Weekend Links

As most of all you loyal readers know by now, and if you don’t know then you must not REALLY be a loyal reader (shame on you), I am pregnant and due in July. I am currently the size of my first apartment and poor Stephenie is about to begin editing and updating this entire mammoth website on her own for a while.

To lighten her load and to continue to bring you the best quality posts we can, we are shelving the Small Business Saturday series until early Fall. Right about the time school starts we’ll bring back the series with renewed vigor and even better stories of local small businesses that you and your family are sure to want to support.

In the meantime, we’re going to start sharing our favorite finds around the web each Saturday. Just a small collection of videos, photos, and articles that made us laugh, made us think, or that are just plain interesting. While many of these will be related to parenting or children, you’re just as likely to find some random piece of internet goodness that has nothing to do with anything.

We hope you enjoy and if you find something you are just dying to share with other local parents, email us at [email protected] and be sure the subject line says WEEKEND LINKS.

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1. Marcel the Shell with Shoes

   Our very own Sarah Lena introduced me to this marvelous video (and it’s follow up Marcel the Shell with Shoes, Too). My 4-year-old daughter simply adores it and can often be found quoting lines to me. Her favorite is about when Marcel stayed at a fancy hotel and the bed was a muffin. I’d be lying if I said that we don’t frequently watch this little gem and that I enjoy it just as much as my daughter does.

2. Caught on Tape

   Oh, how I love this video and as far as effective advertising, this is right up there with Don Draper’s Kodak pitch. Coke got it right with this video compilation of security camera footage of people “caught” stealing kisses, being good samaritans, and much more.

3. The New Dad

   It’s Father’s Day on Sunday and so there are all kinds of articles out about fatherhood, how it’s changed over the years, and whether that is good or bad. Most articles agree that the new, more involved dad is better but this article posits that it is particularly better for daughters. That in fact, modern fathers are creating an entirely different world for their daughters. As the mom of what will soon be a two daughter household, I can certainly see much of this in my husband’s dealings with our daughter but I’m surprised at how much of this held true in my own experiences with my father (who is now 64). Growing up on a working cattle ranch, the oldest sibling in an all girls household, I often felt that I got to do a lot of things that my non-existent brother would probably have done (drive a tractor, help bale hay, etc.) and I definitely believe that treatment helped foster an independence I might not otherwise have had. THANKS DAD.

4. The Best Father’s Day Gift Ever!

   Since we’re on the subject of Father’s Day, let me share a little info about what we are getting Daddy. For the last two years, I have asked my daughter a series of questions about her dad. Things like, “How old is Daddy?” “What does Daddy do at work?” “What does Daddy like to eat?” I wrote it down last year but this year decided to videotape it and my hope is to continue

   

   that so eventually we can compile and watch the tape. It’s so easy but so sweet that it never fails to make me look like a genius. That is, until I saw this woman’s idea. It’s too late for you to do what she has done here for this year but let the inspiration wash over you and maybe you can cobble together some version of this before Sunday.

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