never enough hours in the day. So the final, and perhaps most important, ‘M’ rule is multi-tasking time. Why do one thing when you can do two? An often sited example is cleaning the bathroom while the kids are in the bath. You could also take advantage of your commuting time if you commute by public transport or help your child practice their ABCs with refrigerator magnets while you are cooking dinner. I sometimes fold laundry on the rug while the baby is playing nearby. I’m sure that you have your multi-tasking time tricks as well.

You might say that it’s easier said than done to follow all these rules, but I find that they help me keep my life and family in balance. And in my house, a cranky mama quickly leads to cranky kids. I don’t like living my life that way- I’m sure you don’t either.

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Kelly is an American who has been living in France since 2000. A mom to three young kids, she is also a writer and a crafter (check out her Etsy shop). As if that weren’t enough, she’s going to be a full time student getting her MS in Marketing as of September 2008! You can follow her journey at Almost Frugal.