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Thrush!

Last night, I noticed that Aerin's tongue was green.  8-O Okay, so it wasn't that bad. She has always had a white patch on her tongue, which is common in many babies due to their milk/forumla-only diet. But last night, when she happily stuck her tongue out at me during her bath, I noticed that the white patch had taken on a green tinge. It didn't seem to be bothering her so I did not feel it warranted a visit to the ER. But I did take her to the doctor first thing this morning to have it checked out, and my suspicions were confirmed: Aerin has thrush. If you can remember, Claire had a stubborn case of thrush when she was young. In...

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The Psychology of Color [Infographic]

I have always known that color has the power to influence your mood — for example, did you know that when a certain prison painted its walls pink, acts of agression and physical violence decreased significantly? — and was pleasantly surprised by some of the facts presented in this infographic by PaintersOfLouisville.com. Case in point: you should not paint a baby's room yellow, because it makes babies more prone to crying. (I can't help but think of all the nurseries I've seen painted yellow.) Or, you should stay away from red before, and during exams because it is "associated with the danger of failure in achievement contexts and can evoke avoidance motivation." Find out more in the infographic below! (Click to view large.) Via Bit...

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Bloggy Thursdays: Why I Stopped Using LinkWithin (And Switched to nRelate)

***Update: with the recent discontinuation of nRelate, I have switched over to Contextual Related Posts. (You can see it in action at the bottom of this post!) I was able to customize the widgets fairly easily, and the matching algorithm is probably the best I've ever come across!Welcome to this installment of Bloggy Thursdays, where I share with my fellow bloggers tips and tutorials to maximize and better your blog. While I do not consider myself an expert, I do like to think that after 10+ years of blogging — in addition to my technical knowledge — I know more than the average blogger when it comes to making your blog more appealing to readers.Do you have any comments, questions, or topics you’d...

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Cubicleism: Amazing Office Whiteboard Art

At my very first full-time job, I had a huge whiteboard hanging in my cubicle. I used this whiteboard to mostly write reminders for myself and coworkers, but sometimes we would leave messages for each other (à la whiteboards on the doors of college dormrooms), and once in a while they would become spaces for creative doodles and inside jokes. I believe that my finest work on this whiteboard derived from the time someone stole my stapler — too bad it wasn't a red Swingline stapler! ;-) — and I drew a cartoon of Milton from the movie Office Space asking, "Do you have my stapler?" I thought that cartoon was pretty dope, and received many compliments on it. (Sadly, I never took a...

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Claire’s First Trip to the Liberty Science Center

First children are bound to feel neglected and resentful at times when a younger sibling comes along. So far, Claire has been doing splendidly with the addition of Aerin into our lives, but there are moments here and there where I can see the sadness in her eyes when we are preoccupied with Aerin. :-( To help her know that we will never stop loving her, this past Sunday, we decided to give Claire some "alone" time with mommy and daddy by taking her to the Liberty Science Center. (J's parents graciously agreed to watch Aerin while we were out.) We actually live just 15 minutes away from this wonderful, interactive science museum and I had been dying to take Claire...

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