Cheers!

Eric & Amy

- Generation Huggies (don’t wait for me to update!  Go to Generation Huggies and upload your video for a chance to win $30,000!)

- Adler Planetarium in Chicago

- Abby in Wonderland: Abby Cadabby’s brand NEW movie!

- Nintendo: So many cool new Nintendo games out and debuting soon for Wii and DS

- Much more!

I’ll be attending and covering the American Baby Faire in Schaumburg, IL tomorrow.  Can’t wait to get a first-hand look at all of the new exciting products on the market…just in time for the holiday season!

Phew! Had to take a little bit of a posting break after the ABC Kids Show coverage. All that posting really takes a lot out of ya!

Anyway, just because we briefly laid of daily posting doesn’t mean that we don’t have things in the works. Oh, the works! I’m tellin’ ya! Yes, October is rockin’. I have events to talk about, more online parenting resources to direct you to and more fantastic product features and giveaways to offer.

Are you and all of your kids settled into the new school-year?  Eric and I drive our toddler, Hailey, to the sitters on a daily basis and we now must obey the school crossing-guards when the kiddos are heading to school.  When I went to school, I had to walk to the bus stop and wait for a bus.  My school was much to far to walk.  Although, my mom will tell you that SHE walked…in 6 feet of snow…in BARE FEET!  That’s right.  My, my how times have changed.  We actually live close enough to walk to the school where Hailey would go, provided we still live here next year.  Now that would be different, but good!  I would love to walk with her to school.  We’ll have to see where we are when the time comes.  I can’t believe we have to think about school already!?

Tonight, I’m hosting an event in the city (Chicago) with a couple of other local bloggers.  Will post about that tomorrow.  Next week is another fabulous event that I’m co-hosting and I will be sure to let you in on all of those details soon.  So many other good things happening this month and I’m going to make sure I have my butt in gear to post about all of it!

Continue to visit…you won’t want to miss any fun giveaways or event opportunities!

Cheers,

Amy

Just minutes ago, Congress passed the PROTECT Our Children Act.

It was a long, hard campaign… one that started with committed PROTECT members like you and then grew to over half a million Americans after it was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. Many Washington insiders said we would never win. We wanted you to be the first to know that we did!

As our campaign showed America, law enforcement now knows how to locate and stop hundreds of thousands of criminals who assault children and traffic in child pornography. But despite years of empty rhetoric from politicians, less than 2% of these cases are even being investigated. That begins to change today, with the passage of the PROTECT Our Children Act.

In the coming days, we’ll share many of the details about this landmark bill and how it was passed. But we didn’t want you to wait to hear this news. Please take time today to celebrate what we’ve accomplished together, because this never would have happened without you!

–The Staff and Volunteers at PROTECT

Hundreds of thousands of children are victims of sexual abuse each year. Due to the sheer lack of resources, law enforcement is unable to follow up on the majority of leads they have.

The PROTECT Our Children Act will:

* Authorize over $320 million over the next five years in desperately needed funding for law enforcement to investigate child exploitation.
* Mandate that child rescue be a top priority for law enforcement receiving federal funding.
* Allocate funds for high-tech computer software that can track down Internet predators.

Act Now!

Your U.S. senators will be voting on the bill soon, so it is crucial you contact them immediately.
Go to www.senate.gov to find contact information for the senators in your state. Search for your senator by name or state by clicking on the arrow from either dropdown menu. Contact information is provided here. To send an e-mail, click on “Web Form” below his or her name, and e-mail your letter to make a difference!

Call Your Senators

If you choose to contact your senators by phone, be sure to tell them, “Vote yes on Senate Bill 1738—The PROTECT Our Children Act.”

Write to Your Senators
If you choose to write a letter, fax, telegram or e-mail, you may use the following sample letter—and modify it how you see fit.

Sample letter:

Dear Senator:

I know that you believe, like I do, that we must do everything possible to protect children from sexual predators. That is why I am asking for your help.

Last year alone, U.S. law enforcement identified over 300,000 criminals who were trafficking in movies and pictures of young children being raped and tortured. Experts say that one in every three of these criminals has local child victims. Child pornography trafficking over the Internet has given us a trail of evidence that leads straight to their doorsteps, but the vast majority of these children will never be rescued because investigators are overwhelmed, outnumbered and underfunded.

As your constituent, I urge you to do everything in your power to pass the PROTECT Our Children Act (S. 1738, Biden-Hatch). This bipartisan legislation passed the House 415-2, but it is now the victim of petty partisan politics.

Now that we know where these children are and how to protect them, there is no excuse for the Senate to fail to take action this session.

(Your name here)

Instructions for How to Copy and Paste the Letter

To copy and paste the letter into your senator’s web form at www.senate.gov, point your mouse arrow at the beginning of the text that you want to copy. Click your left mouse button and hold it down. While holding the left mouse button, drag your arrow to the end of the text that you want to copy. Release the button. The text should be highlighted. Place your mouse arrow over the highlighted text, click your right mouse button once and let go. A new menu should appear. Select Copy from the drop down menu. When you get to the message form field for your senator at www.senate.gov, point your arrow at the beginning of the message field that you want to copy your text to and right click with your mouse. Click Paste from this menu. Submit your form and help our children!

Don’t miss out on these because they are cool and you’ll be cool if you win:

Ending tonight:

Ju-Ju-Be looks good on me

Ending Wednesday, 9/13:

My First Shades

Ending Friday, 9/19:

As I Grow: The DVD series that grows with them

Virtual Expo Giveaway: Baby Banz

Rockabye! Baby U2: It’s a beautiful…night

**NEW!**

Ending Monday, 10/13:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 10th Anniversary Giveaway

Heck, yes, we have more where these came from. Guess you’ll just have to keep coming back, right? ParentSphere will have lots of good stuff to offer; like digital photo editing ideas, articles on the lives of parents, views current events, and well, geez, whatever else you’d like us to talk about!

Hang around, you won’t regret it.

Subscribe to ParentSphere by email – so you’ll be the first to know when the contest is posted!

*Giveaway brought to you by Scholastic and Big Honcho Media

We are uber excited about the official launching of our site.

Much focus has been put on upcoming features here at ParentSphere and we hope that you’ll continue to come back (bookmark us even?) to join us in the fun.  In the coming weeks, we’ll have giveaways and events like the Virtual Expo that is kicking off tomorrow here and in Vegas.  We’re stealing some of the ABC Kids Expo’s thunder.  These boutiques and their products deserve the extra exposure, wouldn’t you agree?  At the end of next week, watch out for our BIG Harry Potter giveaway.  Also, the ParentSphere family will be attending The Terrible Twos concert at Schubas in Chicago next weekend and will give our first-hand review of the show.  Later this month, we will be promoting an scavenger hunt event in Chicago sponsored by MBT 30 shoes, which will include giveaways (of course).

Cheers,

Amy & Eric