Pregnant Soldier Felled at Fort Hood

A pregnant soldier who had just returned from Iraq and was expected to be going out on maternity leave has been listed as one of the casualties in Thursday’s shooting at the Fort Hood military base.

According to the New York Daily News, Francheska Velez had been back in the states just three days when Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on base, killing 13. Continue reading »

Actually, Kids Make You Happy

180 alert!

Less than a year ago, parents were buried under an avalanche of studies that concluded kids don’t make you happy. In fact, these studies showed that people raising kids reported lower levels of happiness — life satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and mental well-being — than their childless counterparts.

Oh, and that lower level of happiness? Never. Goes. Away.

Okay, but now out of the U.K., the Journal of Happiness Studies reports that not only do kids not lower their parents’ level of happiness, they actually raise it — a little bit with the first kid. Even more with the second. And (I’m looking at you, Baby Earl!) significantly more with the third!

There’s a catch, though. Continue reading »

Top Five Kids Books You (and Your Kids) Can’t Live Without

Sierra Black, 2009

Childhood, as it survives in my memory, was one long golden afternoon spent lost in the stacks of my local library. I’m blessed with kids of my own now, one of whom just discovered the magic of libraries for herself.

Between the library and our own large book collection, the kids don’t lack for reading material. Here’s my short list of books I’d want handy if I were trapped on a desert island with a preschooler. Continue reading »

Want a Green Xmas? You Should Probably Start Now

Look, I know Halloween is not even a week behind us, but if I’ve learned one thing as a parent it’s this: it’s really hard to put off Christmas shopping and not (1) overspend (2) disappoint and (3) feel just really awful about child labor/carbon footprints/wrecking the environment. So, theoretically, I’m starting to plan for the holidays now.

How exactly? Well, I’m not sure, but I’m after a bit of research, here’s what I’ve come up with so far. Continue reading »

PTA Sets its Sights on Working Parents

Stay-at-home-moms and stay-at-home-dads, you’re just not cutting it anymore. The parent teacher associations and organizations of the world have ever thinning ranks these days, so they’re going rogue.

They’re dropping their commitment requirements to draw more working parents into the fold. Continue reading »

How to Defend Against a Baby with A Knife

So important you watch this, guys.

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Happy 40th Birthday, Sesame Street!

Google has replaced their logo with a series of Sesame Street-inspired images in honor of the big birthday.

1969 was certainly a banner year.  Neil Armstrong touched down on the moon.  Woodstock took place in upstate New York.  The Beatles released Abbey Road.  The Boeing 747 is first placed into service.  The television shows The Brady Bunch and Monty Python’s Flying Circus debuted.  While those shows, for better or for worse (not necessarily in that order), eventually went off the air, another show that got its start in 1969 is still going strong: the venerable children’s show Sesame Street.

It would be difficult to be a part of American society and not be familiar with the show — everyone, it seems, knows Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and the ubiquitous Elmo.  The show was meant to depict the sort of world kids in the big city themselves lived in and the idea worked.  It worked so well that now, forty years later, the show is as popular as ever.  As of 2006, Sesame Street was the most watched children’s show in the world — there are 20 international independent versions and it is shown in over 120 countries.
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Books Bode Well for Princess and the Frog

If the pile of storybooks sent my way by the folks at Random House are any indication, Princess Tiana might be the best role model for our kids to come out of the Disney vault.

With my daughter breathlessly awaiting The Princess and the Frog debut in theaters, we’ve spent the last several nights reading the Tiana books to satisfy her cravings. The good news? Continue reading »

Rice Krispies Won’t Prevent Swine Flu After All

There has been a  lot news from the cereal aisle in the last few weeks.  First, we learned that some of our favorite breakfast cereals are totally lacking in nutrition.  Then, we found out that Froot Loops and other cereals claiming to be a “Smart Choice” are no such thing.  And now, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies and Cocoa Krispies are being taken down a notch with the food company agreeing to remove the banner from their boxes that claim the cereals help boost immunity. Continue reading »

Mom of Baby Hit by Train: “He Is Destined to Do Something”

Even at a distance and as blurry as it was, the video was horrifying enough to make any parent’s — heck, any person’s — blood run cold:  A mom and baby are waiting for an oncoming train when the stroller starts to roll.  The mother stumbles, and the stroller falls onto the tracks and gets run over by the train.

Earlier this week that mother, Shweta Verma, a dentist and mom to 6-month-old Saurish, talked with Today’s Matt Lauer about the incident.

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