about your child’s daily intake of fruits, veggies, dairy, grains, protein etc.

I swear, if you read too much about parenting, you’ll end up going insane trying to keep up with what a supposed good parent should do.  Don’t sweat it. 

Trust your instincts and use your common sense.

When it comes to feeding your child, experts believe that there are so many things to take into consideration:

• portion size
• frequency of meals
• caloric intake
• how many of each food group should be consumed daily

As a new parent, you always fret.  Has she had enough greens today?  Oh no, I forgot to give her a grain yesterday…I’ll have to double the portion today.  Does pizza fulfill any of the food group requirements?  Why did she love broccoli last week and is spitting it out now?

Your child’s body will dictate the portion sizes of the necessary food groups that it needs.  I’ve watched it come in waves over my Beach Rose.  One week she’ll eat and crave everything dairy.  So, apparently her body needs more of that, and I listen.  She’ll still get her daily dose of veggie, but she might get 2x the amount of cheese or yogurt than I’d normally serve her.

Just don’t listen to your child if they say they just want pizza or chicken nuggets all the time.  That may be their body talking, but it’s just telling you what it wants not what it needs.  There is a difference!

or the same story a thousand times.

It makes no difference.

Before kindergarten.

No pressure.

Just kidding…don’t feel pressure.  Just enjoy every precious moment you read with them because it’s a precious moment where time is standing still with just you and your Baby.

When you have kids, one of the things that will shock you the most is that your parents and your husband’s parents aren’t as thrilled about babysitting as you thought they’d be. (Some are!  Very few.  Most have been there and done that and would rather you have babysitters lined up and them as a laaaaaast resort!)

Nobody is excited about the prospect of their lost time while trying to entertain, referee, and calm down a pack of kids, or 2, or even 1.

So, if someone, ANYONE, offers to babysit your kids for FREE?  “Anytime, we’d be happy to.  We love kids. I love kids. Go out.  You deserve it.  I’ll pick them up.  I’ll watch them while you go to do your groceries.  You need a break. ”  Something’s wrong. Be careful.  Let your gut direct you.

This is a red flag in the world of creepy people saying and doing shady things.

“Go with your instincts if anything bothers you about someone who spends time with your child,” Sax says. That includes the neighbor or person from church who is overly eager to help you out by babysitting or just taking your kid off your hands. Having a bad vibe is not necessarily enough to make a crime report, but it’s plenty to justify your not allowing that person access to your kid. “

The ones that moan and groan about watching your beloved angels for the night are the real thing.  Those that push for you to let them watch and are more than happy to do it…beware.

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.

The word “wuthering”means blustery and turbulent.

It took me until the end of the book to finally look that up in the dictionary, can you believe it?  I think it’s because I had it set in my head that Wuthering Heights was just the name of the estate where Heathcliff resided.  Because it’s very common in England to have a home with a name.

It makes so much more sense to know the meaning behind the title now.  That the house, Wuthering Heights, was by definition, the epitome of turbulence.

This would make a great horror movie.  I can picture this raving lunatic, locking people up in his house, killing their joy, laughing in the face of their sorrows and despair, forever bent on avenging the loss of his loved one.

This book was before its time.  It is not as polite as a lot of the novels written in this era seem to be.  It deals with the ugliness of being self-serving.  It boasts of physical abuse:  of the weaker characters and of women.  It is dark and sinister and alludes to the haunting of one of the main characters, Heathcliff, by his long-dead beloved Catherine.  And it allows you to sympathize with him, barely, as he in turn haunts those who he feel are cause for his loss or related to those who are to blame.

I’m glad it’s done, because I believe that this being my 11th work of classic fiction this year, I tire of the predictable minuscule typeset, and ridiculous amount of verbiage used to describe something to death!

But, had this been my 1st classic novel of the year, it would have probably been amongst my favorite in that it was unpredictable, dark, and risque for the time.