We at chez Jen are participating in the Halloween Punkin Gallery 2006! I spent most of Saturday hanging out with my kids, carving pumpkins. I stole an idea this year from Blogging Baby's own Heather Craven. You should go check out her amazing carousel from this year. I don't know how she does it.
I admit that I did not follow her directions exactly-- I was supposed to spray paint my pumpkin black before I started drilling holes into it. But I just cleaned it out and started drilling holes. I had already purchased colored beads to put into the holes (and have since discovered that the pumpkin works better with clear beads! Colored beads just block the light of the candle). After I drilled holes all over my pumpkin, my kids sat and helped me set beads on top of each hole and then my youngest child gleefully hammered the beads into the holes. It took about two hours to do, so we watched House on DVD while we did it.
The children are all old enough now to de-gut their own pumpkins, which makes the whole affair much more enjoyable for me. Instead of having to clean out four pumpkins, I could concentrate on my own. But there is the little matter of who put their pumpkin guts down the disposal and the sinks that won't drain anymore in the kitchen...
I was a patent lawyer for a couple years. During that time I saw some pretty wild patents, but nothing like some of the patents I've seen relating to parenting gear and parenting products. I'm going to bring back Blogging Baby "Tech Tuesdays" and share some of these crazy patents.
The first patent is Patent No. 3,216,423 (1965) patent for a Centrifugal birthing apparatus. According to its own text, this patented device "utilizes centrifugal force to facilitate the birth of a child at less stress to the mother. It is known, that due to natural anatomical conditions, the fetus needs the application of considerable propelling force to enable it to push aside the constricting vaginal walls, to overcome the friction of the uteral and vaginal surfaces and to counteract the atmospheric pressure opposing the emergence of the child. In the case of a woman who has a fully developed muscular system and has had ample physical exertion all through the pregnancy, as is common with all more primitive peoples, nature provides all the necessary equipment and power to have a normal and quick delivery. This is not the case, however, with more civilized women who often do not have the opportunity to develop the muscles needed in confinement. It is the primary purpose of the present invention to provide an apparatus which will assist the under-equipped woman by creating a gentle, evenly distributed, properly directed, precision-controlled force, that acts in unison with and supplements her own efforts."
If that doesn't sound crazy enough, be sure to check out the pictures. They're like Leonardo Da Vinci meets Terry Gilliam. It's too bad this technology never caught on, because that would be a pretty sweet birth to videotape.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
I'm a procrastinator. Most writers are -- that's why you always hear us going on about deadlines. It's no different when it comes to Halloween.
My intentions are good. I have creative ideas, but no follow through. Last year, Nate was 9-months-old and my husband wanted him to be a hot dog. Homemade costumes are a tradition in his family, but I was sleep deprived and by 4 pm on Halloween I was in the department store buying a ready-made Disney outfit. He would have been cute in a paper bag if you ask me. He was too small to voice an opinion on what he wanted to be, anyway. Halloween, until age three, is pretty much about the photo op.
In January, on date night, my husband and I saw King Kong. "Wouldn't it be great if Nate was King Kong for Halloween this year?" asked my husband.
"Yes," I replied excitedly, "And you can be the Empire State Building! It will be the coolest costume ever! It's January, so we have plenty of time to make the costume this year."
For months we've been chanting, "Baby Kong! Baby Kong!" You'd think we'd have done it already. But here I am, on the day of Halloween, scrambling to put together a costume. Thankfully Nate has a Superman tee-shirt with a cape attached that he wears all the time. I may have to use it as a backup. I'll show you the results tomorrow.
Actor Jason Bateman and his wife, Amanda Anka, are now the parents of a daughter. Francesca Nora Bateman entered the world on Saturday in Los Angeles.
You might remember Jason from his younger years on Silver Spoons and The Hogan Family and, more recently, Arrested Development. Amanda is the daughter of singer-songwriter Paul Anka and is an actress.
The couple wed in July 2001 but started dating in 1998. This is their first child. Congrats to the happy couple!Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
A few months ago I brought Blogging Baby readers the story of a Florida mother who left her baby at Sears for 90 minutes, a post that generated 325 comments which pretty much drove me away from posting stories here for six months. Well, now I've discovered another Florida mom who just might just surpass that other mom and win the honor of being Florida's worst mother.
Danielle Tozer of Clermont, Florida was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning after police officers found her passed out in her car outside the Crown Lodge bar with her baby buckled in the car seat behind her. A bartender told police that Tozer had been drinking at the business, a local news crew reported. Tozer was booked into the Lake County Jail on one count of child neglect. The baby is currently in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families custody.
The good news is, the baby was in a car seat. The bad news: apparently Tozer left it there while she spent the night in a bar getting so hammered that she passed out when she got behind the wheel. Let's hope she gets some rehab counseling as part of her probation deal.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Nick Jr is offering a broadband video service for British preschoolers and their parents, called Nick Jr Video. The service, which started October 30, will offer shows such as Dora the Explorer and The Backyardigans.
And I thought there was such a thing as "too much Dora."
The service will also offer sneak previews of shows such as Wonder Pets! Children and parents will be able to email video clips to their friends because, I don't know about you, I definitely want my preschooler sending and receiving Dora videos from the kids in her class.
What's next? MySpace? Oh wait, that's out. I think we'll just stick to watching the same DVD over and over until I turn it off, screaming "No more! Why doesn't Ruby just smack Max already?"Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
This might be a little late to do for this year, unless you happen to work in a combination hardware/craft store, but it's still pretty cool. It's Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street. The key is a bottomless garbage can held up by bungie cord and lots of green yarn. Personally, I kinda think he looks more like a moldy sasquatch, but if he made the head a little wider and somehow did the big white eyes and bushy black eyebrows, it would be perfect.
If you want a little less work, you could always just go for this cycling jersey instead. (Truth be told, I had no idea that serious cyclists -- serious enough to buy tight-fitting clothes -- had such a sense of humour!)
Any other grouches out there? What about other Sesame Street costumes?
First off, let me admit that I don't like Halloween. I don't believe in ghosts or monsters and I'm not big on the whole let's-revel-in-the-worst-of-our-fears atmosphere. I don't care for dressing up, especially in the ghoulish style so popular these days. And yet, I have kids.
Jared's preschool took a trip to a pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago as a field trip. In addition to the ride in the hay wagon, admission to the maze, and the pony ride, the $9 per kid covered the cost of a pumpkin, up to the size of about a basketball. As we were getting ready to leave, we asked Jared to start looking around for a pumpkin to take home. In some ways, Jared reminds me of Charlie Brown; just as Charlie Brown couldn't resist rescuing the pitiful little christmas tree in the Peanuts' christmas special, so too could Jared not pass up a tiny little pumpkin.
Sara, on the other hand, was drawn to the strange, twisted, bumpy gourds and squashes that were available in one corner. After much indecision, she finally settled on what looked like a small crooked-neck squash. Certainly not your ordinary choice, but I certainly never expected any kids of mine to be ordinary in any way.
We didn't actually carve any pumpkins, but I think if I were going to decorate pumpkins somehow, I'd be inclined to go with these guys. Happy Halloween!Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
There has been lots of talk in the media, and among parents I know, about mothers who decide to leave successful careers behind to stay home with their children. Lisa Belkin of the New York Times started the discussion with an article she published in 2003 about the "opt-out revolution."
This sounds like a much more realistic description of the situation to me. About a year ago, I was thinking about going back to work full time after being home with my four kids for over five years. A couple of days after I got comfortable with that decision, one of them came down with strep throat. Two or three days later, another one had the high fever and throat pain. Then the other two got it one after the other. By the time everyone was well enough to go back to school, two weeks had gone by and I'd already been fired from the imagined job that I hadn't even applied for yet. So, yes, when I read that inflexible work policies fueled most moms' decisions to leave their jobs, I was nodding my head in agreement.
I should point out that I don't see a single thing wrong with leaving a job to be home with the kids, and, at the same time, I don't think that anyone has any business, ever, trying to make an employed mom feel guilty. The world is a tough enough place; mothers ought to put their energy into supporting each other and opt-out of all this "Mommy War" foolishness.
Argentinian artist Diego Goldberg started a family tradition: every year on June 17, he photographs his family. For 30 years he has sat them down, photographed them from the same angle, and chronicled their aging and growth. I have seen similar projects done with individuals, but this is the first I have seen of an entire family, and the results are amazing. Simply by scrolling down this entire page, you can watch babies turn into teens, and young parents become middle-aged.
What an amazing work, and it truly is such a wonderful result of a very cool family tradition. Diego's photos have even inspired someothers to give it a go with their families.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
I was a patent lawyer for a couple years. During that time I saw some pretty wild patents, but nothing like some of the patents I've seen relating to parenting gear and parenting products. I'm going to bring back Blogging Baby "Tech Tuesdays" and share some of these crazy patents.
I'm a procrastinator. Most writers are -- that's why you always hear us going on about deadlines. It's no different when it comes to Halloween. 
A few months ago I brought Blogging Baby readers the story of a 
This might be a little late to do for this year, unless you happen to work in a combination hardware/craft store, but it's still pretty cool. It's 
There has been lots of talk in the media, and among parents I know, about mothers who decide to leave successful careers behind to stay home with their children. Lisa Belkin of the New York Times started the discussion with an article she published in 2003 about the "opt-out revolution."
Argentinian artist Diego Goldberg started a family tradition: every year on June 17, he photographs his family. For 30 years he has sat them down, photographed them from the same angle, and chronicled their aging and growth. I have seen similar projects done with individuals, but this is the first I have seen of an entire family, and the results are amazing. Simply by scrolling down