Bunchland

What the cool parents are reading today:

1. Remember that mom who was sent to jail for putting down her father’s address instead of her own so that she could get her daughters into a better school? Kelley Williams-Bolar is half-way through her sentence and giving a lot of speeches.

2. Does your baby need music classes? New research suggests that “music training can foster babies’ emotional development and communication skills,” so you’d better enroll that 6-month-old in classes. What, you think it’s enough that they’ve learned to hold their head up at that age?

3. If you’re a mom, do you feel like you’re got about seven things on the go at all time? Moms are all about the multi-tasking.

4. Did you know that in Denmark, your baby name has to be approved by the government? Here are some other baby name rules from around the world. You can bet there aren’t a lot of Tyrannosaurus Rexes across the Atlantic.  Read more...

Family fun at the playground, blast from  the past edition

Today’s Postcard from Bunchland comes from p_x_g in in Massacheusetts

How to prepare for your campfire sing-alongs this weekend

Whether you’re hitting the cottage or bumming around at home this long weekend, easy summer living isn’t far when you have the right soundtrack. Here are our family friendly picks for May 24 weekend watching and listening, including a good dose of indie rock, electronic and bluegrass. Enjoy!

1. Frost – Parade

In this video by Norweigan electronic pop duo Frost, front woman Aggie Peterson rocks out with her adorable, pink headphone wearing kid. We appreciate that they play airplane and dress up together before her glammed out stage performance.

2. Animal Collective – Brothersport

Two kids dressed as cuddly monsters run through some fields with wild turkeys and happen upon an empty house where they make psychedelic crafts and have a dance party!

3. Feist – Mushaboom

 Read more...

North Carolina arrests people who are displeased with the gay marriage ban

You may recall last week that North Carolina cemented its place as one of the more backwards states by banning same-sex marriage. Not surprisingly, a few same-sex couples in Winston-Salem, N.C. went to the city’s Registry of Deeds to protest the ban because it’s stupid and unconstitutional. They all applied for marriage licenses and were all denied. One woman refused to leave until her application was recognized… and since she and her friend (not her partner, a straight friend there to show her support) stayed until 30 minutes after the Registry of Deeds closed, they were arrested. Seriously? You deny people their right to marry their partners and then you arrest them if they peacefully protest the stupid ban? Really?!

It’s like our pal Reluctant Daddy Tod Abrams says, “Each and every one of us should have the right to be as miserably unhappy as our parents.”  Read more...

Cookie mogul Eden Hertzog shares recipes she enjoys with her family

What a weekend. I took about 20 photos of various put-together meals, but none of them really seemed worthy of a post, to be honest. The truth is – we’re not really cooking these days, are we?

No, because all of a sudden it’s summer. It’s completely, utterly gorgeous outside and that means we don’t really turn on the stove.

Let’s take Saturday as an example. It was over 20 degrees and sunny, plus balmy and breezy, so we went down to the lake, which, in our neighbourhood of Parkdale/Roncesvalles is a little bit, how do you say, ghetto? Like a ghost town. Anyhow, Cedar doesn’t care. He was happy to sit on the boardwalk and look at his water bottle.

Or hang out near his Mama in her funny upside-down pirate ship shirt.  Read more...

What the cool parents are reading today:

1. Aiden, Jayden, Brayden; Mia, Leah, Sophia; why do the popular baby names rhyme? And it’s not a recent phenomenon either; back in the 40s it was Marilyn, Evelyn and Carolyn and even further back to when Social Security first starting tracking these things in the 1880s, all the girls named ended in -ie.

2. So you know how maternity/paternity leave in the States is terrible? The National Partnership for Women and Families has made it official by giving 18 states an F grade. California and Connecticut are good places to have a baby since they each got As and Washington, Oregon, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Maine and Hawaii are all OK.  Read more...

Feeding time at the zoo

Today’s Postcard from Bunchland comes from .vini in Sao Paulo.