Parenting Children

I am going to have a few new features every month for you, my dear readers.
First we are going to have milestones and development based on baby/child’s age once a week. We will talk about what to look for, what to expect and how to tell if your child is going to be the next Albert Einstein.
Ok, well, not the last part.

Then we are going to have a “Ask a Mom” feature. Have a question about finding the right pediatrician, how to make your kids stop talking so darn much, why your child will not eat anything but Cheerios, or when should you take your child to the dentist? Well, submit it to me by clicking that contact me button on the right hand side of the page. I will help you answer any question or problems you are having and if I cannot answer it I promise to find a Mom who can.
I have lots of smart Mommy friends.

Just not as smart as me, of course.

Again, if you have a product that you would like me to review, drop me a line at tuesdayDOTgirlATgmail.com

So there you go, two new features for Parenting Our Children.
It doesn’t get more exciting then this, does it?

parenting, moms, ask a mom, parenting help, reviews, parenting problems, children, babies, toddlers, preschoolers, dads

“You look like you are due any day now!” said a nice woman in line behind me at the Baby Gap. I smiled and continued to wait even though my feet were telling me to leave. I didn’t feel like explaining to everyone that I came in contact with that I still had three months to go, I was just so big because I had two babies in my uterus, not one.

Two babies doing the gig on my bladder, two babies who wanted me to eat constantly, two babies that kept getting bigger despite the fact that my belly was stretched to the limit and I hadn’t seen my feet in months. I was huge despite the fact that at 39 weeks I had only gained 19.5 lbs.

Still, people wanted to know when I was due and I took up fibbing to strangers so as not to explain my life story over and over and the questions that always followed:
do you know the sex
are they fraternal/identical
were they natural
do twins run in my family

Then they will tell me of all the twins that reside in their family tree and then all of the twins in their husbands/wife’s family tree. Then when I have just the right amount of information about this stranger’s life and extended family, they will wish me luck “because you are going to need it” and “well, two at once now you are done”.

I know most people mean well, but the conversations were too much for me, the intimate questions and the genealogy lessons were more then my pregnant brain could take, so I would lie and tell people I was due in a few weeks.

After all, I had other things to do like watch my face get more swollen by the day and make sure I always had someone to shave my legs for me.

You know, the important pregnancy stuff.

pregnancy, twins, pregnant

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation plans to spend $500 million dollars to help eradicate childhood obesity in the United States.
Obesity among children is now an epidemic with 25 million kids under the age of 17 obese.

It is not only the ridicule these children endure on a daily basis because of their weight, it also comes with many health risks usually only seen in adults like high cholesterol, type II diabetes, heart disease and the fact that many are going to die young because of these factors.

Factors that can lead some child to become obese are overweight or obese parents, low physical activity, live in low income, urban areas and
heredity.

Prevention not treatment is the best way to fight childhood obesity. Education of pregnant mothers on diet, food groups and exercise and I think, programs that can take these women to grocery stores and show them how to shop on a limited budget. Physical Education needs to be mandatory in all schools for kids. Schools need to have a better balanced meal plans for students. Computer, video games and television times have to be monitored.

This funding from The Robert Wood Foundation I hope will tackle some of these issues and help, but more help is needed. What do you think we can do to eradicate this problem with our children?

childhood obesity, obesity, children, overweight children, type II diabetes, school programs, school lunches, parents

As a mother of a four year old girl who swears she is a princess, I am always on the look out for some new ideas for her. She has enough dress up costumes adn accesories for all the little girls in New Jersey, she has the princess dolls, movies and toys.

What is next? The pink princess cookbook. Filled with (surprise!) pink things to make and enjoy for your next tea party of princess themed birthday party.

My daughter will love it!

cookbooks for kids, cooking with kids, princesses, preschoolers, daughters, moms, kid cooks, pink

I never thought kids would be excited about anyone else’s birthday besides their own, but my kids surprised me today.
I had a “happy Birthday Mom!” chorus come into my room this morning. I had two overly excited kids give me gifts and not beg to open them for me. My daughter was as excited for my gifts as I was, she was adorable. When I thanked my son after he gave me a gift, he thanked me back.

We have celebrated a weekend of birthdays in this house. My husband’s birthday was on Friday and the kids helped me make a cake for him, and then they selflessly helped him eat it! What good kids.

My children love birthdays their friends, cousins, grandparents, they will help celebrate and be as happy with the day as if they were the ones getting gifts. They are happy children and they love life. They see the positive in everything and just want to make each day as fun as it can be. In this next year of my life, I want to be more like them, I will follow their example about how to live life.

That is the best gift I could ever have received, and it didn’t cost a thing.

birthday, kids, love, moms, what I learned from my kids

This is very eye opening.
Hopefully this will open our eyes to what our children see and are exposed to every day. In life, on television and by their own parents actions.

children see children do, children, parenting, parents, teaching children, teach kids well

myLot User Profile

My son walks into the room when I am stuffing hershey kisses in my pocket. He was tipped off by the unmistakable sound (to him!) of candy wrappers swirling around the cabinet.
Damn! He is on to me!

L: Mommy, what do you have?

Me: hmmhmmph?

L: In your hand? What do you have in your hand?

Me: What? Nothing!

L: What is in your mouth?

Me: What? You want to watch a show? Lets put on a show or look! toys, lets play with all of these toys, hey R, look! its R, lets play with R! Haaaaahaaa

L: confused as heck

Me: What am I doing? Hiding chocolates from my child?
It is official, I have turned into my Mother.

chocolate, kids, parenting, moms

Last week a large box arrived at our house. It was filled with easter gifts for our kids and some for the adults from my in laws.
Included was enough candy for all of New Jersey so now I don’t want to put candy in my children’s Easter baskets.
They have enough.

What to do? I decided on putting some yogurt covered raisins, almonds, stickers and tattoos in the plastic eggs instead of candy.

What do you put in your children’s Easter baskets?

Easter, easter candy, easter baskets, kids, parenting, candy, stickers, moms

I was “tagged” to do a real moms post, where you write Real Moms_______ and you fill in the blank and then explain it.

That got me thinking, are there “fake” moms out there? Isn’t everyone “real” whether you planned to be, you never thought you wanted to be or miraculously became a mom?

Real Moms are everywhere.
They are the old lady that everyone is too busy to visit in the nursing home. They are the young teenager who knows her child will have a better life if she gave it up for adoption, even though the decision tore her heart out.
A real mom is the mother who adopted the child that needed a home and loved that child as if it grew in her womb instead of her heart.
Real moms are corporate executives, pilots, cashiers and receptionists.
She is the stay at home mother who gets bored at the park.

A real mom stays home from work when her child is sick and the mom who goes to work after being up all night with a sick child.
She is the grandmother who after raising her own children, is now raising her grandchildren because her daughter cannot.

A real mother is the place you came from.

Every mother in every form is a real mother, she is you and she is me.

real moms, mothers, children, what is a real mom, family, families, moms, grandmothers

Spring is that time of year when I get the inspiration to clean the heck out of my house. The best helper of all the cleaning helpers in the world?
MyDyson vacuum. 5 minutes for mom is sponsering a contest for you to win a new Dyson slim vacuum. I promise you will love it.

Go on, hurry,contest is open until Aril 4th.

Say no to Dora, monster trucks and Care Bears, there is a new way to have lunch and it is with yourself.
I am loving these personalized lunchboxes.

How cool is that? Now take your kids to lunch with you or have a family photo put on a lunchbox for your child’s first day of school.

What a fun idea!

personlaized lunchboxes, lunch boxes, cool kid things, shopping, kids, gift ideas for kids

My son is a crier.

There, I said it.
That took a lot to admit but he is a crier. I have made it acceptable by using keywords to friends such as “sensitive” or “emotional” which he is, but really? Maybe he is just a crier.

He was always my more emotional child. He would cuddle with me and be my food network watching friend, he was generous with his hugs and kisses and so very loving. His twin sister was always too busy to stop and spread the kisses. She would only sit on your lap for more then 10 seconds when she was sick.

L will cry if you scolded him, he would cry if another child took his toy, he would cry if there were bigger kids on the jungle gym and he was intimidated. I felt myself being frustrated with him, seeing his sensitiveness as a weakness, a trait nobody wants to see in their child.

As their first school year is winding down, I can see the changes in him. Does he still cry? Yes, but it is not every day and it is not for “any” reason anymore. He is more confident and strong. He does not clutch to my leg when I try to leave his classroom, he interacts with all the kids, not just his sister.
I have grown too, I realize that he is not weak, he is strong.

He can cry and that is ok, I will never let myself feel frustrated by it. It is who he is. He is not defined by it but it is a tiny part that comprises his personality.

He is empathetic, loving, sweet and caring and he is undoubtedly one of the greatest people I have ever met.

crying, kids, preschoolers, toddlers, emotional kids, moms, parenting, love