We were so excited to receive these wonderful photos of the children at Semillas de Amor in Guatemala with their new Bumkins Junior bibs.

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in more than 170 countries. You can support breastfeeding and check out information on the World Breastfeeding Week website.

I am not sure about you but I always had a problem understanding and explaining the Food Guide Pyramid. I was happy to see the steps included on the side to remind us to exercise but the reasoning for the wide to narrow banding from the bottom to the top of the pyramid was not easy to grasp.

The USDA has ditched the pyramid shape and developed a new plate design called MyPlate. The plate divides the daily composition of our meals into fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein with a small circle beside the plate to represent dairy. It is refreshing to see fruits and vegetables clearly and generously represented. I question the size of the protein portion because dairy and grains are also a source of protein. Hopefully the plate concept will reduce some of the confusion surrounding healthy food choices and enable us to picture portion control and balanced meals.

The website http://www.choosemyplate.gov offers lots of information to help you decide how to fill your plate with healthy food choices. 

Bumkins new owl SuperBibs were a huge hit at the “Chicago’s Ultimate Playdate” in May.

Ultimate Playdate and Bumkins

Bump Club and Beyond teamed up with FamilyFinds.com for CHICAGO’s ULTIMATE PLAYDATE – a quarterly series of weekend play dates for families at the hottest local play areas.  What made it so ultimate is:

• The locations remained a mystery until the week of!
• All families received discounted admission (through FamilyFinds.com) to some of the hottest play areas!
• Free snacks, food, gift bags, giveaways and more – making this not your average play date!

Visit Bump Club and Beyond and FamilyFinds.com for more upcoming opportunities like this one!

Random House Children’s Books has announced that it will publish seven Seuss stories that appeared in magazines in the 1950s.

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss

The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss will be available September 27, 2011. It includes “The Bear, the Rabbit, and the Zinniga-Zanniga,” about a rabbit who is saved from a bear with a single eyelash; “Gustav the Goldfish,” an early, rhymed version of the book A Fish Out of Water; “Tadd and Todd,” a tale passed down via photocopy to generations of twins; “Steak for Supper,” about creatures who follow a boy home in anticipation of a steak dinner; “The Bippolo Seed,” in which a scheming feline leads an innocent duck to make a bad decision; “The Strange Shirt Spot,” which was the inspiration for the bathtub-ring scene in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back; and “The Great Henry McBride,” about a boy whose far-flung career fantasies are only bested by those of the real Dr. Seuss.

Currently available for pre-order at Amazon.

Visit these sites for more info:   NPR •  TIME •  Publishers Weekly