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  • Kitchenista: Cool Down

    Jeez, it's hot. Hot, hot, hot. If you are one of those lucky souls who live somewhere that's always 75 and sunny, you know how the hot can bring you down - especially when you start to think about making dinner. Monday night I was *thisclose* to giving the kids freezer pops and bowls of mixed nuts and calling it a day.

     

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  • Back-to-School Tips

    school busWhen I was a kid, one year I devised an elaborate system where I woke up a little earlier in tiny increments every day for the last couple of weeks of summer in order to be ready for the First Day of School and avoid the sleepless nights I usually had. It was, like I said, and elaborate plan and it should have worked.

    It didn't.

    But maybe these tips from Land's End, who should know about such things based solely on the number of catalogs they produce and mail in August each year, will help your kids, I don't know:

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  • Back-to-School Tips for Kindergarten

      I know it's only early August, but I've got school on the brain.  Around here, the first day of school - kindergarten for our family - is just a couple of weeks away.  Visions of new backpacks, lunch boxes and closed-toed shoes are dancing in my head, but in my stomach are butterflies the size of elephants.  Whether you're a slightly nervous/excited parent like I am, or you're sooooo ready to drop the kids off at school that you can taste it (or both!), here are some great tips for easing the separation on that first, big day.

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  • Cheat Sheet: Teaching Kids to Tidy Up (Good Luck With That!)

    Most of our cleaning sprees include a special moment where someone sits in the middle of the mess and weeps "But it's sooooo haaaaard!". Sometimes, that someone is me.

    BadBadIvy's tips on teaching your children to clean up, and making it easy for them, are fabulous. Lots of great ideas about organization, setting limits on the amount of crap your kids accumulate, and setting basic ground rules for how tasks are completed. These guidelines are a great complement to other clever organizational hints, and there are probably about a zillion other ideas that everyone else has figured out but me (please, share yours). So far, the best I've come up with is to buy a house with enough bedrooms that one can be for the exclusive purpose of playing, while the sleeping room is used for pretty much nothing but shut-eye and clothing storage. It's all still an unholy disaster, but at least I have eliminated the step where I have to separate underpants from Polly Pocket shoes.

    (via Lifehacker, whose wonderful knowledge would probably change my life if I weren't so lazy about implementing it)  


  • Pack a smarter diaper bag.

    There are a few reasons I'm happy to be done with babies. The diapers, midnight wakings, the crying as communication and the monster diaper bag making me feel a little like a Himalayan sherpa. I know it's hard to believe, when you're in the thick of raising babies and toddlers, that one day you will be able to walk out the door with no one in your arms, no sippy cups, no diapers and no ziplocs full of cheerios.

    This piece gives you a few pointers for lightening your load until that magical day comes.  She suggests products which are compact, can serve many needs and be a critical consumer to avoid falling into the trap of buying anything which promises to make your job easier. Of course I'm reading this article and I'm surprised I even survived having a baby in public. I carried a diaper in my purse, a bottle, a small container of wipes, a small bib for drool and a rotating small toy for distraction.

    This article suggests I need disinfectant, disposable bibs, place mats for restaurants, bags to dispose of diapers, sun block and a first aid kit (among another five items). Holy crap, I'd never leave the house if faced with this list. Here's a tip I learned with my second kid, if you're around other mothers, one of them is probably better about carrying a stocked diaper bag, borrow a band aid/sunblock/a baby wipe from them and keep your load light(er).


  • Send Strollerderby Your Tips!

    Contact us...just like like Jodie Foster doesHey mamas and papas - got a hot story you think we ought to know about? We now have two ways for you to throw them in our faces:

    - Post about it in the new Strollerderby Forum. You can also use this forum to provide feedback on our content and editorial direction, or to suggest technical improvements we ought to implement to make this blog easier to use. This is as much your blog as it is ours, and we want your input.

    - Email us the tip at strollerderby-at-babble.com. (Replace the "-at-" with an @ symbol, of course - otherwise your email client will get nasty with you.)

    If you have your own blog, make sure to include it in your forum post or e-mail, so that we can thank you with a link back to your own ramblings.  

    As time moves forward, we'll be incorporating more features to make it easier for you to communicate with the Strollerderby team, and contribute your own content to the blog. Thanks, as always, for your continued support!


  • MOCHIP: A New Tool to Help Track Missing Kids

    It's a great idea -- collecting important information about your children in the horrible event they go missing, or worse. You'll have instant, one-stop access to a CD filled with a digital photo and digital fingerprints, as well as a cast of their teeth and saliva for DNA testing. "You hope you never have to use it, but if you do, it's there and you're glad that you have it," said David Gallagher, a program organizer

    The name of this powerful crime-fighting tool? MOCHIP. MOCHIP? It sounds like something I can order at the ice cream parlor. And why, please tell me, is this program run by the Freemasons and not, I don't know, cops? The Missouri Freemasons are running around trying to collect information about the state's children in the event of an emergency, claiming they don't actually retain the information themselves. Where's Agent Mulder when you need him?

    Jokes aside, it's not sinister. MOCHIP is the Missouri form of a national Masonic Chip that says it has been recognized by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (I searched that site and couldn't find mention of masonic or chip, but details, details). It's still a good idea. One I wish no one had to think about, which is why it's easier to joke about it. But a good idea nonetheless. Are you prepared for the unthinkable?


  • The Family That Logs On Together ... Oh I Forget

    What's easier -- jotting down a daily to-do list and sticking it on the fridge? Or logging on to your computer to find out what events you have planned that day? A growing number of online parenting calendar businesses are hoping the latter.

    The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's "Working Dad" Paul Nyhan explores the burgeoning field of virtual parenting calendars like Cozi, Famundo, Fircle, Parentorganizer and even Google Calendar. "This year, a new generation of online family tools, including Seattle-based Cozi Central, hopes to fulfill this annual promise with one-stop Web sites that offer a calendar, message center, contacts, to-do lists and even a slide show," Nyhan writes.

    Are you freaking kidding me? These companies aren't living in the virtual world. They're living in Fantasyland. On many days, I don't have time to shower in the morning. (What a lovely play date companion I am.) I don't want to waste precious parent sleep time logging onto my computer to check the time of a doctor's appointment when simply glancing at my hand written to-do list will accomplish the same thing. Come back to me in a few years when I have nine kids playing nine different sports, and I might change my tune. (Or my contraception.) Or I might just buy a whiteboard and a mess of markers.


  • LinkLove: Navigating the Holidays With Special Needs Kids

    I've been loving this blog for years and am stoked to have such a great excuse to share it with y'all: Leelo and His Potty-mouthed Mom's tips for surviving the holidays with an autistic child. And truly, these are great things to keep in mind even if your children don't have special needs; kids of all stripes get overstimulated by the noise, the sugar, the strangers, the travel. Take it to heart.
     



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