Mari Walker

Can you imagine living in south Louisiana and not being enamored by Mardi Gras? The parades! The floats! The throws! The bands! The galas! The king cake! That imagination is my reality, as someone with a low tolerance for crowds, lack of facilities access and not knowing what to expect or where to park. This year marks my tenth Mardi Gras season, and my lack of enthusiasm has slowly built up since that first year, mostly because of my parade experiences. Read the rest on the Baton Rouge Parents magazine website.

While looking for photos for a blog post about remote work with a baby , I realized how few photos I have of myself with my daughters, especially when they were babies. As a technology holdout, I didn’t have a smartphone when my oldest was born in 2011. So, selfies weren’t as easy as they are now. My very best baby purchase was my Canon DSLR, which is still going strong. I used it every day for years to capture both daughters’ early lives. We still use it now, although with our cell phones, we now have a decent camera in our hands most of the time and those have taken over as the most frequently used way we capture memories. The best camera is the one you have with you, the old saying goes. Read the rest on the Baton Rouge Parents magazine website .

January is here once again, and after the excess of the holiday season, the start of a new calendar feels like a good time for a clean start. (It also seems like a good time to buy some new toy storage solutions, but that’s probably another post!) Although time is arbitrary, the annual ritual of refreshing our lives in big ways or small can provide meaning. As a work-from-home mom, my life is very much oriented around my family. My constant wish is to “be a better parent.” I strive for that year-round of course, but I continually fall short. And that’s an audacious and ambiguous resolution. Perhaps in 2020 I can take some steps to be a more mindful, present parent, or at the very least yell less… Here are some ideas for what that might look like for me: Read the rest on the Baton Rouge Parents Magazine website .

When nine-year-old Alvin L. Murphy, III, wrote a research paper about Henry Ford, he didn’t know where it would lead him. Kerri T.S. Overstreet, guidance counselor at Westdale Heights Academic Magnet School, where Alvin is a fourth grader, nominated him for the National Youth Leadership Forum: Pathways to STEM. The Envision program introduces elementary students to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Alvin’s parents, Valecia Murphy and Alvin Murphy, Jr., didn’t know about the nomination until Alvin’s acceptance came in the mail. Alvin traveled to the University of Houston and spent a week participating in hands-on workshops and simulations in medicine, engineering and crime scene investigation. Read the rest on the Baton Rouge Parents magazine website .

As Community and Education sections editor, I wrote pages 16 to 25 of the January 2020 issue of Baton Rouge Parents Magazine . See the web layout on the magazine's website . I also wrote  Pathways to Parenting: PANDAS Syndrome and Exceptional Lives: Dancing Through Life Despite Diagnosis

The day after Kelli Guillory was born, she stopped breathing twice. The code blues were terrifying experiences for her mother, Jennifer Guillory. But the medical professionals weren’t sure why baby Kelli was having trouble. It wasn’t until Kelli was out of intensive care and following up with their pediatrician that Jennifer finally heard of very-long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (VLCAD, pronounced V-L cad), the condition with which Kelli, who turns 11 this month, is living. Because of the rare genetically inherited disease, Kelli’s body is unable to break down certain fats. “For us, our food sticks to us and turns to energy,” Jennifer says. “For her, it doesn’t. It burns right through her.” So Kelli must stick to a strict high carb diet with less than 20 percent of fats per day. A fourth grader at Parkview Elementary, she has extra snacks built into her days at school, and any time she’s more active, she must also eat more. Read the rest on the Baton R...