Playing: Toddler Calendar

My first ever post was a link to an amazing calendar of activities for 0-18 month olds. Well, my first post back from a whole summer off is a link to the next age group calendar. Let the good times begin.

AHS Toddler Activity Calendar

Playing: The Imagination Tree

The Imagination Tree is a great website for home-made, simple, educational, and fun games and activities to play with your child. The articles are arranged by age category so you can pick the right ones for your family. What a fantastic website!

Playing: Physical Literacy

WTF is Physical Literacy you may ask?

Find out on this website: Active for Life

I love this approach to children's fitness. Children should love all kinds of different activities- crawling, jumping, walking, running, stretching- and all the sports those activities lead to- hiking, soccer, baseball, bowling, and yoga.

It also has links and news articles about the latest developments in family fitness including how to use popular movies (like FROZEN ) to encourage children to become active. Oh- and it is slightly academic... *listen as the awe-inspired music of millions of educated angels sings to you.*

Eating: Banana Bars

It has occurred to me that I am using this blog as more of a pinterest board with collections of links I need to remember rather than a "blog" per se, but oh well. Is the internet going to sue me, likely not. On that note:

My mom found and posted this recipe that I love. Simple, fast, and you can pronounce all of the ingredients, all 6 of them. For little kids- drop into smaller bite size pieces. For older kids- create "bars" that can be gnawed on. Adjust baking times accordingly.

Health: Milestones

One of the almost constant concerns nagging in the back of my mind is "is baby behind?" AHS has great resources for helping you understand where your baby should be.

AHS- Growth and Development

The best part about this resource (and arguably the worst)- it uses language like "most" and "often times" instead of the ominous "always." It is also fuzzy and quite general. Why? Because babies grow and learn at their own speeds. This resource helps you feel less like you need to enrol your child in a program and more like it will all be ok. Enjoy!

Eating: Home Made Yogurt Drops

What's better than a recipe with 2 ingredients (yogurt and fruit) that babies love? (Uninterrupted sleep, a set nap schedule, toys that entertain... among a few, but that's beside the point.) Thanks to my mom friend for sharing this recipe!

Live Strong- How to Cook Your Own Graduate Yogurt Melts

Eating: Baking With Infant Cereal

After a long month of Mr. Noodle deciding he is "too cool" for infant cereal, I decided to google recipes that can be made with this super nutrient-rich floury substance. I found a couple of cool links:

Bloggin About Babies- Recipes Using Infant Cereal

That site sent me to the Wholesome Baby Foods Blog with a list of recipes.

From there I found this banana bread stick recipe. And I substituted half the regular flour with infant cereal. It is in the oven so no rating/update/review so far. Ingredients:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana
1 3/4 cups flour (white, whole wheat, or a combination)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda


Directions:

Combine ingredients and stir only until smooth. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour or until firmly set.

Cool, remove from pan, and cut into sticks. Spread sticks out on a cookie sheet and bake at 150 degrees F for 1 hour or longer until the sticks are hard and crunchy. Store in a tightly covered container. Adapted from Feed Me I'm Yours by Vicki Lansky **Freezes Well**

Playing: The Overprotected Kid

Maybe one day I will have the energy to sit down and write my own commentary to these fantastic articles I keep finding... until then, I will just post the link so you can enjoy these thought exercises as much as I do.

The Overprotected Kid- A preoccupation with safety has stripped childhood of independence, risk taking, and discovery—without making it safer. A new kind of playground points to a better solution.
By Hanna Rosin, Published in The Atlantic

Playing: Birthday Bliss

As a mom currently in the throes of planning a first birthday party- (Baby's First Kegger is still the leading theme. Stay tuned.)- this birthday blog was an exciting find. What a resource for Calgary parents.

Enjoy!

Best Birthdays

Playing: The Great Technology Debate

How much technology is too much technology for a 1 month old, a 1 year old, an 11 year old? As parents everywhere debate this point, here are a couple of articles to highlight points on both sides of the equation.

Why I am ok with my toddler playing with an iPad- Talking in All Caps

10 Reasons why handheld devices should be banned for children under the age of 12- Huffington Post

Eating: Bottle Town

Boob is best. But when boob doesn't work, don't worry- read science! This is a very interesting article that highlights two important parenting facts.

1) As running true experiments on children is frowned upon, anything proclaiming to be science should have a giant * next to it. Selection bias, confounding variables, regression to the mean, and the lack of intelligence of science "interpreters" are all factors holding parenting science back.

2) Just feed and love your child. That simple. Just feed and love your child.

Here is the interesting article to help highlight both of these: Is Breast Truly Best? Estimating the Effects of Breastfeeding on Long-term Child Health and Wellbeing in the United States Using Sibling Comparisons

Eating: Planning Ahead

I like being a proactive parent. This means reading material for parents with children much older than my own. This website is a great example of rules I can absorb, think over, and then (in time) implement in our house. Why not spend some time talking with your partner about what rules will govern your house before you need to action them? Also, these rules are fun. A lot of fun.

Foodlets- 10 Rules for Raising Kids Who Eat Healthy at Home

Eating: The Real Deal

As a Mom, I have watched many mom friends make awkward and uninformed decisions about feeding their child. If only the leading researchers and policy makers would get together and publish a guide. Oh wait, they did? Done. This guide is impeccably referenced, written, and provided for parents by an agency not selling something. It changed how I feed my child. I hope it does for you to.

Nutrition for Healthy Term Infants: Recommendations from Six to 24 Months

Health: Burning Up

Confession- I cried the first time baby had a fever. It is horrifying. Unfortunately the internet is of no help and has confusing and contradictory information. Here is a link with just the basics from The College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Fever Resource

Happy Healing