As an admitted driver of a road hogging gas guzzeling behemoth I look to hybrid and other new technologies in order to have my cake and eat it too. Of course small light weight vehicles are more fuel efficient but what if you don't have a small light weight lifestyle? As the mom of four + an exchange student who car pools up to 7 kids at a time and does a fair amount of camping and hiking with those kids a full sized SUV was the perfect. Perfect except for the effeciency. Those of us with more then 2.1 kids and actually need off road capabilities or who work or agriculture in construction and still would like to thread more lightly on the planet the hope is that hybrids and other new innovations will allow the rest of us to be kinder to the planet.

lisa

Junior clothing is cut smaller, narrowers and shorter then Misses clothing. It is more like petites for skinnier people. Now let's just think about who fits that description. Juniors are meant to be a bridge between children's and adult clothing. Most stores only carry girls clothing up to size 14 which in most cases fits the average 10 year old. By age 11/12 my very petite dd was out of kid's sizes and into juniors like all of her friends. Many 9/10 year olds only shop in the Junior department. While there are many young women who still fit into these clothes but the folks I see buying junior sizes are tweens and their mothers.

Why this is an issue is because it speaks to the sexualization of girls . There was just that recent study that found that a majority of girls would rather be called "sexy" then "clever". It goes beyond icky.

lisa

As a long time sufferer of infertility I whole heartedly agree with Gary. YOU have suffered a great loss that most people just don't "get". Take time to grieve it, it is a big one. However I you might find that at the end of that grieving process you might have the strength to go on. I say that not just as a person who has suffered with infertility for 20 of the 22 years of my marriage but also as the mom of four kids thru domestic adoption. Whether you decide to build a family or live child free you will never know what is truly right for your family (and the two of your ARE a family) until you feel like it ok to grieve the dream of the family you wanted.

Two points from a "Synchro Mom" of 8 years

1) Synchro (as initiates call it) is a hell of a difficult sport and should be in the Olympics

2) Men should be allowed to compete but teams should be mixed and Men should have separate solo competition since they are stronger then women.

My 16 year old daughter is currently an Aquamaid and has been involved in the sport for 8 years now. Kenyon is her friend and mentor. I have had kids involved in swimming, diving, water polo, soccer, track, gymnastics and lacrosse and none of those sports have required the level of training and dedication that synchronized swimming does. I suspect that the sparkly costumes and gelled hair as well as the Busby Berkley past adds to the frivolity of the sport. These kids train an extraordinary amount of time. The high school aged kids are putting in 6-8 hours a day, running, lifting weights, doing Plyometrics and in the pool. None of my other kids have had to train like that. The strength, power and sheer fearlessness that is now required in the modern sport is amazing. My daughter became so fast and so strong from just doing synchro that her high school's football coach offered her a position as backup quarterback after seeing her fooling around with the guys going out for the team. What is really amazing about that is that my daughter is a little tiny thing, just over 100 lbs but she was faster, more agile and could throw that ball farther then many of the boys who weighed twice what she did.

In the past 40 years the sport has moved past the pretty floats and simple repetitive arm movements to a sport of power and daring. Synchro is now all about powerful thrusts (pushing your body out vertically out of the water using only your arms and legs) , graceful gravity defying stacked lifts and acrobatic (and often dangerous throws). These kids have to be first of all incredibly strong swimmers, often with All-American qualifying times, they have to be graceful performers often taking years of dance and fearless acrobats willing to be tossed ten feet it the air to perform a stunt directly over seven other swimmers who have to keep swimming and not flinch over the real possibility of being landed on. The kids I know who have done this have suffered concussions, broken noses, fingers, feet and toes. My own has had a pinched nerve in her neck and concussion from landing badly in a throw not to mention the torn muscles, tendonitis and broken toes.

Modern synchro has not only become more athletic and acrobatic, the choreography has become more interesting, edgier and the addition of male swimmers only makes that more interesting. Boys are stronger, meaning higher and more spectacular lifts, Men and women swimming together opens up whole new story lines for choreography. I say let men compete !