The Eve of the Eve

Merry Eve of Christmas Eve.

Throwback Friday

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I ran across this video of my Mother's Day breakfast-in-bed from this past May.

Does anyone see Lincoln? ;)

Two in Blue

Ahhhh. Isn't this sweet?

Almost as charming as Gabe when he smeared an entire tube of hair gel into the carpet yesterday, showed me, and then proudly exclaimed, "I keen duh carpet!"

Even more fetching was last week after he downed an entire mug of my coffee (again) and then buzzed (literally!) around here for hours singing, "You are AWESOME, Mommy!"

But nothing was as charming as when he decided to experiment with loading TP into the toilet (stuffed tighter than a Thanksgiving turkey) and flush it just prior to my morning of errands with GLLAM in tow. Sharing the whole saga is one of those If Only I Had Time stories and would reduce me to tears, but suffice it to say that I arrived home just in time to spend the afternoon mopping up water and rounding up dehumidiers and fans from all my gracious neighbors.

And to think I have the blessing of chasing two in blue in another year or so.....

Ahhhh. Isn't this sweet?

My baby is looking all grown up. :(

I snapped this of her last night as we left for her choir concert.

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The choir surprised us with an audience-participation Deck the Halls as their encore.

(Madeline is to the left of the 2 boys in ties, just above the podium)

Baby Einstein Buying Back DVD's

Good grief.  Maybe its because I was up a good bit of the night dealing with 3 of my 5 children barfing their brains out (the 4th getting up to nurse and the 5th had a viscious hacking cold that made it impossible to sleep), but I heard about this latest Fleecing of America and wanted to scream.

Ok, breath.  That was a really bad run-on sentence.  Its all good.  Am I really that concerned about Disney's margins?

Phew.  I'm back.

It started last week after reading about the Carter's 2007 tagless clothing recall.  And I get that one. I'm a huge organic, chemical free, non-additive, no-fragrance-using parent.  Our soaps, shampoos, dishwasher detergent, laundry soap, lotions, deodorants (I think you're getting it here) are fragrance-free and as pure as possible.  I use the EWG's website Skin Deep for purchasing decisions.  Fragrance=one of the things killing us.  

Allegedly, the tags from 2007 contained a harmful chemical giving children rashes and such. Definitely not okay.  And Carter's is stepping up and giving all parents a full refund on any clothing they purchased for their children during that time period.  Yay Carter's.

However, when I hear about parents scouring used clothing stores and thrift shops, finding these items, and mailing them to Carter's for a full refund, I get annoyed.  I ran into an old friend last week who told me about a neighbor who is currently making her living by, what I consider to be, scamming Carter's.  (my opinion)

She laid eyes on the neighbor's latest "paycheck" for $600 and said, "Hmmmmm."

I'm leaving this.........at that.

So, we're on to Baby Einstein.

Apparently, they are in the midst of a PR nightmare where they are trying to save face with interest groups who do not consider these videos to be "educational" as touted by Disney. 

Really?? 

Parents are now furious because their babies aren't reading and writing by 6 months.

(Fine.  That's not part of the story at all.  It just sounded climactic.)

Here is a comment from the interest group that fought against the videos:

The refund offer is a wonderful victory for families and anyone who cares about children. Recent research shows that screen time is not educational for babies. Now parents who purchased Baby Einstein DVDs, mistakenly believing the videos would make their babies smarter, can recoup their money.

Seriously??  And when did research show that 'screen time' WAS educational for babies?

I own several Baby Einstein DVD's and they are occasionally viewed in our home.

By our children.

And I even consider them to be somewhat educational.  

(the crowd gasps in horror)

What I don't do, is use television to parent my children.  And I don't need Disney (or any interest group) to parent me.  Thankyouverymuch.

The summary of this post:  It is impossible to idiot proof people.

Happy Turkey Day

Ron playing in the neighborhood Turkey Bowl game today.  He's not a bit competitive.  Nope.

And.......Sleep!

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

I miss the good 'ole days.

I am officially putting Lincoln on some sort of resemblance-of-a-schedule.  It was fun, while it lasted, to allow him to sleep wherever and whenever his little heart desired.  I told Ron this has all been "research" for the Sleeping 12 hours in 12 weeks book I may write someday.  If Only I Had Time.

He came up with an alternate title:  Maintaining Your Parental Sanity.