My daughter Kelly is a cautious person. She needs to warm up to situations, and is hesitant(犹豫的) to try new things. When with close friends, she becomes a leader who laughs loudly and chants. But when that comfort zone is not around her, she is shy and nervous.

    This has been challenging for me at times. “Shy” is not a word that I think has ever been used to describe me. But this has been a year of firsts for my girl that has filled her with a new sense of confidence. This year she moved to lap lane (习泳区） in swimming where she was preparing for a swim team. This year she learned to ride a bike without training wheels. And this year she completed her first kids' triathlon (三项全能).

    On Saturday, with a thunderstorm coming soon and my son's birthday party later in the day, we all went out in the dark of the morning for Kelly to participate in her first triathlon. We practiced transitions from swim to bike to run with her, we got all the equipment she'd need, and we kept talking about the race. But as we waited the two hours for the older kids to finish before her turn, she held my leg a little harder and told me she loved me a few too many times. She was nervous but trying to keep it together.

    And then it was her turn. From the second she jumped into the water, my heart soared. My daughter transformed into the most confident human being I had ever seen. She dominated （主宰） that swim, crushed that bike ride and ran to the finish with the biggest smile on her face.

    I can honestly say that I never felt so proud of someone in my entire life. It wasn't because she did a sport or anything like that. It was because she was afraid of something and conquered that fear with confidence and a fire I hadn't seen before.

    All day I would find myself just looking over at her and smiling. She might be wearing the finalist medal but I felt like I won that day. I won the chance to see my girl shine.

    Shine on, sweet baby.

Famous Modern Chinese Buildings

    Beijing International Airport

    The first place most visitors see when they arrive in China is Beijing International Airport. The airport was constructed in the 1950s. It has an indoor garden, a children's playground, and over 70 food businesses in Terminal 3 alone.

    Shanghai World Financial Center

    Completed in 2008, SWFC took over 10 years to complete due to financial shortages and construction delays. Since its completion, it has won countless architectural awards.

    Tourists are welcome at SWFC's viewing platform, which at 474 meters above ground is the world's highest closed viewing platform.

The Water Cube

    It was constructed for use during the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics. Now visitors can express surprise at the architecture of the building. They can enjoy the indoor atmosphere as well.

    Among the offerings of the Water Cube are a restaurant and bar, a shopping area, and Water World, a family water park

The Bird's Nest, Beijing

    It was designed mainly for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It can hold up to 80,000 people and has been used for a winter theme park. Nowadays, its main income is as a tourist attraction. It draws more than 20,000 tourists every day.

National Center for the Performing Arts

    It was completed in 2007. The building is surrounded by a man-made lake, requiring guests to enter via an underground hallway. It is home to an Opera Hall, Music Hall, and Theater.

    The Healthy Habits Survey shows that only about one third of American seniors have correct habits. Here are some findings and expert advice.

    ⑴How many times did you brush your teeth yesterday?

    Finding: A full 33% of seniors brush their teeth only once a day.

    Step: Remove the 300 types of bacteria in your mouth each morning with a battery-operated toothbrush. Brush gently for 2 minutes, at least twice a day.

    ⑵How many times did you wash your hands or bathe yesterday?

Finding: Seniors, on average, bathe fewer than 3 days a week. And nearly 30% wash their hands only 4 times a day—half of the number which doctors recommend.

    Step: We touch our faces around 3,000 times a day-often inviting germs（病菌）to enter our mouth, nose, and eyes. Use toilet paper to avoid touching the door handle. And, most important, wash your hands often with hot running water and soap for 20 seconds.

    ⑶How often do you think about fighting germs?

    Finding: Seniors are not fighting germs as well as they should.

    Step: Do you know it is not your toilet but your kitchen sponge（海绵）that can carry more germs than anything else? To kill these germs, keep your sponge in the microwave for 10 seconds.

    Kitchen Products Thai Will Make Your Life a Lot Easier

    Hanging Trash Bag

    Speaking of clever bag that will change your world, how many times have you cut off loads of vegetables and tried to clean up the messy waste, only to make half of it accidentally drop on the floor? This hanging trash bag attachment makes clean-up super easy, so you'll never end up with smelly chopped (切碎的) onions all over your floor again.

    Available on Amazon, $ 6.99

    Dream Farm Spoon

    How many times have you struggled for just that last little bit of something out of a jar or dish? This all-purpose cooking spoon helps scrap (刮擦) the edges of any pan, bowl, or strangely-shaped container with zero effort, so you'll always get that last bit, every time.

    Available on Amazon, $20.40

    Flex Pot Clip

    For those of us who'd rather not balance our serving spoon or wooden spoon on the edge of the pot unsteadily, or rest it on the counter where it'll definitely make a mess, allow me to introduce you to the Flex Pot Clip. Attach it to the edge of your pot so you can keep your counters clean and your hands free. It's heat-resistant and dishwasher safe!

    Available on Amazon, $7.88

    Reusable Silicone Lids

    These are useful to cover your food before putting it in the fridge if you often have leftovers. These silicone lids are flexible, reusable, arid airtight, allowing you to leave your food right in its original dish or bowl and keep it fresh for days. They're clear, eco-friendly, and super easy to store, since they hardly take up any space.

    Available on Amazon, $15.97

    There are plenty of mindless activities to keep a child busy in this information age. Yet despite the competition, my 8-year-old daughter Alice wants to spend her leisure time writing short stories. She wants to enter one of her stories into a writing contest, a competition which she won last year.

    As a writer, I know about winning contests—and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection letter from the publisher. I also know the pressure of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn't win the contest again? That's the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and destroyed hopes can resurface in our children.

    A revelation (启示) came last week when I asked her, "Don't you want to win again?" "No," she replied. "I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade."

    I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously (自发地) told them. Telling myself that I was an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly "guided" by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into my contest without even realizing it.

    Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting (借鉴) my daughter's experience.

    While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.

Ida Nelson and her sister were relaxing and enjoying themselves in the sauna (桑拿室) when she heard a series of long low sounds from a small airplane circling the nearby airport.

It was 11:30 at night in the Alaskan village of Igiugig, population 70, and, as she told the reporter, "Any time a plane flies over that late, you know something is wrong."

Nelson and her sister leaped out of the sauna, ran to the window, and saw the problem: The airport's runway lights were out.

Nelson threw on some clothes, jumped into her ATV, and floored it to the airport, where she found a local pilot trying to turn on the lights manually.

"Normally, if you push the button 10 or 15 times, the lights will just light up," Nelson told KTOO out of Juneau. Not this time. Meanwhile, she and the pilot learned of the plane's urgent mission: It was a medevac (医疗救护直升机), there to transport a seriously ill local girl to the nearest hospital, 280 miles away in Anchorage.

Nelson had a plan. Driving her ATV to the end of the runway, she shone her headlights for the plane to follow. Great idea, but it wasn't enough. More light was needed, so a neighbor called nearly every home in the village—32 of them.

Within 20 minutes, 20 vehicles arrived at the airport, many of the drivers still in pajamas (睡衣). Following directions from the medevac pilot, the cars lined up on one side of the runway.

The medevac made its final approach and, guided by the headlights, landed safely. The young patient was loaded onto the aircraft, and the plane immediately took off again. Her illness was never publicly revealed, but she has since been released from the hospital.

In a world filled with uncertainty, the little community's positive activism was a big deal. Not so much for Nelson. As she told the reporter, in Igiugig, coming together "is kind of a normal deal."