All About The Memories

I know that importance of having a good credit report score when it comes to finances. I want to learn more about credit, you know how it works and what we could do to improve our credit score. Naturally I do my research for these kind of things that I’m not very familiar with. I found a great resource site about credit reports, improving credit scores and many other credit related topics. Not only does Picture Credit has a lot of articles related to credit and the like they also offer tools for your financial needs such as calculators and credit directory.

I don’t really watch the show I just catch a few scenes here and there when I watch TV Patrol and other shows. Come to think of it subscribing to TFC isn’t really worth it for us because most of the time we only watch the news and Game Ka Na Ba(okay so maybe The Buzz as well). I don’t really fancy telenovelas eversince so the Pritime Bida shows doesn’t appeal to me. Anyway so the big winner of PBB is Bea. For me it was anyone but Wendy, just like most people back home I don’t like her. I’ve watched enough snippits of PBB to dislike her. So now that PBB is over what’s next?

We do have our own credit cards like most people we know. I limited myself with two while hubby has four. It was a bit of a challenge finding the best credit cards for us to sign up with at first. There were a lot of credit cards to choose from and banks kept sending us those sign up forms. Of course there’s a lot of factors to be considered when choosing a credit card. Fortunately I found a website for online credit card comparison. I could choose what type of credit card I want then get results immediately. Let’s say I’m looking for a rewards credit card, I could just click on that section then see all the credit cards in that category at once. Now this would make comparing them easier. I love how technology gives so much convenience to people.

Well of course she does I mean she’s my daughter afterall. Its just that she’s now at the age where she can show affection towards us that makes it so wonderful. Oh I just love her to bits. She makes me very happy and I just can’t get enough of her. Lately she’s been cruising around the living in her walker and she laughs whenever she sees me. I would run away from her and she will go after me, so the game begins. She’s happily following me wherever I go (I just make sure I don’t go anywhere the walker can’t fit into) and I love the look on her face. She tells me when she’s had enough though, that’s when we’ll do something different. She let’s me watch TV while she sits beside me at the sofa and she’ll quietly play with whatever toy I give her. She does notice things that she shouldn’t be playing with like the remote or the blanket nearby but I’ll just take it from her and give a toy. I would make her sit on my tummy and sing to her (well yeah I call it singing even if its out of tune) ABCs and other songs some of those are made up by me. She’ll listen to me and laughs and giggles occasionally. I swear baby’s are the best listeners out there (lol). These are the little things that makes me really happy. Yep I know she loves me.

I know how important it is to have high quality appliances around the house and I think Whirpool Ranges belong to that category. When it comes to electronic stuff and appliances we don’t scrimp and get so-so brands. I’d rather spend a a good amount of money on good merchandise than get those that I know will not stand the test of time. Besides when it comes to appliances most will likely be used everyday so it would take the most wear and tear, it is better to buy good brand names for quality products. We do our research before we actually buy something. We don’t just show up at the store and hope to find a good sales person that will recommend something that is really good. We do our research online before heading to the store. We compare features of different brands and read a lot of consumer reviews. We found Krillion to be useful in this area. It is the ultimate appliance buying resource site that you should check out before buying anything.

Is that even a word?! I’m not very sure (lol). Forgive me for the lack of a decent title for this post, it’s just that there’s a lot of things I want to do and there’s only 24 hours in a day and there’s a need for something called sleep that takes out about 5-7 hours of my time. I just wish I could have more things done on a regular basis. There’s the need and want to do layouts, the desire to fix all my blogs, take time to read my new books, play with Iyah and take pictures, spend time with hubby and a lot more I want to do. But alas I’m only one person and I only have two hands, clearly I should prioritize and learn how to manage my time properly.

When we buy our own house here we will definitely get a house insurance as soon as possible. I think having a good insurance plan is important and I won’t take it for granted. Back homes all the cars have car insurance and it is paid yearly. You could say that having an insurance is a form of a safety net just in case any accident happens it is better to be prepared. I’ve been talking to my husband about getting a life insurance too. I feel a bit awkward talking about this topic really but truth be told we cannot predict the future and as always it is better to be prepared than be caught off guard.

Can listening to music benefit my child?
Definitely. Think about how music affects you — how an upbeat tune fends off the blues and soft music helps you fall asleep. Your baby is no different. Lullabies have a proven track record for soothing infants — ask any parent who has resorted to singing them when the baby wakes up at 2 o’clock in the morning. “I remember rocking my son to sleep to the tune of ‘Snuggle Up,’ ” says Rich Ham-Kucharski of Canton, Michigan, father of Alex. “When we didn’t play music, he would fight sleep.”

Music may even help strengthen premature babies. Researchers from Brigham Young University studied the effects of music on 33 premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo. Cassette players piped voices of men and women singing lullabies into each baby’s isolette for 40 minutes a day for four days. When doctors examined the babies on the fourth day, they found that babies who were exposed to music gained more weight, and had lower blood pressure and a stronger heartbeat.

Music can benefit you, too. It has the power to lift your spirits, soothe your frayed nerves, and move you to dance. And music helps with bonding. Imagine the joy you’ll share with your child when you sway to the beat of a lovely melody (try Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”). Or how soothing it will be for you and your baby when you sing him a lilting lullaby (”Hush Little Baby” is always a winner).

Can music make my baby smarter?
The jury’s still out on this question because not much research is available. Some experts claim that learning to play an instrument makes kids smarter in math, but that conclusion is based on research that focused on older children, not babies and young toddlers. For instance, one study found that piano lessons may enhance children’s spatial reasoning skills (the ability to understand three-dimensional space), but experts tested only 3- and 4-year-olds (See our article on Music and Your Toddler/Preschooler).

Babies seem to be able to tell a melody from speech, even if they aren’t sophisticated enough to know anything about music. For example, Norman Weinberger, a cognitive sciences and psychology professor at the University of California at Irvine, says in one study, babies as young as 4 months old seemed to know when researchers played the “Happy Birthday” song incorrectly.

What are the best ways to make music a part of my child’s life?

• Instead of the television, make the stereo, or a musical instrument, the most important fixture in your home. “You’re sowing a seed,” says Rosalie Pratt, a professor of music medicine at Brigham Young University. Dance around with your baby to a jazzy tune, and snuggle in for a love song. Think of your family’s daily life as a movie that needs a soundtrack. Having songs playing all the time will help cultivate your child’s interest in music, she explains, so that as he grows, he’ll have an ear for it.
• Play music at bedtime. Associate specific songs with the end of the day to train your child to sleep. Keep the sound and tempo slow, and the room darkened. But avoid putting on a go-to-sleep tape and leaving the room so your baby can fall asleep to it. “When the songs end, your baby may wake up and need you to come in to start the music up again,” says psychologist Jodi Mindell, a Philadelphia pediatric sleep expert and author of Sleeping Through the Night: How Infants, Toddlers, and Their Parents Can Get a Good Night’s Sleep. Instead, play a few songs for your child then turn the tape or CD player off before he falls asleep.
• Sing to your baby. Don’t worry about how you sound — your child won’t critique your technique and will love the effort and attention. Your renditions shouldn’t be limited to lullabies — sing songs during playtime, too. Stack a tower of blocks and knock it down as you croon “London Bridge.” Even a simple game of peekaboo can become musical theater when you sing the words out loud. Make funny faces and gestures to keep your child engaged.
• Let your child make his own music. Your child may also enjoy banging on a drum, piano, or xylophone, but only for the fun of it at this age. Children don’t benefit from playing an instrument until they’re at least 3 years old. That’s when brain circuits for music training begin to mature.

There’s no doubt about it, we love our digital cameras“>digital cameras. I say cameras because we have two. I have a small and sleek point and shoot camera while hubby has his prosumer digital camera complete with lenses. I bring mine with me everywhere we go, even if we’re just going to the mall…I’m a scrapbooker so I take all sorts of photos not just the posed ones. My camera is compact and stylish so it suits me. Hubby’s camera on the other hand is bulky so we take it with us to important events and trips. I love my camera because of the 3″ LCD screen and because I can see the photo right after I shoot them, if I have a bad photo I could just take another one right there and then. I love having a digital camera because I could see all the photos I took using my laptop. I also can choose which ones I want to send for printing. At the same time I could store all the photos in my hard drive.

Listening to classical music may soothe your infant and turn her into a classical fan later in life, but it won’t make her smarter. Researchers at Appalachian State University believe that they’ve debunked what has been called the “Mozart Effect,” a temporary increase in intelligence experienced after listening to a piano sonata written by the famed composer.

The “Mozart Effect” was first reported in 1993 by scientists at the University of California at Irvine, and replicated by the same group in 1995. The study (which did not look at the effect of Mozart on babies) found that college students who listened to a Mozart sonata for a few minutes before taking a test that measured spatial relationship skills did better than students who took the test after listening to another musician or no music at all. The effect in the students was temporary (it lasted only 15 minutes) and has always been controversial.

Nonetheless, the media and politicians hopped on the “Mozart Effect” bandwagon and claimed that listening to the music offered numerous benefits and could alleviate physical and mental health problems. The notion that babies would be smarter if they listened to classical music was born out of this hype. Last year, the governor of Georgia mandated that a classic music CD — which contained the sonata and other pieces and was donated by Sony — be given to all new babies when they left the hospital.

Despite popular sentiment, the evidence that listening to classical music made anybody smarter was tenuous at best. The lead researcher in the original U.C. Irvine study himself said in a recent Forbes article that the idea that classical music can cure health problems and make babies smarter has no basis in reality, even though he believes that listening to a Mozart sonata can prime the brain to tackle mathematical tasks.

The researchers at Appalachian State University were unable to duplicate the original “Mozart Effect” results and found that the presence or absence of classical music did not significantly affect student performance on tests. Their results can be found in the July issue of Psychological Science.

Source: Baby Center