Merry Christmas To All

It’s Christmas Eve.  Witni and I are actually enjoying a day of cleaning up our house after all of the Christmas hussle and bustle.  The grandparents have the baby tonight, and we are going to the movies to watch The Dawn Treader in 3D.  I am very excited about this.  These books were by far my favorite series as a kid (poor Harry Potter fans), and continue to impact me in a big way as an adult.

We’ve had a great year at BlanketMyBaby.  It sure has been fun growing in our experience as store owners, and we are happy that there is many a baby across this great land who are snuggled and swaddled tight thanks to a blanket they received from our store.  Maybe, there is a boy or two as well, who are clutching to their security blanket, straining with everything they have to hear sleigh bells on the roof.  We hope so.  To all of those kiddies, sleep well tonight.  Tomorrow morning, you will open up all of your presents, but parents please remember to use this day to teach your children that we celebrate this day because the only gift we ever needed, came to earth as a baby.  Our Lord and saviour, Jesus, came to earth and was swaddled the night he arrived.

God loves you.  No matter what you are facing this holiday season, hold onto that.  This world is full of heartache, pain and loss, but it is because of our fall and our choice to turn away from God’s original plan.  We chose not to trust him.  We chose to eat of the tree.  But, he had a rescue plan in place, a greater intent.  And his son came to the earth to seek and save that which was lost.  I’m sure that is jibberish to many of you out there, but it is our life and our hope and our joy.  Merry Christmas!

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Looking for Inspiration for My Baby’s Blanket!

Congratulations!  If you’re looking for unique baby blankets then there must be some exciting news in your life – whether you are a proud expectant parent or are close enough to someone else who is “with child” that you are shopping for blankets.  But not just any blanket – you are looking for the perfect blanket.  You need inspiration to find that unique blanket for your baby! 

My name is Mike, father of 3 little ones (so far), and I’ll be on this quest with you.  As are all decisions involving your children, choosing  just the right way to comfort your baby after entering this world requires some thought and perhaps a little research.  So we at blanketmybaby.com will endeavor to do some of the grunt work for you.

Baby blankets and “swaddling clothes” have probably been around since the beginning of time, but sales really took off after they were first made famous by a boy born King a couple of thousand years ago.   No, we don’t blanket our babies because Jesus was, but can you think of anyone else more known for having been wrapped at birth than for whom we celebrate Christmas?

 

That’s certainly one way of getting our inspiration!  This earth shaking event of Jesus’ birth also illustrates the great range of choices available in styles and quality of baby blankets – from the humble swaddling clothes fit for a manger in a barn to the most precious materials fit for your little prince or princess. 

Never swaddled a baby?  This article and slideshow will give you a glimpse.  The benefits are time tested and very real.  So much so that swaddling ought to be one of the first skills a new parent learns.  Baby proofing your house, night feedings, and even changing your baby’s diapers all follow your baby’s immediate needs of comfort and warmth after birth. 

What I learned early as a father was that baby blankets are essential for every baby, and that there are many various roles the baby blanket plays.  We received blankets as gifts before our oldest boy, David was born, one of which we liked so much that it rarely ever touched him because it was too nice to endure very many cycles through the wash.  We certainly appreciated receiving the blanket but from first glance we knew it would not be an everyday blanket.

There are various weights of swaddling blankets which show their worth immediately, and some which can double as burp blankets.  I would divide baby blankets into two general categories.  Firstly, there are blankets which fit the baby for swaddling and other purposes (such as padding on a bed or floor).  These blankets will “grow” with the baby.  Secondly, there are blankets which fit the bed or crib.  These blankets may either continue to “grow” with the baby, or with the bed – as the baby moves out of the crib and into larger beds over time.  Even “blankies” that go wherever your child goes will fall more naturally into one or the other of these two categories.

As you can see, there will not be one simple solution for blanketing your baby.  In fact, we’ve found in our family that a baby needs several equivalent -sized and -types of blankets all along its various stages in order to account for the many messy eventualities that babies produce.

Add to all of this the variety of fabrics, patterns, quality , washability, prices and of course searching for that unique blanket that is just right for your baby and we begin to define just what this quest will look like.  We look forward to joining you on it! 

I guess my first word of (hopefully inspirational) advice is that you don’t spend all of your baby blanket budget on one blanket!  Whenever you are counting on keeping a particular blanket clean, remember that your baby’s object in life will be just the opposite – so plan for it!  Perhaps the perfect blanket will be many.  Again, Congratulations – and may there be many baby blankets to come in your future!

P.S. If you’ve read my brother’s blog, I only have one thing to say.  “Winning” may not always mean getting something done first.  Sometimes it means doing it better….It’s on!

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