Watch Your Step!

Everyone knows caution is key when it comes to allowing our little ones to navigate stairs. The potential harms are pretty obvious.

Still, despite the use of baby gates or rubber grips or other safeguards, and despite our vigilance, accidents do happen. I recently came across an article that contained an alarming statistic. Apparently, a child is treated every six minutes in this country for injuries related to falls on stairs. It seems obvious that stairs can be dangerous for kids, but that is a pretty surprising amount of stair-related accidents nonetheless.

Please take a look at the article and think about what you can do to make your stairs safer, limit your toddler's access to them, and/or help him or her learn to climb them safely and carefully. If your little one moves as quickly as mine, you'll be glad you did!

Photo from www.onestepahead.com

Photo of the Week: Art Is All Around Us

Happy Monday!  I'm just recovering from a whirlwind weekend trip to visit Uncle Keith - sans the Pie - which included spending a lovely Saturday afternoon in NYC, strolling around Greenwich Village.

New York, of course, is home to some of the most famous and impressive art museums and collections in the world.  I'm sad to say I haven't been to most of the museums I'd like to visit, and that is definitely on my "bucket list."  But one of the amazing things about New York City is that, if you just look around, you realize that art is everywhere.

And I'm not just talking about the art that's for sale on city sidewalks, either. This week's featured photo is an awesome mosaic from a wall I passed exiting the subway.

I wish my iPhone camera, good as it is, could do this justice. It was created by a woman in 1994 and took approximately a year to make, using stone and glass.  This was a painstaking labor of love and I cannot imagine the patience and talent it must have taken to capture such detail in a mosaic made of tiny pieces.

We saw lots of cool things this weekend, but this was one of the only photos I took because it really impressed me. I can't wait to go back and see what else awaits!

Have a great week.

Can Working Moms Really Have It All?

I've written before about how difficult it can be to be a working parent. I'm a mom so that's my frame of reference, hence the title of this post. But I certainly recognize that there are an increasing number of dads who also have the challenge of balancing raising their kids and working long hours.

To some extent, this is an unavoidable conflict, and we who face it simply manage the best we can.

I'm new at this whole thing...

Overreact Much?

I've been scouring the web looking for interesting and thought-provoking stuff for the blog.  Just before the tragic school shooting that occurred near Cleveland, Ohio last week, I found this unbelievable article about a four year old's drawing that led to her dad's arrest in Kitchener, Ontario.

Now, my initial reaction was - are you kidding me?? A small child draws a picture and they immediately send in the cavalry? It seemed a drastic case of reacting first and asking questions later.

But then I read about yet another senseless tragedy involving a young student and a gun....and I backed off my outraged stance a little bit.

[Not the drawing referenced in the article. Photo from www.littledaisycafe.com.]

Photos of the Week: Nuts & A Sleepy Bean

You know, I really hate it when life gets in the way of my blogging! LOL. I try to publish something every weekday but sometimes things get a little crazy, so it's been a few days.

To that end, we'll start the week with two feature photos.  The first one speaks for itself;

I saw that on Facebook and decided I had to put it on here for amusement value alone.  But, like any proud parent, I also like to feature photos of my Pie.  So here's a lazy Sunday morning, sleeping in pic - this is why I can only occupy a sliver of a queen size bed! I'd give anything to sleep as peacefully and luxuriously as my "sleepy bean" does.

I was under her right arm, which had just whacked me because I was in her way, before I sat up to take this pic.

Hope the week is off to a great start for all of you! Stay tuned for some interesting stuff coming up this week.