Archive for January, 2012

One of my favorite people on Facebook has declared that she is leaving. She hates the new Timeline, she won’t be forced into it and so she’s out of there.

She wrote there are plenty of things she has to put up with in life but she doesn’t have to put up with Facebook. She says she wants to simplify and live more authentically – like in the 1980s. (I’m not sure if that was a joke.) And she wants to communicate with people through phone calls and meeting them in person.

According to The Washington Post, “the mandatory changes to the layout are set to roll out in the ‘next few weeks,’ the company said in a blog post last week . Once the new layout hits your account, you’ll have seven days to review your profile and manage the privacy settings on every single post. Users can also set a default privacy setting for all of their posts.”

My friend is not alone in hating the new Timeline, according to an article in The Washington Post.

“A nonscientific poll of more …

Continue reading Will you leave Facebook because of the new Timeline? »

The AP is reporting that a baby boy weighing 13 pound and 13 ounces was born vaginally last Thursday in Des Moines. (The article has some photos.)

From AP:

“Asher Stewardson was born Thursday at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, measuring 23 ½ inches.”

“Mercy officials say only a tenth of 1 percent of all newborns weigh more than 11 pounds at birth.”

“The boys’ mother, Kendall Stewardson, endured six hours of labor without an epidural injection. She says she and her husband, Joshua, wanted to avoid cesarean delivery because that wouldn’t have been good for her or Asher.”

Holy Toledo that is a huge baby. That baby is almost double the size of my biggest baby. I can’t imagine what that will do to your vagina. I hope they stitched her up tight and threw in a little vaginal rejuvenation for her. Poor mom!!

I totally respect that she didn’t want to have a cesarean but I hope she’s OK in the long run. My good friend had a 10-pounder and that baby threw her …

Continue reading Can you imagine? Nearly 14-pound baby born in Des Moines »

Do you recognize any of these sleep positions? (Illustrations from www.howtobeadad.com)

My husband ran across this compilation of diagrams of parents sleeping with babies on Facebook. (The original diagrams ran on separate blog posts on www.howtobeadad.com. Here’s a link to the posts by Andy Herald and Charlie Capen about the sleep positions.)

We definitely recognize several of these sleep positions.

Our 4-year-old climbs into bed with us when she’s cold or scared, and we are quite used to sleeping with feet in our backs. She puts herself to sleep by digging her toes into your back or hip. It does not feel good. A few years ago I noticed a giant bruise on my hip and couldn’t figure out what it was from. I finally put it together – it was from her toes digging into me.

Walsh was always a horizontal sleeper. Top of the bed, bottom of the bed, he was always sideways.

The dads have some other funny – if slightly gross — diagrams on their blog such as types of diaper …

Continue reading How not to sleep with a child: (Funny) diagrams »

A nursing mom has decided to launch a Great Nurse-In this summer in Washington, D.C. to exercise her right to nurse in public but also to make people as comfortable with breastfeeding as they are with bottlefeeding.

Rachel Papantonakis is a mother of two who carries a La Leche League card with the public breastfeeding laws of D.C., Maryland and Virgina printed on it, according to iVillage reports.

From The Huffington Post:

” ‘There have been too many news stories lately about women being told they can’t feed their babies in places where they are legally allowed to do so,’ whe wrote on a Facebook page she created for what she is calling “The Great Nurse-In.” It is an event to raise social consciousness, a massive demonstration, to be held on the West Lawn at the Capitol, tentatively planned for August 4th during World Breastfeeding Week.”

” ‘It got me thinking… Wouldn’t it be cool to have a nurse-in on the National Mall? Just a bunch of nursing women, their babies, and …

Continue reading Will you join ‘The Great Nurse-In’ in D.C.? »

One of our moms suggested that we discuss what’s happening to the 22-year old Stone Mountain woman who has been accused of driving drunk and killing a police officer with her vehicle.

In case you haven’t seen the story here is the basic gist from the AJC (click for full story and more coverage):

“The Stone Mountain woman accused of being drunk when her car slammed into and killed an Atlanta police officer has been cited six times for traffic violations in five years, the Fulton County District Attorney’s office said Thursday.

“Chasity Nicole Jones, 22, will remain in the Fulton County jail for at least the next two weeks after a Fulton County magistrate judge refused to grant bond at a court appearance Thursday morning. Jones was charged with felony first-degree vehicular homicide as well as two misdemeanors, driving under the influence and failure to yield to person authorized to direct traffic following the death of Senior Officer Gail Thomas.”

“Jones was in a …

Continue reading Girl who allegedly killed officer: One bad choice or something preventable? »

If you are going to splurge and eat some Girl Scout cookies, you should know that some are better for you than you others.

So which ones can you chow down on and which ones do you need to be more cautious about eating?

The Huffington Post published the serving sizes, calories, fat and sugar for each type of cookie. I put them in the order that you seem to get the most cookie for your calories. (The article has photos if you’re not sure which cookie you normally eat.)

The new Savannah Smiles are some of your best bets – with a serving size of 5 cookies, you only get 140 calories, 5g fat and 10g sugar.

Trefoils offer a serving size of 5 cookies for 160 calories, 8g fat and 7g sugar.

Shout Outs! offer a serving size of 4 cookies for 130 calories, 5g fat and 8g fat.

Thin Mints come in at 4 cookies,160 calories, 8g fat, and 10g sugar.

Dulce de Leche cookies offer you 4 cookies for 160 calories, 8g fat, and 9g sugar.

You will only get 2 Do-Si-Dos for 110 calories, 5g fat and 7g …

Continue reading Which Girl Scout cookies are the worst for you? »

A friend recommended this story about how French parents bring up bebe differently.

From The Huffington Post:

“Sixteen years ago, when my first child was born in Paris, I baby-proofed our apartment with rubber edge liners, covers on electrical sockets, latches on windows, locks on drawers and toilet seat guards. The parts of our living room that weren’t bound and shackled were filled with happy, fluorescent kiddie toys. My French neighbor Genevieve took one look at our place and said: “Your apartment looks like a psych ward.” This was one of several lessons I’d learn about how the French parent differently from us….”

“Now author and French expatriate Pamela Druckerman brings us her soon-to-be-published “Bringing Up Bebe,” a book exclusively dedicated to this comparative parenting turf. Druckerman, 41, has three kids that she’s been raising in Paris. On the origins of her book, she told the Daily Mail in a recent profile: ‘My French friends didn’t have to hurriedly …

Continue reading Are zee French better at being parents? »

We have had a nasty cold virus creep through our house this week. Rose was home two days this week with a horrible cough and Walsh was home yesterday and today snotty with a fever.

I always worry about the kids feeling overwhelmed by work when they return to school after being home sick, especially if it is more than one day. I try to get them to do easy stuff if they feel up to it, like read a couple of chapters or do a worksheet here or there.

So I am wondering do you try to get the kids to do some assignments when they are home sick or just let them rest?

I think this also may depend on how severely sick they are. Over the weekend, Rose felt awful and didn’t do anything. On Monday we went to the doctor so she didn’t do much that day, but by Tuesday she felt better but stayed home because she needed to used the nebulizer multiple times during the day.

I tried to get her to work on math and lit questions but it was slow going.

Walsh was pretty happily playing Nintendo DSi …

Continue reading Should kids do some school work when home sick? »

My friend called yesterday to tell me about a new food app that she thought I would like.

It’s called Fooducate. It’s free and it works on Apple products and Androids. You can download it here.

The idea is that while you are in the grocery store, you can scan the UPC code to quickly determine a letter grade for the food. It gives you warnings about items in the food, gives you the Weight Watchers points for the food and then also offers alternatives. It could in theory help you determine if one brand is better for you than another brand.

From the Fooducate website:

“Are you confused by ingredient lists, nutrition labels, health claims and marketing hype? Fooducate is here to help. We are a team of parents, dietitians, and techies. We realize that at the supermarket you have very little time to analyze food labels and extract the information that is important to you. We’d like to help you make better choices for you and your family.

It also offers the Weight Watchers points …

Continue reading Can new app Fooducate help families be better shoppers? »

You may have heard that Seal and Heidi Klum will be separating. Seal recently spoke on the Tavis Smiley show and said that everything “will be handled civilly for the benefit of their kids.”

From TMZ:
“Tavis asked Seal how he and Heidi can avoid the ugly break-up that has become prevalent among celebs, and he said, ‘We’re just not those kind of people.’ ”

“Seal said, ‘What one has to do in this situation is to remain civil, to retain one’s dignity, to be professional, and to understand that we are not the only people on this planet that are going through this.’ ”

“Seal’s conversation with Tavis Smiley on PBS airs this Friday, January 27 on PBS.”

Earlier in the week, TMZ reported that Heidi Klum was allegedly separating from Seal because of his temper.

Is it possible to be civil during a divorce? Is the civility just in front of the kids? Does it reflect a lack of anger, a lack of passion, a lack of care or just a person working really, really hard to …

Continue reading Can you be civil during a divorce? Seal can! »