Parenting & Education

At just six-to-nine months old, babies grasp the concept of vocabulary and realize that objects have names. However, with little vocal control, they can’t form words with their mouths — but they can with their hands! Learning to sign helps ease the frustration babies experience when they can't communicate their needs to parents. Part of the Amazing Baby series, the book is perfectly-sized for tiny hands and mouths to explore. In her engaging instructions, Katie Mayne teaches parents how to understand their little ones using simple sign language, starting with signs for "milk," "food," "drink," and progressing to instructional signs like "look" and beyond. Including a tabbed index, this is an ideal book for new parents to share with their babies.

The most convenient, value-priced reference for parents-to-be who want an easy guide to the best baby names out there

From the author of the #1 baby name book in the country comes an updated edition of the mass entry into the category: 25,001 Best Baby Names.

An easy-to-use, affordable book aimed at frazzled, overwhelmed parents-to-be, this is the perfect reference to make naming boys and girls quick and painless. 25,001 Best Baby Names is thoroughly researched and updated to reflect recent trends in baby names.

In a compact format and with incredible variety, 25,001 Best Baby Names offers a low price, a handy package, and the most current names for parents making one of their biggest decisions for baby.

The astonishing story of a baby's first two years.

Renowned zoologist and scholar of human behavior Desmond Morris (The Naked Ape) reveals a baby's incredible powers of development and extraordinary growth patterns. Through informed text and stunning photographs and artworks, this insightful reference surveys the biology, physics, chemistry and other forces which drive the rapid changes that occur in a baby's body every day.

Amazing Baby is a discovery tour through a baby's first two years. The story progresses from the moment of conception through each phase of development in the womb and beyond as the baby is born and matures into a talking, walking individual with a unique personality. Chapters are organized by both stage and type of growth.

The book features 250 large and beautiful color photographs and illustrations in an innovative layout that invites both browsing and study. Full-color tracing paper overlays illustrate the many intricacies of infant anatomy. Throughout the book, retrospective glimpses of life in the womb remind the reader of the profound influence of those first nine months.

This beautiful visual reference is designed to appeal to anyone -- especially parents -- interested in how the human body evolves and works. It is also an ideal book to use with siblings of a new baby.

The contents include:

• In the womb: the miracle of life; how baby develops; what baby feels, sees, hears and senses
• Growing: muscles and bones, hormones, sustenance, sleep and dreams
• Staying healthy: powers of self-preservation, reflexes, immune system, hormones, self-repair
• Movement: mastering movement- holding the head, rolling, sitting, crawling, walking
• Communication: hard-wired crying, babbling, speaking, listening, body movement
• Learning: intelligence, awareness and understanding, exploring
• Emotions: personality, experiences, bonding, relationships
• Becoming independent: why humans take so long do so -- longer than any other mammal.

Some of the fascinating facts in Amazing Baby:

• Babies cannot distinguish between night and day until they are about ten weeks. Instead, they rely on their stomachs to regulate their day.
• Within a few days of birth, a baby can distinguish between the touch of brush bristles that are of different diameters.
• Within 45 hours of birth, a newborn knows his/her own mother by her smell.
• Babies have about 10,000 taste buds, far more than adults do. These are not just on the tongue but on the side, back and roof of the mouth as well.

Desmond Morris' landmark book, The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal, was published in 1967. A worldwide best-seller, it examined how humans feed, sleep, fight, mate and raise young and compared human behavior with that of apes. Controversial at the time, the book shed new light on the subject and helped change popular perceptions.

As in all his books, Desmond Morris reaches a popular audience and demystifies science.

(20081213)

Given the daily challenges of raising a child with autism, it’s easy for parents to lose themselves and for their overall quality of life to plummet. Susan Senator interweaves the voices of autism parents, researchers, and professionals to offer guidance and encouragement on how to find happiness and fulfillment in the midst of the struggles of raising an autistic child. Topics include: how to handle feelings of despair and hopelessness; finding fun, even during turbulent times; caring for your marriage; and finding a balance between accepting your child as he or she is and seeking new treatments.

To learn  more about the author, visit her website at susansenator.com.

Jenny McCarthy’s hilarious, no-holds-barred personality has made her an instantly recognizable TV personality and a bestselling author. In Baby Laughs she examines the full range of challenges that new mothers face, including:

• The humiliations of postnatal "numbing spray," Tucks medicated pads, and adult diapers; jelly belly, balding, and gum disease; and becoming a "five-foot puke rag" for the baby
• Heart-stopping terrors, such as baby manicures, breathing checks, and burp failures
• Inadequacies, such as lullaby illiteracy and the need for a "heavy rotation" of toys, videos, and mobiles
• Daddy antics, such as infant wrestling, home-movie mania, sleeping like a log, and expecting sex
• Dueling grandmas, germ-ridden guests, Olympic-class competitive mommies, anorexic pets— and much more.

Mothers and fathers will find much-needed relief and insight in this sometimes touching, sometimes gritty, but always perceptive and outrageously funny account of what it truly means to have your very own small bundle of joy.

The #1 Baby Signing Book

THE EASY WAY TO "TALK" WITH BABY...AS SIMPLE AS 1-2-3

What if your baby could "talk" to you before he or she could actually speak? Sign Babies creator Nancy Cadjan brings years of expertise to Baby Signing 1-2-3, teaching you her unique and easy way of learning baby signing through rich illustrations.

Baby Signing 1-2-3 provides specific signs and techniques for different age ranges, so you know how to work best with baby at each stage of development. Packed full of pictures that show and explain each sign, Baby Signing 1-2-3 makes learning and teaching baby signs a breeze, with:

• Pictures that clear away the confusion! With many signing books, it's hard to understand how to make each sign correctly. Baby Signing 1-2-3 provides clear and helpful illustrations to help you, along with tips on helping baby understand.
• A large directory including more than 270 baby signs!
• Information for infants to toddlers and beyond. Sections give you targeted advice based on baby's age. You'll find perfect steps to help you start right from baby's birth, or later in baby's life!
• A trusted system using American Sign Language

(20071210)

DESCRIPTION: America's favorite pediatric experts turn their attention to the hottest topic in parenting--solving babies' sleep problems--in a definitive book that offers immediate results. For every parent who's ever been deprived of sleep by a restless infant or toddler, now there's hope. This much-needed addition to the Sears Parenting Library is the comprehensive, reassuring, solution-filled sleep resource that virtually every American family will want to own. Nighttime separation anxiety, new breastfeeding habits, and an increase in adult sleep problems have made babies' sleep habits a growing concern in recent years. The Searses offer solutions. Instead of espousing the kind of "one-method-fits-all" approach advocated in other parenting books, the Searses teach parents how to match the nighttime temperament of their baby to their own lifestyle. The authors draw on important new infant sleep research from the Mother-Baby Sleep Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame, as well as on their own personal experience as parents of children with a wide range of sleep habits. They also offer a detailed critique of the myriad new devices and ballyhooed techniques that promise to deliver safer and better infant sleep. THE BABY SLEEP BOOK provides parents with the practical tools they need to help the entire family sleep better.