Here’s a quick trick I’ve been using to get the boys to wash their hands. I have them each pick out one of their tub animals (frogs are popular this week) and tell them to give it a bath. They turn the water on and I give each animal a liberal dose of soap from [...]
Okay, this is a toy that I would never have seen myself buying in my pre-kid days but its a big favorite in our house now. These little monster trucks are modeled after real ones that my boys like to watch on T.V. and they have proven to stand up to a lot of abuse [...]
Before Fathers Day weekend we checked the local paper to see if there were any fun activities to take the family to. We decided to try something different and went to an open house offered by a local model airplane club. Their field was about 10 miles from house located in some gorgeous countryside on [...]
When Ethan moved into his own room I wanted to do something to make it special. He loved Little Bear so I thought that would make a nice mural. Inspiration hit me one day while he was watching the show on our big TV. I bought a roll of tracing paper, paused the show, and [...]
Our kids have a lot of toys, some bought new by us or other relatives, some hand me downs from family and a lot from garage sales. I love all the kids’ toys that are actually played with regularly and don’t just sit and collect dust. I have a hard time getting rid of the [...]
Yesterday I received a letter in the mail from the National Marrow Donor Program. I’ve been on the bone marrow donor list for over 10 years and aside from the occasional mailing haven’t heard anything from them. This letter, however, was a little different. They wanted me to sign a form to give them permission [...]
Has anyone else noticed that the pendulum is starting to swing the other way in regards to child protection? The last 10 years or so we have been training to fear everything and that has found its way into raising children. Protect them from strangers, the sun, too much soap, not enough soap, needles in [...]
Here’s a list near and dear to my heart. Here are my favorites: 1. LEGOS. The Geek is really more of a Man-Child than an adult. In their minds, they are still 10. They freakin’ still love to play with their legos, and have never grown up. 2. VIDEO GAMES. Due to the whole Man-Child [...]
One of my favorite parenting sites is ParentHacks.com. A hack is typically associated with computers, but in simpler terms a hack is just “a clever solution to an interesting problem.” I have yet to meet a parent who hasn’t come up with a unique and often brilliant solution to one of the dilemmas that parents [...]
I’m a huge fan of Amazon. This past holiday season I signed up for Amazon Prime, the $79 service where you receive free second day shipping on all Amazon items. For anyone who isn’t organized or likes to procrastinate (guilty both charges) this is a great service for those last minute gift orders.Now Amazon has [...]
