18 posts tagged “kids”
Singles are lonely
Couples are disappointed
Children are "in love"
Interesting CNN Article - Valentine's Day: Holiday from hell:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/02/14/valentine.from.hell/index.html
Who needs a sink when you've got MomSpit? We're speaking of a favorite no-rinse cleanser that, unlike its original inspiration, cleans beautifully and comes in yummy scents like Lemon & White Tea. It's ideal for the times when you're on the move and in your groove and you notice the milk moustache or ketchup fingernails and there's no bathroom in sight.
Whether you're urban, suburban or good old country, a soccer mom, golf dude, fashion diva or business suit, MomSpit was designed with versatility in mind.
You can buy Momspit online at: http://www.momspit.com/getMomspit/
Spotted on IGTRENDCENTAL:
Lunchopolis, a mommy owned-and-operated start-up, was created to help cut down on the 3.5+ billion pounds of lunchbox garbage generated each year. After noting that few parents (to their knowledge) pack their kids’ lunches with reusable cloth napkins, silverware, and Tupperware containers, two LA-based moms decided to create Lunchopolis. The insulated soft lunchbox is available in a variety of child-friendly colors and styles and features a refillable drinking bottle and stackable containers, making it easy to pack a garbage-free lunch every day.
More information at: http://www.lunchopolis.com/
The United Steelworkers Union (USW) has produced this video (featuring singing Steelworker kids) that symbolizes what the Stop Toxic Imports Campaign is all about--protecting our children from dangerous imported products and fighting unfair trade laws that allow global corporations to cheat us out of good jobs.
As part of the campaign, the union’s Women of Steel are conducting in-home training sessions across the United States and Canada to educate families about the threat of lead and demonstrate how to test for lead in toys and other products.
It’s an important message that can help us convince members of Congress that we must act NOW to protect our families from toxic products and change the terrible trade policies that cause this problem.
Thought these ideas might come in handy as you guys finish up (ahem…start) your Christmas shopping. I'm No Oprah or Julie Andrews, but here are a few of my favorite things:
Affirmawraps from Affirmagy
These are soft and comfy fleece blankets imprinted with positive affirmations or scriptures. Perfect for Ladies, babies and pets.
Cost: $29.99
Culinary Empire Gourmet Basket from Fabiene
An Amazing wooden chest overflowing with high class flavors of endless gourmet pleasures. 3 bottles from the 2005 Farnese collection - Montepulciano D'abruzzo Farneto Valley 2005, Chardonnay 2005 and Sauvignon 2005 and a grand, wide variety of top brand name gourmet goods. Perfect for Parents, Grandparents, & CoHabitating Couples
Cost: $299.95
Gunmetal Engraved Pocket Watch from Things Remembered
Pocketwatches are always a great gift and an instant keepsake when they are engraved. A very stylish pocket watch with matching chain from Colibri®. Perfect for most Guys (Husbands, Dads, Granddads, S/O)
Cost: $39.99
Ion Audio USB Turntable from Sharper Image
Know someone who still has a very impressive Vinyl collection?? This USB turntable spins old vinyl records into new digital music — MP3 or CD format! Perfect for DeeJays, Music Enthusiasts and anyone still scratchin' Vinyl.
Cost: $199.95
A Letter From Santa from The Santa Claus House
No kid will ever forget receiving a letter from Santa with a genuine North Pole postmark and keepsake photo. Letters themes include baby's 1st Christmas, Difficult Christmas, Not-So-Good Child Christmas, and 1st Christmas as a couple. Perfect for Kids, Grandkids, Adults, even Pets!
Cost: $7.50
A Lump of Coal from FireBox
A genuine chunk of coal gift wrapped and placed in an extremely Christmassy presentation tin. And that's it. No special features, no hidden treats, no nothing. Perfect for anyone who's been Naughty this year…they know who they are.
Cost: $2.95
Personalized Christmas Stockings from Land's End
Personalized gifts are my favorite because they are the most memorable in the years to come. These brightly colored personalized Christmas stockings are perfect to hang over the fireplace in the hopes that Santa Claus will fill them with toys, treats, and goodies for Years to Come. Perfect for Everyone - Individuals and Families!
Cost: $20.00
Gift of Stock from ShareBuilder
Better than Cash, Stock makes a great gift. Either make a 1-time gift to open an account or set up an Automatic Investment Plan and specify the dollar amount you want to invest on a weekly or monthly basis and have the funds automatically pulled from your checking or savings account. Open a new Account by 1/15/2008, and they'll contribute $50 to your investment after you place your first trade. Perfect for Kids of all Ages!
Cost: Any Amount
Sun Jar from Wishing Fish
Ever wanted to give someone the Sun? Well, this Sun Jar collects and stores sunshine so you can use it at night! A perfect garden light or night light for a child's bedroom. It is the green gift of the year! Perfect for Everyone!
Cost: $40.00
This Year I Will...: How to Finally Change a Habit, Keep a Resolution, or Make a Dream Come True by M. J. Ryan from Amazon.com
Help someone keep their resolution(s) this year and they won't ever forget you for changing their lives. M.J. Ryan (one of the creators of the bestselling Random Acts of Kindness series, author and life coach) outlines a concrete and practical strategy for following through on a resolution while dealing with all of life's other ups and downs and will prove welcome for anyone seeking gentle but solid help in achieving personal change. Perfect for Conciousminded folks and anyone who needs a light under their Fire!
Cost: $10.85
The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychiatric Association have released a new parents' guide to ADHD drugs. The ADHD Parents Medication Guide is available at ParentsMedGuide.org, was developed by mental health professionals and parent advocacy groups, with no drug company funding.
As a mother of a child diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, the major question I faced was: To medicate or not to medicate? It was one of the most difficult decisions I had to make as a parent and did so with very little support from my friends and family. Even today, I'm constantly asked Exactly what does the medicine do for him and I get bombarded with information as to why I shouldn't medicate my son. It's a sore spot for me because it was a real struggle for my youngest to focus and to control his impulsive behaviors. I was constantly getting called to pick him up from preschools (of which he got expelled from over 5 within a year period) and I really didn't want to take him anywhere with me in public because I knew that he would do Something to embarrass us All. Everyone said that he was just being a kid...an overactive boy, but I KNEW that his behavior was not normal.
Now, he is in Kindergarten and is able to sit in a classroom and focus on a task without deciding to do somersaults in the middle of circle time. He's not as agressive (no more kicking the teachers) and I've yet to be called up to the school this year (knock on wood). We can go out to the Mall or grocery shopping without him making a scene, he can sit through a movie at the theatre without getting antsy and going to play with the hand dryers in the bathroom every 15 minutes. He is able to actually Think about his actions and calm himself down long enough to make a good choice. When he doesn't get his medicine, he can feel the difference. He acts out and he says my brain won't listen to me because I did not take my medicine and then he feels horrible. I hope that he will not always be dependent on a medicine and that with further counseling and adjustments to my parenting technique and the school's assistance, he will be able to one day control his brain on his own.
The guide provides some very balanced information about risks, benefits and how to judge what is best for your child ... whether that includes drug treatment or not. It lists some of the most common side effects of current stimulant drugs to treat ADHD including reduced appetite, weight loss, trouble sleeping, headaches, stomach pain and irritability and also the rare and serious side effects including heart-related problems, hallucinations and agitation, suicidal thoughts and liver problems. The guide also takes on questions about the risk for addiction, and even offers some help on how parents can enlist help from their child's school.
It's a individual decision for each family, but the more information you have, the better.
On the way in today, I heard an NPR piece with Jerome Groopman the author of How Doctor’s Think. You can listen to it Here but in the meantime here are a few points to keep in mind the next time you (or your kids) visit the Doctor:
- A doctor in this country interrupts a patient, on average, in the first 18 seconds of a visit.
- Misdiagnosis occur in about fifteen per cent of cases, and many misdiagnoses are the result of readily identifiable—and often preventable—errors in thinking. At least half result in serious injury or death.
- Research shows that most physicians already have in mind two or three possible diagnoses within minutes of meeting a patient, and that they tend to develop their hunches from very incomplete information (this is called anchoring -- where a doctor interrupts you, seizes on a symptom or complaint, and declares, "It's this." This snap judgment anchors all ensuing thinking). This leads to “representativeness” errors and Doctors make such errors when their thinking is overly influenced by what is typically true; they fail to consider possibilities that contradict their mental templates of a disease, and thus attribute symptoms to the wrong cause.
- Doctors typically begin to diagnose patients the moment they meet them. Even before they conduct an examination, they are interpreting a patient’s appearance: his complexion, the tilt of his head, the movements of his eyes and mouth, they way he sits or stands up, the sound of his breathing. Doctors’ theories about what is wrong continue to evolve as they listen to the patient’s heart, or press on his liver. To make diagnoses, most doctors rely on shortcuts and rules of thumb—known in psychology as “heuristics.”
- Doctors can also make mistakes when their judgments about a patient are unconsciously influenced by the symptoms and illnesses of patients they have just seen. Many common infections tend to occur in epidemics, afflicting large numbers of people in a single community at the same time; after a doctor sees six patients with, say, the flu, it is common to assume that the seventh patient who complains of similar symptoms is suffering from the same disease.
- Representativeness and availability errors are intellectual mistakes, but the errors that doctors make because of their feelings for a patient can be just as significant. We all want to believe that our physician likes us and is moved by our plight. Doctors, in turn, are encouraged to develop positive feelings for their patients; caring is generally held to be the cornerstone of humanistic medicine. Sometimes, however, a doctor’s impulse to protect a patient he likes or admires can adversely affect his judgment.
- Time is an insidious agent in all this. "In today's medical environment, the clinic is a factory," says Groopman. "It's a world of eight-minute visits. The mistakes are made in the moment. Doctors draw immediate diagnoses rather than listen and pursue leads. And when complaints persist, they all too often cling to their first thought and even discount contradictory evidence.”
So what should we be asking our doctors, over and over?
"What else could it be?"
I remember getting a Petition emailed to me last year demanding that Disney create a Black Princess. Well, apparently, they got enough signatures. Now, fifteen years after introducing it's first non-white Heroine (1992 - Aladdin's Middle Eastern Princess Jasmine), Disney has announced the creation of it's first Black Princess - Maddy, in its upcoming film "The Frog Princess" slated to be released in 2009.
The film also is the first hand-drawn film the company has committed to since pledging last month to return to the traditional animation form that made it a worldwide brand.
"The Frog Princess", a musical scored by composer Randy Newman, is "an American fairy tale" starring a girl named Maddy who lives in the French Quarter in New Orleans, said John Lasseter, chief creative director for Disney and Pixar Animation Studios.
Disney did not provide details of the plot, but the company showed shareholders preliminary drawings from the film and had Newman and a local jazz band play a song from the film's score.
