Upromise.
"The way to save for College. Sign up and enter your credit card and grocery card numbers (friends and relatives can help too) then, whenever you buy from dozens of companies (even supermarkets), they kick back between 1 and 10 percent of your purchase into a tax-free college savings fund for your kid.

Wow, it even sounds too good to be true.

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Mommy keeps on growing.
Lately her hands tend to swell a little bit. For this picture, Daddy had to wear her wedding ring while baby entertained us with his nightly pirouettes.

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The Citizen Scientists.
There's a lot of questionable information on the Internet. But look online and you'll also find something more: a spirit of community; a level of candor rarely broached in polite conversation; and a warehouse of information, often routinely monitored by medical specialists. Before the Internet, parents had no one to talk to, let alone any political clout.

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Bird visitor.
For the past several days, a little (baby?) bird comes at dusk to sleep in a little corner just outside our kitchen door. He leaves again at sunrise.

So here we are, very aware and concerned for the bird. Every time we need to get out that door we have to pay special attention not to scare him. Sometimes we even go around the front door so as not to disturbe our feathered friend. Is he too young to build himself a nest on one of the many neighboring trees? Is he an outcast? It doesn't matter, now we care about him. Maybe he just wants to be friends with our baby.

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Tips for breastfeeding success and Initial management of breastfeeding.
Two articles on American Family Physician. The first one is just as the title suggests: tips. The second one is a longer article with scientific references, including a list of steps to successful breastfeeding.

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Just a quick note to say that I got a very favorable impression of President Bush's speech tonight.

I think it was well delivered, it was clear, specific, inspiring, and it even provided a few "quotable quotes".

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Babies babble in sign language.
The findings support the idea that babies are sensitive to rhythmic language patterns and that this sensitivity is key to launching the process of language acquisition. Vocal babbling, in other words, is not a mindless opening and closing of the mouth and jaw, but a precursor of language.

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About bombing Afghanistan. A socio-economic alternative.
$40 billion could effectively double their GDP for 13 straight years. This kind of money could multiply their per-year educational spending by 10 for more than six years, or increase their expenditure on health one-hundred-fold for over four years, or buy the totality of their yearly exports (not including opium) 500 times.

After all that has already been written and said about last week's tragic events, this is my two cents. I was eager to participate in the debate but initially felt I had nothing relevant to contribute. I hope that this is a reasonable and constructive proposal.

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Another doctor visit today.

Mommy voiced a concern to the Dr. about a story from a friend couple not having the greatest experience with him at the time their child was born. He was very understanding and reassuring, and we're glad Mommy got her out of her system, and that Dr. W. made us feel we can trust him.

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Single-egg theory.
Immaculate conception without God. No major technological obstacles now appear to stand in the way of producing an adult human from an unfertilized egg.

It would generate only females, since the self-fertilized egg is bound to have only two X chromosomes. Like the article says, this could be a "lesbian feminist's dream", but I'm sure it would make for a very boring world. Interesting article.

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What's in a (baby's) name?
Today's babies are destined to seek jobs, credit, banking facilities, even partners via e-mail, the internet and fax. Before they can impress in person they will have been judged already by their name.

Nope, we haven't yet made up our minds as to what our baby's name will be. Initially I was convinced I would pass my own name to our fist born, after all, it is a tradition (and a name) I like. But now we're trying to find alternatives and we have a fairly short list. We're not totally conviced by any of the options.

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How to help children cope with news of terrorist attacks. Another article with the same theme here.

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Mommy worried about the kind of world we're bringing our baby into.

Frankly, for a minute I did too. But for all of my life I've been an optimist, and I'm not about to surrender to gloom and doom now. I'm certain that even with yesterday's horrific events still fresh in our minds, we're living in a world that is better than it was when we came, as our parents also made a better world for us. Our child will -no doubt- be a positive force in this new millenium, and in turn work to improve his surroundings and conditions for our grandchildren.

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Children are natural scientists.
In fact, it requires scarcely any "teaching" to put their native curiosity to good educational use.

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Baby essentials.
Parents give their top picks for the best baby stuff and other things they just couldn't live without. Based on two BBS discussions.

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Don't ask, and they may tell.
Modern communication may be all about the bold voice, firm handshake, piercing eye contact. Forget this with kids. Think (apparent) disinterest. Think statements, not questions. If you want really good stuff - especially from boys - think exercise.

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Aren't they beautiful?

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We were ready and prepared and all for our first Lamaze class yesterday.

Then we got there and... there was no class. They gave us the wrong schedule and calendar. What we did instead was to take a long and nice walk on the beach at sunset. It was beautiful.

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Program builds young students' parenting skills.
Instead of offering such instruction only to teenage parents or requiring it for someone who has already abused a child, supporters of such programs say, preparing the next generation of parents should be part of the curriculum for every student --even those who haven't been out of diapers long themselves.

Mh, I can't decide either in favor or against this. On the one hand I agree that children so young will learn more general attitudes than specific knowledge, but I also believe that even those "attitudes" are at least useful, and a way of making these children aware that one day they too will be parents, and they should look forward to that day with responsibility and a good disposition.

Having grown up always surrounded by kids and babies, I am biased, and have the tendency to think that this fact has somehow made me have a better attitude about parenthood and children and family. I can only hope that educational programs as that mentioned in the article will have the same effect on these children, and then they will not be a simple waste of time and money.

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We went shopping for some electronics yesterday. In the end we bought from Best Buy and I have to say we were very pleased with their service and friendliness. So... we have a new digital camera which daddy will be evaluating in the next several days before posting a review for anyone trying to decide on which one to buy.

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