My friend Melissa, I mean Boobie Chickendoodle, sent this to me in an email.  When I discovered that my new name was Snickle Rhinonose, I laughed out loud.  For the next ten minutes I renamed everyone I knew, and then decided to share with you.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!

The following is excerpted from a children’s book, Captain Underpants And the Perilous Plot Professor Poopypants, by Dav Pilkey, in which the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names…

1. Use the third letter of your first name to determine your new first name:

a = snickle
b = doombah
c = goober
d = cheesey
e = crusty
f = greasy
g = dumbo
h = farcus
i = dorky
j = doofus
k = funky
l = boobie
m = sleezy
n = sloopy
o = fluffy
p = stinky
q = slimy
r = dorfus
s = snooty
t = tootsie
u = dipsy
v = sneezy
w = liver
x = skippy
y = dinky
z = zippy

2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first half of your new last name:

a = dippin
b = feather
c = batty
d = burger
e = chicken
f = barffy
g = lizard
h = waffle
i = farkle
j = monkey
k = flippin
l = fricken
m = bubble
n = rhino
o = potty
p = hamster
q = buckle
r = gizzard
s = lickin
t = snickle
u = chuckle
v = pickle
w = hubble
x = dingle
y = gorilla
z = girdle

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half of your new last name:

a = butt
b = boob
c = face
d = nose
e = hump
f = breath
g = pants
h = shorts
i = lips
j = honker
k = head
l = tush
m = chunks
n = dunkin
o = brains
p = biscuits
q = toes
r = doodle
s = fanny
t = sniffer
u = sprinkles
v = frack
w = squirt
x = humperdinck
y = hiney
z = juice

What’s your new name?

Children laugh an average of 146 times a day; adults laugh an average of 4 times a day. I hope this helped you exceed your quota

- Your Friend,

Snickle

Get crafty with these free printable iron-ons for your baby! Choose from two different iron-ons, “Breastfed and Lovin It” or “I’m the Cutest Baby at Babies Online” in sizes that work for babies of all ages. You’ll find printable PDF files for both designs and easy to follow instructions, all free!

Be a Babies Online star!

Send us a photo of your baby wearing your creation and we’ll consider featuring you in our gallery!

We even have a way for our not-so-crafty friends to share in the fun. Check out our Baby Gear Store for pre-made t-shirts, totebags, and more!

You’ll find this freebie and over 100 more on our Free Stuff for Parents page.

Enjoy!

Shannon @Babiesonline

I know that most of our readers are married, but still I thought I would pass on this interesting email I received.  Please note that I have not verified its integrity, that is up to you…

Hi my name is Tony Miros and I am working with TVLand on a new program called “First Love Second Chance“. We are reaching out to High School and University alumni associations to reach people who may be interested in appearing on the show. My hope is with either your help, or the help of your organization and others we can spread the word about this opportunity. Here is the blurb on the show we are casting…

“Ever wondered what happened to the one that got away? To your high school sweetheart or college love? That’s the question at the heart of this new TV Land program which reunites former couples and gives them a glimpse of what life would have been like if they’d stayed together. In each one-hour episode, a former girlfriend and boyfriend who are currently single will be reunited for an evening to see whether they can stand the idea of living with each other for two weeks -one week in her home with her life, the second in his. Will the passage of time and their differing life experiences have changed them beyond recognition? Will they be tempted once again by each other, or decide they can’t get far enough away? First Love, Second Chance reveals whether true first love conquers all for the couples -or whether they discover that they had a lucky escape first time around!

If you are single, mid 30’s to mid to late 40’s and looking to reconnect with a past love, we want to hear from you!

If you are interested or want to tell us your story of lost love, please visit us at www.cornwellcasting.com

Warmest regards -

Tony Miros,  Casting Director

As 2008 comes to an end, we’re looking forward to all the cool stuff we have planned for next year. To fully take advantage of everything that Babies Online 2.0 will have to offer, you really should be in the “inner circle.”

The first step was, obviously, registering with Babies Online. Step two is simply being our friend.

Many of you are already play with us on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter, but we just set up our Youtube and Flickr accounts and hope that you’ll join us there as well. And to encourage you to be our friend sooner rather than later, we’re giving two random friends some cool prizes this New Years Eve!

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Free Stuff for Youtube Friends

One lucky friend of Babies Online on Youtube will win a Flip Video Mino Camcorder!

All you need to do to be eligible is add us as to your Youtube contact list today before New Years Eve (but why wait, go ahead and do it now). While you’re there you can subscribe to our channel and be the first to know when we upload new videos, and you can also join the Babies Online Group to share your precious baby videos with other members!

We will choose one random Youtube friend on 12/31/2008 to win this awesome pint-sized camcorder. (Please note that we can only ship within the US)

Free Stuff for Flickr Friends

Oh we haven’t forgotten about our Flickr Friends! One of you will win my personal favorite point and shoot camera: Canon’s PowerShot SD1100IS, so be sure to make Babies Online your Flickr Friend today! And yes, we have a Babies Online Flickr Group too, so please be sure to join and share your pics with us!

We will choose one random Flickr friend on 12/31/2008 to win this great pocketsized camera. (Please note that we can only ship within the US)

Be sure to tell your friends to join us too! We’ll have a multi-media-momma party!

Motrin’s new ad campaign, “Mom-alogue,” has in a way, done exactly what it was intended to do: get mothers talking. However I don’t think they quite expected this.

Moms, dads, and other Tweeters are spittin’ mad for what they believe is a degrading commercial video at Motrin.com. What did they do about it? They took it to the net. Twitter to be exact. Through this popular new communication tool, “telling two friends” has made the “motrinmoms” topic the most discussed conversation on the internet.

“AMassofHumanity: Yikes! Moms starting a revolution against Motrin over their latest commercial. PR nightmare. #motrinmoms“

There are thousands of comments like this on Twitter, commonly referred to as tweets, and new ones are being added every single second.

What is a Twitter you say? It’s only the most awesome way to communicate online, like, EVER! Yes, I’m what you would call twiddicted. And for good reason. Twitter is a free, fun, and efficient way to keep up with your friends and associates (in 140 character or less increments). It is fast becoming the most popular way for social groups, business, and organizations to communicate rapidly and easily. If you want to know more about it, check out Twitterhandbook.com – or heck, just ask me! I love teaching people how to use Twitter. It’s fast becoming my hobby.

And yes, you will find @Babiesonline there too

Ok, I should stop gushing about Twitter and get back to the story … I heard about the Motrin debacle from someone I follow: @AlohaArleen – she heard about it from her friends and tweeted the news, I picked it up from her and retweeted the news to my followers, who in turn retweeted to theirs, and so on, and so on. It has hit such mass proportions that I’d be surprised if the video is still there by the time you read this post. I’ll also be surprised if the PR Department for Motrin isn’t popping their product by the handful come Monday morning when the backlash hits the corporate offices.

But that’s the risk you take when you mess with moms who tweet!

This article was written in part by Arleen Anderson

Are you an internet savvy mom?

Are you tired of sifting through millions of search results when looking for pregnancy, baby, and parenting information?

If so, be sure to check out Babies Online’s all new Baby & Pregnancy Search Toolbar plugin and get relevant results every time you search!

Oh, and super double triple bonus: It’s free!

Last night I was playing around in my Facebook account and thought it’d be fun to start a BabiesOnline Moms Group. Come join us at Facebook by following this link or searching groups for Babies Online).

Not familiar with Facebook? You should check out about.com’s Facebook Dos and Don’ts page and then create your account!

So today I logged into Myspace and saw in my Friend Subscriptions that Tom uploaded this video to his profile. Why I’m privy to what Tom does I don’t know, since he’s not my “friend” … but the video was worth a peek nonetheless.

Enjoy!

Thank you to those of you who took the time to report the bug in our uploading software.? Apparently I broke something last week when upgrading the member’s area.? I finally figured it out and fixed it, so you should be able to upload photos to your baby’s home page again.

My apologies for the inconvenience!

Shannon

I’m a wannabe amateur photographer.

Tonight I was surfing around Flickr and found this picture…

Whoa, originally uploaded by dcumminsusa.

PRICELESS!

Babies Online was down due to a cut fiber-optic line from 5:30am to 10:30am ET. Everything seems to be back up and running just fine now.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

My mother had the most creative names for my childhood meals … macaroni & cheese and tuna, malted milkshakes with raw egg, and my all-time favorite, eggs in a bowl with toast.

A breakfast comfort food I had long forgotten, I stumbled across this recipe about a year ago and have been making it semi-regularly ever since. It’s only a 50/50 hit with the kids in my house, but I like it, so I continue to make it.

For this recipe to be complete, tear up pieces of toasted & buttered bread and place in a bowl. Pour creamed eggs over toast, mix, and dig in.

Enjoy!

Oooooh I know it’s late, but I just found out that Santa is in Trinidad! Where is he going next? Visit Norad’s Santa Tracker to find out!

Barneycam VI: Holiday in the National Parks

You know it’s Christmastime at the White House when the Barneycam is rolled out again …

Learning Through Senses ? The Key To A Child’s Development

(NC)?The first few years of a child’s life are full of new and exciting experiences that are absorbed like a sponge through the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight and sound. From birth, newborns are bombarded with a busy world that they must learn to master. It is the senses that pave the way for a child’s development throughout his or her life.

“From birth, parents must choose toys and learning tools for their child that are fun and enjoyable to play with and that also foster sensorial growth to ensure a more complete development process,” says Dr. Kathleen Alfano, leading child Researcher and Director of the Fisher-Price Child Research Department.

A baby can start to develop hand-eye coordination, watch moving objects and be able to distinguish color and form within the first few months. Toys that will help develop these skills include the Peek-A-Blocks line from Fisher-Price – a creative and fun alternative to classic building blocks. Different series of these clear, stackable blocks are filled with everything from cute animals to fun shapes and foster the development of different senses. Touch Sensations blocks are made of different textures for baby to explore and Sound Sensations include blocks that ring and squeak.

Finding toys that will stimulate a few senses at a time are also helpful in sensory development, as a child will have to learn that in most situations, combining senses are crucial to perception. The Winnie The Pooh 1, 2, 3 Exploring Tree from Fisher-Price will keep a baby engaged and captivated from the time he/she can sit up to the time he/she can stand. Along the base, basic infant activities nurture hand-eye coordination, while Winnie The Pooh sits atop the tree among a flurry of soft, bright butterflies.

Introducing a baby to sounds, bright colors and action-based toys will make playtime more fun and enjoyable and is a good way to enhance a child’s creative abilities and imagination from an early age, teaching him/her to unlock the wonder and excitement of the world around them by simply making “sense” of it.

- News Canada

About The Author
News Canada provides a wide selection of current, ready-to-use copyright free news stories and ideas for Television, Print, Radio, and the Web. News Canada is a niche service in public relations, offering access to print, radio, television, and now the Internet media, with ready-to-use, editorial “fill” items. Monitoring and analysis are two more of our primary services. The service supplies access to the national media for marketers in the private, the public, and the not-for-profit sectors. Your corporate and product news, consumer tips and information are packaged in a variety of ready-to-use formats and are made available to every Canadian media organization including weekly and daily newspapers, cable and commercial television stations, radio stations, as well as the Web sites Canadians visit most often. Visit News Canada and learn more about the NC services.

How Children Learn

Nurture and Teach
The single most important thing caregivers can do for a child is provide a nurturing environment. By doing this, we influence children?s brain development and their ability to learn. Introducing nurtured children to learning opportunities every day will help them become happy, well-adjusted adults. In all stages of child development, each experience builds on the one before it. The most basic foundations can serve as the basis for the comprehension of more complex ideas in future years.

Learning Begins at Birth
We are born with billions of brain cells ? in fact, all we will ever have. What is missing is a large amount of connections ? synapses ? between those brain cells. Synapses start developing based on a child?s experiences. Children?s brains develop faster from birth to age three than any other time; and more learning takes place during this time than any other. The more learning opportunities parents provide for their children from birth until school age, the more synapses are made. The connections will serve as a pool of knowledge for a child to access in later years.

Because children?s earliest experiences affect how they will think, learn and behave, helping children learn from birth to school age is a crucial activity. Parents and other caregivers can create a strong foundation for learning by providing a nurturing and rich learning environment from the very beginning.

Children Seek Learning Experiences
Not only do children need to be physically active, it is their nature to look for opportunities to learn. They participate in learning by using their senses and asking countless questions in order to more fully understand the task at hand.

Creating a Learning Environment
Children enjoy learning when they can master an activity. Begin with a simple task and expand or complicate it after your child has enjoyed some successes.

Create a safe and secure learning environment. This will help children do their best learning rather than distract them. Key to creating this environment is treating your child with respect and caring.

Where Do Children Learn?
Children learn everywhere from school to the doctor?s office to the grocery store. As do adults, children learn from interacting with others and watching their parents? behavior. Kids are highly influenced by the people in their lives, especially adults who they are close to.

Not All Children Learn in the Same Way
In the book Frame of Mind, Howard Gardner described his theory of multiple intelligences. We all have a certain way we prefer to learn. The seven multiple intelligences Gardner points to are interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, musical, logical-mathematical and linguistic. We have the most success teaching our children when we can recognize their style of learning (as well as our style of teaching) and incorporate activities accordingly.

Playing and Learning
The main way children collect and process information is through play. Play is the repetition that reinforces old skills and encourages new ones. Because play is enjoyable, children?s minds are open. Children are capable of much learning through play because they are very receptive and relaxed. Take advantage of this benefit and select activities that are fun and educational. Your children will learn, and you will both enjoy the experience.

About The Author
Shelley Ruiz is a homeschooling parent and the owner of Magic Lark Learning which provides parents and teachers with resources for making learning fun, including a free quarterly online journal of poems and stories for kids. anything@magiclarklearning.com.

Potty Training a 2 Year Old

You have heard those stories about the toddlers who are completely potty trained at 18 months old. Their mothers walk around bragging and all smug, while you sit there looking at your 2 1/2 year old, wondering why he isn’t interested at all. Some mothers worry that there is something wrong developmentally with their child if they aren’t potty trained and seem to have no interest in potty training. In reality, this is perfectly normal.

A study put out by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia states that the average age for a child to start potty training is 27 months. This being the average age, there are a lot of toddlers that won’t be completely potty trained till after their third birthday.

You can try to encourage your child to potty train, but you shouldn’t push them or get mad as it could only slow the process for them. When your child starts to show interest in YOU going potty, ask them if they want to sit down and try. Many kids might be scared or might just say no. Try to put them on their own potty chair or on the toilet before and after baths, right before bed, or first thing when they wake up in the morning. Some kids will be more comfortable on their own potty chair, others will want to try it like a “big person”.If you have a child that just doesn’t “get it”, see if you can get them to sit on the toilet or potty chair and try giving him milk, juice or water. Have him sit there till he goes, as the urge might still be involuntary. When he does go applaud and cheer, make a big deal out of it. Chances are he may not know the jist of what he did, but he will know that he pee’d in the potty and you are happy. This praise from parents can often help a child along.

Dr. Phil has his own advice and tips when it comes to teaching your child the art of potty training. Several celebrities have used his methods and believe that they worked in helping them succeed in training their child, including Holly Robinson Peete and Vanessa Marcil. His method includes getting a doll that wets letting the child see this doll going potty and getting praise, so that the child wants the praise as well.

Often times, subsequent children potty train faster than your first. Seeing an older sibling running around is often encouragement for a toddler to hurry up and get there. They want to be like their older sibling. Also, getting a child to not only pee, but poop on the toilet can be a challenge in itself, especially for boys. For some reason boys seem to find it harder than girls to get fully potty trained.

There are no concrete methods that will guarantee your 2 year old will potty train when you are ready for him too, if he is not ready. It is best to remember that you just not push him, get mad, or yell if he isn’t doing it fast enough. Don’t make it seem like a big deal so that your child doesn’t fight the effort to learn. Eventually something in your child’s head will “click” and your child will be ready to potty train. After all, how many kindergarteners do you know who start school still in diapers?

Infantino Recalls Infant Teethers Due to Choking Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Infantino? Lion Teethers

Units: About 28,000

Manufacturer: Infantino? LLC, of San Diego, Calif.

Hazard: The plastic nose can detach, posing a choking hazard to young children.

Incidents/Injuries: Infantino? has received eight reports of the nose detaching, including one report of a child gagging on the bitten off nose.

Description: This recall involves Infantino? lion teethers. The yellow and orange plastic teethers have date codes 6116, 6129, 6158, 6137, 0606, 0806, 0906, and 1006. The date codes are located on the back of the lion?s head, above the Infantino? logo. Lion teethers with other date codes are not included in this recall.

Sold at: Babies ?R? Us, Pottery Barn Kids and other specialty stores nationwide from June 2006 through December 2007 for about $5.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should take the recalled toys away from young children immediately and contact Infantino? for a replacement teether or a product of equal value.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Infantino? toll-free at (888) 808-3111 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm?s Web site at www.service.infantino.com

Sometime around three months your baby will probably realize that he can grab things and hold onto them. It could be the blanket you are covering him with, a rattle, his pacifier, or another toy. It could also be your hair, your necklace, your dangling earrings or daddy’s tie. This milestone is a great one, even though it might sometimes be painful.

One of a baby’s favorite things to grab is long hair. We are not sure why a baby always seems to take a hold of it and yank, but they do! Sometimes it will be difficult to get them to let go as well. If your baby feels like he is falling or knows that you are about to lay him down, he may grab your hair and hold onto it so that you can come too. If you have long hair or a sensitive head, this can hurt and become a problem.

The same it true if you are wearing a chain or a necklace. This is an item that is easy for your baby to grab a hold of so it is something you should be careful with. The same is true for dangling earrings. There have been situations where a baby has grabbed mom’s earring and ripped it out of mom?s ear.

Mom isn’t the only one to suffer from her baby’s new trick. Dad can get in on the game too! A tie is a nice, long object that is fun for baby to get his hands around. For men who don’t have long hair or wear jewelry, sometimes a tie is the only thing on them that a baby can grab. The way a baby sees it, all is fair in love and war!

There are steps you can take to protect your body and your clothing however. If you have long hair, try to keep it back in a ponytail or in a bun, out of your baby’s reach. If he can’t reach it, he can’t pull it. For jewelry, try to keep it tucked under your clothes when the baby is up, and keep earrings to studs instead of loops or ones that dangle. When dad gets home from work, he can remove his tie before holding the baby, or if out, put his tie over his shoulder. If your baby doesn’t see it there, he probably won’t go looking for it to pull.

You can also try giving your baby something else to hold onto. His favorite toy, a blanket or a rattle will normally do the trick and give him something to grasp. Keep these things with you when you are out, in your diaper bag, to offer to your baby before you pick him up to change him, so that you don’t wind up with your head down, getting a big whiff of his diaper while getting your hair pulled out of your head.

Don’t worry, like all the other stages your baby will go through, this one too shall pass…