Which kids menus are the worst for your children?  A year-long study of children’s meals has revealed vast dietary differences among America’s favorite fast-food and sit-down chain restaurants, according to the authors of the new book EAT THIS, NOT THAT! For Kids. Co-authors David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding calculated calories, fat (trans- and saturated), and sodium, as well as the average number of calories per children’s entrée, and discovered that many of America’s most popular chain restaurants are nutritional nightmares for America’s children.

The authors compared children’s entrees; credited restaurants for having healthy adult options that would appeal to the young palate; evaluated healthy vegetable and fruit sides and drink options that go beyond sugar-laden soda; and docked points for restaurants still dishing out unhealthy trans fats or for refusing to release any nutrition information to their customers. (more…)

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It has been quite a long time since I have been so excited about Christmas.  Don’t get me wrong, I have always liked this time of year…..but remember how magical Christmas was as a kid?  Before you found out at school that Santa Claus was actually your parents? 

My 2 year old daughter is in a world of discovery and it is so fun to witness.  She doesn’t quite understand the concept of Christmas, but she sure does enjoy our Christmas tree, and all of the lights and decorations.  She calls our Christmas tree “My Christmas”.  I wish I could bottle up all the cute faces and words that she puts on display everyday. 

I never imagined I would find that excitement I had as a child during Christmas through my own child. 

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I confess…..I have been a horrible slacker when it comes to Mommyzing.  I recently just made the transition from being a stay at hom mom to a full time working mom!  Right now, I am working on trying to find a good balance between working and spending as much of my spare time as possible with my daughter, and blogging.  Oh, and not to mention the other stuff like housework, paying bills, etc. 

I will say that the transition has been better than I expected for me and for my daughter.  My daughter is going to a sitter during the day and loves playing with the other children at the sitter.  She is the only girl in a small crowd of three other boys…she is having a blast and seems to be holding her own just fine!  I miss her during the day, but I also know she is having fun at the sitter and getting some great social experience.

I would love to hear from all of you with suggestions or tips on how you balance your time between your kids and the work you do, whether it is a full time job, part time job, or anything else that you have to balance in life! 

Keep checking back too, I am no longer going to be a blogging slacker!

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Last week I posted a video that I had seen over email about child drowing prevention.  The video was really hard to watch but also peaked my interest.  It really makes you think..a lot of us think that something like that could never happen to our child?  But how can we be so sure?  I know someone that lost a sibling that was a small child who drowned in the family pool and I can’t begin to imagine.

I was contacted by a really neat group of people that run a school in Florida, called The Baby Otter Swim School.  Whether you live in Florida or not, you should check this site out.  I thought some of the testimonials were great and thought the following statistics were an eye opener:

Why should we be concerned about teaching our child to swim?

     • Drowning is the #1 cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 in Florida.
     • 75% of victims are ages 12 to 25 months old.
     • 65% drown in the family pool.
     • 33% drown in a neighbors’ or relatives’ pool.
     • For every child that drowns, 4 are hospitalized for near drowning.
     • 77% were missing less than 5 minutes.

If that doesn’t make you sit back and think, then nothing will!  The Baby Otter Swim school also has a product for safety awareness that can be purchased.  The awareness product consists of:

• An animated safety DVD for kids called “You Otter be safe around the pool” which is designed to teach pool safety to your children in an entertaining way.
• DVD for adults called “Is your child’s life worth 10 minutes?” which gives parents a step-by-step approach to using the right tools to safeguard their children
• Also included is a companion coloring book

The DVD set retails for $19.95 and can be found by visiting The baby otter swim club site or calling 1-888-SWIM-KID

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So summer is over and most pools are closing for the year and what a wonderful summer it has been! 

I received an email from my friend Jennifer in Little Rock, Arkansas that I wanted to share with everyone.  As a mom, this video was hard to watch but also very interesting at the same time.  It really made me think and say wow. 

Check it out by clicking here, and let us know what you thought. 

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To make bedtime more fun and to help introduce healthy rituals, Colgate-Palmolive and Reading Is Fundamental, have joined to bring back the “Healthy Bedtime Habits for a Lifetime” campaign.

Families can create personalized Bedtime Ritual Logs to track bedtime behaviors, make their child the star of their own customized story book adventure, and learn goodnight tips and tricks!

Check out the link above for these great activities!

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