Did You Hear About This One?

I just learned about this movie, and I have to say it sounds very interesting.  Babies follows four babies from around the world for one year. From top to bottom, they are Bayar from Mongolia, Hattie from San Francisco, Mari from Tokyo, and Ponijao from Namibia.

Was this movie on anyone else's radar?  I think it's going to be interesting to see how different and how alike their daily lives are throughout the year.

Disclaimer:  In the spirit of full disclosure, I became aware of this movie because I'm a BzzAgent, and there are prizes for agents who generate the most hits, Facebook fans, etc...  I'm sharing this because I think the idea of the movie is interesting.  The prizes are all baby-related, and Sera has outgrown that need.  Can't say I miss changing those diapers, but I do miss those baby snuggles.  On the other hand almost 4-year-old snuggles are pretty darn good.

Imagine That

Eating good, nutritious food keeps students healthier and improves their academics.


Jamie Oliver's school dinners shown to have improved academic results
Absences down after chef changed junk food menu - a result which is a boost for celebrity as he struggles for US support...


Rachel Williams guardian.co.uk, Monday 29 March 2010 20.21 BST

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Pieces & Parts

Did you watch?  Jamie Oliver's new show, Food Revolution, began last Friday.  I did, and I'm hooked.  It's no secret that school lunchs leave a lot to be desired.  It's time that everyone sees how unhealthy they truly are. 

I work in a school that has almost 70% of the students qualifying for free/reduced lunch.  This means they also get breakfast.  For far too many, these are their only two meals of the day.

Guess what they eat.  The favorite choice for breakfast is pop-tarts and for lunch, it's french fries.

We've been working on eating healthier at home.  Buying meat and eggs from a local butcher who only buys from local farmers.  He has a huge sign up in the store that none of their meat has any additives or hormones added.  I choose to believe. We buy regularly from the farmer's market when produce is in season here.  The pickings got light over the winter, but I canned a lot of our locally grown apples and froze bags and bags of fresh corn. Next year, I plan to preserve even more.

This year Jim is talking about putting in a garden as a project for him and Sera.  I told him you grow it, I'll cook or preserve it.

We're far from perfect with this, but we're trying.  Ice cream is much too regular a part of our diet and those Girl Scouts made a few bucks from us, but we're working hard to improve.  Too many children don't have these opportunities. 

Can you imagine a 5 or 6 year old child not being able to identify a tomato? I can see not knowing what a beet or an eggplant is, but a tomato, a mushroom, or a potato? That is one of the things this show highlights, and it's appalling.

We wonder why so many schools are struggling to educate our young?

Maybe their brains are starving from lack of nutrients?

Update:  Another link you may find interesting, Fed Up with Lunch:  The School Lunch Project.

Easter Fair

Yesterday, Sera's school had an Easter Fair with an Easter egg hunt, face painting, a man making balloon animals, hats, swords, bracelets, you name it, and, of course, the Easter Bunny himself.

Sera had a wonderful time, and for the first time, sat on the lap of a costumed character.  She didn't even hesitate.  I think part of the reason is she was very comfortable there.  It's her school, and she knows all the ladies who work there.  She'd run from one thing to the next and called every one by their name. We've been very happy with her daycare/school, and this is one of the reasons why.  They are always doing something a little extra.

Playhouse Disney

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

On a Pedestal

Every morning we have the radio on in the car. It’s set to our local NPR station. For the first half of the ride, we don’t listen as Sera keeps us quite entertained. During the second half, we catch a little news on our way to work.

This morning we heard Frank Deford’s opinion piece on whether or not athletes should be held to a higher standard than other famous people. While I think this could be a worthy discussion, he sure picked two bad examples.

Tiger Woods

and

Charlie Sheen

Both have been in the news lately for less than stellar reasons. One is an athlete, and one is an actor. I concede that the media has given Tiger Woods a much more difficult time.

I don’t think the reason is because he’s an athlete. Let’s look at their reputations. One has a 20+ year reputation as a wild child who is a womanizing, drinking, drug abusing, party guy. One has built a reputation as a golden boy who does no wrong and rarely fails.

Who was on a pedestal? Who were we just waiting for the other shoe to drop?

Is it any surprise that the story with legs is Tiger’s and not Charlie’s?

Growing Up

We want it to happen. It’s what we work for every day. And yet, when it does? It breaks your heart just a little bit.

Growing up.

Independence.

It's the little things that catch you off guard and make you realize it’s happening so quickly.

Sera loves clementines and ate her weight in them in December. I hadn’t bought them again as they’d really gone up in price. Over the weekend, I found some on sale for $5 a box and bought one. Sera was very excited and wanted to eat them as soon as I showed them to her. I grabbed three of them thinking we’d share. I peeled one for her, one for me, and the other to share. She ate hers and then she ate the third one and asked for more. She’d just eaten a sandwich, so I figured dinner was out for her. I was hungry and started to make something for me. I peeled one more clementine for her and went to the kitchen to make dinner. While I was in there, she started asking for another one. I didn’t want to give her another until I was sure she wasn’t going to eat dinner, so I told her I was busy cooking. A few minutes later, I hear her shout out that she did it. I go and see what she did. She peeled her own clementine.

The next thing happened this morning. She has absconded with all her little snack bowls. I think they’re in her kitchen. She wanted to take some cereal with her in the car, so I grabbed a sandwich bag and poured in a handful of cereal. I put it down on the coffee table when I sat down to brush Sera’s hair and put it up in a ponytail. She picked up the bag. I asked her if she wanted me to open it. Just last week she’d tried and still couldn’t get it open. She told me no that she could do it, and she did. Then she showed me that she could close it again.

Little things – peeling your own clementine, opening and closing a zip-loc bag. Nothing major, yet they made me a little sad.

My baby is growing up, and I’m thrilled. Yet…