Right now when my son Leif sees an ant in the backyard he'll start yelling 'Hi Ant!', 'Hi Ant!'.

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Huh. I thought the article was very anti-perfectionism.

I mean the woman who was talking about how she used to put in three hours of high intensity quality parenting before work, and another three after. I knew it was going where you say, but I couldn't read about all the now former-or-dead perfectionists, to get there.

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I miss the days when my mother would look at me, open the back door and say, "Shoo, you've been in the house too long." Granted, I lived in the country, but I knew lots of town kids who would just wander around and observe the world and have adventures in vacant lots.

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First article was scary. I"m trying to figure otu if I'm gonna work or stay home once the sprog is sprogged, and that story made both possibilities sound terrifying.

Second one sounded pretty similar to how I was raised, though I did get driven to soccer practices and piano lessons. We certainly played in the mud in the backyard often enough.

Health~ma for Java's co-worker.

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As of this morning, we can finally see some bare patches in our still fairly snowy backyard. I can't wait for the first day I can just shoo them out, connie.

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It's great to send the kids outside, actually my kids love to go outside so not so much shooing necessary. I'm really hoping I will have time to build some more play equipment for the playard this spring and summer.

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It's been sunny more often than not for several weeks running here. It's weird, I tell you. Sun in the winter is supposed to be a rare treasure.

Right now I'm at the laptop in the living room while Annabel plays happily with her toys on the floor and watches the Food Network. I am resolutely not allowing myself to feel guilty for letting her do stuff like this most of the day. If she weren't happy, she'd tell me. And if her development was being neglected, she'd be behind on stuff, and she's not. So I must be doing OK.

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I am resolutely not allowing myself to feel guilty for letting her do stuff like this most of the day.

What's the guilt-inducing part of this? What should she be doing instead?

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Annabel plays happily with her toys on the floor

That's good developmental stuff right there.

We're not perfect parents, and our daughter is doing extra work in preschool (should be in school, but Missouri won't allow it, stupid cutoff law). Leif is just freaky, the kid is two and already can spell a lot of three and four letter words. Now he's starting to read some words in his books.

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Um... sitting on the floor and playing with toys is what a baby's supposed to be doing.

Many people don't realize what enormous amounts of learning a baby does during the first year simply by hanging out.

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