The Mother of All Blogs :: the mother of all parenting blogs ::

Thank you for the kudos, SavvyMom

2011-11-09T11:10:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to say thank you to SavvyMom.ca for including this blog in its roundup of the top 35 Canadian Mom blogs.

If you're wondering why I've been quiet lately, it's because I'm blogging over at Having-a-baby.com these days. Drop by and say hello. Or catch up with me via my Facebook Page or on Twitter.

Contact Information: Ann Douglas

2010-09-01T16:10:00.006-04:00

This blog served me well for a long time. But all good things must come to an end. Right?

If you're interested in learning more about my writing services, please visit my website or contact Canadian Writers Group.

If you're a member of the media who is interested in scheduling an interview, please contact Alison Burke of Impressions Public Relations.

You can also contact me via

annmdouglas at gmail dot com [please note the "m" in my name]

Having-a-baby.com (my pregnancy and parenting website)
AnnDouglas.ca (my writing and speaking website)
The Mother of All Baby Columns at The Toronto Star
The Life Change Network [column]
SavvyMom.ca [column]
ParentsAsk [video answers]
Facebook: The Mother of All
Twitter: Ann Douglas
Twitter: The Mother of All
Linked In: Ann Douglas

Pack Your Bags, We're Moving to Typepad!

2008-10-27T13:18:00.006-04:00

Redirect your links, everyone. This blog has made the move to more blogging-friendly digs.

The official address over there is

http://anndouglas.typepad.com/themotherofallblogs/

but in a few days you'll be able to access the blog via the simplified address (an address that some of you have been using all along):

http://www.motherofallblogs.com

Right now, the URL is still forwarding to this blog, but it will be starting to point to the Typepad address within the next day or two.

There is a ton of new and upcycled content waiting for you at the new place. Head on over and pour yourself a copy.

- Ann

Rx: Fun -- Entertainment with No Educational Value -- Plus a Healthy Dose of Moral Outrage

2008-07-28T14:09:00.004-04:00

The podcasts area of iTunes is a very dangerous place to hang out if you're an information junkie, a short films junkie, or both -- in other words, if you're someone like me. My iPod tells me I have 700+ hours of material waiting to be viewed in my spare time. Good thing it doesn't tell me how many hours I've already spent tuning into video and audio podcasts since I first got addicted to CBC-everything, misc iTunes University, and a smorgasbord of short films (both free and pay-by-the-hit).

If you're looking for something fun and entertaining to download which has no educational value whatsoever, I highly recommend either of the following series of video shorts. (You can download them from iTunes or watch them online via the following links.)

Erik the Librarian (about an unusual librarian named Erik who becomes obsessed with a library patron, who finds him totally freaky, to say the least). For the slightly twisted mind.

The Retributioners (a mockumentary about a revenge-obsessed anti-heroine named Stephanie: language may offend). For the totally twisted mind. Quality varies from episode to episode. I highly recommend the show intro, episode 1 (revenge on ex-boyfriend), and episode 6 (revenge on person who stole taxi).

If you want to tap into my more serious side, you'll find it over at ParentCentral.ca and at Yahoo! Canada.

And if you want to feel healthy outrage about something in addition to things I've been blogging about recently over there, get mad about the fact that the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (which opened up last month) is actually considering substituting showers for the bathtubs which were supposed to be part of the brand new maternity ward. (I was out of town when this hit the papers last week, so my daughter just brought me up to speed. Can you believe it? Maybe I should let Stephanie of The Retributioners know about this!)

Parenting, writing, and coffee

2008-07-20T12:53:00.005-04:00

I know a lot of my regular readers are writers, so I thought I'd draw your attention to my most recent blog post @ ParentCentral.ca. It's about parents who love to write.

Parenting and writing: my two loves. I even managed to toss in a mention of coffee. Am I hot today or what?

PS
I now have two friends who have their own free trade organic coffee companies (and both roast on the premises). One is based in Peterborough (Canada) and one is in the U.S. Suspicious minds might think I cultivate friendships on the basis of access to coffee, but that is not the case. Nonetheless, it's great to be able to buy from friends and do the right thing, coffee-wise.

One Thousand

2008-07-03T21:11:00.007-04:00

This is my 1000th post. It kind of snuck up on me, I have to confess, so I don't have a big speech planned or anything like that. (As if.) I do, however, want to take a moment to thank the patron saint of blogging, if there is such a being, for the many gifts that have come my way as a result of blogging:

- fabulous friendships that went offline a long time ago
- the freedom to experiment with new types of writing, which has led me down some exciting new paths as a writer
- the opportunity to forge new ground creatively, politically, and personally.

Thank you to anyone who has shared even a small piece of this blogging journey with me.

Happy Canada Day

2008-07-01T19:15:00.010-04:00

Here is a link to a YouTube video montage of Canadian images set to Gordon Lightfoot's timeless Canadian Railroad Trilogy [ Note: This was originally embedded in the page but it seems to be having trouble loading -- no doubt due to high traffic on the video -- so I'm substituting a link. If you enjoyed this, you may want to subscribe to other Gordon Lightfoot tribute videos created by the same artist, jthomas.]

More about the Canadian Railroad Trilogy:
Wikipedia: Canadian Railroad Trilogy

I Can Stop Talking to Myself (At Least in Theory)

2008-06-10T17:12:00.007-04:00

There's nothing more annoying than a one-sided conversation. (Or at least that's the case if you're someone like me who likes to hear all kinds of perspectives on the issue of the day.) So you can imagine how pleased I am that it will now be possible for people to comment on my posts over at ParentCentral.ca. I no longer have to carry on a conversation with myself. Well, at least during my blogging time.

So click on through and let me know what you have to say about education (more specifically homeschooling and special needs) and play (old-fashioned play vs. modern play: whether our obsession with safety and educational value and all good things has taken a lot of the fun out of being a kid).

Canadian Mom Laid Off From Restaurant Job After Shaving Head for Cops for Cancer Fundraiser

2008-06-05T10:38:00.004-04:00

You wouldn't think that shaving your head to raise money for a Cops for Cancer fundraiser could end up costing you your job, would you?

Neither did Owen Sound mom Stacy Fearnill.

But she now finds herself "laid off for a few months" -- presumably until her hair grows back.

Stacy's husband John has written this lovely post in support of Stacy, which also includes an update on the human rights advice the family has received to date.

It's unbelievable that such a good deed could end up going so terribly wrong.

Let's hope that this wrong ends up being righted soon.

How Drivers Really Feel About Your Kids

2008-05-28T11:48:00.007-04:00

I think I started a war over at Yahoo! Canada.

The issue?

Cars vs. children.

This Way to Bliss

2008-05-08T11:57:00.005-04:00

Well, Bliss Notes. Jen Lawrence has just launched this fabulous -- and free -- newsletter, Bliss Notes. Make sure you're on the list to receive it. Anything Jen does is quality, quality stuff. (Yes, I'm her friend, but I'm also her fan, so my conflict of interest gets canceled out. At least that's the way I see it.)

Three Months of Blogging Silence from Me? Impossible!

2008-04-15T14:59:00.006-04:00

Is it actually possible that I've gone almost three months without blogging?

A year or two ago, that would have been almost unthinkable. There were times when I was into an every day or every-other-day blogging groove.

But then I started blogging less and less frequently and spending more time doing other fun and creative things -- like experimenting with new types of writing, trying my hand at a motley assortment of crafts, and drinking in the world around me in a different way. Instead of rushing to my keyboard to blog life as it happened, I've been spending more time jotting down notes and thinking about how I want to work certain incidents and observations into writing projects down the road.

I feel like I'm at a crossroads again, but this time all the roads are leading to places I wouldn't mind being (as opposed to times when I've found myself at a crossroads in the past, when the choices seemed so high-stakes and so final: happiness vs unhappiness forevermore). Maybe this is what it feels like to be on the other side of a mid-life crisis -- calm, serene, and full of hope and anticipation. If that's where I am, then everything that came before was worth it because it brought me to where I am right now.

- Ann

P.S.
Just in case I go undercover again (not in my plans, but you never know!), you can always catch up with me at Yahoo! Canada and The Toronto Star's ParentCentral.ca.

Publicity: The Bear Facts

2008-01-29T11:41:00.000-05:00

I have finally discovered the secret to achieving massive fame in your own hometown.

I'm talking above-the-fold, front page coverage in the local newspaper, complete with color photo.

Put on a bear costume.

Sisterfest and Semi-Formals

2008-01-21T13:03:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was Sisterfest, my annual * get together with my three sisters. We decided to meet up in Cobourg, since its fairly central for all of us. We stayed in a lovely B & B that the sister with the luxury tastes had scouted out for us. Fortunately, she's on a budget this year, so the accommodations, while luxurious, were also extremely budget friendly. We indulged in some on-site spa treatments. I have very hands and feet today, thanks to an esthetician named Nay. I warned her that her lovely manicure will be destroyed within a matter of days, as a result of the abuse my fingers are subjected to on any given day. I think she had a sense of what she was dealing with when she had a hard time finding fingernails to manicure. Typing can be hell on the hands.

We walked downtown to enjoy dinner out at a local wine bar and grill that was recommended by our hosts. We passed the local high school and a cluster of teenagers, dolled up for semi-formal night. You would have thought it was a spring formal: no one wanted to ruin their outfits by wearing a coat.

On our way home, we spotted smashed beer bottles and a guy trash-talking his girlfriend in a phone booth: the stuff that reminds you that no one could pay you enough to go back to being a teenager again.

---------

* We missed last year -- the first time we'd missed a year since we started this very important celebration of sisterhood about seven or eight years ago -- so we were more determined than ever to make Sisterfest happen this year.

Resurfacing

2008-01-16T10:13:00.000-05:00

The online world does a great job of keeping tabs on you. Have you noticed? When I resurfaced today, Flickr told me I'd been AWOL since October 21. Facebook announced I'd been absent since November 24. And Blogger said I'd been incommunicado since November 7.

Don't even get me started about email - my long-term nemesis.

The thing you need to know about unplugging from the online world in a serious way is this: you may not be in any major rush to plug back in. And you'll find you're more selective about what you plug back into.

So why did I unplug in the first place?

Two reasons.

1. I thought I could use a break from being plugged into the online world pretty much non-stop since 1995. (I did. And it felt great.)

2. I needed to clear my head of all but the essentials for a while. We've had a few curve balls to deal with on the family front recently -- a major health crisis involving an elderly relative; and issues involving two of our kids (one of my older kids has been been going through a hard time and my ten year old was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in November). I needed time to regain my parenting equilibrium and to sprout new parenting buds in the wake of these latest parenting challenges.

The past few months have been a period of quiet reflection. Friends can tell you I have been very quiet. Silent at times. In fact, I owe some of my nearest and dearest friends a note to say I'm still alive. [ i'm still alive! ]

I have been doing some fun new things -- and more of the types of things that I have always enjoyed -- while my brain has been busy processing all this newness. It's been a stage of much transition and personal growth. Just as there are times to talk and times to listen, there are times for writing and times for quiet reflection. These have been those kind of times.

Ann

Click-and-Go Confessions

2007-11-08T11:02:00.000-05:00

Why do moms go online to visit online confessionals like TrueMomConfessions.com and Her Bad Mother's Basement?

That's the question I'm asking in my parenting blog @ Yahoo! Canada this week.

November Workshops by Ann Douglas: Toronto and Calgary

2007-11-06T14:55:00.001-05:00

I'll be talking about everything from stress to parenting to juggling parenting and writing to preparing for a newborns to women and self-esteem over the next few weeks. (Did I happen to mention stress? )

November 9, 10, 11 in Toronto -- The Baby and Toddler Show: see the show schedule for the exact dates and times for my presentations entitled "This is Your Soon-to-Be Life (A Sneak Peek at Life After Baby for Parents-to-Be)" and "A Newborn and a Notebook: For Parents with the Write Stuff".

Note: I'll also be signing books and chatting with parents at the John Wiley and Sons Canada booth (406). More info about the show.

November 13 in Uxbridge: "The Parent Survival Guide." A fundraiser on behalf of North House transitional housing. Brochure. (.pdf)

November 20 in Uxbridge: "What Moms and Daughters Need to Know About Self-Esteem." A fundraiser on behalf of North House transitional housing. Brochure. (.pdf)

November 18 in Calgary: "This is Your Stressed-Out Life." Brochure. (.pdf) Presented by the Calgary Health Region.

Please see calendar at bottom of blog for full details about these and other events.

Retro Playtime

2007-11-05T10:44:00.000-05:00

My ten-year-old is a techno-genius (IMHO).

Every time I turn around, he's added some new widget to the computer he is using for his schoolwork.

This is the latest gizmo he tracked down over the weekend. I think I will have to grab one for myself.

How about the rest of you Mac users?

Association for Research on Mothering Seeking Journal Submissions on Mothers' Health and Well-Being

2007-11-01T09:22:00.000-04:00

This call for papers comes from The Association for Research on Mothering:

The editorial board is seeking submissions for Vol. 11.1 of

The Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering (ARM)

to be published in Spring/Summer 2009.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: NOVEMBER 1, 2008
Theme: Maternal Health and Well-Being
(physical, psychological, social, economic, sexual, political and spiritual issues)
The journal will explore the topic of Maternal Health and Well-Being from a variety of perspectives and disciplines. We welcome submissions from scholars, students, activists, health care professionals and other health workers, artists, mothers and others who work or research in this area. Cross-cultural, historical and comparative work is encouraged. We also welcome creative reflections such as poetry, short stories, and artwork on the subject.

Topics can include (but are not limited to): maternal health promotion and education; globalization and maternal health; maternal health activism; reproductive justice; public policy and maternal health; the environment and maternal health issues; mothers and healthy living; maternal health and challenges within Indigenous communities; mothers with disabilities; mothers with illnesses; HIV/AIDS; breast cancer; mental health issues; postpartum depression; disease prevention; psychiatry; psychology; medicine; pregnancy; childbirth; breastfeeding; young mothers; mothers and aging; work and family balance; maternal nutrition; disordered eating; mothering children with disabilities; violence against mothers and children; sexual abuse, healing through the arts; addictions and recovery; raising healthy children; politics of reproduction; abortion; sterilization; maternal sexuality; maternal health promotion and education; LBGT maternal health issues; menstruation; menopause; mothers and the health professions; representations/images of mothers and health/well-being issues.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

Articles should be 15-18 pages (3750 words) including references.
All should be in MLA style, WordPerfect or Word and IBM compatible.

Please see our journal style guide for complete details.

For more information, please contact us.

SUBMISSIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY NOVEMBER 1, 2008

Please note:
To submit, one must be a member of ARM.

Please direct your submissions to:

Association for Research on Mothering (ARM)
726 Atkinson, York University, 4700 Keele Street,
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Phone: 416-736-2100 X60366
Email: ARM.

--
Association for Research on Mothering (ARM)
Demeter Press
726 Atkinson, York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON,
Canada, M3J 1P3
416-736-2100 x60366 (fax) 416-736-5766
arm@yorku.ca
www.yorku.ca/arm

Halloween: Our Neighborhood's Pre-Winter Last Hurrah

2007-10-31T00:02:00.001-04:00

One of the things I love most about Halloween is the way it brings everyone outdoors for one last hurrah before the snow starts to fall and everyone is less inclined to stand outside and chat for prolonged periods of time.

I tend to end up pulling front door duty -- handing out the loot to the one hundred or more trick-or-treaters who wind their way through our subdivision every year -- which means I have to stay within candy-grabbing distance of the front door.

My husband takes our 10-year-old trick-or-treating while the three teenagers do their own thing: either hanging out with friends or waiting to scavenge any cast-off candy from their younger brother when he arrives home in one of those magical moments that can erupt between siblings.

"Yuck. I hate this kind. It tastes like toothpaste. Here -- you can have it."

Warm Drink, Cool Day.
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

Happy Lites, Attention-Craving Spiders, and ALL ABOUT YOU

2007-10-16T10:36:00.000-04:00

It's been quiet around here lately -- partially because I've been quiet around here lately.

I've been hard at work on book revisions, dealing with the transition to home-schooling my youngest (with fabulous support from a teaching assistant), and trying to find the recipe for calm (given that this is the time of year when I'm inclined to start sliding into the Land of SAD.

[Want to know the truth about SAD? The word "SAD" doesn't even begin to describe what I went through two years ago -- which was bad -- and last year -- which was which was ten times worse. I felt like I had been tossed down Alice's rabbit hole from November through late April. So this year, I'm determined to stop SAD in its tracks with daily doses of Happy Lite therapy. This year, in addition to working the beating-the-blues plan I posted last year, I'm going to try light therapy. I'll let you know how that works out. My doctor recommends this treatment and there seems to be a fair bit of research recommending it, so I'm going to give it a whirl. Besides I kind of like the idea of parking myself under a Happy Lite and drinking coffee, like the woman in Photo D (see previous link). Now that's a treatment I can get into.]

But enough about me.

How are you? I feel like we haven't had a real heart-to-heart talk in a while.

I know I'm a bit behind in my blog mail (my apologies to those of you to whom I owe a personal reply. I will catch up soon. (I'm feeling really guilty about the sleep answer I owe one of you -- and promised a week ago. It's just been a really tough week.)

The wackiest part of my week? Having the security alarm at the office set off at 4 am by a spider early Monday morning. I know Charlotte has to be creative in make her message heard -- but really.

So for now, let's catch up via the blog (or via your blog, with a link back so that we can comment on your meme).

Here are five quick questions:

1. What's the best thing that's happened to you lately?

2. What's the weirdest/wackiest/strangest/oddest thing that you've noticed (or that's happened to you) lately?

3. What are you really passionate about these days?
(diy anything, chocolate, consumerism, world peace)

4. What are you doing for fun?
(If you're not doing something for fun, you better do something right now or you won't have anything to put in this category.)

5. What else should we know about you right now?
(say it in words, image, audio, video, whatever)

About the photo, above: A gift from Marla. [Note to Marla re: the albino corn snake: No!]

Flintstones, Flickr, and Retro Fun

2007-10-11T09:33:00.001-04:00

I woke up with this tune in my head -- it's my 21st wedding anniversary today -- so I was thrilled to be able to find the full Flintstones "Happy Anniversary" video clip at YouTube.

Also on the "looking back" and "anniversary" themes, I had some fun with Flickr this morning -- typing "husband" and "retro" into the search engine that chooses images from anything and everything remotely relevant it can find on the site. That produced such cool results (and a few way-out-there-bizarro ones, too). Of course, the photo pool may have shifted by the time you view the slide show I produced with the photos that came up. That's the nature of Flickr. But I imagine there will still be lots of funny, heartwarming, and gloriously tacky stuff. Enjoy.

And if you're totally into Flickr! (like I am), you may want to check out the five Flickr! project ideas for parents and kids I blogged about this week over @ Yahoo! Parenting lifestyle.

Baby Gear, E-Cons, and Velcro Kids

2007-10-04T15:10:00.001-04:00

Usually I do a pretty good job of letting you know what I've been posting about in my Yahoo! Parenting blog, but I just realized I haven't done that in nearly a month. Here's a quick roundup of what I've been posting about over there, in case you want to join in the conversation:

Baby Must Haves vs. Baby Nice to Haves: How to Tell the Difference

Prevent Your Kids from Getting E-Conned

Love You Like Velcro: Grownup Kids Who Won't Leave Home -- Or Won't Stay Away

The Home Schooling Diaries: Part I

2007-09-30T21:49:00.000-04:00

Most of you have known me long enough to realize that silence on the blog means that heavy-duty things are going on behind the scenes. Things are percolating -- and for once I'm not talking coffee.

The past ten days have been a momentous time in the life of my family: one of those dividing lines that we'll use to mark time from now on. We'll talk about the days before we started home-schooling our ten year old and after we started home-schooling our ten year-old -- an option that wasn't even on our parental radar screens eleven days ago.

I'm not going to go into the specifics because I don't want to violate my son's privacy or put the other people involved in an awkward position. Many of these people were wonderful to my son during his time at this particular school. So I'm going to move on and say, "That was then and this is now -- and we're embracing this exciting new adventure."

Home schooling may not be for every child, but, for now, it's the right -- let me amend that: the only -- option for my ten year old. He's an amazing guy who, like all children, is a unique human being with one-of-a-kind needs. I think those needs will best be met in a home-schooling environment where there are few distractions and lots of opportunities for one-on-one coaching and encouragement. It feels right to both of us.

I've been spending a lot of time researching the ins and outs of home-schooling -- and thanks to terrific web pages like Guilt-Free Home Schooling and the National Home Education Network, my network of friends who have home-schooled or are currently home-schooling, and the resources that my son's former school passed along, I feel like we're ready to take the leap.

Of course, it helps that my son and I share a mutual love of office/school supplies and we picked up some cool organizers/charts to give us the illusion of being in control. You've got to have the right toys at times like this. :-)

So here we go. Wish us luck!

s-s-s-s-s-sh!

2007-09-17T19:56:00.001-04:00

s-s-s-s-s-sh!
Originally uploaded by Millie Motts

For all the tired mamas of the world -- an essential door-hanger, courtesy of Flickr.

Paradise Lost?

2007-09-16T15:29:00.001-04:00

Paradise Lost?
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas

I snapped this outside the Oasis Hotel (across Highway 28 from Silent Lake Provincial Park, about 20 minutes south of Bancroft, Ontario). I like the fact that the owner of this building left up the "Oasis" sign when he/she hung out the "No Trespassing" sign -- and closed up shop.

Mr. Dressup's Treehouse

2007-09-16T15:20:00.001-04:00

Mr. Dressup's Treehouse
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

I have been to the CBC Toronto building plenty of times, but I never noticed Mr. Dressup's Treehouse until my most recent visit a week or two ago. The Treehouse can be found behind the green elevators in the main lobby, just in case you want to check it out yourself. While you're there, be sure to go in the museum across the hall to check out all the Mr. Dressup memorabilia -- and to jot your Mr. Dressup memories in the guestbook provided. (I'm assuming there are a lot of Mr. Dressup groupies like me out there, because anytime I mention my lifelong Mr. Dressup fandom, tons of people tell me they feel the same way.)

Cottage Survival Guide: The Misc Hardware Jar

2007-09-16T15:16:00.001-04:00

Cottage Survival Guide: The Misc Hardware Jar
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas

If your cottage doesn't come with a jar like this, there's something wrong with the cottage. The previous owner obviously didn't do any repairs. Beware.

Our cottage came with all kinds of other goodies, including mousetraps galore. That was our first hint that the cottage was actually owned by mice and that we were only subletting from the rodent landlords. Once we made peace with that realization (we are paying the mortgage, but the rodents own the place), seeing the occasional mouse skitter by stopped being cause for shrieking. (And this has been a most shriek-worthy season, as anyone with a cottage in Ontario can tell you.)

Hopscotch

2007-09-15T15:21:00.001-04:00

Hopscotch
Originally uploaded by fishbowl_fish.

Look what the "Fishbowl Fish" family (A Peek Inside the Fishbowl) has been up to. Awesome!

The Motivational Buffet: Serve Yourself

2007-09-14T10:36:00.000-04:00

I am a cruel taskmaster, I know. But if I've got to get motivated and report into She Who Keeps Me Accountable in the Book Writing World, I figure I might as well share some of my time management and accountability energy with you. (Or something like that.) And since I have this thing about providing information about different approaches to every issue, I thought I'd serve up this buffet of various motivational approaches. Feel free to take a taste of everything to see what you like best. Just realize that you might go home with an upset stomach if you take giant helpings of all the motivational approaches at once. It may be too much for anyone with a less than a steel-lined gastrointestinal tract.

The motivational menu

Full motivation (based on the Weissbluth -- full extinction -- method of sleep training)
You decide how long you want to work at a particular task -- one hour, two hours, whatever -- and you set a timer for yourself and work at that task for that particular time period. When the timer rings, you're done. You can't make excuses and decide five minutes into the motivational period that you really don't want to do the task after all or you'll teach yourself that you don't really mean it when you make a commitment to yourself to get a task done.

Modified motivation (based on the Ferber -- partial extinction -- method of sleep training)
You set a timer for 30 minutes -- or whatever duration of time works for you -- and check in with yourself to see how you're doing. If you're becoming unduly distressed as you try to get the job done, give yourself a five minute comfort break to reassure yourself that this hell called work won't last forever. Stretch or get a glass of water, but don't allow yourself to turn on daytime TV or check your email or go to Facebook. (You're trying to train your brain to stay in work mode, not play mode, remember?)

Gentle motivation (based on gentle or no-cry methods of sleep training)
You come up with a plan for gradually altering the habits that keep you from getting down to work and staying on task. The first week, you spend some time sitting in your work chair and closing your eyes, getting truly comfortable in your work space. The next week, you open your eyes and pick up your pen. You may not break any productivity records, but what you sacrifice in productivity you'll more than make up in bliss (unless, of course, you have a pressing deadline and an impatient boss).

Right on time motivation (based on the routine-based sleep training methods like The Baby Whisperer plus advice from the time management gurus)
You come up with a schedule for yourself that would do any major-league executive proud. Block off time for lunch, email, partner time, one-on-one time with each of your children, volunteer time, exercise time, friendship time, spirituality time, me time (you're going to have a perfectly balanced life -- come on!), and then use the rest of your time for productive work. If the resulting schedule doesn't leave any time to actually do work, then rev up with caffeine (coffee time) and multitask (efficiency time).

Your own motivational approach (what you've learned about motivating yourself over the years by trusting your own instincts and taking into account the realities of your own life)
Maybe you've figured out that one part gentle motivation ("a teapot at my side while I write") plus one part boot camp-style motivation ("lock me in my office and hold all calls until I get this report written") plus one part your own secret ingredient (spill the beans, please) works best for you.

Related:
Summaries of the major approaches to sleep training
Multitasking -- my link collection devoted to the topic of why multitasking is highly overrated and D*I*Y Planner: Time Management
Confessions of a Dangerously Cluttered Mind

Today, on the Distraction Channel...

2007-09-14T10:20:00.000-04:00

....we're obsessing over paper craft freebie downloads. I have been researching color printers for very worthwhile productive purposes (plus fun, frivolous purposes) and I came across this really fun section of the Canon printer website. This miniature town looks like it would be particularly fun to make. Mind you, I'd be inclined to encourage kids to trace the basic patterns and design their own buildings. That would be even cooler than going with some preconceived idea of what a miniature town should look like. I'd also be inclined to encourage them to try making these miniature houses and buildings out of random materials that we already have -- so you'd end up with buildings made out of anything that was in the recycling box this week, fun chunks of text chopped from this week's flyers, etc. It could be a very fun and very distracting project.

P.S. While I love my Canon camera, I am not in any sort of relationship -- romantic, fiduciary, or otherwise -- with the lovely people at Canon.

Your Anti-Procrastination, Motivation, Get-it-Done Buddy

2007-09-11T10:50:00.001-04:00

If you need someone to motivate you to "just do it" for the next hour or two, I'm here, right now, forcing myself to get down to task and get it done. How about you? See you at 1:00 pm, when I check back in to see how you're doing....

A Bicycle Built for Tulips -- or Flowers at Least

2007-09-10T13:48:00.001-04:00

A Bicycle Built for Tulips -- or Flowers at Least
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.
The new owners of the Highland Grove General Store (Ontario, about 20 minutes west of Bancroft) turned this old bicycle and lunch box into a decorative flower stand. The former variety store is now a combination variety store and antique shop. Very cool.

Bullying

2007-09-07T12:40:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking a lot about bullying -- all kinds of bullying. A lot of my thoughts came out in this this week's parenting blog post at Yahoo.ca.

Speaking of Back-to-School

2007-09-06T18:56:00.000-04:00

Is everyone having fun yet?

If your answer is yes:
You could plan the kind of kids' activity Martha would plan right now. No activity at all. Hey, even Martha takes time off from the round-the-clock kids' activities during this already crazy-making time of year.

If your answer is no:
Join the crowd. It's Back-to-School Insanity Season.

Academic Duct Tape for Parents Whose Kids Need a Bit of Extra Help

2007-09-06T12:08:00.001-04:00

This is a quick hug-o-gram for all the parents for whom back-to-school season means

at least one transition meeting at the school to try to ease the roadbumps for your child, the teacher, and other school staff

getting your child psyched up for the new year, schedule, routine, and people

troubleshooting problems that arise as they arise -- because being unavailable when the school needs your input on the burning issue du jour increases the odds of that issue igniting immediately

being positive and encouraging to yourself as well as your child during the daily after-school debriefing sessions. (Think The Little Engine That Could).

You aren't alone. There are a lot of us doing our best to hold it all together with giant rolls of academic duct tape and beer-stein sized mugs of coffee. Yeah, team.

May I Interrupt Your Back-to-School Madness...

2007-08-29T16:03:00.001-04:00

...for this frivolous message?

You see, I'm making it my personal mission to distract you -- to keep you from going full-out for weeks on end during this crazy-busy time of year.

Get yourself a coffee (decaf, if you must).

Now see if you can resist ....

... Mr. Breakfast.com's tribute to classic breakfast cereal commercials.

... Found Magazine's Find of the Day. (Read today's and you'll find out that the neglected plants at the office really are in good hands.)

... the temptation to shop for fun school supplies for yourself -- or to try making your own. (I've been a school supply/office supply junkie forever and I think it might be possible to come up with a homemade variation on that Real Simple card wheel theme if I think about it long enough.)

Okay, break's over. Back to whatever you were doing. (Or you can hang out here for a while, looking busy. I'll never tell.)

Girlfriend Power

2007-08-17T15:03:00.001-04:00

I've had some fabulous cottage visitors lately (and for once I'm not talking mice):

my high-school friend Cathy, whose two daughters have come up with entirely new rules for Monopoly;

three blogging buddies and their lovely daughters: Marla and Josie, Andrea and Frances, and Jen and her daughter, who looks like a half-height version of Jen.

It's been great to be in the company of so many females -- young and, ahem, slightly more mature. My own female offspring is nineteen and busy working, which leaves me almost exclusively in the company of boys this summer. I hadn't realized how much I was craving some serious estrogen immersion. Ahhh. That feels better.

Note about the photo: WOMAN'S LIFE: A 1944 issue of a woman's magazine that Marla brought up to the cottage. We tried the "Does he love you quiz" and read articles such as "Unwed schoolgirl mothers," "Build a business personality that wins," "My first baby at 35," "You can marry the man you want," "Your plan for a pleasing appearance," and "I'm shy no more."

What a Mammogram Feels Like (In Case You're Wondering)

2007-08-17T14:45:00.000-04:00

I had my first mammogram this morning. I had been a bit freaked out -- so freaked out that I hadn't resorted to my usual research overkill, for fear of freaking myself out even more.

I'm happy and relieved to report that the mammogram was no big deal. I had visions of some breastologist trying to flatten one of my breasts between two sheets of plexiglass until it was the thickness of a pancake but that's not what happened at all.

Each of my breasts was compressed in a downward direction and then in sideways direction. None of the compressions was painful at all. In fact, I've experienced more discomfort on the various occasions when a toddler (with or without shoes on) decided to use one or both of my breasts as a step-ladder to climb up on to my shoulders.

So if you have a mammogram scheduled anytime soon and you're freaking out, try not to panic. On a scale of one to ten with a stubbed toe being a one and childbirth being a ten, it would be pushing it to give it a one (at least based on my experience). Anyone else want to chime in and share their experience?

By the way, in case anyone is wondering why I had a mammogram at 43 (a bit early for your average Canadian female) it's because my mom had breast cancer -- one of the three types of cancers she had in her lifetime. I still don't know the results of my mammogram -- and won't for a few weeks, but I'm going to assume that everything's fine until proven otherwise.

Toddlers and Discipline: Your Toddler's Strong Will is a Good Thing

2007-08-09T14:13:00.000-04:00

Here's one of those stuies that is designed to give hope to those of us moms whose patience has been tested time and time again by extra-challenging toddlers. (Ask me about the unplugging-of-the-cash-register-at-the-liquor-store incident, circa 1991.)

Your toddler's active resistance (a.k.a. will of steel) is a good thing --
or at least it will be in the long run.

While you may worry that your child's stubborn, dig-in-his-heels defiance doesn't bode well for his future success or the quality of your parent-child relationship over the long-term, researchers in human development at the University of Texas have reached the opposite conclusion. Their research has shown that high levels of defiance in toddlers predicts favorable developmental outcomes and is simply an indication of a young child's growing confidence in his ability to exercise control over events in his world.

Related:
The Grey-Bruce Public Health Unit: Toddler Discipline
CanadianParents.com: The Seven Deadly Sins of Discipline

Sleep Tests and Toy Stories

2007-08-07T21:47:00.000-04:00

I used up my daily word quota elsewhere today, so I'm going to be a blog slug and just post the two links. One is a light read. The other is anything but.

Sleep Test for Tired Parents: Are You a Sluggish Snail or an Ambling Armadillo, Like Me?

A Toy Story

Parenting Magazine Addicts -- Listen Up!

2007-08-07T02:22:00.000-04:00

I've updated the lists of parenting publications in the sidebar of my blog. Let me know if your favorite one is missing, if you notice a broken link, etc. As you'll see, I've made an effort to include a mix of mainstream and alternative; regional and national; U.S. and Canadian publications. (I'm sure I mixed up the lists in other ways, too. That preamble sounds far too orderly to me.)

I, Robot

2007-08-01T13:06:00.000-04:00

For some reason, Blogger's robots have decided that my blog is being written by a spambot as opposed to a human. I had to pass a test to prove I was human in order to upload my previous post -- this after more than three uninterrupted years of blogging. Odd. Anyway, I think I passed the test.

In my family, we were raised to make lemonade (or lemon meringue pie) with lemons, so I decided to seize upon this bit of spam serendipity. I'm going to write to Blogger to find out how I can make contact with one of these highly talented spambots.

Stick with me and you'll see the logic.

I figure the spambot could function as a co-author for my next book project. Sure, I'd have to give the text a bit of a style polish (e.g., put a million things in brackets, since that's my stylistic calling card), but that's easy. The book would be ready to go to the publisher's in no time. Spambots are much speedier authors than human authors.

Naturally, I'd share editorial credit and royalties with my new writing partner, Spamela, so that her status amongst her fellow spambots would soar ever upward in the spambot world. (Surely, they must have their own splog index sites; their own online bookstores -- Spamazon.com; and spambot social networking sites -- Spacebook, I presume?

And as for me? I'd have more time to research random topics that become endlessly fascinating when assignments are due -- or overdue. In other words, life would be bliss.

Grief

2007-07-25T12:22:00.001-04:00

It doesn't matter how many times you've lost a loved one. You don't get advanced credit for previous experiences with grief. You're back at square one. And, right now, I'm grieving the loss of my grandmother who died on Monday, at age 98.

It helps to know that she lived a long and happy life and that she was healthy until the very end and that she was ready to go -- but I am still going to miss her, terribly. Grandmothers are such special people in our lives, and this was my last living grandmother -- my mother's mother. (My mother died four-and-a-half years ago.)

At first, I felt totally alone. I'm now the oldest surviving female in my branch of the family tree. But if I look to adjacent branches, there are aunts and female cousins galore. And I share my tree branch with three amazing sisters, to say nothing of a Dad who is extremely kind and soft-hearted underneath his practical and efficient exterior. (He's a 1951 vintage engineer.)

And when I zoom in on my twig, I have an adorable daughter, who has emerged from her goth-colic period to become a thoughtful 19-year-old; three boys who are at the stage at which they can not be written about -- but who know how I feel about them; and a husband who has managed to survive almost 21 years of marriage to a writer who is either wearing her heart on her sleeve or spilling it on the page. (Lucky him, huh?)

And then there are my friends -- my ever-patient friends, who hang in there when I get depressed or am busy writing or am incredibly enthused about a project or....whatever. I am blessed with truly great friends.

So while both my grandmothers and my mother are no longer here and my heart feels lonely right now, I know I'm not alone. And I can still draw upon the amazing lessons that I've learned from these three women who have left an amazing imprint on my life -- who taught me important lessons about justice, fairness, and respect; and what it means to be part of a family.

And I can look at my own children and see evidence that they understand this, too -- that it's the human connections that matter most in life: either the family you were born into or the family you create for yourself through your circle of friends. So the legacy of these three women -- Mabel and Netta and Barbara -- will carry on through my lifetime and my children's lifetimes.

Large Families: Be Interviewed for Meagan Francis' Forthcoming Book

2007-07-18T14:48:00.000-04:00

My writer-buddy Meagan Francis is looking for authors to interview for a book about raising large families. Here's how to get in touch if you're interested in sharing your stories about the joys and challenges of raising a larger-than-average family.

SavvyMom Mompreneur of the Year Award

2007-07-17T20:18:00.000-04:00

Don't forget to nominate your favorite mompreneur for The SavvyMom Mompreneur™ of the Year Award. I was thrilled to see that Tracy Keleher is serving on the advisory panel for the award. A decade ago, Tracey was the Canadian parenting Internet (or, to be more specific, her "baby" -- CanadianParents.com -- was the original haven for Canadian parents seeking information and support online. How wonderful to see Sarah and Minnow recognize Tracey's parenting wisdom and entrepreneurial spirit by asking her to consult on these awards. A truly savvy and classy move.

Mom Brain Cam

2007-07-17T13:11:00.000-04:00

On my mind today -- from the serious to the silly to the slightly bummed to the sublime.

media concentration in Canada -- and why you should care

the newest mommy label -- slummy mummy

car break-ins (both ours got hit last night: my husband lost an iPod; I lost about $20 worth of coins) -- and we're obviously in good company given that 1100 cars were broken into in Peterborough last year (a 68.7% increase over the previous year -- see pg. 18)

when and why wearing a hat to school or to school functions became such a bad thing. If it's due to gang concerns, as some of these school policy documents indicate, can't distinctions be made between gang-related hat activity and wearing a baseball cap or another ordinary hat? What do schools do when kids wear other clothes with gang colours/markings to school?

Motherhood as Creative Inspiration

2007-07-16T19:51:00.000-04:00

I came across this remarkable article about the life, death, and career of Adrienne Shelly by The Observer's Gaby Wood entirely by chance. Once I started reading the piece, I was completely mesmerized, both by the dramatic and tragic circumstances surrounding Shelly's death and by how committed she was to her final film project -- and why.

Here's a brief snippet from Wood's article:

"Shelly wrote Waitress when she was pregnant with her daughter, Sophie, who was a toddler by the time it was shot....[Producer Michael] Roiff recalls that when they were editing the film in its final stages, 'one of the things she was most excited about was the fact that she had done this as a woman and as a mother. She was an amazing mum, and I remember one day when we had watched a cut of the film, she turned around and said: "Look, you can do it. Society wants to tell you that you have to choose, but you don't have to choose." To a huge extent, that's what the film's about."

Related:
In this video, Adrienne Shelly discusses how her feelings about motherhood motivated her to write the script for Waitress.

BlogHers Act Canada

2007-07-10T22:05:00.000-04:00

Jen over at MUBAR does a great job of explaining the chain of events that led to the creation of BlogHers Act Canada -- the Canadian counterpart to BlogHers Act in the U.S.

To multi-tasking mamas, focus is a novel concept -- we want to fix everything for everyone all at once -- but that just puts us on the fast-track to burnout. A smarter strategy (says she who excels at taking on too much and then freaking out as the symptoms of burnout begin to set in) is to pick one thing that is likely to make a major impact and to do that really well. That's why the bloggers behind BlogHers Act Canada are asking for help in identifying a first focus.

I looked at the list of things that need fixing now in order to make life tolerable for large numbers of Canadian women and children. Then I started thinking, "What has the most potential to make the most difference?" Given the many hours I have invested in the political campaign of a woman I really believe in -- someone who will work hard on behalf of women and children -- I feel that the political route is the best route to go. That's not to say that party politics aren't infuriating, frustrating, crazymaking (repeat, repeat, repeat) -- but, until enough women infiltrate the system and make political parties more women-friendly (or even mother-friendly), this is the only system we have.

The system needs fixing. Badly, so that mothers' voices are heard. But that's just my opinion. Now I'm off to read what others have said. Thanks for listening.

Related:

New Federal Policies Affecting Women’s Equality: Reality Check Available at Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women

Summer Parenting: The Ultimate Reality TV Experience

2007-07-10T21:12:00.000-04:00

Hey, didn't you mention that the crew of Summer Parenting Survivor was going to be spending the summer at your place? Or did I get you confused with some other family? After all, it seems like everyone wants to get in on the Reality TV action these days.

And speaking of summer action, I've been noticing that the blogosphere is a little quieter than usual. I'm trying to decide if it's because parents are

(a) having all kinds of fun (in the real world and/or at Facebook);
(b) stressed to the max due to the challenges of summer juggling; or
(c) both, depending on the minute/hour/day.

The last two days have been very, very "c." Last week was very "a" (real world, not Facebook). How have things been for you?

Well Baby Clinic for Peterborough Babies

2007-07-10T20:35:00.000-04:00

The Peterborough Family Resource Centre recently added a well baby clinic to its always excellent menu of services for families. Local parents can have their baby questions answered on Thursdays from 10 am to noon and 2:00 pm until 3:00 pm, starting again in August. (The Peterborough Family Resource Centre is closed for the month of July.)

My friend Laura Devine is one of the R.N.s involved with the clinic. Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting Laura knows that her warm and encouraging style is one of the clinic's greatest assets. Her colleagues Kellie and Mel are fabulous, too. (The great thing about living in a small town is that it's possible to get to know so many people like the PFRC gang. They kept me sane (ish) when I was a new mom.

End of June Grab Bag

2007-06-29T11:18:00.000-04:00

>>> 200th BIRTHDAY BASH

It's not often that you get the chance to attend a 200th birthday party, but that's what Wiley -- my pregnancy and parenting book publisher -- hosted for itself at the Liberty Grand at Exhibition Place. Yes, the company is older than Canada and -- apparently -- before the Wiley family got involved in the book trade, they were distillers. Obviously, they felt that the real money was to be made in books, not booze.

Anyway, my table was made up of a mix of Wiley authors and editors and their various spouses/partners: Leah Fairbairn (editor); Robert Hickey (editor); Ian Blumer, MD, and Heather McDonald-Blumer, MD, authors of Understanding Prescription Drugs for Canadians for Dummies; Alyson Shafer, author of Breaking the Good Mom Myth. Here's a photo of Alyson and I exchanging copies of our books.

>>> ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

That's the topic du jour over @ Yahoo! Parenting: Are We Having Fun Yet? What I'm getting at here is whether we sometimes get too busy to have fun as parents or whether we take parenting too seriously. Have you found yourself falling into this trap from time to time? (I know I have.) If you want to join in the discussion, please hop on over to Yahoo! and have your say.

Beauty Deconstructed

2007-06-27T08:42:00.000-04:00

Share this video from The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty with a girl or young woman in your life and help spread the message that anyone can look like a supermodel with a little help from a makeup artist and Photoshop.

P.S. Thanks to my sister Sandra for telling me about the video.

Going With the Flow

2007-06-22T07:59:00.001-04:00

We finally got around to celebrating Father's Day at our place yesterday. It's not that we're that behind schedule. It's just that scheduling is always a challenge at Chateau Douglas, and yesterday was the first day when everyone was available at the same time, including the focus of Father's Day himself. In the end, only three of us ended up heading out for dinner -- as opposed to our "pile six people in the car" celebrations of times past.

Our family is changing. Increasingly, I feel like I'm raising one kid -- the nine-year-old -- and that I'm "the landlady" to three teenagers. (The dynamics are totally different.) And then one of the teenagers will do something that requires, ahem, more active parenting and I'm back in the mom trenches with him or her. It's an interesting time but also a slightly confusing time for the teens and for me as we do this new kind of mother dance, trying to figure out how to relate to one another on different terms. I'm really enjoying this stage of parenting, in part because it's so different from anything that came before. There's a new confidence on their part and mine and a readiness to embrace this new stage in our relationship rather than subtley (or not-so-subtley) resisting the change. We're letting the tide carry us forward together.

Of Mice and Moms

2007-06-20T10:31:00.000-04:00

Well, isn't that special, as the Saturday Night Night Church Lady would say. For some reason, The Mother of All Blogs stopped recognizing me. I'm talking about total blog amnesia here. The Blog wouldn't even offer up the log-in screen so that I could prove my identity. I kind of felt like I was in one of those frustrating customer service snafus where no one will listen to you and you keep getting passed from one person to the other -- but, in this case, there weren't even live people to help me out. The only way I could fix the problem in the end was to create another blog (The imposter blog) using the same password and log-in. The imposter blog then found the real blog and they had a happy reunion via the dashboard. (Paradise by the dashboard light?) Whatever. I was just happy to have the keys to the blogging kingdom -- or the dashboard -- again.

Very strange how these little blogging glitches arise out of nowhere after everything has been just chugging along. It's not unlike family life, now that I think of it. Just as you dare to allow yourself to think, "Wow, things are going so well," you know you've jinxed things. Or so it seems to me in my more paranoid moments of parenting.

On some unrelated topics....

>> PARENTING IN THE HOME OFFICE -- JUGGING A FAMILY AND A BUSINESS : If you've got thoughts to share about the joys and challenges of juggling a family and a home-based business, it would be great if you could help liven up the discussion over at Yahoo! Parenting. (This is crunch time for every parent I know, so it doesn't surprise me that the discussion forum is a little dead, but it's a bit lonely over there this week. If I have to, I'll resort to talking to myself -- I've done it over PA systems at book-signings! -- but it's a lot more fun to have someone other than myself to talk to.)

>> WRITING RETREATS : I'm on a writing retreat up at the cottage while my youngest is on a school trip. I thought I was alone up here, but I've had two uninvited guests. The first decided to [click through if you can handle it] die a very dramatic death on top of the stove. (Okay, he was half dead when I chucked him into the woods.) The second decided to freak me out by running around the cottage at 2 am last night. I barricaded myself in the bedroom with a towel blocking the gap at the bottom of the door. Did you know that mice can make their rib cages collapse so that they can squeeze themselves through unbelievable small cracks? I wasn't taking any chances. Mice drama aside, I have been having a great time writing, taking photos, and enjoying a timeout from the regular routine.

~ ~ ~

>> CHEERLEADER MODE : I am really thrilled to be on the Andi and Miriam cheerleading team, encouraging them to meet their daily word quotas as they sprint towards greatness and finish writing The Daring Book for Girls. The book is going to be terrific and offer a refreshing break from the "be hot and sex for your boyfriend" drivel that is increasingly being aimed at preteen girls. (Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Maple Tree Press, who published the book my daughter Julie and I wrote together, has always been ahead of the pack in producing quality, self-esteem boosting books for girls, and they won't be producing any books that Paris Hilton or any other underwear-challenged celeb would approve of anytime soon.) Anyway, Andi and Miriam are both really good friends and unwaveringly supportive of their fellow authors, which makes them all-stars in my eyes. I couldn't be happier for them as this soon-to-be bestseller begins to attract much attention from all the big U.S. media outlets. They so deserve it.

Take a Walk on the Wild Side as a Family

2007-06-08T14:39:00.000-04:00

Getting back to nature with your child is not only fun. It can have far-reaching benefits for your child and the planet.

If your kids are more in tune with the online world than the world of nature, you might want to ease them into the world of nature via Campsite 24 -- The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resource's website for kids.

BlogHersAct: A Perfect Fit for BlogHer

2007-06-07T14:36:00.000-04:00

BlogHer has announced an exciting new activism initiative that has the potential to rally tens of thousands of women bloggers in powerful, positive ways -- BlogHersAct.

It's a natural for an organization that has brought women bloggers together online. This is the logical next step: asking women bloggers to work collectively to raise awareness of important issues and causes as the need arises (and there's always a need).

I predict that the initiative will have an important spinoff effect: helping women to raise their voices (political and otherwise) in the off-line world so that we have a more gender-balanced dialogue about what it will take to fix the very real problems in today's world and the world our children will inherit.

Yeah, BlogHer! And welcome, BlogHersAct!

Summer Parenting

2007-06-06T06:28:00.000-04:00

I'm doing 21 radio interviews today on the theme of Summer Parenting -- a personal record for me for the most interviews ever in a five-hour period.

It will also be a fascinating scientific study as to the staying power of caffeine and the holding power of the human bladder.

I've created a mini-site with articles focusing on today's tour topics, just in case anyone is interested. You can find it at SummerParenting.com.

In the Swim of Things

2007-06-06T06:20:00.000-04:00

I heard on my way over to the office this morning that six out of ten Canadian kids today don't know how to swim. What do you think is behind this stat? Is it the cost/availability of swimming lessons? The fact that some kids are reluctant to take swimming lessons (and parents may be reluctant to enroll reluctant swimmers)?

I'm trying to puzzle this through with my parent hat on. Aiming for a 100 percent swim rate may be unrealistic, although that would be the ideal. Three out of four of my kids are swimmers. My youngest has been taking swimming lessons for three years straight (through his school), but has required a lot of patience and encouragement to have anything to do with the water. I think we'll eventually get him to swim (as in cross the pool and say, "There, I did it!" (and then hop out of the pool). But that may be his entire swimming career. Thoughts?

Related: SummerParenting.com.

Thanks; Stress Talk

2007-06-04T08:26:00.000-04:00

Tuesday is going to be the day my blog @ Yahoo! Parenting gets updated @ Yahoo! Canada Lifestyle from now on. Thanks to everyone who has visited to far. It's great to see some familiar faces "over there."

-----

Update:

Okay, it's not Tuesday yet, but this week's post on Generation Stress just went up. I'm talking about the recent Stats Can study which found that sixty-four per cent of teens admit to cutting back on sleep in order to get things done. (Wonder where they picked up that habit?) Join in the conversation over here. So far, I'm just talking to myself about this topic, so the conversation will be much improved if you drop by. :-)

Work-Life Balance @ Womenshealthmatters.ca

2007-06-04T08:13:00.000-04:00

Last month, I was invited to be the guest expert at Womenshealthmatters.ca Le Club. My topic was work-life balance -- not because I've got my act together (as if!) but because I've done a lot of research and writing in this area. You can find the discussion here.

Authors Guild Launches Republish or Perish Campaign

2007-06-01T09:20:00.000-04:00

It's an unprecedented rights grab amongst book publishers -- a contract so bad that the Authors Guild is launching a campaign today at Book Expo America, to tell authors everything they need to know about the new Simon & Schuster contract.

Update:

Simon & Schuster executives yesterday apologized for "any early miscommunication" regarding reversion of rights, according to the Association of Authors' Representatives (the literary agents' organization). S&S is willing to negotiate a "revenue-based threshold" to determine whether a book is in-print, says the AAR. The AAR's alert follows.
Simon & Schuster's new position reflects substantial movement from their initial stance, but it raises many questions, including (1) whether revenues would be measured by income to the publisher or the author, (2) what level of revenues would meet the threshold, and (3) how unagented authors (particularly children's book authors) would fare under this policy.
We're off to BEA. More details certainly to come.
Feel free to post and forward this message. The Authors Guild (www.authorsguild.org) is the nation's oldest and largest organization of published authors.

And Then There Were Two....

2007-05-29T09:53:00.000-04:00

I think my writing fairy godmother knows I need to get some writing done today. The phone is still out and the Bell repairman appears to have gone AWOL.

My email won't download because of mysterious problems that are so complicated even my genius techie is stumped. (Momentarily, I'm sure, but still.)

So scratch yesterday's post about email being an option. We're down to carrier pigeon and cell phone.

Here birdie, birdie....

Phone Problems

2007-05-28T10:12:00.000-04:00

The security system at the office has taken over the phone -- or the phone line is acting flaky. If you need to get in touch with us, you can still leave us voice mail messages and we'll get back to you via carrier pigeon, email, or cellphone.

My New Parenting Blog at Yahoo! Canada Lifestyle

2007-05-25T22:31:00.000-04:00

Confession time. I've been up to something -- something exciting that I've had to keep hush-hush for about six weeks (an eternity when you're eager to spill the beans). The official launch won't happen until sometime next week, but now that my brand new parenting blog at Yahoo! Canada Lifestyle is live, I can tell you guys about it.

I see the new blog as the logical extension of this blog -- a more high-profile way of continuing to blog about the things I've been blogging about here for the past three years: pregnancy, parenting, and familly life.

I'll still be blogging here about the other kinds of things I always have (writing, life as a mom who happens to be an author, and pretty much everything else), but my more pregnancy/parenting-related posts will be shifting over to Yahoo.ca. I hope some of you will follow them there, while still hanging out for the coffee chit-chat around here.

As for what's happening over at Yahoo.ca, you will find that I'll still be my usual research junkie self.

Sure, I've got opinions (no shortage of them to be found, as you'll see), but I like to hang my opinions on facts and research.

I'm also trying to write about subjects that matter to me and that I hope will matter to my audience (a mix of pregnancy, parenting, family and a smattering of social justice).

I want my column to tackle a range of topics and to be relevant to parents in different parts of the country dealing with different parenting challenges and facing different life circumstances. I want the column to be something that people would like to read, but not something that's been so dumbed down that it no longer has anything to say.

Want to test-drive the new blog?

So far, I've blogged on these topics:

The Truth About the Baby Bomb

All School and No Play? The Call for a Recess Revival

Shedding Some Light on the Issue of Sleep

Tuning into the Debate About Babies and TV

I've also licensed a large number of pregnancy and parenting articles to Yahoo! -- including many that have never been available on the Web before. Here's a link to what's available in my Yahoo! pregnancy and parenting archive so far.

Finally: I hope to help other parents feel less guilty about what they see as their shortcomings and to stop putting their faith in every "parenting expert" but themselves.

As always, I welcome input, ideas, feedback, suggestions, and thoughts on how I can best support Canadian parents through my involvement with Yahoo.ca. I realize that I am very fortunate to have this opportunity and I want to make the best possible use of this opportunity for the benefit of all Canadian families.

One More Post About Mother's Day

2007-05-14T20:55:00.000-04:00

We had our Mother's Day dinner a day late because my husband was working shift yesterday, which is why I'm going to ask you to indulge just one more Mother's Day post from me. (It's worth it: trust me.)

Can you imagine what it would be like to have someone surprise you with something like this for Mother's Day? What a fabulous story!

Crazyquilter's Cool Use for Fruit Stickers

2007-05-13T17:52:00.001-04:00

MVC-770F
Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

Here's an inspiring use for fruit stickers. I knew I had to share this with you guys the moment I spotted this over at Flickr. Crazyquilter's art journal pages are always inspiring -- and very accessible, even for absolute beginners like me -- so you may want to check out more of her stuff.

one plus two: April Just Posts

2007-05-13T17:31:00.000-04:00

Looking for some Mother's Day blogspiration? I highly recommend that after you've been suitably fetted by your family, you pour yourself a cup of coffee/tea/whatever and read a post or two from the one plus two: April Just Posts.

Mother's Day was founded out of a desire to make the world a better place -- a sentiment that is relevant today as it was in 1870.

And to All Moms, Everywhere....

2007-05-12T16:56:00.000-04:00

Double-click on the cloud to start the Mother's Day fun!

This is such a cool idea, too. Wouldn't it be too cool if, once the campaign is over, the onesies were laundered in the motherlode of baby laundry loads and then donated to women's shelters? Maybe this is already in the motherplan for the event. Just thought I'd toss this out as a suggestion.

Now over to Mothers Acting Up, where you'll find plenty of Mother's Day inspiration, including their2007 event directory, tips on attracting media to your mother's day event, and Mother's Acting Up's famous recipe for organizating a parade and recipe for making your own stilts. (Hey, when Mother's Acting Up calls on mothers to rise up, they give them practical tools!)

The Scientist and the Citizen

2007-05-12T16:02:00.001-04:00

I've been a Natalie Angier groupie forever, so my ears perked up immediately when I heard her being interviewed on The Current yesterday. I think her new book -- The Canon: A Whirlygig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science The Canon: A Whirlygig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science-- sounds fantastic and will be ordering a copy right away. I also vigorously support the point she's trying to make: we have to remain informed about and interested in science throughout our lives in order to be able to make sense of the increasingly complex issues that we're asked to make decisions about, as part of our responsibilities as citizens.

The good news is that science is fascinating. I never really liked science as a kid, but I've fallen in love with it as a grownup. I'm addicted to reading science news and science blogs because the information I'm uncovering is fascinating and relevant to my life.

Science helps us to understand what it means to be human and to think through the hot issues of the day, not the least of which is climate change. Without a base knowledge of these issues, you're at the mercy of politicians and pundits, who all have their own agendas to promote.

As parents, I think we need to strive to raise kids who are literate on so many levels -- and to be prepared to continue to learn alongside them throughout our lives.

We want to think about being politically literate, media literate, scientically literate, technologically literate, socially literate, culturally literate -- and I'm only just starting the list of essential literacies based on what's at the forefront of my mother radar these days.

I also think we need to teach our kids about source credibility: how to question the source of information rather than swallowing the message whole.

We want them them to learn to apply what they're learning and to think critically about ideas. A child who doesn't question ideas or authority is in a very vulnerable place.

Our kids also need to have a solid understanding of where they've come from, where they are today, and where we're headed as a society (and that means as a society made of people coming from multiple cultures and multiple parts of the world). I want my kinds to consider what can we learn from one another's histories and experiences and what parts of our experiences are different and the same. This week, I was at a meeting where people were talking about how when mothers from different cultural traditions start comparing experiences, they often discover how much they have in common: that in so many cultures there is a shared tradition of a community of mothers gathering around the new mother and providing support and knowledge as she learns to care for her new baby. (It's a lesson that mainstream North American society could certainly learn from other cultures. So many new moms report feeling isolated and alone in a community that can otherwise be a-buzz with activity.)

Because of all the pressures placed on the school system in recent years -- to prepare kids for standardized tests while simultaneously dealing with budgets that have been pared down to the point that parents are being asked to fundraise to provide to pay for the costs of head-lice inspections and other necessities in some jurisdictions -- we have to be prepared, as parents, to take a step back and consider what we need to be doing on a day-to-day basis to ensure that our kids are aquiring all the big picture "literacies" that they'll need to function in the world as adults.

Libby Copeland on Putting the I in Advertising

2007-05-09T00:58:00.000-04:00

Did you happen to catch Libby Copeland's fascinating article ("Putting the I in Advertising") in Monday's Washington Post?

In her article, Copeland talks about how we're increasingly doing the work of online marketers, spreading the word about brands that we love in ways that would have been unimaginable until (i) the advent of the Internet and (ii) until consumers became a lot more casual about the once-sacred distinctions between advertising and editorial. And it wasn't that long ago that pitching a concept like "consumer-generated advertising" -- advertisements created by consumers for consumers -- would have been enough to earn some hotshot ad agency junior an express trip to HR (as in "see ya later alligator").

"Get the audience involved, the thinking goes, and they'll develop a better connection to the product, as well as tap into what appeals to their own demographic better than the professionals," writes Copeland. "Oh, and they'll save the advertisers serious production money.

"But even when ordinary people are not attempting to fashion TV spots, they are participating in advertising more than ever, courtesy of the Internet. There are whole branded worlds to be explored, some with obvious product placements, and others whose primary purpose is to entertain -- with only the faintest connections to the business of selling."

If you brand it they will come, in other words.

Report on Business: Top 40 Under 40

2007-05-08T14:01:00.000-04:00

Why are women still so under-represented in leadership awards like the Report on Business' Top 40 Under 40? Only 5 of the Top 40 Under 40 are female (the same number as when the awards launched in 1995).

Is it because the criteria used to identify young leaders for this particular set of awards (vision and leadership, innovation and achievements, the impact of their efforts, growth and strategy development, and community involvement) inadvertently skew toward males or could it be that women who might otherwise end up rising to the top of their chosen fields end up lagging a bit behind men because they (i) choose slightly different paths or (ii) they carry a disproportionate load in other areas of their lives?

Female representation on the National Advisory Board for the awards (6 out of 27 positions) is higher than the number of female award winners.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of nominees are female. Maybe women aren't even making it to the nomination round. Hmmm.

Momnesia: The Laptop Edition

2007-05-08T09:57:00.000-04:00

This morning I thought I had my act totally together. I had four tote bags full of stuff to take to the office. My youngest had a laundry basket full of stuff to take to school -- including some fabric remnants we picked up during our recent treasure hunt at Value Village. I arrived at the office, put everything away, and sat down to do some work. Then it hit me. I'd left my laptop at home.

Now those of you who know me well know that the laptop goes everywhere with me -- to restaurants, to tradeshows, to booksignings, even out on dates with my husband when there's no safe place to stash the laptop. So forgetting the laptop represents a major psychic lapse. Call it momnesia, if you will: the result of a brain filled to overflowing with things that have to be remembered and acted upon all at once, resulting in one important detail ("Remember laptop") being misfiled.

I kind of feel like I've had one of those nightmares about leaving your child in the grocery store come true (but at least the laptop was safely nestled away at home, on my desk). And while the laptop protection authorities won't be paying me a visit quite yet, I sense it will take my laptop a while to regain its sense of trust in me after this morning's trauma. It's sitting on my lap right now -- the first step in re-establishing that important writer-laptop bond.

Writing Motherhood

2007-05-04T08:37:00.000-04:00

Mothers have always written about the experience of mothering. They've written letters to other mothers detailing the complex blend of day-to-day minutae and big-picture thinking that go into raising a child. They've recorded the journey of their days in their diaries. They've captured these moments in poetry, fiction, song lyrics, and movie scripts (to say nothing of countless other art forms). And, more recently, they've been inspired to hit the blogosphere to chronicle their lives and experiences and create a community of mothers online.

Writing about motherhood is a proud tradition and one that many mothers are drawn to, both to make sense of the powerful, life-changing experience of becoming a mother and because they want to capture moments of this journey, perhaps to share with their child, another friend, or the broader community of mothers.

Writing Motherhood by Lisa Garrigues reads very much like "Simple Abundance for Mothers:" a guided journey to greater self-discovery and creativity as a mother and a writer. The book is inspiring and encouraging, and the techniques suggested will work well for mothers who are primarily interested in journalling (what Garrigues refers to as keeping a "Mother's Notebook"), but who may also be interested in other types of writing. In a short section entitled "Coming Out of the Notebook," pages 253 to 254, Garrigues discusses first steps to pursuing publication and other means of sharing your work with the world (reading your work, starting a blog). There is an additional section on online options for writers (pages 289 to 294), which will primarily be of interest to the mom who is new to the online world.

The book is peppered with encouraging quotes from other writers and Garrigues has included enough resources and writing ideas to provide creative inspiration to keep any mom writing non-stop. I love Garrigues' advice about the need for a holistic writing schedule for mothers -- "one that takes into account your whole life." She argues that your writing schedule should be nonnegotiable, individual, reasonable, resilient, and compassionate." Very sensible advice.

The only suggestion I would make to a reader of this excellent book is not to get too caught up in the formal writing exercises and writing prompts that are provided. Use them to jumpstart your creativity on days when your muse has gone AWOL, but don't allow them to drown out the ideas that are perculating inside your own brain.

What you want to be writing (and what the world wants to hear) are your own unique ideas; your own unique experiences; those raw moments of motherhood that are so fresh and dripping with truth that you have no choice put to reach for your Mother's Notebook and write. That's what motherhood writing is all about and where Garrigues ultimately wants to take you. Enjoy the trip.

Note: A review copy of Writing Motherhood was provided by the organizers of the Mother-Talk.com book blog tour. I will also receive a small honorarium ($20 USD) for writing this review.

Related:
WritingMotherhood.com

Doing the Compassionate Thing for Parents of Stillborn Babies

2007-05-02T23:47:00.000-04:00

I was looking for a special way to mark my three year blogging anniversary, which falls today, May 2nd. That special way came my way via an email from my friend Lori, who wanted me to know about this video.

As a stillbirth mother and a woman whose life and whose family members' lives were forever changed by the passing of a tiny baby girl 10 1/2 years ago, I fully support the message behind the M.I.S.S. Foundation's campaign to provide a birth certificate to the parents of stillborn babise. As Joanne Cacciatore states in the video: this is not a complex issue; this is the compassionate thing to do.

I hope you will invest the four minutes required to watch this video. You will learn a lot about what it means to lose a child through stillbirth -- a lesson that the stillbirth parents interviewed in the video say they hope you will never have to experience first-hand.

Cookbook for Moms Project from MothersClick: Project Update

2007-05-02T17:25:00.003-04:00

Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine: Issue on Autism Spectrum Disorders

2007-05-02T12:56:00.000-04:00

The current issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine is devoted to autism spectrum disorders. You can read the abstracts and article excerpts free of charge. If you'd like to have access to full-text of one or more articles, you have a couple of different options.

Playground Politics

2007-05-02T10:37:00.002-04:00

Peterborough This Week -- one of our two local newspapers -- has two "Letters to the Editor" reacting to its recent story about the playground fundraising pressures being faced by parents in certain school communities:

a letter I wrote expressing my concerns about the fact that some students won't have access to playground equipment while others will (a "have" and "have not" situation within the same school board)

and

a letter from another Peterborough resident who clearly sees the situation quite differently.

Here's a snippet from the other person's letter:

"I find it hard to believe that we are born with the right to playground equipment, but I also do not know of any existing legal document in which the right to playground equipment has been afforded to every individual. In my opinion, it cheapens the word 'right' when parties co-opt it for their own particular issues. The existence of universal rights in general can still be debated. When every party with a grievance claims their 'rights' are being violated, it does not serve proponents of universal human rights well. I urge the Prince of Wales Parent Council and all other similar organizations to consider their terms when engaging in politics."

I can't help but wonder if, in fact, a case could be made that knowingly providing unequal playground facilities could be viewed as discrimination as defined by The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, specifically:

1. every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreation activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.
2. member governments shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.

And as the International Play Association has noted, "Article 31 is not the only one with direct implications for children’s play. For example, other articles address such issues as the child’s right to be heard (12), preventive health care (24), a broad range of child development areas (29), children with disabilities (23), culture (30), prevention of harm (19); and all articles are encompassed within the over-arching principle of the best interest of the child (3)."
This document from the International Play Association also appears to be relevant -- specifically these statements, which really ring true for me:

"The significance of the inclusion of children’s play in this document is not only an acknowledgement of the importance of play in the fabric of children’s lives, but represents a shift from seeing play as a need to accepting it as a right....[Promoting] the child’s right to play is arguably more important today than it was in the mid-twentieth century. Barriers to free play still include the quantity and quality of playspace and play workers (i.e., the need for trained “animateurs” or facilitators rather than “supervisors”) but now include a wide variety of other issues such as over-emphasis on formal learning, children’s isolation, lack of access to play opportunities by children with disabilities, competition of entertainment pastimes and consequent shrinking of time for play, as well as a range of safety issues.

IPA maintains that play is not only about providing safe playgrounds for children. It is fundamentally about protecting their right to be free to explore and discover the physical and social world around them. This spontaneous behavior of children is fundamental to all aspects of child development and is a key component of preserving community and culture in the broadest sense."

Thoughts?

Greek Edition of The Mother of All Pregnancy Books

2007-05-01T15:23:00.001-04:00

Greek Edition of The Mother of All Pregnancy Books
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

This just arrived in the mail last week.

It took me a while to figure out if it was The Mother of All Pregnancy Books or The Mother of All Baby Books. (In the end, I figured it out by flipping through the book and looking for the due date chart.)

More covers of foreign editions of some of my books

The Poetry of Parenthood

2007-04-22T16:12:00.000-04:00

This PoetryFoundation.org podcast focuses on poems related to parenthood.

Canadian Moms in Other Time Zones

2007-04-19T20:57:00.000-04:00

You may want to tune into Outfront if you can still catch it in your timezone. It was beautifully done. Kudos to singer/songwriter Heather McLeod for sharing the story of how her song "Basket of Roses" came to be.

Thursday, April 19, 2007, 8:45 p.m.
19/04/2007
Six years ago, musician Heather McLeod felt a song nagging at her heels - something that just wouldn't go away. When she sat down to write it, what emerged was something that both confused and frightened her. It was a song about the love that a mother can give to a child who has passed away. Heather didn't know where this song had come from. And then a few years later she gave birth to her first child, Ella Rose. Hear “Basket of Roses” on Outfront, tonight.

Live CottageCam Action!

2007-04-19T15:25:00.000-04:00

This is the time of year when Kawartha cottagers are checking George Macdougall's CottageCam a couple of times per day, to see if the ice has disappeared yet.

(My cottage is about 45 minutes north of George's cottage on Little Gold Lake, so I've got a vested interest in the live, ice-melting action.)

Lighthearted, Startling Statistics: Beauty Can Co-Exist Among the Dirty Dishes and Piles of Laundry

2007-04-19T12:45:00.000-04:00

I'm always fascinated by the creative approaches that are used to market to mothers. Some are incredibly smart and used to do really good things for moms and families -- and some are horrible and cheesy and used to undercut mothers' self-esteem in order to flog more stuff -- something that keeps the economy churning, but also makes my stomach churn. This campaign falls somewhere on that continuum. I'll let you decide where.

Suave and Sprint have partnered with MindShare Entertainment to develop in the motherhood.com -- which is being billed as "the first ever mom-focused web series."

in the motherhood.com stars Leah Remini of The King of Queens fame and is being featured on MSN from April 17 through June. The web series also boasts "an integration partnership" with The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

To come up with scripts for the "hectic yet always humorous lives of three mom girlfriends," the shows' producers are turning to real moms. (As is the trend these days, the show is being billed as "By Moms, For Moms, About Moms.")

Moms are encouraged to go to in the motherhood.com to sound off about "universal experiences all moms share such as 'your child's worst public meltdown,' 'how to put the me back in mommy' or 'your funniest mother-in-law child-rearing advice' so that these universal experiences can be developed into future webisodes for the show." (This got me thinking about other universal experiences all moms share, like being patronized and misunderstood by advertisers -- and the entertainment industry. Are the producers at in the motherhood.com really prepared for how real those real mom posts could get?)

Anyway, back to how this whole thing is going to work. Once real moms -- the show's "real behind-the-scenes stars" -- have submitted their ideas, the online mom community will choose the best entries. These will then be developed into a series of webisodes by Hollywood screenwriters. At that point, according to the press release, moms will be able to enjoy games, blogging, and "peer-to-peer" conversation at in the motherhood.com. The webisodes will also be available for viewing at suave.com, on Sprint TV, and via Sprint's Power Vision phones. (Sprint bills itself as the company with the phone that "allows mothers to capture and share those unforgettable moments with family and friends without being tethered to a computer or lugging around a camera" -- but apparently it want to encourage moms to tune into webisodes of in the motherhood.com while they're untethered.)

But wait! There's more!

This is my favourite part of the press release. I'm going to keep it for my mom culture hall of fame.

"Both Suave and Sprint have robust marketing efforts focused on moms. Specifically, Suave has a range of beauty products from hair care to skin care to deodorants that help mom put beauty back on her to-do list. Suave offers moms high quality beauty products at a great price, providing her with guilt free beauty solutions. The Suave ad campaign targets her with lighthearted, startling statistics aimed at showing her that beauty can co-exist among the dirty dishes and piles of laundry. Beyond its advertising, Suave has an exclusive partnership with the Hot Moms Club, an online community of empowered, confident mothers who are committed to redefining motherhood. Additionally, to further understand their mom target, the brand has developed a study of 3,000 moms nationwide, which will offer an in-depth look at the roles moms face today -- not only their roles as mothers but also their roles as women."

Who is This Woman?

2007-04-17T11:12:00.001-04:00

Purse From Tanya
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

I've noticed that I'm starting to look happy and relaxed again. (I hadn't noticed it in the mirror, but it's starting to show in photos.) Taking some time off has been A Really Good Thing. *

* Not to be confused with A Good Thing.

Pregnant Mannequins

2007-04-17T11:07:00.001-04:00

Pregnant Mannequins
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

The mannequins in the Thyme Maternity booth at BabyTime, as the show was being dismantled. (I can't remember if they had heads while the show was on. (The best-dressed pregnant mannequins don't have heads these days.)

Jordan Maher from Moms in the City

2007-04-16T20:59:00.001-04:00

Jordan Maher from Moms in the City
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

I thought it would be fun to take a photo of Jordan Maher from Moms in the City smack-dab in the middle of "her city." Mission accomplished.

Julie Cole from Mabel's Labels

2007-04-16T20:56:00.001-04:00

Julie Cole from Mabel's Labels
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

Captured for the camera at BabyTime: Julie Cole, who runs a highly successful business -- Mabel's labels -- while raising five young children. And she always looks as relaxed and calm as she does right here. What is in those labels? Happy adhesive?

Natalie Aston and Renée Kaufman of Hatch Maternity

2007-04-16T20:53:00.001-04:00

Natalie Aston and Renée Kaufman of Hatch Maternity
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

I had the pleasure of meeting Natalie (left) and Renée (right, sporting the maternal curves) from Hatch Maternity. I was very impressed by their collection. It's stylish, smart, and made out of comfortable, easy-care fabrics.

Sarah Morgenstern from SavvyMom.ca

2007-04-16T20:52:00.001-04:00

Sarah Morgenstern from SavvyMom.ca
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

Sarah Morgenstern from SavvyMom.ca had a gorgeous booth -- and she was giving out the ever-popular SavvyMom.ca stickers.

And speaking of SavvyMom.ca, I noticed they've added a cool feature to their site -- the SavvyMom Smilebox (multi-media, user-designed greeting cards). I'm on a Mac, so I won't be able to play with the Smilebox for a while yet, but it looks like a lot of fun.

Sara Bingham from WeeHands

2007-04-16T20:49:00.001-04:00

Sara Bingham from WeeHands
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

I snapped this photo of Sara Bingham -- founder of WeeHands -- while she was busy explaining what sign language classes are all about. (Unfair to do a walk-by snapshot, I know, but Sara was busy talking -- or signing -- whever I wasled by.)

Joanne from KiddingAroundToronto.com

2007-04-16T20:47:00.001-04:00

Joanne from KiddingAroundToronto.com
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

I caught up with Joanne from KiddingAroundToronto.com -- but just barely! She was constantly on the run.

Tracey Ruiz of The Sleep Doula

2007-04-16T20:46:00.001-04:00

Tracey Ruiz of The Sleep Doula
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

Need Sleep? You couldn't need sleep more than the Sleep Doula herself did by Day 3 of BabyTime. She ended up heading off to a birth on the afternoon of Day 2 (she's also a birth and postpartum doula) and didn't get any sleep until after the mom in question gave birth around the time BabyTime was due to open for Day 3.

Maureen Dennis and Another One of the Moms (and Babies) fromWeeWelcome.ca

2007-04-16T20:45:00.001-04:00

Maureen Dennis and Another One of the Moms (and Babies) from WeeWelcome.ca
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

Encountered far, far away from her booth: Maureen Dennis from WeeWelcome.ca and another one of her WeeWelcome.ca co-workers (and a WeeWelcome.ca offspring).

Denise Williams from Matter Company

2007-04-16T20:44:00.001-04:00

Denise Williams from Matter Company
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

Denise was back at BabyTime with her popular collection of natural skin care products for moms and babies . I have loved Denise's products ever since I first wrote about them for Flare Pregnancy about five years ago.

Julie Gallagher of The Birth Experience

2007-04-16T20:40:00.001-04:00

Julie Gallagher of The Birth Experience
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

Julie Gallagher -- childbirth educator extraordinaire -- was hanging out in her booth @ The Birth Experience.

Nick and Sandy Pedrogao of Oh Baby! Magazine

2007-04-16T20:35:00.001-04:00

Nick and Sandy Pedrogao of Oh Baby! Magazine
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

Nick and Sandy Pedrogao of Oh Baby! Magazine made the rounds at the show on Sunday, which meant I had the chance to meet their son (who was no doubt the inspiration of Oh Baby! Magazine). Will Oh Toddler! be next?

BabyTime Lost and Found

2007-04-14T09:18:00.001-04:00

BabyTime Lost and Found
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

If your baby left this at the Wiley booth at the BabyTime Show in Toronto on Friday, we still have it at the booth. (Eventually, we'll take it over to the Lost and Found.)

Looking forward to a happy baby-and-toy reunion....

License Plate: Envy 1

2007-04-14T09:17:00.001-04:00

License Plate: Envy 1
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas

A license plate noted on my way out of BabyTime last night. Will the other deadly sins be at the show today and tomorrow?

Sleep Solutions @ BabyTime

2007-04-14T09:16:00.003-04:00

Sleep Solutions @ BabyTime
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas

A close up of my Sleep Solutions book @ BabyTime. This definitely continues to be the hot topic amongst parents.

I'd say 90% of the questions I answered at the show related to sleep -- and parents always feel like they're doing the wrong thing, no matter what approach -- or approaches -- they've tried. What's with all the sleep guilt?

Wiley Booth at BabyTime: My Table

2007-04-14T09:16:00.001-04:00

Wiley Booth at BabyTime: My Table
Originally uploaded by Ann Douglas.

Here's a display featuring the Canadian editions of many of my Wiley titles -- and me looking tired but happy after a full day of delivering seminars, signing books, and talking to parents and people who work with parents. Note: I'll be at the show today and tomorrow (Saturday and Sunday).