SPECIAL SECTION  It begins as innocently as a proud mom handing a gummy bear to a precocious 3-year-old for saying a letter sound correctly. Then — time is short! — dinner via a drive-through on the way to T-ball, and out for ice cream cones to celebrate a win. A week without a timeout? Pizza party!

And suddenly, close to one in four children are overweight.

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ALT MEDICINE  Imagine being diagnosed with cancer. Now imagine being nauseated and fatigued from chemotherapy. You probably want to curl up in a ball, and rest. Snuggle with the cat, maybe, and watch Seinfeld re-runs. Staying active might not sound appealing. Read More>>

GUEST COLUMN  Obesity has become one of the nation’s toughest, most common health challenges. And it’s happening right here in Washington. In fact, most people in our state — 60 percent at last count — are overweight or obese. Our kids are getting there, too. About one-third of our children are also overweight or obese. Read More>>

COOKING  Huckleberry’s 9th Street Bistro, located on south Monroe, has been a family favorite since our kids were in grade school. Now that the kids are grown and out of the house, we often have a reunion there — purchasing four bowls of soup (from a daily selection of six) and two bagels to pull apart and dunk in the steaming bowls. Huckleberry’s Natural Market and Bistro opened in 1996 and has been a fixture for organic produce, sustainable practices and excellent home-style deli selections. The gracious eating space is often buzzing with locals enjoying the daily fare and warm conversations. Read More>>

PEOPLE  “You got a puppy?!” The boy, a little guy with blonde hair, not more than three years old, nods at Dick Boysen, who puts his hands on his knees and says, “Wow! What kind?” While he talks to the boy about his puppy, a little girl in a hula skirt and a lei shuffles by. Boysen stands up and smiles as he looks around the classroom — there’s a girl making art out of glue and sand on construction paper, a teacher working with a group of youngsters on their colors. There’s the little hula girl. Read More>>

FROM THE EDITOR  It’s not easy to talk about the subject of weight. That became clear to me as Lisa Fairbanks-Rossi searched for a parent to interview for her story in our Healthy Kids special section in this issue. Nobody wanted to use their real names. Read More>>

DIET & FITNESS  The Mayo Clinic enjoys a top-notch reputation as a purveyor of state-of-the-art health information. Their health-related websites are among the best available. Now they’re stepping into the weight-loss world with a set of books designed to help you lose up to 10 pounds in two weeks, and then continue to lose or maintain your weight. Read More>>

DIET & FITNESS  As I sit writing this, there’s a dull pain in my butt and a tightness in my lower back. I’ll probably have to stop writing half way through and lie down with my legs elevated. Then I’ll do some stretches. Hopefully after that, I’ll be good to sit again for a half hour. Then I’ll have to lie down again. Read More>>

INNOVATION  There’s a lot you can learn from a just a little bit of bone. Peer into it under a microscope and the shape and structure can tell a pathologist about malignancies, about deficiencies, about cancer. Read More>>

SPECIAL SECTION  First Ladies always have a pet project. Laura Bush championed children’s reading programs, and Hillary Clinton helped to pass the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Nancy Reagan famously just said no to drugs. Lady Bird Johnson formed The Society for a More Beautiful National Capital. Jackie Kennedy re-upholstered half the White House. Read More>>

SPECIAL SECTION  No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Our children are the heaviest they have ever been, with three times as many obese children and adolescents compared to the 1970s in the United States. Read More>>

SPECIAL SECTION  A German study (published in Pediatrics last April) recently caught my attention. Three thousand second- and third-graders were weighed and asked what they drank. Then, over the course of one year, their teachers were given lesson plans to educate students on the value of drinking water. The students were also given water bottles and encouraged to use them. The results? Kids in the schools where drinking water was encouraged were 31 percent less likely to be overweight than those who were not. Read More>>

NEWS  Over the years, many have tried to make science interesting to kids. We watched Mr. Wizard explain the extraordinary within the mundane at his kitchen/laboratory counter. Beakman and his tall hair delivered facts through irrepressible eccentricity. Bill Nye told us, “Science is cool.”

None of it seemed to work. Read More>>

SENIORS  Death can come unannounced, without a word of warning or foreshadowing. But other times, death comes more slowly. Those last months, last days, last moments, can be filled with dread, anger and fear, or peace and closure. Read More>>