100th Day of School

Mia in "100" headband.

Can't argue with science!

Good-looking couples have
more daughters, study suggests

AP
By Melissa Dahl

Good-looking parents tend to have girls, a British researcher says.

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise have Suri, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have Shiloh, and Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck have Violet and Seraphina. Strictly judging from the pages of US Weekly, it would appear that good-looking couples tend to have little girls. In this case, US Weekly might be on to something.

Beautiful parents tend to have more daughters than their homelier counterparts, according to a report by evolutionary psychologist Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics. Kanazawa tackled the same question in a 2007 book that covers all sorts of facets of human behavior, "Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters," which he co-wrote with Alan S. Miller.

For this study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Science, Kanazawa tracked 17,000 British babies from their 1958 births, and at age 7, their teachers were asked to rate the children on their attractiveness (yikes). When interviewed later at age 45, those who were rated most attractive were more likely to have daughters.

That might be because, as Kanazawa wrote in his 2007 book, attractiveness benefits women more than men when it comes to long-term dating and mating. Guys tend go for beautiful women when looking for something long-term, while women seek out good-looking guys for the short-term, but not necessarily for the long haul, when qualities like resources and status count for more."So physical attractiveness, while a universally positive quality, contributes even more to women's reproductive success than to men's," Kanazawa and Miller write. In an evolutionary psychologist's point of view, pretty parents pass along what will best benefit their progeny: good looks.

Of course, this doesn't explain the existence of Gisele Bundchen and Tom Brady's baby boy Benjamin, or, for that matter, the Beckham boys. And it's worth noting that Dr. Hugh Taylor, the editor of Reproductive Science, acknowledges that this is a subject that will surely push a few parents' buttons. "It is a controversial area and not the type of paper that our journal typically publishes," Taylor said in an e-mail. He adds that while the research methods were solid, the editors "do not endorse the finding of any paper we publish as true, but do want to encourage debate."

What do you think? And parents of little boys, are you a little hurt by this researcher's knock on your hotness?

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"Slidin' Sophie"...

that's her nickname at basketball
and

what a cutie she is!

AIM Dance Team Performance - 2/4/2011

Bella and Hannah's Artistry in Motion dance teams perform at halftime of the Rock Springs HS Tigers' boys basketball game in the RSHS gymnasium.

Awesome Kids

Today's topic on Oprah:

Happiness

The many factors that affect happiness: money, marriage, children, etc. This episode including discussions on how to find happiness, how to get more of it in your life, the happiest places to live, etc. During this discussion a psychologist tells Oprah that having children often thwarts people's happiness {at least for a period of time}. He goes on to explain that this is largely due to the fact that it now costs an average of $250k to raise a child.

Upon hearing this Hannah quickly does the math and says "Holy moly, is it really going to cost that much to raise us!?!"

To which I reply, "Yes, you guys are expensive! Maybe we better get rid of a couple of you."

About this time, Mia chimes in, "Mom, you have AWESOME kids! Don't get rid of us!"

"You are right, I guess I'll keep you all!"

The Bobby Pin

Meet my new arch nemesis:

the bobby pin.

Why you ask would such a simple, unassuming hair gadget be such the bane of my existence? It seems that Sophie, Hannah, Mia & Bella have all taken to using these in their hair - every day. We use them to pin our bangs back, to pin various pieces of hair back and sometimes, I think, just to stick them in our hair for fun.

Here is the problem, they end up EVERYWHERE except back from whence they came. Mostly they seem to end up sticking out of the carpet. That's fun. Fun to be walking across and nearly impale yourself on a bobby pin and walk not even 6 more feet and do it again. But my personal favorite is vacuuming, which now feels somewhat like vacuuming a land mine. Bobby pins randomly shooting out of the vacuum at warp speed, hitting various body parts and even the dogs! I now need full body armor to get this chore done and if the dogs weren't afraid of the vacuum before, you should see them run now!

So, here I find myself making a ridiculous statement:

"if I find one more bobby pin laying around, you are all cut off from their use indefinitely!"

This song is 'singing' to me...

When we go through trials in our life we look to many different outlets to get ourselves through the difficult time. In addition to talking with people and reading helpful and/or inspirational material; sometimes we listen: to the advice of a friend or family member or perhaps the words of a beautifully written song. A song that is so stunningly appropriate for this time in our lives-it speaks volumes to me. Enjoy!