Family Fun Night

Thursday, Immy's School

Nurse Immy

Sunday

Playing Outside

Saturday, Port Angeles

Love, Peace and Breastfeeding

"The rise of breastfeeding in countries at war has contributed to a marked decline in infant mortality during armed conflict, a recent report says.

Children younger than 5 are twice as likely to die in war than adults, mostly from disease, the 'The Shrinking Costs of War' indicates. The report, released mid-January by Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, also says infants up to 6 months old who are exclusively breastfed are seven times less likely to die from diarrhea and five times less likely from pneumonia than infants not breastfed."

Full Article

-Seattle Midwifery School, "From Women's eNews: Breastfeeding During War Helps Lower Infant Mortality." Midwifery & Doula News, February 2010.

Earliest Exposures

The Washington Toxics Coalition is highlighting the story of Molly Gray, a Seattle mother who took part in WTC's recent study on toxic chemicals in pregnant mothers. Shocked at her results despite avoiding chemicals, Molly testified today before a US Senate committee.

"Molly was one of nine pregnant women tested for toxic chemicals as part of a Washington Toxics Coalition study called Earliest Exposures. Molly found out that while she was pregnant she had the highest levels of mercury of anyone in the study and had higher then the national average for a number of others.

Molly describes the experience of finding out her body was contaminated with toxic chemicals:

'I will admit - I assumed I would test chemical-free. After all, for the last five years I had done everything I could to reduce my exposure to toxic chemicals. I ate organic food, chose low-mercury seafood and used personal care products without phthalates and fragrances. Despite my efforts, my results were higher than the national average...As clean as I tried to be, it was not enough to protect my baby boy.'"

Photo + Info: Washington Toxics Coalition

The Only Amazing Thing

Rufus Wainwright:

"One time I was hanging out with Leonard Cohen and his daughter," he says. "She was talking about this child she had known as a baby who she hadn't seen for a few years and how he was now grown up, and she said to her dad: 'You know, it's pretty amazing watching how the baby became a person.' Leonard looked at her and replied very drily, as only he could: 'You know, it's pretty much the only amazing thing there is.'"

Tim Adams, "Rufus Wainwright: 'I was looking right into her face when my mother died.'" The Observer, February 21, 2010.

The Emotionally Intelligent Family

Dr. John Gottman:

“Before I became a father, I had spent nearly twenty years working in the field of developmental psychology, studying the emotional lives of children. But it was not until our child arrived in 1990 that I began to truly understand the realities of the parent-child relationship.” Intense love. Frustration. Joy. Disappointment. Vulnerability.

“Surprisingly,” Dr. Gottman explains, “much of today’s popular advice to parents ignores emotion. Instead it relies on child-rearing theories that address children’s misbehavior, but disregards the feelings that underlie that misbehavior. The ultimate goal of raising children should not be simply to have an obedient and compliant child. Most parents hope for much more for their children. They want their children to be moral and responsible people who contribute to society, who have the strength to make their own choices in life, who enjoy accomplishments of their own talents, who enjoy life and the pleasures it can offer, who have good relationships with friends and successful marriages, and who themselves become good parents.

“In my research I discovered that love by itself wasn’t enough. We found that concerned, warm, and involved parents often had attitudes toward their emotions and their children’s emotions that got in the way of talking to their children when the child was sad or afraid or angry. The secret to being an emotionally intelligent parent lay in how parents interacted with their children when emotions ran hot.” –adapted from pp. 15-16, Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child by John Gottman with Joan DeClaire.

Dr. Gottman’s research has also shown that an important element to successful parenting was based on how parents interacted with each other when emotions ran hot. Dr. Gottman and other researchers have observed that children benefit the most when parents have a strong relationship. “It isn’t so much about staying married for the sake of the kids. Couples need to stay happily married, if they can, in order to help their children. In families where the parents aren’t living with each other or are not going to stay married, the parents can best help their children by minimizing their children’s exposure to destructive conflict. High levels of parental conflict create emotional distress on the children and decrease effective parenting skills.

http://www.gottman.com/parenting/

Heavenly Creatures

"I'm babysitting her for God until she can take care of herself."

-Kelly Cutrone of People's Revolution on mothering Ava, 7

Trailblazing

"Mud up!"

-Imogen

Bubbling

You Get There

"It's not a long way to everywhere, right?
You just take a shortcut and then you get there."
-Imogen

Parent Line

For people on the Olympic Peninsula or Kitsap Peninsula in need of child care, Parent Line is an excellent resource. They have a database to match families with caregivers based on care needed, schedule and location(s). I called Parent Line in Port Angeles ((360)452-5437), talked with a very nice person, and within minutes was e-mailed a list of 17 caregivers.

One Wish

"Happy Little Things"

-A wish from Immy to Grammy

Straitforward

Valley Creek Estuary
Port Angeles Waterfront

In the 50s

Natural State

Olympic National Park Headquarters Visitor's Center,

Peabody Creek Trail
Port Angeles

Timber Town

"Port Angeles," a wooden-block diorama by Imogen

Humans: The Cooking Apes

Richard Wrangham was on KUOW's Speakers' Forum this week, talking about--yes, us--"the cooking apes." I think the most provocative point he makes is that men historically have had more opportunities in life than women because of freedom from daily chores like cooking.

When I turned the radio on and caught this talk, I had just gotten up from squatting on the floor with Imogen, over a board that we were breaking nuts open on with a kitchen mallet. I had even mentioned to Immy that I felt like a monkey and then I pretended I was one. Weird.

Photo: PictureHistory.com

Breadmakers and Breadwinners

"The U.S. Census shows that families with a stay-at-home parent are seven times more likely to live in poverty. And while 72 percent of mothers work, women with children are hired 79 percent less often than those without kids, according to a Cornell University study from 2007. Once they find employment, moms are offered starting salaries that are $11,000 less than men's."

-Claudia Rowe, "Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner mobilizes moms to fight for their rights," Pacific Northwest Magazine, The Seattle Times

MomsRising.org

Where moms and people who love them go to change the world

Dare to Dream

Imogen as "Dorofy"

Hundred-Acre Wood

Webster's Woods Art Park

Port Angeles, Tuesday

A Writer's Life

The New York Times Book Review has named Carol Sklenicka's biography, "Raymond Carver, A Writer's Life," one of its "10 Best Books of 2009."

'Parkles

Writing Letters

Imogen is spending much of her time practicing letters. Here she paints and embellishes some favorites.

Goodbye Gaea

Gaea

She was loved.

June 24, 1995-December 1, 2009

We miss you Bea.

Once Upon a Time

"You know what? I'm the child in this story, you know."

Imogen

Festival of Trees

A Common Heritage

"Adoption of the name Salish Sea better describes a common natural heritage for a vast international water system for which political boundaries are not real. Local names are kept, but a richer, complex setting is recognized and celebrated."

-Editorial, The Seattle Times

Read the full editorial.

Everything + The Sink

Peach and Plum

Imogen served up a plum to her stuffed dog Peach, alongside a "chicken for drinking."

Love Bug

Holding Out Soap

Perspective

You Sure Are

"I'm a 'fart' little 'gill,' 'amn't' I?" -Immy

Magnifique

I just showed this picture of Glinda the Good Witch to Imogen, who exclaimed "magnifique!"

A Tea Party

Smurfette

Oops

A couple weeks ago, Imogen wrote "OOPS," her first written word.

She learned to recognize it in her book Blue Hat, Green Hat.

Bonfire Night

Up Her Sleeve

To fix kids' shirt-sleeve cuffs stained with paint or ink, crop both sleeves (to match) above the highest stain and stitch around the new cuffs to prevent unraveling.