I saw something yesterday that I'd never thought of. There is a span of a few years where pretend cooking is a sure fire hit in the play ground. "Can you fix me some broccoli?" "We haven't got broccoli! Here's bagels!" (Accompanied with flung handfuls of wood chips).

However, yesterday, I saw a nanny that had brought a whole collection of cups and containers for enhancing this game.

I must warn the squeamish that this article deals with a subject of professional interest to me, but not one that is generally the subject to polite conversation, namely poop.

I became aware of an issue that is a big deal, in particular, to parents of school age and younger children who live in the downtown Silver Spring neighborhood to be affected by the proposed purple line route. (As I understand it, whichever route they go with- the concern is the same.)

A parent I am acquainted with, Anna Howle, is much more informed on these issues than I am. I asked Anna to articulate them in a post for this blog. It would be great to hear from others who have insights or opinions on this issue...

Thanks, Liesl

It doesn't take a parent long to learn that any seemingly good action can have subtle effects down the years. When our first born was a few months old and starting to reach out and grab stuff, we were delighted that she loved pens. This was the beginning of what in our house is a great truth: children prefer real items to toys. They don't want the pretend cell phone, they want mine. They don't want actual old keys gathered and placed on a genuine key ring; they want my actual set of keys I use to open the house and car. They don't even want my backup-spare set. They want the main set. So the pens which we so often use were very attractive to my daughter. We could hand one to her and she'd enjoy minutes and minutes of interrupted happy play, waving it around and smiling. She was far too small to take the top off, so we proceeded happy at our parenting cleverness.