Jul
02
Just one blistering sunburn in childhood more than doubles a person’s chances of developing melanoma later in life. According to one US study, 54 percent of children become sunburned or tanned in their second summer, versus 22 percent in their first.
“Children should not be getting sunburned at any age, especially since there are a range of very effective sun protection methods that can used,” said Perry Robins, MD, President, The Skin Cancer Foundation. “Parents need to be extra vigilant about sun protection all the time.”
Many parents don’t know the best ways to protect their young children. Below are The Skin Cancer Foundation’s recommendations.
Infants
0-6 months: Infants under 6 months of age should be kept out of ... [Read more]
Jul
02
It’s over … the one-hour weekly physical therapy sessions for my soon-to-be 1-year-old daughter have finally come to an end.
As of today, Katie was discharged from physical therapy where she had been going since she was almost 5 months old due to torticollis (aka “twisted neck” syndrome).
... [Read more]
Jul
02
nameberry.com
We’re always coming across names on nameberry that we never thought of before, undiscovered gems that suddenly seem attractive and eminently usable for a real live person.
How come everyone flocks to Ava and Aiden, or even Avery and Atticus, when there are so many names like this hiding in plain sight? Beats us.
Here, the first in a series of names you might not have considered … but definitely should.
ABIJAH A Biblical name used in the Colonial times that can work for both boys and girls. Rhymes with Elijah, stands in for that name or Abigail.
AMORET Redolent of love, this unusual name comes from ... [Read more]
Jul
02
Nostalgia. Growing up I didn’t understand the hurtful twinge, wistfulness and soft yearning for time gone by — or the need to connect with someone who could relate.
More so, I was irritated with my mom’s frequent attempts to share her memories of Fresno. Because, gawh, how many times did I need to hear that Fulton Mall was ‘the place to be’ before Fashion Fair? Or that’s where Harpain’s Dairy used to be?
And she’d already mentioned, like every time we were on it, that the drive from Fresno to Clovis on Herndon was all orchards. That it felt like forever to get from one city to the next.
Of course, I couldn’t imagine it being that way. By the time I knew Herndon, it was a six-lane ... [Read more]
Jul
01
A few weeks before my daughter Emma’s most recent birthday — her ninth — she was sitting at the table leafing through supermarket ads.
“Mom, eggs are on sale. We could have scrambled eggs for breakfast at my slumber party. Oh, wait, another store has waffles on sale. That might be easier.”
I smiled to myself. My long quest to teach my kids about budgeting had finally paid off.
The high cost of celebrating birthdays had first become a topic of discussion in our house four years earlier. Our youngest at the time, Daniel, now age 5, didn’t yet have strong opinions on the subject, but Emma and her brother Jacob, now 8, longed to imitate their friends’ expensive ... [Read more]
Jun
30
He went to bed one night a callow youth of 3, excited about his birthday the next day but not quite understanding that if he’d just go to sleep it would be here before he knew it.
He awoke the following morning a mature lad of 4, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Or at least get to school under his own locomotion, something we’d been trying for a few weeks with varying degrees of success and myriad decibel levels of protest.
“I can do it, and I won’t get tired,” Boots said. “I’m 4 now!”
There must be something magical about being 4. It was about that age that it clicked with Big Guy, too, that he can control his own actions, that he’s not just a victim of what the ... [Read more]
Jun
30
My daughter can read: the end of my life as I know it.
It’s over. My kid can now read. Okay, not Tolstoy or even Nancy Drew but “I just saw your profile and you seem really nice” or “I need to up my meds,” yeah, that, THAT she’s all over.
Now you’d think I’d be thrilled my little baby can read and if it were to help me to somehow make my life as a mother easier, I would say, “Yay, great” but my emails? I’m starting to think I should have let her repeat another year of pre-school. I wear my heart on my sleeve and the filter on my mouth got lost somewhere in the birth canal, so the way I’ve dealt with it since my child was born, was to write and spell everything.
... [Read more]
Jun
30
It was supposed to be the week of my children’s dreams.
They would have Mommy all to themselves for seven straight days and enjoy nothing but fun, games and sunshine. No work, no school and definitely, no daycare. And, bedtimes would be negotiable.
Well, let me be the first one to say this staycation has not been a dream come true. I won’t go as far as to say it is a nightmare, but pretty close.
First, Monday’s trip to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo was canceled after my 3-year-old lost my car/house keys in the apartment and it took all of two hours to find them hidden under a pile of clean clothes I had days earlier told my 10-year-old to hang up. I was so ticked off, I told them ‘no, monkeys ... [Read more]
Jun
30
My daughter had a great year at her pre-school, and watching her and her pint-sized friends sing for us last week at the end-of-year ceremony, I got misty-eyed. It made me reflect on the whole year, which seems like it just zoomed by.
I was feeling pretty good about things until we got home that night and I realized I’d worn my shirt to the party INSIDE OUT.
Nice one.
I guess no one really noticed because it was one of those gauzy Indian shirts, but still — God. Was I the same person who that very morning had promised myself that for once — for once! — I was gonna take some time to put myself together before I left the house?
This would have meant actually blowing my ... [Read more]
Jun
29
For someone like me for whom family traditions, holidays and birthdays are of paramount im-portance, having my kids attend Vacation Bible School in the same church I grew up in last week was a little extra special.
I have very fond memories of that church and of attending Vacation Bible School myself. My mother taught several times when I was little so my mother, brother, sister and I were all together. As I got older, I volunteered to help out with the younger classes.
Before we moved back to the Cleveland area, I was pretty involved in our church in Marietta where I taught Sunday School for several years and headed up one of the church’s committees. We haven’t been as involved since relocating, so I was doubly thrilled all three of my kids were able to spend the week ... [Read more]
