Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Last week I talked about how I have over extended myself through my volunteerism. This week I thought I would share some of the reasons why I volunteer with Better BedRest.
One day I was scanning a Preemie magazine that is no longer in print. I ran across two ads that I wish I would have [...]

It seems that going Green is all the rage now, so when I saw Dr. Alan Greene’s new book about green child-rearing, I thought I would take a look at it.
The book is wealth of information.  It takes you from pregnancy to early childhood, giving parents tips on how to reduce their wastefulness, protect their [...]

Isn’t it interesting how we can think that Postpartum Depression is something that happens to other people even while we are surrounded by the signs of depression within ourselves?
I struggled with Postpartum Depression with three of my four births and I’m not yet out of the woods with my fourth. My fourth baby, Laurelyn, is [...]

I remember it like it was yesterday–parking in the special “mom-to-be” section, walking through the automatic doors, and encountering a space that seemed the size of a Target which held nothing but baby gear. It was overwhelming. Dizzying that there could be that much stuff to need, that much stuff to buy for [...]

Working Mom and I are expecting our second baby girl in November! By New Year’s Eve, I’ll be a stay-at-home dad to two girls under 3.
I’m so screwed.
I feel completely competent as a stay-at-home parent, sometimes. (Some rare and brief times, but some times all the same.) Last Wednesday, for example, I was lifting a [...]

I’ve never smoked a cigarette or gotten a tattoo. I don’t even have my ears pierced. My closet sports no designer clothing or shoes. I’ve never even lived close enough to a major city to be in the know about the hottest nightspots or newest underground bands. My pregnancy, like most other things in my [...]

In reality, it comes and goes, ebbs and flows. I have days where it is all I think about, where I’m obsessed and worried and a plain old freak about it. But then I’ll go through days, weeks even, where I don’t think about it – and I’m calm, rational, sane.
Still, the topic won’t go [...]

Winter is the worst time to be a parent who stays at home.
Typically, I would also be working, writing a weekly column for a travel site that is preparing to launch. But the preparations are keeping my editor busy right now, and with 13 columns stored up in her files, I am not needed at [...]

I recently ran across a brief article with a quote from Helena Bonham Carter, talking about the insatiable need everyone has to participate in pregnancy:

‘Carter, who’s eight months expecting with Tim Burton’s baby, told blackbookmag.com, “People – particularly men – saying with surprise, ‘You’re still drinking caffeine?’ as if I’m performing a criminal [...]

What was I thinking when I named my child? I had always loved the name Jack, not as a nickname, but as a stand-alone. To me it connoted strength, confidence, simplicity, and a gentle, easy way of navigating the world. A solid name, for sure. Common, as well, but I didn’t [...]