Say NO to Parents as Teachers Budget Cuts!

I just received a forwarded email from my MOP's Discussion Group Leader. The subject of the email was: "Governor Nixon's Proposed Cuts for Parents as Teachers", and one of the few comments she added was: "I don't normally forward things but I feel this is so important." And I feel the same way. I rarely forward emails, but this is different!

My daughter is now 2 1/2 year old. I have been meaning to call Parents as Teachers since she was born. I finally did it and I had my first appointment last month. I'm supposed to have my second meeting next week... or maybe not?

See, the Missouri Governor Jay Nixon proposed a $1.4 million budget cut as part of his budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year. This 13.2% budget cut comes right after the 10% budget cut that the legislature enacted last year. This program serves 155,000 Missouri children; that's a lot of families touched by that cut.

This free program has helped a couple of my friends with their kid regarding their speech capability. And now, their kids are well on their way. Everybody that I talked to before about this program has only good things to say about it. Even me, after only one meeting, I feel a lot better about my daughter's knowledge. Our Teacher was super nice and patient with her. She played with the baby, explained to us what she was doing, gave us some tricks and things to do with our daughter. I just can't wait for the next meeting! If it ever comes :-(

If you are like me, and you want to make sure that you will have your "next meeting", contact the Governor's Office NOW!

Here is what you can do:
- Call (888)880-8233; toll free number available for Parents as Teachers (PaT) advocates until Wednesday 2/2/10.
- After 2/2/10, call (573)751-3222; give your name, home town, identify yourself as a supporter of PaT, inform the Governor that you are very disappointed about the $1.4 budget cut.
- Send an email through PaT Action Center, here's the link: http://www.parentsasteachers.org/SAVEMOPAT

I personally went to the website and send the email. It took me 2 minutes, so come on, let's give this program our support, like it has supported us!

God Bless!

The things we hope to never have to deal with: RECALLS

I received my weekly newsletter from "parenting.com" today, and the first thing it says is: "Scary Recalls You Need To Know About". I'm telling you, as I read those words, my heart dropped, I had to go pick it back up from the basement! Seriously, recall is one thing as a mom, and now as a baby store business owner, that I NEVER want to deal with. Of course, reality might slap me in the face, but in the mean time, I'm trying to stay informed.

First, here's the link from the parenting.com article: Recent Product Safety Recalls. Now, let me tell you what I do to make my life easier; I made myself a short list of sites that I go to check on recalls. Here they are:
- US Consumer Product Safety Commission
- Baby Center
- Child Restraint Recalls by Manufacturer

The main thing with baby products, or any kind of products for that matter, is to register your item as soon as you get it. It takes 5 minutes, and you won't regret it! OK, you might receive some promotional letters or emails out of the deal, but at least they will let you know of any recall regarding your product.

Let's just hope that none of us have to deal with any recalls.

Talk to you later and God bless!

Don't tease me Bro!

"Don't tease me Bro!" were the words out of my mouth this morning when my husband told me: "It looks like you're loosing weight!" I have no idea if I am or not... yet! I guess I'll see when I'll weight myself and take my measurements tomorrow.

See, we started a 12 weeks program of Body for Life last week. And for the first time in a very long time, I think this time is for real. What's different than all the other times? We have work-out partners! Some good friends of ours have mentioned before that they would like to start a healthy habit; eat good and exercise. That has been a goal of ours (my husband & I) for a very long time, but we always seamed to lose the dedication at one point. Well, with all those trying out, we accumulate a lot of knowledge. And our friends have a brand new motivation that is helping us seeing this new adventure a lot differently.

After a few meeting and a lot discussions, we all agreed that it was time! We are going to start 2010 with a resolution that we are going to keep! We made ourselves a schedule; guys together and girls together, with the "Body for Life" challenge. We are not done with our second week yet, but I already feel different. Not just about my weight, but also about my mentality about the whole thing. Come to found out that working out with a partner (beside my husband) has a huge impact for me. My biggest problem always been to get up in the morning. Not anymore! I know that she will knock on my door at 5:30am... THAT gets me out of bed. Their is so many reasons why THIS time will be different. Almost all of them are link to the fact that we have work-out partners. So for those of you out there that need some motivations and changes, think about getting a partner! It seams to work-out for me!

I guess we'll see! 10 more weeks!

Potty Training... everything I got on the subject!

My daughter is now 2 years old and 4 months, and we are right on time for potty training. I feel like we've been dragging it on forever. We started before Thanksgiving and we were doing good until we went away for a few days. That made us start over. Same thing with Christmas. So with all that, I feel like we've been going back and forth forever. Each time, I'm trying to approach it with a different angle, and for that I've been reading a lot on the subject. So I've decided to blog about it. So here it is:

First, you need to find the right potty seat. There are a lot out there, so you can choose whatever you prefer. I personally went with a 4 in 1 type. It can be used as a foot stool and my daughter gets a kick out of that because she can wash her hands all by herself afterward. I've read a blog Today, it was talking about a potty seat that had a "drawer" on each side of the seat. Go check it out: http://www.mommygoggles.com/potty-training-tips/ The only thing is that she's talking about putting wipes in one of the drawer... I just want to throw it out there; make sure that your wipes don't have a warning; "Do Not Flush". I'm just trying to eliminate some problems later;-) I read some nightmare stories about flushing wipes and clogged drain pipes; don't let this happen to you!

Now, I would like to show you the video from Dr.Phil: http://www.youtube.com/user/drphilshow?blend=1&ob=4#p/search/1/CVcady5-uIU
I actually saw it on TV, and it's better on TV than on this video, sorry! The bottom line on this is to "practice" with your child on a doll that "pees". When the doll does it, you throw a party, kind of... ... you make a big deal about it. So you do that a few times, and in between each time you ask your child if they would like to go potty, eventually they will say yes to have their own party!

OK! I just realized that I could go on forever about every trick that I learned, but that blog would become a little too long. So I'm just going to bottom line it for you. Here are some ideas that might help you out:

• Encouragement goes a long way (that is what Dr. Phil was getting at)
  
• Use consistency and patience; stick with it!
  
• Call it a bribe or prize...it's up to you; can be food (M&M), stickers or just the thrill to flush the toilet
  
• For little boys; Daddy does it... & have target practice; Cheerios float on water you know! ;-)
  
• For those field trips... those auto-flushing toilet can be scary... put a post-it in front of the screen, take it out when the job is done!
  
• Buy big girl/boy panties/underwear; we went with Elmo panties... she LOVES Elmo. So, we don't want Elmo (Dora, Diego, Princess, Lightning McQueen, etc) to get dirty, do we??

I think that sums it up! I know their is a lot more out there, but these are the ones that I really liked. I hope you'll find this helpful!

Please feel free to post your hints / tips & tricks-
Good luck and God bless!

Patsy Champagne
http://www.champagnebaby.com/