Food is the way into a college student's heart

It's true. If you had to live on cafeteria food every day, wouldn't you appreciate something home made? You know you would.

I had my first meeting with my summer RA staff today. They're necessary to keep the rowdy summer residents in line. I wrote their job descriptions out this week and realized I needed to sweeten them up with something. So I did. I gave one RA some.... very laid back (by the way of cleanliness) suite mates, and decided he needed sweetened up the most. I made his favorite strawberry lemonade.

You will need water, lemon juice, sugar, and a bag of frozen fruit (not the huge bags, mind you, just the normal sized ones).

Start by boiling one cup of hot water and two cups of sugar until its all dissolved and the water is clear. Add two cups of lemon juice to that (if you're feeling really ambitious you can squeeze it fresh, but I'm a lazy RD, I am. Meanwhile, put 7 cups of cold water into a pitcher and a handful of ice cubes for kicks and giggles. Mix your lemon juice/sugar mix into the cold water and add your frozen fruit. Let it sit in the fridge for a while. I like to mash up my strawberries a bit to really get the juice out of it. I've used this recipe with blueberries (I only use about half bag of those). I bet peaches and raspberries would be divine as well.

P.S. No one whined about the job description. Score!

Bwah! It's April!

It's crunch time. April (and August) are my two months where I feel like the dog chasing its tail. We have our RA appreciation banquet coming up, the end of the year cook out for the residents, move outs, meetings, summer residents, so much to do!

I hope I'll be able to breath again before the middle of May, but I kinda doubt it.

I'm SO thrilled to finally agree with the AAP on something

I've never agreed with the minimum recommendations to keep a toddler rear facing ONLY until age 1. Nothing magical happens at day 365 of a child's life. Their necks aren't suddenly stronger, they aren't suddenly less fragile. The AAP just changed its minimum recommendations of rear facing for one year to a minimum of two years, preferably until they outgrow their convertibles rear facing recommendations by height OR weight: http://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/30/4/12-a

Britax is one of the higher weight convertibles. Caden, at 3 years 1 month, is only just 35 lbs, and he's heavy for his age. Normal weight kids could probably be rear facing in their Britaxes until closer to age 4 or later.

Car accidents are the leading cause of death of toddlers. I hope that these new recommendations are followed by all parents and lower the death rate for toddlers.

Did you know that Britain requires kids under 4ft 5 inches, up the age of 12 be in a booster seat? Did you know that in Sweden, they recommend car seats be rear facing until the age of 4? I hope that the US follows quickly behind in these recommendations, and that car seat manufacturers provide more seats with higher rear facing weight limits.