The Gift Exchange

A good friend of mine had a baby boy last week. As soon as I heard the news, I went online and ordered her a nice flower arrangement. When she received her flowers, she was ecstatic. Me being in a different country and her getting the flowers was a complete shocker (which was my intention ). Did you know GiftTree can send gifts nation wide as well as internationally?

I must recommend one item here at GiftTree that I absolutely love which is the Baby’s First Wagon. It has a mixture of various flowers such as roses, asters, carnations and my favorite daisies. Sending flowers to the mother and the family of a newborn can be very joyful for the senders and the recipients! So do your part in making the world a better place by brightening a new mom’s day!

Have a loved one who is expecting? Check out GiftTree’s Baby gifts.

So I was talking to a close friend and her husband recently about her new pregnancy and the first thing he blurted out was- “My wife has been abducted by aliens!” I thought it was funny, she didn’t… The problem, I guess is the side effects that she has experienced by getting pregnant. So many women want to have a baby, then they get pregnant and wonder what the heck they got themselves into. Others seem to bask in it. You would not believe how many side effect there can be to pregnancy! I’m sure you know the obvious ones, weight gain, morning sickness, cravings. Well, here are a few I bet you never thought of- Read the rest of this entry »

Question:
Jennifer Says:
July 16th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
How do you address the gift card when you’re sending a gift to someone who has had a baby and you don’t know how to spell the baby’s name?

Brandy - Customer Service Representative
Answer:
People want their baby to have a unique name, and a lot of times it is a unique spelling for a traditional name. It can be embarrassing if you misspell a name so what I suggest addressing the gift to the whole family. For Example, address it “To John and Sue Smith and Family”. When you get to the card message, I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to say the baby’s name. Maybe just put “To John and Sue, Congratulations on your new baby girl! I can’t wait to meet her! Love, Bob”. But don’t be too upset if you find out you did spell it incorrectly. I’ve seen my name spelled a hundred different ways and it doesn’t bother me when someone spells my name incorrectly.

Katherine - Gift Services
Answer:
“Congratulations on your new addition to the family.”

I mean shaking hands and kissing babies! How many of you have heard this term? How many of you have seen a politician kiss a baby, or your baby? Not me that’s for sure (because I don’t have any yet). Now that it’s almost election month every politician running for anything is doing everything they can to win the vote. Now I understand why a politician would want to kiss babies. Everyone loves babies and if the candidate shows that he or she loves babies they assume kissing them will garner public support. This practice appears to have started during the Jackson Democracy along with similar, non-topic political pushing practices such as badges, and pins. What I don’t understand is why someone would hand over their baby to someone they don’t even know? I mean I get the fact that this person, being a public figure, is probably not going to run off with the kid. But do you know where their hands have been?

Is your toddler ready for potty training? So I heard that there are people that come to your house and teach your kid how to use the can. I didn’t believe it so I did what I always do in those cases. I Googled it. It’s true! Some of them come to your house, and then there are Potty Boot Camps. Seriously! So I decided to find some helpful tips for those of you with real jobs, and don’t have the extra dough to spare on “trainers”. Kids are generally ready to use the potty between 18-24 months. Be sure that when you are referring to the toilet or the action you use the same word each time, and keep them on a schedule. Like morning, before bed etc. Also, potty training a toddler usually takes about 3 months. So be prepared for the long haul. Always reward the tot when they have a successful visit to the bathroom.

Recently one of my customers wanted to send a corporate gift to one of his clients who had just had a baby. He didn’t know if the baby was a boy or a girl, and he didn’t know what was “appropriate” to send. After looking at a multitude of flowers and baby gifts, he was struck with our Elmo and Friends Baby Basket.  I could not have picked a better one myself! He called me a week later to let me know how thrilled his recipient was, and said he was keeping this Elmo thing bookmarked for future baby gifts. Way to go Elmo!

You can never get tired of our selection of gifts. They are ever changing and evolving with the current trends and colors! We have a brand new gift that I think is so cute! There are actually 2, one for a girl Patty Cake Tower for Baby Girl, and one for a boy, of course Patty Cake Tower for Baby Boy. They come with little onesies, booties, a hat, also bibs, burping cloths and a receiving blanket. They are all tucked away in little hat boxes, perfect for storing mementos of your child’s early years. They all have this cute little design of a baby with a baker’s hat on and a rolling pin in it’s hand. So cute! Better order quick, while they last.

So, I’m brand new here at GiftTree, as well as being a new mom. My 9 month old daughter is going through a really tough phase that I know many parents struggle through, the not sleeping phase. I am completely exhausted! Not only am I trying to negotiate a new working environment and learn my job, but I have to accomplish this with only a few hours of completely interrupted sleep a night. Do you seasoned moms or dads out there have any suggestions?

One idea I’ve heard about is the Lullaby Lamb. One of the great perks of working here is that we have a lot of the items available to look at and test. When I first saw this little guy, I really liked how simple and old school it looked. Then, I could not believe how incredibly soft it is. I mean like butta! I wasn’t sold yet though. Most of the time I find the “soothing sounds” in similar items I’ve checked out, are not so soothing but actually quite annoying, but these were simple and nice. Also, my little girl finds that she must travel from one end of the crib to the other like a little baby NASCAR or something, but with the Velcro strap on the back, this little lamb won’t be tempted to get on for the ride. I am excited to give this to my little one and to try out some of the other baby gifts.

Seriously, this working mom could use some words of wisdom from you parents who have been there, done that. My dreams of solid slumber are depending on you!

Is the new mom you know emotional these days? You will definitely bring her to tears with this gift. Tears of joy that is! The Motherhood Mirror for a New Mother is not only beautiful, but incredibly touching. It is designed for the new mom and her baby girl. It comes with a tri fold box that has a little story about a mother and daughter and their relationship. It also contains a poem from daughter to mother. Also included is a compact mirror in the shape of a heart. One side comes engraved with the word Mother. You can also have the other side engraved with whatever personalized message you would like! The best part about it is the price, 39.95 including the engraving!

Do you ever wonder why your child screams when you put him to bed? How about why they are obsessed with their pacifier at naptime? Well I may have a little insight for you.

It’s important that when your baby is young (3-6 months) you create a bedtime routine for them. This includes putting your baby in it’s own bed, awake. Now I know how tempting it is to cuddle up next to Junior in your nice big bed, but this is part of the reason bad bedtime habits occur. For instance, if you are always rocking your baby to sleep while it is feeding, he or she will always want to be with you and sucking on a pacifier or bottle at bedtime. Once you think they are old enough to sleep by themselves, they don’t want to. It’s out of their comfort zone. If you have a daily routine and consistently put your baby to bed on it’s own they will begin to “self-soothe.” They become accustomed to putting themselves to sleep without need of a rocking chair or pacifier. Make sure your routine consists of at least 2 activities that you do every night, also make sure bed time is the same time each night. Consistency will eventually plant a trigger in your babies head that it is bedtime. If your routine is bath time then a book, by the time you get to the book your baby will naturally become drowsy as they know it’s bed time.

Another great tool that a lot of parents employ is some sort of soothing noise, and no I don’t mean one of those obnoxious mobiles. Some parent use CD’s, I suggest the Lullaby Lamb with Nature Sounds. This cozy little lamb has a variety of soothing noised to choose from, along with a volume adjustment and a timer. Can’t beat that! Remember that a baby that self soothes is more likely to be able to go back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night. I promise, you will thank yourself later!