Wow. Look how far we’ve come in half a century.

Funny how Cosmo now encourages us to seduce our husbands and yell like a hyena, when a “small moan” used to be “quite sufficient.”

Do many of you get Today’s Parent? It’s a Canadian parenting magazine put out by Rogers, and I quite enjoy it. The past few months they’ve had a few fabulous articles on greening your house for baby and just in general:

How green is your home?: A room-by-room tour (kids’ rooms, bathrooms, kitchen etc.) to learn about the “environmental baddies” you may be harbouring, and how to fix ‘em. I really liked how they focus not just on the standard, big-ticket, expensive stuff such as new furnaces and windows, but on mattresses, bedding, paints, shower curtains and cookware. Literally the best resource I’ve read that compiles everything together. A must read.

The green nursery: Thoughts and tips on carpeting, paint, furniture and bedding in a vulnerable newborn’s bedroom. Did you know the glue that holds together many new cribs (particularly cheaper ones like *ahem* we bought from Sprawl-Mart) can off-gas formaldehyde for years?). Another excellent read.

Guide to less toxic products: From the Environmental Health Association of Nova Scotia, via the above story. Endorsed by the Big Man himself, David Suzuki. The article includes this warning: “You  may find out more than you really wanted to know about the chemical soup that is modern life.” Yeah…proceed with caution.

Easy recipes for non-toxc house cleaning: Love them.

Know the story/song No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed?

No? Here, Lucy can teach you:

You don’t know what you’re missing.

(Notes: This will be Lucy’s bedroom, and is currently called The Ball House Room, AKA The Room We Use to Bribe Lucy Upstairs With, AKA The Spare Room Where Guests Sleep Among the Balls. Don’t you love the Pepto pink walls? The wavy foliage wallpaper? The cable cords? That’s Sparky, the LED, colour-shifting dog, and Lucy’s sleeper she spontaneously ripped off. Oh, and yes, we’re still reading about Christmas, but at least it’s only eight months away now. The bathrobe, it lives on. Also, Eric hates those ultra-comfy-stretchy pants with the army of snowmen; he thinks they are planning an attack.)

Women are like tea bags. They don’t know how strong they are until they get into hot water.

– Eleanor Roosevelt