Today, everything seems to be niche’ed.  In an ever increasing global economy, focusing is, oddly enough, becoming smaller and smaller.  “Niche Marketing” has been touted as the way to go over the past decade. 

With that in mind, is it any wonder that children’s toys are following suit?  Computer powered gizmos of all sizes tell our children when to play, how to play, what to think, and what to imagine.  It’s no surprise that children of today beg and beg and beg for more toys!  Many of today’s toys were designed to do one thing, and one thing only.  All of the work has been done for them.  After playing with the prized possession 2 or 3 times, the novelty of the talking gadget has worn off and their imaginations are yearning for something deeper.

Why not choose to be different?  Give your child toys that requires thought, imagination, and creativity.  These top 25 toys can be used in a variety of different ways, and lend themselves to hours and hours of fun.

1. Legos of All Sizes
2. Lincoln Logs
3. ABC Blocks
4. K’Nex
5. Jump Rope
6. Crayons
7. Blank Paper
8. Finger Paint
9. Chalk
10. Slip & Slide
11. Abascus
12. Jacks (Jackstones)
13. Deck of Cards
14. Board Games
15. Marbles
16. Yo-yo
17. Large Cardboard Box
18. Empty Food Containers
19. Sock Dolls
20. Picture Books
21. Old Clothes from Adult’s Closet
22. Pots & Pans
23. Measuring Spoons & Cups
24. Tape Player & Blank Cassette
25. Sand Table

Back in the 1998, it was quite acceptable to throw up a few HTML pages, set up a hit counter, and then sit for months with the same unchanging content.  People would visit, people would read, more people would visit, more people would read…..the same content, over and over.  In fact, I had quite a few websites set up that way.  SEO (Search engine optimization) was no where near my vocabulary, Google was not a household name, and Wordpress hadn’t even been invented. 

As the years progressed, people started looking for more and more ways to make their site “Sticky”.  Maps, games, forums, polls, syndicated content from major news outlets, (annoying) tickers, and even amatuer chatrooms were thrown up by well meaning site designers in hopes of making people want to visit their sites again and again.  But what it all boiled down to was simple…original content.

Flashforward to 2008!   Blogging has almost taken over the world, and there is a whole new meaning to “Content is King”.  If you don’t blog regularly, chances are, your visitors will never return.  Blogs (short for “web-log”) allow even the most novice of internet users to post their thoughts, ideas, recipes, life happenings, and advice online.  Search engines allows people of like minded interests to find those sites (blogs) and gleam from them whatever it is they need to learn at the moment. 

Because of the rapid growth of blogs, and the authors who write content that make people want to come back for more, a way was needed for people to keep up with their favorite blogs without having to actually return to the individual websites day after day.

Enter the RSS Feed!

IF you’re not using an RSS feed to read from your favorite blogs, then you’re missing out.  And according to a recent survey I saw floating around, only 5% of blog readers even use the RSS feed feature! 

A feed features the actual content of a site in an easy to read format.  It strips away all of the ads, unecessary graphics, and even removes the need to visit individual sites.  This comes in extremely handy when you find yourself falling in love with 10…20…200 different blogs.

There are many different reaways to read a feed out there, such as google, bloglines, yahoo, and aol, but I’m going to focus on the one I have found to be the easiest for me - Internet Explorer.

I know many people out there take issue with IE, but I have used it since 1993 and it really doesn’t bother me.  I personally use IE 7.0 so I’m not sure if lower versions work in this same manner, so if you have a lower version, just compare my tutorial with it!

First of all, when you go to a site you’d like to read often, you should check to to see if it has a FEED.   The common way to tell if someone has a feed available is by looking for a little orange and white square symbol.  Some also have links that say “subscribe here”.    At little Jack’s Corner, I offer many main ways to find our feed - a big square in the upper right hand corner, a little square beside the “Jack TV” menu, and a “Subscribe” link on every individual post.  Since I use a feed service, www.FeedBurner.com, readers to this site can also subscribe by email to receive daily or weekly updates in their inbox.

There is no obligation, fee, or hassle in subscribing to any site.  And it removes the need for visiting each site and ensures that you never miss any content!

If you don’t want to bother finding the site’s subscribe button (or if the web author forgot to add one!) Internet Explorer offers an easy way to see if the site you are viewing offers a Feed.  Just look on your tool bar, and you’ll see the familiar little orange / white square.  When it is grey, it means there are no feeds available for that site.  When it is lit up “orange and white”, there is a feed available.  You can click that tool button to subscribe!

If the site you are viewing uses FeedBurner to manage their subscriptions,  you’ll be taken to a page that looks like this….

This page allows you to subscribe to a feed in many different ways.  If you want to use Internet Explorer to manage feeds, you will need to click on “View Feed XML”.

When you do, you’ll be taken to a page that looks like this…

What you see on this page is the most current articles published on that particular blog - in our case it’s the post of “Baby Jack Weighs In”, published about an hour ago.

If you plan on using Internet explorer for feed reading, you will click the link that says “Subscribe to this Feed” in the yellow box at the top of the page!

Once you do that, your feed will then be stored in the “feed” section of your internest explorer favorites menu. 

Here is what mine looks like….

When a blog is updated, the title of the blog turns a bold black.  You then know that you should click on it to read the latest content available!   Most blog feeds offer full content in the reader, but some blogs (such as the ever cute “Mommie Daze” blog, only offers a teaser, letting you only read the first paragraph before needing to go to the actual site to finish. 

Using this method, I can easily catch up with all of my favorite blogs in less than 10 minutes, skimming over posts that aren’t quite that interesting, and really getting into those that are!

Why not try it out?  Go ahead and subscribe to Little Jack’s Corner and keep up with Jack as he grows up.  We love making new bloggy friends.

You know some of those little “baby websites” you can create online?  I like how they have the neat feature of keeping track of a baby’s growth.  I thought I might create one here too. :) 

I’ll be keeping it updated as the year passes…

There is a growing trend in America that is making babies everywhere happy, happy, happy. 

What is Baby Wearing

“But what does that mean?” you might ask.  Baby wearing is the ancient art of keeping your child (infant or toddler) close to your body as you go about your daily tasks.  Although the stereotypical pappoose baby on a native American’s back comes to mind, modern baby wearing is that…and then some.  Babies are attatched to their parents by a sling or carrier of some sort.  Baby wearing can be as simple as another form of transport for your child, or as indepth as part of your practice of attatchment parenting.  Research has shown that babies who are carried and remain close to their parents cry far less and are much happier than their non-attatched counterparts. 

Benefits of Baby Wearing:

• Easy parent / child bonding
• Familiar parental movements help calm the child
• Gives your child an “adult” height view of the world
• Helps develop baby’s  inner ear balance
• Allows for easy breastfeeding with some
• Baby’s human social development begins earlier
• Decreased risk of “flat heat syndrome”
• Frees your hands to go about daily tasks
• Allows for easy interaction and effortless conversation with your baby
• Baby stays calm and content
• Makes trips to restaurants easier
• Great for parental mental and bodily health
• Eliminates the need to remove the carseat carrier
• They’re fashionable, modern, and statement-makers

Baby wearing is especially important for infants who are failing to thrive.  Close, personal contact is needed to ensure proper brain development.  Studies have been done that shows how infants in 3rd world countries fail to thrive if not given enough human contact - even if they have all of their other needs met!

The versatility of modern “baby slings” allows for maximum comfort, with your child being positioned either on your chest, back, or hip. 

I personally do not think I could have made it through the past few months if I hadn’t begun “wearing” little Jack.  Trips to the library, eating out, and even leisurly walks around the neighborhood all became much more “doable” with him strapped to my chest. 

The particular style of carrier I use is a blue “Infantino” brand one that I picked up at a local Goodwill store.  After (finally finding! and) reading the instructions online, I was able to safely secure Jack-Evan in it both ways - facing me, and also facing outward (as seen in the photo below).  When he is in the carrier facing my chest, he never fails to fall fast asleep. 

Although my little blue carrier serves it’s purpose, the ergonomics of it’s design sort of tires my back out.  I would much more prefer a traditional sling that allows for a variety of placement ways (such as hip and back in addition to chest).  If I had money to spend, I would absolutely love to purchase this particular sling that I have recently been drooling over on Etsy….

She offers a variety of wonderful patterns, reinforced stitching, versitility (hip and back placement!) in her sling creations!  I probably wouldn’t put Jack-Evan down for the next 3 years if I had one of these slings.

Here are some more examples of baby wearing I found on Flickr….

For more wonderful information about Baby Wearing, as well as it’s history, visit this site!

Photo by Ricky Irvine

To those of you who know me, it’s no surprise that I love animals.  Dogs, parrots, and horses top the list as my ultimate favorites.  But I also have a soft spot for all other creatures in God’s beautiful world as well.  There’s just something magical about looking into the eyes of a blinking, breathing, concious animal and knowing that somewhere deep inside of them, a living creature is staring back at me. 

With that in mind, it’s no wonder that I’ve always had a hard time killing rodents in inhumane ways.  Yes, I know they carry diseases.  Yes, I know they’re pests.  Yes, I know they must not be allowed to invade a house (as they can take over quite quickly!).  Yes, I stand on chairs and scream when one runs past.  But, regardless of how filthy scientists tell us they are, it still hurts my heart to hear a little mouse squeaking when a trap hasn’t fully killed him.  It makes me sick to think of them being poisoned just because they mistakenly thought they had found a pile of nourishing food to eat.  I can’t stand the idea of any of God’s creatures suffering in pain.  I’ve been known to cry more than once over having to get rid of rodents in less than perfect ways over the years. 

I remember one winter, years and years ago when I still lived at home with mom and dad, my parent’s house was suddenly invaded by some quite large furry friends who had chewed their way in under our hot water heater beside the sink.  I suppose they thought it made a nice warm home?  They set up camp, and the family of rats thought they had struck it rich.  Food, water, heat, shelter….what more could they ask for?

Well, thanks to a very large trap, we managed to rid ourselves of what we thought were all of our unwanted house guests.

That is, until the morning I saw Him.

“Him” was a tiny little baby rat, and he was no more than an inch long.  “Him” had a pink furless body, and big, brown, helpless eyes.  “Him” was now an orphan.  We had killed his parents and now he was doomed to a cruel world.  “Him” hadn’t asked to be born into a human’s home.  It wasn’t “Him’s” fault that his thoughtless parents chose to set up residency in our kitchen.  Now Him’s only lot in life was to die a miserable, lonely death.

Being the tenderhearted-over-animals person that I was, I spent the next hour crying my eyes out over his fate.  Finally I convinced my mom to let me take care of this poor creature.  Being the wonderful person that she is, she took me to our local petstore to pick up some nursing supplies. 

I wish I could say this story turns out perfectly.  I wish I could say that little Him the Rat went on to lead a long and fulfilling life as a Mickey Mouse double.  But life does’t always make up for the injustices of this world.

For the next 10 hours I sat vigile over Him, coaxing his slowly dying lips to take just a little more nourishment from the teeny bottle nipple.  It’s hard for me to watch the life leave any creature.  God only gives each of us -man and animal- one  little life span in the course of history to enjoy his magnificent world, so the realization that yet another life has stopped always has a profound effect on me.

The next morning we buried the orphaned Him in his makeshift home - a shoebox lined with terrycloth - along with his little bottle. 

To this day, when we set traps, or lay poison, or open the door for the exterminator, we inevitably pause and think about little orphaned Him, and how we once opened our eyes and hearts to a living being outside our normal comfort zone.

 Does the heat of this summer have you dreaming of being in a swimming pool, relaxing on that cool floaty chair, with a glass of sweaty iced tea in the cup holding?  It sure does me.  If there was such as thing as reincarnation, I’d swear I was a fish.  I love the water!  Diving off of a long, white bouncy board is my ideal of wonderful summer fun….pike dives, back dives, cannonballs, front flips…you name it, I’d love to do it.  Water just gives me a wonderful feeling of freedom that cannot be found anywhere else.

I have been swimming since I was a teeny little girl.  My mom, who can not swim at all, put me in swimming lessons in the hopes of me learning what she never did.  And it worked!  Now, I hope to pass down my love of swimming to Jack-Evan.  Before he even turned two months old, he had already been swimming - and seemed to enjoy every second of it.

Whether you have a large in-ground or above ground pool, or simply a small inflatable swimming pool, splashing around in the cooling water is definately a relief on those hot summer days. But there are some precautions you should take to ensure that the time you and your family spend in and around the swimming pool are safe as well as fun.  This is especially important if you have children under the age of 5 who aren’t quite that capable of understanding the dangers inherant around water.
Do you have a swimming pool in your backyard? Even if you don’t, you need to know about swimming pool safety, especially if you have kids. There are so many ways that something bad can happen in and around a pool if you don’t know pool safety.  You should make it a point to learn all you can about being safe around a pool to make sure nothing happens to anyone in your home.

Here are some swimming pool safety tips everyone should follow:

1.  Use the Adult / Child Buddy system.  Make sure your children know that they are to never go near water without an adult present.  And make sure all adults in your home know to never leave kids around pools unsupervised.  If you do run into trouble, knowing CPR will go far in helping save someone’s life. Learnin CPR is as easy as contacting your local community college or Redcross chapter and signing up for a CPR course.

2.  No Fence, No Pool.  When you have an underground pool you should have a fence around it with a gate that will lock. This will help keep kids out if an adult can’t be there to supervise.  Many cities around the country will not even allow inground pools without a fence.  Also, homeowners insurance may not be attainable if your pool doesn’t have a fence. 

3.   Equipt your pool with an alarm.  It is always a good idea, even when you have a fence, to add an alarm as well. This will tell you when someone has gone through the gate and alert you to a possibly dangerous situation.  That way, if you have kids and the alarm sounds, you can be there in a hurry to stop anything from happening.

4.  No Alcohol Allowed.  This is one of the swimming pool safety rules that a lot of adults don’t think about, especially if there are no kids around.  Alcohol can severely alter a person’s perception.  This is not only dangerous for the person who has consumed the alcohol, but also for kids under their supervision!  Just remember that alcohol and swimming don’t mix, and you’ll stay safe.

5. Remove ladders on above-ground pools.  When you have an above ground swimming pool you want to remove the steps or ladder when the pool is not in use.  All kids are very curious and may climb stairs or a ladder when they see one.  Why? Climbing is fun!   The danger lies when the child crosses the top of the ladder - and falls into a pool they cannot touch the bottom of.  Remember to remove the way into the pool each time after you use your pool.

These are all very simple - yet very important - swimming pool safety tips.  Everyone should take time to learn as much as you can about pool safety. This is the only way to make sure you know how to keep kids and adults safe when they are around your pool. 

Always remember though, no matter how many safety precautions you put out there, nothing takes the place of adult supervision.  If you have crawling babies or toddlers, you must be on your guard at all times!  Curious toddlers, especially, have been known to escape from the house, only to be found a while later face down in the parent’s backyard pool.  Such tradgedies are preventable.  Always be on your guard!  Stay safe, and stay cool.

Everywhere people are crying because of pain at the pump.  Vacations to other states are being cancelled.  Afternoon “Sunday Drives” are a thing of the past.  Even every day errands are becoming unecessary as people desparately attempt to save money on what has now become liquid gold.

Usually every summer, Kevin and I make 3-4 day trips to Folly Beach in Charleston, SC.  It’s about 110 miles from here.  Even though most of it’s highway miles, we still use up nearly a half a tank of gas one way.  With the price of gas at $4.00, a round trip means nearly $50 in gas expenditure - and that’s just to get there!  As a one-income family with a new baby, we really can’t afford the luxury of hightailing it to the beach on a whim any more. 

Then there’s the wedding of Kevin’s cousin that we unfortunately had to miss 2 weeks ago due to the fact that the current cost of gas to drive to upstate New York (where Kevin’s family lives) would have been far too enormous. 

We’re penny pinching on gas so tightly right now that even the thought of driving across town gives us the heebiejeebies!

Have you cancelled your vacation this year due to high gas prices? 

There’s no need for sadness!  “Staycations” can be just as fun as their traveling counterpart.  Why spend hours driving to the beach when there are community swimming pools around the corner? Why plan a remote getaway when you can relax in the beauty and serenity near you? You don’t need to travel to the city for excitement when you can create your own at home.

Gasoline prices are edging toward five dollars a gallon and the hassle and expense of air travel is also increasing.  Families, overburdened with the high costs of caring for growing children and aging parents are saving money by vacationing at home this year. But how to make it into a real vacation, and not just a list of to-do’s and ta-da’s? When you follow these tips, you’ll “return” from your staycation refreshed, recharged and reconnected to your family:

1. Make planning top priority. Set aside time to have a family meeting and encourage everyone to talk about what activities they want to include. This preparation will give your family a better understanding and appreciation of each other.  This will also reduce the tension and arguments that might ensue later about what you were going to do together.

2. When your staycation begins, take a complete break from all work. Don’t check your emails (personal or business).  Don’t call work for updates about projects.  Let extended family members know you are “away”.  This is your free time so resist home-related chores as well. Leave the beds unmade or arrange for someone to come in and clean so that you won’t be temped to work around the house.  Turn off the phones.  Do set aside time for any home activities you enjoy for relaxation - gardening or scrap booking, for example.

3. Act as you would on a vacation away from home. Go to bed and get up when you want - don’t set your alarm clock. Let the kids stay up past their bedtime if you are doing something out of the ordinary. Enjoy a special breakfast out one day.  Relax in the sun and read a page-turner or amusing beach book. Exercise in ways that aren’t easy while you are working - a morning tennis or golf game, a midday horseback ride through the countryside, a leisurely hike at sunset. Splurge on a night out at a fancy restaurant or for tickets to an entertaining event.

4. Consider this time as a week of weekends. Have fun with your family - play board games together, make popcorn and rent classic movies, go to the park for a pick-up basketball game, take in a concert under the stars, get bleacher tickets for a baseball game, go for family bike rides or long walks in the neighborhood, splash each other in the community pool. Have a barbeque and let each family member cook or prepare a different part of the menu. Plan your own Olympics competition with events appropriate for your children’s ages.  Put on a play.  Stage a family drama or fashion show.  Put up an old slip and slide and act crazy out in the backyard!

5. Explore your immediate surroundings and discover something new.  Envision your city as a tourist would.  Pick up local travel magazines.  Visit your city’s chamber of commerce for literature and planning ideas.  Seek out websites for your town that showcase hidden treasures.  Take a city bus tour and see the sights that you’ve never noticed before. Expand your horizons and those of your family members. Visit a museum near you - often they offer entrance fee free days or discounts for local patrons. Participate together in a creative activity like ceramic painting or a mini-course in photography at the community center. Visit the campus of a local college and wander through the library. You may uncover an interest you never realized you had.

6. Remember to include the universal vacation ritual - take lots of photos and videos to share with your friends. Looking at the pictures of your family’s smiling faces will enhance your memories of the special times you spent together. Continue the feelings of togetherness by creating an album commemorating your first family staycation.

The decision to spend your vacation at home together this summer can deepen the bonds and transform your family.   Without the tension that travel creates or the stress of high gas costs in this uncertain economy, you will find that the time socializing with family this summer is more relaxing than ever.

Just like other new moms, I sometimes have those rough, rough days where it seems like I can do no right.  Jack’s crying seems to go on for hours, and frustration gets overwhelming.  On days like these, it takes all of my will power not to go screaming through the streets naked. (Ok, well, exaggeration for emphasis…I really don’t like streaking). 

Although in reality, my logic tells me that Jack rarely cries in the course of a 24 hour day, when you’re all alone, just 33 minutes of crying has it’s way of making one begin to feel like the worst mom in the world.

As I sit watching my crying son, after doing all of the “normal” stop-crying routines, I begin to wonder what I’ve done wrong.  In my deepest heart, all I want is for my son to be happy.  And as a mom who dotes on her baby, his tears have a way of piercing my heart. His bottom lip, turned upside down amidst a very poignant sounding “Waaaahhhnn…” :(  would soften even the hardest of hearts.

“What’s wrong?  What have I done?  What more can I do? What can I do to make him happy??” I question myself.   I don’t get angry, I get sad.  Deeply sad.   I wish he could talk to me.  I wish I could understand him better.  I wish I could comfort him more.

Today was such a day.  We were up by 9 am this morning, and by 2 pm I was beginning to feel a bit frazzled.  I’m so thankful that my parents live nearby!  I gave them a call, on the verge of tears, asking them to come on over for a visit to help me out a little bit.  I’m not sure how single moms do it.  Truly.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not superwoman.  It really does take a villiage to raise a child!

My mom and dad are such wise creatures.  As they were over, dad was holding Jack-Evan, and I was telling them how I felt.  How I was feeling like a bad mom.  How I was feeling like there must be something I’m doing wrong. 

“How can I make him happy?”  I asked dad.

Dad just looks at me and says…

“Lisa, YOU can’t make him happy.  You never will.”

They proceed to give me wonderful insight on the fact that no human can make another human happy.  Oh we can try.  We can provide material comforts, shelter, food, love, games, and activities.  But at the end of the day, personal happiness relies only on two things - ourselves and God. 

The happiness each of us feel comes from within us.  Babies are just learning to manage newfound bodies, explore the world, and create relationships.  The fight for survival dictates fears, needs, and wants.  And lack of verbal communication skills as infants creates the need to communicate in the only way they know how  - cry, cry, and cry some more.  Just as adults spend their days communicating mainly with talking, babies spend their days communicating with crying.  As time passes, babies learn better ways of communicating and crying is slowly replaced with more higher cognitive communication.

As parents, as long as our focus is on staying tuned to our children, and trying our best to discern their needs -and provide for their needs- we can ensure they are well taken care of….just as Kevin and I do for Little Jack.  But nothing we do will ever allow us to fully saturate our child’s every need.  Thus our inner worth as parents can not be tied to the outward signs of happiness in our children.

As Dad said… You can’t make him happy.

Little Jack’s Corner is currently running a giveaway for a “MommiVerse Scripture Memory Card” Set (go here to check it out if you haven’t yet!).  But that’s not all that’s going on in the bloggy world! 

The Summer Bloggy Giveaways carnival is going on at www.BloggyGiveaways.com. It just started this morning at 9 am EST, and there are already more than 200 participants offering some great free goodies for their blog readers. :)  (Head on over and check some of them out!)

One great giveaway I’ve found comes from one of our own readers! 

Rebekah, over at Sunnybrook Farm Designs is offering a fabulous handmade totebag in celebration of her 200th blog post!  She already has a bunch of supercute stuff in her etsy store, and this totebag is just as cute.  It would make a terrific craft bag or book tote! :)  Check it out and enter for a chance to win it.

What’s not to love about free stuff?! Woot Woot!

UPDATE!  We have a winner!  This time, I used Random.org to generate a winner.  You can see who won by visiting our winning post at http://littlejackscorner.mrscoles.com/and-the-bloggy-winner-is/. 

——————————-

ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED!
WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED IN THE MORNING (FRIDAY). GOOD LUCK, AND THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED AND GAVE SUCH NICE COMMENTS! ~ LISA

Welcome to the Summer edition of Little Jack’s Corner Bloggy Giveaway!  Our last bloggy giveaway, back in January, was a fun hit (with over 90 something entries) so we’ve decided to do it again. :) 

This time, we’re giving away a hand-made scripture memory set, known as “MommiVerse“.  Each MommiVerse set contains 100 memory cards, focusing on certain themes and verses in the King James Version of the Holy Bible.  These colorful, easy to read, portable cards make memorization fast, fun, and simple.

 Up until now, I’ve only had one memory set - “Biblical Knowledge” - in my online store at www.MommiVerse.com, but this week we’re debuting our newest memory set, “The Tongue”. 

This new set features 100 verses from the old and new testament that have to do with the tongue, the power of speech, and what God has to say about our words!

Our contest winner will receive one MommiVerse memory set of their choice free.  All sets are hand-made, and printed in our home office.  Even the storage box is hand-made. 

CONTEST RULES:

Contest runs Monday Morning, July 28 through Thursday Night, July 31 at 10 pm EST

• Visit www.MommiVerse.com, and view the 2 product sets available
  (Biblical Knowledge and The Tongue)
• Return to this post, and leave one comment stating which set you want if you win
• You must include a reachable email address when you comment!
• Only US entries please! (No international addresses)
• Comment must be posted by 10 pm EST. Thursday, July 31
• Prize is completely free!  One MommiVerse Set of choice & free shipping!

Please be aware that I moderate all comments before they go live, so it may take a bit before your entry appears.  The entry deadline is 10 pm EST on Thursday (7/31/08) at which time I will close off the comment form.  Using all of the entries (comments) listed, my husband and I will draw a random entry name from the box and that person will be our winner!  The drawing will be photographed, and the Winner Announcement will be posted Friday morning!  The winner will be asked to privately send me their real contact information (address) and which set they want.

Head on over to www.MommiVerse.com
to view current products and set info!