You Might Also Like 

• "The way we speak to our kids, the way we act towards our kids becomes their inner voice and the way they judge or support themselves and others.” One of the many gems I wrote down while listening to this Upbringing Podcast episode about parenting a spirited and highly sensitive child.

• May I suggest sending this the next time you need to say thank you or happy birthday or I love you. Geraniums + snail mail forever!! 

• Did you see the 6 ways we’re using our new XL Pouch? Someone commented that she plans to use it to bring all her breast pump accessories to / from work. Such a good idea!   

• If you spend a lot of your summer on the beach this link might change your life ! We just got back from a few days with Josh’s family in North Carolina. This is a yearly tradition, usually at the same beautiful  beach. Over the years there have been many sunshade disasters. Tents that are too small to cover over 20+ of us, tents that blow away, or rip, or are difficult to put up, always heavy and big. This year we showed up to a new beach (new town) with no tents, and walked down to the beach to see rows and rows of THESE. These magical shades created a nice big rectangle of shade. They are lightweight, unobtrusive, break down to the perfect carrying size, and set up so simply. The beach was literally lined with them, and not once did we see one fly down the beach, collapse, or get stuck while being assembled. They are made locally in North Carolina (hand stitched !), but I don’t know how the rest of the coast hasn’t caught on!

• I keep putting off making picture books for India and Major even though it’s high on my priority list ! I was so happy to see that Artifact Uprising just came out with Baby Board Books. I love their products, and this will be a good motivator to get it done.

• I recently discovered that a fellow fine art major in my thesis class at Bates wrote a children’s book ! I immediately bought it, knowing nothing about it, and since we’ve had it India has asked me to read it one million times. It is definitely for young children and touches on the beginning of bullying, and differences. It immediately opened a conversation between India and I because she wanted to understand why the pig was being mean and why the other pig was sad. I am so thrilled with this chance purchase.