BabyLegs for Earth Day

BabyLegs is donating 10% of their sales from April 1st- 22nd to The Nature Conservancy in support of the Costa Rican rain forest.

BabyLegs is a company dedicated to local and global aid, and recognizes Earth Day as an opportunity to give back to Mother Nature. We pride ourselves in our organic line as we strive to become a sustainable business. Visit www.babylegs.net for more information.

New Approach to Autism Research

The University of Washington is looking for 200 local families to participate in a new study. The idea behind the research is to look at babies and treat babies before the symptoms even show up. 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with Autism- usually around the age of two years. If an older sibling has Autism- the likelihood of being diagnosed jumps to 1 out of 20 children.

This study is "one of the nation's first studies on preventing autism in infants and will spend the next four years exploring the benefit of intensive and early therapy on the mysterious disorder" according to the SeattlePi.com. UW clinicians have seen more successful the earlier they have treated children and hope this study will help them understand why.

Parents interested in participating in the study can call the UW Autism Center at 800-994-9701 or check depts.washington.edu/uwautism.

Pumpkin Carving Time

Halloween is so close you can taste it! If you didn't carve your pumpkins yet, tonight or tomorrow night is a good time to do them. They will still be fresh on Wednesday and it won't leave much time for the squirrels to get to them.

When picking out your pumpkins:

Examine the rind. It should be firm, uniform in color, and free of cuts, bruises, and blemishes.

Make sure that the stem doesn’t look brown and dry. And don’t use the stem as a handle, since even a healthy one can break off. Pick up a pumpkin by its base instead.

Give the pumpkin a knock. A thumping sound means the pumpkin is solid, with no internal defects, rot, or soft spots.

For ideas on what to carve, check out these sites

www.extremepumpkins.com
www.yankeehalloween.com
www.spookmaster.com -has free patterns

Some of my favorites:

Today: Blog Action Day

Today, October 15th, is Blog Action Day. Blog Action Day was created for bloggers to unite on a single important issue and get information out there on it. For 2007, the topic is the environment. There are so many ways and so many resources out there that it is hard to decide what to write on, but I think the easiest, simplest thing for everyone to do is remember the three Rs and for parents, the N.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Narrate.

I bet you are doing more for the environment that you realize. You have just gotten used to the small changes you have been making over the years- but your little ones may not know why you do the things you do or even notice that you are doing them. So take the two seconds to tell your children what it is your are doing and why it is best for the environment. Just a few examples, I'm sure you'll get the picture...

"We are carpooling with the Smiths to soccer because it saves gas and reduces CO2"

"We turn off the water while we brush our teeth to keep from wasting it"

"We use dish towels instead of paper towels to reduce waste and save trees"

Happy Blog Action Day folks!

Meet Panwapa, The New Muppets

Sesame Workshop launched a world-wide video initiative yesterday called Panwapa. The aim of the new Muppet crew is to celebrate cultural diversity and "foster a foundation for global citizenship and community in children around the world".

Panwapa means "here on this earth" in Tshiluba - the national language in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Panwapa website has a Word of the Day and Place of the Day feature to highlight countries and cultures from around the world. It also has an interactive globe where kids can 'visit' kids from around the world.

Kids can make their own Panwapa profile of sort by making up their own 'flag'. They pick their favorite food, animal, sport, musical instrument, activity and craft. These icons are then displayed on their flag to hang outside their virtual house. They can collect a variety of cards- a card from each country they visit, a card for each interesting animal they encounter on their visit or by completing a treasure hunt. As you can see- there is lots to do on this in depth website. The site is available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin and Japanese.

The full Panwapa video program is being released through iTunes for free (gotta love the free educational stuff) and in January 2008 Panwapa vidoes will be available for free via PBS KIDS Sprout’s video-on-demand service.

Below is Whoopie Goldberg with Elmo and Azibo at a news conference to announce Panwapa in New York yesterday.

Free Seussical Theatre (NYC)

Theatre Works USA is putting on a free show for kids until August 17th for those in the NYC area. Seussical is 90 minutes long and designed for kids age 4 and up. Get there if you can!

Dr. Seuss's best-loved characters and stories hit the stage in this musical adventure by Broadway veterans Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, adapted from the Broadway version especially for young audiences.

Hot Diggity Dog, Only a Week Left of National Hot Dog Month

That's right. July is national Hot Dog month. The name Hot Dog is often credited to sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan, who called a hot dachshund sausage one at a baseball game in 1901.

So serve the kids some hot dogs and maybe even read a book about hot dogs together.

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! Is by the same author (Mo Williams) as "Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus", which is a favorite of mine. Mo Williams has actually won 6 Emmys for writing for Sesame Street. Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog has similar humor as the other Pigeon books.

For kids grades 2-4, there is a series of adventure books starring Hot Dog and Bob. A talking hot dog shows up in Bob's lunchbox. In the first book Hot Dog uses his weapons, ketchup, mustard and other condiments to fight off Evil Pizza who tries to take over the classroom.

If you kids enjoy the rhyming variety, try Mucumber McGee and the Half-Eaten Hot Dog. The excerpt says it all,
"Where the rain falls and the wind howls, little Mucumber's stomach growls.

But what can he do when there's nothing to chew, like apples or crackers or porridge or stew?

But wait—a hot dog!—albeit quite old . . . and wrinkled and lumpy and lonely and cold.

We all know it's true—food is better when new.

But if you were that hungry, what would you do?"

Laugh, eat and enjoy National Hot Dog Month!