The Parent Voice

I was curious to know what percent of Oregon’s geographical area is made up of water. According to the U.S. Geographical Survey site I was surprised to find out only 2.4% of Oregon’s makeup is water. Regardless of the low percentage of water, swimming remains a summer activity with high engagement.  As in past years, I plan to take the kids to Otter Beach. I can personally say that a morning swim at the pool ensures a solid afternoon nap for my toddler--which is always a win for mom. Having more than one child to keep an eye on is work.

I enjoy the outdoors and so does my husband. He is an avid outdoorsman, which means all of our family benefits from fishing, hiking, and camping. At the summit, I was able to recognize that this is not true for everyone.

I absolutely love our Oregon summers for many reasons including, sunshine, playing in the water, being outside and having more freedom in our schedules due to no school. I am a planner and start thinking about summer in March, at the same time I look out for summer activities to sign the kids up.

As I am writing this blog, it is “National Air Quality Awareness Week” and “National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month”. Being a native Oregonian, I can’t help but to be thankful for the air quality in  Oregon.

It is the last full week of April and today we are kicking off World Immunization Week! It was not too long ago that I wrote about immunizations, here is the last blog. Still immunizations continue to be a topic of interest that is also highly publicized. Being a Pacific Northwest inhabitant, we have been very aware of the measles outbreak

This month is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. It is tough to think about the theme without getting a little bit sad because we all know of someone that as a child has struggled due to abuse. In the past, I thought of child abuse as being violent in physical form. Since becoming a parent and trying to be very engaged in learning how to be a solid parent, I have learned that child abuse has many angles.

March is National “Brain Awareness” week and since my interest is early learning, I have been looking forward to blogging about this. My natural interest in science and desire to learn more about brain development in my son is what got me into early learning.

Many moons ago, my oldest son Karson started his preschool experience and I was right there with him, serving the supportive role as the extremely passionate mother. Knowing I was going to be very involved we were both very excited about this new chapter in early education.

March is right around the corner and with that is National Nutrition Month.Having good eating habits takes knowledge, discipline, and being intentional. I cannot say that I have the most consistent and healthiest eating habits. I grew up having access to and eating healthy foods; however, there were many times where I went down to Dari-Mart with a quarter in my pocket to purchase a Little Debbie snack.

March has been designated as National Sleep Awareness month, but I thought I would talk about it this month as good sleep is something I have been prioritizing lately.When I was expecting my first son, Karson, my sister, my mom and a friend hosted a baby shower for me. My sister, Martha, had a notebook for guests to write down their best advice. It was a sweet and thoughtful idea and I looked forward to reading everyone’s advice.