Filed under: DVDs and Videos

Who cares if my kid's kicks are cool? Tying the laces on his hipster Adidas is a pain in the arse. The light bulb recently went off over my head. I converted to velcro and those stretchy elastic tops.

Then Uncle Roger sent me this video. Now if only I could teach my kid to shake his foot and presto! Shoes tied. We could go back to the days of cuter footwear.

Note: Some of the teens in the video swear and there's some swearing in the comments under the video. One of the commenters offers a rational theory to how the trick was performed, so don't be so hard on your kids for not having this gift. It's a trick of the eye.

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Filed under: Gear, Pregnancy and Birth, Size Six, Newborn, Infant / First year, Baby furniture, Cribs and cradles, Nursery decor, Changing table, Joggers/Strollers/Trailers

With my first child, there were a lot of things I didn't buy because I passed them off as unnecessary or just plain stupid. The truth of the matter was I was scared, broke and inexperienced. Now that I have most of the essentials in house, I think that this time (when that time arrives -- no news yet!) I could afford to be a bit more frivolous.

1. A sling: I know, I know. Your child lived in the sling. Why would I turn my nose up at the sling? Now I see the merits of the sling, like being able to nurse comfortably and privately in public, or having your hands free to wrestle down a highly mobile toddler.

2. A really good all-in-one pack n' play: With a two bedroom house, the new baby will have to sleep with us for a few months. With our new pillow-top mattress, co-sleeping is out of the question to due SIDS safety concerns. So it's time for something that can go right beside the bed as a bassinet, change table and cage play area all in one shot.

3. The Bumbo chair: These chairs were just coming on the market when Nate was small. They help prop up small infants into a seated position. At the time, I thought they were largely unnecessary, but recently I read an article in Today's Parent that mentioned putting the baby in this chair while the older child entertains him or her gives you time to prepare dinner. I guess a bouncy chair would also do the trick.

4. A car seat carrier stroller: The stroller that my infant car seat came with was stolen off my porch last Christmas, so I need something lightweight to replace it. I love how light these are and the amount of storage they have underneath.

5. An exersaucer: I never had one for Nate, but always loved their ability to keep him entertained while we were visiting friends who had one.

6. The Brest Friend: I had a nursing pillow, but this thing is the Cadillac of nursing pillows. It has a place for drinks and magazines and the phone. It supports your back

What about you? Anything you'd get for the next time around?

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Filed under: Media, Toys

I can't count how many times I've pierced my foot with a giant lego or stumbled over a random piece of plastic shrapnel. Christmas was all about Nolan this year, and he got so many bleating electronics and plastic doo-hickies, I'm not sure how I'll get them all home.

Actually, I'm scared to take them home, because our house is tiny and I'm wondering how everything will fit. We don't have a playroom, and the living room already houses a sofa, a TV, and my entire office. There is no room for the lego.

This article has some good tips on how to put toys away without making your house look like no kids live there. Among the suggestions I like is one to categorize toys in wicker baskets on a bookshelf, something I can do without taking up additional space in my crowded living room.

Now what to do about that atrociously annoying talking piano?

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Filed under: Family togetherness, Adventures in Parenting, Road trip, Outings, Amusement parks, Vacations, Jared, Sara

Tonight, we leave for Disneyland. We're leaving late, right after dinner. The idea is that the kids will fall asleep early in the drive (before we hit the long and boring I-5) and we can make it most of the way there. We'll camp out when I get tired then get up and finish it off in the morning. Hopefully, there will be enough to see that the kids won't get restless the last couple of hours and we can even break it up by stopping for breakfast along the way. That's the plan, anyway.

Whether or not it will work out that way, we'll see. Our kids are pretty good about falling asleep in the car, so that shouldn't be too bad. We've got a rooftop tent, so setting up camp is a snap and the kids like it enough that getting them up there isn't a problem. The morning, however, is a might worrisome. We'll have plenty of books, the kids' drawing boards, and other diversions. As a last resort, we even have a portable DVD player. Given that it's New Year's Eve, Rachel is worried about drunks on the road, but I figure that by the time they are out and about, we'll be nearly at our planned stopping point and in the middle of nowhere anyway.

Even if we survive the drive, however, we still have to survive the most hellish happiest place on earth. I'll be posting while we're there -- if I should suddenly stop, you'll know I've joined the Mad Hatter in the loony bin. Wish me luck!

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Filed under: Adventures in Parenting, Jared

Coming home from a party, we drove along the freeway through an industrial area where there is a rather tall smokestack reaching for the sky all by itself. There are no other tall buildings or structures in the area, so it is very prominent. It's been there forever and when I was a kid, I was always horrified by the amount of pollution it regularly spewed out. When I grew up, I learned that it wasn't pollution at all, but harmless steam.

Jared saw it and commented on the "smoke". In my best enlightened parent mode, I explained that it was hot steam -- like in the shower -- coming up the chimney and when it hit the cold air at the top, it condensed into water vapor like a cloud. In fact, it pretty much was the same thing as a cloud. I was proud of myself for this explanation, using an everyday, observed phenomenon to teach some science and avoid unnecessary superstition.

And then Jared summed it all up: "It looks like a Genie!"

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Filed under: Moms, Blogs, Crafts, Photography

Andrea Scher of Superhero Designs and her husband, Matt have a brand new little guy to love. His name is Ben.

Ben was born "December 8, 2006 at 10:42 AM, at UCSF, to a panorama of San Francisco, from the Golden Gate Bridge to the skyscrapers downtown."

Not only does Andrea make amazing jewelry, she takes incredible pictures of her little guy. Poke around her archives to see some great pregnancy portraits, too.

Congratulations, Andrea and Matt!

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Filed under: Lifestyle, Internet, Games, Video Games, Making a Difference

Child's Play is a charity based in Seattle that donates toys, games, books, and even cash to sick kids in children's hospitals around the US and the world. 100% of all donations go directly to the kids and the hospitals. What makes this charity different than most is that it is supported by gamers and game companies. So unbeknownst to you, your game-playing teenagers may have been doing some good deeds while hunch over their keyboards.

Currently, they've raised $963k this year and would really like to make it to one million dollars. It might be a little late to sneak in a donation for 2006 (I just found out about it), but they could certainly use a good start for next year. If you're a gamer or if you know one, this sounds like a great way to share the wealth.

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Filed under: Lifestyle, Blogs

Oh, come on. You know you are just itching to enter this one.

Put a post up on your blog about the worst holiday gift you've ever received, link back to A Mama's Rant (to this post), then leave her a comment with a link to your story, and maybe you'll win a gift certificate to help you get over the horrible shock of it all.

Enter quickly: you have until midnight (Mountain time) January 3, 2007.

The winner gets a $25 gift certificate to either Starbucks or Barnes and Noble.

The rest of us get to laugh. A lot.

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Filed under: Working out of home, Working moms, Child care, Staying at home

A 10 year-old boy dialed 9-11 and asked that police take his mother away. Was she beating him? Did she keep him in a cage? No, this mom had the gall to pressure her son into doing his homework.

But there's more to the story. Apparently the boy was home alone -- his mom working the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift at a nearby restaurant. So, after police responded to the boy's I-hate-homework distress call, they then charged mom with child endangerment.

Was the boy too young to be at home by himself? It's hard to say. New York state doesn't have clear-cut laws on when it's appropriate to leave a child home alone. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 11 to 13 percent of kids in kindergarten through eighth grade are left to their own devices after school, with those numbers varying only slightly across higher income brackets -- so apparently these circumstances aren't entirely uncommon. In fact, as the linked article suggests, I'd imagine most parents gamble like this from time to time -- especially when trying to work without paying incredibly high costs of child care.

But how young is too young? Is the gamble worth it? Is it simply unavoidable?

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Filed under: Pregnancy and Birth, Moms, C-section

Yahoo!News reports that a 67-year-old woman gave birth to twins by caesarian section in Barcelona yesterday. Aside from the name of the hospital, Sant Pau, and the statement that the twins are in incubators and doing well, not much information was released.

The mother reportedly underwent in vitro fertilization in the United States, and is now the oldest woman to ever give birth.

My first reaction is to feel badly for the children, because they likely aren't going to get to have their mother for very many years. But, if you think about it, there's certainly no guarantee that any mother will live to see her children to adulthood. What might the positives be for these kids?

Well, I'm guessing that they will have a mother who is wise and capable; she's certainly going to have more experience than the mothers of their peers. Based on the enormous health risks their mother took (in my opinion, at least), they are certainly wanted and will be very much loved. Their mother is old enough to perhaps be retired and able to not only give them a stable home, but also all her available time and energy.

I know many grandparents, and great-grandparents, who are raising children, and doing a wonderful job of it. Is it much different in this case? I'd love to hear from the mom about what motivated her to make the choices she did.

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