The Cruise Family are in Brazil right now to accompany Daddy Cruise in promoting his movie, Valkyrie. They’re also spending some quality time in the beach. The location doesn’t stop Suri Cruise from wearing one her signature/favorite kind of clothing.

 A pretty dress of course. What else would Suri Cruise wear? I’m actually surprised she’s not wearing one of her Mary Janes. At least it’s a cute smocked floral print dress. It matches the beach, somehow. She’s probably wearing her swimsuit underneath that dress.

One more picture of Suri Cruise after the fold…

Suri is just too cute. It looks like she met some friends too and is having a great time on the beach. She’s probably happy to be away from cold NYC

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Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair! While housing prices may be falling, your lil ones can live like royalty with the Calacastle cardboard castle ($125). Made from high-quality cardboard, the easy to build play set is large and sturdy enough for tots of all ages and can be decorated to your princess’ specifications. With hidden storage areas and secret compartments, it is the perfect hideaway. The 41″ x 41″ x 49″ kit can even be rearranged to create new layouts when kids become bored with the current one. And when they have had their fill of the set, it is completely recyclable.

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If your tots are wild about chocolate make them a simple sweet treat for Valentine’s Day that’s heavy on the cute, but lighter on the serving size and sugar. You can dress up everyday snacks like brownie bites with small decorations like a dab of icing and three M&M’s to transform them into festive bites of love.

Not only will you avoid bakery lines and baking time, but brownie bites are much smaller than full-sized cupcakes or the giant sugar cookies so your tots won’t be prompted to jump off the walls.

Colorful Candy Brownie Cupcakes
lilsugar original

Simple “dressed up” brownie bite cupcakes.

Ingredients

1. Package of pre-made brownie bites or homemade mini brownies
2. Tube of cookie frosting
3. Colorful candy. Preferably pink, red and white M&Ms.

Directions
Put a small dollop of cookie frosting on the top of your brownie bite and place candies in the center as festive decoration.

“It was obvious that something wasn’t right from the start,” said Price. The night Catherine was born, Price says she didn’t want to look or touch her. Her maternal malfeasance continues to this day. Playgroup pickup was something to dread, she recalls no landmarks such as a first tooth and when Catherine is sick, Grandma is called in. She admits to ignoring her daughter’s attempts to get her attention and not wanting to be physically close to her. “I did hug Catherine, but it was always half-hearted,” Price said. “I always told her I loved her but I never really felt it or meant it.”
That is just awful. Particulary when there is another child in the house now, Poppy, 2, a daughter who she calls “the love of my life” by her current partner.

I can understand how at times we might not like our children, say, when they break stuff or hit their sister. But that doesn’t mean we don’t love them. Also, many new moms, myself included, feel overwhelmed with the responsibility of a new baby. Coupled with the baby blues or postpartum depression, it’s often very hard to bond.

I have a friend who admitted to me she wasn’t immediately bowled over by her son when she first had him. Many moms go through that. But as time went on, she grew to love her son more than life itself. That’s how you should feel when you have a child, right? Isn’t loving our children — whether it’s at first sight or through time — part of what makes us human?

Psychologists say that a mother’s failure to love her child can result from depression, feelings of inadequacy or when the child reminds her of a bad relationship (i.e., the co-parent). Price fits neatly here, although she says not so.

On the plus side, if there is one, Price recognizes her shortcomings and is trying hard to improve her relationship with her older daughter. “Sometimes, if I’ve been playing with Poppy, she’ll come and sit next to me, put her head on my shoulder and her arm round me, waiting for me to cuddle her,” she said. “I look at her little face and know I’ve hurt her. I do care deeply for Catherine, but I have just never felt the same bond with her.”

Instead of a good night kiss and “I love you, honey,” Catherine hears a nightly whisper in her ear. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been with you.” Isn’t your heart breaking?

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There are days when life for Adwai Malual looks like an endless wheel. Already she has lived through much: growing up in Sudan as war tore apart her homeland, discovering in the midst of it that she was pregnant, coming to this strange land of America.Then, weeks later, she gave birth to quintuplets.

Now, in a small, crowded apartment in Laurel nearly two months after the babies’ delivery, Malual’s life is dominated by another kind of chaos. It begins every day at 3 a.m., as she wakes up to take over feeding duties from her mother, visiting from Sudan. One by one, she tends to her five babies in 40-minute shifts. By the time she has changed the last one’s diaper, the first is crying for food again. And so it goes for 12 hours straight, until she hands them off to her mother so she can sleep for a little while before waking do it all again.

Life is now confined to this second-floor apartment and to the most basic of human needs: eating, peeing, pooping, burping and sleeping.

“I am grateful for the blessings in my life,” the 28-year-old said recently during a rare break from her babies. “And I am tired.”

All day long, her mind alternates between those two states. She thanks God for the people — many of them complete strangers — who donated diapers, time and money to help her through her grueling first few weeks out of the hospital. Then she prays for some way to survive the weeks ahead.

When Malual, who had been working as a branch inspector of a bank in southern Sudan, first learned that she was pregnant with multiple children — three or four, her doctors in Sudan guessed — she thought it would be easy. “It was my first time as mother,” she laughed.

She traveled to Minnesota when she was 16 weeks pregnant to seek the blessing of her mother-in-law, a family figure who plays a large role in a Sudanese woman’s pregnancy. When they met, her mother-in-law placed a hand upon Malual’s head and then on her belly, anointing both with water. Later, after she left to visit her sister in Prince George’s County, she was rushed to the emergency room with complications. Over the next 11 weeks, a team including more than 30 doctors and nurses was put together to handle her case.

And last month, as her successful delivery of four girls and one boy was announced, television crews and newspaper reporters rushed to Anne Arundel Medical Center to cover the first quintuplets in the hospital’s 106-year history and the first in Maryland in more than three years. Calls poured in to the hospital from people asking how they could help the children, Deng, the boy, and his sisters, Nyantweny, Nyandeng, Abyei and Athei.

In the days that followed, however, many of the offers faded away. The hospital has said it will work with the uninsured family to pay for the costs, but no avalanche of outside support has materialized, nor have companies like diaper manufacturers stepped in to help as sometimes happens in such births.

“I think part of it is the economy,” said the Rev. Barbara Sands, a hospital chaplain who has been trying to coordinate help for the family. “It’s just the times we’re in right now.”
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It’s true that being the daughters of the president of the United States has got to be a tough act. But that mantle is lightly held by Malia, 10 and Sasha, 7, the daughters of first couple Barack and Michelle Obama. Ever since they’ve been headed to the White House, the daughters have been gaining attention, with the curious turning to their computers to find out more. Since inauguration, searches on the two girls soared over 500%. The curious want to know, “how tall is malia obama,” “sasha obama age,” and “letter to sasha and malia.”

But the inauguration weekend launched the girls into a new level of celebrity with frenzied searches on everything from “sasha and malia inauguration outfits,” “malia and sasha obama pictures,” and “sasha and malia obama and jonas brothers.” The girls, who got their own fashion press, heated up hits on the website J.Crew, causing it to crash after it was revealed that their coats came from the online store. (The site right now is featuring sketches of the girls in their inauguration coats.)

Newsweek even asked, “Are Sasha and Malia bigger than Miley Cyrus?” While they don’t have their own TV show yet, never say never.

The ultimate nod to their rise to top of the pop-culture heap has got to be the Beanie Babies namesake dolls that have just come out, although the company claims that they just liked the names and are not named after the first daughters.

Perhaps father does know best. When asked by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” how his daughters managed their first week of school, Obama replied, “They seemed to thrive. I’m trying to figure out why it is that they don’t seemed to be fazed by anything. People think — you know, folks think I’m cool, they are a lot cooler than I am.”

That’s one point on which father and daughters would probably agree.

Anne Hathaway is just one star who would love a job in the Obama White House.

“I would want to be head babysitter,” the Bride Wars star tells PEOPLE. “I’d love to be First Babysitter, absolutely.”

Hathaway, 26, is not the only celebrity who would jump at the chance to spend time with Obama’s daughters, Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10. High School Musical star Corbin Bleu says he would happily perform for the first daughters.

“I’ll just go up and do performances for his kids all day and just keep them entertained,” he tells PEOPLE. “They seem like really sweet girls. They seem very well mannered. So I would be First Entertainer.”

American Idol runner-up David Archuleta echoed that sentiment. “I would give the girls music lessons,” he tells PEOPLE. “Probably not piano lessons, because I’m far from the greatest pianist, but voice lessons.”

I’ve never bought into the whole concept that candy makes kids hyperactive so I’ve never denied my children sweets when it came to holiday festivities. But, now there’s reason for the moms who do attribute their tykes’ energetic behavior to treats to relax. This Christmas, let your lil one have a candy cane. Guess what myth topped the list of holiday myths? To find out, read more.

On the subject of sugar making kids hyperactive, report said:

The researchers cite 12 controlled studies that couldn’t detect any differences in behavior between children who had sugar and those who did not. Even when kids had a diagnosis of hyperactivity problems or were said to be more sensitive to sugar, they did not behave differently whether they ate sugar-laden or sugar-free diets. In fact, the biggest effect of sugar may be on parents. Parents rate their children as being more hyperactive if they are told the child has consumed sugar — even when the child hasn’t really had any sweets.

 

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My daughter’s backpack is always filled to the brim with paintings, pictures, and doodles that I can’t bring myself to toss. Rather than tuck them away to collect dust, I’m putting them to good use this holiday season — let’s face it, we can only keep so many! We’re using her lil masterpieces — including completed coloring book pages — to wrap small gifts. Tucking the artwork around books, videos, and boxes, we’ll showcase her artistic talents for all to enjoy! We also added a bit of sparkle by wrapping bows around the goodies with a steady hand and a glitter glue pen. While this homade paper costs pennies, the pictures are priceless!

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The kindergartner on your list may be a bit precocious at times, but he is still a baby in your eyes. Help him continue to explore the world around him with some gifts that are sure to get him asking questions.

Among our favorites for the five-year-old this year are:

• A Make My Own Monster Kit from FAO Schwarz. The kit includes colored pencils, paper, and a detailed questionnaire from which you actually design your monster. The design is then turned into a plush monster, complete with a tag that explains the scary guy’s back story.
• Even though you cringe at the sight of a bug, your tot may love the creepy, crawly things. With the Talking Bug Identifier your little entomologist can ID the critter by answering a few simple yes and no questions.
• The Clementine Printmaking Kit comes with six all-natural paints, brushes, rollers, recycled paper and textured painting tools to help your budding artist create beautiful masterpieces.
• Create an indoor garden filled with beautiful butterflies with the Discovery Butterfly Canopy. The kit comes with a voucher used to order five painted lady caterpillars and the necessary food needed for the larvae to become flying beauties.
• The 170 pieces and 20 marbles included in the Deluxe Marble Run should keep your tot busy for hours. With ramps, bridges, a swivel track, spinners and a motorized conveyer, no two marble runs will be the same.
• Up your cool factor with your kids by introducing them to the Crayola Glow Station. Equipped with a light wand, a light-sensitive canvas, and cool stencils, they can design glow-in-the-dark creations like they’ve never seen before.

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