Fisher-Price Recalls

Thu, Sep 30, 2010 (BabyCenter News) – Fisher-Price has recalled about 2.9 million (about 2.8 million in the U.S. and about 125,000 in Canada) infant playzones, playgrounds, and other toys with hazardous inflatable balls attached to them in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Read more »

City Mouse vs. Country Mouse

Almost everyday I go for a jog, pushing my daughter in her jogging stroller. We head toward the national forest about a half-mile down the road and usually take the low road along the river. It’s a bumpy ride and I brings snack and water for her to keep her content. We have created a routine of stopping at the turn-around point, to throw rocks in the river. She is usually dressed like a fairy since that is her normal garb around the house. So, I sit, rest for a moment, and watch my little fairy catapulting stones and listening for the sounds they make.

I consider what I am missing out on by living so rurally. Read more »

Dora the Explora Makes Me Want to Shoot Myself

I try to avoid movies or t.v. shows that are heavy with marketing and merchandising. My daughter likes to watch Winnie the Pooh, Yo Gabba Gabba and Bambi. Of course, these come with their own set of stuffed animals and clothing, but nothing comes close to the marketing of Disney’s Princesses and Nick’s Dora the Explorer.

My daughter’s friend, a boy, is really into Dora. I mention that he is a boy because Nickelodeon, for some reason, felt it necessary to have a boy, Diego, and girl, Dora, version of the same Latino adventurer character as if one gender could not empathize with another. Anyway, my daughter showed interest, so I went as far as to borrow a DVD of Dora from the library. Do I regret it! Read more »

Elisabeth Badinter: Nutty French Grandma

Does she look like she's a chain smoker or what?

Elisabeth Badinter’s new book, Le Conflit, La Femme et La Mère (The Conflict, The Woman and The Mother), is an argument against the resurgence of earth mother domesticity including cloth diapers, homemade baby purees and breastfeeding. Check out this article about her in UK Times. Instead, she advocates smoking and drinking, formula and boarding schools. What makes me angry about her is that she has three children who she raised in the 60′s and 70′s, before we knew smoking was bad or knew about global warming or environmental toxins. It was a different world. Also, if having children is such a burden, why have one? And once you have one and realize the extent of the burden, why have two more? Read more »

Year 2- Birthday Music Mix

As with last year, this year I made another music mix CD as my daughter’s birthday party favors. I post the set list to give other people ideas for “kids” music. Most of the songs, are not for kids only, but some are. I try to pick music that parents will be willing to listen to repeatedly. Here is the play list, in order:

Say Hey (I love you) – Spearhead with Michael Franti Read more »

Oh, Mexico! 2010

Bahia de Conception

We went to Mexico this winter, drove down hauling our ’62 Cardinal travel trailer.  Our 2 year old is now a road trip pro and we have figured out her limits, when to stop, when to nap, when to buy new toys. We mostly drove up the Baja peninsula. She had a fear of oceans in Cabo, so we found a quite beach locale without waves and called it an Ocean Lake. She seemed convinced and we spent the afternoons collecting shells. Read more »

Belly Rolls

Middle is no longer my own—
still attached to me, allowing me
to connect limbs to limbs, yes, but
now inhabited by another. No longer

viable to bend in half, to pick up items
from the floor, put on shoes, pet my
dog, shave my legs, etcetera. There is
a bulbous skin-tight element and often, Read more »

Effin’ Bad Language

My two-year-old repeats everything I say. She has an excellent vocabulary and speaks in full, and often remarkable, sentences. I do not refrain from using “big” words with her. My theory is that the more she hears them, the more she will become familiar with them. However, I do refrain from little words, those little four letter words. Read more »

Super Nanny: Super Crazy

Coo Coo!

I never realized how absolutely crazy Super Nanny was until I watched an episode tonight. I haven’t watched this since my daughter was young and prior to reading all the parenting books I have now read. I think I secretly indulged in watching the terrible parents make me feel better about myself. Yet, tonight after watching, I have realized that this woman is an egomaniac, power freak with a grandiose personality disorder.

Read more »

Otty Sanchez: Mom Eats Her Baby

Have you heard about this? It happened a month ago, but has only just now come to my attention. In honesty, I wish it hadn’t.  Otty Sanchez, a schizophrenic, post-partum depressed mother off her meds, hears the devil tell her to kill her 3 1/2 week old baby after breaking up with her boyfriend, the father. She decapitaties it and begins to eat parts of its brain and its toes. When she awakens from her psychotic state and realizes what she has done, she tries to kill herself. Read more »