Paul Rudd: I Love You, Man…But You’re Breakin’ My Heart

Dear Paul:

As a blog that focuses on urban style parenting, I’ve written about you before. By all accounts, you’re a sweet city celebu-dad who totes his precious cargo Jack around NYC on your shoulders, romps with him in the park, ties his shoes and ensures that he gets a steady diet of star-studded play dates.

More to the point, although a lot of sad, misguided individuals claim to be your soul-mate, *I’m* the only TRUE one. I’ve provided solid rationale for why it’s so, here.  I’m sure you’ve read it, but you might want to peruse it again to get that nice, warm feeling one gets from reconnecting with someone you’ve shared past lives with.

Of course, being karmically connected to you, I had to run out immediately and see your new flick I Love You, Man. And that I do. I love you. I love you. I love you.  

There. I’ve said it.

I can’t help it. You’re funny. You’re sweet. You slap the bass (at least in the film). Ok, so you’re not the tallest tree in the forest… but I hear that you smell good and as far as I can tell have a full head of hair. Your career is on fire and now there are rumors floating around out there that your wife, Julie, is pregnant with your second child.

Helicopter Parents Need to Land

Kids with more freedom get more exercise, according to a study conducted in the U.K. Can this be done in a city environment? You betcha.  Stay turned for ParentZing! tips on how this can be accomplished… and feel free to submit your own ideas!
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Click here to see Reuters link to article, copied in its entirety below.
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Research has shown that children with more independent mobility interact more with other children and their environments, while lower levels of independent mobility could “negatively influence children’s emotional, social and cognitive development,” and may lead to more sedentary behaviours, putting them at risk of obesity.

Children whose parents give them more free rein to roam are also more physically active, new research from the United Kingdom shows.

Parents are becoming less and less likely to allow their children this kind of independence, Dr. Angie Page and her colleagues from the University of Bristol point out, and more research is needed on how to change the social and physical environment to allow parents to feel more comfortable giving their children more autonomy.

Page and her team looked at the independent mobility — the degree to which the children were allowed to move around without adult supervision. An example would be allowing children to walk to school or to a friend’s house without being accompanied by an adult.

Parents may be becoming increasingly reluctant to let their children wander on their own due to concerns about traffic dangers or the threat that their child might be molested, the researchers note, or they may also want to spend more time interacting with their children.

Doodling Does a Body Good

Google Doodle

NPR reports that doodling is actually good for your brain. So the next time the kids are doodlin’ away whilst you’re trying to talk them, maybe you should praise them instead of yelling, “ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?!?” Read on to learn more…

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The following story was obtained from the npr site on 3/12/09. To view the original npr post, click here.  

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Four years ago at Davos, the famous world economic forum, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared on a panel with Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and the rock star Bono. After the panel, a journalist wandering the stage came across some papers scattered near Blair’s seat. The papers were covered in doodles: circles and triangles, boxes and arrows.

“Your standard meeting doodles,” says David Greenberg, professor of journalism at Rutgers University.

So this journalist brought his prize to a graphologist who, after careful study, drew some pretty disturbing conclusions. According to experts quoted in the Independent and The Times,the prime minister was clearly “struggling to maintain control in a confusing world” and “is not rooted.” Worse, Blair was apparently, “not a natural leader, but more of a spiritual person, like a vicar.”

Two other major British newspapers, which had also somehow gotten access to the doodles, came to similar conclusions.

A couple days later, No. 10 Downing Street finally weighed in. It had done a full and thorough investigation and had an important announcement to make:

The doodles were not made by Blair; they were made by Bill Gates. Gates had left them in the next seat over.

Oodles Of Doodles

Gates is a doodler, and he’s not alone. Lyndon Johnson doodled. Ralph Waldo Emerson doodled. Ronald Reagan drew pictures of cowboys, horses and hearts crossed with arrows. Most of us doodle at one point or another. But why?

Choosing A Celebrity Baby Name Might Just Leave You Starry-Eyed!

Erykah: Mod mom with mod baby name choices.

Our guest poster, Karen Sullen, gets creative about creative baby names with personalized gift ideas from Corner Stork Baby Gifts. Be sure to check out ParentZing perks for an exclusive coupon code!

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I’m no astrologist, but they say you can look to the stars for direction. Well, not if you’re looking to celebrity stars when you’re trying to come up with a baby name.

Down through the years, celebrities have had knack for the unusual and unexpected. Back in the day, it was Moon Unit (courtesy of father Frank Zappa), but today it’s Moxie CrimeFighter (daughter of Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller Master Illusionists).

If they keep this up, the companies that make premade name plates will be out of business. Thank goodness for personalized baby gifts! I mean, where are you going to find a gift with the name “Sage Moonblood” on it for Sylvester Stallone’s daughter anyway? Or how about “Seven Sirius” for Erykah Badu’s child? From “Bluebell Madonna” to “Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily” (now that’s a mouthful), the list just goes on and on.

Breathe Easy

Is the city bad for kids with asthma? Or is a week vacationing in the Italian countryside simply good for everyone? (Or both?!) You decide, after reading the article below. ParentZing! wants to share many types of information with our readers; not just the nuggets that support our theme of “urban. style. parenting.” (Ok, well…99% of the time we post things that overtly support our mission and love for all things city. But at least we’re honest about it!)

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Mild Asthma Symptoms Fall After Just a Week Away, Study Finds

Click here for original post at US News & World Report
Posted March 2, 2009

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 2 (HealthDay News) — After a week away from urban air pollution, children with mild persistent asthma begin to show dramatic changes in their respiratory health.A study in the March issue of Pediatrics reports that just seven days after a group of school-age children left the city for a rural area, airway inflammation went down and lung function increased.

“I was quite surprised by our findings,” said the study’s senior author, Dr. Giovanni Piedimonte, professor and chairman of the pediatrics department at the West Virginia School of Medicine. “I thought we would see a difference, but I didn’t think we’d have such statistically significant changes. What I was particularly surprised by was that the most statistically significant change was in pulmonary function. Virtually every single child more or less increased pulmonary function.”