Sassy Toddler and Big Sibling Art With Fruits and Veggies

Summer is the perfect time to be creative with your children. I love to get artistic with fruit and veggies to get those healthy juices flowing both in the mouth and the brain! Food art not only improves hand-eye coordination, it's a great opportunity to discuss different shapes and colors. My kids love it, because it's not often I let them "play" with their food! Here's the recipe to a fun food-art session.

Healthy, Fun Snack Ideas

Parent, baby & toddler summers are usually busy, busy, busy! Between summer strolls, a big sibling’s soccer game, water fun and simply enjoying family time in bright & awesome weather. Preparing for those long days of summer means we have our work cut out for us. Make your life a little easier with these fun and healthy snack ideas. They are perfect for busy and sassy families on the go.

Sassy Color Pops

One thing borrowed, one thing blue, one thing FROZEN for me and for you (familiar?). In our continuing series on healthy fun snacks that you can make and enjoy with your little one, we introduce Sassy color pops – a way to:

1. Encourage fruity fun even for little ones just starting to enjoy pureed fruits
2. Learn about colors  
3. Learn about the magic of texture and temperature – the room temperature blueberries mix with the cold yogurt and then become SUPER COLD in the freezer.  
4. Buy some wooden popsicle sticks or use plastic reusable ones  
5. Get an ice cube tray, popsicle mold or a small paper cup 
6. Pick out your fruit combo with your little one, thinking about the colors you’ll end up with. Bananas mix well with just about any fruit (mango, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries) and are simple DELISH frozen  

Sassy Kabobs and Sassy Chachos

Back to healthy & fun snacking with your toddler! We explored cereal necklaces and our sassy version of pizza, now we’re giving two ideas for fun activity based healthy snacks! Healthy food projects you can do with your little one create opportunities for healthy modeling, physical development and bonding. Getting your little one in the kitchen and part of the preparation process is a great way to start healthy eating habits. So, here we go with Dr. Jen’s SASSYKABOBS and SASSYCHACHOS! As always, follow our food safety tips and make sure to accommodate any allergies or special needs your child may have!

Sassy Pizzalicious Pizza

Welcome back to our series on healthy and fun snacking for toddler & family to enjoy. We covered healthy carb necklaces in our last post. Remember, our Sassy Suggestion is for a balanced colorful plate—so go ahead and switch these projects up—and we’d love to hear more about what you do on Facebook or Twitter.

As always, follow our food safety tips and make sure to accommodate any allergies or special needs your child may have!

Today we’ll focus on two super-sonic fun toddler foods that include various food groups:

Twist It Up Cereal Jewelry

In the next five posts, we’re going to explore cute, fun and healthy snacks for the family to make and enjoy together. Remember, our Sassy Suggestion is for a balanced colorful plate, so go ahead and switch these up, and we’d love to hear more about what you do on Facebook or Twitter.

As always, follow our food safety tips and make sure to accommodate any allergies or special needs your child may have!

Today we’ll focus on a super cool snack & some education about whole grains!

Ask Baby! Mirror Mirror On The Wall…

As we continue, here at Sassy Baby Toys, in what we are enjoying as our best month yet, we’re going to focus today (no pun intended) on mirrors. That glamorous Hollywood baby, Isabella is here with us and ready to answer a few questions! Here we go—a whole post dedicated to mirrors.

OSD: Do you like mirrors? 
B: OMG—I love mirrors! Are you kidding me? Me? Mirrors? That’s like asking me if I like to sleep. Yes! An overwhelming yes. Just about the coolest thing I can play with at my ripe age of 4-8 months.

Importance of Talking to Babies—Part Two: Ways to Expose Babies to Language

Last week, we discussed why exposure to language is so critical to a baby’s language development. Now we’re going to explore the ways to do it!

There are so many wonderful ways to expose your baby to language during the early stages of development! Here are some ideas:

One Sassy Doctor’s Interview with Speech Pathologist, Ms. Anne Freilich, M.S., C.C.C. Licensed Speech Language Pathologist

Speech and language is the pathway I entered the world of developmental toys & feeding products—and how One Sassy Doctor was conceptualized. My little guy has speech delay, and during a session with his speech pathologist, I came up with the idea for the U-Play™ Mat. So, the connection between writing this blog and interviewing a speech pathologist feels very natural. As a pediatrician, I really did not understand speech delay and development until faced with this as a parent. Language and speech development have become a special interest for me since, and I’m super excited to bring you this interview today!

Imitation is the Greatest Form of Flattery

It’s ridiculously cute to see a little one imitating mommy, daddy or an older sibling. It’s even cuter when the imitating is just a little bit “off”—for example, my daughter said “in the meantime”, and her little brother later said, “You are going to go into the mean time. Mommy why is time mean?”

Some little ones even imitate themselves!

And, believe me, my little one is certainly imitating my dramatic flair in this shot!

Strolling Along, Sassy Style

Wow, did we go through a lot of strollers with these two sets of twins! I’m going to refrain from specific product suggestions here, but give you some of my tips for a start:

Playground Safety: Dr. Jen's Take on the New York Times Piece

A repost from www.playthisway.com.

As a pediatrician with a sub-specialty in child abuse, and a mother of two sets of twins, I read the New York Times article Can a Playground Be Too Safe? with significant concern. In this piece, John Tierney explains the history of New York City’s playgrounds and safety. Specifically, regarding a 10-foot-high jungle gym in Manhattan near his childhood home, he explained that as long as he was the parks commissioner, the monkey bars were going to remain in place. This was despite researchers at the time, who cited accident statistics and the importance of safer playgrounds. Fast forward to 2011, and this article, in accordance with Mr. Stern’s 1990’s edict - critics saying that playgrounds may “stunt emotional development, leaving children with anxieties and fears that are ultimately worse than a broken bone”.

Wow, do I disagree.

Toddler Play & Fun Tips

A repost from www.playthisway.com.

It’s not easy to be alone with a toddler all day long, but you can spice it up and still stick to the routines that are so important to children. Here are Dr. Jen’s tips on toddler play, fun ways to engage with your toddler more, and some ideas on toddler activities!

Dr. Jen's Tips for Water Play & Safety with Children

Summer time means more water play! One Sassy Doctor wants you to hear loud and clear: Water can be a lot of fun, but safety should be number one! (A rhyme, remember, bear with my goofy sense of humor!)

Here are Dr. Jen’s Tips for Water Play & Safety with Children:

Dr. Jen’s Tips for Dealing with Stranger Anxiety

This is a repost from www.playthisway.com.

An 11-month-old is in the peak period for stranger anxiety, and it’s a challenging phase. And it will end. As my grandma, my mother, and now I like to say when we face many of life’s challenges, “This too shall pass.”

Here are Dr. Jen’s Tips for Dealing with Stranger Anxiety:

Outdoor Play

My husband often says, “When in doubt, let’s go out!” I believe getting outside, even for a brief period of the day, is a very important part of raising healthy, active, adventurous children.

But it’s not always easy! In my stomping ground, good old New York, it’s cold for a fair portion of the year. We all have our own reality—mine in the winter is:

1. 12 boots 
2. 12 gloves 
3. 12 hats 
4. 12 scarves 
5. 12 coats 

Although we do engage in fun winter outdoor play (stay tuned, we’ll write about that on One Sassy Doctor in the future!)—the start of spring & summer really do boost the mood of the entire family. Welcome sunshine and warm weather! Whoo hoo!

Wet To Mush: The Transition Period From Liquid Intake to First Foods

One Sassy Doctor (aka me, Dr. Jen!) loves Twitter. Over 30,000 tweepies follow me (which I think is pretty miraculous considering I can’t get my husband to listen to a full sentence I say most days). So, I decided to survey my followers on favorite first foods:

• @Staceysmoments Stacey says: My kids all like sweet potatoes.
  
• @AffirmationBox Chrissy says: Bananas, definitely! :) 

Hearing & Play

I think I have an absolutely amazing voice. My husband does not agree; most adults would also not agree (and probably cover their ears).

Recently, my now 7-year-old daughter said, “Mom, you really can’t sing. You think you can, but you can’t.” Then she added, “But what I love about you is that you do it anyway.”

Rock it around your babies! Babies love to hear you sing. Use expression, use your fabulous range, and let it go! This is one way to work on language development, expression and show a baby—early—that being goofy can be a lot of fun. I happen to be a huge Barbara Streisand fan. It’s kind of mortifying; I’ll share some stories in the future. My girls were signing “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” by the age of 18 months. I spared that tune for my boys.

Touch & Play

Your baby's sense of touch is getting better. The sense of touch is most developed in their lips and gradually develops to your baby’s arms and legs.

Provide colorful objects of different textures, shapes and sizes for your infant to hold and explore. This is a good age to introduce an infant gym with interesting objects that dangle for your baby to bat at. Or hold a toy just out of reach for your baby to reach for, swat and grab hold of. Just don't string up toys on cribs or other baby equipment — your baby could get tangled in them. An infant gym will also provide a soft textured surface for baby to learn to roll over on as she gets a little older.

Vision & Play

As a baby’s vision improves, she is better able to distinguish between different shapes, colors and movements.

While babies are able to see from birth, your baby is very nearsighted and can only focus on what is about a hand’s distance from her face. Guess what! That is about the distance your face is when you are feeding or holding her! So, make sure she gets plenty of opportunities to stare at and become familiar with your friends and family’s faces because, while she may be smiling at you from the day she is born, your baby will take a little time to get to know the others around her.

One pretty cool thing I learned, I was the best looking thing in the world to each of my babies. With no flaws, no imperfections, momma is every baby’s fashionista super model!