It almost seems easier to stay at home and complain about never going anywhere.

For those preparing to travel en famille this summer, here are some practical hints from the experts at Isis.

Combat everything from sun to germs to bugs with products that are safe, non-toxic, effective, and pleasing. Stop in to Isis and pick up:

• Shady Day and Mustela sunscreen wipes: mess-free, no artificial ingredients or synthetic fragrances
• CleanWell hand sanitizer wipes and sprays
• Tiny Diner portable placemats
• Classy Kid Clean and Green placemats
• iPlay UV protective hats and two-piece sun suits
• Skip the disposable swim diapers, get Swimmi from Bummis
• Halo UV protective Technical Comfort System keeps baby cooler in hot temperatures with its breathable, chemical-free Coolmax fabric. And it’s SPF 30+!

• Wear your baby or toddler in a comfortable and secure canvas Ergo, perfect for hikes or beach walks or chasing after older siblings!
• Zip through crowds or airports in the USA’s lightest umbrella stroller, the high performance Uppa Baby G-Lite stroller.
• Be prepared with the Skip Hop Pronto changing pad. It’s a stylish compact clutch.
• Load up the Hop Pop diaper bag – it actually converts to a booster seat!
• Sleep easy, indoors or out, with the Kidco Peapod tent, a safe and comfortable portable bed with UV protection, windscreens, and an easy-to-fold design.

And don’t forget to pack the Primo folding potty seat, Bearview mirrors, wonderful soft books from Manhattan toy and Jelly Cats.

Happy trails!

In Isis’s safe and nurturing environment, a practice of gentle stretches, movements and postures can help to strengthen and tone your changing body, while breathing and relaxation techniques can release your tension and fatigue. Added benefits: mindfulness, confidence, trust in your body, and a community of wonderful mothers-to-be. All this, we hope, can help you achieve balance. Here’s a pose to get you started:

Mountain Pose
Mountain pose is the basis for all of yoga’s standing poses and helps one work to feel strong and stable.

Stand with your feet parallel, the insides of your feet touching and your toes facing forward. Try to spread your toes apart and center your weight over your feet. Stand up tall while imagining that you are being held up and lifted as a marionette puppet on strings, and simultaneously dropping your tail bone and feeling grounded. Concentrate on your breath and standing tall  — The Mountain.

Because Momma, your pregnancy is just the beginning of striving to find balance as a woman and a mom.

Find a prenatal yoga class that fits your busy schedule.

Saturday, July 12th in our Arlington center - 2:30-4:30pm.

Partners, you won’t be forgotten! The emphasis of this workshop is on bonding and the shared experience, so we will also cover reciprocated massage! Please wear comfortable clothing and bring pillows.  Bring your partner/friend/support person for a relaxing, stress reducing afternoon!

Taught by massage therapist Heather Becton.

$49 per couple ($44.10 for members)

Register at www.isismaternity.com/classes/specialevents or call 781-429-1500.

We start off with “Busy Days”, the first Kindermusik Village summer unit. In this unit, each lesson features new activities and songs you can sing for all the places you go together: the grocery story, the playground, the doctor, the day at the water, and at a family gathering. Home materials include a book, CD, a cage bell instrument, and a home activity poster. If you participated in this unit and would like more,  the next unit is called “Peek-a- boo, I love you.”

 In the “Peek-a-boo, I love you” unit, you uncover more ways to say “I love you” using American Sign Language, bubbles and parent baby dances. Home materials include a book, CD, duck wash mitt, a baby duck Gertie ball, and a poster.

The first summer unit for Kindermusik Family Time is “Zoo Train.” Your toddler and the train make a natural match - always on the move. Siblings too may go on train rides. Children go on a make-believe train ride, stopping to learn about different zoo animals, while singing, dancing  and playing instruments. Home materials include a book, CD, an animal shaker instrument, and home activity poster.

The next Kindermusik Family Time unit  is “Creatures at the Ocean.” Sing sailor songs, listen to sounds found at the ocean,  have fun doing circle dances and move along to songs with dolphins and whales. Home materials include CD, 2 seashell castanets, story card set and picture folder set.

Watch the story.
Get more information about Isis and BPA-free bottles.

Use Your Words
Have you made the switch to BPA-free bottles? Are you having trouble finding bottles? Or are you not especially concerned?

True, you’re not alone if your idea of childbirth classes is a bunch of people lying on the floor learning how to breathe — something we already know how to do, as evidenced by, well, life. But taking a class can be extremely valuable and beneficial, no matter what you hope your delivery experience to be. A childbirth class can help you make informed decisions, learn pain relief options, and dispel fears or anxieties. And learning about the process of labor and birth, you will almost certainly come to appreciate this miracle even more.

Labor and Birth Process
When you take a class, you begin to really envision what labor and birth are all about, and what your experience will be like. Because the objective of a class is to prepare parents for that experience in all kinds of ways, you get facts, tips and suggestions, options, and hands-on tools and techniques for support and partnership. And yes, you get movies, and handouts too!

Pain Relief
According to Chris Just, Isis’s Director of Childbirth Education, there is an absolute physiologic connection between fear/tension and pain/discomfort. And knowledge helps to reduce fear. Whether you have fear surrounding pain, birth, or outcomes, information about what to expect can help to reduce that fear. Meanwhile, detailed information about pain intervention options, medical and alternative, are explored.

Support
Isis’s childbirth classes strive to treat each couple as a team, and recognize that both mother and partner need support in gaining knowledge and techniques. Partners of pregnant mothers need preparation, too – after all, people probably haven’t been coming up to them for months volunteering free and often unsolicited advice about how they should handle the labor and birth.

In the last session of an Isis childbirth class, partners are separated from pregnant mothers as both groups discuss how they envision their lives changing with the arrival of their baby. And this can be the most moving part of the whole childbirth class. Certainly, they imagine, there will be less Häagen Dazs, less feet up, less of that valuable weekend real estate. But with excitement, trepidation, and gratitude, parents anticipate the wonders that lie ahead!

Explore Isis Maternity’s full range of childbirth education options.

Use Your Words
What was the most valuable part of your childbirth education?

Isis Maternity has been working toward becoming BPA-free, restocking glass and BPA-free bottles from Medela, Born Free and Dr. Brown’s glass as fast as they become available. The experts at Isis are also looking into other BPA-free brands of bottles, but first, bottles must be tested by Isis’s lactation consultants, to make sure that they meet the high standards for recommendation.

What about sippy cups, tableware, pacifiers, feeding aids? Thankfully, the good folks at Z Recommends have compiled an indispensable directory of BPA-free products. And as always, the staff at Isis Maternity centers can help you make the best choices.

Saturday 5/31 in Arlington and Needham and June 18 in Brookline

Whether or not you have taken the Infant Signing Workshop, you could also register for Sign and Sing to learn more signs in a fun, interactive play class with your baby. Shorter five week summer series begins soon.

Researchers have found that attending daycare or even playgroups can decrease the risk of a child developing the most common type of childhood leukemia by a very dramatic 30%. As the BBC reports:

…it is also thought that contracting some childhood infections - which are often readily spread in environments such as playgroups where children are in close contact with each other - may prime the immune system against leukemia.

So remember that the next time you’re madly and desperately trying to work from home while taking care of a sick baby who’s on his fourth ear infection of the season and you’ve used all your sick days, are behind on your projects, are worried about ear tubes, and are thinking that you might as well have been issued a vat of amoxicillin last November to last you through April.

Meanwhile, authors from the Work and Family Institute find that very few children in day care wish that they could have more time with their parents; rather, when asked what they would change about their parents’ work, children wished that their parents were less stressed out and tired. Score! for the quality-not-quantity camp!

I’ve been both a working mom and a stay-at-home mom. And from personal experience, I can confirm the no-brainer that indeed, working or not, parenting young children can be exhausting and stressful. But oh, the unparalleled joys.

Use Your Words
What are some of the benefits of daycare your family has experienced?