Happy Halloween

October 31, 2011

This photo just makes me laugh so hard.

Over at AlphaMom I asked the question, How old is too old to Trick-or-Treat?

So, no, I am not dead. I have just been busy doing things that are so mundane and boring. Or else unbloggable, which I can pretty much wrap up in one word, teachers. TEACHERS, man.

Oh, and then there has been the CRAZY that just seems to follow me around. Why do crazy people seem to be attracted to me? I need to have a shirt made that says, “Do I look like I care?”

The Game Goes On No Matter the Weather

October 10, 2011

It did something this weekend that it hasn’t done in a long, long time. It rained. A hard, soaking, downpour of a rain. The wind blew. The skys were dark.

And all of us sitting in the stands watching our 10 yr olds play football were completely unprepared.

The first few minutes we wonderful, rehydrating, the way you feel when you finally get a glass of water to quench your thirst. But after that, it was just cold. And then kind of miserable. And we all sort of looked at each other bewildered in our dripping wet shorts and t-shirts, shivering.

We had all heard that it might rain. But no one really believes that anymore.

And then halfway through the game the sky began to lighten up a bit and the rain was pounding us less. A rainbow appeared in the sky that seemed to end just behind the scoreboard.

It’s a sign! We are going to win the game! Clearly God loves our team best!

Yeah. Turns out it was a sign for the other team.

The one that had parents who thought to bring umbrellas.

Stay at home day two

October 7, 2011

I kept him home from school on Friday also. For good measure.

And this day he baked a cake. In the fancy pan.

Then we went out to lunch at our favorite local BBQ place.

Because if anything can cure you it is meat and soda made with pure sugar cane.

He is fine, by the way. No lingering symptoms or headaches. However, the fact that he still has to sit out is killing him.

He Wants Me to Stop Asking Him About His Head

October 6, 2011

My 12 year old is home with me today recovering from a minor concussion he got playing football Monday night.

Monday night he seemed perfectly okay, he only said his forehead hurt and the way he had taken hit to his head he had a couple of large bumps and abrasions on his forehead. Tuesday he woke up, acted normal, and went to school. There is no football practice on Tuesdays, thankfully. When I picked him up from school that afternoon he complained of a slight headache, but still I wasn’t overly concerned or worried. Because OF COURSE YOUR HEAD HURTS!

However, I noticed that evening that his temperament had changed. This is a kid who is very slow to anger, happy-go-lucky, mellow. Only Tuesday night he was a little agitated. I told him I was writing a note to his coach and he would not be practicing the next day. He agreed. Anyone who knows this kid knows that he must be feeling poorly in order to agree to that. This is a kid who goes and practices with OTHER teams, just for fun. A kid who has played with a broken finger. A kid who is a wee bit crazy. Still, he didn’t have any of the other tell tale signs of a concussion.

Wednesday I gave him some Tylenol and sent him off to school. When I picked him up he said he had trouble concentrating all day and that he still had a headache. A worse headache. We got home, he relaxed for awhile and then attempted to do his math homework. I saw his lack of concentration for myself. And he was still not really himself personality wise. Then we started talking about the game and his timeline of events is off.

Ding ding ding. We have a concussion.

I had been planning on taking him to the doctor today, but he woke up this morning feeling fine. No headache. Back to his easy, happy self. I already told him he is staying home tomorrow just for good measure. I remember back from when my oldest had his concussion that reading and using the thinking portion of your brain made headaches come back. He is not pleased with this.

Staying home is boring. “My god, there is five more hours until I would be home. What are we going to do all day? What do YOU do all day? I don’t know how you can stand it!”

I just laughed. He is right.

He is making the most of his time at home by eating everything that isn’t nailed down. He made pumpkin muffins. I saw the recipe on Miss Zoot’s blog. Two ingredient pumpkin muffins. Even the brain injured can do that!

He didn’t believe me that we only needed two ingredients (How could it not have eggs, Mom?) so I looked it up on a recipe site for him. And thus he was exposed to his first crazy recipe commenters. “Mom, this person gave the recipe 5 stars, but then wrote that they added like 10 other things to the recipe. It’s not even the same recipe anymore! People on the Internet are crazy!”

I just laughed. He doesn’t know the half of it.

He made the muffins and proceeded to eat 6 of them as soon as they came out of the oven.

Then he said, “Alzheimers makes me hungry.”

Awww baby, shhhhh, don’t strain those brain cells.

National Day of the Taco

Did you celebrate this event? No? Well, it doesn’t matter if you missed the actual day, October 4th, you can still partake in the tacos. Honestly, is there ever a bad day for tacos?

If you have any tweens in your house you will want to go read this recipe I wrote over at AlphaMom. Tacos with A Twist, a la iCarly.

Mouse Mail, Navigating the Internet Safely for Children

Have young kids in your house who want to be online just like their older siblings? My 6 yr old asked me recently when he can have a Facebook account. He uses words like skyping and texting, things that didn’t exist when his oldest brother was his age. Sometimes it feels as though we as parents are navigating unchartered waters. We are the ones who are forging the way with social media and our children, trying to figure out the balance.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to look at MouseMail, which calls itself the safest children’s portal to the Internet. It is geared toward the youngest members of the family, children ages 4-11. It has filtered email and web texting, which prevents anything going through to your child that contains offensive material. Copies of any emails that are deemed offensive are emailed to the parent instead of the child. There are also games and a calendar feature. It’s like a one stop shop for your child’s access to the Internet.

They recently launched a child safe video chat as a premium upgrade to the companies’ free email and web texting service. The new, patent pending chat technology prevents children from having any contacts via video without the parent first approving the contact. So you can add their friends, mom, dad, far away relatives to their contact list. Young children can safely and independently chat with these pre-approved contacts.

I love the idea of these features, which enable children to have the feeling of independence but still be appropriately supervised. After trying out MouseMail, the only complaints I have are 1) that the chat feature, as well as the games, are not compatible with Mac, and 2) it can not be accessed by people who have restricted work computers. So while I originally thought that this would be perfect for communicating with your child as a traveling parent, this is most likely not going to be a viable option. Still, I thinkMouseMail is on the cutting edge of social media technology and can help parents insure that their children are interacting online in the safest manner possible

I am going to be giving away a one year membership to MouseMail to one of you lucky commenters below.

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry
methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment
on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on
this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about
an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.

You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be
selected.

Contest will last 10/6-11/2

Visit the BlogHer Prizes & Promotions section

Visit the Official Rules