We recently hired a regular babysitter. We only use her on Mondays, and she brings her daughter who is 4 days older than my daughter.

Apparently, your supposed to tip your hair stylist, grocery baggers, mailman, newspaper man, and other service providers during the Christmas holidays.

But, I would feel funny tipping the babysitter. I already pay her for her services. I would like to get her a gift, but am not sure what is appropriate. She's only been with us now for about 6 weeks.

I would get her child a little something, but not sure if I'll do a toy or clothes for her daughter. I really don't know what to get the regular babysitter. Some of my thoughts were:
1. Honey baked ham
2. Starbucks gift card with a nice travel mug (she always comes with coffee in hand) or a Starbucks gift set
3. Sweater
4. Throw blanket
5. Target gift card
6. Restaurant gift card
7. Digital Photo Frame

Any suggestions? What do you get your regular babysitter for a Christmas gift?

1. First, a question: How do you increase vocabulary?

Isabel is 14 months this month and only has 3 consistent words: "mama", "dada", and "dog".
We read books at least twice a day: morning and night.
She has said "up", "milk", "goat", and "bird" in the past but only once and never since.
People swear she says sentences like "I will." and "Thank you."
My dad swears that "umpa" is "Grandpa".
But, I'm not convinced. I'm only convinced on "mama", "dada", and "dog"

But I am getting frustrated trying to increase her vocabulary. I try using key words every day, "cup", "up", "down", "bath", "baby", and "milk" mainly.

We have been using this book in addition to her story books:

And The Leap Frog Fridge Phonics so she hears phonically correct syllables:


What else should I do to increase vocabulary?

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2. ALL THINGS SWEET ISABEL



Isabel can now identify her nose and other people's noses and touch them gently.
She is no longer grabbing and slapping faces.
She can stack 5 blocks and line them up.
She can stack all her rings on her ring stacker. Not always in the correct order though.
She attempts to sort her shapes on the Fisher Price MY FIRST BLOCKS.
She helps pick up her toys at the end of the day.
She is big into imitating me. She loves to try to sweep and dust. She even uses play pots and pans while I'm cooking.
She is into imaginative play... talking into phones... real and play phones... and even will use a remote and put it up to her ear like a phone and talk into it.
She can take off her socks and shoes unassisted.
She attempts to use a spoon.
She will rock a doll like a baby. And if you say, "baby", she gets a doll and rocks it.
She can walk backwards.
She can catch, throw, roll, and kick a ball.
She understands simple commands like "Give that to mama/dada.", "Get your cup.", "Put that here."
She's been dancing to music.

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3. CAROLINE'S FIRST CHRISTMAS

After thinking about it, I think I have decided to get baby Caroline this for Christmas:
Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Soother:


It glows and plays soothing music for the baby while in the crib.

We used this to soothe Isabel in the crib:
Leap Frog Learning Baby Tad and we would put it on night time mode and the sun would glow and music would play and Isabel would go to sleep. We don't need another learning toy, but Isabel uses it for learning now and it would be nice to have a soothing toy for the baby.


Of course, we'll get her the first Christmas ornament and other things that Isabel has, but I wanted to get her something specific for her to enjoy and only her.

I joke that I married Father Christmas. My husband absolutely loves Christmas. He and the baby have been listening to Christmas CDs every evening when he gets home from work and the baby just dances the night away.

My husband and I have decided that this year, we definitely need to change up things a little bit as far as decorating as the baby is 13 months and walking and pulling things off and throwing balls.

One thing we have already changed is that we are going to go to shatterproof ornaments:



We have tons of ornaments that really nice-real china ones and Lenox ones and others that we have collected from traveling together. But when I was a child, my mom told me that I used to pull off the ornaments and say, "ball" and throw them and shatter them. We are working on skills with ball with Isabel. She can throw, bounce, and roll a ball now, so it was a good decision to go to shatterproof. Now, if we can only get Isabel to say the word, "ball".... sigh... that's another battle right now, her vocabulary, but I digress (we'll talk later about that).

This is what some of the house looked like last year:




We obviously can keep the mantel with stockings since she can't reach that high yet, but we'll won't be able to put up our snow village since she likes to pull on cords and stuff. We won't be able to put up the nativity scene on a small end table like that since she loves the Little People things with lots of pieces and I'm sure she'll confuse them and want to play with it.

But, I don't want to be the person who puts a lot of these things up:



So, where can I find baby proof, but nice Christmas decorations?