Before I had kids, I honestly, somewhat secretly, thought it would be cool to have like, 6 kids.  Hilarious to me now of course, with two kids, a daughter that is nearly 6, a son that is almost 3, a neglected husband and an even more neglected blog. 

How the hell do people do it?! How do you have more than two kids? Once they out number you, you know they’ll just plan a coup.  As lucky as I am, with two kids that adore each other and are basically sweet, great kids, it’s still super challenging and a ton of work all the time. 

Now that my youngest is 2-1/2 things are settling down, he’s able to play with her, it’s wonderfully delightful to listen to her read to him or play action figures together and crack each other up. It’s something I missed out on as an only-child and it’s exactly why I wanted to have six kids, no two is better, they have each other.  read more »

In most cases, someone laughing at your discomfort is a horrible crime. There are a few instances where it’s not however. For example, your grocery shopping because, hey - you’re a mom and your family likes to eat food, when suddenly you spot a mom that has a child (or children) the same age as yours - that age - I’m talking about that 3-4yr age range where independence starts beautifully blossoming in your wonderful child. The result is that suddenly they’re using the potty on their own, they’re playing on their own and in their minds they’d like to live on their own so they could poke holes in the plastic wrapped watermelon halves, eat all the candy in the store and kick mean kids in the shins without the aggravation of moms watchful eye. So, you walk by this fellow mom and you can’t help but laugh because you hear something like this:
Mom: Honey, no. You can’t have those giant chocolate bars and we’re not discussing this any further.
Kid: (screaming and/or whining) MooOooOoommm I neeeEeeEeeed them right now! You’re the worst mom ever!
Mom: Ok, I’m the worst.
These days I can’t help but laugh at that moms pain. Not out of cruelty of any sort but out of sheer commiseration, and you know what? I think they appreciate it. Mind you I laugh because I’m a member of the club and that’s specifically what makes it ok. Were I some single lady laughing at that scene I would easily be thrown a dirty look by the exhausted mom if not worse. But when it’s parent-to-parent she knows, ‘Ok that mom knows what I’m going through and she’s likely laughing because she’s gone thru it too.’ -Yes, mom, I’ve been there too.  read more »

10. Your belly can also be used as a storage shelf.

9. You don’t just crave certain foods you neeeeeeed them.

8. Your pet or older child notices your lap is half the size it used to be.

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7. Elastic wasteband pants aren’t even comfortable enough.

6. You’d like to bite the head off of the skinny, non-pregnant lady sitting next to you complaining about her weight.

5. You close your eyes when walking past cute non-maternity clothes.

4. You think sleeping is a fantastic hobby.

3. You grunt when you sit down, you grunt when you stand up.  read more »

If you want to really go back in the TV history books, you’ll find that this whole debacle was started with programs such as Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, Captain Kangaroo and 3-2-1 Contact. Hundreds of programs could be added to the list, but it was TV programs like these that started America on the trend of educating their children through one of the most convenient teachers in the house, the television. What has evolved from this are more educational TV Shows that incorporated more interaction like Blue’s Clues where children are asked questions, engaged with music and activities that include other children and the child viewer themselves. By 1997 a new child education system was born, Baby Einstein. The new development of the Baby Einstein DVD baby education package grew to a million dollar business quickly and was soon gobbled up by the Walt Disney Corporation. In the last couple years heavy scrutiny has come out against educational claims made by all these programs and systems.  read more »