What I’ve Been Reading

What I’ve Been Reading

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment
Photograph: Painting of the Jefferson Memorial framed in the branches of a cherry blossom tree

This guy was painting multiple paintings with multiple paintbrushes simultaneously. Seriously.

Spring has sprung, with flowers and thunderstorms in our area. We’ve even had water tables and bicycles out this week. With my parents now living in our area, Sprout had his second sleepover with them yesterday, where they plied him with ice cream and homemade cookies. Grandparents.

For your articles this week, we’ve got commentary on raising non-racist kids, Finland being awesome, being an ethical parent, and many other topics!

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What I’ve Been Reading

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment
Photo: A fake banana tree made out of pineapples on a green tray

Yes, it’s a banana tree made out of pineapples. It made adorable sense for a monkey-themed birthday party. Although we have a zillion extra bananas now.

We have entered the wonderful world of one-year-olds again! Little Bird has been exceedingly adorable lately and even slept through the night recently. He hasn’t repeated that feat again since, but I’m looking forward to it being a trend. While he still isn’t fond of the “s” word, he’s much less resistant to sleeping at this age than his brother was.

And now for our badass parenting links for the week, from parenting strong-willed kids to woke Teen Vogue to solving the play deficit.

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What I’ve Been Reading

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment
Photo: Man in blue polo shirt and baseball cap in front of a river holding up a sharp rock

My dad, passing on the fine tradition to my children of pretending random rocks are priceless arrowheads.

We’re on the edge of a big transition in our house – Little Bird’s first birthday is next week! We’re getting ready for it now, but in the meantime, here are some great articles. Our links this week cover the struggles of getting kids to bed at a “reasonable” time, the challenges of second kids, avoiding burnout in young idealists, and when to bring your baby to the emergency room.

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What I’ve Been Reading

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

National Aquarium photo 2017

Our house has been dominated by colds, talks of birthdays, and our recent annual visit to the National Aquarium. Pro tip – on busy weekends, the National Aquarium in Baltimore issues timed tickets, which means you may not be able to enter the aquarium for hours after you buy the tickets. Second pro tip – the dragon boats on the harbor fill up with water if too many people sit on the same side. Wacky hijinks galore!

This week’s links include how to bring down the patriarchy on a bike, get a free book each month for your kids, and eventually stop feeling so damn tired as a mom.

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What I’ve Been Reading

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

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Another day, another several times I scowl at my phone and click the angry or sad face on Facebook. So I’m launching a new feature on my blog’s Facebook page – Kindness Saturday! Each Saturday morning, I’m going to feature a person or a group standing up for the right thing, showing kindness, or otherwise loving their neighbor. When there’s so much that’s depressing, we need to be reminded of the good work people are doing. Come to the page tomorrow for my first one.

In the meantime, here’s some awesome links about what’s really important as a parent, surviving the Trump years, effective discipline, traveling with kids, and more.

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What I’ve Been Reading

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment
Butterflies at the Smithsonian Natural History museum

Look at these beautiful butterflies instead of any inauguration nonsense. 

Is there something going on tomorrow? Instead of watching any hoopla on T.V. and contributing to the normalization of autocracy, check out these great articles. This week, there’s posts on mom climate activists, girls in the justice system, camping with toddlers, alternatives to the typical praises, and other challenges of modern parenting.

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What I’ve Been Reading

/ Shannon Brescher Shea / Leave a comment

Child and woman walking in a snow-covered yard.

And how was your holiday? Ours was full of snow, baby milestones, kids being cute, candy, whining, and way too many presents. We’re getting back on the sleep training bandwagon here, although that’s being hampered by the fact that Little Bird doesn’t want to drink from a bottle and instead just complains he’s thirsty all day. And now for your articles for the week!

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