Generations of children and their parents love the classic Curious George books authored by the husband-and-wife team of Margret and H. A. Rey. This fall, San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum (the CJM) presents the fascinating exhibition Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey, which opens on Sunday, November 14, 2010 and runs through March 13, 2011.

The story of the Reys is an adventure in itself. H. A. Rey (born Hans Augusto Reyersbach, 1898–1977) and Margret Rey (née Margarete Waldstein, 1906–1996) were both born in Hamburg, Germany, to Jewish families. They lived together in Paris in the late 1930s, and fled Europe after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, eventually settling in New York City by way of Brazil. They went on to publish over 30 books, including their iconic series about the little monkey with insatiable curiosity (and his friend the Man with the Yellow Hat, of course).

This guest article is by Marin infant/toddler sleep researcher and family therapist Angelique Millette.

What do you do if your little one is waking during the night from a bad dream and refuses to go back to sleep? Or what if your little one refuses to go to sleep at bedtime due to a several nights in a row of bad dreams? And what if your child has been waking inconsolable at night but you aren’t sure if you are child is waking due to a nightmare or a night terror? These are common questions parents have when responding to their little one’s nighttime sleep needs.

Nightmares

All children have nightmares at some point, and as long as children are dreaming they may also have nightmares. Interestingly, even infants dream, and according to one landmark study, newborns dream more than at any other time in a young person’s life. Nightmares are bad dreams and can happen at any point in a toddler or child’s life and especially so if a child has just experienced a traumatic event or situation. Several different studies have shown that children may have nightmares following surgery, tooth extraction, and motor vehicle accidents. Nightmares can also begin during periods of developmental phases such as the period between 18–21 months and again right before a child’s third and fourth birthdays. These are periods of individuation, when a child may become more sensitive or emotional as they become more independent.

Here's another yummy and easy recipe from Bay Area moms Simran and Stacie. They recently started a kids' food adventure blog called A Little Yumminess, where they cover easy recipes (often with an international twist), food-related adventures you can have with your children in the Bay Area, cooking with kids and basically how to have fun with food and your children (vs. think of it as a chore or a challenge).

Weekend pancakes are an American classic. Dads (and moms) all over the country make various versions of pancakes every weekend. Having grown up in Asia, we seldom think of pancakes for breakfast. My idea of pancakes are the hotcakes from McDonald’s that I was allowed to eat on a rare Sunday—which in spite their rubbery texture and lack of taste hold a very special place in my heart. Gobs of syrup will make anything edible and yummy.

The Mill Valley Children's Garden Haunted Harvest Festival is happening this Sunday, November 7 (rain or shine), from noon to 4 pm. Entry is free. Come celebrate the 20th anniversary of the garden and enjoy food, music, prizes, and surprises for the whole family. Activities include pie eating and recycled sculpture contests, apple bobbing, potion making, a fishing game, and more! Look for the Pocket Wizard, a mysterious guest who will pass out crystals, candy, and surprises.

The festival takes place at the campus of Edna Maguire Elementary School, 80 Lomita Drive, in Mill Valley.

If you get grumpy occasionally (and hey, don't we all?), then this is the book for you. Jeremy Tankard's Grumpy Bird(32 pages, Scholastic, 2007) tells the story of Bird's case of the grumpies, which is so bad—he's too grumpy to play, eat, or fly—he can only go for a walk. Along the way he runs into his friends who tag along on his walk, oblivious to his grumpiness and sarcastic comments. Eventually, they overcome Bird's bad mood, and it all ends with a surprising twist.

This guest article is by my friend Nancy Grossi, author of the award-winning blog The Wife of a Dairyman. Nancy started her blog at the beginning of 2010, and offers a look into life on one of Marin's many dairy farms. One of her loves is cooking, and here's a yummy recipe for slow-cooker pulled pork—perfect for during the World Series, or any crisp fall or winter day!

Once again, we'll be watching our beloved S.F. Giants trying to get one step closer to their first World Series win. No extra time needs to be taken away from game time to cook dinner so once again the slow cooker is in use.  This time, pulled pork.  A perfectly easy and delicious game day dinner.  Slow cooker recipes are my 'go to' meals in the winter time.

It goes without saying that most publications that review new cars aren't geared toward moms and their particular concerns. Marin mom and automotive enthusiast Erika Fish aims to help this situation with her new blog Car Mama. A car nut since childhood who was voted "Most Likely to be Editor of Car & Driver" in high school, Erika drives and reviews a wide variety of vehicles with an eye toward the things that matter most to parents, zeroing in on things like family-friendly features, car seat attachment points, and cargo space.

We asked Erika to tell us a about herself and how she started a car review blog especially for moms. Visit Car Mama at mamascar.blogspot.com.

Please tell us a little about yourself. What's your background?

I'm a happily married mother of two grade-school aged children and one adorable Golden Retriever puppy. After college, I worked as a writer for a tech company and a creative marketing assistant for a textbook publisher in the Midwest. In 1996 my husband, dog and I moved to Sonoma to work for a small magazine publisher. I found a great job as the manager of technical writers at a Novato-based software company and got very good at breaking down developer's instructions so that "regular" people could understand them. It was difficult to resist the urge to pepper the instructions with jokes and sarcasm, but I channeled my inner bore and survived.

If the phrase "Stilton, Geronimo Stilton" means anything to you, then most likely you're not a fan of stinky British cheeses, but rather you're the parent of a grade-school child who's discovered this series of books about the doings of anthropomorphized mice who live in the metropolis (or "mousetropolis" as the books might term it) of New Mouse City on Mouse Island. The titular Geronimo Stilton is the editor of the newspaper The Rodent's Gazette and purportedly the author of the 40-odd books in the series. While it's nice to believe that a talking mouse journalist did write them all, they're actually the product of a Milanese publishing company, Edizioni Piemme, and are produced for the American market by Scholastic.

Titles in the series range from The Curse of the Cheese Pyramidto the Halloween themed The Peculiar Pumpkin Thief. They're all "chapter books", designed for intermediate readers, and probably appropriate for children in third through sixth grade, although my son's been bringing them home since he was in first grade last year. The writing, adapted from the original Italian, isn't all that gripping for adults, but kids seem to love the series. My son has been bringing home a seemingly endless series of Geronimo Stilton books from the library and devouring them one after the other, sometimes reading an entire book in an afternoon.

This guest article is by Marin pediatric nurse practitioner, lactation consultant, and mom Annie St. John.

We all have it. It’s that inner wisdom. Our intuition. We sometimes just don’t know how to tap into it. Especially when it comes to parenting. We often feel too overwhelmed, scared, and exhausted, so we doubt that inner wisdom. Don’t doubt it. It is the key component when it comes to bonding with your baby. Your baby.

Just as we need that wisdom and intuition, we also need resources. “Resources” is defined as:

• One’s personal attributes that sustains one in certain circumstances.
• The ability to find avenues to overcome difficulties.
• Assets that can be drawn on by a person in order to function effectively.

Once your baby is born, it all comes down to feeding your baby and getting to know your baby. During your daily routine of countless cycles of feeding, burping, calming, swaying, swaddling, changing, and sleeping, you, as the parent, start to gain confidence. Your confidence arises from realizing that you do have the resources (either within yourself, from your spouse or partner, or from an outside support person). From that realization you are able to nurture your relationship with your baby and build upon that bond.