There will be various baby-related, community organizations in attendance and presentations from Swedish physicians and specialists:

• 11:15am – 12pm – Keynote: Your Emotional Health and Well-Being – What to expect after baby arrives and what you can do to support yourself and your family

• 12:30pm – 1pm – Car Seat Safety – Current requirements, best choices and installation advice

• 12:30pm – 1pm – Nutrition Matters – Discover best sources to support optimum postpartum health

• 1:15pm – 1:45pm – The Period of Purple Crying – What is this phase and ways to cope

• 1:15 – 1:45pm – Home Safe Home – How to create a safe home environment for baby

• 2:00pm – 2:45pm – Keynote: Your Emotional Health and Well-Being

The first 100 people to register will receive a swag bag of goodies, including samples from our friends at Happy Baby Foods! Hope to see you there!

Well, it’s that time of year again, and the second annual Golden Teddy Awards voting has begun! Hop to Signaroo would love to sweep both categories this year, with a win in each and of course I need help from you, my loyal fans!

Here’s the link to vote for Hop to Signaroo for Best Parent Education Class, which is entry #3 on that page. And follow this link to vote for Hop to Signaroo for Best Infant or Toddler Class, which is entry #7. Please vote for Hop to Signaroo in both categories and please be sure to vote by Tuesday, May 15th!

Simply list Seattle as the location and don’t forget to add a comment about how Hop to Signaroo’s curriculum made life easier for your family or what you loved about class. You can only vote once and need to vote in at least 10 categories of the contest, but your partner can also vote to double the chances of your family winning one of the four prize packages! Feel free to write us in for category #12 under Classes and Camps, too. Write in votes for a missed category, Best Baby Sign Language Class, would be a bonus. Maybe Hop to Signaroo will win three categories and create our own in the process…yup, I’m that competitive! ;0)

Your vote would be so appreciated of course, but I’m happy to report that there’s something in it for you, as well! (As if early communication and reduced frustration from signing with your baby wasn’t enough!) There are four, great prize packages, with a random drawing for all who vote.  Prize details are here. ParentMap is asking that parents vote in at least ten categories throughout the contest (you’re one-fifth of the way there by voting for Hop to Signaroo in the two categories above) and for every five categories you vote in, you’re entered into the drawing for prizes. Only one submission is allowed per person, but again voting in multiple categories will increase your odds of winning and encouraging your partner to vote will double your chances of winning a prize! You do need to enter an email address with your submission, but it will only be used to contact you if you win one of the prize packages.

Questions? Post them here and I will respond. I say it all the time – I love what I do! Hop to Signaroo has been my passion for nearly 12 years and the success stories from so many of my thousands of graduates thrill me to no end, and recognition from my graduates makes my job even sweeter, so thank you again for your continued support!

What is Sanity Circus? It’s an award-winning, six-week, traveling course for parents, teachers and caregivers who want more respectful, cooperative and joyful relationships with children. Its foundation is the psychology of Dr. Alfred Adler. Sanity Circus is sponsored by the Puget Sound Adlerian Society and is co-sponsored and hosted by local schools, family centers and other non-profits. The Seattle School Board’s recommended positive discipline program for educators, which is now being implemented at several Seattle schools, is Adlerian-based.

Dr. Alfred Adler had an optimistic concept of human nature, believing that mutually respectful relationships are essential for the well-being of all individuals and communities. He believed that the skills and attitudes for these types of relationships are teachable and learnable and, while democratic, this approach is not overly permissive. Adlerian Psychology’s founding principle is that we all need a sense of belonging and significance to be healthy in mind and body and for communities to be peaceful and productive.

The Puget Sound Adlerian Society is hosting a FREE, six-week series for parents, teachers and caregivers on April 30th through June 11th at Viewlands Elementary in the North Seattle/Ballard area. I’ve never attended any Adlerian-based workshops but they sound very beneficial and similar to Love and Logic workshops, which I have attended and highly endorse. In this six week Sanity Circus program, participants will learn about:

• Choosing a Parenting Style: Autocratic, Permissive, Democratic
• Developing a Sense of Belonging: The Primary Goal of Children and Adults
• Encouragement: Helping Your Child To Live with Courage
• Communication: Listening to Children and Expressing Yourself Respectfully
• Getting Out of Power Struggles: Problem Solving, Cooperatively
• Discipline ≠ Punishment: Teaching Self-Discipline without Tears
• Family Meetings: Caring and Mutual Respect

Visit the Puget Sound Adlerian Society’s website and click on Sanity Circus for complete program details and registration information. Techniques are suitable for children of all ages, and free childcare is available for potty-trained children 3 years old and older.

Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to learn positive, relationship skills that will benefit you, your entire family and/or the children you work with.

Parents should immediately stop using the seats and contact Todson to receive a free, hinge cover retrofit kit.  Call them at 1-800-250-3068 or visit their website at www.todson.com.

When you arrive, check-in at the Mommy Lounge at Piatti Ristorante and visit the Hop to Signaroo table and the tables of the other sponsors. Learn about Hop to Signaroo classes, register to win a set of Roo-minder Ring Instruction Cards and pick up a discount card for any Hop to Signaroo in-home class! Other sponsors include Northwest Association for Postpartum Support, Ladybug Organic Baby Foods, Bright Horizons and Parent Map. While at the Mommy Lounge, partake of the free appetizers and Mommy Mocktails. Also, enter to win fabulous prizes, including a $500 University Village gift card, and pick up a complimentary copy of The Bump Guide from The Bump.

From there, visit the shops and services at University Village and receive discounts at The Land of Nod, Hanna Andersson, The Gap, Ravenna Gardens, Impress Rubber Stamps, Mrs. Cook’s, InSpa, Headlines Salon, Something Silver and more. Also, enter to win gift baskets and great prizes at Aveda, Fireworks, Storables, Margaret O’Leary, Kid’s Club, Swink Style Bar, Trophy Cupcakes, Village Maternity and additional stores being added daily. And while you’re at Village Maternity, be sure to visit our friends from Milkmakers Cookies, who will be in the store with samples of their delicious lactation cookies.

Check out demonstrations throughout University Village, such as “How to Fit Babies for Shoes” with a baby shoe fitting specialist at Sole Food and “How to Decorate Your Dream Nursery” and “How to Create the Perfect Baby Registry” at Pottery Barn Kids, with a chance to win a crib and mattress – a $550 value. Company representatives from Uppababy, Recaro, Halo, and Aden and Adanis will be on hand at Kid’s Club to answer questions and give out freebies.

This will be a wonderful and informative event will lots of swag, discounts, prizes and various company representatives to answer your questions about your little bundle of joy. Pre-registration is required here. Don’t forget to stop by the Hop to Signaroo table in Piatti’s, as I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

As a certified teacher, I was taught how to communicate with children. This came in the form of college courses focusing on positive communication to encourage appropriate behavior from people less than three feet tall. I learned techniques that work with all kids – normally developing kids, special needs kids, toddlers through teens. Why aren’t parents routinely taught these techniques that teachers are required to learn? We all know kids don’t come with an owner’s manual, so I would love to see communication and positive discipline classes for new parents become as commonplace as childbirth education classes. Sadly, parents are left to fend for themselves far too often or their only resource is a class focused on how to bring troubled kids back from the brink, rather than pro-active methods to set the stage early on. I recommend programs like Love and Logic but if a class isn’t in your immediate future, I highly recommend this wonderful article from Dr. Sears.

After reading Dr. Sears’s article, you’ll have many positive communication techniques under your belt. You’ll be talking to your kids of any age like the pros do and getting the positive results that their teachers often seem to illicit. You know, the behaviors that leave you mystified and wondering why your child’s teachers seem to be talking about an extremely well-behaved child that you don’t always see. I experienced this during my nine years as a classroom teacher. During parent-teacher conferences I would often compliment parents on their well-behaved children and once in a while a parent would respond with a quizzical look and a comment along the lines of, “My child?  My child is that polite and helpful at school? Are you sure we’re talking about the same kid?” I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings but children will rise to an adult’s expectations, and you have to set the precedents early. Sometimes, I would see my students in the grocery store or on the school grounds with their parents. Sometimes, the kids would be displaying less-than-ideal behavior until I walked past and they’d “straighten up and fly right”! My students always had a clear understanding about my expectations, they knew I would hold them accountable for their behavior, and they knew there would be consequences that I would follow through on – every time. I don’t really know how much I could have enforced in the grocery store, but my younger students hadn’t figured that out yet!

Look, I know it’s easy for a teacher to dish out this advice. I know being a teacher is not the same as being a parent. Parents often fear that being firm, in words and actions, will cause their child to feel unloved. You may think that’s why it seems easier for teachers. Teachers are not emotionally attached to your child in the same way you are. However, teachers do care deeply for your kids, want the best for them and that’s one of the reasons they’re firm, but loving, with your children. Kids feel most loved and protected with consistency, boundaries and the knowledge that the adults in their lives are in control and know what’s best.

Dr. Sears’ suggestions will give you a solid framework for how to talk with your child. I would like to add these pointers for discipline and consequences, to be coupled with the positive communication techniques detailed in the article:

• Form a united front. All parents and step-parents, grandparents and primary caregivers need to have the same expectations about behavior and consequences and how to positively communicate with your child.
• Be consistent. If you do not follow through on consequences consistently, your child will notice and will not take you seriously. Even toddlers quickly figure out that it’s all a numbers game and will actively strive to wear you down so you’ll give in, typically ramping up the intensity of their undesirable behavior each time, so you’ll give in more quickly.
• Consequences need to be realistic, age and developmentally appropriate, and options you can enforce and live with. Idle threats don’t work and a child will quickly figure out that you can’t take dessert aware for the rest of his or her life.
• Finally, when you use the communication techniques listed in the article, do not put “Okay?” at the end of the sentence. I hear well-meaning parents use effective communication techniques often but then they negate the whole exchange by putting “Okay?” at the end of their statement. When you do this, you’ve just asked your child to comply and given them the power, as well as the opportunity to chose to not comply with the directive. Remember, you’re the one in charge. You set the rules, consequences and boundaries. Discipline is not a negotiation.

Got it? Good! As the sergeant from the old TV show, Hill Street Blues, used to tell his fearless police offices after they received their daily assignments and were heading out to deal with the delinquents,”Be careful out there!” ;0)

My wish on his birthday is that you still find his words, characters and colorful drawings as inspirational as I do. What a groovy world we’d live in if everyone could keep these 30 quotes from his books at the forefront of their thoughts and actions, everyday. I also hope you’ll keep his legacy alive in the truest sense by sharing his books and his profound and eternally relevant messages with your children. The movie version of The Lorax is being released today. Many generations of kids have been moved by The Lorax’s powerful and cautionary tale of how rampant greed and consumerism destroyed the forest of Truffula Trees and the Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans and Humming-Fish that depended on them. This message is, sadly, more timely than ever. However, with the movie’s release, many child advocates are upset about how corporations have hijacked The Lorax, completely missing the whole point of the story or, more likely, imposing their power in spite of it. I have to agree. This article sheds light on their concerns and offers suggestions for enjoying the story while staying true to the message of (pardon the pun!) not buying into a consumer-driven life.

But before I get too riled up, up here on my soapbox, let me share a great list of activities celebrating Dr. Seuss and National Read Across America Day, which just so happens to non-coincidentally be today, as well! The Seattle Children’s Museum is hosting a celebration today.  Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah Highlands is hosting a Seuss-inspired breakfast, craft and story time.  Mockingbird Books is hosting a free Dr. Seuss story time featuring art activities, singing and snacks. But why limit the celebration to just one day? Here are a few additional, Seattle-area events for this weekend and the coming weeks. Can’t make it out of the house for the festivities? Here are a few sensational, Seussical ideas from Seattle’s Child for family fun at home.

Finally, just pick up a book, preferably ones with Sneeches, a Turtle named Yurtle or a Who-Hearing Horton, pull your pee wee close and just READ! As the good doctor prescribed, “You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”

Also, PapaBear Loungeabouts children’s pajamas are being recalled for violations of Federal Flammability Standards. Find that story here.

Stay safe, friends!

The dangerous level of chemicals and toxins that are permissible in this country’s food supply still continues to baffle and frighten me! I can only imagine how frightening this is when you think about the foods you feed your babies and small children, especially when you believe you’re making wise choices with companies who focus on organic ingredients.

Check out the story and check the ingredients in your baby’s formula. And if you haven’t checked them out yet, look into Happy Baby Foods. Hop to Signaroo is partnering with their Seattle-area representative to offer generous full-sized samples and coupons for families in all in-home four-week classes, in-home workshops and individual family sessions. The families who’ve received these goodies in Hop to Signaroo classes have been thrilled. I hope that you find the ingredients are a perfect fit for your family’s needs.

Also, in the news this week, a recall on Baby Tylenol. Get the details here.