MotherTalk Blog Tour: The Daring Book for Girls

As a girl during the '70s, I did many of the activities listed in The Daring Book for Girls, the latest book by MotherTalk founders Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. I told ghost stories and played "light as a board, stiff as a feather" with the neighborhood kids. (And yes, we levitated. No, really.)

To read the rest of this post (c'mon, you know you want to), please visit The Wonder Mom Review.

Care.com: Saving You From the Inept Babysitter

It's no secret to my longtime readers that I haven't had the best luck with babysitters. Heck, even my favorite babysitter turned around and left me after a while. Then there's the times I'm so burnt out I feel like I need to save my kids from myself. ...

Read this review and giveaway at The Wonder Mom Review. (If you've already entered here, don't worry, I'll count your entry!)

When to encourage writing on walls

I'm not sure what that, um, shape is supposed to be. But I do know that I won't be washing this off any time soon. The dried up boogies to the left of it are another story ...

P.S. We have a winner of Home Improvement: The Complete 7th Season! Mel, please send me your address and I'll get it in the mail. Thanks to everyone for the great Christmas-buying tips!

P.P.S. It was on his bedroom wall. I'd never allow boogers on the family room wall.

Have you heard of ESRB.org?

I took the chance to tell you about the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), because it's a comprehensive resource for parents who want to check out the violence level and age appropriateness of video games before buying them or letting their kids play them.

To read the rest of this post, go to The Wonder Mom Review. Thanks!

Another Winner ...

Becky, you've won the Pixar Short Films Collection DVD! Congrats, and send along your address to clouth@gmail.com.

Thanks to all who entered!

Giveaway: Home Improvement, The Complete Seventh Season

You know what depresses me? The fact that Home Improvement debuted 17 years ago. That wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't already been out of high school for four years at the time.

In other words, man, I'm old.

To read the rest of this post, please visit The Wonder Mom Review.

I Had NO IDEA

I often wondered what kind of post would push me up toward the 100-comment mark. Sure, I suspected it may be a giveaway, but I never, ever thought it would be for a DVD of a kids' show that people can watch on their regular cable/satellite every day of the week.


What's up with you people? Nothing personal but, for all of you who said you don't like Little Einsteins, you lie! You sing the theme song in the shower, and we all know it!


Given current events, I shouldn't be surprised. First it's lead paint on millions of toys, now it's the date rape drug in Aqua Dots. After all the concern about too much screen time, about brain cell damage caused by the boob tube, it turns out a screen is the safest thing for our kids to play with. I never saw that one coming, either.


So, all you adorable and eager Little Einsteins enthusiasts, we have a winner. I'm sorry for the delay but we had printer issues, and unlike Y, I do NOT love you guys enough to write down 80 some-odd names, let alone 200. I am no Y, this I know. Plus I'm lazy.


Anyway, the winner! Karen, come on down! You are the winner of Wonder Mom's most-entered giveaway contest ever! Wooo hooo! Send me your address, and I'll get this prized DVD out to you ASAP.

Congrats, and thanks to all you Einstein FREAKS who played along.

Giveaway: PIXAR Short Films Collection DVD

Before we get into the details of this giveaway, can I just bitch for a minute? Yes? Thank you.

My day yesterday:

Get up early, anticipating the arrival of my mother, the harbinger of an "easy" day for me. Get the kids ready so we can go to Barnes and Noble to get a gift card for a birthday party John was invited to later in the day. (The invitation said not to feel obligated to bring a gift, but if we wanted to, we could bring a book for the birthday girl. I decided to at least get her a gift card, because, if all she's getting are books, then damnit, she gets to pick the book out.)

Notice the pouring rain, but remain optimistic that it will lighten up. Hit my clicker to unlock the car from the family room so we can all jump inside fast. Notice the lights don't flash. Get ominous feeling.

Run out in the downpour and realize that, yes, I left the interior lights on (long story) and the battery is dead (again).

Decide to rally and move the car seats into my mother's car, even though I can't open the sliding doors on my minivan because they're battery powered. Take the tribe to Barnes and Noble.

After an uneventful and pleasant trip to the bookstore, return home, put John's car seat back in my car --in the unending downpour -- and bring various items into the house, where Ava promptly pees her pants. Check my messages and realize the doctor's office scheduled me for my abdominal CT (long story) at exactly the time I asked them not to. Make several calls. Realize the CT place is closing and reopening in another location this week, causing problems with getting an appointment. Also realize there is a "prep kit" involved in this test. Get ominous feeling.

Run out in the rain in my mom's car to get the prep kit. Return home to listen to Ava yell "I'm NOT SLEEPING MOM!" over the monitor while I slurp down some chicken soup. Give John time outs for various infractions before realizing he has a fever. Begin to wonder if he can go to the party.

Call Brian for the 13th time and get no answer. Send him an email: "Please call me. I've been calling you since 8:30 am!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Congratulate myself for showing considerable restraint, with the bitchiness restricted to exclamation points.

Ben comes home, in the pouring rain. Begin scrambing to give snacks and get homework done. Finally talk to Brian for half a second, and let him no the battery's dead and John may or may not be too sick to go to the party. Propose that Brian take John to the party instead of me. Get shot down, and realize I'll have to take him. Ava pees her pants again.

Answer the phone. It's Brian. Catastrophic problems at work, he can't come home so I can take John to the party. Can't I bring all three kids? (No.) Can't I call our neighbor and ask her to babysit? (During dinner time? No.) Listen to how tremendously bad he feels. Hang up and gaze over at John, who is wiping snots on his sleeve.

Consider all the ways I may be able to take John to the party (babysitters, dropping him off and driving around with the other two kids for two hours), all the while forgetting that my car won't even start.

Answer the phone. It's my mom, telling me she still has Ava's car seat in her car. In New Hampshire. She offers to drive it to me in the morning. I accept despite wretching guilt. Ava pees her pants again.

Break the news to John. Explain all the reasons why I can't take him, including his low-grade fever and my lack of a car seat. Still forgetting that my car has a dead battery.

Make raviolis. Serve dinner. Break up fights. Stop Ava from jumping on the couch/coffee table/her brothers/me. Yell. Blow John's nose. Clean up Ava's pee again (WTF?!). Clean up the house. Yell some more.

Get the kids to bed. Sit in a heap on the couch and watch Dancing With the Stars over a bowl of Red Sox Peanut Butter Nation Ice Cream. Go to bed, hoping that the rising sun will break whatever curse had befallen me.

Back to the giveaway:

I haven't watched this yet, but I'm planning on sticking Pixar Short Films under the tree and watching it over Christmas break with the kids. I've seen a few of these, as extras on various Pixar DVDs, and I especially loved "Boundin' Jack-Jack Attack," and "One Man Band." There are 13 shorts in all. You know you want it!

If you really do want it, just leave me a message telling me how your day is going between now and Saturday at midnight EST. I'll draw a name randomly and post a winner on Sunday. Good luck!

Giveaway: Little Einsteins Rocket's Firebird Rescue DVD

My blog and I had a little falling out. I got to the point where I was like, "You're just a pain in my ass, a waste of my time." And my blog was like "You're nothing without me. Remember the day you checked your stats and email 187 times?" And I was all, "You said you'd never throw that back in my face! And? You're nothing without ME!"

Turns out, I was right.

So I'm back to see if I can get a little bloggin mojo back. We shall see.

Meanwhile, I have for your giveaway-entering pleasure a brand new copy of the latest example of pioneering cinematic toddler crack, Rocket's Firebird Rescue, featuring Little Einsteins. At the time I was offered this DVD, Ava was so infactuated with Little Einsteins that I had to accept, even though I'm trying SO HARD to resist the free book/DVD temptation. As a testament to the power of Murphy's law in my life, Ava promtply eschewed Little Einsteins for her new BFF Dora and her new boyfriend Cailliou. (The latter is a horrible influence by the way, I'm going to have to break them up.)

Even though Ava is "so done with" Little Einsteins, I stuck this movie into her bag when she visited my Mom for the day. After stamping her foot and nearly popping a blood vessel demanding Dora for three straight hours, my Mom put this movie on. Ava didn't flinch for the entire movie, once again mesmerized by the the show's frolicsome animation and classical cadence.

Can you tell I haven't had my coffee yet? Remind me never to use a thesaurus before coffee.

If you'd like to win a new copy of the DVD Little Einsteins Rocket's Firebird Rescue, just leave a comment here between now and Friday. I'll draw a name randomly and post the winner on Friday. Good luck!