Cyclones and tornadoes are not the same thing. Cyclones are bad, sometimes really bad. Tornadoes, though, are something else. I lived in Indiana for several years. When a tornado warning starts, you might only have a few minutes to get somewhere safe. And "safe" is a relative term. A friend of mine who lives in…

"My cat comes to me when she wants to be fed. I have learned this. I accept it for what it is. Many people in my position would think my cat's coming to me because she loves me. Well, she likes me, and she is attached, but she comes to me when she wants to be fed. And after I feed her — guess what — she's off to…

For the sake of that poor kid, I really hope not.

You are saving your daughters a lot of time and heartache by pushing that message!

Someday, maybe. Longer paid maternity leaves for lower income women would go a long way. It shouldn't be at all surprising when a woman who has to go back to work two weeks after giving birth, often to a job that doesn't make it easy or comfortable for a woman to take a break to pump (or a job that just flagrantly…

In the U.S., it's kind of a class thing. Wealthier and better educated women almost always breastfeed or feel extremely guilty about it if they can't. Most lower income and lower educated women express an interest in breastfeeding, but are more likely to give up on it fairly quickly. Personally, I don't think that…

A friend of mine had to have an emergency c-section at 32 weeks (pre-ecclampsia). She had a lot of trouble pumping and her son was too small to nurse when he was first born. So, she used formula. I felt so terrible for her, though, because I would get these panicked emails and phone calls from her saying, "Am I a…

It is very cute. The friend who named her said, "I had a hard time deciding what name, but I knew I liked Ella and Ellie and Lenore and Nora, and then I realized that I could just name her Eleanor and she could chose what she wanted to be called when she got older."

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According to my family legend (hard to verify, since everyone in this story is long dead), my grandmother Christina was named for her paternal grandmother. However, Christina's mother couldn't bring herself to call an infant Christina, so she called her Teenie. And it stuck. I don't think I ever heard anyone call…

No, retro names are totally a thing. I know a Moses, a Henry, an Eleanor, about two dozen Emmas, two Ellas, and my own little one is going to be a Lilian.

I think Gus is adorable, too. It makes me think of the mouse in Cinderella. He was always my favorite.

Wait, I thought "La-a" was an urban legend. Like Shithead (pronounced "shuh-THEED").

Another doctor described a horrifying scenario where she was forced to watch a woman bleed to death after her request to intervene in the pregnancy was declined on the grounds that fetal heartbeat was still present.

Try Irish oatmeal. I don't like the stuff made from rolled oats (too slimey), but Irish oatmeal, though it takes a little loger (you can make it in advance and reheat), has a very nice consistency.

Apples or peaches in Irish oatmeal sounds amazing. My routine could use a little shaking up. Thanks!

On Sunday nights, I make Irish oatmeal (also called steel cut oatmeal). It takes about 30 minutes of simmering on the stove and at the end I add some raisins and cinnamon. Let it cool off, put it in an air-tight container, and then into the fridge it goes. Then, all week, I put a scoop of the wonderful, porridgey…

I hate funerals like that. I've been to weddings like that, too. I always want to tell the officiant, "Dude, not the time. This is not about you, and it's only kinda about God. Mostly, it's about the person who died/people getting married. Let's try to keep the focus where it belongs, shall we?"

My grandparents were convinced that my mom was a boy (they already had two daughters and were desperate for a son), and so they never picked out a girl's name. And then, when it turned out she wasn't a boy, they didn't bother coming up with a name for her for two weeks! Finally, my grandparents were watching the…

I burst into tears when the ultrasound technician told me and my husband we were having a girl. I would never have said this out loud if it had gone the other way, but I really wanted a girl. And I can't totally explain why. In part, I think having a girl will be easier on my husband (I'm due in a couple of weeks,…