Your Baby Can Read - Week 2

Your Baby Can Read - Week 2 - 1/23/2012 to 1/29/2012

I am now reporting our son's second week using Your Baby Can Read. He just turned 13 months old and has been using this early reading system for 9 days as of 1/29/2012 (he only watched the video and used the sliding word cards for two days on the first week). I will post these reviews on Tuesdays, so that I can share the information during "Teach Me Tuesdays" when I have the time. If you missed my first blog post and video, you can read my last report / review on the Your Baby Can Read - Week 1 Review page. Here is the 2nd week report and video based on his using the sliding word cards and watching the video 5 days.

END OF WEEK 1 SUMMARY & WEEK 2 RESULTS

On Monday, January 23, 2012, I made a 1st Week Video of our baby's previous weeks results. He said "Hey Baby" and sang "Clean Up" while fidgeting, though did "clap" on demand by the end of the video. That was a summary of the 1st week's progress and started our second week with results to improve upon. WEEK 2 RESULTS- Your Baby Can Read has helped add "cat" and "dog" to his vocabulary. He also growls when he sees a picture of a tiger and perks up when he sees an elephant. Our baby will sometimes lifts his arms when I say "arms up" (which we have been teaching him since he was a few months old, but he would not do it until this week) and he has started clapping on demand a lot more now. He already knew how to say "hi" and "hello", but now he says "hi" whenever we come in the door or a room. He does not always wave when saying "hi", though sometimes when he wants our immediate attention.

WEEK 2 YOUR BABY CAN READ VIDEO OF OUR BABY



VIDEO NOTES: If you listed closely, he replies "a dog" to my first attempt and I totally missed it because I was trying to have him say "cat" in this video. He says "a dog" once when he had the yellow toy to his mouth (as if he thinks them in order" and then he repeats cat several times; one time saying "a cat" because when we ask "what is that" (when reading an animal book) the reply would be "that is A cat" opposed to "what does this word say" where the reply is "cat". I mistakenly called Caillou's cat "Rosie" instead of Gilbert. He still went to the TV to see, though typically will touch the TV screen when I ask "Where's Calious's cat Gilbert". Either way, "cat" is a word that he says all day long and gets excited to see in books or when we do the sliding word cards.

SLIDING WORD CARDS & COMPREHENSION

I have noticed that our baby REALLY enjoys the sliding word cards. He looks at the words as intently as he does the pictures. He sometimes laughs in anticipation of a picture being shown and / or gets really excited. In fact, he seems more excited to have us understand him on the few things he says more than anything. If he catches us look at him, he will say one of his new works and the say "clap" while clapping (as if to say YEAH!). It is really cute and encouraging; therefore, I am anxious to see what his vocabulary and enthusiasm for learning will be like in a few more weeks because even his focus while reading and playing on he mat, with me, has improved. For example, he sat and stacked rings on his own the other day. He never slowed down enough to do that before. He also opens and closes the animals on his Playskool Busy Basics: Busy Poppin' Pals. He was not doing this a week ago. * I am not saying that Your Baby Can Read definitely made these improvements in him; MAYBE it did help stimulate his understanding / comprehension (logic).



As I mentioned last week, our baby does better at watching the Your Baby Can Read video when he is sitting in his high chair and when I am not participating during that time. I did test this again one day. He started out well by watching the video while sitting on his boppy pillow. He eventually stood up and started walking around the room, though sat there for about 1/2 of the video. While walking around the room, he did turn to watch Your Baby Can Read at certain points in the video. He turned to watch the 2 songs and he watched the portion where Your Baby Can Read asks the baby to choice between two words to determine which is the correct word.

Want to try this program with your infant or toddler? Visit this Your Baby Can Read page to learn more!

Let's compare notes! Are you finding Your Baby Can read useful for your child? Do you have a blog post or video to share with us? Please feel free to add the link and let us know what you think of Your Baby Can Read!


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Your Baby Can Read - Week 1

Your Baby Can Read ... Can Our Baby Read, Too?

Watch 1st Week Video Towards The Middle Of This Blog Post

I am embarrassed to say that I am addicted to infomercials and do watch the commercials between shows. I'm not as bad as my mother who buys from the TV, but I have been more than grateful for the Swivel Sweeper, Chopper and other great As Seen On TV products that she has bought me over the years :) My personal favorites are the Baby Bullet, Wen, Bare Minerals and Your Baby Can Read commercials. The funny thing is that our baby watches commercials on Sprout, too. He will "stop short" to watch the ones he likes and ignores me until they are done. Here I was thinking that the companies were advertising the Baby Bullet and the lunch packs to me, but my little guy likes them, too.

I supposed this is a case of Like mother, Like son ... LOL.

Anyways, I have been addicted to the Your Baby Can Read infomercial for years - YES YEARS!!! It started way before I met my husband and had our baby. I was amazed when I first watched the infomercial one 2:00 a.m. and the excitement has followed me all the way up to when I made my husband watch the infomercial when I was pregnant, and to this day. I began stalking their website when I was about 6 months pregnant. My husband did not get hooked on the Your Baby Can Read commercials until after our baby was born. He has been rather adamant about our buying it for months now. I have not agreed about buying it until now.

I have finally given into my curiosity and bought the Your Baby Can Read system. I feel as though we have a need for it.

I've had reservations about buying Your Baby Can Read until now. I was worried about wasting money. I also worried about rushing our baby into learning "sight words" too soon. He is just learning his ABCs ... Now that our baby has turned 1 year old and gets excited over counting, singing the ABCs, reading books, as well as watching certain educational shows like Super Why, Moose & Zee, Zoboomafoo etc., I decided that it was time to get started with Your Baby Can Read for these reasons:

1) Our one year old baby is starting to talk and he says more than the standard "Mama", "Dada", "Hi". Our 1 year old baby says "Clap", "Hey Baby", "Duck" "Quack", "All Done", "That", "This", "1, 2, 3" and sings "Clean Up, Clean Up" if I stop singing the Barney "Clean Up" song while picking up his toys. He might say more words, but this is all that we have understood and our baby has validated with excitement if we repeat him correctly.

2) Our baby is starting to get frustrated that we do not always understand him. He screamed "Mama Eat" the other day after he had been saying it and I did not understand. It was an extremely loud "EEEEEEEEEEE-AAAAAA-T" that finally got my attention and then his laughing hysterically and running to his gate, so that I could pick him up, that confirmed that he wanted to eat ... WOW was it dramatic and I felt so sorry for not understanding him!

3) He sits to watch his favorite shows. As a new walker, our baby runs laps most of the day, but he does sit down on the mat when certain shows catch his attention or I have just turned the TV on for him. I am in hopes that skills learned from Your Baby Can Read will help him understand more of what he is watching.

4) Our baby talks to himself all day long. It is SO CUTE, but I obviously only undertsand a few words he is saying.

5) He gets excited when I count for him; he sits so that I can set up the alphabet blocks and then goes over them 3 times before wanting to play; he loves to learn and is trying to say his numbers and letters.

The only thing that our baby does consistently is come to me for a diaper change when he poops. He does this on demand every time. I find it hard to believe that he can say all of these words / 2 word phrases and dislikes a poopy diaper so much that he understands to get his diaper changed, though he has stopped doing the other things I ask on demand. I know that he understand what I ask because he has said or done these things when I have asked at other times ... For this reason, I swear that my baby has been ignoring me and have turned to Your Baby Can Read thinking that it can help!

Here are a few examples of how I know our baby is ignoring us: 1) he used to clap on demand, now he claps at random times that he feels like it, 2) he used to touch his ear whenever I said ear and now he just looks at me like I am crazy 3) he used to lift his arms when I asked him to, so that I can put the high chair try on. He stopped lifting his arms on demand, too. He is starting to ignore when we call his name or when I ask him to pick something up. THE BIGGIE is that he has started having temper tantrums when he wants something and no one in our family understands what he is saying. He is also starting to have temper tantrums when we say "NO" ... (Can you believe this? He is already getting mad when we say no?). I decided to buy Your Baby Can Read and get it started now, so that I can add the Signing Times program along with it.

I am going to post weekly videos and / or notes on how the Your Baby Can Read system works for our baby Max.



YOUR BABY CAN READ - WEEK #1 - BABY IS 1 YEAR 3 WEEKS OLD

• Purchase Day & Notes - I bought the Your Baby Can Read Volume 1 on Friday, January 20, 2012. Volume 1 came with came with the 1st Multi-Sensory DVD, 6 Sliding Word Cards, 1 Wipe-Clean Word Car and 1 Erasable, Non-Toxic Pen.
• Day #1 - I sat our baby in his high chair and turned on the DVD. He remained engaged with the program through the whole lesson and was positive about doing the Sliding Word Cards with me; we did them twice, he smiled, though did not repeat anything with me (not even the clapping which is one of his favorite games to play with me).
• Day #2 - I sat our baby on my lap to watch Your Baby Can Read. I started interacting with it as the video said to say or do things. This kind of irritated our baby, so I will not interact with it from now on. Additionally, our baby did fidget a lot today and wanted to walk around a bit. I will not hold him while watching Your Baby Can Read. I will put him in the high chair from now on. I did watch our baby touching his nose at that portion of the video. He did it one time and very quickly ... This HUGE because I have been trying to get him to do this for over a week. He liked doing the flash cards.

Week #1 facts & opinion(s) of Your Baby Can Read:

Your Baby Can Read is not as animated as I expected. It is rather cut and dry words, animals and clips of children providing examples in comparison to what my baby is used to from watching Super Why or Sesame Street. I can see this being a problem for older babies that are used to more animated and technological learning (like V-Tech). My baby was OK with watching Your Baby Can Read and doing the Sliding Word & Picture Cards so long as he was sitting away from me and in a containing chair (high chair). For these reasons, I would RECOMMEND preparing a child to sit and watch these DVDs before they become mobile (the Volume 1 box says as early as 3 months). You can do this by sitting your baby on your lap to watch Sprout for about an hour each day or buy Your Baby Can Read and get started at 3 months. If I had to do again, I would have started our baby around 6 months opposed to a year old.

WEEK 1 RESULTS WERE POSITIVE

- Our baby touched his nose on the second day / 2nd time watching the DVD.
- He started clapping on demand again.
- He pays attention to the video; especially the animals and "which word"portion.
- He sit for and enjoys the sliding word card more than I expected.

if you want to try this program with your infant or toddler? Visit this Your Baby Can Read page to learn more!

It's your turn to share! Did you find this blog post useful? Are my notes similar to yours? Have you tried Your Baby Can Read? Let us know!

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Netflix For Baby Clothes? Do You Buy It?

Check out this cute video and tell me what you think!

* Please note that I am not a customer nor receive payment for sharing information on Plum Gear. I just think it is a nice resource for parents and have read good reviews.

Plum Gear is a new business that is quickly creating a buzz as the "Netflix for Baby Clothes" for children ages 0 to 2 years old. The offer a cute selection of organically laundered boy and girls clothes for monthly rental ranging from $16 a month for 2 baby outfits and up to $49 a month for 7 baby outfits. They offer "boutique baby clothes" from Egg Baby, Petit Bateau, Kate Quinn Organics and Tea Collection. I was not familiar with these brands until now, but I checked out their website (very easy to use) and the clothes are really cute!

The concept is that you can borrow the baby clothes for as long as you like (just like with Netflix videos). You chose baby outfits depending on what you need and keep them for how long you want to use them (up to 30 days or more). So long as your account is active, you have no restocking fees. They provide free round trip shipping, so you order the outfits you want online, the company ships them the baby clothes to you and then you ship them back to Plum Gear when you are finished with them.

Aside of the convenience, what I like about this service is that moms don't have to worry if the baby clothes get's these clothes stained or damaged. In that case, Plum Gear will repair the item of clothing and then donated to foster care, or send badly damaged to a clothing recycle facility.

You would have to do the math on whether this is more cost effective for your budget, but for someone that likes these baby clothes brands and would like to add variety to their baby's wardrobe, renting baby clothes might be a desirable option.

Would you use this baby clothes rental service?

In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

2 Year Old Chinese Baby Hit By Two Cars & Left To Die | Please Pray For This Little Girl

WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS NOT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN

Moms, this blog post is dedicated to prayer for the family of Yueyue (Wang Yue). She is the 2 year old baby, that was hit by a van and truck on October 15, 2011 in Guangzhou Foshan China. Both of the drivers and 18 pedestrians left this toddler to die on the street (well, one pulled her out of the street towards the trash). Unfortunately, her mother was doing laundry in the building and did not get to child until well after these horrible incident occurs. Alas, the 19th person was the one to save Yueyue life. It was an elderly trash collector named Chen Yianmei that came to her aid. Ms. Yianmei could only cry as she explained Yueyue's condition when she found her. This 2 year old is in now in a deep coma and on life support in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.

WATCH THIS VIDEO FROM CNC CHINA NEWS

If you are having a hard time understanding the Chinese video, try this YouTube video.

18 people passed this poor little girl on the busy street in Foshan City and did NOTHING to help her. The 3 that stand out the most to me are the following:

1) Man stopped his motorcycle to look at her and drove off without helping.

2) Mother walks past with her child and does not do a thing.

3) Woman from the store pulls the fractured toddler out of the street and leaves her.

It is just heart breaking to watch this poor child brutalized like this, though we need to understand and take note of why these Chinese citizens did not help her. As explained by CNC China video, the Chinese public wanted to know why there was no "empathy from the passersby" and about the "lack of morals in modern society". Many explained that they are due to the many cases where they were accused of hurting elderly people when they were really trying to help them. Some people state that they have “lost their faith in human nature” because of such situations.

What happened to the 2 drivers that hit the little girl?

The truck driver (2nd vehicle) was arrested, but they could not get the license plate number of the van (1st driver) from the surveillance video. The police asked witnesses to help, so this prompted the van driver to call Yueyue’s father and say that he would not turn himself in to the police, but would give the parents money. The driver also explained that his plans were to leave his wife and children, go into hiding for the rest of his life and make less money from jobs out of the city. He was finally arrested yesterday, October 17, 2011.

UPDATE 10/21 - PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS POOR CHILD'S FAMILY. SHE DID NOT SURVIVE AND WE ALL GRIEVE THEIR LOSS.


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Onward & Forward | 8 Months Old Baby Max

Video of our baby at 8 months old (I love his smile here)

Our baby will turn 9 months on September 27th. I am feeling both melancholy and excited because 8 months was such an incredible age. I am sad that our sweet little baby has to grow up. I am excited by how much he developed this month and how much more we have to look forward to in years to come. I am embarrassed to admit that I had forgotten how much an 8 month old baby learns in just a few short weeks. I just want to throw a "Sweet 8 Months" party for him ... limousine and all :) I will share his 8 month changes instead of the party, so that other moms will have something to go by aside of the textbook "milestones" chart. The following are all of the interests and changes our baby had at 8 months old:

Hair Growth
Max went from being just about bald to having a nice layer of sliky brown hair that I can make stick up like Alfalfa from the Little Rascals :) This is actually the length it was when he was born and then it thinned out, so it's nice to see our baby with hair ... again.

Teething / Cutting Teeth
Our 8 month old baby has 4 teeth (the two front teeth at the top and the two front teeth at the bottom). He bites crackers with these 4 teeth. He sometimes bites while nursing, but not as often as I would expect. He has started gnarling on the crib and playpen. All of his toys are being used to shave those 4 rigid teeth smooth, as well as on his gums that are expecting more teeth.

Increased Verbal / Talking / Singing
We are not certain that he knows what he is saying, but we hear "maaaa" (mom), "da da" (dad) and "baaaaha" (brother) all of the time. I have to think that he is calling our names as we have taught him because I hear them screamed at us in the morning if he has woken before us and wants picked up out of the crib. He also says them throughout the day and gets really excited when the right person responds and / or picks him up. I have recently heard him singing with his toys and TV shows. I swear that he is trying to do his ABC sometimes because he starts singing "ahhhhhhh ahhhhhh" and then I hear "aaaaaaaaaa" (long A sound) and "oooooooooo" (long O sound) in an exaggeratedly friggy voice. It is so cute that he stops me in my tracks ... I get that melancholy / excited feeling so badly that it gives me pangs in my heart. Max cries, calls for us and speaks LOUDLY, too. I even find that comical, though have been working on some volume control around here (in how we interact with him), so that we are not speaking too loud around him.

Crawling / Standing
Max crawls like a champ. He has totally stopped using his swing and lets us know when he wants out of his play yard and pack n play, so that he can move around. This is so great because he is getting so worn out that he is starting to sleep through the night (FINALLY). He is pulling himself up to stand. He uses furniture, walls to his play yard and our legs :) One day he pushed a Pampers box around the house, so that he could walk hunched over. He used a flipped over laundry basket and his high chair to try to walk the other day. It was so cute! I have no doubt in my mind that he will be walking in his 9th month, so the house is all baby proofed and ready for him.

Sprout / Nick Jr
Although I swore that this child would not have early exposure to TV, we do let Max watch TV and it is obvious that he has favorite TV shows. His responsiveness is amazing. Prior to this month (7 months old), Max would watch for a bit and become bored more quickly. Now, he stands in his pack n play or crawls over to the TV stand and holds himself up, so that he can watch closely. He laughs, bounces, talks and sings to his favorite shows. He gets fussy if it is not a show he likes as much and totally loves the memory card and shapes "commercials" they have in between shows. He is learning a lot from these TV shows, so they compliment what we are doing with him.

Learning / Playing
Max has always been responsive to our playing with him and has a few favorite toys, but he plays alone now and plays back with us. He is at the point that he crawls to his toy bins, pulls himself up and selects what he wants to play with each time. This is so much fun. He is pressing the buttons when we point them out, watching how we play with toys that he is not familiar with and dragging them across the room to his father, brother or me when he wants us to play. The best was when he sat flipping through one of his book the other day. It was just a few seconds, but he was "reading" all the same :)

Little Upsets / Temper Tantrums

Lastly, our 8 month old has started having tantrums (not just fussing or crying), but the cutest angry faces and feet kicking that I have ever seen BECAUSE HE HAS A DIRTY DIAPER. Our baby cannot stand to have a poopy diaper and lets us know just as soon as he has "done his duty". He sits up with his feet out and kicks left, right, left, right and makes a nuh sound until we pick him up to change him (which is almost immediately because now we know what is wrong with him). If we let it go on to long, it can be quite annoying to all of us :)

8 month old babies are fun ...

All in all, this has been such an adorable, progressive and heart warming age that I cannot stand for this stage to end (even the teething and starting of temper tantrums) , but I know that I have no choice. Our 8 month old baby will turn 9 months on the 27th of September ... I have to live with it :( The funny thing is that most people "feel some kind of way" about THEIR mortality; especially as they are approaching 40 (which anyone over 35 knows what I mean).

Watching my baby grow up is making me feel this way about humanity.

UPDATE: 9 Month Milestones and baby Max's development notes.


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child

Has My Infant Been Talking To Me? Baby Talk

Picture of Baby Talking - Baby Max - 7 Weeks Old - February 2011

I am an infomercial addict ... especially when it comes to "kid stuff"! 

Yes, I know that some people think that infomercials are a horrible waste of time and I rarely do buy anything from them, but I LOVE learning about all of those "useful", new and amazing products.

One of my absolute favorite infomercials is Your Baby Can Read. I've been watching it for years and just about drove Max's dad crazy during our pregnancy ... We have to have it! Meanwhile, I never thought that I would ever have the opportunity to buy it for a baby of my own ... nor that his father would FINALLY watch the infomercials with me once the baby was born (LOL, he even questioned which languages it comes in). We cannot wait to buy Your Baby Can Read and another program called Signing Time.

Why haven't we bought Your Baby Can Read or Signing Time?

The problem is that we still have a few months before Max can see well enough and focus long enough for the programs. It is good to start Your Baby Can Read as early as 3 months and some studies have show babies as young as 5 or 6 months can use Signing Time. Regardless, as I was exploring these options, I came across another program called Dunstan Baby Language. It was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and I find it somewhat accurate for our baby. The premise of the program is that ...

"All newborn babies produce 5 distinct "pre-cry" sounds that signal their 5 most important needs. By listening for these subtle cries, you are able to prevent the crying from even starting. Dunstan Baby Language System will teach you to identify exactly what sounds to listen for, so you know precisely what your newborn needs. Learn how to listen to your baby's 'babble', and respond quickly. Your baby will reward you by sleeping more, allowing you to sleep more."

I don't know about you, but it breaks my heart when my baby cries and I cannot sooth him. 

Crying at night is not an issue for us. Max sleeps pretty well, and it is obvious that he wants changed or fed if he cries at night. I am more concerned with the crying that comes out of the blue and not knowing why my baby is crying so hard (is he hungry? is he wet or solid? is he tired? is he hurt? does he have gas? is he bored?).  This is what prompted me to pay very close attention to the signals he gives me when leading up to, during and after he cries. It's also why I'm glad to have come across the Dunstan Baby Language System.

The funniest thing is that I kept telling our family that Max has been talking to us these past 3 weeks. His father thought that I was crazy until I introduced him to the Dunstan Baby Language website. Now he agrees ...


If you watch this short video until it ends, you will see this baby using body language to communicate that he is starting to get hungry. You will also hear the baby saying "Ney" to communicate that he is hungry and ready to eat ... as explained below in this blog post.

The following is what I have noticed about our child. Compare it to your baby and what is stated on the Dunstan Baby Language website ... it's too cool!

"NEY"
He sounds just like a sheep, but this lets me know when he is ready to eat because sometimes he just needs to get burped again or wants to rest on my chest. Dunstan lists "NEY" as the cry for hungry. It is quite valid in Max's case. In fact, he can become a quite assertive "neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey" when he is impatient or starving after a long nap. Dunstan was right on point for this one.

"HEY"
Max sometimes says "Hey" when we walk out of the room (when he is alone for a span of time). Now that he is 7 weeks old, we are both confident that he is and has been calling us back to him. It is just comical and that "hey" can get rather loud and frustrated if we do not answer quickly enough. I tested this by responding to him from another room. Max will get quiet for a second or two, though start with the "hey" again if we do not speak again from the other room or come into the room where he is calling, "hey". It is just a hoot. Dunstan Baby Language attributes this to discomfort (which it very well could be for Max) - our family reads it as Max just does not want to be alone (a different type of discomfort - loneliness / abandonment).

There are 5 types of crying and we have confirmed 2 thus far. As per the other 3 types cries, Max must have a language of his own because we cannot distinguish these, but this does not mean that we will not. We notice changes with our baby ever day, so I'll have to get back to you on whether he meets the status quo for cries that distinguish his need to burp, gas or being tired.

I do know that our baby was able to communicate whether he wanted to nurse or have the pacifier by 2 1/2 weeks. Max would instinctively reach one hand to his mouth and do a quick touch (awkward poke or quick fist to mouth) to signify that he was checking for his pacifier. On the other hand, he would quickly rub both hands / fists and make panting sound if he wanted to nurse. This was awesome because I could somewhat avoid unnecessary crying by watching his actions. Now that Max is 8 weeks old, he will also block the SOOTHIE pacifier with his tongue when he wants the NUK or does not want a pacifier at all. He will most often stop fussing when he sees my breast (and they say babies do not see well - phooey!). i.e, This is not addressed in the Dunstan Baby Language, but think that it is interesting enough to share with other moms.

The point here is that although all babies cry, you can make your baby more comfortable and avoid potentially stressful situations by recognizing their indicators (as stated in my examples above). We use the pacifier much less now that we are listening and watching how our baby communicates. I think that the Dunstan Baby Language is useful to new mommies and those who want to be more sensitive and in tune as their baby develops.  

I hope that you enjoyed this blog post and video :)


In Motherly Love,
Mother Baby Child