Improve eating habits:
Sit down together and eat as a family. Turn off thew TV and talk about what everyone did during the day. Make meal time enjoyable.
Serve small portions and chew slowly. A good conversation will help with this…
Instead of red meat, serve more chicken, fish, and beans.
Broil or grill foods instead of frying them
Ensure five servings of fruit and or vegetables.
Switch to whole grain breads and cereals for breakfast.
Avoid sugary items for breakfast, maybe save them for the weekend.
Most of all talk to your children about foods and drinks and or advertisements they may see which may impact their decisions making.
Ensure they are aware that TV commercials are just that, a way to make you buy those foods or drinks.

Well, I didn’t think I was ever going to get back to my blog.  We have had a run of viral upper respiratory junk run through our family that has kept me busy tending to my children, my husband, and myself.  I hate giving medicine to my kids or taking medicine for that matter, but sometimes you just have to.  After a couple of weeks of enduring the coughing and the hacking and the nasty, never ending supply of phlegm and snot, we kicked the virus to the curb.

Then, much to my excitement, I get a notification from Adgitize that pop-ups are not allowed.  Huh?  What?  Pop-ups?  I don’t have any pop-ups!?!  So, I type in the URL for my blog ready to prove what I already know and, yes, you guessed it, there is a stinking pop-up.  Apparently, some random, worthless individual felt they had nothing else better to do than to screw with my blog.  While I am flattered that so much time and attention has been given to inserting some inconspicuous code into my blog, I would prefer that this individual use his or her obvious grandiose intelligence for something a little more important such as finding a cure for cancer, or developing a new green technology, or even determining if there is life on other planets.

Instead, I get the lazy ass, introvert who thinks it is a form of entertainment to sneak into someone’s code and violate their blog.  Look dude, if you are seriously that bored, come to my house.  With 4 kids, there is never a dull moment and it can actually be very entertaining around here.  Or, if you prefer, sit at your little weenie computer or laptop and keep jerking people’s chains with your code hacking knowledge.

I’ve actually appreciated having the opportunity now to learn more about the worthless hacking community out there and how vulnerable wordpress blogs can be.  I thought I would share some sites with good information about protecting your wordpress blog from hacking.  Here is a site that offers a plugin that will scan your blog for possible unwanted code, you can access it here. BlogSecurity is a blog that provides information about maintaining WordPresss Security. Holy Shmoly has a great blog post entitled “Did your WordPress Blog Get Hacked?” and it provides a lot of great tips and resources.

I’m still working on improving my blog and fixing code, so please bear with me as my site will likely undergo many changes while I work to improve the security. If there is one thing I have learned through all of this, it doesn’t matter how good your blog is, if it is not secure, then it can be accessed by unwanted lurkers and all your hard work will be wasted when your wordpress blog has been hacked.

I just posted about the Baby Signs Potty Training Program yesterday and was surprised to see a story about them on Good Morning America. The University of Chicago has released new research showing that using signs and gestures with babies helps boost language development. Today, Diane Sawyer talked about this new research and mentioned the Baby Signs Program on Good Morning America! Click here to see the report!

Baby Signs®, the ORIGINAL sign language program for hearing babies, has been bringing powerful, research-proven benefits to babies and their families around the world for over 25 years. The Baby Signs® Program is the world’s leading program for hearing infants and toddlers because it is the only program that:

• was developed by child development experts specifically for hearing babies.

• has been scientifically tested and proven to provide positive benefits for babies and their families.

• is based on American Sign Language with added flexibility to meet the needs of all families.

• offers a full range of signing classes and products for babies, parents and child development centers.

The Baby Signs® Program was created by Dr. Linda Acredolo and Dr. Susan Goodwyn, child development experts and authors of the best-selling parenting books: Baby Signs, Baby Minds and Baby Hearts.

With the Original Baby Signs Program, Babies & Toddlers can communicate what they see, feel and even need! Learn More!

POTTY TRAIN YOUR BABY BEFORE 2!

Potty training is a challenge that all parents face. In their search for advice on how to potty train their children and live to tell the tale, more and more parents are turning to the internet for advice. Unfortunately, however, typing “How to Potty Train” into a search engine these days, is likely to yield advice that makes potty training more of a challenge for parents rather than less of a challenge. That’s because so many sources continue to perpetuate five myths about potty training, myths that work to the advantage of the diaper industry (by keeping children in diapers longer) but to the disadvantage of both children and their parents.

Here, in descending order, are the top five myths about potty training:

Myth #5: You cannot potty train your baby before 2 because children under 2 aren’t “physically ready” for potty training.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), to actively participate in potty training, children must be physically able to:
• Sense when they need to eliminate
• Delay elimination long enough to get to the potty
• Sit independently on a potty chair
At what age do these skills typically appear? The fact that before the invention of the disposable diaper in the 1960s, children in the United States were routinely potty trained by 18 months is clear evidence that these abilities are available at least by early in the second year. Moreover, even today, parents in over 50 other countries seem to have no trouble figuring out how to potty train their children by 18 months. American children simply can’t be that biologically immature in comparison to children from other countries.

Myth #4: You cannot potty train your baby before 2 because children under 2 aren’t “cognitively ready” for potty training.
According to the AAP, to actively participate in potty training, children must understand what it is they are supposed to do and be able to communicate about it—that is, be able to:
• Associate the need to eliminate with using the potty
• Understand simple instructions
• Signal an adult when they need to go
Again, the fact that children in the past were routinely trained by 18 months indicates that the first two of these abilities are both available quite early and certainly by 18 months. As for signaling an adult, learning simple potty-time signs enables children to do just that even before they can talk. And we know from our two decades of research on signing that learning signs is not only easy, but fun, for children as young as 9 to 12 months.

Myth #3: You cannot potty train your baby before 2 because children under 2 aren’t “emotionally ready” for potty training.
Emotional readiness for potty training means a willingness to cooperate. According to the AAP, the likelihood of such cooperation increases after the first birthday with the emergence of the following:
• A desire for independence and self-mastery
• An interest in imitating others
• A desire for approval
Anything, then, that increases the willingness of toddlers to embrace potty training automatically creates the emotional readiness that the AAP says is essential. So, when parents type “How to Potty Train” into their favorite search engine, what they need to be looking for are products that teach about potty use in such an entertaining way that children become inspired to join the “fun.”

Myth #2: Children over 2 are easier to potty train than children under 2.
This is one of the most misleading assumptions about potty training because the truth is just the opposite: Children over 2 are actually harder to potty train than children under 2! Here are the two main reasons:

• The Terrible Twos: Children under 2 are less likely to have entered the dreaded “Terrible Twos” when oppositional behavior drastically increases and the word “No!” is so vehemently applied to anything a parent wants a child to do—including using the potty. That’s why parents trying to train 2 ½- , 3-, and 4-year-old children so frequently end up in a battle of wills that they can’t win. No parent can make a child use the potty.

• A deeply ingrained habit: The older the child, the longer he or she has enjoyed the convenience of eliminating into a diaper and the more deeply ingrained the habit has been allowed to become. And as we all know, the more deeply ingrained the habit, the harder it is to break—especially if children don’t see any advantage to doing so. Why should they disrupt their activities to do something they’ve spent their whole lives doing totally at their own convenience!

And the #1 Myth about Potty Training: To Potty Train Your Baby Before 2 CAN’T be fun and easy!
Potty training doesn’t have to be a battle ground! If you start potty training between your child’s first and second birthday, make potty time a regular part of your daily routine and provide your child with motivational resources, potty training can be easy for you and fun for your baby.

To gain a better understanding of how to potty train your baby before 2, go to www.pottytrainwithbabysigns.com.
_______________________________
Author Information
Child development experts Dr. Linda Acredolo and Dr. Susan Goodwyn are the authors of the books Baby Signs, Baby Minds and Baby Hearts and creators of the Baby Signs Potty Training Program. The authors are regularly cited in national parenting magazines and have appeared on Oprah, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The Doctors, Dateline NBC and many others. For program information and links to their research, please visit BabySigns.com and www.pottytrainwithbabysigns.com.

Parents are faced with the task of disciplining their children when behavior gets out of control. That’s the not so fun part of being a parent. However, my favorite part of being a parent is pointing out to my children each and every day all the good things they have done or said as well as celebrate their “fantasticness.” There is nothing better than seeing the faces of my children light up when I praise them for something special. Be sure to take the time to praise your child and remind him or her how special, spectacular, and amazing they are. Praise does not have to come in the form of a novel, just a simple one word statement can be enough to raise a child’s self-esteem and help him to realize that someone is acknowledging his great behavior, accomplishment, or attitude.

Here are 50 ways you can praise your child:

You are so special! Great work! Way to go! Keep up the great work! You are such a hard worker! You are a spectacular brother/sister! I love being your mom/dad! You make me/us so proud! You are so smart! What a great idea! You are so kind! You are so talented! What a big heart you have! What a great helper! You are so responsible! I can always count on you! You are always a winner to me! Super Star! You Rock! You gave it your best! Outstanding! You are my superhero! You are such a great friend! You are an excellent student! Thanks for being Mommy’s/Daddy’s little helper! Thank you for being so special! I’m proud to be your mom/dad! You brighten my day! You make me smile! You’re going places! Great attitude! You are so much fun! You are such a wonderful gift to me! You are my everything! I like the choices you made! Super! With that winning attitude, you can do anything! What a beautiful picture, I love the colors! You are so brave! That is so nice of you to help your mom/dad/brother/sister/friend! I always enjoy spending time with you! I believe in you! Fantastic work! You are such a great leader! You are a fabulous role model to others! Way to hang in there and not give up! Thank you for showing your me respect! Thank you for being such a wonderful son/daughter/child! I love you!

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