I am standing in a circle of yogis, most of them pregnant women, stretching from the Lake Harriet Band Shell, around the benches, and up and down the grassy hills. I am squatting in Goddess pose, touching palms with the woman next to me. Well into her third trimester, she’s already had a mapping session today; her belly is painted with colorful designs and an outline of her baby’s position.

We begin to wave our hips in figure eights, chanting oms and sending out energy to women all over the world who are giving birth right at that moment. “Every birth counts,” the leader enthuses. “Every birth is a sacred act!” We chant and gyrate while she urges us on: “Send love to your uterus! And men, send some love ‘down there,’ too!
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St. Paul mom Karina Crockett jokes that she is “going to miss diapers terribly” when her youngest, daughter Mathilde who just turned three, soon bids them farewell once and for all. As the mother of two children (son Charles is five-and-a-half) Crockett has learned more than she ever thought possible about diapers.

As is the case for all new parents, life seemed pretty overwhelming when Charles was born and everything about parenting—including diapers—seemed like an experiment, which is why Crockett says she and her husband Andrew “have used all different kinds of diapers” over the years.

“We talked about cloth diapers when I was pregnant with my son, but I didn’t think I had it in me to wash [them] all the time,&rdq
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Gyro bowl

You’re in the car and your kid has a bowl of dry cereal to munch on for the trip. But the end result is that most of the food ends up between the cushions and not enough is ingested. Welcome the Gyro Bowl—a product that uses 360-degree technology to keep items inside the plastic sphere. The bowl stays open side up, no matter which way a child decides to twirl, dump, or throw it. There’s also a snap top lid to keep food fresh. Don’t believe us? Watch the short video on the product website.  

Buygyrobowl.com; about $15 for a two-pack



Local scholarship competition

You know your kid is one-of-a-kind and now is your chance to prove it. Through March 21,
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Indestructible books for the kids, and one for you



The World According to Toddlers

By Shannon Payette Seip and Adrienne Hedger
Andrews McMeel Publishing, $12.99

The best way to navigate the world of toddlers (and stay sane) is to have a sense of humor. The World According to Toddlers offers comic insight into the entertaining and often exhausting toddler lifestyle to help parents find the humor and appreciate this once-in-a-lifetime stage. Colorfully illustrated with stories, cartoons, diagrams, and more, this book will help parents through epic meltdowns, potty training, troubles and bizarre wardrobe
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I love party planning and take my son, Ty’s, birthday as my opportunity to have fun with it and go all out! On his first birthday, I went with a Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs & Ham party. For his second birthday the theme was Toy Story, with an emphasis on the character of Woody, coupled with a western theme. I ordered Ty a Woody vest and sewed it onto a yellow shirt with large bottoms so he would look like his favorite character, complete with cowboy boots and a cowboy hat! When the kids and parents walked in, I had a table set up with cowboy hats, bandanas, and sheriff badges to wear.

There were only a handful of kids there, and mostly adults. Everything went as planned. It did rain the night before, but the weather was great all day and we were able to be outside
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Who would have thought certain basic things, such as keeping socks on your baby, would be so challenging? These products are sure to help.

Good guava

Keep scratches and germs away from babies aged 0 to six months with guavamitts, an infant mitten with two-part closure, incorporating bold graphic patterns to also engage babies’ eyes. And, because they are made of 70 percent bamboo and 30 percent cotton, the mitts block 99.97 of UVA and UVB rays, to keep baby’s delicate skin protected.

guavakids.com; about $12


Sock it to me

Socks can slip off easily just from baby’s kicks and tugging. Keep them firmly in place with this mom-invented innovation that keeps socks snug and on
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It’s a lot of money: $226,910, to be exact.

That’s the estimate for how much a middle income family will spend raising a child in the first 17 years. Add college into the equation, and the sum becomes downright terrifying.

It’s no wonder that birth rates ebb and flow with economic concerns. Latest data show births in the U.S. have declined since 2007—the year before the economic downturn settled in. In 2007, 4.3 million babies were born in the United States. Preliminary numbers show just a hair over 4 million babies came into this world in 2010.

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“I love my husband, but I don’t always like him.” That’s a comment I hear quite often in my couples mediation practice. Over the years, I discovered something: Many people are nicer to strangers than they are to their spouses.

The “liking” feeling tends to disappear as everyday job stress, parenting decisions, financial woes, and child-induced sleep deprivation start to bring out the worst in us.

When overwhelmed by life, small things may seem like “the last straw,” and you might even wonder if you are married to the right person.
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I’m a pushover for sleepovers. Unless our family has a scheduling conflict, I’m usually open to the idea of hosting an overnight guest or two on a weekend night, or to allowing my children to spend the night at a close friend’s. It’s probably because I have fond memories from my own childhood of evenings spent baking cookies, whispering secrets and watching movies with friends, and I’d like my kids to have similar experiences.

But I do sometimes have sleepover remorse. As the mom of three children, now ages 15, 13, and 11, I have learned through trial and error that
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One of the best parts of my job is occasionally being able to assign myself the task of writing the Book Shelf department. I get to grab a stack of books I’ve received related to one topic or the other, give them a careful read, and decide which should be featured in print. Due to page 74 and 75 of The World According to Toddlers (full review begins on our page 42), I found myself choking back giggles in an attempt to appear like any other normal employee at a publishing company.  

In this particular selection, found in the chapter “Use Your Words,” only an exploding backyard with lots of hot, shooting lava will elicit an “uh oh” out of a toddler. Most often, toddlers will just study various catastrophes with great interest, and then go about t
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Julie Lynn White Bear-Ortiz’s family is a mix of different cultures and heritages. Parents José and Julie Lynn are working to instill a sense of tradition in their children while dealing with multiple health issues and challenges. Phillis, who is adopted, and Manuel participate in traditional pow wows in and around the Minneapolis area and Michael is a student in Kansas studying music and education.


How do you keep the kids interested in their heritage?

I make sure they know what’s going on in the community. We keep up with ethnic foods and languages and are a part of community events. We celebrate Nigerian holiday, the Nigerian Independence Day, Cinco de Mayo. We also go back to my home reservation and attend pow wows.
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