If you’re new here, please consider subscribing to Mommy Daddy Blog. We wouldn’t want you to miss out on our updates or giveaways ;-)! If you are looking for exposure during the holiday rush, considering purchasing a Top Spot on our sidebar! Thanks for visiting!

How many people forgot about Grandparent’s Day? Apparently so did the retail stores. We tried our luck trying to find gifts for Jayden’s Grandmommies and Great Grandmommy, but we couldn’t find any t-shirts or inspirational plaques or trinkets. We found some cute cards that played back a recorded message along with a song, but the cards we wanted played country and circus songs! We ended up printing a few pictures of Jayden out and slipping them into regular cards. The Grandmommies loved them especially since they didn’t even know it was Grandparent’s Day!

There’s just something about greeting cards and pictures that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside! How many of you just melt when you read a greeting card or view photos of loved ones? Why not share the warm and fuzzies with family and friends? At PS Print Printing you can easily turn any image into custom postcards for any occasion affordably. Utilize PS Print’s postcard printing service for the upcoming holidays and events in your life by printing out custom postcards as greeting cards, announcements, invitations/party pluggers, and thank you cards! With the holiday season right around the corner, be sure to visit PS Print to create memorable greetings that you can share with the whole family!

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.

Today is the day that you are nationally recognized, for your wisdom and unconditional love is what makes you all such beautiful people! We would like to wish each and every grandparent, including our mothers who are celebrating their firsts today, a Happy Grandparent’s Day! If possible, go give your Grammy and Grampy a hug and kiss today if you haven’t already (the day is almost over!), because they certainly deserve it!

Sorry for the short hiatus here on Mommy Daddy Blog. We’ve been spending time with our families over the past few days. We hope everyone is enjoying their weekend as it comes to a close. We have a guest post on recommended books for infants and toddlers that we’ll be posting here tonight also, so stay tuned for that!

With so many people to buy for, shopping for the holidays can become financially stressful. The kids all want a Wii, plus they need clothes. The tots are fine with clothes from Target but the tweens are into expensive name brands. In addition, you have friends and family to buy for and you don’t want anyone to feel left out or call you a cheapskate behind your back.

Here are some ways we save money while shopping. They can be applied to shopping for the holidays and may keep you loan free!

Use coupons & coupon codes: Check out your local papers and even magazines for coupons. Even if the coupon is for something that you don’t think you’re going to purchase any time soon, clip it! There are many resourceful sites online where you can not only print out coupons but grab codes to use at the checkout of your favorite retailers. Some of my favorite places to find coupons are Coupon Chief and Retail Me Not. Both sites are powered by bargain hunters alike. Coupon Chief even has a Pays-2-Share program which allows you to get paid each time someone uses a coupon that you submit.

Shop with iBakeSale: iBakeSale turns everyday savings into cash-back for you and fundraising dollars for your community. iBakeSale has partnered with hundreds of merchants to offer up to 20% cash-back rewards on every purchase. All you have to do is shop from iBakeSale or install the Shopping Bag browser plugin. Whenever you land on any of the select merchants, a pop up will let you know that you can get cash back from iBakeSale. You can use iBakeSale with coupon codes and sales as well! Whether you choose to keep all of your cash-back rewards or donate them to your favorite organization is up to you. We’re listed as an organization, search for Mommy Daddy Blog. Yes, we are fundraising. Any donations are accepted with deepest gratitude (is that right?). Who would have thought that it costs money to maintain a blog?

eBay: Whatever it is you can find it on eBay, whether it’s brand spanking new or in excellent used condition! You’ll be surprised what you can luck up on below the price of retail. eBay has coupon codes too!

Never Pay Retail: Over and over again I hear parents complaining about how they just bought so and so some new clothes that they grew out of or destroyed very quickly. Shop the clearance rack, hello! JcPenney has many racks of lovelies. You can find outfits for less than $4! We do it all of the time! Looking for name brands? Shop stores like Marshalls and TJMaxx who sell factory seconds. It’s possible to find items for less than $4 in these stores as well! You just have to look! The kids want stylish gear to wear to school but you can only afford to buy them 5 outfits each at retail. Don’t have them repeating the same 5 outfits! I’ve seen this so many times going back to school after Christmas. Kids would come back looking fly for one week only because their parents didn’t shop clearance!

Buy in bulk: When the seasonal items go on sale clearance, grab them at the speed of light! You may have to save some of the items to use for the next year, but hey you got them next to nothing! Baby Dagny had an 80% off Labor Day sale. I quickly snatched up a 6-pack of wubbanubs marked down from $90 to $18!

Using these tips should help you save, save, save, and avoid having to take out icky cash loans! Many people turn to loans to help bail them out of the sticky financial situation called Christmas. Sure, everyone absolutely LOVED the gifts you got them, but now you have thousands of dollars accumulated in interest. If you absolutely must take out installment loans, I suggest getting one with the lowest interest rates possible, then paying them off ASAP! You don’t want to have to start the new year off with a pile of debt!