Greeting a returning Marine — in photos
This session was shot recently by New Jersey-based Megan Gray Photography. Three members of the Caballero family were getting ready to greet their fourth, who was returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, at the airport. The father had never met his recently-born-son, and this was his first major deployment away from his three-year-old daughter. As you can imagine, much happiness and tears ensued.
Alternative club ideas for your offbeat high schooler
I recently asked those of you who follow us on Facebook what kind of clubs you participated in high school — Newspaper is a pretty standard offering at a lot of schools, like Science Olympiad or something athletic. I was looking for the good stuff, the crazy shit that you guys made up as clubs when you were teens that you actually loved participating in.
What kinds of books are best for encouraging multi-lingual kids?
My husband has German as a mother tongue and we’re planning on him speaking in German to the future kids. While not pregnant yet, we’re tight on budget so we’d love to stock up on books slowly so we have one less expense when the time comes.
How a purple fairy helped our son ditch his pacifier for good
I noticed that my son’s addiction and attachment to his binky/pacifier (“smukk”) was starting to become just as much of a security blanket for me and my husband as for himself. We had great plans of keeping it to night — and naptimes only, but often it was brought out during extenuating circumstances like boo-boos, travels, car-rides, transitions times etc. Then it became a fight. We were not consistent about our rules, so the screaming and tantrums would often elicit more willingness to dig it out of the pocket.
Indigo’s woodsy-natury-hippie baby photos
Some of you may remember Alexandra’s rainbow-themed baby shower from a few weeks ago — who could forget that incredible-looking rainbow cake? Luckily for me (and you!), Alexandra lives in my city! Along with my friend/biz partner Ashley, I was recently able to snap a few photos of Alexandra and her daughter, Indigo.
What you can do to help get midwives licensed in Alabama even if you don’t live anywhere near it
The Alabama Birth Coalition is an organization that’s working hard to change this. It’s completely volunteer-based, totally grassroots-driven, and one of the coolest collective of people I’ve ever had the pleasure of being around. I recently interviewed Hannah Ellis about her work with the Alabama Birth Coalition and what you can do to help — even if you don’t live anywhere near Alabama.
How did having twins change your life?
My husband and I got the shock of our lives at our first ultrasound at 20 weeks. (We didn’t feel the need for an ultrasound until we wanted to find out the sex of the baby.) “Did you know there were two babies in there?” the technician said. With no fertility treatments or history of twins in my family, suddenly I went from pregnant with my first baby to pregnant with my first two babies!
A camping-themed kids’ room adults can totally love, too
Offbeat Mama published a post today I couldn’t let just lay there. This is a super simply, floor-beddy, back-to-nature type room centered on camping. I can totally see doing this in my own home — or maybe in a temporary space, a short-term rental, a new apartment!