The Monterey Bay Festival of Birds is celebrating birds, nature, and conservation in the Monterey Bay for 3 days starting this Friday!

You can join field trips throughout the Monterey Bay from Big Sur to West Cliff Drive and beyond! Local half day and full day excursions are available. Photography, writing, and wooden bird carving workshops await you! Storytelling show about ospreys, presentations about seabird conservation, Heerman's Gull, and more will entertain you!

Register here for field trips, workshops, and presentations!

https://birdschoolproject.ticketspice.com/mbbirdfest. Stay tuned for postings about free events during Festival of Birds weekend.

While some of the events are almost full or full, we have adapted the extensive list and descriptions of locations to give you a downloadable Birding Adventures Beyond Your Own Backyard.

Need Bird ID Help? Put the Merlin Bird ID app on your phone.

Celebrate birds with Friends! Friday, September 30, 3:30 - 6pm - Santa Cruz Friends of Parks will host a pop-up at Twin Lakes State Beach's Schwan Lake (behind Simpkins Swim Center) as part of the festival's Santa Cruz Community Hub free event. Park at Simpkins, 979 17th Ave. in Santa Cruz.

Have some birding fun! Parmalee

Downloadable: HALLOWEEN FUN, Family-friendly Events

Downloadable: PUMPKIN PATCHES

Buenas tardes! There are MANY ways to celebrate National Hispanic American Heritage Month, but since we live in the agricultural community of Watsonville, and every day we see the hardworking folks who provide our healthiest foods, we're very glad to offer our resources for two heartwarming stories featuring Mexican-American farmworker families. Come on over to see all our fun, thoughtful teaching ideas for these books! To get the printables for free through October 15th, use code NHAHM2022.

THE CIRCUIT -- set in the 1940s, this is a beautifully written, heartwarming autobiography by Francisco Jimenez, a local author and college professor who happens to be a fantastic human! https://www.litwitsworkshops.com/the-litwits-explorers...

BLUE WILLOW -- about a Dust Bowl-era migrant worker's daughter who yearns for stability, this story features a strong secondary Mexican-American character; it's written by Doris Gates, who was also a local writer and a librarian (that alone makes her a fantastic human, too!). https://www.litwitsworkshops.com/the-litwits-explorers...

Lastly, though it's not for young kids, we want to share that Jenny's written MINE, the true story of Spanish-Mexican matriarch María Zacarías Bernal de Berreyesa, who once lived on land they both shared in San Jose. It's told through a blend of memoir, biography, and landscape, and it reveals some important California history up through the Gold Rush period. if you're interested, you can read more on Jenny's website.

We hope you're finding lots of creative, thoughtful ways to enjoy and honor this special month with your kids! Jenny and Becky, LitWits

by Allison Livingston

Question: Have you validated your child’s emotions today?

Every child has the core needs to be seen, heard and accepted.

The best way to do this on a daily basis is to validate their emotions. This is crucial according to meaningful connection researcher and best selling author Brene Brown.

We can lose sight of this in the busyness of the day to day logistics of school, work, laundry, groceries and activities, especially as most of us weren’t given emotional validation when we were young.

Every year on my kids’ birthdays, I retell the stories of their births and lives as newborns: endless hours of painful contractions, difficulty breastfeeding, sleepless nights, nonstop crying that could only be soothed by turning on the vacuum, and immense and deep love for them. It’s partly a humorous way to remind them of how much pain and effort it took to bring them into this world (there’s a reason why it’s called labor). But it’s also a way for my husband and I to remind our kids of how much we’ve always loved them, even before they were born, and to remind ourselves that the joys and rewards of parenting have outweighed the stresses and challenges.

Dear Nicole, My husband and I recently adopted a 4-week-old baby boy. We’re absolutely in love with him…and completely exhausted. He cries a lot, day and night. Neither of us have been around babies very much, so we’re constantly guessing whether he’s tired, hungry, in pain, or just needs a new diaper. My husband’s paternity leave is almost over, and then I’ll be on my own taking care of our son during the day. I’m nervous about that and already feeling overwhelmed. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in over a month, and I feel tense and lose patience quickly with everyone and everything. Do you have any tips for me? Collin

Dear Collin, Congratulations on your growing family! Being a new parent is both thrilling and stressful for many people. Even though parenting books and blogs will tell you what to expect and what to do, it’s impossible to know what it’s like to experience constant crying, sleep deprivation, and nonstop worrying until it happens to you.