| Kid-Friendly City, Not Many Kids
The City of Alexandria will be named today as one of the 100 best communities in the country for children by the America's Promise Alliance, a group started by former secretary of state Colin L. Powell. Not bad for a city without many kids. .
Prepare your pets well before baby comes home
Q. We are expecting our first child in a few months. We have a cat and a dog, and would like to know any precautions we should take to protect our child from possible problems with our pets. A. Now is the perfect time for preparing your pets for the presence of an infant in the house. Your pets not only have to adjust to the infant but also to all the paraphernalia that comes with a new baby. It is better if your pets do not have to adjust to new items and an infant at the same time. Take walks with your leashed dog while you are pushing the empty stroller. If your dog attacks the wheels or tries to run away from the stroller, use positive reinforcement such as treats. The key is to have your pet associate good things with the stroller. Do not let your pet play with the new toys because it may think the toys belong to it.
Family Of Slain Fort Hood Aviator Plans Funeral, Takes Solace In Newborn
(February 11, 2007)—A Fort Hood helicopter pilot was looking forward to coming home from Iraq to be with his wife as she gave birth to their fourth child. Instead, his family is now planning his funeral. Chief Warrant Officer Jason DeFrenn was killed when his Apache helicopter was shot down on Feb. 2, just two weeks before he was scheduled to return home to South Carolina. Chief Warrant Officer Keith Yoakum, 41, of Hemet, Calif also died in the crash. Grief-stricken, DeFrenn's wife, Jenny, went into early labor and delivered a baby boy days later. Now DeFrenn's relatives are making plans to bury him in the family plot in the small town of Barnwell. And they're finding solace in the new baby. DeFrenn managed a Pizza Hut before joining the Army nine years ago.
Farmers' markets embody our need for connection and community
In the mythology of the American Dream, it's the privacy of our sanctuaries that defines, comforts and nourishes us. Homes, we are told again and again, embody our innermost desires. But lately I've been feeling how other sorts of spaces -- public, free and accessible to all -- are emerging to show us what home really means. Perhaps home isn't where we feather our nest with fancy things but the place that feeds the soul of a community. Nowhere is this more evident than in the growth of farmers' markets in California. In 1974, when the federal government passed the Farmer to Consumer Direct Marketing Act to allow farmers to sell their products beyond their roadside stands, there were fewer than 100 farmers' markets in the nation. According to "Fresh From the Farmers' Market" by Janet Fletcher, in 1977, California had four farmers' markets.
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