Jessica Alba: Parenting magazine, April 2012

Such a lovely montage of beautiful pics featuring Jessica Alba's two daughters, Honor Marie and Haven Garner grace the latest issue of US Parenting magazine.

So very cute!

She says of her parenting style: "“I’m the disciplinarian. I think it’s because I was kind of a naughty kid myself: I’d push my parents’ buttons and test them to see how much I could get away with. Cash, meanwhile, was always the perfect kid – the straight-A student who was everyone’s sweetheart. It was never in him to be naughty,” she says.

She adds: “I think I just know, from me being that other kind of child, how to cut off bad behavior and redirect it. So when Honor tries to do something she shouldn’t, I have to say to Cash, ‘Let her know right from the beginning that she can’t.’ I’ll put her in time-out and tell her, ‘Think about the choices you’ve made.’ Then I’ll come back and say, ‘Now its time to stop crying and think.’ Then I’ll come back again and ask her, ‘Now, what did you learn?’”

Alba also talks about her new company, called The Honest Company.

For more, see: http://www.honest.com/

And for more on the Parenting magazine article - plus a fab behind the scenes clip - go here: http://www.parenting.com/jessica-alba-kids

Jessica Simpson: pregnant and naked on Elle cover

Jessica Simpson has posed sans a stitch of clothing (but some pretty fabulous jewellery) on the cover of US Elle magazine's April issue.

She has followed in the footsteps of Demi Moore, Miranda Kerr, Cindy Crawford, and Britney Spears, who have all taken their kit off and posed the exact same way for magazine around the world.

The blonde bombshell - who seems to have been pregnant forever - she didn't reveal her due date in the magazine interview, though she did reveal the baby's gender. She's having a girl.

"I swear, I will croak if she asks me for a pair of Nikes instead of Christian Louboutins!” Simpson told Elle magazine. “Eric is so athletic. We’re gonna have this athletic girl and I won’t even be able to take her shopping, ‘cause all she’s gonna want is sports bras and Nikes!”

Baby names? Though she admits it’s a “non-traditional” choice, she says it’s nothing shocking and nothing you’ll have to add to the dictionary. When people hear it, they’ll know… why.”

There is also a second cover where she dons a red dress, showing off her lovely baby bump.

Which cover do you prefer?

For more, see: http://www.elle.com/Pop-Culture/Cover-Shoots/Jessica-Simpson-Billion-Dollar-Baby

(Photos: courtesy Elle magazine).

Beyond The Sling: Mayim Bialik on attachment parenting

I started to half-watch a segment with actress Mayim Bialik (you know, the Bette Midler mini-me from 'Beaches') on 'The View' with nonchalance today.

Hmmm, another actress on another talk show, plugging herself. (Ouch... painful! You know what I mean: on the PR trail. Again).

But no, this was different.

When I heard Mayim had written a parenting book, I thought, sure, I'll listen. When I saw she'd completed a PhD in neuroscience and was an advocate for attachment parenting, I thought, yes: I want to know more.

The clip from 'The View' is still to be uploaded here - the links I have found so far cannot be viewed in Australia - but I did find an excellent clip from US ABC News, also from the past 24 hours.

In it, Mayim explains how and why she believes in attachment parenting.

Attachment parenting involves these elements: co-sleeping until the child grows out of it, feeding [breast] on demand and for as long as possible (Mayim is still breastfeeding her second son, who is 3; her eldest is 6). And no baby formula.

It also involves 'elimination communication', which mean no nappies. Ever. That's right, from the moment they are born, parents need to learn their baby's cues for when they need to wee or poo.

Watch the clip, and comment below on your thoughts:

Does this style of parenting resonate with you? Have you taken various elements of it and adapted it to your own life? Or none at all?

For me: toilet training has been done based on the child's agenda.

Feeding on demand happened sometimes - and only as newborns. I breastfed for as long as possible (almost six months but alternated with the bottle as I had two babies to feed. And you can't mess with screaming, hungry twins and two boobs that aren't producing as much milk as you'd like).

And we never, ever have our children in our bed.

Okay, there have been transient visits to our bed, which have lasted all of ten minutes, and this has only been when they were inconsolable. In over four years, I can count these occasions on one hand.

My husband has been deadset against co-sleeping from day one, and I am very glad to have stuck to this parenting rule, too. Today, nobody comes to our bed in the middle of the night and wants to hop in.

We need our own space sometimes, you know.

Share your thoughts here. What has/is working for you?