The Talking Baby

I just finished a new book written by a husband and wife team, Jeremy and Karina Sweet, titled The Talking Baby.  Jeremy and Karina are a father and mother who are able to speak from personal child rearing experience. Additionally, Karina has experience as an elementary school teacher.  The book is designed to help parents learn not only how to communicate with their child, but also to help a child gain the desire and confidence to speak sooner. Although the book is thin, it is full of ideas to incorporate into your daily life and written in an easy-to-understand way for parents.   If babies were born with an instruction guide on how to communicate with them, The Talking Baby would be that guide.

The book is 56 pages long and divided into 20 parts, with 16 of those being the communication tips and techniques.  Each tip is explained and examples are provided, including numerous examples of exactly how to say things to your baby to encourage communication and learning.  Just a few of the communication tips to use with your child are words to start with, use of repetition, reading books, introducing a foreign language, and how to praise.  The tips are presented in easily digestible parts, usually only 2-4 pages long.  This is great for busy parents and parents of newborns who do not have time to sit down and read a long book.

As stated in the conclusion of the book, my advice would be to start with a couple of the communication ideas presented and incorporate them into your daily routine.  It would be overwhelming, if not impossible, to do all of these tips at once.  My guess is that many parents may already be using some of these techniques naturally with their child.  However, I would recommend this book to parents who feel overwhelmed and don’t know how to start communicating with their child or for others who may be looking for ideas to jumpstart their child’s communication skills.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book to review from the author. No compensation is being received for this review or from any sales of the book.

The FURminator

For all the pet owners, I want to tell you about the Furminator because it does such an awesome job.  It is a shedding tool for dogs and cats that helps to remove the undercoat.  My oldest daughter has an allergy to dog dander.  Getting rid of our dog was not an option, so I’m always looking for ways to reduce the allergens in our house.  Besides getting a better air filter for our air conditioning unit and a better vacuum, I think the Furminator is one of the best purchases I’ve made.  My sister and I initially split the purchase of the first one because we weren’t sure how good it was going to work.  After one use, both my sister and I were sold.  I have used it on my dog and on my long haired cat, and both enjoy being brushed by the Furminator.

I have attached a picture of my dog after a few minutes of brushing with the Furminator.  Keep in mind some of her hair is dark so you can’t see it well on the grass, and some of it blew away also.  Every time I brush my animals I am just amazed at how much hair comes off.

The best price I was able to find was through Amazon for about $25-30, which is much cheaper than I have seen in the local pet stores.  I recommend this for any pet owner who has an animal that sheds.  It has reduced the dander that my daughter is allergic to and the number of unwanted pet hair “tumbleweeds” in my house.

Monster Steam Mop

With my oldest daughter having contact allergies and my youngest still in the crawling stage, I decided that I wanted to reduce or eliminate the cleaners I used while mopping my floors. I just didn’t like the idea of my youngest crawling around on a floor mopped with cleaner and then sitting up and eating some crackers with cleaner still on her hands. So for Christmas last year I asked for a steam mop (and then thought only a mom would ask for this as a gift!). I did research on all the steam mops out there, with getting the best quality for the best price being my main goal. I settled on the Monster Floor EZ1 Steam Mop because: 1) it created the hottest steam of all mops out there (which is important for killing bacteria and makes getting dirt up off of the floor easier); 2) it came with 3 reusable/washable mop pads so I wouldn’t have any added expense; 3) it could be used on tile and hardwood floors, as well as carpet; and 4) it was easy to use.

I did get the Monster steam mop as a gift from my parents and have really enjoyed using it. For assembly from the box all I had to do was clip on the handle. I use distilled water in order to keep impurities from clogging the mop which will hopefully prolong it’s life. The directions recommend washing the mop pads by hand, but I throw them in the washer and let them air dry and they have continued to work fine. The steam mop has so far easily picked up juice, ink from markers, and dirt on my tile. I have also spot cleaned carpet (rather than dragging out my big carpet cleaner!) and it got dirt and juice out. The most noticeable thing was that after using the steam mop for the first time, our tile felt clean on my feet. The best way I can describe it is that the residue cleaners leave on tile makes it a bit slippery, but the slippery feel was noticeably absent after using the steam mop. I vacuum my tile first as the mop is not made for picking up large pieces of pet hair, food, and other debris but that is what I always had to do before mopping with any other mop. The electrical cord on the mop is not as long as my vacuum, so I do have to unplug it and move it once in order to mop all of my tile (so if that is something that will bother you plan on getting an extension cord). Lastly, there is a warm up period in order for the mop to heat the water into steam (about 5 minutes- so I plug it in while I finish the last bit of vacuuming) and if you need to refill the mop you will have to wait a few minutes for it to cool off before you are able to take the top off and add more water (watch out for the steam- it’s hot!). With all that said, I am extremely pleased with my Monster and highly recommend it!

Melissa & Doug

I pretty much like any product Melissa & Doug comes out with.  I have several puzzles (farm, pet, and safari animals, 51 piece floor puzzle of the United States) and two boxes of wooden blocks my daughters got for Christmas last year.  My oldest daughter has also played with the magnetic dress up dolls and enjoyed that.  The products are wooden and high quality.  Most products have a low rating on HealthyToys.org, although I found a few (specifically the plush/stuffed toys) that have medium ratings.

We also have the Melissa & Doug responsibility chart for my 3 year old.  We use some things that she can already do independently (like brush teeth and get dressed) for freebie smileys, and then a couple things that she is working on (like no complaining/whining, keep hands/feet to yourself, and my favorite house rule LISTEN & DO which we wrote on the extra empty magnet).  We review her behavior at the end of the day, and she has to earn a certain number of smileys by the end of the week in order to get a reward.  Rewards vary from a new book, puzzle, DVD, trip to the zoo or movies, or spending special time with a certain parent doing something fun…like a bubble bath with mommy or playing a board game with daddy.  The daily smiley reward and the end-of-week reward system has worked well for us.

BNL Snacktime!

Bare Naked Ladies have been a favorite since my college days, so I was surprised to learn that they had come out with a children’s CD.  After listening to a sample of a few of the songs I decided to purchase the CD.  We really like most of the songs, but could do without the “Food Party” and “Canadian Snacktime Trilogy” songs. My daughter’s favorite song is “Pollywog In a Bog” which inspired our multisensory learning experience about pollywogs.  I also found the “Crazy ABC’s” song smartly written and think it would be really fun for middle to high school aged kids to dissect the song and learn the spelling and vocabulary for all the words mentioned!  The BNL keep to their typical humor and cleverness throughout this fun CD.

Phonics Music

I happened upon this CD by accident, because I purchased a phonics workbook for some speech therapy students and the CD was included. As it turns out, my oldest daughter really likes the songs and learned her long and short vowel sounds from this CD. It also has other great songs about rhyming, ABCs, long and short vowel sounds, hard and soft sounds (c and g), silent-e, digraphs, qu- (stick together like glue!), and tongue twisters to name a few. I believe songs are an easy way for kids (and adults) to learn and try to incorporate them into whatever I’m teaching. I would recommend this to any elementary teacher or parent!

Super Baby Food

My mom found this book for me and I really love it. While making baby food is not for every mom, if it is something you are interested in I highly recommend this book. It has a wealth of information on how to prepare fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats for your baby. It also has a helpful chart on when to introduce each type of food (pg. 86-87) and a large section in the back with recipes, party ideas, arts & crafts (including play-dough and other recipes), and baby-safe cleaning products.  I didn’t use the brewer’s yeast and a few other things the author did with her children, as my girls didn’t like the taste of it.  But I do believe that my girls are good eaters (they literally eat anything we put in front of them) because they had “real” food from the beginning and were exposed to everything we eat on a daily basis.

Fisher-Price Booster Seat

I have two of these…one is used as our high chair at home and the other stays in the car when we are on-the-go.  I really love this booster seat for several reasons.  First, it is perfect as a regular high chair.  I’ve used this with each daughter since they could sit up independently (and even rolled up a couple towels on either side if they needed extra support at first).  It doesn’t take up alot of room like other high chairs, and you can then take it with you when you decide to go to someone’s house or out to dinner.  If you are like me, you will forget it half the time, which is why I bought a second one to keep in the car.  Second, the blue/green/grey seat I have is about $25 so you can buy two for less than you would pay for a single high chair.  Third, when you go out to dinner your child will be sitting in a familiar chair which I think really helps with eating and manners because of the consistency.  Lastly, when going out your child will only be eating and touching his own germs!

Diaper Champ

This is the one product I recommend to new parents because you don’t need to buy special bags like most other diaper pails. You can just use a regular trash bag! There is some smell when you open the lid to change out the garbage bag, but I assume this is the case with any diaper pail. It is great for disposable or cloth diapers. I bought it because it saves money! Comes in pink and blue.