AREA Kids BROOKLYN: 01/27/09

Cutting Bread too!!!

We already have Cutting Food and Cutting Fruit. Why not Cutting Bread?

Kids can open their own pretend bakery with this hearty, solid wooden bread set. This terrific set includes a bagel, two loaves of bread, slices of whole wheat bread, an English muffin, a wooden knife and sliceable butter with a butter dish.

I love all the Play Food by Melissa & Doug!

NEW Play Food from Mellisa & Doug!!!

This colorful wooden set includes 12 wooden, sliceable cookies and 18 toppings, wooden knife, spatula, cookie sheet and a kitchen mitt for safe, "low-calorie" play! The cookies store in a durable dough tube. How cool!

It's so Cold!!

The weather has been pretty brutal lately so here are some great ways to keep all those babies out there warm!!

7 a.m. stroller bag

Aden and Anais winter warmth swaddles

Baby Legs leg warmers

so adorable!!!

California Woman Gives Birth To Octuplets

NPR.org, January 27, 2009 · A woman in Southern California has given birth to octuplets, six boys and two girls. It's believed to be only the second successful delivery of octuplets in the U.S.

Already, a day after their birth, all eight octuplets are breathing on their own, without the assistance of mechanical ventilators, according to doctors at the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center.

"All babies seem to be stable," Dr. Karen Maples tells NBC's Today show.

The mother, who asked not to be identified, "is very comfortable now and is currently stable," says Maples, the center's chief of OB-GYN. "She's also very excited about the health of her babies and she's extremely happy."

The babies weigh between 1 pound, 8 ounces, and 3 pounds, 4 ounces. All are in stable condition.

"The little one is actually very feisty and is doing very good right now," says Dr. Mandhir Gupta, a neonatologist who assisted with the delivery. "This baby was on the ventilator in the beginning, but I was able to take the breathing tube out last night."

The parents and their doctors were surprised when they found an eighth baby during the Caesarean section.

"It is quite easy to miss a baby when you're anticipating seven," says Dr. Harold Henry, chief of maternal and fetal medicine at the center. He was one of the 46 doctors, nurses and assistants who helped with the delivery.

Mulitple births often result after the use of drugs aimed at increasing fertility. Officials at the Kaiser center declined to say whether the mother had taken fertility drugs.

The previous set of U.S. octuplets were born in Houston in 1998 to a 27-year-old Nigerian woman, Nkem Chukwu. The first infant, a girl, was born on Dec. 8 that year, followed by five more girls and two boys on Dec. 20.

Of these, the tiniest — 10.3 ounces at birth — survived only a week, dying of heart and lung failure. The largest weighed 1 pound, 11 ounces.

The survivors celebrated their 10th birthday last month in Houston.

Chukwu used fertility drugs, which greatly increases the chances of twins, triplets or even more.

In many cases, women are offered the option to selectively abort one or more fetuses during pregnancy to improve the survival chances of the other fetuses. Chukwu declined to do that, as did the woman in California who gave birth this week.

Studies have shown that babies born prematurely with very low birth weights are at very high risk of physical and mental impairment.

According to the parents, the surviving Chukwu children have developed normally and all healthy and active. They're in the middle of fourth grade.

Come and choose from Melissa and Doug, Eboo and MANY others

When children work on puzzles, they are actually "putting the pieces together" in more ways than one. Puzzles help children build the skills they need to read, write, solve problems, and coordinate their thoughts and actions—all of which they will use in school and beyond. Find a puzzle with a picture that has particular interest for your child, and you may help her begin to recognize colors and letters, and come to realize that the sum of parts make up a whole—a concept that will help her with math later on. By inserting pieces into the puzzle, children also develop the muscle group used for writing, or the "pincer" grasp.

Children can work on puzzles by themselves, without the help of adults or other children. They can also work together on large puzzles and practice compromising and getting along. Because each child must concentrate on the puzzle individually, he experiences a sense of satisfaction as he picks up a piece, rotates it, and discovers the spot in which it fits. Piece by piece, he begins to recognize the picture that the puzzle represents.

Good quality puzzles are a good investment because children can use them year after year. You may also look for puzzles at yard sales, thrift shops, and lending toy libraries. Children who are developing the ability to use scissors can cut pictures from magazines to create their own puzzles. Simply mount the pictures on cardboard and cut into large pieces. Homemade puzzles can make great gifts, too!

Make sure puzzles are suited for each child's age and abilities. Two year olds, for example, will enjoy putting in pieces and taking them back out just as much as they will enjoy fitting them into the right spot. Toddlers enjoy three or four-piece wooden puzzles. As they grow and learn to rotate pieces to match holes and find pieces that fit, they can handle increasingly complex puzzles.
Three-year-olds still enjoy puzzles with single knobs on each piece, but they can also work on puzzles with five to eight pieces. Four-year-olds will enjoy knobless puzzles with familiar scenes and characters. They can handle 12 to 18-piece puzzles. Five-year-olds can handle large or small piece 18 to 35 pieces puzzles. They move from the pleasure of the activity to mastering the task.

As children reach school age, they will enjoy more complex puzzles of 50–100 pieces or more. All family members may gather around the table top to help children put the pieces together.
Puzzles should be well-made and appealing to the child. The younger the child, the more she will benefit from large, recognizable pieces to help her complete a picture. Good puzzles may show pictures of food, cars and trucks, animals, boys and girls, nursery rhymes and scenes from story books. Young children better understand figures made of simple shapes like circles, triangles and squares.
Watch for missing pieces or damage to puzzles. Puzzles should offer a challenge to children, but they should also be solvable. Nothing is more frustrating to a child than trying to complete a puzzle with a missing piece.
Puzzles can provide formal learning experiences. Teachers may work closely with children to help them learn to solve problems through puzzles. Puzzles also help teachers observe children and assess their development. While children work alone or in groups, teachers can monitor the way they speak, move, and concentrate.