Sugar, get the HFCS out of my kitchen!!

I never thought I'd be reading the sides of food packages to MAKE SURE that they contain sugar - the real stuff. Not corn syrup. Not sacchrine. Not aspartame (yuck!!!). And, certainly not High Fructose Corn Syrup, a truly terrible invention that has oozed its way into practically every food item you can think of.

HFCS, as its known around our house, is worse than just empty calories. It actually goes further to harm your system by not registering a feeling of 'fullness' when you eat usually causing you to eat more. Or drink more Coke.

Go on - check your pantry, fridge and freezer - you'll be shocked how many foods contain HFCS. Heinz ketchup, waffles, pasta sauce, bread....on and on...its nearly impossible to avoid it. And, all those packages that catch your eye with 'Sugar Free', yep, its usually HFCS instead. I avoid them like the plague and search for that fattening (yes, but at least I know what I'm eating) SUGARY foods.

Interestingly (though not surprisingly), HFCS..

Currently, HFCS remains an almost uniquely American phenomenon.

In Europe, whilst HFCS is not specifically banned, the greater availability of cane sugar over maize would make it uneconomical to produce it there. American HFCS cannot usually be imported to the European Union because of the European Union's moratorium on the production and sale of genetically modified products.

Finnish study - TV causes sleep problems for kids

Children who passively watch television programmes geared for adults have a greater risk of sleep disturbances. According to a study carried out by the University of Tampere, families with children should not leave the TV on continuously.

What's your sign, baby?

A story on NPR this morning highlighted the trend in the US for more parents using sign language to communicate with their pre-verbal ones. Its a frustrating time for parents and children when the babies reach an age that they try to communicate needs and wants, but simply can't. Evidently, children learn more hand gestures and movements much earlier than how to make the mouth, tongue, vocal chords coordinate to make words.

I can see us approaching that stage with Peanut, too.

At Gymboree, where we go to play once a week, there are also baby sign classes that start as early as just a few months old! And, here in Coppell, the local Kindermusik also teaches a baby sign class.

Peanut & I went to a preview of the Korner Kottage Kindermusik class one day at the library. We went through a mini-lesson which included learning signs for 'the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.' Not very useful. However, useful were 'its time to clean-up' and 'jumping' and 'stop'. Ideas like 'please' and 'thank you' seemed a bit too abstract for me when we still haven't mastered 'milk' or 'sleep'. The instructor made several claims about the benefits of baby sign that I also found difficult to believe:

• raise child's IQ !! (how on earth would you know?!)
• learn words faster - a signing baby has vocab of 20 or more signs at 12 mos

Maybe....even ABC News had a story supporting the higher IQ theory....

Alex is one of 140 sign language babies followed by researchers for the past 16 years as part of a long-term study on the effects of signing with babies.

These days, Alex is an A student who is outgoing and involved in athletics. Acredolo says children like Alex, who've learned sign language at an early age, seem to be high achievers.

Acredolo says when these children had their IQs tested at 8 years old, they scored an average of 12 points higher than the control group. She says the same children also achieved higher-than-average scores on their SATs.

Though we haven't followed 'real' baby signs, we do have a few of our own around the house with Peanut. One of the most effective ones has been rubbing her palms together at the table to let us know when she is done eating. We also have signs for brushing teeth ( imitation of tooth brush on teeth) and water (action like bringing cup to mouth).

Here are the official signs based on American Sign Language for many toddler interesting words! And a link to Baby Signs with plenty of other resources.

Giant Turtle moves into our backyard

Its Peanut's new/used sandbox! We filled up last night and Peanut quickly stuck her hands in. her papa was having as much fun with the sandwheel :-)

I'd been told about a woman who runs a consignment biz out of her home for these types of toys. I paid $16 for Peanut's Little Tikes turtle box, they retail for around $40 - 60. She had even replaced the eyes on it :-)

She has the whole collection in her backyard in Flower Mound - very close to Sprout's supermarket! Some of the outdoor stuff was quite faded from being out in the sun, but looked to be in decent condition. For the indoor toys like kitchens, workbenches, cash registers, etc, she often gets all the accessories from the manufacturer.

I just haven't figured out yet how to come to terms with having such big pieces of plastic filling up our yard! But, if Peanut enjoys them then it doesn't really matter what they look like. What I like about finding this consignor is that there is a bit of a recycling element to buying from her. We're helping to reuse something someone else has outgrown and then when we're done, we can trade it in with her and pass it around again.

Don't email her, she doesn't check her email -- call her if you want to make an appointment.

Judy Moore

972-539-4563 or 469 233 4050

ToysforTykes

( i think the photos here look better than the toys did in real life)