Bunchland

What we’re reading today:

1. In case you missed it on our Facebook page yesterday, that mom who fat-shamed her 7-year-old into dropping 16 lbs. has been given a book deal. What do you suppose the book’s called? How to Provide Your Daughter With a Lifelong F*cked Up Relationship With Food? Please Buy My Book So I Can Afford My Daughter’s Future Therapy Bills? No More Pizza Fridays: My Daughter Will Thank Me Later… Maybe? Actually, the working title is Heavy.

2. The right way to prevent childhood obesity? Encourage kids to move more! New recommendations say kids up to 4-years-old need three hours of activity each day. For babies this means tummy time and reaching and grabbing things (your hair, necklaces, earrings) and for toddlers it means crawling, walking, go up stairs and just generally playing. Once kids hit five, they should have a solid hour of “energetic play” which includes running, biking, skipping, jumping and sports-type activities.  Read more...

Rose Bianchini just had twins

Emmett Holden van Horne and Simon Clark van Horne have arrived!

Other parents warned us our lives will be forever altered, but I never understood what that meant till now. Everything is different; the world looks and feels different because now there are two small beings that depend on me for their food, love and survival. Wow! There isn’t really a way to fully prepare for that. I sort of had to just jump in feet first and I finally feel like maybe I am treading water and keeping afloat.

 Let’s recap from the very beginning. The labour. They call it labour for a reason. I have heard some moms say that they blank out all the pain once the baby is born. I haven’t had that experience. Being a small woman and having twins… well that just shouldn’t really happen so my labour of course resulted in a great deal of agony — and my terrorizing of the entire labour unit. In the end a c-section was performed. The recovery was rough and I ended up back in the hospital a few times with an infection.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. Feministing’s Jessica Valenti opened up about her post-emergency C-section PTSD. Salon’s Mary Elizabeth Williams congratulates Valenti on spotlighting the issue despite (in spite of) the fact that haters gonna hate.

2. Kids with dyslexia have a learning difference, not a learning disability.

3. Marriage doesn’t seem to be as important these days as it once was, so why are people still getting married? Some say it’s a status symbol. Just last year, wasn’t the status symbol having more than three kids?

4. First, the Academy picks Billy Crystal over the Muppets to host the Oscars, now it’s not even having a performance of best song nomination “Man or Muppet”? Come on, Academy! Songs are much better than poorly written awkward banter.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. How to change kids from passive consumers to active creators: Let kids be the inventors of play.

2. There are benefits to being an older parent, but there’s also a lot for kids to consider, like where they’d go if their elderly parents die before they’re adults. Wonder what Robert DeNiro’s newborn thinks about all this.

3. Almost half of all births in China are C-sections. Why? Some expectant mothers want to pick their kids’ birthdays, and some expectant mothers just do it because it’s the thing to do.

4. One of our favourite themes! How to get kids to love healthy food. Mmm… broccoli and kale.

5. Curious about the Muppets Google+ hangout? Here you go:

Photo by woodlywonderworks via Flickr