I love reading. So much so that even if I fall into bed at 1 am with a baby I’ll still read. Even if it’s only two sentences before I can no longer keep my eyes open. I love reading many things. Mysteries, self-help, parenting (can I get an Amen?), biographies, teen fiction, picture books, magazines, cereal boxes…you name it.

However, I don’t always have time to read books as soon as they arrive in the mail. I often have a stack sitting beside my bed for months and then I power through ten the next month. Life happens, you know.

Here’s what I’ve been reading lately…

1. Just Tell Me What to Say by Betsy Braun Brown

Every parent needs this book! I’m not all the way through yet, but am close. It’s a collection of situations most of us will encounter at one time or another with scripts of what to say to kids. By way of a preview, here’s a list of the chapters copied from Amazon.com because I was too lazy to type them myself and thought you’d like to see them:

1. SMALL TALK IS BIG TALK. Communicating with your children
2. “TOMMY JUST DOESN’T LISTEN.” Discipline do’s and don’ts
3. “IT’S ALL MOLLY’S FAULT.” Sibling issues
4. “HOW MANY BITES `TIL I CAN GET DESSERT?” Children’s eating habits and behaviors
5. “GET YOUR FINGER OUT OF YOUR NOSE!” Manners and social graces
6. “IT’S NOT FAIR!” Day-to-day parenting dilemmas
7. “HOW DID THE BABY GET IN YOUR TUMMY?” Learning about the Birds and the Bees
8. “WHY DID MOMMY’S HAIR FALL OUT?” Talking about serious illness
9. “WHY IS MY GOLDFISH FLOATING IN THE TOILET?” Learning about death
10. “MOMMY AND DADDY HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU.” Talking with your children about divorce
11. “IS THE FIRE GOING TO COME TO OUR HOUSE?” Answering questions about natural disasters, terrorism and war.

Seriously? Buy it.

2. The Ultimate Tea Diet by Mark Ukra and Sharyn Kolberg.

Not quite done, but loving it! An easy read and very interesting. I am tempted to put my espresso machine away. Not going to happen, but it’s tempting! I am not going to go on the tea “diet” but I am going to make an effort to drink a little more tea though. Whether I lose weight or not, it will help me stay hydrated. The book also includes some recipes that I’d like to try when I have time to cook again. Apparently there are craving teas that will keep me away from those blasted chocolate chips in my freezer. I’ll let you know how that goes.

3. How to Eat Like a Hot Chick by Jodi Lipper & Cerina Vincent

Not really my kind of book. It was a fast read, though, so I did finish it. It seems to be geared toward a 18-23 year old bar hopping self-absorbed young woman who works at the mall, has no education and doesn’t mind being called a chick. You know the type. And I don’t mean that as an insult to anyone who does any of those things individually. It’s the three together plus the bar hopping that might make you an ideal candidate for this book. I know a lot of young girls who would love this book, and I’ve given my copy to one of them. Also, they’re all pursuing an education so maybe I’m wrong about the whole audience thing. There are some great tips in the book, but the brownies before bed and a pound of spinach for breakfast thing? Not so much.

4. Release Your Brilliance by Simon T. Bailey

Again, I’m not quite finished this one, but am enjoying it. Simon uses the analogy of a diamond to show you how to recognize your calling in life and how to move toward it. He teaches how to conquer your fears while being the best you that you can possibly be. Each chapter contains exercises to help you apply the principles taught and challenges to keep your mind on track. I am reading it mindlessly but would love to read it again when my career is more of a focus in my life again.

Edited to add:

5. The Ultimate pH Solution Just started this one last night and am LOVING it! Apparently the reason I feel like crap is my pH and there are a lot of things I can do about it. By cutting out refined sugar, drinking hot lemon (which I love and have been doing since my mom read this one before me over Christmas while here waiting for Bella to be born) and more I can reduce my risk of cancer, osteoporosis and all sorts of other nasties. I can’t wait to finish this book tonight!

And the reason I’m about not quite finished any of those? (Aside from the toddler and the newborn, of course…)

His Dark Materials.

We saw The Golden Compass on the big screen and I was inspired to read the box set. Well, that and the fact that there are churches up in arms about it. That always makes me want to buy something. I hate closed-mindedness. These books are fantastic! Even better than the movie.

What have you been reading? Anything you’d recommend? Not recommend?

The Daring Book For Girls is the one we’ve all been waiting for! It was shortly after my review of The Dangerous Book For Boys that I heard of the impending arrival of this one and I’ve been waiting ever since. I was SO excited to tear into the package when it arrived (so much so that the messy innards of the strange packing envelope had to be vacuumed from my floor) and the book did not disappoint right from the first page.

The Daring Book For Girls brought back memories of playing with my cousins at my Grandma’s farm and of our huge childhood backyard (and the wicked treehouse my dad built for me). It’s the kind of book you’ll want to read from cover to cover just because and then keep it to pull out anytime you’re looking for a little bit of adventure. It’s great if you have a daughter or a niece to share it with, but it’s certainly not necessary. You can have a blast with this book alone and parts of it can be enjoyed with your sons as well (just as the Dangerous book can certainly be enjoyed by many girls). I do love, though, that much of it is really geared to girls - unless your son wants to tie a sari, and more power to him. It’s a classic, and one that should never ever be freecycled or given away. I’m saving my copy along with a threatening note stating that it had better be kept in the family for my great great grandchildren to enjoy.

This book has you covered no matter what your interests…as long as you’re not limited to playing with dolls - barf - this is for the daring among us. From playing four square and other schoolyard games to making cloth covered books and tying a sari or bandana, from climbing trees to building a campfire to tying your hair up with a pencil (I’ve always wanted to do that and now I can!), you can (and I have an will continue to) have SO MUCH FUN with this amazing book.

Check out the book’s website here, watch the video and buy it here!

Enter to win a copy over at T.O.P!!

Sure, it may seem a little weird for me to be reviewing a book called Downsizing Your Home With Style when we just upsized to a 5 bedroom, 3 full bath home with a garage for the first time ever, but hear me out.

I have a problem. No matter how much I love to freecycle and throw stuff away, I have PILES. Mostly of stuff I haven’t had a chance to do/put away/file/review etc. Piles freaking everywhere and it drives me batshit crazy. I also love love looooove to organize and that’s why I really wanted to read this book.

Written by Lauri Ward, an “interior refiner”…I love that, it’s really about moving to a smaller home and would be absolutely awesome for that purpose, from packing to unpacking, organizing to decorating to creating flow. However, that’s not what it’s doing for me, obviously. As a recently-moved-to-a-bigger-house-to-have-another-baby-in-the-
middle-of-renovating-addicted-to-organizing-hates-the-clutter-but-loves-the-stuff kind of girl, Downsizing Your Home With Style is helping me to effectively rearrange things to create that ever elusive ‘flow’ everyone’s always talking about and has inspired me to get real about things we don’t really need. In the past week I’ve freecycled at least a truckload of really decent stuff that someone somewhere will use but we just weren’t.

It’s a very affordable book (on for $16.47 @ Amazon and ships free) and has some great ideas for every home, whatever the size and whatever your situation but I’m sure it would be particularly helpful if you were…you know. Downsizing. (Yikes!)

Remember when I reviewed The Dangerous Book for Boys? Well, I’m currently working on a review of The Daring Book For Girls and loving it!

You’ll have to wait until Nov. 23 for my review but in the meantime I recommend that you check out the vid and the book’s website.

Have a daughter? A niece? A girl you think is cool?
Buy it. Don’t wait for my review. It’s that good.

I’m the first to admit that I don’t use cookbooks. I copy recipes that I like at restaurants, see on tv or taste elsewhere by making them up myself and they’re often better than the original. Not because I’m a great cook but because they contain things that I like! If I really need a recipe, I get it from the internet. I use recipe books so rarely that I recently gave away 30 when I moved because I couldn’t foresee using one any time soon. However, I was an easy convert when I received Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. (Yes, she’s married to Jerry.)

It’s a book full of simple ways to sneak vegetables into your kids’ food. Like pureed cauliflower in scrambled eggs. Who’da thunk? I consider myself very creative in the kitchen and I’d never have thought of that one. My son is a fruit & veggie kid, but I know there will come a day when I need to perform these sneaky maneuvers so I’m grateful to have some great ideas from this book to add to my bag of tricks. The instructions on how to puree food are, well, duh…but I can see how someone who has never really cooked would benefit from that. I did love the idea of making a bunch and freezing them to throw into recipes when you need something quickly. That would also be a great way to use cases of fresh produce that’s on sale before it goes bad.

I tried a couple of the recipes and plan to try many more. My faves so far are the french toast (with pumpkin puree in the eggs), scrambled eggs (with pureed cauliflower that you totally can’t taste) and pita pizzas (which we make all the time but now will be spreading spinach puree on) and macaroni and cheese (with butternut squash). The four recipes I had time to try all took just a few minutes and hardly any work. And yes - they were delicious! When I have some more time, I can hardly wait to try the coffee cake and some of the muffins!

I can tell I’m going to love this book!

You can head over to T.O.P to enter to win a copy I only received one extra so you can’t enter at this site.

Here’s a contest from Harper Collins where you can also enter to win your own copy!

Weekend Review

I recently read The Little Black Book of Style and it was something completely different than what I’d usually read. It’s for people who care about being “fashionable” as opposed to “comfortable” and that’s just not me, but it was still an interesting read. For a young person going in to the world of fashion design or advertising, it would likely be a big hit. For me, it was okay. The “How to dress when…” section was interesting, but one part really pissed me off. The “How To Dress When Pregnant” section seemed like it was written by and/or for a fourteen year old who didn’t want anyone to know she was pregnant. It instructs women to wear lots of jewelery (which, of course, the guy needs to buy for you…barf) to detract attention from the belly. That part really ruined the book for me, but I can certainly see a population that would enjoy it. Want my copy? Leave a comment and let me know.

Weekend Recap

It was a busy one! I had a conference to attend and lots of shopping to do with my parents in another city on Saturday. The boy hasn’t really slept well all week because of the damn teeth again so we were excited to be able to get him to sleep via rocking last night before 7:30. (He usually falls asleep on his own between 6:30 and 7:00 and has needed rocking until 11:00 to pass out this week.) He woke up at 6:30 this morning with a fever so I gave him some medicine and brought him to bed with us where he snuggled and slathered us both with kisses. It was awesome! Now it’s 8:15 and he’s still screaming so it might be another rough one. Cross your fingers for at least 6 hours for the big fat 29 weeks pregnant chick or I’ll be too cranky for words.

If you’re swapping, you should have received the email with your partner’s info. If you didn’t then please let me know asap!

Our basement is getting emptied and drywalled this week so our servers will be shut down and I may or may not have internet access. I can’t blog from work because anything fun is blocked so if you don’t hear from me for a week you’ll know why!

I’ve been reading a review copy of When Parents Hurt that I received from the publisher. Actually, I’ve been trying to read it for at least a month and finally decided to blog about it without finishing it. Hormonal and pregnant do not mix with a book about dealing with kids who don’t want any contact with you no matter how hard you tried. I couldn’t read it without bawling and worrying about the boy turning into a crack-head despite our best intentions.

That said, if you have a teen or adult child who is pulling away from you (whether you beat them, were the perfect parent or anything in between) and you need healing, this seems like it would be a great book. But my God please do not attempt to read it if you’re pregnant or aren’t in that type of situation. It’s damn near impossible.

I have tons of adorable pics to share but my laptop died a slow and painful death so I’m on a borrowed one right now and we haven’t had time to install my FTP program to get the pics up. I’ll try to do it convince the BG to do it this week. I’ll also get the swap partners drawn and email you about that soon-ish. I’m aiming to do it on the long weekend (it’s Thanksgiving in Canada this coming weekend) and will email y’all by Monday. Sound good? We’ve got one “special circumstance” who will need her package mailed early due to an international move so please let me know if you’re NOT okay with that. Otherwise I’ll just let random.org match the pairs.

It’s another Mother-Talk book tour! Reading is one of my favourite things to do, and so is teaching reading, which made this tour a perfect fit for me!

This time, I’m reviewing the first set of BOB Books, a box set of phonetic readers. My own set hasn’t arrived yet but luckily I had a friend with the box I was to review and she lent them to me. These are some great books which made their way very quickly into my classroom (I’m an early literacy teacher) and will definitely come home again (my own set, of course, when it finally arrives!) when the boy’s a little older. Hopefully they’ll be joined by the rest of the box sets too!

There’s so much to love about BOB Books (fun stuff notwithstanding). They’re a lot like the books that I learned with that are now out of print and very hard to find.

When kids are first learning to read, they need books that focus on initial consonant sounds and one or two vowels at a time (short or long, not both, which is why Dick and Jane suck when they’re together)with large print and little illustration to distract from the words. BOB Books does all of this perfectly, and also integrates numbers from 1-10 in their beginner set (but not the number words, thank goodness) which is a nice touch.

As the sets progress, they move through more complex letter combinations with sight words and mixed short vowels, word families (words that all end in the same sound; the -at family would include cat, sat, that, fat, bat etc), compound words and long vowels.

These are exactly the kind of books I will be recommending to the parents of my kindergarten students when they inevitably ask me what they should buy for home reading books to help their child get started on decoding and independent reading.

I didn’t notice at first but these books are from Scholastic and that’s a huge bonus! That’s the company that your child’s teacher will likely send home book order forms from and the company that offers the in-school book fairs. They’re who I buy 99% of my books from and they have great products, great quality and great prices.

Welcome to today’s stop on the Mother-Talk blog book tour for my new favourite gift for boys!

The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn & Hal Iggulden is a package of excitement from the moment you take it out of the box (or pull it off the shelf, if you’re the old fashioned type). The bright red cover is thick & hard & reminiscent of something you’d find in Grandpa’s library. I couldn’t wait to open it.

The inside of the book, if you were to flip really quickly, looks like nothing special. No colour at all. However, as soon as you stop flipping and start reading, this book is totally awesome! Even for me - a girl! My husband liked it just as much and our son will now grow up doing lots of the crazy & fun activities in the book (if I ever let them get it long enough to actually accomplish anything.)

It contains detailed instructions on so many things that simply say “childhood.” Not boyhood, necessarily, unless you’re a froofy girl. I can think of tons of girls who would love this book. I know I would have. Maybe not the history of war, but almost all of the activities & games would have been right up my alley.

The book covers so many amazing things that I can hardly wait for my son to grow into. How to build a go-kart, build a treehouse, juggle, make a bow & arrow, make a paper airplane, hat, boat & water-bomb, how to marble paper, how to make disappearing ink, write in code…enough to fill many amazing summers that will be engraved forever in memories. There’s also great information on grammar, wars, extraordinary stories from history and, perhaps the most important - girls.

This is an awesome book. If there are boys on your gift list who don’t have it, buy it. I happen to think new dads are left out of the whole birth-gift scenario and this would be a fab book to present to a new father of a son. It’s like you’re saying Congratulations! Have fun helping your kid experience real life. He may break a few bones and he’ll definitely get bruises, but hey - we’re making men here!

Check out this very cool awesome promo for the book on You-Tube. And if you didn’t see Conn Iggulden on the Colbert Report, watch this.

Also, be sure to go enter the Harper Collins contest where they’re giving away 100 free copies!

And thanks to Harper Collins, I also have two copies to give away! To be entered in the random draw, email me via this link before Friday at midnight.

Welcome to today’s stop on the Mother-Talk blog book tour for Healthy Mother, Healthy Child by Elizabeth Irvine.

Beth is a mother, a nurse and a yoga instructor (and apparently a Catholic, which seems a little out of place in this book, but whatever) and she integrates her experience in all of those areas to bring us Healthy Mother, Healthy Child. The subtitle of the book is ‘Creating Balance in Everyday Life’ and really, it couldn’t have come at a better time. Two months pregnant and parenting a barely one year old, having to go back to work full time to earn a maternity leave (25% of my salary, but anything helps), running several websites, having a dad with cancer, a husband who doesn’t cook (but does everything else - bless him) I’m in serious need of a little balance around here.

The book is lovely. It’s full of lovely relaxing photos of mother & children meditating and practicing yoga. It goes through the basics, from the asanas (poses) to breathing to eating and expands into alternative therapies, challenges & ways to express feelings (based on her experiences of severe allergies with her own son).

It’s really a how-to guide to creating health & well-being using a multi-pronged approach. I really liked the way she took the principles of yoga and made them accessible to moms - including easy ways to include your children in your practice and teach them to meditate, appreciate silence and start creating a healthy life while they’re young. For anyone interested in learning how to share the benefits of yoga with kids and also explore the “granola lifestyle,” you’d like this book. If you’re not Catholic, just take that part with a grain of salt.

Check out Beth’s website and blog.

Thanks to Beth, I’ve got a copy of Healthy Mother, Healthy Child to send to one lucky reader. Email me through this link and a winner will be selected randomly!

Today is Mother-Talk’s Fearless Friday. I had actually forgotten all about it (I’m too busy to remember anything more than to wipe my butt lately) but as I was in the tub reading “Protecting the Gift” I remembered.

I’ve always thought of myself as a fairly fearless woman. The only things I’m really afraid of are intangible. Not snakes, not spiders, not eating alone in a restaurant. ‘ll bungee, I’ll skydive, I’ll run alone at night. (At least I would before I met my lovingly protective husband and he put the kibosh on that). But I am afraid. I’m afraid of someone I love getting hurt. And this, it turns out, is a very good thing.

De Becker talks about the “wild brain.” The one that gives us our instinct - the feelings that come before we start to over-think. It was built generations before the “logic brain” that people so revere today. Logic’s great, but it’s not what keeps us safe. In my classroom, I teach the kids about “tummy feelings” - those gut reactions that tell you something’s not right. It might be someone being mean to someone else, or a feeling about another person you just don’t trust. These are the same feelings that De Becker says we MUST listen to. Fear, he says, is a gift given to us in order to protect ourselves and, more importantly, our children.

I don’t feel like I can do this book justice in the short nap time I have to write about it. I can tell you that if you’re pregnant or have children from birth to 40, YOU HAVE TO READ IT. It should be required reading for anyone planning to procreate. It’s just that amazing. If I could afford it, I’d donate a copy to every new mom before they left the hospital (or send it with their midwife to their home water birth - whatever).

So, fearless?

Not me.

I’m proud of my fear.

I’m a mama mammal and I’m equipped to do whatever it takes to protect my baby.

And so are you. Listen to those fears. To those nagging thoughts and questions that pop into your head. Don’t deny them. Fear is a gift.

Back again with Friday Miscellany. I know ~ you don’t have to tell me how excited you are!

Edited to add: Remember the week long shits? The boy got 4 teeth in 5 days and all is well now. Oops!

Edited again to add: Today - 2 more teeth. That’s 6 in 18 days. Wheeee!

Have a great weekend!

Kristen moved the 123 Magic post for this week to Friday. I think she was just sick of my tardiness.

FYI…

Part 1

Part 2

Part three is very appropriately entitled “No Child Will Thank You.” It’s true. They won’t.

This section deals with:

Chapter 10: The six kinds of testing and manipulation (only six?) and how to manage it.
Chapter 11: Counting in action. Some real life examples of counting being used and a running commentary about it. Probably the most helpful chapter yet, or the “meatiest” anyway, but it wouldn’t be so without the rest of the book so make sure you read it all.
and Chapter 12: More serious offenses, including kids with ODD and CD. Dr. Phelan offers some great tips on dealing with first time offenses as opposed to repeat offenders, primarily focussing on tween & teen rebellious types of action. He distinguishes between major, medium & minor offenses and includes a helpful section on lying.

Oy. It’s a good thing I have several years to prepare.

I don’t have much to say about this section, shockingly. I’ve never parented a teen and when dealing with the more serious behaviours in my classroom the 123 has always worked. Teaching is a great job. Children usually listen to me WAY better than they listen to their own parents and I rarely have behaviour issues in my classroom. With my own kids, though, I won’t be the “cool teacher.” I sincerely hope this stuff works at home as well as it does at school!

Remember last week when I was late? Turns out I’m late again. This time it’s because I thought I was supposed to post this on Thursday. Everyone else did it on Wednesday. I have no idea what the hell I’m doing, apparently.

I know. That’s not news.

Moving on.

Part 1 was good, but part two, entitled Controlling Obnoxious Behaviour, was better.

Honestly, if I hadn’t used this in my classroom and seen it work effectively so many times, I’d wonder if it weren’t too easy. The main thing I’d question is “Don’t kids need logical explanations?” No, according to Dr. Phelan.

The first chapter in this section addresses the counting. Yes, it’s as simple as it sounds. That’s 1. That’s 2. That’s 3 and then a time out or time out alternative. The book goes into detail about all of the what-if’s and is very comprehensive. In fact, chapter 6 contains answers to the 20 most likely questions, including how long between counts if the behaviour doesn’t stop, when to start a new counting series and answers to the questions kids might ask or snarky remarks they might make.

The chapter on public discipline was great. It’s not a problem for me because I am do used to disciplining other people’s children in front of them to set an example for the parents in my classroom. I have to bite my tongue not to discipline kids I don’t know at the mall and when they’re with their parents at the store - it’s automatic for me now. If it slips out, I just say “Sorry, I’m a teacher. I can’t help it!” and the parents have, thankfully, always just laughed. (Though it may be different with my own kids, but I doubt it.) My favourite sentence of the chapter? “The long term welfare of your kids comes before short term worries about what others are going to think.” There are some great examples and suggestions for time out alternatives in stores and cars etc.

Chapter 8 deals with sibling rivalry and tantrums. Apparently we’re never supposed to ask “What Happened?” or “Who Started It?” I get his logic, but that might be a hard habit to break. He suggests counting both children instead. And tantrums? The time out doesn’t start until the tantrum stops.

The final chapter in this section is about the “Kickoff Conversation” to get the program started. I think it’s probably only necessary if you’re starting it with older kids or in a classroom. At home with toddlers *& preschoolers? I’d just start counting. They’ll figure it out.

Want to read along? Maybe you can post on the right day? I can’t but I’ll probably still be back with part three!
Email themomtrap at yahoo dot com to participate.

Tags: 123+magic, book review

Dear Boy,

A week ago, you were ten months old. I’m late with your letter for a couple of reasons. First of all, we’ve been busy. We had Grandma B here for a few days and we’ve been playing and swimming and banging and hanging out in your tent and knocking over towers ~ all sorts of fun stuff. The real reason, though, is that I’m in complete denial that you’re only two months from being a one year old boy.

The past ten months have flown by. You’re now standing independently for a few seconds, crawling so fast that daddy and I have a hard time catching you when you bolt for the dog food and creeping along the furniture easily. You love to stand at the back door and watch the dogs play out in the snow. Sometimes you get mad at me when we’re out on the deck playing and I won’t let you go down in the snow. Soon, buddy. Soon. Daddy has to pick up all the dog poop first.

You’re trying to imitate our words now. You’re trying to say our last name, which is really stinkin’ cute. I think dog and cat might be your next proper words. Right now you say ‘daw’ and ‘cah’ when we really work on it. Most of the time, though, you’d rather just play with them. Mavi especially loves to play with you. You steal his Nylabone and his squeaky snake and you chase each other around. It’s hilarious! He barks loudly right in your ear to get you to play, and you either start playing or look at him like he’s a complete lunatic for thinking you’re going to give up that bone.

You’re still nursing voraciously even though you eat like a champ. You tried your first few sips of organic cow’s milk a few days ago. We won’t be giving you much for a while, but it’s an option for some fat to drink when mommy’s not with you so it’s good to know you’re not allergic to it. I hear about babies weaning themselves but I have a feeling you’ll be nursing for a long time yet as you’re not showing any signs of slowing down. You don’t get more than a few drops of liquid from any other source so it’s a good thing!

Since this letter is a week late, I get to include that on February 26th your first tooth that has been haunting you for months finally popped through your gums! It’s the cutest little tooth I ever did see. It’s the top front right one, and it looks like you’ll get three more top ones before your bottom ones come up.

You’ve been napping really well and putting yourself to sleep, but nighttime is still hit and miss. You go from sleeping 13 solid hours to waking up crying and nursing every 2 hours. I will be SO glad when all your teeth are in!

Thanks for being you, baby. We couldn’t ask for a better, spunkier, more fun kid. Of all the little boys in the whole wide world, we’ve got the very best one.

Love, Mommy

Kisses and Hugs from the cutest ten month old baby in the blogosphere.
(No, this wasn’t staged. He just picked those ones up and I ran for the camera!)

Tags: ten months, letters