I’m guessing you’ve done what I did. As your children got older, you gave away many of their baby clothes — but you kept the ones that meant the most to you. The ones that spark special memories of a little boy running around the house in Buzz Lightyear jammies or a little girl wearing a Tinkerbell t-shirt.

Or perhaps you have memories, in the form of t-shirts, from high school, college, ski trips, etc. and you’re longing to have them made into a keepsake t-shirt quilt.

Well, the wonderful folks at Campus Quilt Co. took my collection of Matt’s special baby and toddler clothes and turned those clothes into the most gorgeous hand-crafted quilt I’ve ever seen.

Here’s Matt wearing his favorite yellow fish t-shirt, which is now square #1.

Full disclosure: This quilt was created for me at no charge so that I could review their workmanship and share the info with you.

Prices run from $129 for a 9-square lap quilt (the squares on these quilts are big — 15 inches) to $419 for a 49-square king-size quilt, which would truly be huge!

These are the prices if the quilt is made from t-shirts. There are additional charges for doing special detailed work with baby clothes, adding extra fabric between the squares, etc. Call 502-968-2850 and they can give you all the details re extras.

My quilt is a full size with extra fabric between the squares, which makes it a bit larger. Matt is 5’9″ tall, so you can get an idea how big it is! It fits across the top of our queen-size bed and hangs over a bit.

I have to say, I’ve become a true fan of this company. I’m following them on their Facebook fan page, too. (Check it out for special deals and lots of great photos showing their work.)

I have to show you some close-up photos to show the detailed workmanship. I told my husband it felt as if someone who really cared about our family (and who also had a lot of talent!) made the quilt. There was such attention to detail regarding how the clothes were pressed and arranged on the squares, etc. It really wowed me.

The company also takes great care to make sure your baby clothes or t-shirts are transported safely. They send you a kit that explains everything, and they include a large, heavy-duty mailing bag and a pre-addressed label for shipping.

Then they email you when they receive your t-shirts or baby clothes. They also get in touch with a tracking number when they ship the quilt back to you. They understand how important these memories are to you and they make sure you’re informed at every step of the way. I loved that.

And here’s the best news: Campus Quilt Co. is giving away a gift certificate for $150 to a lucky Parent Talk Today reader. (And if you’re a blogger and are willing to blog about your finished quilt and link to Campus Quilt Company, they will upgrade the gift card to $300!)

To enter the contest, just leave a comment below telling us why you’d like to have your own custom quilt. The winner will be picked at random using random.org. The contest ends on Thursday, April 15 at noon Pacific Time and the winner will be notified by email and announced here on Friday April 16.

If winner does not claim the prize by noon PST on April 18, 2010, he or she will forfeit the prize to an alternate winner who will be drawn at random. USA and Canada residents only, please.

BONUS: You can be entered in the contest more than once by doing any or all of the things mentioned below. When you do one of these things, just leave a separate comment here so I can enter your name in the drawing the correct number of times:

1. Become of fan of Campus Quilt Co. on Facebook
2. Mention this contest on your blog and link to Parent Talk Today
3. Subscribe to Parent Talk Today’s RSS feed (see upper-right sidebar)
4. Mention this contest on Twitter
5. Share this post on social media in any other way (see buttons at the end of the post)
6. Add Parent Talk Today to your blogroll or add our button to your sidebar (see right sidebar)
7. Become a fan of Parent Talk Today on Facebook

I can’t wait to hear what you would include in your quilt, and why you’d like to win this generous gift certificate. Be sure to leave your comments before noon PST on Thursday!

Can’t get enough of The Office? Check out this fun Halpert Baby Blog (good idea, NBC), as Jim and Pam navigate the waters of early parenthood. Cecelia Marie Halpert is adorable, and the hospital pics ring true.

(OK, some of the blog comments make me wonder if everyone there realizes this is a TV SHOW… But more power to NBC for making this a fun addition for fans of the show.)

Just don’t let Dwight hold the baby. OK, guys?

What’s the one thing you wish someone would have told you when you were a sleep-deprived, nervous new mom? What advice do you have to share with that mom who just brought her baby home from the hospital and is wondering… Now what?

Let’s share the mom love with those who are new to this world, a bit overwhelmed and in need of a bit of reassurance. We’ve all been there!

Please share your advice in comments. Thanks.

P.S. Here’s some advice received on the (public) Parent Talk Today FB fan page. Thanks, everyone!

In a recent blog post for “Adoption Stories,” her blog on psychologytoday.com, journalist, blogger and licensed social worker Meredith Resnick has hit the nail on the head in describing the early (and sometimes not-so-early) days of parenthood.

She talks about “missing the freedom of life just being about me and my husband.” Something he said “helped me see that now more than ever — when it felt like there was no time because of the kids — that he and I needed to carve out time for ourselves individually, and for our relationship, together.”

Resnick’s interview with Alisa Bowman, creator of Project: Happily Ever After, quickly gets to the heart of what many parents feel during that adjustment period. It’s possible to have “me time” and “couple time” and still be a good parent, Bowman says. “When you put yourself last, though, that’s a recipe for burnout, poor parenting, and marital problems,” she adds. “You keep allowing yourself to get used up and used up some more, until all that is left of you is an exhausted, out of shape, cranky shadow of your former self.”

I loved this interview, and I can’t wait to read Bowman’s upcoming book, Project: Happily Ever After, her story of how she went from wishing her husband dead to renewing her wedding vows.

Both Resnick and Bowman are brave writers who know how to get very personal. In the process, they help readers relate to their own lives — even the lives sometimes lived in tears behind closed bedroom doors. Visit their blogs and I think you’ll be hooked, too. Then call the babysitter and make a dinner reservation just for the two of you — no kids’ meals, diaper bags or talk of preschool allowed.

Got a curious toddler?

Consumer Reports’ recent blog post and video about TV tip-over problems really caught my attention. Young children can be crushed from the weight of a falling TV.

But there are things you can do to protect your kids. Check out the post and video, then check out that TV sitting on the dresser in your bedroom…

(Full disclosure: I’m the social-media reporter for Consumer Reports.)

What a sweet picture: New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees lifting his one-year-old son, Baylen, in the air following the Saints’ win in the Super Bowl yesterday.

And it warmed my heart even more to see that Mom and Dad had decided Baylen would be wearing noise-reducing headphones for the occasion.

Consumer Reports’ Tobie Stanger has a great post about this, with lots of links to info on how to protect your hearing and your kids’ hearing.  (Full disclosure: I’m the social-media reporter for Consumer Reports.)

Check out the post, then talk with your own kids about the importance of protecting their hearing. And be sure to tell them that Drew Brees is one cool dad.

As the mom of a 14 year old, there’s always pressure to enroll my kid in the latest “enrichment” activity… Summer reading, music lessons, sports lessons… Fortunately, after a few years, you realize there are only so many hours in a day — and so many dollars in a budget — and you find a happy balance.

But woe to the soon-to-be new parents out there, who are now being told they need to enrich their child before he even has a chance to take his first breath. Take the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System, a product that straps onto Mom’s bulging belly, emitting 16 varied sounds that resemble a mother’s heartbeat.

For $149, your unborn baby has class twice a day for an hour, and the sonic pattern introduces her to a sequential learning process, based on the natural rhythms of the womb. (So the natural rhythms of the womb aren’t enough?) The rhythms of the sounds increase incrementally as the pregnancy progresses. Until what? The baby pops out snapping his fingers, doing calculus and demanding an iPod?

(more…)

Is it getting cold where you live? If so, the kids are probably starting to climb the walls — and you’re probably ready to climb a few yourself. (Don’t worry. We’ve all been there.)

Indoor playgrounds are a great place to let kids burn off steam. Just watch for these common health-and-safety hazards, suggests the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) — and this mom who’s done her time in the ball pits:

1.    Big kid-little kid collisions. Don’t place your toddler in the rowdy big-kid section. (I once had to yank my then-preschooler out of the way as a big kid came careening down a slide into the ball pit.) Older kids love to hurl the balls at each other. Kids bury themselves in balls and can be hurt when another child leaps into the pit. Happily, most play centers have separate toddler/preschooler sections designed just for the younger set. Bringing younger children in the morning, before the rough-and-tumble crowd gets out of school, is helpful, too.

2.    Icky ball pits. Just say no. They’re dangerous — and often just plain nasty. I’ve seen toddlers wading through ball pits with their diapers falling off. And the balls and pits often aren’t cleaned regularly. (The CPSC recommends a weekly cleaning of each ball — by hand — and a thorough sanitizing of the pit itself. But how often does that actually happen?) If the ball pit is located at a fast-food restaurant, take a good look at the restaurant itself. Does it seem to be clean and well-managed? If the restaurant floor is rarely mopped and old mustard spills are dried on the condiment bar, you can probably imagine how often the ball pit is cleaned and inspected.

3.    Lack of supervision. Forget bringing a book and relaxing with a latte from the snack bar. (Sorry!) Indoor playgrounds require big-time vigilance. Is your child strong enough to pull himself up the rope ladder? Does he freak out inside the crawl tubes? Is he climbing up slide exits, sitting at the bottom of a slide or throwing (or licking!) ball-pit balls? It’s exhausting, but it’s a good idea to follow your child around.

4.    Unsafe equipment. Check for damaged floor mats and frayed climbing ropes and netting. Make sure crawl tubes have windows or cutouts so you can see inside. And check to be sure tube slides are large enough so that kids can sit to slide down and don’t have to lie down head-first. If a narrow crawl tube empties into a narrow tube slide, your child can only go down head first, as there’s no room to sit up or turn around.

5.    Strangulation hazards. Leave necklaces and other jewelry at home and avoid clothing with loose strings that can catch on equipment.

6.    Getting lost in the crowd. Now’s the time to let your child wear her favorite hot-orange Sponge Bob t-shirt to make it easier to spot her. Avoiding peak weekend (i.e., birthday party) times makes it easier to keep track of your child, too. Many play centers have added side-door alarms, matching child-adult wristbands and other security measures to keep kids from wandering off — or even being abducted. But no snazzy security system beats staying on your feet and keeping your eyeballs peeled. (Just don’t forget to pick up that latte on the way home — you’re earned it!)

It's time for another Parent Talk Today "Unnecessary-Baby-Item Alert."

What baby items do you really need? A crib, car seat, clothes, diapers… The basics, alone, add up quickly. And with the economy still in the dumper and many of us making well-considered choices about how we're spending our family's dollars, it makes sense to choose baby items carefully.

Here's one you can skip. (Just drop the $$ you'll save into you 529 plan. You'll need that money sooner than you think…)

Baby Walton sells the Infant Hair Protector for $24.99 plus shipping and handling. This satin headrest is used in cribs, car seats, strollers, etc. to help prevent infant balding. The satin minimizes breakage and shedding of an infant's hair, allowing the hair to re-grow while preventing further balding.

Let's get real here. Babies often get a temporary "bald spot" on the back of their heads. It doesn't last. My son had one for a few months. My adorable 3-month-old niece has one. What's the big deal? It goes away. Simple as that. To worry about it and try to solve it seems a bit over the top to me.

Save your money. This one doesn't make the cut.