Category — Splendors of the Internet

J’s been hard at work designing a little bed-and-breakfast in case a leprechaun decides to visit our house. I don’t think it’s going to be happening. In fact, I ranted about this last year.

Did you realize that tomorrow’s Pi Day? 3/14, get it? Maybe you would like to do something Pi related? Or maybe just eat some pie? You can check out PInterest for some ideas (PInterest–get it? Huh? Get it?)

I have no real passion for basketball brackets, but Ask Moxie has a “Mothering Calamities” Tournament. Just reading through them is hilarious, but I’m sort of dying to see how the brackets play out, because there are some tough match-ups (ie., “Asked if you’re your baby’s grandmother vs. Baby pukes in your mouth” or “Stranger chastises you for baby’s lack of hat vs. Poopsplosion”). Go check it out. Voting begins on Thursday!

Jenn Mattern’s blog post today about her 10-year-old daughter felt eerily similar to how life is with M these days.

You saw this lovely time-lapse pregnancy video, right? They look like a very sweet little family. Except at the end I sort of felt like he was trying to French kiss her belly button, and I felt like I was intruding. But clearly they’re exaggerating for poetic effect. It’s just a difficult transition/edit, and by that time they were probably overtired. I barely got my boring paper birth announcements out, and that was only because I was helped by a kind stranger. So they rock.

Josalyn from Capital District Foodie Tots is spreading the word about their Meet-up group of families trying to get fresh, healthy meals on the table. They’re sharing resources and recipes with a focus on farmers’ markets, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options, and kid-friendly healthy choices.

I’ve been getting the KidsOutAndAbout.com newsletter ready tonight, but luckily I’ve got a big list of links that I’ve been meaning to share with you.

All Over Albany has a post on The Snow Train to North Creek.

I just love Glennon’s approach to dealing with tantrums over at Momastery. Seriously, I can’t look at that thumb’s up photo without giggling. It reminds me of one of my favorite things about blogging. When the day’s going crappily, I know that I can kvetch to you all.

The TU’s Parenting Blog has a post with folks suggesting where to donate used toys.

Mamatoga visited a new indoor play center in Ballston Lake, The Wonder Room.

The TU’s Your Day Blog shares that you can get two lift tickets for $20 to ski West Mountain on Wednesday nights.

And you’ve probably already seen this “I’m Elmo and I Know It” parody video that’s been going around, but just in case.

Update: okay, okay. Have I mentioned that I’m not too tech-savvy? My first plug-in, which would have kept you in the dark at Capital District Fun all day, didn’t work, so you just got a teensy blackout. And here’s more info. if you’d like it:

If you spend slightly less time on the internet than I do, or if you’ve been taking care of toddlers or sick children, you might not realize that there are going to be quite a few blacked-out sites tomorrow. Capital District Fun will be one of them. I wanted to give you a little warning in case you want to look something up and write it down with an old-fashioned pencil.

I am blacking out because I like to link & comment with wild abandon, and I like to link to people & places where people are talking about all sorts of things. Sometimes these are vitally important and politically relevant. Sometimes they’re tasteless, not-suitable-for-the-kids spoofs of pop culture. I want access to all of them without fear that my site, or the sites that I love, will be shut down.

Here’s more information, in case you’re looking for it.

FightFortheFuture.org video (this has a quick form to send to Congress) and information on the SOPA Strike.

TechDirt’s got what it calls The Definitive Post On Why SOPA And Protect IP Are Bad, Bad Ideas.

If you don’t feel like reading, and you’d rather listen to a guy ranting in a British accent while you, I don’t know, fold laundry or wash dishes, here’s your link.

Here’s a commentary from Time’s Techland Blog.

Here’s a legal memo by a smart guy from Harvard.

The Bloggess takes on SOPA in video form and makes us fall in love with her all over again.

I wrote a review of Saturday’s Laurie Berkner Band concert. It’s over on KidsOutAndAbout.com. I was a little scattered that day because we were running straight to the show after ice skating, so I forgot my camera. But there are photos from the concert over on The Angel Forever, in case you’re wondering what a “a surprisingly chic giraffe-print pouffy party dress with pink ruffles” looks like. The review is a love-fest, and not just because we got review tickets and a giveaway: pack I just love her. Oh, and not only that, but Deb tweeted the review @KidsOutAlbany, and Laurie tweeted back. It’s like, she almost talked to me.

And speaking of cool women, I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that Amy Poehler and friends have a web-based show called “Smart Girls at the Party” with the tagline “change the world by being yourself.” Holy cow I think she’s fabulous. The girls haven’t seen any of the shows, because if I said, “Girls, girls, look, look! Check out this cool show,” then they’d watch it, all skeptical, and possibly roll their eyes. If I look like I happen to be watching it all by myself when they walk by and look over my shoulder, they will be hooked. So, what is this exactly? Tragically manipulative? Not passive-aggressive surely, but passive-awesome? Discuss.

And if you aren’t already overwhelmed by social media, the splendors of the internet, and the fabulosity (yes, I just made that one up) of womanhood, did you hear about the Bloggess and her traveling red dress? If you’re a regular reader, you know that I think that The Bloggess is hilarious, although between the guffaws she’s also shared that she suffers from depression and anxiety. Just about a week ago she posted that she struggles with trying to control a self-harming disorder, and when she did, her readers and fans, in addition to passing along comments and virtual hugs, showed their support by donating to support her traveling red dress. To hear more about that, check out  the original red dress post with lots of follow-up updates, and here’s an article from Forbes.com (which made me laugh at the end, because the writer discloses that she bought a bunch of red dresses after researching the story).

And finally, in honor of future supremely awesome women, if anyone needs to be hooked up with Girl Scout cookies this year, it’s M’s first year selling them. If you’re local or family and want some thin mints at the end of the month, she’s your gal.

I’ve been collecting links to share. And I’m too lazy to write. So, here’s what I’ve got:

I thought that saying I’m an organ donor on my driver’s license was enough, but apparently it’s not. So here’s a form for New Yorkers to fill out to register as organ donors.

I thought that this video, created by a girl with her sisters to support The Girl Effect, was awesome. Her mom must be so proud!

New Moon Girls has a list of Girls Choice Books.

Have you heard about Khan Academy? If you or your kids want to learn about something–math, art history, economics–there are tons of free tutorials.

The family of a woman who died of liver cancer on December 15th is collecting breast milk for her newborn baby Violet. They live in Dutchess County and there’s a drop-off spot in Coxsackie, but if I hear of someone collecting closer, I’ll update this. Update: Call 813-9290 or 788-7821 if you want to donate locally. This is a friend of a friend of that Katie girl whose blog you read, if that’s enough of a reference for you!

Today I’m just sharing a bunch of holiday links. Because I’ve got Ewok cloaks to sew. Ready?

The TU’s Parent to Parent blog has Tips for a Toddler Christmas.

Mamatoga has Ten Chanukah Crafts.

Albany Kid’s got a post full of cold, hard facts about Santa’s sleigh.

The Bloggess proves that Santa is real.

So, I’ve had a somewhat emotionally exhausting day with a teacher conference that I feared would be contentious scheduled for smack dab in the middle of my day. The conference actually turned out quite peaceful and cordial, but my jaw is still sore from night-time stress teeth-grinding for the past two nights. I’d told myself that I’d treat myself to the reward of actually making my dang wreath after the conference. It didn’t happen. Instead, I’d forgotten that I’d promised to proofread something for Cute W’s work, and then J came down with a killer case of writer’s block. She was only supposed to come up with a few spelling sentences, but she imposes excessive demands on herself and wants to come up with clever sentences that  incorporate 3 or 4 of her spelling words in a single sentence. After much moaning, hand-wringing, and (more!) teeth gnashing, I called it after two sentences and wrote the teacher a note instead. Meanwhile I was late for making dinner.

The rest of the evening has melted away in a similar fashion. So, sigh, I’m just not going to get a chance to tell you about another cool giveaway coming up (tomorrow!).

Instead, I’ll share two links with you

I liked this iVillage article with suggestions on how you can prove that Santa exists.

I also recently passed along a local holiday shopping list over on All Over Albany. Alas, Instead of using photographs of the lovely wares, like this one with cool stuff from Divinitea  . . .

Or some of these lovely little trinkets from Northeastern Fine Jewelry. . .

the editors chose to forgo them and instead publish an unbelievably enormous photograph of me. Wow. . . that’s big. Thanks to my friend who took the picture: I would have made sure that you got credit if I’d realized that the picture itself would be so big. And prominent. And also big. Not like it’s a bad picture. You know, it’s a good picture. But also, awfully big.

Click on over  if you want the details on these lovely items and other local holiday gift ideas. But you might want to squint a little bit so I don’t scare you.

We’ve had a surprisingly low-key weekend, which has been a delight for the whole family, really. This morning I once again blew off a girl scout activity (I seem to have a mental block somehow, perhaps related to the scary scout leader I had that year who chased me away from the organization), and the fact that M made it at all was only thanks to a mother who has learned through experience that I have incompetent calendar management skills and took pity on me and called me.

There was leaf-raking, which, as long as it’s not windy, is a satisfying and wholesome autumn activity. And a soccer game, in which M and her team were pummeled, but perhaps not pummeled quite as bloody as last week.

M has a friend spending the night, and M decided that the must-see movie for her friend was Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which, I’m sorry, but I see that as a parenting triumph. Even if it was a favorite of Cute W’s, not mine, I can’t help but feel pleased that instead of trying to push the envelope,  M’s going with a musical starring Angela Lansbury that came out years before PG-13 was even invented.

Poor J does not have a friend over, but she did spend some quality time with another house guest:

This guy’s crashing with us while his house gets flea-bombed. Did you hear that this year is one of the worst years that vets have seen for fleas? Fair warning.

Here are a few links I’ve gathered lately:

Check out this All Over Albany post about the LEGO® Building Challenge at the Albany Institute of History & Art. And guess what? I’m going to be judging for the Saturday afternoon session!

The Times Union’s Parent to Parent blog had a recent post on advice for cloth diapering.

And Nippertown reports that James Taylor’s going to be acting in The Colonial Theater’s A Christmas Carol.

First, a collection of links for you.

Here’s an All Over Albany post with comments recommending local pediatricians.

I thought that if I said I was an organ donor on my driver’s license, that was enough. Wrong apparently. But you can fill out a form online.

I just thought this Motherhood Uncensored post was funny.

Hey, I didn’t know that you could get a 2 for 1 Saratoga Museum Pass.  That’s awesome.

Here’s a list of Top 8 Sites for Halloween Costume Ideas that I learned about on Twitter from @LifeScoop.

And now for a random photo. The girls were laughing uproariously in the basement. They ran upstairs and called, “Mom! MOM!” More running, some panting. “We managed to make a Barbie look almost like a real person!” They presented me with a very normal-looking Barbie.

“Look!” M exclaimed. “You could totally see someone wear something like this in real life!”

“Yeah!” J gushed. “She’s so casual! Don’t you love it!?!”

M: “She looks great, except that her boobs are still too big and her feet are teensy, teensy.”

J: “But at least she’s not wearing those skinny heels. Do you think that we could find those–what are they called? Loafers?”

M: “YES!” They squealed, grabbed Barbie, and rushed back downstairs.

After reading about our Small World game for Big Kids, Jahnavi asked for suggestions for games for kids who are 3 or 4 years old. Alas, it’s tough to find a game for the preschool set that’s much fun for parents. Really, any fun at all. My kids liked Hi Ho Cherry O and Candyland. Classics, although the actual games are pretty dreary except that the kids take such delight in playing them. We all liked playing Poppa’s Pizza Topple, although the pieces are too slippery-slidey, so it was only fun once we’d roughed them up enough to be able to play a decent game. Later there two games that both kids loved-loved-loved for a long, long time: Guess Who and Zingo. They still play Guess Who sometimes. Both of these games were improvements over Hi Ho and Candyland, although since I’ve played them about a thousand times, and somewhere in the three hundreds it became pretty tiresome.

How about the rest of you, dear readers? Any suggestions on games for the preschool set?

Okay, you may recall that I was irritated about the “I’m too pretty to do homework” shirts at JC Penney recently, and so I thought I should point out that Pigtail Pals has a “response” shirt that reads “Pretty’s got nothing to do with it” with all sort of other girl qualities instead. This is the same woman, Melissa, who wrote the Waking Up Full of Awesome post that someone may have passed along to you already. So there’s a “Full of Awesome” t-shirt, too.

Another link I came across recently (sorry–can’t remember where) is this What’s in Breast Milk poster that compares the ingredients between breast milk and formula. Interesting.

And speaking of choices for newborns, The Bloggess wrote a hilarious (and possibly offensive, depending on your sensibilities–I’m just warning you) post on circumcision for The Stir on Cafe Mom.