Archive for November, 2010

You always hear as a new mother that feeding your baby formula will help the baby (and you) sleep longer at night. But new research just published in the December issue of Pediatrics says it’s not true.

From Time magazine:

“No matter whether moms breast-fed, formula-fed or did a combination of both, they got the same amount of sleep and considered themselves equally exhausted. Score one for the breast-feeding advocates, who hope this study gives women on the fence another reason to commit to breastfeeding, which conveys well-documented health benefits for baby — and mother. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies be exclusively breast-fed for six months and continue to receive breast milk for at least a year.”

The research was conducted by West Virginia University and the team asked new mothers  to track when they fed and when they slept beginning the second week after their baby was born until the end of the 12th week. To help them do this, the mothers wore …

Continue reading Does feeding a baby formula get mom more sleep? »

I have literally been tearing up all day over Prince William’s engagement to Kate Middleton, and when I saw that she was wearing Princess Diana’s engagement ring it turned into full blown crying!

I’m not sure why I feel so attached to Prince William or why I care so much about a new royal wedding. I guess it’s because I loved Princess Diana as a young girl.

I was 10-years-old when Prince Charles marred Diana in July of 1981. My oldest daughter will be exactly that age when Prince William marries next spring or summer. I clearly remember my mother waking me up in the middle of the night to watch the wedding. I loved it so much and always felt an attachment to Princess Diana. That Christmas my mother gave me a large book of photos of the Royal Wedding, and I remember poring over every photo of the gown, the ring, and her honeymoon photos. (I was baffled by Prince Charles’ kilt.)

It was heartbreaking to learn so many years later that even on their honeymoon Diana was unhappy. I …

Continue reading Will you watch Prince William wed Kate with your children? »

Author Kelly Valen was burned so harshly by her sorority sisters in college that she avoided female friendships. In 2007 she wrote a personal essay about her experiences for the New York Times entitled “My Sorority Pledge? I Swore Off Sisterhood.”

Now Valen has a new book called “Twisted Sisterhood: Unraveling the Dark Legacy of Female Friendships” examining female relationships from varied socio-economic groups across the nation. She surveyed more than 3,000 women to study the ways women relate to one another.

Time magazine recently interviewed the author about what she learned in her study. I can only pull three paragraphs so be sure to read the whole article on Time.com.

From Time.com:

“About those women, what surprised you?”

“Let’s start with the good news. Ninety percent of those women said that they did have a solid girlfriend in their life. That’s wonderful news. But 84% of those same women said they had suffered real genuine wounding at the hand of other women. That …

Continue reading Do women actually hate each other? »

Some parents in a New York City suburb are upset because a local politician called police on two 13-year-old boys for selling cupcakes and other baked goods without a permit.

From The Associated Press:

“The Journal News in Westchester County reported Monday that New Castle Councilman Michael Wolfensohn had called police last month. The newspaper says it requested the police report after receiving a complaint from a friend of one of the boys’ families.”

“Andrew DeMarchis and Kevin Graff had a brisk business selling cupcakes, cookies, brownies and Rice Krispie treats in a Chappaqua (CHAP’-uh-kwah) park.”

“Kevin’s mother, Laura Graff, says the teens are “good kids” who were scared by the police call.”

“Wolfensohn says rules are rules. But he concedes calling the police might have been a half-baked decision.”

Teens babysit all the time, make good money and aren’t required to have child care licenses. Lots of teens dog sit, cut lawns and do a variety of other services without the …

Continue reading Can kids sell cupcakes without a permit? »

Soccer is so 1990s. Apparently running is the new in sport for kids.

From USA Today:

” ‘Kids’ runs are taking off,’ says Bart Yasso, a writer and running expert at Runner’s World magazine, who attends races almost every weekend.”

“Yasso says that in recent years many race organizers have added 1-mile ‘fun runs’ to their agendas in an effort to accommodate adult runners who drag their little ones along to events. More proof of the trend: Until recently, the youngest award category at many races was “18 and under,” but now you see that group broken down further by age, says Kathy Dalby, event director for Pacers Running Stores in the D.C. area.”

“The Marine Corps Marathon 1-mile fun run, which took place a week ago in Washington, drew 3,000 children this year, many of whom are the kids of marathoners, says Tami Faram, public relations coordinator for the event.”

The event started 11 years ago with only about 670 kids.

Girls on the Run International, a non profit non-profit that …

Continue reading Is running the new big sport for kids? »

I am seeing a lot of Facebook chatter between moms looking for advice about video game systems. So I thought it would be helpful to talk about the different systems and hook you guys up with reviews and video guides.

So the three main systems that moms are debating are:

Sony PlayStation 3 Slim (160 GB) *Est. $300 — It can play Blu-ray disks besides video games. My husband says it’s a powerful machine. The new big thing for the system is the Playstation Move motion controllers.  They look like ping pong balls on the end of a Wii controller. Similar in theory to the Wii controllers.

Microsoft Xbox 360 Slim (250 GB) *Est. $300 — The X-Box Kinect is the big thing from X-Box this holiday season (Advertised for $150). It enables players to play (new) games and control the X-Box without a controller.  Think Tom Cruise in “Minority Report” – you just sweep your hands in the air.

Nintendo Wii *Est. $200 – Very easy for kids to control. Lots of kid-centric and family-focused games.

My …

Continue reading Mom’s Guide:Which video game system to buy for Christmas? »

One of my all-time favorite lists came out last weekend – The New York Times’ Top 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books.  Click on the link to see inside pages of the illustrations as well as a brief description of the books.

This is a great list to pull from for Christmas presents or if you need a fast birthday present during the year.

Since 1952 the Book Review has asked a panel of judges to pick the top children’s books from literally thousands of books.

From The New York Times:

“The judges this time around were Robert Sabuda, a co-creator of the best-selling ‘Encyclopedia Prehistorica’ series and twice the recipient of a Times Best Illustrated award; Elizabeth Bird, a children’s librarian with the New York Public Library, whose first picture book, ‘Giant Dance Party,’ is due out next year; and David Barringer, a novelist and designer who is the author of ‘There’s Nothing Funny About Design.’ “

I loved the look of “Subway” but I think I would really enjoy the stories of “A …

Continue reading Easy present alert: NYT Best Illustrated Kids’ Books for 2010 »

Amazon.com Inc. has come under fire for selling a self-published guide that offers advice to pedophiles. The book has been hit with hundreds of negative reviews, comments and even some threats to boycott the site until the book is removed.

From The Associated Press:

“The availability of “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct” calls into question whether Amazon has any procedures — or even an obligation — to vet books before they are sold in its online stores. Amazon did not respond to multiple e-mail and phone messages.’ ”

The title is an electronic book available for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and the company’s software for reading Kindle books on mobile phones and computers. Amazon allows authors to submit their own works and shares revenue with them.”

“Amazon issues guidelines banning certain materials, including those deemed offensive. However, the company doesn’t elaborate on what constitutes offensive content, saying simply that it is …

Continue reading Should Amazon.com sell a pedophile guide book? Would you boycott if book remains? »

So apparently it’s deer hunting season, and I know this because one of my friends on Facebook is posting photos of himself with a dead deer.

I’m surprised there aren’t more hunting posts or photos of recent conquests on Facebook. So is it just my “friends” aren’t hunting or are Atlanta families in general not hunting? Is it now more a South Georgia thing? Or is it a from-Georgia, native kind of thing?

Growing up in Georgia we had neighbors that hunted. We would see them all in their camouflage unloading the car. (I was never up early enough to see anybody leave.) My family never hunted even though my parents are originally from Georgia. I started to appreciate deer hunting more when we lived in Pennsylvania. It was explained as an absolute necessity to keep the population in check and to keep deer from starving during the winter. The first day of deer hunting season was even a school holiday in State College, Pa.

So what do you think: Are Atlanta families still hunting? Is it …

Continue reading Do Atlanta families still hunt? »

A new study says that teens who text 120 times a day or more — and there seems to be a lot of them — are more likely to have had sex or used alcohol and drugs than kids who don’t send as many messages.

From the Associated Press: (I bolded for quick read)

“The study’s authors aren’t suggesting that “hyper-texting” leads to sex, drinking or drugs, but say it’s startling to see an apparent link between excessive messaging and that kind of risky behavior…”

“The study was done at 20 public high schools in the Cleveland area last year, and is based on confidential paper surveys of more than 4,200 students.”

“It found that about one in five students were hyper-texters and about one in nine are hyper-networkers — those who spend three or more hours a day on Facebook and other social networking websites.”

“About one in 25 fall into both categories.”

“Hyper-texting and hyper-networking were more common among girls, minorities, kids whose parents have less education and students from a …

Continue reading Does hyper-texting equal more sex, drugs at your house? »