Posted in Car seat safety, Kids, Miscellaneous, Parenting, Raves on April 28, 2008| 12 Comments »
One of my favorite “brain candy” web sites (and I mean that very affectionately), Celebrity Baby Blog, has posted an article supporting rear-facing children in car seats until age 2.
Oh, and in case the little girl in the picture doesn’t look familiar to you … I wrote the article!
Posted in Kids, Miscellaneous, Parenting on April 26, 2008| 11 Comments »
Huh, I think we’re getting Little Sister a “big girl bed” tomorrow. I really don’t want to – I’d be happy to keep her in the crib until she can climb out – but it seems like perhaps the crib has been the source of her bedtime troubles lately. She actually slept on her bedroom floor all night last night, and again at naptime today. Right now, she’s conked out on the crib mattress on the floor.
She stays in her room, doesn’t get up and play with toys, doesn’t even seem to get out of bed. I realize it’s only been two “sleeps” so far, but so far so good.
So it looks like we’ll be making a trip to IKEA tomorrow. We’ve tentatively picked out this bed. Of course, LS is most excited about the purple (pink? she says purple) bedding, which doesn’t actually come with the bed. We may have to see if we can find a purple blanket for her anywhere.
Wish us luck – with the transition, and the assembly!
UPDATE: Ok, perhaps she doesn’t stay on the mattress so well after all …
Posted in Miscellaneous, Rants, Television on April 25, 2008| 7 Comments »
You may know from reading my blog that Tim and I enjoy watching Big Brother. The special winter edition (thanks writers’ strike!) wraps up on Sunday. The last two players are Ryan and Adam. Normally when it gets down to the last two, I have a strong opinion on who should win, and why.
But this time, I really just don’t care. I don’t think either of them has especially done anything to deserve winning. I suppose if it came down to it, I’d have to say I’d rather see Adam win, if only because Ryan was already voted out once – and he didn’t really do anything to earn his spot back in the house, it was just that the houseguests hated the other person more and didn’t want to vote her back into the house.
I guess we’ll watch the final episode on Sunday but really, I don’t care who wins.
Posted in Kids, Miscellaneous, Parenting, Rants on April 23, 2008| 6 Comments »
You may remember me saying that Little Sister ONLY wants Tim to put her to bed lately. Once in a while she’ll “allow” me to read her a bedtime story and put her to bed, but that rarely ends well.
Tonight was one of those nights.
She wouldn’t settle down, wanted to stand up while I read to her, etc. I finally got her to bed but she kept talking. (The kids’ bedrooms are about 10 feet from the living room, unfortunately.) Then Book Boy was sent to bed. LS started yelling and crying for Daddy. Then she wanted Book Boy to sleep in the crib with her. Tim put LS in bed with BB. That lasted for about 1.5 minutes before she was out in the living room. We tried to let her fall asleep on the couch. 1.5 minutes again. Put her back in her crib. Cry cry cry. Then BB comes out of HIS room crying because LS’s crying is disturbing him so much. “It’s hard to even close my eyes when she’s crying so much!”
So I laid down with him for a little while as Tim tended to LS.
Finally, they were both asleep.
About 1.5 hours after we put LS to bed originally.
Ugh.
Posted in Miscellaneous, Raves, Television on April 22, 2008| 1 Comment »
Tim and I have watched a really interesting TV show called Ethics in America a few times lately. It originally aired in 1989, and Tim saw it when it originally ran.
As TV Guide describes it, “Hypothetical ethical dilemmas are debated in this 10-part series, produced by Columbia University Seminars on Media and Society (`The Fred Friendly Seminars’). Panelists include Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, former surgeon general C. Everett Koop, and TV journalists Peter Jennings and Mike Wallace.” Other interesting panelists so far have included Anna Quindlen, Linda Ellerbee, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and more. The panelists discuss hypethetical situations presented to them by a moderator.
I highly recommend checking it out when it airs in your area.
Posted in Kids, Miscellaneous, Parenting on April 20, 2008| 15 Comments »
Little Sister has scarlet fever! As alarming as that sounds (or maybe it’s just me … I must have read a book about a someone dying of scarlet fever when I was a kid) it’s really just strep throat with a rash. LS actually has a pretty mild case and is on the mend.
Before we took her to the doctor, Tim and I (being the geeks that we are) had searched the internet, and thought it might be fifth disease. Imagine my surprise when the doctor said he wanted to do a strep culture – I said “Oh, you think it might be strep throat?” and he replied, “No, I think it might be scarlet fever.” That had never crossed my mind!
Posted in Kids, Miscellaneous, Parenting, Pics on April 18, 2008| 7 Comments »
Little Sister searched through her dresser to come up with just the right outfit today. (This is the only picture I could get.)
To fully appreciate it, you have to see the footwear, too: Elmo swim shoes and her “candy cane” socks.
Well, at least she dresses herself willingly, unlike a certain 7-year-old who complains about it every time.
Posted in Kids, Miscellaneous, Parenting, Rants on April 17, 2008| 4 Comments »
Just for reference, here is a list of words that are inappropriate to say in a busy Burger King, particularly if you and your companions are standing 10 feet apart and talking in a loud voice.
F**k
Shit
Damn
Dammit
Goddammit
C**t
Ni***r
You might even just try to avoid the types of conversations that require those kinds of words.
Can you tell what kind of experience Book Boy and I had at Burger King before our excursion to see Nim’s Island last night? I was quite ticked. There was a group of teenagers hanging out at a few tables near us (we had sat down first), milling around and talking loudly. Their language was quite crass and vulgar.
Now, I’m not naive. I know that BB has heard bad words. He’s even said a couple of them. But Tim and I don’t swear or use vulgar language around our kids, and some of those words I simply don’t want them to hear. Particularly the first, sixth, and seventh words on the list.
(On the plus side, when I mentioned those teenagers to BB, he said that he was trying to hear what they were saying but couldn’t. Thank goodness!)
Posted in Kids, Miscellaneous, Parenting, Pics, Raves on April 14, 2008| 7 Comments »
It’s hard to believe, but Book Boy turns 7 today. It doesn’t seem possible that he’s already been with us for 7 years … but on the other hand, it’s hard to remember life without him. And I can’t imagine life without him. He’s the best son a mom could ask for.
Happy birthday, Book Boy!
Posted in Kids, Parenting, Raves on April 13, 2008| 2 Comments »
Well, Book Boy, Little Sister and I are all back to work/school/preschool tomorrow, after a nice but unremarkable week off. It’s so hard to get back into a routine! Especially for the kids. It took BB SO long to get to sleep tonight. (Though I suppose it would have helped if he’d actually tried to go to sleep.) The one bonus of the day was that since we went to Chuck E Cheese today and then had company over afterward, LS didn’t have a nap. So she was more than ready when bedtime rolled around.
Me? I’ll squeeze every minute out of the evening and (hopefully) turn out the light just before the “if I go to sleep right now I can get 6 hours of sleep” point.
Book Mama 