September 2013.

A lot of things happened during the last month. I love the beginning of fall, and this fall is warm and beautiful.  You enjoy the warm sunny days with pretty red, yellow, orange leaves on the trees. We still spend a lot of time outside and try to catch as much sunshine as we can.

Our September is pictures:

First Sophia’s haircut:

It went smooth and she really liked it.

Sophia started preschool:

So far she loves it, and asks to go there every day. If she is happy, I am happy too:)

Trip to the local zoo:

I can’t say she is a big fan of zoo ( me neither), but we really had a great time and I saw foxes and wolves in real for the first time in my life.

Beach Days:

We didn’t really spend a lot of time at the beach this summer, so we are trying to do it now, before the real cold comes.

Local Green Exhibition.

It was a fun day for the family. My hubby had a chance to have a test-drive of electric cars, we found new interesting healthy products, saw some farmer’s animals and enjoyed healthy lunch.

Open House Party.

One of our friends recently finished one of her projects. She renovated a very unique house and invited us for a little party. She did a great job and we really had fun that day.

 

Also we tried a lot of new healthy foods ( most of them homemade), spend a lot of family time together, watched nice movies, meet with our friends and just enjoyed the first month of the fall.

Brain Rules For Baby:How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from 0 to 5.

I read this book more than a year ago, and find it very useful and helpful for the parents. There are a lot of different information, how to make your kid smart, starting from the birth.
The thing that I like the author said, that of course new mom nutrition, behavior play a huge role in developing baby even when it is still in your womb, but the things like listening classic music, putting special mashines on your belly with music do not help or develop your future child”s brain.
There are a lot of different educational videos, that you can use from the birth, and the commerce says:”Make your baby speak Chinese in 12 months”. This doesn’t have any sense too, because there is no official scientist conclusion about videos which make your kids genious.
The author reccomends to avoid TV by age 2, and even after that try to make your kids life interesting with the books, people, different performances, activities etc. A lot of people don’t agree with this, and in real life it is much more difficult to keep a child away from electronic devices, but I think we always try to pick easier way in everything, for example: Of course, its easier to turn the tv on for your kids, than make up a game for them and play with them. And noone say  do not use the  tv or computer at all, but it should be like a prize, like something special for them, something they should merit.
Instead of using electronic devises with no control, you should learn your kids to make up new friends, learn to make new games and entertain yourself, make yourself busy with interesting things.
There are main strategies to raise your baby smart:
1. Pregnancy:
Babies develop an active mental life in the womb.
Stressed mom, stressed baby.
Eat right, stay fit, get lots of pedicure.

2. Relationship.
Happy marriage, happy baby.
The brain seeks safety above all.
What is obvious to you is obvious to you.

3. Smart baby.
The brain cares about survival before learning.
Intelligence is more than IQ
Face time, no screen time.
Safe baby, smart baby.
Praise effort, not IQ.
Guided play-every day.
Emotions, not emoticons.

4.Happy Baby.
Babies are born with their own temperament.
Emotions are just Post-it notes.
Empathy makes good friends.
The brain craves community.
Empathy soothes the nerves.
Labeling emotions calms big feelings.

5. Moral baby.
Babies are born with moral sensibilities.
Discipline+warm heart=smart baby.
Let your yes be yes and your no be no.

So this book is pretty interesting and probably someone who is interested in babies, their development and bringing up kids would like it.