Baby Signs® by Bryn

This is a great orchard in South Glastonbury. I went to it last year with my family. They have a bakery where you can treat yourself to all sorts of farm baked goods as well. And, of course, there's lots of apples. So come learn a few signs and pick some apples. I'd love to see you there.

Date
October 8th @ 10:30

Location
Belltown Hill Orchards
483 Matson Hill Raod
South Glastonbury, CT 06073

The rain date for this activity will be October 9th.

The sign for FROG is helpful for letting your baby "talk" about toys at bath time and pictures in books during story time. Look for opportunities this week to use this new sign.

A couple of days ago, I found a frog (actually it was a toad) in my watering can. My husband plopped him out onto our water table and the kids loved looking at him and watching him hop all around.

Have a good week and enjoy the beautiful fall weather!

Just a reminder that I'm hosting another playgroup at the Kiddy Korner Toy Store in Ellington. Monday Sept 20th @ 10:00. We will be learning some more signs for fall and playing games. Come join us if you can!

I love the part in Finding Nemo when Marlin tells Dori that he promised Nemo nothing would ever happen to him. Dori, in a short moment of brilliance, says, "That's a funny thing to promise. Well, you can't never let anything happen to him. Then, nothing would ever happen to him. (Marlin stares at her.) Not much fun for little Harpo." We as parents find ourselves not wanting anything to happen to our kids but of course things will happen because life is full of ups and downs, bumps and bruises, twists and turns-these will all give us experience and knowledge. But we can do our best to keep our children safe from real harm or accident.

So today I'm going to focus a little on car seat safety. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention website, motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the U.S. Many of these deaths are preventable if the child is placed in a proper car seat. Meaning one that fits your child's size, is correctly installed, fits well in your vehicle, and is used properly every time you drive.

• There's a really nifty website, www.carseatdata.org, that lets you search for the best car seat for your type of car. You put in the make, model, and year and it will tell you which one will fit the best and which side of the car it fits best as well.
• Another thing you can do is get your car seat checked to see that it is properly installed. A study by the Department of Transportation found that 72% of cars had car seats and booster seats that were being misused in a way that would have increased the child's risk of injury or death in an accident. Connecticut, as well as many other states, have car seat safety inspection stations. To find a station nearest you go to: www.cruisinwithkids.com and find your state from the drop down menu.
• Be weary of buying used car seats. If your getting a used car seat make sure that you know the seat's history. Don't use ones with cracks or missing parts. Don't use them if they've ever been in a moderate or severe car accident. Check the label and manufacturer number and call or look up the manufacturer to see how long it recommends using the seat. If the label or manufacturer number are missing don't use the seat. It's better to err on the side of caution in that case.

• Wear YOUR seat belt.
  
• Don't chat or text on your cell phone while driving even if your kids aren't in the car.
  
• DON'T DRIVE DRUNK! One out of four occupant deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years involved a drinking driver. More than two-thirds of these fatally injured children were RIDING with a drinking driver. The fact that those kids were in the car WITH the drunk driver floors me. So please be responsible and offer to be the sober driver and find the sober driver when you need it.
  

One of the things I wanted to do this summer was to go to Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory up in Deerfield, MA. We finally did it the weekend before Labor day. It was great! The kids had a blast chasing the butterflies and looking at the various other animals they had there. I tried my best to get a good picture but those butterflies would hardly stand still. Maybe they're just camera shy or it's a running joke they pull on the tourists. Because they would land on my kids for a second and take off as I fumbled with my camera to take a picture. As a result, I've got lots of pictures of rocks or flowers to show people and say "Hey! A butterfly perched on that for a second."

So what's the difference between a butterfly and a moth? In general, moths are nocturnal and butterflies can be seen in the day time. Also, when butterflies are perched they tend to rest with their wings "closed" while moths will leave their wings spread out to their sides. Of course there are some species of moths and butterflies that make exceptions to these rules but, hey, nobody's perfect ;)

I hope you all had a good weekend and had a chance to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather. My family and I did. We got to go pick raspberries and the kids loved it. This harvest time of the year is so fun. My kids have enjoyed picking cherry tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and all sorts of veggies from our garden. I thought I'd share the sign for carrot this week. It's one of the easier vegetable ASL signs and also one that actually has a sign. Many vegetables, like broccoli, don't have their own sign and are just finger-spelled.

Enjoy learning the sign for carrot this week and this little tidbit of info on carrots:

If carrots are eaten raw, only 3% of the b-carotene (vitamin A) is released during digestion. If you pulp the carrots, cook them, AND add oil then 39% of the b-carotene will be released. So cooked carrots (while being my least favorite form) are healthier for you than raw.