Little girls do love their dolls. They love to play and dress them and take them places, as if they really were their mommies.

I have a daughter that first began her love affair, with a certain doll, when she was only 18 months old. The relationship was a bit rocky at first as my little mommy pulled her baby’s hair and competed with the doll for bottle and binky use. Yet as the weeks passed the love my baby had for her baby grew to complete devotion.

She fondly named the baby doll Bah-Bah-Toe (don’t ask, I don’t know) and they have been inseparable now for several years. The cementing moments of the relationship occurred when Bah-Bah-Toe was given her own dollhouse. At first this was a humble dwelling that consisted of nothing more than a few cardboard boxes stacked and taped together.

At Christmas time that year, when my daughter was 2, the idea of getting her a brand new doll was down right blasphemous. Bah-Bah-Toe reigns supreme. One evening as my husband and I observed our little mommy lovingly reciting a story to her precious baby and tenderly tucking her into one of those cardboard rooms it struck us: Bah-Bah-Toe needs a real house.

Finding the perfect dollhouse for our daughter and her baby was not too difficult but was a decision that required some care. There are so many options out there. The first thing to consider is size. In our case the house needed to be able to inhabit the doll we already had. For those who may still need to populate the new residence the size concern is moot. Yet size is still an issue. Tall dollhouses pose a tipping threat and a climbing temptation for little ones. The last thing you want is the dollhouse to become memorable because of your child’s King Kong impression and the ensuing trip to the ER.

Dollhouses that are overly intricate, ornate or small similarly don’t work for toddlers. Those gorgeous Victorian ones are great, but a toddler will destroy it before the sun sets on Christmas day. Those with fine detail and small furnishings also pose a choking hazard. What a toddler needs is a dollhouse that isn’t too big, and isn’t too small. There are several varieties on the market that your daughter will be thrilled to call her own.

Many dollhouses come with just that: the house. Other brands come with a load of extras including play figures, furniture and clothing for the dolls. Price and your existing collection of accessories is a great way to decide what you need for your daughter’s Christmas wishes to come true. If you have many dolls already, then a house by itself is probably the way to go. For those just beginning their doll collections, a house that comes with extras will have a higher price tag up front, but when you factor in the cost of buying extra pieces separately, it might be the better deal.

Our little mommy has grown so much we hardly recognize the 2 year old who squealed with delight as she tucked a baby named Bah-Bah-Toe into her new house for the first time. Yet she still loves that doll, and her dollhouse where her doll baby lives.

What joy she has gotten from those toys and what a great investment they have been in the growing of her imagination.

Edie Mindell is the writer for SimplyUniqueBabyGifts.com. If Santa is looking for perfect Christmas gifts for toddlers, there is a great selection awaiting delivery just in time for Christmas. If Radio Flyer Toys is on the list, visit their online catalog and enjoy free shipping (lower 48 states).

Creating a child custody schedule can be difficult. It is hard to figure out the balance of time that the children will spend with each parent. And, it is time consuming to count all of the days and to apply a schedule to an entire year.

The child custody schedule is also one of the most important things in a custody agreement. This is the document that outlines the time the child has with each parent. It’s important that the parents work through the challenges of creating the custody schedule so they will be happy with the end result.

There are many different types of custody schedules. One frequent arrangement that parents decide on is a joint custody schedule. This type of schedule gives the mother and father similar amounts of time with the children.

A fifty-fifty custody split is another common type of custody schedule and it is similar to a joint custody schedule. Like the name implies, this schedule means that each parent gets half of the time with the child. An example of a simple fifty-fifty split is parents alternating custody every week or every two weeks.

Sometimes the parents want to have equal time but the child needs to live primarily at one residence during the week because of school. There are ways to accommodate this. One way is to give one parent custody during the weekdays of the school year. The other parent gets time on the weekends and then gets more time during summer, winter, and spring break. This can even out the time.

The custody schedule includes the basic rotation of custody. Some samples of this are one parent having primary custody with the other parent having custody every other weekend, one parent having primary custody and the other parent getting several overnights in the month, and one parent having primary custody with the other parent getting every weekend and other visits or overnights.

Holidays are an important part of the custody schedule. Both parents should get to spend an equal number of holidays with the children. Go through a list of the holidays and determine how long the holiday time should last. Then divide the holidays between the parents.

Although the task of making a custody schedule can be complicated and difficult, it is worth the time and effort you put in. Once the schedule is set up you won’t have to worry about it any more. Then you can spend your time having fun with the children.