This is my first blog post and i just wanted to formally introduce myself, as baby signing mummy isle of wight. Baby signing mummy is fast becoming a fantastic family and I’m so pleased to be part of it. So for all your baby signing questions please feel free to ask one of us.

So just a quick look at what is in store for BSMiow; at the start of march I am training the wonderful bedazzled parties, who are an amazing party entertainment company specialising in children’s partes and bringing a special sparkle to your own events. March is also beginning to look busy with private courses, and i cant wait!

If you are interested in booking a course please contact me for details at laura@babysigningmummy.com

laura

Before we headed away I was talking to the Baby Signing Mummy teachers and each of them had their little ones with coughs and colds or bugs of one description or another and it made me think back to all those times when Baby Signing Bella was poorly as a newborn and first couple of years. Then we had been away just one day when Baby Signing Bella started to say that she wasn’t feeling very well.

I thought seeing as “the time of the year” is causing so many little ones to be poorly at the moment a little recap on the poorly signs might be useful, so the  first sign that is good to know is ill or poorly – a really easy sign to use to describe that feeling of bleh! Hands out full and shake infront of your chest – as Stanley is showing us here.

Poor Baby Signing Bella woke up in the very early hours of the morning with a high fever, vomiting and telling us that her “tummy was hurting” – We are lucky now as she is able to tell us where she is in pain and can point to it really well. But as I teach, our little ones often won’t have felt pain before and they can’t tell us that something hurts inside them so the hurt sign (or Ouch) sign is another great one to know – the sign can move to any part of the body and can help you discover where the ouch might be. The ears, throat, tummy, gums even.

Timothy here shows us the sign for hurt – remember that you can use whatever word you like to describe hurt, we often call it an Ouch. Two index fingers touch as you say the word you use to describe pain. (I have always remembered it by thinking of that Extra Terrestrial who phoned home!)

We ended up having to visit the Out of Hours GP with Baby Signing Bella on Thursday morning and again luckily because of my nursing background she is used to me talking about “Doctors” and how they make you better. Going to the Doctor though can be a scary thing to have to go and do, especially for babies and children because the doctor will want to look and investigate what might be making them feel poorly. I therefore like to teach the sign for doctor as well so that you can help to explain to your little one where you are going and what might happen while you are there. For example I told Baby Signing Bella on Thursday morning that the doctor would want to feel her tummy, listen to her chest, and probably look in her mouth and ears. After the Doctor did all these things and Baby Signing Bella calmly sat on my lap or laid on the bed for the examination, she looked at me and said “Mummy he did everything you said he would” I could tell her how proud I was of her for letting the doctor exam her so well that we could be 100% happy it was not her appendix that was the problem.

The Sign for doctor as being shown by Timothy is your right thumb and index finger flicking off of your left wrist (a bit like taking a pulse), repeat the action twice and say the word Doctor (or in our house we say “DoccaMan” or “DoccaLady”)

We are now all home, and although Baby Signing Bella is still not back to her usual mischievous self she is better. Baby Signing Daddy and I did discuss all those times when she was a baby that we would be worried that she was “not right” and how we were glad that we had these signs to help us work out what was going on. I really hope you won’t need these signs, but at least they are there in case you do!

I committed to the challenge yesterday and luckily yesterday’s release of the Bubble Sign is included in my month (yay!) So today is video 2 and after a beautiful picture of baby Clara was posted on my Facebook page last night of her signing Duck during dinner time, I had a tweet from a swimming instructor for #puddleducks who gave me the idea of teaching us all the 5 Little Ducks.

This is an ultimate favourite in Baby Signing Mummy HQ, as Baby Signing Bella and I used to sing it all the time – one of Baby Signing Bella’s first signs was duck, and I could often be found singing it after she would giggle and sign duck to me!

So enjoy, hum away and learn how to sign to 5 Little Ducks!

Hello to all you wonderful Baby Signing Mummy followers. Please allow me to introduce myself, I am very proud to say I am Baby Signing Mummy Isle of Wight, aka Laura. I am so pleased to be part of the wonderful Baby Signing Mummy Family and incredibly excited to be launching onto the Isle of Wight ready to take it by storm.

The last three years for me have been busy as they have seen the birth of my two beautiful boys Sebastian who was born in 2009 and Leonardo who was born 2011. They reminded me that I work to live not live to work but since finding and learning the amazing Baby Signing Mummy Method I have realised I can live to work and live for my family together. I love baby signing and all things surrounding it. It is an incredible tool to provide special moments of magic with your little ones.

Since joining BSM in September 2011 I have left my job working in a high school and now I am doing it by myself. I am a Baby Signing Mummy teacher. This network had reacquainted me with old friends, and found me new ones I will treasure forever like the wonderful Louise Lloyd.

2012 is set to be my year I have a strong determination to introduce the Isle of Wight to Baby Signing Mummy and this is soon to start with Charlotte from the fabulous Bedazzled Parties learning the BSM method and actually creating a party theme centred around it. Bedazzled are an amazing company and I can’t wait to do business with them. Also for 2012 I am holding a FREE taster session at the Broadway Centre in sandown on the Isle of Wight at 10am Thursday 26^th January.

I hope to be working from children centres soon and I am always happy to come to your home and do group or private courses. If you would like any information on any courses please email me at laura@babysigningmummy.com.

I have so many ideas of what I want to do and I can’t wait to meet new families and introduce you all to the amazing world of Baby Signing Mummy, so please pop over to my facebook page or tweet me @laura85iow and I’ll do my best to answer all your baby signing questions.

Hello to all Baby Signing Mummies! Firstly, I would like to say what a joy and a privilege it is to be writing a guest blog this week! I became a friend of Baby Signing Mummy late last year and ever since the first ‘tweet’ (yes, we’re total Twitter addicts too) I knew that we had met a very very special group of people indeed!

I suppose I should start by introducing our company; Bedazzled Parties. Bedazzled Parties was founded in December 2010 by myself and my husband, Daniel. Prior to this we were jobbing actors and children’s party entertainers in and around London, working for some of the top party companies in the industry. The imminent arrival of our son provided the catalyst for us to go it alone however and after much thought, Bedazzled Parties was born.

When we started the company we had about £50 to our name, one costume (a slightly dubious looking Fireman Sam), a bag of magic tricks and one entertainer (my husband). I acted as his heavily pregnant aid, waddling along to the music as best I could and trying to explain to the children why Little Bo-Peep wasn’t quite so little!!

One year and one month on and we now have a 6 strong team of regular entertainers, which is soon to grow to 10 and our areas of operation have grown to Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, London, Wiltshire, West Sussex, Dorset and the Isle of Wight. Our contemporary, unique and client-focused approach to entertainment has gained us an excellent reputation and we are continuously thrilled and humbled simultaneously by the superb response to our work.

Our parties are all themed and tailored to each clients individual requirements. Combining magic, dance, drama, poetry, balloon modelling and song, we take the children on a fantastical journey of imagination and fun. We believe that our parties should be suitable for every child, regardless of age or ability, which is why our new partnership with Baby Signing Mummy is so very exciting!

Working alongside Baby Signing Mummy, we have devised a UK first: ‘Baby Signing Mummy Parties!’ These parties will combine the beautiful signs of Baby Signing Mummy and the energy and enthusiasm of Bedazzled Parties to create thrilling, vibrant and accessible shows. These shows will be suitable for pre-talkers, toddlers, special needs children and also mainstream pre-schoolers. Baby Signing Mummy’s influence will also extend to our established shows as well. We know that the Baby Signing Mummy Method will provide a welcome accompaniment to our energised storytelling and we feel that this will add an extra sparkle to all of our performances.

We are so excited for the forthcoming year and look forward to meeting many new friends all across the country. We love what we do and we are totally committed to making your children’s birthday parties the most magical experiences possible. If you would like to enquire about a party, or if you just want to pop over and say ‘Hi’, it would be fantastic to hear from you! You can find us on Twitter @bedazzledpartie; on our Facebook page; or on our website www.bedazzled-parties.co.uk. Thank you for taking the time to get to know us and we look forward to hearing from you soon! Love and Sparkles, Charlotte x x x

Jacqueline Gold runs #WOW which is Women on Wednesday – surprisingly on a Wednesday ;) and it is a chance for business women to tweet Jacqueline and tell her about their business, she will then look into the business and RT her best three of the day. Jacqueline Gold incase any of you do not know is the inspirational Chief Executive of Ann Summers and Knickerbox, she is a mum and ambassador for female enterprise.

For months I have watched and read the stories and businesses of those women chosen by Jacqueline, occasionally I would tweet about Baby Signing Mummy but because of classes I was often not available to tweet her between 1-3pm, however today I was at home organising the next round of teacher training and thought why not I’ll give it a go!

Being the business mummy I am I then forgot all about it and was busy getting Baby Signing Bella ready for her swimming lesson when I saw the lovely Laura Rigney tweet me and say Congratulations – and then I saw some amazing tweets from Jacqueline Gold herself.

I literally fell onto the sofa when I read the next tweet however…

I sat there saying “wow, wow wow”, then laughed as Baby Signing Bella asked me to show her where the wow was! Well seriously there was no better hashtag than #wow at that moment! I am thrilled that not only had Jacqueline read the original tweet but also had such lovely things to say about the business and the website – a fantastic endorsement and gives me that little boost to carry on loving and working hard at my business!

Thank you Jacqueline Gold for making my Wednesday a huge #wow day

*Edit* The very next day I received a lovely email from Jacqueline Gold’s team and now have a very shiny lovely badge to show that I have Jacqueline’s Stamp of Approval on the business!

So without further ado I now can officially say that January’s sign of the month is….Cold

Yes that is right I am actually wishing snow to fall – it is January and I just think it will be really sad if we don’t get any at all during this Winter period. Here at Baby Signing Mummy HQ we have a series of Snowman Photos and we most definitely want to keep adding to it year by year!

So, yes it may be uncharacteristically warm for this time of year but we still need to learn the sign for Cold. So all together now a great big shiver and say the word “Cold”

Meet Signing STARS Rosie as she teaches us the sign for Cold – Hands across your chest, give a little shiver and say the word Cold

I was contacted by a local journalist last week and interviewed after teaching the BBC Dragon Den star Theo Paphitis a few signs a couple of weeks back. I am thrilled to say that not only will it be in the papers this week but that it has already appeared on the website

You can read the article here on Get Hampshire’s website 

I would love to hear what you think!

Bedazzled Parties is run by the lovely (newly) husband and wife team of Dan and Charlotte with a little bit of extra help from Oliver their son – they live on the Isle of Wight but the business will run parties that cover Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, London, Wiltshire, West Sussex, Dorset, and of course the Isle of Wight. And when I say they “run parties” I don’t think this quite covers exactly what they do!

If you are after that special occasion from a princess themed party for girls, a pirate themed party for boys, a pamper party, a dance party or even grown up parties then you need to speak to Charlotte! Bedazzled Parties doesn’t just sort out the theme of your child’s party they entertain, they can provide face painting, party bags, cakes, the invitations and even capture the whole event on camera for you!

So why am I telling you all this? Well – I am thrilled to say that Bedazzled Parties have offered all Baby Signing Mummy fans and followers a huge 20% discount on all products, shows and services! All you have to do to qualify for this offer is to a) follow Bedazzled Parties on Twitter or b) Like Bedazzled Parties on Facebook then either tweet or post them a message using the #BSMOffer hashtag – Charlotte or a member of her team will then be in touch to discuss availability etc.

There is a timescale on this amazing offer though – you must have booked your party by 1st February 2012 to qualify for the discount – the party itself can be at any time in 2012 as long as it has been booked before 1sr February – so if you have a gorgeous little girl who will be wanting a party in the Summer or a  handsome little dude that will be wanting a winter bash then what are you waiting for?  Get organising now!

So what do you need to do now?

Go say Hi to Charlotte on Twitter or pop over to Facebook and say Hi and if you want to make use of the amazing 20% discount just use the code #BSMOffer

I am personally really looking forward to working in partnership with Charlotte and Bedazzled Parties – so this is not going to be the last announcement!

The first was released at the start of the week and only now have I had chance to sit down and write about it. One of my all time favourite Christmas Songs has to be Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer – and the signs to it are so fabulous I just had to share!

All of my classes have been fantastic this week in picking up the signs quickly and easily – but I know it is a fast long song so as a helping hand (and quick reminder) I have recorded a little video…hopefully your little ones will love watching it and you can teach everyone you meet that you are able to sign your way through Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Remember the LOUDER you sing and sign it – the more Rudolph will be able to hear and bring that sleigh to your house on Christmas Eve!

Watch out for more videos to come!! And Merry Christmas!