Juno Baby: Early Music Education for Developing Minds

Like a lot of children, my son Brody is a music fanatic. He loves his music class, he turns everything into an instrument and the second he hears music on a commercial or show he immediately is glued to the TV and starts bopping up and down.

This is exactly what he did when we received a DVD from Juno Baby: Early Music Education for Developing Minds. If you haven’t heard about them yet, Juno Baby is this great innovative music and media company that has created wonderful DVD’s, CD’s, & books. Dr. Belinda Takahashi, the company’s founder, created this Emmy Award winning product line from original orchestral compositions.

Juno is the main character, and her and her friends are interactive. They speak directly to your child to get them clapping and playing along. Juno creates a world of discovery and imagination for your child to stimulate their higher thinking levels while just having fun. Juno Baby is recommended for children 12 months to five years, but I think even if you don’t plop your child in front of the TV; just the background noise can be beneficial for children younger then a year old.

Also, as if you needed even more incentive to try one of their products, for every Juno Baby DVD, CD, or book purchased by you, Juno Baby donates the same product to a child who otherwise cannot afford to purchase one. So as you are watching your child enjoy this fabulous DVD, you can think that you are also giving that joy to another child in need.

How amazing is that?!?

This is their Juno Baby One For All Program they recently launched that supports their belief to give the gift of music to young children everywhere.
Their goal is to give away one million DVD’s, CD’s, and books in 2010.

You can also continue to check their website www.junobaby.com to see how they are doing in achieving this goal.

**I will be posting info later this week on how you can enter to win several Baby Juno products!**

Dorel Asia & Stork Craft Crib Recall

635,000 Dorel Asia cribs recalled for risk to infants

About 635,000 cribs sold at major discounters nationwide have been recalled by Dorel Asia SRL for strangulation and suffocation hazards that killed one child and injured 10 others, the government said Tuesday.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said that the hardware holding up the side of the crib can fail, causing the drop side of the crib to detach, which could trap and suffocate a child.
The drop side is "the side of the crib that caregivers can move up and down to get a child in or out of the crib," said Kim Dulic, a spokeswoman for the CPSC.
"When the drop side detaches it creates a space in which an infant or toddler can become entrapped and suffocate or strangle," the organization said in the statement.
Infants are also at risk of entrapment and possible strangulation if a slat on the crib is damaged, which can occur when the crib is in use, in storage, during shipping and handling and while putting the crib together or taking it apart.
CPSC and Dorel Asia have received 31 reports of sides detaching from cribs, resulting in the death of a 6-month child who was trapped and strangled in a Dorel crib, and three children were injured.
In a separate statement issued late Tuesday, Dorel said the circumstances of the infant's death were "highly unusual." The parents were arrested for "child endangerment with death" after trying to hold their broken crib together with duct tape, the company said.
There have also been 36 reports of slats breaking, which resulted in the bruising and scratching of seven children, according to the CPSC. The slats problem affects both drop-side and stationary cribs.
The recalled Dorel Asia cribs were carried at K-Mart, Sears, and Wal-Mart stores nationwide from January 2005 to December 2009, and cost between $120 and $700 apiece.
Owners should immediately stop using the cribs. Repair kits will be provided in February and, depending on the crib model, the kits will include two to four new sides as well as hardware to immobilize the drop side of the crib.
Consumers with questions can contact Dorel Asia at (866) 762-2304 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or visit the company's Web site at www.dorel-asia.com.

Stork Craft Crib Recall

Stork Craft Manufacturing recently recalled 2.1 million Stork Craft cribs due to entrapment, suffocation and fall hazards. Faulty hardware on the recalled drop-side cribs may allow the drop-side to detach, potentially trapping children and causing serious or fatal injury.

Stork Craft is providing repair kits to convert the drop sides on the recalled cribs to fixed sides. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has warned parents not to use these cribs until installation of the repair is complete or to instead find alternative safe sleeping arrangements for their babies. The CPSC, Health Canada and Stork Craft have identified 110 drop-side detachments, including 15 entrapment incidents, four of which resulted in suffocation deaths. In addition, authorities have attributed 20 falls to the defective Stork Craft cribs, some of which resulted in injuries.

The recalled Stork Craft cribs contain plastic trigger and one-hand drop-side hardware. Drop-side cribs with metal rods are not subject to the recall. Stork Craft manufactured the defective cribs between October 1997 and December 2004 and sold them under both Stork Craft and Fisher Price labels.

Many retailers sold these cribs, including:
-BJ's Wholesale Club
-J.C. Penney
-Kmart
-Meijer
-Sears
-USA Baby
-Wal-Mart and Walmart.com
-Amazon.com
-Babiesrus.com
-Costco.com
-Target.com

If you believe that you have a crib subject to one of the above-referenced recalls, please contact the manufacturer, retailer, distributor or CPSC immediately to receive the proper information regarding repairing the defect. If you or your child has been injured by a faulty or defective crib, you should contact an experienced personal injury and product liability attorney to determine if you have a case.

Project 365

So today I am starting Project 365 today and I am really excited about it! I was reading about it yesterday on Kodak and how there is an iPhone app for it (search apps: Project 365) and it just sounded like a cool thing to do! (You do not need an iPhone to do the project, you can use any camera you have or your camera phone.

Basically all it is taking a photo a day for a year (I’m either going to use my big Nikon camera or most likely my iPhone camera). Okay, I know, it may not sound too exciting or anything… but I think it can be. I mean it is combining some of my favorite things, photography, writing (you can write a blog or a short description each day), and being creative.

We just watched Julie & Julia on Christmas and it was very interesting to me to see Julie Powell commit to something like going through “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and making a new dish of Julia Child’s every day for the year of 2002. Then there was also Morgan Spurlock who did Super Size Me in 2004, where he ate McDonalds every day for a month (thank goodness not a year, ugh! I couldn’t even do a week! Ew!). So since I don’t cook and can’t stomach McDonalds, when I saw the Project 365 yesterday, I decided I wanted to do it! It is right up my alley.

Also, since I have been home with Brody the last year and half, I have this daily craving to be creative. I mean, I have this blog which I love and my photography business, but this project just seems like another creative outlet for me to explore. Plus I love documenting life. Most people who know me, know I do this constantly with my writing, I am writing on my computer every day or writing everything down in my planner, not just plans but things I have done and how I feel about them. It’s a little obsessive but I can’t help it. I am sure a lot of my pictures will have to do with Brody, I can’t help it, he is my world. But I am going to try and spice it up a little and make it interesting. I think about the next year of my life and although it will be a lot of diapers, feeding Brody, most likely breast feeding newbaby, yoga, ect… I want to find a different, unique part of each day to document with one picture.

If you are interested in doing this with me, I will be giving updates on here occasionally and I am working on getting my own website set up with hopefully a part just for Project 365. Also, if you have an iPhone, download the app (for free!) today and we can do this project together! I think about since I have had my iPhone, I probably have taken a picture a day since I got it! (I have been meaning to clear it out; I have over 700 pictures on there now!) I was also reading how someone did this in the year 2000 with a disposable camera (think about it, that was before even digital cameras were even popular, I remember getting my first one senior year of college and I got the best little Nikon available and it was 3.5 megapixels! Ha!), and they are now doing it again in 2010 with their Blackberry camera. http://ayearintheday.blogspot.com/

It really can help you see your life in a different way!

Here is more info on Project 365 if you are interested:
http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way
People will often say that their whole lives flashed before their eyes after they experienced a traumatic event. Perhaps it’s a bit morbid, but we think that sounds pretty incredible.
When Taylor McKnight started taking a photo a day on January 1st, 2004, he never imagined the project would not only serve as a way to remember a year, but also help him understand what was important to him in his life.
Whether it was his relationships, his career, or his fashion sense, recording a photo a day for a whole year left him with a rich visual history of his life. And it made him a better photographer to boot!
Now that he’s in the middle of doing it for a second time, we asked Taylor to write about it for us. Read on for our tutorial on how and why to create your own daily photographic history.
Project 365: How to Create a Daily Photographic History
www.photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/
WHY DO IT?
Taking a photo a day is a big undertaking with big payoffs. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider doing it:
• Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!)
• Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast.
• Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day.
TIPS ON HOW TO DO IT
Here are six tips on how to create your own Project 365:
1. Bring Your Camera Everywhere
Yes, everywhere. Get in the habit. Grocery stores, restaurants, parties, work, and school. Going to a movie theatre? Snap a pic of the flick with your phone–there are photo-ops everywhere. If you have one of those tiny tiny cameras, you have no excuse not to have it in your pocket all the time. And if you don’t? Camera phones are a great substitute.
2. Make Posting Easy
You can install blog software like Movable Type or Wordpress on your own site and create an entry for each photo, but for true ease of use, try a photo sharing site. Flickr will let you post a week’s worth of photos in 2 minutes flat, and fotolog and Photoblog.com are geared toward a photo-a-day workflow. Making it fast and easy means you’re much more likely to do it.
3. Vary Your Themes
Try to capture the day’s events in a single photo. Perform photographic experiments. Take a photo of someone new you meet, something you ate for the first time, or something you just learned how to do. Take a photo of something that made you smile. And don’t forget to take a photo of yourself at least once a month so you can remember how you’ve changed, too.
4. Tell a Story
Use your blog entry, or your photo description, to explain what’s going on in each day’s photograph. How good did that dinner taste? What made you want to take a photo of that stranger? It’ll help you remember down the road, and it gives friends following along a better appreciation of why you took the photo you did. You don’t need to write a lot, just enough to add some color.
5. Don’t Stop, No Matter What
This is perhaps the most important tip of all. You will get tired of taking a photo every single day. Some days, you will consider giving up. Don’t. The end result is worth the effort. Remind yourself why you wanted to do it in first place.
There will be times you’ll think there’s nothing interesting left to take a photo of, and times you’ll think you didn’t do anything exciting enough to take a photo of. There’s always a great photo to be made.
Get out of the house and take a walk. Or stay inside and look around. Take a photo of something important to you. Take a photo of the inside of your house so you can see how your taste has changed over the years. Take a photo of anything, just don’t stop.
N.b. It helps if you’ve told your friends about the project and asked them to follow along. Their encouragement will keep you going!
6. Post early, post often
Plan on going through and posting your photos at least once a week so you don’t get backlogged and feel overwhelmed. Ideally, post every day or two. Again, spend the time up front to make sure it’s quick and easy to post. It’ll make all the difference.
EXAMPLES
• The Project 365 2004 Recap — Read Taylor’s thoughts on the project after the year was over and see some of the highlights.
• Project 365, 2006 (in progress) — Watch a slideshow of Taylor’s second go-around with Project 365.
• Noah Brier’s One a Day — In a more self-reflective variation, our pal Noah takes a photo a day using the webcam built into his MacBook.

Help the people of Haiti

If you are like me, sitting there watching the coverage from Haiti and feeling helpless, I just saw a small way you can help:

You can text the word “HAITI” to 90999
~it will donate $10 to the American Red Cross

It will automatically add $10 to your telephone bill, and it is a small way you can help if you are sitting at home just wanting to do something.
The international Red Cross said a third of Haiti’s 9 million people may need emergency aid.

Here are also other ways you can donate, help, & receive info:

Can call to donate:
1-800-REDCROSS
1-800-257-7575

www.whitehouse.gov

Seeking more info about any family members who may be missing:
1-888-407-4747

YAY! Second Trimester!

YAY! I finally made it to the gym yesterday! First time in over two months…
I was still teaching my mommy and me yoga class but at least at my own class when I had the feeling that my breakfast was about to come up I could walk around the class and just shout out yoga positions. I didn’t look ridiculous going on my hands and knees instead of a downward dog. I also had Brody in class with me, so he was a welcome distraction to get out of a forward bend as my reflux was getting worse. The last couple weeks I have started to feel better, still sick in the mornings but as I did when I was pregnant with Brody, I am starting to manage it. Wake up, sharp piercing headache, get Brody, he runs around while I get sick (sometimes slamming the toilet seat into my head while mimicking me gagging, yes…this is very special), get Brody breakfast while I get my cup of coffee that I can not function without (don’t worry~ my only caffeine for the day), and take zofran (anti-nausea medicine~ my savior!) So within a half hour the nausea is gone and I can actually leave the house! YAY~ second trimester!

I’m really making it sound worse then it is~ I have it down to a routine at this point. I was the same with Brody and it pretty much lasted all 9 months. I was just saying to one of my friends, if you talk about how you are feeling, list everything that is wrong, everything that doesn’t feel right while you’re pregnant, it sounds so bad! (This of course being for those people who get sick, and not including the women who have perfect pregnancies with more energy, no morning sickness, and hardly any weight gain… so unfair!) So, I want to make sure I am more just stating what happens and not complaining, because it is hard to complain when it is so exciting underneath all the ailments. It really is one of the coolest experiences; creating another human… it’s just crazy.

I also had to bring Brody to Kids Club for the first time in a couple months too, he was miserable walking in. He started clinging to me before we even entered the doors. Crying hysterically and not letting go of my sweatshirt. We are only giving him his binks (binky) in his crib now, so he was fully just flipping out. As always, I know the second I leave he will be fine in 2.3 minutes, but it still doesn’t make it easy. I wanted to scoop him up, walk back to my car, and just be like “okay, we are not ready, we’ll try again soon” but I knew I got all the way there (not late for once) and I wasn’t just leaving! I left Brody hysterical, flailing in the woman’s arms and I walked to yoga. I paused down the hallway as I could still hear him crying and it was breaking my heart.

I got to class and two minutes in it felt great to be back! Wow, does a couple months off make a difference though! My balance is off, my flexibility not as great, and I definitely stumbled a few times. I do like the feeling though now that I have something to work towards, to achieve (and it’s not just my never successful headstand) I need to even work my way back to a tree pose without falling! Or other poses that I am lacking at now, but this is fun. When I was pregnant with Brody was when yoga became something deeper to me, something new even though I had been doing yoga for years, and now I am finally entering that stage again. The stage in pregnancy where I am not just laying around waiting for the next wave to come when I need to make a run for the bathroom, the stage where I can feel good, and workout again.
Like I said before, YAY second trimester!

Please continue to help the people in Haiti

I am just thinking after washing our dishes from the day about the water I'm using, and meanwhile watching people who are dying because they can’t get a taste of that water.
Bathing Brody, brushing my teeth, flushing the toilet...
While so many Haitians are waiting for just one bottle of water.

I put Brody to sleep in his crib on his thick plush crib mattress, Matt & I go to bed in our king size bed & there is an empty queen bed in our guest room...
Most of people in Haiti are sleeping on the concrete ground.

They aren't using toothpaste to just brush their teeth but yet to put under their nose to help decrease the smell of decaying bodies.
They have to amputate limbs without any sort of medicine.

If you are reading this, please look around and think of how lucky you are.

Hug your children.

Donate to those who need help right now.

We all have an extra $10, $20, $50+ dollars to help the people in Haiti.

Donate the money you would have used to go out to lunch today.

This isn't going to end today, tomorrow, or next week… the people in Haiti will need our help for awhile.

Think of how fortunate you are & what people would do just to have the
food you are going to eat today, the water you will drink (& not to mention waste), & the bed you are going to sleep in.

Even if you can't afford to donate money, look around your house & think of items you can send over.

Water
Canned foods
Toothbrushes
Toothpaste
Bandages
Gauze pads
Ect

www.redcross.org

http://www.savethechildren.org

http://www.worldvision.org

http://www.foodforthepoor.org/

****Be careful when donating to Haitian relief efforts****
The Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance warns that fraudulent charities will likely emerge to try and scam donations from well-meaning Americans. Consumers can go to www.bbb.org/charity to research charities and organizations to verify that they're accredited by the BBB and meet the 20 Standards for Charity Accountability.
Be wary of claims that 100 percent of donations will assist relief victims.
Despite what an organization might claim, charities have fund raising and administrative costs. Even a credit card donation will involve, at a minimum, a processing fee.
Be cautious when giving online.
Use caution, especially in response to spam messages and e-mails that claim to link to a relief organization.
Find out if the charity is providing direct aid or raising money for other groups.
Some charities may be raising money to pass along to relief organizations. If so, you may want to consider "avoiding the middleman" and giving directly to charities that have a presence in the region.
Gifts of clothing, food, or other in-kind donations.
In-kind drives for food and clothing may not be the quickest way to help those in need, unless the organization has the staff and infrastructure to be able to properly distribute such aid. Ask the charity about their transportation and distribution plans. Be wary of those who aren't experienced in disaster relief assistance.
The Washington Secretary of State's Office advises consumers to donate directly to the charitable organizations that are properly registered and helping the cause. If the group is soliciting funds in Washington, it must be registered with this office.
Check online at www.sos.wa.gov/charities/search.aspx

This is an image of a boy who was injured by the earthquake having stitches sewn into his head at a makeshift clinic run by missionaries at a school in Port-au-Prince.

Cherish Every Second, Even at 2am….

It’s no secret to my family and friends that I love my sleep and do not function well without it. This is especially difficult when you are the mother of a young child. Somehow luckily Brody has come to be a great sleeper. For awhile now he goes to bed at 8:30 and wakes up at 9am, we don’t hear a peep from him overnight. (I am always nervous to talk or write about this for the chance that I might jinx it!) I also have been sleeping until 9am. One of my friends actually has a theory about how a child sleeps, that the child will end up sleeping how you did when you were pregnant. This could be true too, when I was pregnant I was working at Banyan Productions and our start time was 10am… ahhhh, the days at Banyan. So I did sleep until about 8:30-9am too. Whenever I complain about not having enough hours in a day, my husband always comes back with “You could just wake up earlier”. Ugh! Who feels like doing that...? I know one day soon Brody will have school and he and I will have to start waking up earlier, so why not enjoy the sleeping in now?

So anyway the other night I hear crying at about 2am. I go in to check on Brody and he is screaming and completely inconsolable. He wouldn’t let me hold him, rock him; he wouldn’t sit in the glider with me. He threw his body on the floor and was screaming and slamming his right leg into the ground. I just started to rub his leg and foot, thinking maybe his foot was asleep or it was a Charlie horse? Do toddlers get Charlie horses? He started to calm down a little bit and I brought him downstairs to get some water.

As we sat on the couch, he drank his water and cuddled up with me and rested his head on my chest. I couldn’t help but cherish this moment. His one little hand grasping onto mine, even though it was about 2:30 in the morning at this point, I still didn’t want the moment to end. I always think about how he won’t be little forever, one day he won’t sit and cuddle up with me, or be small enough to sit on my lap. He won’t have these little chubby fingers and tiny hands that grasp mine. I just sat there and kissed his head. I love this child so much.

Also pretty soon it won’t just be us, when new-baby comes~ oh yeah! Btw, if you didn’t know I am pregnant again! I’m due in June, so Brody and the new baby will be two years apart. We are really excited and I am just hoping everything goes okay and the baby is healthy. But anyway, soon it won’t just be Brody and I, over the last year and a half I have gotten used to doing everything with him. He is my little sidekick. We are together every day and do everything together. I can count the times I have left him overnight, which has never been two nights in a row (I have no clue how I am going to leave him for a week in Feb when we go to Paris) I guess just for now I will continue to cherish every moment with him, what else can you do?

Have you had moments with your children that seemed annoying or inconvenient at the time, but you ended up cherishing?

DONATE GAMES, SAVE LIVES-ONE GAME A TIME

The holiday season may be coming to an end, but you don’t have to stop giving… or giving back! This season you can donate used video games to help save lives. I’m sure most of you have noticed your kids’ (or husbands’) video games piling up, or maybe you children have outgrown certain games. Donate Games is asking families to wrap up their old video games for a good cause.

Donate Games is a non-profit organization that was founded upon the belief that people can change the world by simply donating their unwanted video games. All proceeds collected from the sales of the used video games go to helping children and their families along with raising awareness for rare and neglected disorders, or "orphan diseases," afflicting millions of young people across the globe. This is the perfect opportunity to get your children together and teach them about giving back.
Every used video game needs a new home once it is no longer wanted. Committed to saving lives, one video game at a time, Donate Games has found a way to let people make a profound impact on the world amid the holiday hustle and bustle.

You can easily mail your used video games to Donate Games, for more info:
http://www.donategames.org

Or purchase used video games via the charity's online store:
http://www.donategames.org/store/shop.htm

Or if you do not have any games to donate, but you would still like to do something, you can simply make a contribution by going to their website as well:
http://www.donategames.org

In addition to raising funds for research on the diseases, the organization promotes awareness information and provides advisory services to the
general public. Game donations, game purchases and volunteer
opportunities are all processed via www.DonateGames.org
http://www.donategames.org

"Our user-friendly model takes charitable giving to a whole
new level of fun and interactivity, presenting families with
a unique way to extend their holiday generosity," said Jim
Carol, CEO and founder of Donate Games, who founded the
charity after his own son and video game enthusiast, Taylor
Carol, survived an orphan disease. "We've streamlined the
process of raising rare disease support for hurting children
who need our attention-and deserve our kindness during this
season of giving. Donate Games, save lives. It's that easy."