Wishlist: Galapagos

E as fotografias de Doug Bakewell ;)

Odd Fish ;)

The Cutest Kitten in the Whole Wide World

or the World Wide Web ;)

More on Cute Overload, of course

Ciência Viva no Verão

BIOLOGIA:

Viagem Botânica à Sintra Romântica

A Floresta Relíquia da Serra de Sintra


GEOLOGIA:

As Pedras Preciosas no Patriarcado de Lisboa

As Pedras Preciosas no Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

As Pedras Preciosas no Museu Calouste Gulbenkian

As Pedras Preciosas no Museu do Oriente

Tesouros Gemológicos do Museu Nacional de História Natural

Conceptions

A blog by The New Atlantis staff.

Part One and Part Two of an Interview with Dr. John D. Gordon, author of

Panda Vermelho Bebé adoptado por uma Bela Gata :)

Mais fotos e mais linques para notícias no Cute Overload, pois claro!

As Tuas Músicas e Todos os Nomes

Dizem-nos que, em 2007, o nome mais pedido foi Inês, que destronou Beatriz, a rainha de 2006.
João e Maria também figuram no top dos nomes mais pedidos.

Guia Infantil para o Grande Porto

Riding New York's subway Alone at 9 years old

I left my 9-year-old at Bloomingdale’s (the original one) a couple weeks ago. Last seen, he was in first floor handbags as I sashayed out the door. Bye-bye! Have fun!

And he did. He came home on the subway and bus by himself .

Was I worried? Yes, a tinge. But it didn’t strike me as that daring, either. Isn’t New York as safe now as it was in 1963? It’s not like we’re living in downtown Baghdad.

Anyway, for weeks my boy had been begging for me to please leave him somewhere, anywhere, and let him try to figure out how to get home on his own. So on that sunny Sunday I gave him a subway map, a MetroCard, a $20 bill, and several quarters, just in case he had to make a call.

No, I did not give him a cell phone. Didn’t want to lose it. And no, I didn’t trail him, like a mommy private eye. I trusted him to figure out that he should take the Lexington Avenue subway down, and the 34th Street crosstown bus home. If he couldn’t do that, I trusted him to ask a stranger. And then I even trusted that stranger not to think, “Gee, I was about to catch my train home, but now I think I’ll abduct this adorable child instead.”

Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence.

The cute illustration - who are you, magic touch illustrator? - links to Lenore Skenazy's blog on this and other matters.

Read her original article for the New York Sun, and her reply to the moniker «America's Worst Mom» that ensued.

Estes Americanos estão loucos...
Oxalá o meu filho saiba andar de transportes públicos!

Rise of the sumo baby

[Os valores foram convertidos no sistema métrico]
(...)
Definitions differ as to what constitutes a large baby. The previous threshold was 3,600 kg. Now most health professionals class any baby more than 4,150 kg as above average. Although larger babies do seem to be increasingly common, the heftiest are still rare enough to make the news. Big babies used to be more common when people had larger families, simply because weight tends to increase with each subsequent baby.
(...)

In January 2005 in Brazil, Francisca Ramos dos Santos gave birth to an 8 kg "giant baby". He was her fifth child. Last year in Siberia, Tatyana Barabanov had a girl who weighed 7,900 kg. She was a 12th child. According to the Guinness Book of Records the largest baby ever was born in Canada in 1879, weighing 10,400 kg, but died 11 hours after birth. The heaviest surviving baby was born in Italy in 1955 and weighed 10,300 kg. A 9,500 kg baby was born in Cornwall in 1852 and a boy weighing 9,100 kg was born in Crewe, Cheshire in 1894.
(...)

The reason babies are getting heavier is obvious, says Mervi Jokinen of the Royal College of Midwives: "It is mostly linked to better diet and living standards in the population. But big babies have always existed and sometimes it's very difficult to say if it's genetic or if it's diet." What is undeniable, however, is that obesity - of the mothers, not the babies - is a major factor.
(...)

But the worry of having a large baby is becoming yet another stress factor in pregnancy. "I actually felt a bit guilty and embarrassed about having such a large baby," says Ruth Ainley, 34, a physiotherapist from St Albans. Her son James, now two, weighed 4,900 kg at birth. When he was born by emergency C-section after a 28-hour labour, the surgeon announced, "Well, this one would not have come out any other way."
(...)

Size remains a hugely contentious and emotional issue. Who wants to be told they're overweight when they're pregnant and can't diet anyway? In any case, many pregnant women who have gestational diabetes or large babies - or both - are not obese. And many obese women give birth to normal weight babies with no problems at all. The two concerns with larger babies are cephalopelvic disproportion (when the baby is too large to pass through the mother's pelvis) and shoulder dystocia (when the head comes out but the shoulders get stuck). But neither of these conditions is exclusive to larger babies: they can occur with small ones too.
(...)

Despite the possible complications, many mothers still argue that bigger babies are better. They report feeling more confident in looking after them, less concerned about their growth and relieved that they often sleep through the night at an earlier age. A University College London study conducted over several decades found that babies weighing more than 8lb performed better in IQ tests throughout their lives.

28 horas em trabalho de parto é... mais de um dia!
(já a actriz Kate Winslet esteve 37 horas...)
O que é que isto tem de bom para a mãe e para o bebé, pergunto eu?
Está visto que não acontece só aqui no portugalito :|

esses são chatos... ;)

O Lucas fez quatro mesinhos hoje, foi à vacina, onde se portou muito bem, e depois foi passear ao Parque dos Poetas, na sua primeira ida a um jardim, num daqueles passeios sem pressas de chegar a algum lado.
Esteve no parque infantil a ver os outros petizes, onde uma menina perguntou ao Papá:
-- Ele não quer vir brincar?
-- Ele ainda é muito pequenino para ir brincar.
-- Ele é daqueles que só come e dorme?
-- Pois...
-- Ahhh, esses são chatos...

Lucas is four months old today, he had yet another vaccine and took it like a brave boy. Afterwards he went for a stroll in the park with Mom and Dad, and lingered for a while watching other children play. A sassy little girl asked Lucas's Dad:
-- Doesn't he want to come and play?
-- He's too young to come and play.
-- Is he one of those who only eat and sleep?
-- Yes...
-- Oh, those are a bore...


E ganhou de prendinha um móbil muito simples mas muito cabeça na Lua... ;)

Uma raposa fenec bebé

para mim, coisa nunca antes vista ;)

Cute Overload

The «bento box» I want for my baby ;)

Porque é que os animais mordem os donos?

Atente-se bem no sutiãzinho deste/desta ;)

eBook to download

This book teaches hearing parents how to use simple sign language gestures to communicate with their hearing infants before their infants can speak. Joseph Garcia uses anecdotes, practical guidelines and humor to explain the benefits and method for taking advantage of this unique form of early communication. He will help you recognize when your child is receptive to learning. He recommends which signs to teach first and shares ideas for games that can be fun and useful when introducing new signs. The book is also a useful reference with 145 clearly illustrated signs, enabling you to choose and teach the signs that will be most beneficial to you and your child. This book is also included in a separate "package" edition called the SIGN with your BABY Complete Learning Kit - which is comprised of the book, 60 minute training video and quick reference guide.

Análise à língua portuguesa em livros infantis

O Letrário decidiu verificar se há perigo no maravilhoso mundo da leitura infanto-juvenil ou se, pelo contrário, podemos descansadamente continuar a incentivar as crianças a ler seja o que for, desde que a classificação etária anunciada coincida com as idades dos nossos meninos.

Merci, Val, de m'indiquer ce site ;)

Adorable: Jane and the Dragon

Poor Dragon. I tried to explain what animation meant, how it was stories told with pictures that move. He threw a huffy and flew off to his cave leaving me to issue this challenge in his place. My name is Martin Baynton and I created Jane and the Dragon. (Please don't tell THEM that.) So for those Knight School Students who are keen to create animated stories of your own I would love to see your work.

And here's the challenge. You know how Smithy loves designing and building new tools and devices, well I challenge you to write and animate a short story based on one of Smithy's new inventions. Get together with some of your school friends and give it a go - it can be done using any animation software you're familiar with, or stop frame animation using cut out images. Have fun and be as inventive, creative and entertaining as you can.

You might need to carry out research, so I have found some places where you can learn about simple animation, and life in the Middle Ages.

The competition closes on May 30th, 2008. In the teachers' turret your teachers can find out everything they need to know about the competition such as entry forms, rules and prizes which include books, DVDs, and a visit to the Weta Workshop Studios for some lucky animators who will get to see Weta Workshop animators at work.

We will publish the winners here in Knight School, and we will also publish them on Weta Workshops own website too.

Videos available on YouTube ;)

Childhood Fears

Check out some more art from Joshua Hoffine

Wish List

Truques & Manhas ;)

Tão simples... Como usar um só «brinquedo» para todos os sítios em que o bebé está (por enquanto :) em vez de comprar - porque tem sempre que se comprar :| - arcos de actividades e sei lá que mais gingarelhos :-Þ
E quando se tem a sorte de ter recebido de prenda o Melhor Tapete de Actividades, até parecia mal :D

Wilbär do zoo de Estugarda

Encontrado no Cute Overload, pois então :)

Magnum celebrates Mothers

A minha preferida ;)

Donkey Xote ;)

Finalmente uma versão contemporânea em animação!
E que importa que o burrico se pareça muito com o do Shrek?
Quem é que não adorou aquele rechonchudo pestanudo e abelhudo?

Nas palavras de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra:

De rir a bandeiras despregadas!
Uma obra-prima realmente inspiradora!

How to have children

They say that children are noise covered in dirt. Actually they're fast-moving noisy dirt. That's why they're best when they're asleep, because that's the only time they are quiet, clean and still.

Children have an enormous amount of energy. They get this directly from their parents, who have precisely no energy by about 8.30pm. This explains why mindless rubbish TV is so popular at around this time. Children are nature's contracep- tives. A baby crying in the night is the exact opposite of a Romantic Moods CD.

Unlike a CD player, there is no remote control, so you have to get out of bed to adjust the volume. Once you've started having babies, the phrase "Let's make love" becomes associated with "Let's change more nappies" and that's not necessarily apowerful aphrodisiac. One of the great things about having children is that you get to know another human being for the first time - your parents. Every parent vows not to make the same mistakes their parents made.

Unfortunately, having children in the first place was their big mistake and you've already made it.

Girls and boys are born different. Boys come out wanting to play withanything round. Girls come outknowing that their arrival will change the dynamics of the family insubtle and possibly useful ways. What children growing up needmore than anything else is aconstant, stable environment that willnurture and comfort them.

The TV plays this role in most families. When children grow up a little and require a higher level of interaction, they can then go online. The quickest way to grow up is tohave children. You can try and remain childish, but your children will then have to grow up faster to compensate. When you become aparent, you often become worryingly like your own parent. You startusing the exact phrases they did, such as, "You must eat that so you'll grow up big and strong" - even though you ate it and grew up short and weedy. Most people who have children wouldn't have it any other way.

There are moments of pure joy when your heart is filled with love. These moments come on a regular basis after 7,894 other moments involving noise, dirt and damage to property. my eye, "and the fact that you're always citing that single incident isproof that it's the only time I've ever been antisocial!"

Anyway, Eric's demeanour throughout the incident was equally awkward. He clearly didn't want to walk with me just as vehemently asIdidn't want to walk with him. "His antisocial attitude makes himinteresting," I think. "I can relate to that. What an interestingly antisocial self-assured person." Now all I need to do is wait here inthe toilet until I hear him scamper away. So I do. "I'm going to hire him!" I think.

Feliz Dia da Mãe / Happy Mother's Day

Ajuda de Berço

A Lei da Rolha :)

Comece já hoje a juntar as suas rolhas de cortiça!

A partir de dia 22 de Abril (Dia da Terra) será iniciada a recolha nos restaurantes.

No Dia 5 de Junho (Dia Mundial do Ambiente) já poderá colocar as suas rolhas nos "Rolhinhas" dos Hipermercados Continente

Posteriormente iremos alargar a outros locais.

My thoughts exactly :) às 8 semanas

Wise and funny words from Linda Lee at Parent Dish:

One-sided conversations with an 8-week-old

Are you seriously waking up because you heard my laptop opening? Listen, it's not like I'm looking at PORN over here, Judgey.

Smiling like that will get you nothing, Mr. Manipulator, except your mother's total inability to act like a rational adult. Who's a mushy? Who's a poochy?

Hey, nothing quite like a freshly-changed diaper to poop on, huh? Unless of course it's my HAND.

"Goo"? You seriously just said "goo". That was so over-the-top cute I am looking for the hidden cameras.

Get your little squirrel paws out of your mouth, dude, I'm trying to feed you over here. Don't make me break out the duct tape.

I hate to tell you this, but you have a zit. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's an adorable zit, but I'm not sure this bodes well for your teen years.

Did I not just file those nails yesterday? You are like a teeny tiny Wolverine.

The full-body joyful squirming is enough on its own, you don't have to add the openmouthed smiling and cooing. How much can a person be expected to take? My god, my heart is like an over-saturated sponge dinosaur.

Say, what's with all the grunting? . . . Oh.

Flocke aprende a nadar