Weekend Links

Some of what is deviing our babying this weekend:

Did you hear about this toddler who is taking the art world by storm? Apparently this little Australian tot is creating abstract art that gallery owners put on par with that of modern masters.

And I bet you've read about the woman who gave birth to octuplets this week--but did you know she plans to breastfeed all 8 babies?

My husband and I got to see Aziz Ansari perform live in San Francisco last week and we should all be so lucky. The kid is hilarious. Check out this clip with one of the funniest first sentences I have ever heard:

And this clip is good for a few laughs as well: Mike Meyers and Manu Narayan (from "The Love Guru," which about 2 1/2 people saw) with their rather sad Indo version of "More than Words" (or "More than Verds," as the translation may be).



Finally, Pooja from littleguruskool wanted to thank you for all your comments. Look out next week for my "In Focus" with Dr. Susan Taylor, who crafted a line of skincare specifically for brown skin. Here, Pooja's response:

Thanks everyone for your feedback & suggestions! I will certainly keep them in mind when producing future titles. Little GuruSkool books and DVDs are not available in bookstores yet but I'm working on it. Meanwhile, they can be purchased online at www.littleguruskool.com and www.amazon.com. A couple of you mentioned seeing other Indian children in the books - it's a great idea! The DVDs do feature Indian children so I hope your children will enjoy watching them. If any of you would like to be informed of new titles and new happenings at Little GuruSkool, please subscribe to our newsletter at www.littleguruskool.com - the link is on the homepage. Very encouraging to hear from you all - keep those comments coming!

Science Round Up

Two studies were released yesterday that have the parenthood set all abuzz.

The first adds to the mountain of evidence that supports the propriety of vaccinating your kids. I almost feel bad for the authors, having to brave the scary waters of this topic. I can't think of any other scientific subject that has caused so much fury and diatribe as of late, can you?

The second comes to the conclusion that school-aged kids need more unstructured playtime and less work.

The conclusions are both pretty retro, lassoing back to a time when recess meant four-square and tag, not time to study for an exam, and when vaccinations were performed as matter of course.

In the bigger picture, these studies make me even more wary of--well--taking studies too much to heart. We as a group (the group being parents) are quite reactionary. The second we became pregnant it seems we developed a third eye and ear, perpetually attuned to the "latest news" on baby dangers, the newest "survey" of toxins. But the rate at which we can get information these days--all the noise of forwarded emails, websites, blogs, newspapers, magazines, tv shows, celebrity opinions--is astonishing and we can probably find two studies concluding exactly opposite things with one simple google search.

So what's a mom to do except try to filter out some of the noise? Recently I've been trying to act with less information, instead of more, as counter-intuitive as that sounds. It goes against every fiber of my being--I was the girl that liked to cross-check World Book with Encyclopedia Brittanica. I suppose it's called trusting your gut. I know my gut couldn't author these two studies (can you imagine the peer review?) but it certainly agrees with them.