Kirk blAug

Has anyone seen these kid leash products around? Sometimes I see them at the zoo, farmers market, or other crowded areas. If a company can make a product that will make a parent feel a little bit safer, there will always be people out there to buy it. When I see one, it reminds me of that scene in Rise of the Planet of the Apes when a leashed Caesar sees a dog on a leash and turns to Will and signs, "Am I a pet?" The idea of the product is that it will keep the child safe and nearby. It is designed to subside the fear that a child will run off or get abducted. I think that if someone is out to abduct a child during the few seconds when a parent is looking away, a leash is a very small deterrent, and likely, not effective. All the abductor would need is a nice pair of scissors or simply their fingers. The latch cannot be that hard to work. If anything, having a leash might give a parent a false sense of security causing them to pay less attention to the child. In that case it

While in the hospital with Chris and Tsunami for the past couple of days, I have been reading and looking through the iPad version of Richard Dawkins's new children's book, " The Magic of Reality ". Its literary content is the same as the paper version, which is a great read for anyone aged about twelve through adult. The extra features of the iPad version, though, make this version a very fun book. When flipping the pages in the "The Magic of Reality", the page animations are like none that I have seen yet in an iPad children's book. The way that some of the graphics move at a different speed than the text as you swipe gives it a certain feel of depth. Some of the graphics are subtly animated, though just enough to provide a little extra flare without being annoying. Some of the chapters have mini games to help illustrate the information found throughout the book. For example, chapter one has a game which demonstrates selective breeding of species. In t

Today has been a very busy day. I took Jupiter to his gymnastics class today. I thought it would be a nice chance for Jupiter to get a healthy dose of his normal routine and for me to get away from the hospital for a couple hours. When we actually got to gymnastics, he just wanted to leave to go see his new little brother. I can tell Jupiter is very excited about his brother at this point. He just wants everybody to come home and for things to get back to normal. I can sympathize. Being in the hospital is nice because of all the help we get from nurses, but being home will be good. We get to go home tomorrow. Jupiter has been excited about riding in the car with Tsunami ever since we put the baby seat in Chris's Prius during one of the false alarms from earlier. Every time we get in her car he asks us, as if he needs reassurance of the reality, "Baby ride back here with me?" Needless to say, he will like having a travel companion.

Tsunami Dawkins Augustine was born at 13:05 on September 26, 2011 at Bryan Hospital in Lincoln, NE. He weighed 8 lbs 5 ounces and measured 20 inches. Mother and baby are doing great!

Many parents like to pierce their child's ears at a very young age. Some seem to think that infancy is the best time to do this, and they have their reasons. In all matters, I think that cosmetic body modification of any kind is a choice for the child to make when he or she is old enough to make that decision and care for the modification. Call me crazy, but it seems to me that children are individuals too. I would gladly let my sons (or daughters if I ever have any) get ears pierced if they desired to do so and had reached a maturity level where they could take care of it responsibly. I feel making this decision for a child is a forced identity. I would like to go over a few common arguments for infant and young child ear piercing. One reason often given for doing it at a young age is that it may be less painful, and may fear the pain more as they grow up. First, having had my ears and other areas pierced several times, an ear piercing amounts to little more than a pinch and then

Anthony Herrera is a dad and a graphic designer. He is also a Star Wars geek. When he took his kids to Sequoia National Park he told his daughter that it was where Ewoks live. Unfortunately they did not come across any while they were there. But to his daughter's surprise when looking at the photos later on it seems some of them were watching them . I had to explain that they are extremely shy and hardly ever let anyone see them. After we got home, and after I had a little time alone with the photos, I told her I thought I saw something strange in a few pictures. We viewed them on the TV to get a larger image. You can imagine how surprised and excited she was when we discovered that we didn't see any Ewoks, but they saw us, and had certainly taken an interest in her and her little brother.

It would be no surprise to me to find that ADHD is way over diagnosed. I was on Ritalin as a kid and even as an adult. While I cannot say with certainty that I was misdiagnosed, I could see that many kids were. Now being married to a pharmacist, I can see that many more kids still are. According to The Inquisitr , there is a recent study that was published in the American Journal of Family Therapy that suggests a link between sleep patterns and ADHD like behavior. They studied 704 parents and some of the findings suggest that kids who have no set bedtime were eight more times as likely to hit, punch, and kick their parents. These kids were also likely to get disciplinary notes from schools and have low self-confidence. Kids who shared a bed with parents or siblings were also seven more times as likely to result in these behaviors. I have always thought that it would be better to spend more time looking at adjusting behaviors before going on meds for any reason. This goes for any healt