Growing Up

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Children's Hospital Pediatrics of Baton Rouge. ADHD affects up to 12% of school age children and is 3 times more likely to affect boys than girls. Researchers believe that children with ADHD have abnormally low levels and imbalances of certain neurotransmitters, the chemicals that carry messages between brain cells. Now what? A visit to your pediatrician can help clarify the situation. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the term used as a diagnosis for children whose behavior tends to be characteristically impulsive, inattentive, or a combination of both. The diagnosis usually requires that the symptoms be present for at least six months and before age seven, be evident in various situations and more intense than usually...

I LOVE CHRISTMAS! The holiday hustle and bustle, the general good will of people everywhere, and the twinkle of holiday lights gets me giddy from about Halloween on. I (being an overly organized planner) begin thinking about holiday plans around Labor Day and love to make the holiday season last as long as possible! I was raised to fully believe in the "magic" of Christmas. Even before my children were born, my husband and I fully celebrated the holiday season. Now that I'm a mother, I want my children to know the magic of the holiday season just as I did when I was younger. My mother loves Christmas, my grandmother loved Christmas, and now I hope to raise...

I watched her little girl running around our living room while I held my newborn, so still. She grabbed for everything I had on the coffee table. And tried to eat it. She hit her head on a piece of furniture when she fell. Her mom followed behind her, sometimes getting ahead of the action just in time to avoid disaster. She never sat down (neither of them). In the first five minutes, I found out that my living room was far from baby-proof AND that I never wanted my newborn to grow up. I would never be ready. It was The New Baby Visit. The first of my close friends to have a child had come to my house...

As I've journeyed through my second pregnancy, I've tried to consciously savor my time with my little girl while it's still "only us." Drink up every moment I can of her at this age -- her wonder of the world, her precious laugh, her fiercely independent spirit -- and at this moment in time where she is my only child, my baby. But changes are coming - wonderful, exciting changes - but changes just the same. The idea of "only us" meaning my daughter and me may seem a little strange since I am married to a wonderful man. But, as so often it goes, things happen in life that you never imagine or expect. My dear husband was diagnosed with a chronic,...

He can’t wait to get home. To pull on his boots. No time to change out of the already stained and spotted school uniform. I get to slip his polo off occasionally. If I can even beat him to the door. Out he runs in his undershirt. “Mommy, let’s go!” he yells as he shoves his styrofoam sword down the back of his shirt. He runs to the backyard. The stray kitten that showed up under our porch this summer, Batman, tags along. There’s nothing else on his mind. No room to be an adult now. Only room to be a kid. Absolutely zero awareness (and that’s what’s wonderful) that the car is still loaded down with the morning’s breakfast, his...