Vagina is Not a Bad Word

Apr 29, 2013 by Sarah Bourne Perillo

My four and almost three-year old are obsessed with body parts. They are inquisitive about bodily functions, they want to understand how and why people are different shapes and sizes; we have had lengthy conversations about why Mom pees sitting down and Dad pees standing up. My daughters can properly identify their body parts.

The other day the two of them were playing on the porch. My four-year old has a strict policy at her school about using potty words inappropriately, and she has been working on refraining from using these words inappropriately at home and around her younger sisters. In the middle of playing my oldest daughter said something about changing her baby doll and having to wipe the baby’s vagina. My almost three-year old used this as a chance to tattle and came running inside, accusing her sister of using a “bad word.” This, of course, resulted in the classic argument: “did not,” “did too,” “did not.” I intervened and helped to guide the argument into a productive conversation about why vagina is not a bad word.  Read more...

A Kitchen Full of Judgment

Apr 12, 2013 by Melanie

“No, sorry, I’m too busy ignoring my daughter so I can cook her a healthy meal.”

If you’ve kept up with my posts on here, you’re aware that I hate cooking, or at least that I hate the difficulty and stress that comes from having to cook for an entire family.  It’s more of a keeping-up-with-the-joneses thing — I always feel like my friends can make awesome gourmet meals when I’m making tacos from a box or shake and bake chicken or something.  And I wonder how other working moms have the time to spend 2-3 hours on food prep, cooking, dinner and clean up when I barely have time to sleep.  Read more...

My Modeling Career

Jan 17, 2013 by carlycorrigan

As a parent, you want nothing less than the absolute best for your child. We tell them on a daily basis where to go, to do this, don’t do that, eat this and not that – always with the best intentions of course (i.e. for health or safety reasons, and so on). Now that my daughter is about to turn 3 years old I am realizing more and more every day how much she catches on to. Sure she imitated sounds as a baby, then progressed to words, and now phrases.

In fact, just last week I was making dinner in the kitchen while she was playing with her baby doll. Next thing I know I hear her say, “Cry me a river. Cry me a river.” Now, that’s not a phrase my husband or I usually use with her. However, there were a couple of times my husband jokingly responded to some crocodile tears of hers by saying, “Oh cry me a river!”  Read more...

Cleaner Living: It’s a New Year!

Jan 4, 2013 by Dena

Happy 2013!

It has been almost a year since I did the Toxin a Day series (you can find the wrap up and links to all the Toxins here).  For you newbies, the series took aim to help our readers navigate the shopping aisles armed with a bit more knowledge of the toxins that lurk in everyday products.

The series was so well received and I get the feeling that you all want more of this type of stuff.  So, one of my resolutions this year is to try to be better at posting helpful tips and info about how to live a little less toxic and to help others live a healthier life!

In order to do that, I want to know what information YOU want!  What products are you concerned about?  What things have you heard in the news, on other blogs, etc., that you just don’t have the time to fully research?  Do you want more tips on creating your own products (and saving money in the process?  What will help you to make that first step to a Cleaner Life?  Read more...

World Prematurity Day

Nov 17, 2012 by Kriste

Did you know that 15 million babies are born too soon around the world each year?  And that 1.1 million pre-term babies die every year?  Today, November 17^th, is World Prematurity Day.  Sponsored by the March of Dimes and other global organizations, it will be a day to spotlight premature births and spread the world about the things that everyone can do to help reduce pre-term births.  Even though we live in the United States, a wealthy, developed country, we still have a long way to go to reduce the number of pre-term births here.

Like many people, I never even thought about pre-term birth until I had one.  My daughter was born at 27 weeks gestation (See my post.)  She weighed only 2 lbs. and most of her body could fit in my husband’s hand.  No one knows what caused her to come so early.  My pregnancy was absolutely perfect until…it wasn’t.  Read more...