A few weeks ago I told you about Winter’s Tail, a book about Winter the Dolphin, an amazing little dolphin rescued from a crab trap off the coast of Florida. Poor Winter’s tail was so mangled from the trap that she lost her tail. To everyone’s amazement, a prosthetic company offered to design Winter a prosthetic tail. Now Winter has learned to swim with her new tail and is doing great!

Scholastic, the publisher of Winter’s Tail, wants to hear about an animal who is a hero to your kids! All they need to do is write an essay of 200 words or less and tell Scholastic about their animal hero.

One grand prize winner and his/her guardian will receive a trip to visit Winter at her home in Clearwater, Florida, one night’s stay at a hotel, $500 travel voucher, a Winter prize pack and a Nintendo DS Game system! Ten runners up with receive a copy of Winter’s Tail, a Winter’s Tail Nintendo DS game and a Winter plush doll!

Download the contest details here.

Send entries to:
Scholastic’s Meet Winter the Dolphin Contest
557 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

Entries must include student’s name, age, and grade; teacher’s name; and school name, address, and phone number.

All entries must be received by November 30, 2009. Winners will be announced on or around December 14th. No purchase necessary. Open to legal residences of 50 United States and D.C. ages 6-14 as of November 30th 2009. Void where prohibited. Click here for complete contest rules

Anyway, after her day in Toddler 1, she was sent home with the following “Uh-Oh” Report:

Child’s Name: Miss J.
Date: 10/8/09
Time: 11 a.m.

Check one:
Your child was bitten today X
Your child bit a friend today

Today your child: Was bitten on her left arm.

Situation: A friend who was sitting by Miss J. for lunch bit her arm.

Treatment: TLC

My favorite part of the “Uh-Oh” Reports is that they never reveal the identity of the children to the other family – neither the biter nor the bitee. This cracks me up. Like I’m going to show up on the doorstep of that family’s house and kick some two-year-old’s mom’s ass. Uh, okay. Maybe I thought about it. OKAY, NO, no I didn’t. I swear.

Despite the fact that my poor baby has a mark from a little teeny tiny row of teeth on her arm, they said it didn’t even phase her.

That mom is lucky.

There’s a new book out in October called, Winter’s Tail – How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again (Scholastic). I cannot WAIT until Miss J. is a little older and will sit still while I read books to her (or she reads them herself). Right now, she just wants to eat them or tear them apart.

But this is a wonderful book. It’s the story of Winter, a two-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. Winter was rescued from a crab trap off the east coast of Florida when she was just a baby – three months old. Rescuers brought her to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Experts at the aquarium nursed Winter back to health and, against the odds, she survived and is doing great. But the trap had damaged her little tail so badly that it eventually fell off, leaving Winter with just a stump.

But animals, like people, learn to adapt and Winter learned to swim with her little stump. She had to use a back and forth motion, different from the normal up and down motion and her caretakers recognized that swimming in way would ultimately damage her spine. So experts designed a prosthetic tail for her and Winter now swims like dolphins were intended, using an up and down motion with her tail.

Authors Juliana Hatkoff, Isabella Hatkoff and Craig Hatkoff, also wrote the bestselling Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship and other books about animals beating the odds.

The books are available in stores October 1 as well as on Amazon and other online booksellers. There is also a Web cast on October 7 that features a virtual field trip to Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Sign up here.

I’ve recently learned about alternatives to the Hasbro Play-Doh we all know and love from our childhood. I can even SMELL it as I write this. But, like most things these days, it’s laden with chemicals and preservatives. No offense to you, original Play-Doh. I have nothing but good memories about you.

But many of us are looking for greener options. For Play-doh, there is Miss Brittany’s Organic Preschool Fun Dough.

Miss Brittany is a preschool teacher in New York City. She was determined to find an alternative to the original Play-Doh that was environmentally friendly and safe for kids. Now, her line includes five colors of dough as well as various accessories. Everything is 100% organic, even down to the ink used on the packaging.

I requested a sample so I could feel it, smell it and play with it a little. It’s a little sticky at first but once you work with it a little bit that goes away. It has a very mild, salty smell and no, I did not eat it. Neither did Miss J.

In honor of National Play-Doh Day, Miss Brittany is offering a 20% discount – just enter code NPD09 when purchasing through the website.

So you get to try the dough….and save a little too. (Sorry, couldn’t resist!)

xo

She is also OBSESSED with the bookshelf. Well, removing the contents of the bookshelf. Here she is as she transfers all of the DVDs into the seat of her Exersaucer. I’m not quite sure what she intends to do with them but she seems to have a plan.

Then came a time when it was the most unsafe place she could be since she did everything she could do to shimmy herself out of it. Considering it was usually sitting on top of a table, we knew it was time to retire the Bumbo.

The other day she rediscovered the Bumbo shoved in the corner and now likes to spend her free time casually lounging backwards in it.

Can someone get me a Pina Colada?