The burst of barking suddenly woke me up. It was 2:30 a.m. in the early morning. Wondering why Rock was making so loud noises, I decided to go to him. By the time I made it to the bottom of the stairs, he was running up. I felt strange, for he had never come up the stairs, no matter what. I think that was his way of telling me, “We've got to go back up.”

    When I got to the top of the stairs, I turned around and saw a light on, but I didn't remember leaving one on. I walked downstairs again, and that's when I saw fire. I immediately shouted to my wife to wake up and get our three kids. I grabbed a knife and cut out the plastic that covered the window to the porch roof. I then forced open the window and kicked out the screen. I got everybody out on the roof and threw a blanket out there so we wouldn't slip off. It was cold, January cold. Then I started screaming for help. But help never came.

    I was scared of heights, but I couldn't let my family burn up. So I just jumped off the roof and got the wind knocked out of me when I landed.

    I found our ladder, placed it against the house, and climbed back up to the roof. I wrapped my arms around my daughter and carried my nine-month-old with my teeth, by his little sleeper. Then I climbed down the ladder. Once on the ground, I had my little girl hold her brother, and I went back up to the roof to get my other daughter. Then I went back up again and got my wife. I tried to get my dog, but he just disappeared in the black smoke. I never saw Rock alive again.

    I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with approval, he will learn to love himself and will be successful in his own way.

    Several weeks ago, I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair to go over the math lines. I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he should concentrate better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn't even notice he was doing it, he got up again. I was getting frustrated, but then it hit me. I started noticing his answers were much quicker and accurate when he stood up. Could he be more intent while standing up?

    This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I was raised to believe that a quiet, calm child was a sure way to success. This child would have the discipline to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life.

    Now those same people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA and personality traits, and all you can do is loving and accepting them. As parents, throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to be our kids' best cheerleaders, guiding them and helping them find their way.

    I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate. Obviously, he is concentrating just in his own way and not mine. We need to learn to accept our kids' ways of doing things. Some way may have worked for me but doesn't mean we need to carry it through generations. There is nothing sweeter than being individual and unique. It makes us free and happy and that's just the way I want my kids to live their own life.

    Teens don't understand the big fuss (小题大做). As the first generation to grow up in a wired world they hardly know a time when computers weren't around, and they eagerly catch the chance to spend hours online, chatting with friends, so what?

    But researchers nationwide are increasingly worried that teens are becoming isolated, less skillful at person-to-per son relationships, and perhaps numb to the cheatings that are so much a part of the e-mail world. "And a teen's sense of self and values may be changed in a world where personal connections can be limitless," said Shetty Turkle.

    Another researcher, Robert Kraut, said he's worried about the "opportunity costs" of so much online time for youths. He found that teens who used computers, even just a few hours a week, showed increased signs of loneliness and social isolation. "Chatting online may be better than watching television, but it's worse than hanging out with real friends," he said.

    Today's teens, however, don't see anything strange in the fact that the computer takes up a central place in their social lives. "School is busy and full of pressure. There's almost no time to just hang out," said Parker Rice, 17 "Talking online is just to catch time."

    Teens say they feel good about what they say online or taking the lime to think about a reply. Some teens admit that asking someone for a date, or breaking up, can be easier in message form, though they don't want to do so. But they insist there's no harm.

    In Africa, Christmas Day begins with groups of carolers (欢唱颂歌的人) walking to and from through the village, along the roadway, by the houses of the missionaries (传教士), singing the lovely carols known to the world around. Often people may be awakened by a group of carolers beginning to gather at the house of worship(敬神活动). They return home to make final preparations as to the clothes one must wear and also as to their offering for the Christmas service.

    The most important part of their Christmas worship service is the love offering. This is the gift in honor of Jesus. At about 8 or 9 o'clock everyone goes to the celebration of the birthday of Jesus. Everyone who attends the service goes forward to lay down their gift upon the raised platform near the Communion table. No one will attend the service without giving a gift.

    Christmas in South Africa is a summer holiday. There is no snow, but it has many flowers, many beautiful varieties of wild flowers being in their full pride.

    In Ghana, most churches show the coming of Christmas by decorating the church and homes beginning with the first week in Advent, four weeks before Christmas. This season happens to be the time of cocoa harvest, so it is a time of wealth. Everyone returns home from wherever they might be such as farms or mines.

    In Africa, it is the traditional dinner of turkey, roast beef, mince pies, or suckling pig, yellow rice with raisins, vegetables, and plum pudding, crackers. In the afternoon, families go out into the country and usually there are games or bathing in the warm sunshine, and then home in the cool of the evening. Boxing Day is also a proclaimed (正式宣布的) public holiday usually spent in the open air. It falls on December 26 and is a day of real relaxation.

    Consider the tomato: easy to grow, healthy to eat, tasty in just about any dish and pleasant to look at. And come late summer, in steady supply. Though you can find it during the coldest winter months.

    August is the tomato's season to shine. Farmers' markets and stores are bursting with less known but tastier varieties, including purple cherries and big heirlooms.

    "Heirlooms ripened on the vine(藤) are the tastiest of all tomatoes," says Amy Goldman Fowler, author of The Heirloom Tomato. "I think their beauty is more than skin-deep." Heirloom seeds have been around for at least 50 years, often passed down from generation to generation. You may hear cherry or heirloom used to describe a tomato at hand, but there are many different kinds of tomatoes, and growers have fun giving fancy names to varieties: Mortgage Lifters, Beefsteaks, Oxhearts, Early Girls.

    And all of them come with health benefits. Tomatoes are a good source of the antioxidant lycopene (抗氧化番茄红素), which is thought to help lower a person's risk for heart problems and cancer. Tomatoes also contain healthy vitamins A and C. For the best fruit, choose tomatoes with shiny, firm skin and a little give, and store them at room temperature away from direct sunlight. Keep them out of the fridge, since cold temperatures can affect the original taste.

    "They satisfy something more than just taste," says Fowler. "Tomatoes feed your soul."

    I was shopping in the supermarket when I heard a young voice.

    "Mom, come here！There's this lady here my size！"

    The mother rushed to her son；then she turned to me to apologize. I smiled and told her, "It's okay."

    Then I talked to the boy, "Hi, I'm Darryl Kramer. How are you?"

    He studied me from head to toe，and asked, "Are you a little mommy？"

    "Yes, I have a son," I answered.

    "Why are you so little？" he asked. "It's the way I was born," I said. "Some people are little. Some are tall. I'm just not going to grow any bigger." After I answered his other questions, I shook the boy's hand and left.

    My life as a little person is filled with stories like that. I enjoy talking to children and explaining why I look different from their parents.

    It takes only one glance to see my uniqueness. I stand three feet nine inches tall. I was born an achondroplasia dwarf(侏儒). Despite this, I did all the things other kids did when I was growing up.

    I didn't realize how short I was until I started school. Some kids joked on me, calling me dwarsf. Then I knew. I began to hate the first day of school each year. New students would always stare at me as I struggled to climb the school bus stairs.

    But I learned to smile and accept the fact that I was going to be noticed my whole life. I decided to make my uniqueness an advantage rather than a disadvantage. What I lacked in height, I made up for in personality.

    I'm 47 now, and the stares have not diminished as I've grown older. People are amazed when they see me driving. I try to keep a good attitude. When people are rude, I remind myself, "Look what else I have－a great family, nice friends. "

    It's the children's questions that make my life special. I enjoy answering their questions. My hope is that I will encourage them to accept their peers(a person of the same age, class, position, etc.), whatever size and shape they come in, and treat them with respect.