It's Santa Time!

Yesterday, we took the kids to see Santa, and for the first time EVER (!!) Georgia did not scream or cry!! I was thrilled! Now, she didn't smile either, and in fact, she has a weird look on her face in the picture, but this is progress, right? Right?

Keep your child safer with SeatSnug!

I was very pleased to be asked to participate in Mom Central’s SeatSnug blog tour. If you are a parent, you know there is nothing more important than your child’s safety. SeatSnug helps you keep your child safer in the car, and that is something we all need.

My son is 6 years old, and currently rides in a booster seat. I remember when we switched him to a booster seat, and I was surprised to discover that it wasn’t more secure. The booster seat is not attached to the car at all. It just sits in the car, and the seat belt goes around the seat and your child. This makes me nervous because my son does not like his seatbelt tight against him. It is a constant battle for me because I have to keep telling him to leave his seatbelt alone so it fits against him securely and doesn’t leave any slack.

Even if you are not in a car accident, when you quickly maneuver your car or swerve, the seatbelt is not locked, so your child can be easily jostled around resulting in injury.

SeatSnug attaches to your child’s safety belt and can be gently tightened at the child’s hips, diminishing any seatbelt slack, and keeping the seatbelt snugly fit against your child. SeatSnug dramatically reduces bouncing, rocking and tipping, and helps your child avoid injury or death when involved in a car accident.

This is one of the best products I have written about for Mom Central. I was very impressed with how easy it was to adjust, and the secure fit gave me peace of mind that I was lacking. SeatSnug retails for $34.95, which is a very small price to pay for your child’s safety.

I hope you will check out the SeatSnug Website where you can learn more about the product and how SeatSnug can make your child’s car rides safer. On the SeatSnug Website, you can also watch a video to see SeatSnug in action. Seatsnug is all about preventing injuries and saving children’s lives!

Manic Monday - Season

Happy Manic Monday! This week’s word is Season. That reminds me, it is the season for Christmas shopping, so if you still have a job and have money to spend, head over to The Wren’s Nest for some kick-ass holiday gifts!!!!

I really do love the holiday season. I always have Thanksgiving at my house and both sets of parents come up for the holiday. I think I’m beginning to perfect it. I no longer serve turkey because there are way too many leftovers. This season, we are doing pork loins, cream cheese & chive mashed potatoes, dressing, noodles, rolls, and green bean casserole. For dessert, I’m doing pumpkin pie and pecan pie, and I’m trying to decide on that all important third pie. I found a great recipe at Pillsbury.com that I was thinking of trying for a pumpkin-ginger pie with marshmallow topping. It sounds orgasmic. Let me know what you think.

Oh! And lots of wine! I can’t forget that. Because who could resist an entire day of my mom calling me a wino.

The thing that screws me up this year is that Thanksgiving is so late. I’m one of these people that doesn’t start shopping for the Christmas season until after Thanksgiving, even though the Christmas season apparently starts now in October. I swear, it just gets earlier and earlier every year. At least this year, the kids are getting a Wii for Christmas, which we already have, so there shouldn’t be too much more shopping to do. That’s good because I’m heading to New York for work the second week in December. I’ll have the “ohmygodihavetogetonaplane” anxiety leading up to that, and by the time I get back, well hell – it’s almost Christmas! This season is flying by!!

What are all your plans for the holiday season. Online shopping – plan #1! The further away I can stay from the mall, the better!

I'm Still Here!

I know it may have seemed like I have dropped off the face of the earth lately, but I haven’t. I am still here, and I wanted to share with you why I have been so busy lately.

Many of you may know that I have done freelance work for WikiAnswers for the last four years. Last week, I started work with the company as a full-time employee. Woo hoo! That’s right, I am fully employed, in addition to my full-time job as a mom. I am really enjoying my job, but it hasn’t left me a lot of full time to blog.

Hopefully, once I get into my normal routine, I will have more time to keep up on my blog. I have so much going on that I want to share, including all of the cute things that my kids are up to. Eli is doing awesome in kindergarten, and already received his first report card. Dude! They grade things so much differently than they used to. Instead of A,B,C,D,F, now there are a bunch of S’s and N’s. Well, Eli only got one N (Needs Improvement) in Art. That sent me straight to the school to meet with the Art teacher. Yeah, I’m still crazy. Some things never change!

Georgia is going full steam ahead at preschool, and she is doing great. We had her first parent-teacher conference last week. I was extremely pleased to discover that she never screams or throws fits at school. Okay, I was pleased and a little surprised when they told me how well she was doing. I said, “Really, she doesn’t scream ‘I need my drink’ and then yell at the top of her lungs? Or she doesn't wiggle the zipper on her coat and scream because she wants you to zip it?” They just looked at me like I was crazy and said no, she doesn’t.

Her teachers informed me that meant I was doing things right. She knows to act like a decent, well-behaved child when she’s in front of other people. Now if I could just get her to act like that all the time, I would be in business!

Barbie and the Diamond Castle

Oh, how I wish they had all these great DVDs when I was a kid. Oh, who am I kidding? They didn’t even have VCRs yet when I was a kid!

These days, children’s programming is very educational. It’s not just the violent cartoons we had as children. I don’t mind when my children watch TV because the shows and DVDs available today teach them important lessons.

My 3-year-old daughter, Georgia has really been getting into her Barbies lately. She has two that are her favorites – one with purple hair, and one with pink hair. When she started seeing the commercials for Barbie and The Diamond Castle, she stared, hypnotically transfixed at the television. When the commercial was over, she would say, “Mommy! I really like that one!!” That is her usual mantra when she sees something she really wants.

When Mom Central sent us the new DVD for Barbie and The Diamond Castle, I was absolutely thrilled because I knew how much Georgia really wanted to see it.

Barbie and The Diamond Castle is a great musical story that teaches children about the importance of friendship. If Barbie and her friends want to preserve music for the entire world, they have to save their friend Melody who is trapped inside of a magic mirror. Melody holds the key to the Diamond Castle. The girls must journey to the Diamond Castle and overcome obstacles in order to save music for everyone. This is a great story to teach children about friendship and how important it is to believe in yourself.

My daughter Georgia not only loved the DVD, which she has now watched several times, but she also is going crazy to get the new Barbie Dolls from Barbie and The Diamond Castle, with the very pretty dresses. Every time she sees them on TV, she says, “Mommy! I really like that one!!”

To learn more about this fun and educational DVD that your children will love, visit the Barbie and The Diamond Castle Web site! And if you loved Barbie as a kid as much as I did, you will love it just as much as your child.

Manic Monday - Colorful

Happy Halloween a little late! I know I haven't been blogging a lot lately, and I do have a good excuse, which I will (hopefully) blog about this week. In the meantime, I wanted to share some Halloween pictures of my little goblins, and this week's Manic Monday theme gave me the perfect word - colorful.

Eli was the new Speed Racer, Georgia was Stephanie from LazyTown, Daddy was classic Speed Racer, and me? Well, I went as Speed Racer's girlfriend. The comment we received the most from people was about Georgia's colorful hair! Her costume did come with a wig, but she refused to leave it on. Rather than fight with her, I just bought pink hairspray, which she loved. The only problem is that the hairspray rubs off on EVERYTHING!

Now, having been a blonde my whole life, there have been times when I have made my hair very colorful. I learned that the colorful hairspray comes out easily (unless you use black). Other people, apparently have never used colorful hairspray because everyone who looked at Georgia's hair would say things like, "I can't believe you dyed her hair pink. I hope it comes out," or they would just flat out say, "You've ruined her hair. That's not going to come out."

Dude! First of all, I get really sick of everyone and their opinions. But instead of offering them a great big cup of shut the fuck up, I just smiled and said, "It will come out. I've done this before." And guess what? It came out just fine. If anything, Georgia is upset because we no longer have a reason to color her hair pink. Maybe I should just do it every Friday for fun. What do you think? (see slide show in next post)

Trick or Treat!!