Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot

Author:  Richard de Nooy

This book is so vicious and tender and, in short, real. I really enjoyed seeing the relationship between Ace and Rem evolve as the story unfolded. The accident prone quotes gave the book an extra kick and added to the mystique of Rem and seemed hip rather than out of place. The artwork was disturbingly great.

Overall Rating:  5 of 5 Stars 

School Memory Scrapbooks

 Autumn and Farrah at Autumn's class Halloween party.

Most children, mine included, purchase a yearbook.  This is a good way for kids to have pictures of themselves and their friends in a format where they can look back at the year gone by.  The autograph section always ends up being something special.  Years from now, they can look back and say, "Oh, I remember how nice/nasty/flat-out weird that student/teacher/principal was!"  Or, "Look how different I have become."  Even year-to-year, this can be a nice activity.  The problem is, this memorabilia represents such a small slice of the school year, that many important events may be forgotten.

My solution to this actually comes from a project my older daughter had to do last fall at the beginning of her third grade school year.   She was given a packet of about six pages stapled at the side like a book in which she answered questions about herself.  She told her favorite hobbies, colors, classes, etc.  She also had the opportunity to write about how she thought her future would shape up.  The teacher took a copy of her yearbook picture and attached it inside to show how she looked.  It was a great little project that gave a nice snapshot of her at that moment, as well as a wonderful keepsake.  Again, this is a small snapshot of a bigger picture, but it is still better than just the yearbook.

What I would like to start doing is to create a binder with clear plastic page protectors inside to protect the documents.  Inside, ideally, there would be entries from each month.  Pictures, special reports or projects, journals from my daughter about the milestones of the year, report cards.  There would also be interest inventories like she filled out for class to see how and when she changes, if this can be done without being too repetitive.  There would also be Valentines, handouts about field trips and class parties, and whatever else.  Maybe there could be notations of height and weight.  In short, this would be a great place to store memories as well as a way to have her create while developing her writing skills.  My daughter loves this kind of stuff, so maybe other children would as well.

On my own, I would like to set aside some time to make a journal of my own about how she has grown and changed (and stayed the same).  This could even begin at birth if you are a new mother looking to create a legacy.  This can be made in the open or created in secret to be given at some milestone: graduation, marriage, when your child has a child, if that is in the cards.  I used to journal a lot for my daughters when they were babies but never kept it up.  Maybe now is the time to start.

The New Father: A Dad's Guide to the Toddler Years (New Father)

Author:  Armin A. Brott

I know this guy has written a series of parenting books just for fathers, which is nice, but this guy comes off as a hack. The research-backed suggestions were alright, the ideas for taking care of business beyond fathering was a bit novel yet disorganized. The real problem area were the suggestions the author made on his own, which ranged from silly (If it isn't too cold out, strip down to your underwear with your child and go out in the yard and paint each other head to toe; if it is too cold out, go puddle jumping or drive through puddles in the car. Seriously? ever thought about neighbors, hypothermia, or hydroplaning?) to what I consider to be dangerous (Teach your one-and-a-half-year-old to shave you without the razor on the handle, and when they get that down, let them shave you for real. This is dangerous for you, and it also draws unnecessary attention to razors. Even with razors hidden, a 4-year-old boy in my daughter's preschool managed to slip into the bathroom one night after he was presumed asleep and shave himself, drawing blood and scaring the daylights out of his parents, even when the razor was hidden.). Not what I like to see. The parts that told about what to expect at each age was sparse and overly colored with his own children's experiences instead of real research into what is normal. To top it all off, he ended the book with a section on how to get through a divorce and come out as much on top as possible. Not very encouraging, and not really appropriate. He also tried to champion being non-sexist, but then he was a bit sexist himself at times.

That said, I know there's a draw to having a book written just for dads, and I think it's nice to get something for a new dad, but this book is not it. Stick with the "What to Expect" series, which is very good, support the dad, and the rest should fall into place.

Overall Rating:  2 of 5 Stars

Donuts with Dads

This morning Autumn’s school held its annual Donuts With Dads breakfast.  Her last school had this event, but she was unable to participate since my husband Ben was working the day shift.  He works nights and evenings now, so it was just a matter of him staying awake a few more hours, a small sacrifice for some rare quality time without Farrah or me horning in.  Since Farrah is the ultimate Daddy's girl and my husband works so much, Autumn's chances of one-on-one time outside of specially scheduled events are usually slim.

The way this works is the dads and kids come in before school during the normal breakfast time.  Since the cafeteria is divided, the kids who aren’t participating get one side, and the kids who are get the other.  The pairs stop by a table manned by parent volunteers to get a donut and a carton of milk before sitting down and enjoying themselves.  Autumn’s previous school was pretty small, so the whole school did this on the same morning.  This school, however, is quite large--there were seven classes of kindergartners before the school split into two to give primary students (preschool, kindergarten, and first graders) their own building, and these numbers were pretty much in line with the rest of the grades.  There is a healthy-sized crowd, but it is less chaotic than if there were hundreds of dads swarming in at one time.  The line wasn't horribly long, and they had a leisurely breakfast with time to talk and mingle with other father-daughter pairs.

This was a really good experience for them, second only to the Girl Scouts father-daughter sock hop they attended several years ago.  It would be nice to find a way to make little outings like this happen more often.

Yogurt Mix-Ins

This is a fun project we did at my daughter's preschool for the monthly parent-child activity.  Both the children and their parents enjoyed this activity a lot, even though it's really simple.  It's fun, easy, and can be done in about five to ten minutes.  Depending on what you mix into your yogurt, it's also a healthy snack.  The ingredients and amounts can be modified, but this is a good starting point.

First, take a cup of yogurt.  We used vanilla, although it can be any flavor. If your child has a milk allergy, we also tried this with mixed berry soy yogurt, and it was just as delicious.  Put the yogurt in a bowl.  Add in a tablespoon of granola.  Next, add in some mixed berries (about a tablespoon and a half).  We used frozen and thawed, but fresh would work just as well.  Also, take one large strawberry (also previously frozen) and a third of a banana.  Using a plastic butter knife, your child can cut these into small pieces to add in.  Stir all of it together, and it's ready.  We used two spoons so parent and child could share, but it's also easily enough for one person.

This activity is a good chance to bond in the kitchen, but it also teaches motor skills (cutting), math skills (measuring), and lessons about following directions.  If you want, this could be an opportunity to talk about healthy snacks, food groups, and protein.  We didn't, but it would have been a prime time.

Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts : Using the Power of Pleasure to Have Your Way with the World

Author:  Regena Thomashauer

This book looked like it was going to be sort of naughty, especially since the cover has a review comparing the author to Anais Nin, but it was really more hokey than anything. Hm, yes, let me visualize running away with a millionaire to Romania where we will have conceive the next wunderkind... Not gonna work. This feel-good drivel fluff was too painful to finish, even by skipping around to look for good stuff after a straight run became impossible. At least I got it at Goodwill instead of paying full price!

Overall Rating: 1 of 5 Stars

Hand-Sewn Conversation Heart

This year for Valentine's Day, I didn't have a lot of money to spend on my husband.  Add in the fact that he is difficult to shop for, as most guys are, and I was presented with a prime opportunity to give him something from my individual heart and not a shelf.  Since this project only took about an hour to make once I figured out what I was going to do, it was something I could knock out pretty quickly while the girls sat beside me on the couch watching TV and my husband was none the wiser.  If I knew how to use my sewing machine, this project would be much shorter.

Last year I sewed him a whale.  It was sort of beige and gold on its body with music notes on it.  The body was white with tiny red hearts printed on the fabric.  Its eyes were blue stone beads that were more like blobs than orbs.  It was overstuffed and I didn't think the flip the fabric when I sewed it, so it was unique to say the least.  Still, he saw the sentiment behind it and the hard work I'd put into my creation and said he loved it, adding nicely that, no, it wasn't ugly--it was cute.  Picking up my sewing box, I hoped this would not be a repeat experience.

The first step in a successful sewing project is to know what you're going to make and how you'll accomplish this.  I couldn't give my husband real candy and wanted to give him something thoughtful.  After creating a stuffed conversation heart for Autumn's class Valentine's Day party and having pretty good luck, I decided a repeat performance was in order.  Whereas she wanted hers to simply say "Be Mine" on the front, I needed something more special.  This made me think of his goth side and love for vampires that would also go with the dark romantic decor we're building towards in our bedroom, where he would likely keep it.  After many lame ideas ("Bite Me" would just send the wrong message!), I slept on the idea.  Eventually, I thought more about our Romanian honeymoon and used the Internet to search for how to say "I love you" in Romanian and found it to be "Te iubesc."  It was perfect.

The next step was to gather my materials.  I had some nice red fabric left over from the other heart.  I also needed my needle, ink pen, shears, and thread.  I used a spool that swirled between shades of purple, blue, and maybe a tad bit of pink, as I am running low on thread colors, but it still looked nice and added to the dark romantic feel more than a generic blue or black.

I folded the fabric in half and drew half a heart so that when I cut it out along the crease, both sides would be even.  It is important here to mention the heart needs to be a little bigger than the finished project to allow room for stuffing and seams.  Mine was a bit larger than my hand when I was finished, but it can be as large or small as you would like, keeping in mind smaller hearts may prove more difficult.

This is a good time to write the message on one side of your candy heart in ink.  If you mess up, you can flip the fabric over; do this step after the sewing begins or try to wing it...not so much.  It's easiest to write in block capital letters, not to mention the most authentic to the candy being mimicked.  After writing out the message, I sewed over the letters so the message was visible and the ink hidden.  If you don't want to just sew the letters, you could use fabric paint or even sequins or beads, and that would look great as well.  I made sure the lettering looked okay, and it was time to put together the pieces of my heart (pun intended).

I made sure the two pieces of fabric were facing each other with the edges lined up, message facing inside.  If your heart is large, you may want to pin the seams together so they don't move on you.  With mine being a smallish size, I could keep it straight fairly easily.  I started sewing from the bottom near the point and then going down, coming back the other side, and around.  Leave enough of a hole to flip the fabric and stuff your heart.  Any secure stitch should do as long as the stitches are kept small.  Leave about 1/3 of an inch between the edge of the fabric and the stitch.

After the sewing was done, I flipped the heart through the hole I left open.  I poked Poly-Fill stuffing into the hole, using a pencil to push it into the corners and humps of the heart.  Be sure not to over-stuff or your seams could rip, and your heart will look lumpy.  I overstuffed yet again.  After this is done, stitch up the hole.  Doctor up and little holes or gaps as needed, and there you have it.  I paired mine with a complementary homemade card with bats, flowers, a representation of us as vampires on our wedding day, along with the message "Te iubesc" on the card to match the gift.  He really enjoyed it, busted seams and all (I'd misplaced the other heart and had to use his for hot potato "Hot Hearts" for Autumn's party, and it apparently took a beating I didn't have time to repair before the big exchange), and put his gift in our bedroom immediately.