2008 March | Mommy Points

March 31, 2008

How tall Will They Be?

Filed under: Children, Just For Fun, On The Web — Chris @ 10:06 pm

I came across this poll today at Parenting (In the interest of full disclosure I also write a weekly column for Parenting).

You enter your height and your husband’s height and it will give you a prediction for the height of your child. It is based on some law of averages I presume, and as such it is just that an average. My 13 year old son is already almost taller than the predicted full grown height, but he has always been on the tall side.

I entered my parents height and darn those non nutritious foods I ate in the 70’s, because I am several inches shorter than I was predicted to be.

I remember when I came home with my first child and he was so small I couldn’t imagine how fast he would grow. And how big those flippers he calls feet would be.

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March 29, 2008

Follow Up

Filed under: Children, On The Web, parenting — Chris @ 10:07 am

A follow-up to the story I mentioned two posts down.

The mother was arrested and charges were filed against her. For 97 days she awaited trial and obviously had to hire an attorney to represent her. Attorneys are not cheap. Not to mention the emotional toll this ordeal must have taken on the family.

The charges were dropped in court when the prosecutor said that there was not enough evidence to proceed in the case. And yet the police officer says that he is disappointed that she was not punished. Ummmm, because there are not any dangerous criminals to spend tax dollars on?

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March 28, 2008

Another Family Favorite

Filed under: Just For Fun, parenting — Chris @ 12:12 am

My 9 yr old son takes gymnastics lessons at a time of day I like to call “middle of the night gymnastics.” I exaggerate of course, although only slightly. The class meets from 7:30 – 8:30, which means we don’t get home until 9:00pm. That is late, I think.

A problem that we ran into is that he isn’t really ready to settle down and go to sleep as soon as he arrives home. he likes to have a snack and unwind, completely understandable.

A couple weeks ago we happened to turn on the television and caught the show “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” or similar. The kids all really loved it. So for the past two weeks we have purposefully put it on when we arrive home and we all sit and watch it.

I really think the network should put this show on earlier in the evening as there is nothing at all that we have found objectionable about it. It is just a fun show. And don’t we need more shows like this to balance out those horrible reality type shows that are on every channel now.

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March 25, 2008

In the News

Filed under: Uncategorized — Chris @ 10:13 am

I came across this article about a mother leaving her child in a car and subsequently being arrested for it. Has anyone else read about it?

As I was reading the story I kept thinking that surely there was more to the story than this, but no. This is not to say that I condone leaving children in the car alone, I don’t. But the undisputed facts in the case are that a woman brought her daughter and her daughter’s friend to a local walmart so they could give the coins they collected to the salvation army bell ringer. Her two year old daughter was asleep in the car. She pulled the car up into a loading zone and parked there. She and the older girls got out of the car. She left the 2 yr old in the car, putting on her hazard lights and locking the doors.

They walked over to the bell ringer, less than 10 yards away, where her car was still in her sight, and poured the money into the bucket. She snapped a few photos and headed back to the car. An employee had phoned the police and told her that she had to remain there until the police arrived. They arrived and she was arrested.

I think the thing that bothers me the most about this story is that more and more parents are not allowed to make their own judgment calls. I would assume that this woman is a loving mother and that she has her children’s best interest at heart. Why can’t her own judgment on whether or not her child was safe in the car be respected? Do we need “Big Brother” watching over all aspects of our lives? Is the world that dangerous that we need to be protected from ourselves?

And aren’t there real criminals out there that the police should be dealing with?

This is a very slippery slope. What about when you need to go inside to pay for gas at a gas station? What about returning the shopping cart to the designated area?

What about carrying groceries in the house… either way you would be wrong. I guess you will have to carry your child in one hand and the groceries in the other, back and forth, back and forth lest you leave your childout of your line of vision for a single moment. On the plus side, you’d have some killer biceps.

What do you think? Should the mother have been arrested?

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March 24, 2008

Easter Recap

Filed under: Children, Keeping It Real — Chris @ 11:51 pm

I did make it to the store to buy Easter candy and basket things. The last stop I made was to the Dollar store and I found myself wondering why I hadn’t thought to stop there first. It was a treasure trove of small cheap things.

I picked up a package of carabiners, large magnifying glasses, playing cards, small measuring tapes, calculators, pencils, pens, tiny notebooks, and the biggest hit… slingshots that shoot these little foamy balls.

I was up well past midnight cutting the plastic off of all the toys and stuffing the tiny plastic eggs.

This was the first year that my oldest two sons declined running around the yard to find the plastic eggs filled with candy. I knew the day would come, but thought maybe the lure of candy would keep them at it anyway. And while a small part of me is tempted to say, “awwwww,” and feel slightly disappointed with this whole growing up thing, I love watching the way that they interact with their younger siblings.

I love how they cheered them on. I love how they get excited for their siblings. I love the knowing looks that pass over their youngest siblings head, the looks that let me know they are enjoying their role as keeper of the secret. The looks that show me they think it is pretty cool to be on the other side of the tradition.

Of course none of their newly revealed maturity stopped them from laying claim to a percentage of the candy from the eggs.

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March 23, 2008

Happy Easter

Filed under: Uncategorized — Chris @ 9:13 am

for those who celebrate, may your day be filled with family, laughter and love. And of course chocolate.

And for those who do not, I wish you the same things. Most especially, the chocolate.

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March 20, 2008

So I Did the Shopping, But Still I Am Not Done

Filed under: Keeping It Real — Chris @ 11:40 pm

Well, I made it to my local target tp buy some Easter basket supplies. But I made two very big mistakes.

1) I brought my 3 yr old with me, which meant I had to keep distracting him from the things I was putting into the cart. Also, he kept tossing random things into the cart.

2) I only had one hour to shop. This meant I I was running through the store with no rhyme or reason throwing things into the cart that I thought they would like. But I really didn’t give thought to how many things I was picking up or for which child they were ultimately destined for.

Thankfully my husband has off from work tomorrow so I can go through the bags and return at least 50% of the stuff to the store.

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March 19, 2008

Easter plans

Filed under: Children, Just For Fun, Keeping It Real — Chris @ 8:23 am

I realized yesterday that I have not bought a single thing for my children’s Easter baskets. I never go overboard, just the traditional candy and a small toy (yo-yo, Rubiks cube, etc). Then we do our big egg hunt in the yard.

I need to buy all new eggs this year because I threw away the old ones last year. I had them for probably ten years and they were breaking and some wouldn’t stay shut. Forget about finding the matching tops and bottoms. So in a fit of extreme wastefulness of which I am appropriately ashamed, I tossed them into the trash to go live the rest of their plastic non-biodegradable lives in the landfill.

Usually I fill the eggs with money, pennies, dimes, nickels, as well as jellybeans.

This year we are not having anyone over for dinner, which I will be the first to admit is nice. No extensive meal preparation. No frantic cleaning Easter morning. No worrying that the over sugared children are going to act like wild animals. We are just going to drop by the grandparents house, eat some chocolate and go on our merry way.

Now I just need to find a way to sneak out of the house and buy the Easter basket things without the kids noticing.

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March 17, 2008

Kiss Me, I’m an Irish Wanna-be

Filed under: Just For Fun, On The Web, cooking, parenting — Chris @ 9:13 am

I am not Irish. Not one little bit. My husband is Italian. And yet, come March 17, we break out the green.

A friend of mine dyes whatever milk is in the bottle green for St Patricks Day. The leprechauns do it. While I think it is an adorable idea, I know my children would balk at having green milk to pour on their cereal.

I found this substitute.

Leprechaun Shake

1c milk
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
2 ice cubes
3-4drops of mint extract
2 drops of green food coloring

Blend for 10 seconds or so.

You may need to double, triple, or quintuple to the fifth power this recipe. Because that recipe seems like enough for one small child.

The History Channel has a St Patrick’s Day website for you to enjoy with your children. It is a very comprehensive look at St Patrick’s Day. The true story, the legend, green beer, and other assorted recipes that are not corn beef and cabbage. Gag. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

Family Fun had this recipe that was easy and fun.

It is made from canned breadstick dough and then sprinkled with colored sugar, my kind of easy. Though you could just make it with a regular bread recipe.

I did buy these tiny little treasure boxes and I had big plans of filling one for each child and having each of them go on their own individual treasure treasure hunts, but that just didn’t work out. Maybe St Patrick’s Day 2010 I’ll be more prepared.

But we did make green cupcakes, just regular cupcakes with a little green food coloring added, with vanilla frosting. Then I cut up some green spice drops and had the kids make shamrock shapes on the top.

And then we ate half of them. Saving the other half for tonight after dinner, once we crash from our sugar high.

Tomorrow we will give up our Irish heritage, at least until next March. And anxiously await the easter Bunny for our next candy fix.

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March 15, 2008

No Calorie Food Making You Fat?

Filed under: On The Web — Chris @ 10:14 pm

Recent studies have shown that people who drink diet soda are fatter than those who drink the regular kind. I sort of wonder which came first though. Did people who were heavier decide to drink diet soft drinks rather than give them up?

Many believe ingesting a few artificial ingredients is a small price to pay for being able to eat the things they love while staying as thin as a Pringle

One interesting thing I read in the article that resonated with me, was that the more junk food and artificial sweeteners that you use, the more your body craves them. But at the same time it craves more and more sweets, so that things that are naturally sweet no longer taste sweet enough.

For a long time I would drink a big cup of coffee in the morning loaded with creamer and sweet n’ low. Then I decided that I didn’t want to drink sweet n’ low any longer and switched to sugar. It was a very sweet drink; a huge sugar jolt every morning. My husband was revolted by what he called a dessert, not a coffee.

I realized on my own that nothing tasted sweet enough anymore. I went cold turkey on the sugar and also quit the diet coke habit. Now I drink my morning coffee with just a splash of creamer. And during the day I drink plain seltzer water, often with a splash of real cranberry juice for flavor.

I also think about the message that we are sending out children with obsessive snacking. Somehow we all feel entitled to eat junk food. Not to mention how ridiculous all those 100 calorie snack packs are. I would like to think that my children could learn self moderation and not have to depend on a little package to moderate for them. Not to mention the 100 calorie Ben and Jerry’s ice cream cups… those are just sad.

A study at Purdue University suggests that artificial sweeteners confuse the body and may lead to weight gain. Alternating between diet foods and the real thing may undermine the body’s sense of caloric intake and invite overconsumption.

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