On cool, dark winter mornings there is nothing better than waking up to the strong smell of freshly brewing coffee, or yummy herbal tea, and fresh flowers.

With your first sip of coffee or tea in the morning, your senses are awakened again; bringing new hope and excitement into your day! If you are lucky to be up early enough that the sun has not yet risen, take time to enjoy your Christmas lights in the quiet, early hours of morning while sipping a nice & awakening brew of your favorite morning buzz.

Waking up early in the mornings, maybe even hours before your first appointment, allows you time to check news online, water your vegetable garden, and admire your beautiful holiday decor.

Early in the morning it is easy to drift off into a daydream.

This morning we decided to drift off into a Parisian fairytale via the beautiful blog at My Domaine.  Sacha Strobe, a managing editor from Australia, did a wonderful job at evoking what a Parisian dream is in her post titled,

The Secrets to Styling Your Home Like a Parisian.

Sacha brings up a lovely point about the importance of artwork in a home in her post by saying, "The French love to bring an element of fun into the home with artwork. Large abstract paintings, black-and-white photography, sketches, or children’s illustrations will balance out the home’s serious elements—history, architecture, and furniture."

We at Little Teether also love fun artwork and bright colors.

Visual stimulation is necessary for the healthy development of young babies. There are many studies which talk about infant vision development and the "critical period". These links are all worth looking into if you are curious about the subject. But the bottom line is, expose your little ones to bright, happy, fun, beautiful, and amazing visually stimulating things when they are very young and they will forever see a more beautiful life! 

Holiday decorations are a great visual stimuli for children and can be especially helpful for soothing a teething baby and sleepy parent in the darker winter mornings. 

Even in the desert, the morning air in winter is very cool; sometimes even leaving a frost on plants and windows. If any of you have spent time in the Phoenix area, you will know that there is nothing more beautiful than an Arizona sunrise, especially if you are spending it with a sweet growing baby!. The coastal winds from the Pacific Ocean bring a fresh and new blanket of air for us to enjoy in the day to come. 

It is the first day of December today. The sun is set to rise at 7:14am this morning and the air is crisp and cool. Thanks to our Parisian inspiration, we decided to share one of our favorite luxurious December traditions with you!

Today is a perfect day for the Christmas countdown to officially begin! 

Only twenty four days until Christmas, twenty five days until Kwanzaa, and only five days until Hanukkah!  

In light of our encouragement of visual stimulation for the healthy development of the minds of your bright and beautiful babies; we start by sharing our tradition of holiday countdowns!

 Kids love counting and using a December advent, or countdown calendar, is a great way to teach babies about time, the days of the week, and the months in the year.

Even if your family doesn't celebrate Christmas, doing countdowns are always fun! You can even make up your own holiday at the end of the December countdown. We have listed three of our favorite holiday countdown calendars this year. 

Lindt makes a wonderful and delicious calendar that is sold on Amazon!

  I also love this Advent calendar from Lego! 

A beautiful handmade advent calendar from another small business on Etsy! 

December is such an exciting time and we hope that enjoy your early winter mornings! Remember to keep your coffee and tea strong, get lots of baby snuggles, appreciate those white holiday lights, and take a moment to smell the beautiful red roses for the rest of 2015; all under the inspiration of keeping the French fairytale alive!

All Our Best, 

Little Teether