The loss of a baby

Posted on by February 19, 2015

Photo via Flickr

It is just not fair for someone to lose a child. That should not happen… and yet it does. Without sharing too many details, a wonderful woman, wife, and mother (along with her husband, daughter, and family) has had to experience this tragic loss. Yesterday she lost her beautiful baby girl.

For anyone out there going through a similar tragedy, Earth Mama Angel Baby has put together a great page of resources for grief support. If you are a parent, grandparent, friend, relative of an angel baby I invite you to explore those resources here: http://www.babylosscomfort.com/resources.html

I will never understand why something like this happens, but what I can do is try to prevent it from happening to someone else…

I have just learned that April 24 was SIDS Awareness Day and even though we missed that there are still ways to help and many resources to explore at the American SIDS Institute. There are so many things that we can do to reduce the risk of SIDS, but we still don’t fully understand everything and unfortunately won’t be able to prevent all SIDS deaths now, but we can work and hope to try and eliminate SIDS deaths in the future.

Weekend activities for Earth Day and TV Turnoff

Posted on by March 27, 2014

Wow, what a great time we had at The Mom Shop on Saturday! Thanks to all of those who came out. We got to meet a lot of fantastic people and saw the cutest kids in the fashion show that you have ever seen!

We had great weather all weekend here in Portland. It is so lovely to see the sun shining again. My family I spent most of Sunday outside. We planted our small vegetable garden, made pine cone bird feeders with the boys, and watched a pair of birds building a nest in our apple tree. The baby got to crawl all around trying to eat the grass. Playing outside was everyone’s favorite part of the day. We even ate our meals outside!

Did you get your green hour in?

This week we will celebrate two events: Earth Day on April 22 and TV Turnoff Week April 20-26.

There is some controversy about Earth Day this year. Yes we should be living green all year long, but I have come to love the big symbolic gestures. Earth Day is less about being green for a day and much more about bringing awareness to those that may not realize all of the great ways to save money and save the planet all at the same time! Plus it is a great excuse to do something out of the ordinary with your children: go on a mid-week nature hike, do an Earth Day craft, take part in a special Earth Day event near you, learn something new about recycling or a new way to reuse your old cloth diapers.

TV Turnoff Week is near and dear to my heart, much to my oldest boy’s chagrin (he had a hard time with this last year, and he doesn’t even watch that much tv!). I think that so many American kids spend way too much time in front of the television each day and far too little time exploring their natural world. I am excited that this week looks like it will be great for my kids to spend more time outside. But even inside, there is a lot to do besides watching a show or playing a video game.

Do you have any special Earth Day plans? Any fun activities for TV Turnoff week?

Parenting choices

Posted on by May 21, 2011

Photo via Flickr

After finally getting over a stomach virus that ravaged the whole family and sent the baby to the hospital with dehydration, we are now sick again. What’s the deal? I thought at first it was allergies, and there may be a bit of that in there as well, but it’s a cold. All three of the kids and me.

Of course tonight is the 5 year old’s very first t-ball game ever. He is feeling fine and well enough to go, but that leaves the rest of us. I really don’t want to miss my son’s first game. I just don’t. But… how can I take a baby who isn’t feeling well, or how could I leave her home with my husband- who I am sure doesn’t really want to miss this game either even though he said he would stay home? The 3 year old will be fine either way, as long as it doesn’t rain like they say it will, although I am sure he would be better off staying home too.

So, what do you do? How do you decide? What have been some tough, or trivial, parenting choices that you have had to make and what were the outcomes?