Had a thought – ran it by a cousin – Is it possible to quit the job of “parent”? – She said no… I’m still thinking about it.
No one told me that the job could get harder as the offspring aged. I was under the impression that it was supposed to get easier! (HA HA HA)
No one told me it would cost as much as it does. I thought the older they got, the more independent/less needy they became.
Someone forgot to mention that they can cause so much marital stress – Thank goodness Mr. Wonderful (husband)agrees with me most of the time (or else he would have a different name!)
Doesn’t every job have paid holidays and vacations? Then why do mine always COST me so much money??? …and another thing – I am pretty sure there is no pension plan with this job, either!
I think I might have to dust off my resume – There’s got to be better offers out there, somewhere! In the meantime, I will continue to show up for work, everyday – I’ll let you know if something better comes along…
Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food by Jessica Seinfeld is a winner. As a mother of three, Seinfeld knows first hand about the struggle parents have to get picky eaters to eat right. The recipes in this book sneak vegetable purees into foods you (and your kids) might not expect to find them in – including chicken nuggets, beef stew, and a variety of breakfast and desert recipes.
The book details how to make, store and use the purees, and offers practical advice on helping encourage your kids to eat healthy. It’s no secret that obesity rates in this country are increasing every year. Parents need to be conscious of their own eating habits and encourage each other and their children how to get eat right for life. The recipes in this cookbook help to lighten up many traditional family favorites without sacrificing taste. The Brownies (with Carrot and Spinach) recipe includes pureed carrots and spinach and omits oil and egg yolks, providing a treat with less fat and a surprising amount of fiber – 3 grams. The results are delicious – the carrot and spinach is hard to detect, and the brownies are rich and fudgy.
The spiral binding is a nice detail and allows the book to lie flat on the counter so you don’t have to wrestle with keeping the book opened to a certain page.
I would recommend using ice-cube trays to freeze purees, instead of freezer bags. Each cube is about 1 ounce, so 4 cubes are equal to about a half cup. Alternately, you could use jars of baby food for the recipes. Those handy little 4-ounce jars are the equivalent of a half cup of puree and much easier (and sometimes more cost efficient) to add. I wish the book also included the weight measurements of the purees – I think it’d be easier and more accurate to measure the weight, rather than volume.
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For many mamas, it isn’t always easy to find the unique yet chic styles they desire for their little girls. You know what I’m talking about:: the stylish and classically cool but still über fresh and funky threads native to trendy boutiques especially for little ones; you know, the ones that grace mod fashion-addicted-mama-filled nabes like Park Slope, the Upper East Side and the entire length of Long Island.
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Have you heard about this site, Howmanyofme.com? I just checked it out and was surprised to learn that there are 66 of me.
I wish there really were 66 of me sometimes. Then I could get everything done that I need to, and still be able to do the things that I enjoy as well. One of me could change the stinky diapers, while another could stay up late trying to get my daughter to bed. Another could cook dinner, and yet another could clean up. This could really work out well. I wouldn’t have to do anything around the house that I didn’t want to do. The rest of the mes could do it! I could spend my days reading stories to my daughter and baking cookies with her (nevermind that she isn’t quite a year old yet and is barely standing up!). I could make crafts and read books and watch television shows that aren’t the nightly news.
I wonder if it would eventually backfire, though. I don’t know if the control-freak me would be able to handle someone else doing things, even if it was me doing them. Would I be able to relinquish control, or would the other mes take control, causing a power struggle? How would my husband handle it? Would he really be able to stand having more than one of me around the house? And worse yet, would we all end up getting PMS at the same time?
On second thought, maybe one of me is enough. That way I get to spend both the good times and the not-so-good times with my family. Because it isn’t just the good times that you remember; sometimes the best times are those that might not seem ideal at the time, but are the most special.
I know, I know, I’m a little late, but I’ve been so busy the past two days with Thanksgiving!
I hope every one of you had an amazing time with your friends and family, and if you went out shopping early this morning (maybe you’re still out shopping!) for all the Black Friday deals to be had, I hope you’ve caught all the great deals you were hoping to!
We will be heading back to the pediatrician’s office today……again! I took all three of my boys there on Monday for nasty sounding coughs. All three of them checked out fine, and I was told it was just viral and that their chests were clear.
My middle son “Lou”, is just not getting better. He has had this cold for eleven days now. When we were there on Monday, doc said that Lou should be getting better at this point, not worse. He said to bring him back if he developed a fever or didn’t start showing signs of improvement. Yesterday Lou had a fever and I can clearly hear him wheeze.
The really strange thing is that Lou got hives yesterday. I noticed a red patch on his face but it went away. Later in the day, he had another red patch on a different part of his face. By the evening, he had hives located on all parts of his body. I racked my brain trying to think if he ate something unusual but he didn’t. I have no idea if it is related to this illness he has had. Lou has never had hives before so I suspect it must.
I made an appointment yesterday for him to be seen by the doctor today. I always have mixed feelings when I go to the pediatrician. On one hand, I want the doctor to say “This is what it is and this is how to fix it”. Yet at the same time, I really don’t want antibiotics unless they are absolutely necessary. I don’t want my children over exposed to antibiotics.
I guess that Lou will get over this illness on his own soon without a visit to the doctor. However, I am taking him to be on the safe side. His chest was clear Monday but that could have changed. His throat is really red so I can’t help but think of strep throat. The hives are adding more worry to the situation.
When we were at the doctor’s office on Monday, doc and I got on the subject of ear infections. Lou used to get them all the time but seems to have outgrown them a little, thank goodness. Doc said that they are not prescribing antibiotics as often for ear infections because children seem to recover at the same rate with or without the antibiotic.
I wonder if it is the same for other things like bronchitis or strep throat? I will always take my children to the doctor to err on the side of caution. I just wonder what I am looking for. A quick fix with antibiotics? The chance to let my son’s immune system take care of it on its own? I will let Doc decide that. I just want my “baby” to feel better!
I wrote that post on Shakadoo.com on November 9th. My son ended up having pneumonia. He went through the antibiotic prescription and his lungs were all clear as of last week.
Well, today it is two days before Thanksgiving. Lou appears to have pink eye in both of his eyes and a runny nose. He has started coughing again and says his throat and chest hurt. He also feels a little warm to me.
He can’t get sick again!! Couldn’t it at least wait until after Thanksgiving, lol? I don’t want to cancel any of our plans but we will be around his cousins. Oh, what to do?
Since our daughter began eating solids, we have been accumulating those little 4-ounce glass jars from her baby food. A few of them went to a neighbor who wanted them for his workshop, but the rest of them are piling up on the kitchen counter, around the sink, in grocery bags … almost as if they are multiplying when we’re not looking.
Time has come to do something about these jars. I don’t want to just recycle them with the rest of our household goods; I would like to do something with them. Following are 10 ideas I came up with for uses – if you’ve found creative uses for baby food jars, please share!
Use them in the garage to collect nails, screws, washers, and other loose materials. You could also use them to store small paint samples.
Keep a couple on a dresser to toss in loose change or stray buttons.
In the kitchen, use them to store spices – they’re small enough to use one for each type of spice.
Loose tea can be stored in the jars.
Keep a jar as a treat jar for toddlers – a couple of crackers or small candies will fit.
Make candles. Either place votive candles inside, or melt wax and make jar candles.
Make snow globes. A snowman made from polymer clay and some glitter make for a cute wintertime scene.
Make paperweights. Fill the jars with sand, and paint the outside of the jars and tie a decorative ribbon around the lid.
Root plants. Stick the bottom root into a jar filled with water, and in a few weeks roots will grow and the plant will be started.
ESRB. No, it’s not a deadly virus, and no, it’s not some sort of weird new drug on the streets. If you’re a gamer, you’re probably familiar with the symbols associated with the ESRB and you’re probably aware that the acronym stands for the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the organization responsible for properly judging the age level appropriateness of computer and console games.
If you have children who are into playing video games, it’s important to be aware of the ESRB rating system and the standards by which it rates games. This is especially important with Christmas and Hanukkuh right around the corner, because the holiday season brings with it the endless gaming- and gadget-oriented wish lists from this new generation of kids, tech-savvy from the age of three.
Now I don’t know about you, but while my son isn’t quite old enough for video games at just under two years old, I am the sort of parent who’d like to stay on top of the violent, sexual, and other mature content my child is exposed to, whether it’s on the Internet, on television, or on the Wii. I’m sure that there are some parents who’ve unknowingly bought their kid a game or two with content they’d later find to be a little more racy than what they’d normally allow their child to be exposed to, or maybe you weren’t too sure of a game and so you didn’t buy it, only to find out later that it would have been perfectly okay with you if your kid played it. That’s why ESRB ratings are helpful in making parents more informed consumers.
As far as the ratings go, they range from EC (Early Childhood), games appropriate for children ages 3 and older which don’t contain anything that parents may find inappropriate, to AO (Adults Only), a rating reserved for games that feature content suitable for adults 18 years of age and older, only.
Ratings symbols are further supplemented with content descriptors, located right next to them, and these give you a better understanding of why the content was given its rating or why a game is a T (Teen) instead of E (Everyone). You can check out a breakdown of all the ESRB game ratings and see a list of the content descriptors on the ESRB website.
Well what if little 9-year-old Johnny decides to sneak Manhunt 2 into the House and play through its gory stages on the sly? What some parents may not be aware of is that they can use the built-in parental control features in their children’s consoles to allow or deny a games to be played according to its ESRB rating.
The Wii, Xbox 360 and the PS3 are all equipped with password protected parental control functions that will enable you to lock out games and DVDs based on their ratings and even limit certain online and multiplayer activities depending on your preferences.
For more information, visit the resources section of the ESRB website.
Giveaway information is at the bottom of this post.
Cleo the cat is an orange feline who’s always with a friendly grin, a capricious kitty full of inquisitiveness and discovering new things. In the following books which are part of her namesake series, babies and toddlers can follow her adventures while learning their ABCs (Cleo’s Alphabet Book), colors (Cleo’s Color Book), numbers(Cleo’s Counting Book) and even their verbs, ahem, I mean action words (Come Here, Cleo!).
The lilting prose will capture your child’s attention, and the durable boardbook design is both baby-friendly and baby-proof. The illustrations are colorful and interesting, and have just that touch of modernity to keep even the most frazzled of mommies at attention throughout all four of these books; trust me your little one will not want to stop at just one.
My son absolutely loves the Cleo books, and before bedtime, he’ll often bring one of his Cleo books over to me so we can read it together. One time while I was reading him a different book, he actually pushed it away and handed me Cleo’s Alphabet Book. I don’t mind that. Nope, in fact I think it’s great, because the Cleo books aren’t just something nice for my baby to look at, they’re also educational.
If you’re looking for an alternative to adding just more toys on your shopping list for your little one this holiday season, the Cleo boardbook series by Caroline Mockford is an excellent choice.
To win a set of these four books (no, not my son’s copies, new ones!), leave a comment below. Mention this contest on your blog, linking back to this post, and earn a SECOND entry! So that’s ONE entry just for commenting, and you get a SECOND entry for posting about it on your blog! The max is TWO entries per person! You must enter by midnight EST on November 30, 2007, at which point a winner will be chosen at random. Sorry, but at this time I will only ship within the US & Canada. If you’ve mentioned this contest on your blog, make sure to contact me and let me know. The winner will be posted by December 2, 2007.
This is MUST READ for any parent or for anyone who has a child on their shopping list this holiday season. It is a list compiled by the World Against Toys Causing Harm (WATCH). WATCH is a non profit organization that is “dedicated to children’s causes and committed to the creation of multi-dimensional educational programs…” to help parents and children alike become more aware of the hidden dangers presented by some toys, and help them become more responsible consumers.
The list is also available directly on the WATCH website: 2007 Worst Toy List. The WATCH website also includes a Toy Hazards page, which lists various things that parents should be aware of when choosing and purchasing toys.
Also, keep the Toy Hazard Recalls page in your favorites folder for quick viewing. This page on the US Consumer Product Safety Commission website lists toy recalls from 1974 to today, with the most recent recalls listed first. Other sites where you can check for recalls are Toys R Us and Mattel; each site has a dedicated section for product recalls.
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November 29, 2007 
Ratings symbols are further supplemented with content descriptors, located right next to them, and these give you a better understanding of why the content was given its rating or why a game is a T (Teen) instead of E (Everyone). You can check out a breakdown of all the ESRB game ratings and see a list of the content descriptors on the 
Well what if little 9-year-old Johnny decides to sneak 
), colors (
