A NAME LIKE NO OTHER

6. If you'd like to give your baby ultimate gift of individuality, you could invent a name. You don't need to make up a name full of x's and z's that sounds like it came from another planet to be creative. Just recombining common syllables can lead to some interesting alternatives. For example, take syllable "Ca" and combine it with "rinthia" and an unusual, beautiful new name appears, Carinthia. "Ja" + "kira" for Jakira. "Te" and "ger" for Teger. This seems to work better with girls' name as naming climate today is generally more tolerant of unusual girls' name, but boys' names can benefit from a fresh twist as well. If you do go creative route, most of experts warn against just changing or complicating spelling of a name. After all, whether you spell it Tyson, Tieson or Tisen, it's same name.

A NAME THAT HONORS SOMETHING OR SOMEPLACE

7. Honoring a person, a place, or even something intangible that is important to you is another way to choose a name. It could be a place you love, like ocean or a meadow, or a meaningful city -- maybe Odessa, if your great grandparents immigrated from around Russian Black Sea area. If you visited Chennai in India and found city uplifting and spiritual, it would be meaningful to you and your child too, once she was old enough to enjoy story of how her name was chosen. If music is your life, Allegro which means to play a piece briskly and full of energy might be worth considering.

A NAME THAT CONTAINS AN ESSENCE

8. We all can agree that choosing a name carefully is important. After all corporations will spend lots of money and sometimes months or years deciding on a logo or name. A name that sums up exactly mood and feeling of their image. But, for some, what a name contains goes well beyond image. Nameologists or name "profilers" believe names contain an energetic cache that can affect our finances, our health, our happiness, basically all aspects of our lives. If you believe that subtle energies like sound and vibration are more important than people give them credit for, you might consider consulting a namelogist for help in choosing an "energetically correct" name.

Naming styles change and lots of arents aren't satisfied sitting down with a name book, starting at A and 140,000 names later, ending with Z. So today's baby naming books (and websites) have changed too. The up-to-date guides are much more targeted. You can find baby name lists now with names from Shakespeare's plays, celebrities' baby names, soap opera names, cowgirl and cowboy names, cool names, names from folklore, mythological names and names of saints. With so many things to consider, it's a good thing pregnancy lasts nine months!

My friend Judi didn't have that problem. Her kids got out one toy at a time - even when company was over - and put up that toy before getting out next. When it was time to leave their house, it was a snap to clean up with just one toy per child.

She had all these little boxes and containers for their toys with little pieces, so I thought that maybe that was secret.

On my next trip to Walmart, I bought some containers to hold toys; and a big box that held some community toys.

Unfortunately all that changed was that I now had empty containers in kids room with toys on floor.

So, one day, I finally asked Judi, "How do you get your kids to keep their toys picked up?"

"Well, you know," she said, "I used to go crazy with all toys everywhere that never got put up - hurting my feet from stepping on them...until we started to use 'Saturday box'."

"What's a Saturday box?" I asked.

"It's just a container that we have, and every time a toy is left out, it goes into Saturday box. Then they have to wait until Saturday to get their toys back."

"Ohhhh..." I said. A new concept that hadn't occurred to me before!

"And, great thing about it," Judi continued, "is that they can still see toys all week. That way they know what they're missing - that solved our 'out-of-sight-out-of-mind' problem."

I just nodded with agreement and understanding - I was totally following her.

So, back to Walmart. :-)

I got each kid a container with three drawers to keep their small toys. I explained to each of them that they could only play with one toy or set at a time. I made it very clear that if anything was left out, it would go into Saturday box.

Their eyes were wide with amazement.

They knew Mommy was serious.

So, first day went without incident. Then, on 2nd, there was first infraction.

"Maegan," I told her, "you left out a Polly Pockets. It needs to go into Saturday box."

Now, she is only three years old; but she understood. We put toy in Saturday box - a clear plastic container on kitchen counter.

EVERY day she was asking me if it was "Saturday". Fortunately for her, we had started mid-week so she only had 2 days to wait.

The boys ended up with a few toys in there too.

It's amazing how a simple box called a "Saturday box" can solve a lot of problems and teach "appreciation" at same time!

If you still have problems with toys being scattered everyone and nothing has worked for you, give "Saturday Box" a try today!