Archive for September, 2008
Sep
30
Posted by
NorthCoastNOW
By JOHN SEEWER Associated Press Writer
TOLEDO (AP) — Ghosts and ghouls — friendly ones at that — are about to take over America’s zoos.
Hay mazes, pumpkin paths and haunted train rides too.
And there will be lots of candy, of course.
Zoos big and small are finding that Halloween events are among their most popular draws, because many parents see the parties as a safer alternative to knocking on the doors of strangers. And there aren’t a lot of other Halloween activities for the stroller crowd.
“For some, our event has replaced the traditional trick-or-treating around the neighborhood,” said Sarah Burnette, spokeswoman for...
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Sep
30
Posted by
NorthCoastNOW
By ANGIE WAGNER For The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — We were off to Disneyland! The happiest place on Earth.
It had been two years since we had made the trek, and this time we were going to celebrate my 5-year-old’s birthday.
On the last trip, we briefly lost my oldest daughter while standing around Downtown Disney trying to decide what we wanted to eat. She wandered off, in search of a large Mickey Mouse balloon, and my husband and I and my parents frantically tried to find her.
We decided then to come up with a plan for amusement parks or crowded areas. When one person is going to go a different direction — to ride a ride, or use the restroom —...
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Sep
30
Posted by
NorthCoastNOW
McClatchy-Tribune
A weekly glimpse of what moms are saying on the Web.
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“A quick funny to share … A couple days ago (my son) was passing out water to the runners as they crossed the finish line at his big sister’s cross country meet. By the way, he loved doing this. After the girls cross the line, they are out of breath and out of energy. Pretty much spent.
“Enter the water boy. THEY need water and HE had it.
“One of the girls he gave water to chugged it quickly. Then she burped out loud. It just came out. She knew we “heard” her burp and was pretty embarrassed. ‘Excuse me!’ she said between her exhausted...
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Sep
30
Posted by
NorthCoastNOW
By Debra Legg 9to5to9.debralegg.com
Serious strategic error in signing up for soccer snacks this season: I was too far away from the coach’s wife when the sheet went around and I’m stuck with a November game.
Tragically, that’s near the end of the season, allowing far too much time for snack insanity to set in.
Last year, I was right beside the coach’s wife and had my choice of dates, except for the season opener she claimed. I picked the second game.
That gave me a training week to get a feel for what was considered an appropriate snack in these parts — post-game feed has been controversial in some places. Then I could do...
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Sep
29
Posted by
Alicia Castelli
There are lots of differences between little boys and little girls - something my youngest likes to point out loudly, in public, at the most inopportune times. One difference I find mildly annoying is how closed-mouthed my two sons can be.
“How was school today?” I ask when I pick them up. “What did you do?”
“I don’t remember,” my five-year-old son says. Every day. Three minutes after he’s been let out of class.
“What do you mean, you don’t remember? School just let out!”
“I don’t remember!” he insists.
“Did you color something?” I ask, trying desperately to have a conversation with him.
“How did you know!?” he asks,...
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Sep
29
Posted by
NorthCoastNOW
By DEAN FOSDICK For The Associated Press
It isn’t always love at first bite when kids and vegetables meet. Children often have to be coaxed into entering this healthy and life-long relationship.
Here’s a matchmaking suggestion: Get things going with a small vegetable garden, even if it’s only in a window box.
“The more you can build interest in getting your children to garden, the more they’ll want to try eating what they grow, including vegetables,” said Jill Le Brasseur, a spokeswoman for the Produce for Better Health Foundation in Wilmington, Del., a non-profit consumer education group. “If they help select the vegetables, plant the seeds and weed, they’ll feel more...
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Sep
29
Posted by
NorthCoastNOW
McClatchy-Tribune
Moms Forum spotlights useful discussion taking place on the parenting forums of newspapers around the country.
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QUESTION: Help! I need any advice you might have for traveling on an airplane for five hours with my 11-month-old daughter.
— Posted by MiaMama, on sacmomsclub.com.
RESPONSES:
“While you are waiting to board the plane, keep her very busy. Wear the little angel out. Play with her, tickle her, let her run, walk, crawl back and forth a million times, anything that will make her totally tired. Do not — I repeat — do not nurse her while you are waiting. Save it for the plane. …...
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Sep
29
Posted by
NorthCoastNOW
By Jean DC METRO MOMS BLOG
When I was in elementary school, there were two phone numbers in my file: my home number and my mom’s work number. If the school needed to get in touch with my mom and she wasn’t sitting next to one of those (non-cordless) phones, they were out of luck. They couldn’t even leave a message because we didn’t have an answering machine.
Wow. I think I just admitted that I am older than time.
Flash forward a few years, and my kids’ schools have no fewer than four phone numbers for them — and at least two e-mail addresses. If the school needs me, they can reach me. If, for some strange reason, I am not able to get my phone, I will find messages on...
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Sep
29
Posted by
NorthCoastNOW
By Cindy Fey CHICAGO MOMS BLOG
We’re planning to redo our upstairs bathroom so I’ve been leafing through the pages (2) of fancy fantasy bath books and every single one of the photos, from the luxury marble palaces to the modest Zen retreats done up in teak, have something in common. No twisted tubes of old Princess toothpaste, no discarded copies of Entertainment Weekly and National Geographic. No legion of bath toys. Each room as beautiful and anonymous as a hotel bath.
I want to blame the chaotic energy of my kids for my cluttered house. I really do. But I really can’t. I’ve been a packrat since forever. But motherhood has made me look at my clutter as something other than simply a bad...
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Sep
28
Posted by
NorthCoastNOW
By LEANNE ITALIE Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — “Are dragons kind?” 7-year-old Noah Pellettieri asks Dr. Ernest Drake, the esteemed naturalist and adventurer.
“Animals are neither good nor bad,” Drake replies.
Hand shooting in the air for another turn, the overexcited young scientist wants to know: “Have you ever seen a yeti?”
“I trekked high into the Himalayas looking for a yeti and found one, but he didn’t like my hat,” Drake recalls.
The intrepid Drake, the alter ego of Englishman Dugald A. Steer, passed a recent afternoon delighting a dozen budding monsterologists with tales of the ferocious three-headed...
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