May
15
By Jill L. Reed, The Orange County Register
When a 3-year-old asks you what is for dinner and the reply is “shepherd’s pie,” well, all he hears is “pie.”
Pie for dinner? So much excitement and running around when he thinks he is getting pie for dinner.
Thankfully when we sat down to eat he tucked right in to his serving, even after he realized the pie consisted of meat and veggies in a rich and lovely gravy topped with what might be the best mashed potatoes I have ever made.
Though I love the rustic, hearty result when making a shepherd’s pie, I have avoided making it too often since most recipes I have found call for far more …
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May
13
By the Associated Press
FLORISSANT, Mo. — A St. Louis County mother saved the day on Mother’s Day after finding relatives unresponsive in their beds, authorities said.
Names of the woman and her relatives have not been released. All were apparently victims of carbon monoxide poisoning. Victims ranged in age from less than a year old to age 44. All were taken to a hospital for evaluation.
The exact number of people in the home was unclear but police believe there were nine. It wasn’t clear how many were children of the woman credited with saving everyone.
Florissant police told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the woman was nauseous at around 8 a.m. Sunday. She checked on others, found them …
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May
12
Nameberry.com
Names that convey wisdom may not, by themselves, be enough to make your child wise, but they can’t hurt.
Of all the qualities a name can suggest, to others as well as to the person who bears it, wisdom has to be one of the most desirable.
The names here either mean wise or intelligent or are associated with a figure renowned for his or her wisdom. They may set a high bar for your child, but it’s one worth the leap.
The selection:
- Alden — This English surname, quietly but historically used as a first, means “old wise friend.”
- Alfred — The charts may show Alfred still in a century-long decline, but we say this name that means “wise counselor”
…
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May
11
By The Associated Press
Top baby names for girls in 2012
- Sophia
- Emma
- Isabella
- Olivia
- Ava
- Emily
- Abigail
- Mia
- Madison
- Elizabeth
Top baby names for boys
- Jacob
- Mason
- Ethan
- Noah
- William
- Liam
- Jayden
- Michael
- Alexander
- Aiden
Fastest-rising baby names for girls in 2012
- Arya
- Perla
- Catalina
- Elisa
- Raelynn
- Rosalie
- Haven
- Raelyn
- Briella
- Marilyn
Fastest-rising names for boys
- Major
- Gael
- Jase
- Messiah
- Brantley
- Iker
- King
- Rory
- Ari
- Maverick
…
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May
10
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Talk about high expectations for a newborn: King and Messiah are among the fastest-rising baby names for American boys.
They’re just a little behind Major, the boy’s name that jumped the most spots on the Social Security Administration’s annual list of popular baby names.
Jacob is the most popular for boys — again — and Sophia is the top name for girls, according to the list released Thursday.
It was Jacob’s 14th straight year at the top. Next were Mason, Ethan, Noah and William. Liam cracked the top 10 for the first time, coming in at No. 6. Daniel slipped out of the top 10 for the first time since 1998, to No. …
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May
09
By BY SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, Associated Press
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. — Nursing women at a major Army headquarters in South Carolina don’t have to hide in a rest room if they want to breast-feed their babies or express milk for their young.
Women soldiers and civilian employees as well as spouses visiting the headquarters are celebrating the very low-tech room. This $100 million command center now has a room set up exclusively to support nursing mothers, just as moms everywhere celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday.
Army spouse Dianna Troyer says she’s excited the Army installation has allowed a lactation room, which she can use when attending family support dinners and events. Troyer thinks the room will encourage more …
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May
08
By SUE MANNING, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Isabella Rossellini’s search for the meaning of maternal instinct in “Mammas” looks at nine animals where things like polygamy, lying and dying convince her that “anything goes.”
The program timed to air Mother’s Day on the Sundance Channel is just the latest offbeat offering from the model-actress, who gets in costume and plays the parts of the animals.
In “Mammas,” Rossellini dresses as a mother spider, wasp, hamster, toad, cuckoo, dunnock, oil beetle, piping plover and cichlid fish to show how each brings her young into the world. The shorts also launch on sundancechannel.com on Mother’s Day.
“Mammas” is suggestive, but the episodes are mostly for comedy and entertainment, Rossellini said. They …
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May
07
By MELISSA KOSSLER DUTTON, Associated Press
Debbie Frazier wants her two children to grow up appreciating the outdoors. So she introduced them to hiking before they could walk.
As a new mom, she routinely loaded Max, now 6, into a stroller and hiked paths near her home in Sunnyvale, Calif. She often invited friends so she would feel more comfortable hiking with a baby, and eventually she created Stroller Hikes, a nonprofit organization dedicated to arranging kid-friendly hikes.
“I wanted to be outside and I wanted to share it with others,” said Frazier. “One of the beautiful things about stroller hiking is everybody knows how to walk and most families have a stroller.”
Parks around the country are developing programs …
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May
06
COLUMBUS — A new study at Ohio hospital shows children are more likely to be poisoned by household chemicals during the warmer summer months.
That’s the finding by researchers at the Central Ohio Poison Center and the Center for Injury Research and Policy, both at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus.
The national study showed that kids are more likely to be poisoned during warmer months by hydrocarbons — a chemical compound found in household items from cleaning products to gasoline. It’s during warmer months that chemicals are out for lawnmowers, outdoor torches and grills.
According to the study, published online Monday, 31 percent of hydrocarbon exposure incidents were reported during the summer, with 17 to 19 percent being reported during …
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May
05
By KIM COOK, Associated Press
Kids who balk at the idea of wearing head protection for outdoor activities might find it harder these days to argue that helmets aren’t cool.
From dry-erase helmets to ones shaped like animals and bugs to others in bright colors, many of today’s helmets are designed to make kids want to wear them long after the bike is parked or the snowboard stowed.
“We’ll lay out 10 different character helmets at a skate park and let 20 kids try them on and play with them. We’re able to see immediately which designs resonate with them,” says Brad Blankinship, a spokesman at Los Angeles-based C-Preme, which makes helmets and other skate and bike gear.
Some of …
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