Mommin' It Up!

February 10, 2014February 9, 2014

Olympaholics Unanimous

As Emily and I have written before, we love the Olympics. We love the Games unconditionally. I love them as if they were a child I only got to see every two years. When they are here for a visit, I want NOTHING MORE than to spend time with them. Than to sit at their feet and look upon them with wonder. Figure skating? YES. Luge? Uh-HUH! Skiing? Hellzyeah. Ski JUMPING? Bring it on! Snowboarding? Yes, please! Curling? WHY THE HECK NOT?

I. Love it. ALL.

The Olympics are a FUN 2.5 weeks for me. But they are also an emotional couple of weeks. I mean, the Olympics are ALWAYS full of high drama and so far Sochi 2014 is no exception! The competition has already been intense, and skiiers especially are dropping like FLIES from injury. Also? There is a 15-year-old Russian figure skater who can do jumps with both ankles behind her neck. Have you SEEN this girl? Jeezy-flippin’-petes!! The Olympics have already got me running the gamut of emotions, and since I, unlike Russian President Vladimir Putin, am able to change my facial expression to express these emotions, I thought I’d share a few with you. Each night after I put on my patriotic face paint, turn on NBC, and cuddle up with my favorite blankey, you may find me looking like this, depending on what’s happening during the Olympic broadcast:

Or this:

Or possibly, this:

And 100% chance of this every night so far:

Seriously, why haven’t antiobiotics taken CARE of that mess yet? Holy yikers! Did he accidentally watch his face with some Sochi water? Eeep!

In any case, I am ob-sessssed with ye olde games per usual this time around. So far I’ve loved our TOTALLY STOKED snowboarders and the team figure-skating event the most. What’s your favorite event so far, and what are you most looking forward to? I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE WOMEN’S SKI JUMPING!!! (Did I just yell that?) Tell me all about your Olympic obsession!

February 5, 2014

Transitional Struggles

I have some good news, and I have some bad news, folks.

The good news is that Jonah loves school. Like, excited to go, runs into class without looking back at me, and when he’s off for a milliion days in a row because of the Polar ~~Whoretex~~ Vortex, asks to go back.

jonah daddy bowling 2 — The other good news (random) is that he beat us all at bowling this weekend. I want one of those ramps!

The bad news is that since he’s started school, he’s been a holy terror at home. Holy. TERROR. He’s whiny, grumpy, fussy, and completely unreasonable. He would rather fuss and scream about something before asking. He gets set off by little things and has a hard time calming down.

What has happened to my easy-going boy?

My guess is, since Joshua grew horns and red eyes for about 8 weeks after he started kindergarten (and ohemegee you have to click that link to see how CUTE AND LITTLE he was! And also, that people once actually commented on this blog.) and since Sophie DIDN’T SLEEP (that. was. horrible.) for about 8 weeks after she started preschool, that we are just in for a few weeks of grumpy transition time.

I’m trying not to freak out about it…but it has made my life much more difficult these past couple weeks. He even threw a giant fit at speech therapy yesterday (which he had to miss two weeks in a row because of the aforementioned weather tramp) which he has not done since like, his 2nd session 8 months ago. Because he LOVES speech. His SLP was like….”Uh, who is this kid?” It was bad.

So, who has advice? What should I do? Toddler tranquilizers? Hypnosis? Drink lots of Mountain Dew and eat lots of chewy Sweet Tarts (for me, not him) until this too passes? Please tell me you’ve all been here before and we’ll both come out ok!

February 4, 2014

ISO – Your best internet safety tips for kids

Kate turns 10 in April, and we are considering giving her an iPod for her birthday. And by iPod, I mean my old iPhone in a new case. She’s been wanting one for a while, and since I just upgraded my phone and have a spare lying around, it seems like a good time.

I am a little nervous about it, though. I don’t exactly know why – she spends more time with my iPad than I do, mostly watching Netflix and YouTube videos about kids who got puppies for Christmas. But something about her having her own device, even if it’s closely monitored by Andy and me, seems a little bit different.

To be honest, I am not worried at all about the information she will seek out, but I am mostly worried about what she could potentially stumble upon inadvertently. I mean, we’ve all googled something and found something entirely different (for the record, if you’re looking to order soccer cleats, make sure to go to dickssportingoods.com – not the shortened version of that), and then there are all the horror stories we’ve heard about mean girls and “hot or not” contests and all sorts of nonsense.

So, obviously I want to stay out ahead of this stuff, but I don’t have a solid plan yet. One thing I do intend to use, though, is this contract I came across. It’s from imom.com (that link will take you to the site where you can download a PDF version of your very own).

It’s time for some intense interwebz research on this topic! But I’d also like to hear from you.

How do you monitor what your kids are doing online? What, if any, parental controls do you employ? What conversations do you have with your kids about it?