How old does your child need to be before discipline starts? And how harsh does the discipline need to be?  It depends on a lot of factors.

I started mine young, as soon as they knew right from wrong. Don’t look at me with incomprehension - they know when they are doing wrong from quite a young age, I assure you!

My littlest is the worst. He is fifteen months old, and he knows what ‘no touch!’ means. This does not deter him from sneakily getting into things the minute my back is turned.

“He’s just a baby” you might protest. Come on. If he is unaware that he is not supposed to stick the penny (which he is not supposed to have) into the wall socket (which he is not supposed to touch) then why does he jump a foot in the air when he sees me and crawl over to stick his head under the playpen in the hope that I do not see him?

Excuse me. He knows!!!  I am one of those people who prefaces my introduction to parents at playdates with  “Hey, just to warn you, if he dashes out in the street, tries to stick his finger in the other kid’s eye or bites, I am gonna smack him on the butt.”

This usually gets either a high five or a shocked glare followed by a hasty goodbye, depending on the political leanings of the parent.

Hey. Better a smack on the diaper padded tushie to ensure the lesson is learned than a flattened fifteen month old in the middle of the road (or a lawsuit from an angry parent!)

I don’t whale on my kids. I don’t keep a ping pong paddle handy, or a leather strop in the barn. But if they are going to injure themselves, I would rather sting their bottom than end up in the ER because they pulled a pot of boiling water off of the stove.

So sue me. Turn me in. I love my kids, and want them to survive childhood! You can tell when they are ready for discipline. It’s when they run and hide when they hear you coming!

I am a threat to the planet. I admit it!  I use shortcuts, like paper plates and plastic baggies. Sometimes the money I spend and the damage I could potentially be doing fade away under the looming pressure of a deadline, and I rationalize!

I tell myself it would take me an extra two hours to do the dishes three times a day ( I am so fussy I wash them by hand, THEN put them in the dishwasher.) and that my time is worth money - I could be earning a living.

So I use disposable plates, with sturdy plastic flatware and cups, that go straight in the dishwasher when done or get tossed if broken. I line aluminum pans with foil to make them last for five or six uses (a chicken rice casserole, a tray of biscuits, a flat frosted cake, a row of baked potatoes and finally a pan of lasagna before it, too hits the garbage pail.)

My kids like me to pack their lunch; I tried using fifty assorted little reusable plastic containers (one for chips, one for cheese cubes, one for the sandwich, one for cookies, one for juice) and broke down a week into the school year. Back to 100% juice boxes, fruit cups, Ziploc baggies and disposable plastic spoons. I managed to hang onto the square plastic sandwich holders. Yay me.

I tell myself when I am old and gray, I will own one dish and one fork - and I will scrub them in sand under the stars outside my environmentally sensitive dugout with solar panels and a windmill generator. I will wash my two sets of garments in the river, compost all garbage, and no plastic shall I own.

Until then, I will try to get at least two uses out of my disposable, planet killing, landfill crowding, totally irresponsible accoutrements that I use to make my daily life bearable, and tell myself it’s like recycling, really, it is!!!

My littlest boy is fifteen months old. He was only three months old last year when the big kids started school in August, so he didn’t really miss them. This year is a different story!

He runs after them as they go out the door with daddy, and stands and waves bye even after the door shuts. When he wakes up from his nap he looks for them - he doesn’t talk a lot yet, but he hollers and listens, and cranes his neck around corners to try and find them.

Every time he hears something in the front yard he crawls to the window and stands looking out. It is so pitiful!  He adores them, and can’t figure out why all of the sudden they are gone all day! It is like they have gone missing, and he doesn’t remember yet that they will come back in the afternoon.

Boy, when I hear the truck pull in the drive, I tell him, “Bubba and Sissy are home! Go see!!”

He runs to the window, and when he sees them come up the walk he runs over and tries to open the front door! He is practically up on his tippy-toes; he can hardly wait for them to put down their back packs and lunchboxes to give him hugs, and then he doesn’t know which one to hug first!

I am so glad he loves his big brother and sister so much, and they just adore him too. He does the same thing to his daddy when he is working late - if he is on my lap when the key turns in the door he starts kicking and squirming and laughing.

I tell them all, these are the best days of our lives!

I open the newspaper and read that the stock market is down and we are on the edge of the major economic slowdown.

I turn on the TV to hear them say there will be still more foreclosure in the future, and we have not even hit the bottom of the real estate crisis.

My neighbor is talking about increasing global warming and the environmental problems.

People in the coffee shop are talking about gasoline prices that have finally come down slightly in the past month, but will definitely go up again after the election.

Things don’t sound very picture perfect, do they? What can we do to protect ourselves? Is there any way we can contribute?

Lets take a look at everyday problems, and how we can make a difference.

Since gasoline is expensive – drive a bike, walk more, take a Bart, subway, or train.
If the stock market is down - do not invest in stocks!
There is a real estate crisis – do not buy real estate; save your money.
The economy is slumping - do not buy ten t-shirts just because they are $2.99 each or silverware because it is 50% off.
Our environment is suffering - recycle, save gas, water and electricity.

I guess this is what a regular person like you or I can do. We have to keep trying!

Recently a child of a friend of mine was diagnosed with diabetes. She is just six years old and very healthy looking child. Her parents were very surprised. I decided to do some research online about this disease.

I found out that there are 23.6 million people in the United States, or 8% of the population with diabetes. Approximately one in every 400 to 600 children and adolescents has type 1 diabetes. I was shocked that the total prevalence of diabetes increased 13.5% from 2005-2007.

No one knows what causes diabetes, but scientists are working hard to find out. There are three major types of diabetes: Type 1, Type 2, and Gestational. Type 1 diabetes usually develops in children, teenagers or young adults. Scientists believe this is a genetically caused condition and is not related to lifestyle habits.

However, recent studies in Queen’s University Belfast stated that babies delivered by Caesarean section have a 20% higher risk than normal deliveries of developing the most common type of diabetes in childhood. The increase could not be explained by factors such as birth weight, the age of the mother, order of birth, gestational diabetes and whether the baby was breast-fed or not.

It is possible that children born by Caesarean section differ from other children with respect to some unknown characteristic, which consequently increases their risk of diabetes, but it is also possible that Caesarean section itself is responsible.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the immune system destroys the insulin producing cells in the pancreas, and one theory suggests that being born by Caesarean section may affect the development of the immune system because babies are first exposed to bacteria originating from the hospital environment rather than to maternal bacteria.

Diabetes Symptoms
•    Urinating a lot (polyuria)
•    Drinking a lot (polydipsia)
•    Losing weight

Diabetes sometimes goes unrecognized early on because parents think their children are urinating more simply because they are drinking more. Get your child evaluated by your pediatrician before you start restricting her fluid intake though, because if she does have diabetes and you don’t let her drink, she will keep urinating and quickly get dehydrated.

My mother is blond with big blue eyes. My father has black hair and brown eyes. I have medium brown hair. During my school and college years I never changed my hair color or length. It was always one style: long and natural.

But after my first daughter was born something changed. I felt that I needed a new experience. I went to the hair salon and got bangs. I loved the new look! I loved the experiment!

A few years later we moved to a sunny apartment and I felt like I would like to change my hair color again. I did it! I changed it from light brown to golden brown. I got a new job as a stock broker, and I cut my hair to shoulder length because I felt that new style would be better suited to my new image. My second daughter was born in 2000 and then I got highlights. Wow!

Now I am back to basics. Looking back I think: “Why did I change my style so many times?” I guess I am not afraid to try new things in my life and how I look. I am very adventurous and practical at the same time! I love changes and moving forward on the river of life.

Some women never change the color of their hair. Other women may change it often. If you do not know a woman, you can find out a lot just looking at her hair.

Recently I was talking to different people in the different parts of the world. I talked to my high school friend who is in Paris, my mother’s friends from Siberia, and my long-term friend from Moscow. They all were complaining about the recent weather conditions. I am completely agreed with them. The weather is getting worse and this is scary!

It is getting more cloudy and windy in Paris over the summer. It is getting warmer in Siberia during the winter and very rainy during the summer. In Moscow people basically do not see the sun anymore.

The climate is changing. The air pollutants from fossil fuel use make clouds reflect more of the sun’s rays back into space. Recent years show increasing temperatures in various regions and increasing extremities in weather patterns.

We can help work on solving this problem by doing our part. There are few tips:

•    Walk or ride a bike instead of driving a car.
•    Teleconference instead of flying.
•    Use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
•    Recycle.
•    Plant native trees.
•    Turn down the heat.
•    Buy renewable energy.

Yesterday was a last day of summer break. I and my daughter decided to celebrate. I invited my daughter’s friend over to our house so they would have a last chance to catch up before the schools starts. We went to the park, had a JamboJuce and organic hamburgers. It was fun!

Today is a first day of school. Yea! New teacher, a few new classmates and the happiness of seeing her old friends. While my daughter was setting up in the new classroom I was having some coffee and bagels in the lobby and talking to the parents. After that we all went to the assembly.

I love the assemblies in Kristina’s school. They are always sweet, entertaining, and very interactive. Everybody has a chance to talk and share: the staff, the teachers and of course the students. Today’s topic of sharing was “goals for the next year”. These are few of them; maybe your child can use them too. I love them all!

•    Read more
•    Write more
•    Make more friends
•    Be a better friend
•    Recycle
•    Train the attention muscle
•    Have more fun
•    Exercise more
•    Listen better
•    Pay more attention to the teacher

Have a great school year!

Sports are important for teaching teamwork and instilling a sense of personal pride and accomplishment! Not every sport is for every kid, though, so you have to find the right one for your child.

My daughter started begging for a basketball goal when she was four. We bought her a full sized one, and she learned how to shoot baskets! When the church in the center of town sent out flyers announcing a basketball series, she signed up at age seven.

Wow! The church was great. They recognized that the kids were little, and instead of focusing on fierce competition like the school teams did, they really worked on teamwork. They didn’t formally keep score, but of course we parents did. (My little girl’s team was made up of some of the very smallest kids, and they developed such a solid team that they won every single game that year!)

It really helped her make friends and did a great job on teaching her she had to step back and not always be the center of attention.

My son was five, and very unsure of himself. I didn’t feel right throwing him out on the soccer field, where I was sure he’d get trampled! The bowling alley had just started a league for kids as small as four, so we signed him up.

He got better then me! You never saw such a little kid take to something like my boy did to bowling. He soon decided he didn’t need bumper rails, and developed a solid skim down the middle that resulted in a strike on more than one occasion!

At the end of the season, he had two patches and a trophy for his scores and for the most improvement in a young bowler. He also had his very own ball and bag. It was a huge confidence builder for him!

Last year the bowling alley was remodeling, so we didn’t do as much bowling… and my daughter broke her finger at the third basketball practice and was out for the season. We are looking forward to this fall, though - both of our kids have found the best sport for their personality!

Helping your child with homework should be just that - helping. Not doing it for them, not giving them all the answers, not correcting it before they turn it in.

Just helping. In my house, that includes:

*  Making sure they have had something to eat so they aren’t distracted by hunger. Just a quick, healthy after school snack.
*  Providing a neat, quiet place for them to work, and keeping the TV off until after homework is finished.
* Being available to give them direction - not the answers, just clues to point the way, and help them figure it out on their own.
*  Looking it over and pointing out any problem spots - not correcting it, but just showing them where they might want to take a second look.