Making sure that our niños attend a good preschool or even daycare center can always be a bit stressful for us parents. We worry over the location, if it’s a language immersion or not, the method, the caregivers and even of the diversity in the school. After all that is done and our kids are safely and happily attending school, there are still things we can’t plan for, like our little ones coming back home with a cough or a runny nose.

That is why this year we are raising awareness about RSV or  respiratory syncytial virus. RSV is a common virus that affects two-thirds of all infants by the age of one and almost 100% of babies by age two! The reason why it affects so many children is that RSV is highly contagious. Whether  your niños spend a few days out of their week or all week  in a daycare or school setting, they are at risk for contracting germs and viruses, like RSV.

It’s importnat to know the symptoms of RSV in order to take action before it turns into a serious illness. Typically, RSV causes mild to moderate cold-like symptoms but the symptoms of severe RSV can lead to a respiratory infection. Below are the symptoms of severe RSV that require immediate medical attention :

• Coughing or wheezing that does not stop
• Fast or troubled breathing
• Spread-out nostrils and/or a caved-in chest when trying to breathe
• Bluish color around the mouth or fingernails
• Fever (especially if it is over 100.4°F in infants under 3 months of age)

Although we might think our homes are safe from contagious germs and viruses, RSV can live on surfaces like doorknobs, countertops, toys, and bedding for several hours. This means that RSV is spread while our little ones share toys, play, or hug. The bad news is that there is no cure for RSV that is why prevention is key. By washing our hands, our kids’s hands and keeping toys, clothes, blankets, and sheets clean we can prevent the spread of RSV.

RSV season typically runs from November through March. We encourage everyone to check out the info-graphic below and share with friends and family. For more information you can visit the RSV Protection site.

 {First image by  gemsling }

Disclosure: This is a compensated post with Latina Bloggers Connect. All thoughts are our own.

Since 1987, Walmart and Sam´s Clubs associates have been actively raising funds for the Children´s Miracle Network Hospitals and doing their part in “creating real miracles.” During six weeks of the year, you can also help create miracles just by visiting your local Walmart or Sam’s Clubs and making a small donation. They really do add up! In the last 15 years over $600 million have been raised through these efforts, helping 170 hospitals around the nation.

The Children’s Miracle Networks two main goals are:

1. Help as many children as possible by raising funds for children’s hospitals.
2. Keep funds in the community in which they were raised to help local children.

The organization was founded by Marie Osmond and her family, John Schneider, Mick Shannon and Joe Lake.

Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals most recognizable symbol and greatest fundraising tool is its red and yellow Miracle Balloon icon.

As of 2011, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $4.3 billion—most of which is donated a dollar or two at a time.

The beauty of these donations is that you’ll be acting locally because the donations will be benefitting local hospitals in your area.

The six-week donation campaign is about to end on June 15th, so we urge you to act fast to help reach this year’s goal of $25 million raised to help kids in our communities receive the care they need.

{Ana and I in San Diego}

Ana and I have a big announcement to make today: SpanglishBaby will soon be a book! We’re writing un libro!

A couple of months ago, we were approached by Bilingual Readers – a bilingual publishing house based in Spain which we highly respect and whose bilingual children’s books we’ve reviewed in the past – to see if we’d be interested in taking SpanglishBaby to yet another level by publishing a book about raising bilingual and bicultural children in the United States today. Our response was a resounding: ¡claro que sí!

SpanglishBaby turns 2 1/2 years old tomorrow – yes, we published our first post Feb. 9, 2009 and you can click here to read it), but it feels like we’ve been at it for much longer. Maybe it’s all the hours and hours of work we’ve put into it or the amazingly supportive community we’ve become. And, although Ana and I had talked about the possibility of one day turning the blog into a book, we didn’t think the opportunity would arise only two years after we launched.  It´s set to be published on Fall 2012 and we are set to deliver!

Ana and I got to spend the last few days together in San Diego. A rarity we fully took advantage of by talking not only about the future of SpanglishBaby but with an incredibly productive breakfast meeting to organize ourselves as we venture into the exciting realm of writing our first book. We were able to figure out a lot of things, but other things are still pending.

So, as we jump into this new adventure, we hope you won’t mind that, along the way, we may ask for your opinion on certain topics. We’d like for this book to be an extension of the blog and we know that without your input, it would make no sense. If you have any particular ideas about what you’d like to see in the book or just questions you think need to be answered to make this bilingual and bicultural journey a bit easier or more realistic, you know how to reach us!

Raising bilingual and bicultural children is not something we only write passionately about, but also something we believe in wholeheartedly. This book represents another vehicle through which we can continue to spread the value and need behind raising our children so they can survive in this global society without forgetting sus raíces. Nothing could make us happier! We surely hope you feel the same way!

UPDATE: The book, Bilingual is Better, is now available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes and Noble! 

We chose to open it up to popular vote, but failed to see beforehand the many flaws in the way the system was set up. Since many things got out of hand, we decided to close off the contest and find an alternate way of choosing a winner.

We decided to make it a random drawing amongst the seven participating schools. The winner will receive a $500 bilingual library and the other schools will get a $100 donation from SpanglishBaby.

We decided to record on video the random drawing so there would be no doubts. The image is a bit blurry because of the computer screen, but I also have a screenshot.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiEta_pFcZw

And the winner is……Aldama Elementary in Los Angeles, CA. Congratulations!

You can check out my Crepas de Cajeta Made Easy recipe, or Roxana’s wildly popular Banana-Peanut Butter Quesadillas for some inspiration!

Some of the tips & tricks being shared that I’ve already found useful for our Culture of Food recipes are:

• Spraying the inside of your food processor with PAM to make clean-up easier.
• Spraying the inside of a measuring cup with PAM so that sticky ingredients such as syrups and molasses slide right out and there’s no need to scrape.
• Lightly spray oven racks with PAM for easier sliding out. I know my oven can use this one!
• This one is non-cooking related, but I will definitely pass the tip along to my husband:  spray PAM on soccer cleats before playing so that mud won’t stick in between.

Now that we’ve talked so much about all the ways to use PAM, we want 25 of you to take four cans home.  Yes…that’s 25 winners of a set of four cans of PAM.  All you need to do to win it is head over to the PAM Top Tips Contest Facebook page and tell us which of the tips that have already been submitted is your favorite. The first 25 qualifying comments will automatically win!

This giveaway ends as soon as the 25 entries are received or by February 7 at midnight EST, whichever comes first.  You must have a valid US address to enter.

Disclosure: This post is part of a sponsored series to help promote PAM’s Top Tip Contest. We also received PAM products and promotional material from ConAgra to assist in preparing the posts. All opinions are our own.

Now, we know we can´t stop our kids from trick-or-treating, but how about if we fuel them up with the “Official Drink of Halloween”–chocolate milk–as a tasty and nutritious snack option?

We’ve mentioned before how much Roxana’s girl and mine love their chocolate milk and how it’s a part of our daily routine. I dread the days I run out of it and I hear the words “Leche, favor mamá” coming out of Camila’s mouth. My husband and I turn to each other in panic because we know a scream or shrill complaint will follow. Ay! The girl knows what she likes!  We know that she recharges with each of the three 8-oz servings of chocolate milk she demands every day, providing her with one-third of the calcium she needs and nine essential nutrients to build strong bones., the same as in white milk, but with a taste she loves.

Apparently, our Mexican ancestors knew a bit about the nutritious value of chocolate milk since chocolate caliente is one of the traditional beverages prepared during the Day of the Dead festivities on Nov. 1st and 2nd.

So, we’re making chocolate milk part of both our Halloween and Dia de los Muertos festivities by enjoying one of the traditional beverages from our Mexican heritage–chocolate caliente! Watch the video below where Roxana and Vanessa teach us how to make nutritious and delicious Mexican hot chocolate, just like our abuelitas did.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj0wkGgw3rM

Here are a few tips to help make trick or treating and Day of the Dead celebrations healthy and fun!

1. Try rationing leftover treats during the days following Halloween. The abundance of sweets in  the house can easily lead to stomach aches from over-indulgence.

2. Fill kids up with a nutritious meal before trick-or-treating to discourage them from overloading on candy. Skip the sugary sodas, sports drinks and fruit drinks that are full of empty calories and swap in chocolate milk for one-third of the calcium kids need in each 8-oz serving. Studies show that kids who drink flavored milk tend to drink fewer sugary sodas, so it’s a positive swap not only for Halloween and Day of the Dead, but all year round!

For more info, yummy chocolate milk recipes for your niños and fun:

• Check out WhyMilk.com or EligeLeche.com for more Halloween recipes, tips and a fun quiz, plus the chance to win a family trip for 4 to Orlando!

• Join us at the Halloween Twitter party hosted by Resourceful Mom on October 25 at 8:00 p.m. EST! Just follow and tweet with the #ChocolateMilk hashtag.

• Become a fan of Milk Mustache Campaign on Facebook or Follow  at @MilkMustache on Twitter

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by the National Milk Mustache “got milk?”® Campaign.  We truly do drink chocolate milk, that’s why we accepted the campaign.

Photo credit: Michael Mase

We’re baaaack!!!!

You probably heard/read that we were in New York City last week. We just got back from spending an amazing few days there for BlogHer, the biggest blogger conference in the country. Not only did we meet a lot of incredibly talented fellow bloggers/blogueras face to face, but we also got a chance to talk about bilingualism and biculturalism with a bunch of different people, including the fantastic gente over at Vme TV (our sponsors to Blogher), Scholastic, Little Pim, Lectorum and Global Language Project.

I came back with a lot of ideas to explore in future posts, including random people’s reactions to the fact that I’m raising my children bilingual. There’s still such a strong belief in the myths we’ve been trying to dispel here daily during the last 18 months, but I think things are starting to change. In the meantime, we’ll continue to work to make sure every one out there understand that gifting your children with other languages and cultures is one of the best decisions you’ll ever make as a parent.

On another note, our journey to introduce a third language in my household, is well underway. My daughter, Vanessa, started a two-week stint at a French immersion summer camp on Monday and we couldn’t be happier. Her teacher was pretty impressed when I told her she already spoke Spanish and English . I don’t know how much she’ll actually pick up in the next 10 days, but I’m using it as a way to finally get going with my dream to teach my daughter my third language. More on this later, I promise, including an announcement as to how I plan on making this happen that I think all of you are really going to enjoy.

Before I leave, I just wanted to let you know that you can visit our Facebook page to get a peek at some of what we were up to while in New York City the last few days. Enjoy!

Photo credit: melanieburger

Just a quick note to let you all know about this month’s installment of the Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism which this time around is being hosted by Sarah, over at Bringing Up Baby Bilingual.

If you’re not familiar with the carnival, I suggest you go visit Sarah’s site so you can see what it’s all about, but basically it’s a recompilation of all sorts of posts dedicated to this awesome task of raising multilingual children. The thing I love the most about this carnival is that it really proves that we are not alone and that even if we’re using different sets of languages to raise our kids, we share a lot of the ups and downs. The other thing I love is discovering completely new – at least to me – blogs related to bilingualism.

A few months back, we hosted the carnival ourselves and it was a great opportunity to get to meet a lot of new friends in the same journey. If you’re interested in hosting a carnival in the future, go here for more information. In the meantime, hop over to this month’s carnival and start reading! I know I am!

Photo by kiz

We’re celebrating a tremendous milestone today: our first year!

It seems really hard to believe that we’ve been around for a whole year and, although we can’t deny it’s been a lot of work, we couldn’t be more thrilled with what has happened in these last 12 months. I have no doubt saying the most gratifying accomplishment has been the extraordinary connections we’ve made with readers from around the world who—like Ana Lilian and I—have embarked in this amazing journey of raising bilingual and bicultural kids. We always meant for SpanglishBaby to become the kind of online community where parents who’ve chosen to gift their children with more than one language and one culture could come to ask, share and explore this alternative way of life. We humbly think we have.

In the last year, SpanglishBaby has become exactly what we originally envisioned: the place to ask and get peer and expert advice, plus honest answers to all those conflicting opinions about raising bilinguals. It’s also a community where you can share your stories, tips, concerns and even recipes with other parents on the same mission. But more than anything, it’s a space for you to explore this rewarding way of parenting.

New Look + New Features

As you can see, we’re celebrating our anniversary with a brand new look. It rocks, ¿no creen? Although our look is completely different, you can still find all the same useful information. We hope you take some time to take a look around so you can get to know the new SpanglishBaby. In the meantime,we’d like to highlight some of the main changes we’re implementing this second year.

For starters, we’ve merged SpanglishBabyFinds with SpanglishBaby, so now you can find all the awesome and useful reviews and giveaways you’ve come to love in just one site. In fact, in honor of our first anniversary, we’re having a different giveaway every day this week.

Another big change is the addition of our Directory. We’re working on putting together a comprehensive directory that will make it easy for you to find the resources you need to help you in your mission of raising bilingual and bicultural children. We’re going to make it easy for you to search for a local language school, a bilingual activity, a local bookstore or website that carries bilingual books, a speech therapist, music lessons in Spanish, etc…

In terms of where things are, every time you visit our Home page, you’ll always be welcomed by our featured articles. You’ll be able to read our latest review in our SBFinds section and to keep you up to date on our on-going giveaways, we’ve added a specific area just to the right of our Daily Blog. If you scroll all the way down, you’ll find one of our most popular categories, Ask an Expert, which will always be on our Home page for easy access. Right next to it, we’ve added a new category: Your SpanglishBaby. Send us a picture of your child and we’ll feature him or her on our Home page for a whole week. For more information on how to do this and what we need, go here.

As we announced last week, we have added five regular contributors to our family. Each of them, as you found last week, brings a completely different perspective on raising bilingual and bicultural children. You can expect to read their weekly posts on Thursdays. We are so lucky to have them!

There are some other changes we haven’t implemented yet, but that you can look forward to in the near future. One has to do with my very probable journey into raising my children trilingual. We’re still undecided, but my daughter has shown an interest and I think I can’t ignore it. The other one has to do with vlogging—or video blogging—books and reading. We’ll let you know more soon…we promise!

Same Great Content

We do want you to know; however, that even with all these changes, one thing you can continue to count on is our great (if we do say so ourselves) content. Our articles are organized into categories, making it simple to find the topic you’re interested in:

• Daily Learning: What our kids teach us everyday and what we learn through others on the same mission.
• Ask an Expert: Readers get their questions answered by a panel of experts with varied backgrounds.
• Must Reads: Informative posts about bilingualism and relevant topics.
• The Culture of Food: Recipes we find and share. Food brings us closer to our culture.
• Traditions + Culture: Ways of keeping our native traditions alive at home.
• Your Story: We invite you to share your family story with us. How are you doing it?
• ReadMe: A monthly exploration + giveaway of a children’s bilingual book and in-depth author interview.
• Directory: Comprehensive and searchable bilingual resources directory (currently a work-in-progress.)
• Forum: The place where our readers connect.
• La Tiendita: Our online store where you can find bilingual and Spanish books, music, movies, toys and more
  

Ok, enough with the explanations. Go explore! But before you do, we’d like to say MUCHAS GRACIAS for making this a remarkable first year. We couldn’t be happier with the results and we know we couldn’t have done it without you. As you can see, we have a lot of awesome changes and additions in store for this second year and we hope we can continue to count with your loyal support. Finally, as usual, we’d love to hear what you have to say about our new look and all our changes, so please leave us a comment below or send us an email. You know we value your opinion!

Photo by A.M. Kuchling

Just a quick note to make a couple of announcements. First, we wanted to let you know that it’s that time of the month again… time for the blogging carnival on all topics related to bilingualism.

One of the awesome things about it is the variety not only of bloggers and their styles of writing, but of experiences related to raising bilingual/multilingual children. Some of the things they write about I can totally relate to, while others are completely new ways of looking at things.

This month our friends over at Bilingual Readers are hosting the carnival and I can’t wait to read what all the other bloggers are contributing! You really don’t want to miss it and maybe next time, you’ll consider submitting an entry.

Speaking of next time, we’re actually very happy we’re hosting the carnival right here on SpanglishBaby in February. The carnival puts together a series of articles written by those interested in the subject of bilingualism. If you’re reading this blog, that most probably means you! To be part of this collection in February please send us your link to madre (at) spanglishbaby (dot) com by Feb. 19th. And, for more info on the carnival, please go here.

Finally, we just wanted to remind you that our call for paid contributors is still going on. You have until Jan. 29th to send us the stuff we asked for here to be considered.

Thanks and have fun reading