Archive for November, 2010

What do you feed a kid with diarrhea or upset stomach? That’s Mom 101, right? Bananas, rice, apples, toast. That’s easy to do when you’re sitting around the house, but if you’re on the move, not so much. No kid’s going to eat a baggie of cold rice or toast. What you want instead is Organic B.R.A.T., a creamy non-dairy blend of brown rice milk, apple and banana purees, and added vitamins.

It’s sort of like a souped-up, healthier version of Gatorade. There’s no added sugar, no neon coloring, and no casein, corn, or soy (for the sensitive). The drinks have a chocolate-milk consistency, and were adored by my small panel of kid tasters, who particularly liked the chocolate honey flavor. Easy to drink, easy on the stomach; not a bad thing to have around when your kid catches a bug. Don’t like chocolate? There’s also vanilla, cinnamon toast, and “original” (kind of fruity) flavors.

Organic B.R.A.T. is available online through Amazon.com or at Safeway, Whole Foods, Wegman’s, and Shaw’s, among other chains.

You’ve seen Hello Kitty socks and backpacks and stuffed dolls and change purses; keychains and barrettes and lunch boxes. But you’ve never heard her speak (in fact, in repose, Kitty has no mouth). Until now.

Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater was an animated show that aired for one season on CBS in 1987. It lives anew on Netflix Streaming, where the whole 13-episode season is available. The show takes on the “hey, kids, let’s put on a show!” conceit, with Kitty and her friends involved in stage productions of classic fairytales and movies: Pinocchio and Rumplestiltskin, Star Wars and Jaws. At the start of each 15-minute segment (two in each half-hour episode), the theater fills with animated animal patrons, as the show’s cast, including Kitty, horse around backstage. Then Kitty says “Once upon a meow” (ugh) and the show-within-a-show begins.

This ain’t Shakespeare. But the takeoffs of stories parents already know are cute and non-shrill enough to not annoy parents, and entertaining enough to while away a few hours for kids. There’s no violence, nothing scary, and very little else to worry parents, and with cuddly ‘n’ cute animal characters as protagonists, this should entertain a wide age range of kids, from four to eight.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers and their families. This week, we share a book on gratitude and also some children’s books from 2010 that we are especially grateful for.

On Gratitude: Cheryl Crow, Jeff Bridges, Alicia Keys, Daryl Hall, Ray Bradbury, Anna Kendrick, B.B. King, Elmore Leonard, Deepak Chopra, and 42 More Celebrities Share What They’re Most Thankful For by Todd Aaron Jensen.
This charming and thoughtful collection includes insights from writers, actors, and sports stars on their lives and their blessings. On gratitude: for Marcia Gay Harden, it was having the freedom of choice and for Joyce Carroll Oates it was reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time. The books creator Todd Aaron Jensen invites the reader to share their own stories of gratitude with a list of suggested questions to tackle and submit to: www.thegratitudelist.org

Available at Amazon.com

The Gift by Carol Ann Duffy, Illustrated by Rob Ryan (Ages 9-12)
It is a timeless tale about a little girl’s journey though life. The Gift is the sort of child’s book that speaks to adults as well about the mysteries of living and loving. Carol Ann Duffy is a former Poet Laureate and her contribution to children’s literature is a beautiful result of her talent. The unique and stunning papercut pictures from artist Rob Ryan add much to this story about the cycles of life and how we experience them with our loved ones.

Available at Amazon.com

The Fairy Tale of the World by Jurg Amann, Illustrated by Kathi Bhend (Ages 9-12)
With its unique vision and surprising imagery, this fairy tale is unlike any other typical princess story you might have read. The story was first dreamt up by a young German writer, Georg Büchner who died tragically at the age of twenty-three. This adaptation is from Award-winning Swiss author Jürg Amann. With a start seemingly dark and full of despair, the illustrations help the conclusion bring a sense of hope. Definitely a compelling and different read for you and your older child.

Available at Amazon.com

Highlights from the boards for the week of Nov 18th-24th:

Did You Marry Educational Equal?… (63 Replies)
Since we seem to be educational snobs here on UB, did you marry your educational equal or above (degree and quality of school(s))? Was this important to you?

Interfere on a Bad Mom… (49 Replies)
If you heard a mother of a child in your school speaking horribly at the park to her five-year-old child as in, “you’re an awful little girl and I wish I’d never had you” in response to her daughter’s refusal to obey, what would you do? I know this mother is struggling in her personal life, but I don’t want to interfere. That said, I feel terribly for her child.

Thanksgiving Drama: FIL Takes my DS… (43 Replies)
I am DREADING the long weekend at my FIL’s. He has a habit of picking up my 2yo DS and taking him out of the room, into another room, or just taking him out of the room where everyone is socializing and going for a walk WITHOUT asking me or DH. It infuriates me but DH will not say anything to FIL or stop it because “My father has the right to do whatever he wants with our son.” I disagree!

Choose a Career for Work-Life Balance… (54 Replies)
Did you think about work-life balance when you chose your career? I’m surprised at home many of my current friends (WOH and SAH) who say how lucky I am to have a good balance, when it was something that I considered when I was planning my career. It sounds like they didn’t and it surprises me.

Parents Who Promote Sibling Rivalry… (14 Replies)
What are some things that your parents said/did that promoted rivalry? Are there things that you still remember to this day and would never repeat? On the flip side, are there any things that they said that made you feel great about being a sibling and diffused feelings of competition?

Miscellany

DH Embarrassed to Brown Bag It (25 Replies)

Don’t Raise a Mean Girl (24 Replies)

5 Top Advantages of Private… (15 Replies)

Why Do You Care About My Hair? (43 Replies)

Dog Recommendations for Apartments (27 Replies)

Once a child outgrows simple picture books, there’s an awkward phase before she’s ready for long chapter books. Woe betides the parent who tries to read her child the Ramona or Little House books before he’s ready! Not enough pictures, cry the children, and tumult ruled in the nursery.

Esther Averill’s vintage Cat Club series is the perfect gap-bridger, with pictures on every page, and simple but charming plotlines to please both parents and children. Averill began publishing her Cat Club books in 1944, and from then until 1972 she produced a dozen stories based on cats she owned or knew. The main character in the books is Jenny Linsky, a small, shy black cat owned by the kindhearted ex-sailor Captain Tinker. Jenny joins a club made up of the neighborhood cats and together the cats have many adventures, such as going to sea and having a birthday party.

The text has a kind of stilted retro quality to it, but it’s adorable nonetheless, and the black/white/red illustrations are unique and sweet, particularly the street-scene drawings of Greenwich Village from another era. The whole series was out of print, until it was republished by the New York Review Children’s Collection in 2005. Perhaps the best book to start with is The Fire Cat, an I Can Read book about Pickles, a lonely and sometimes naughty cat who learns how to be useful around the fire house. But any of the Cat Club books will lead you into the series, and convince you to read them all to your children, one by one.

Practically every time I go on a plane to Grandma and Grandpa’s house with my daughter, we make a stop in the airport gift shop first, where I pay a chilling $15-plus for one of those stupid “magic pen” books. All that dough and it barely keeps her busy until takeoff.

For a mere $11 a pop, Hello Hanna’s Hello Books will keep them busy for a heck of a lot longer. The books are actually a long, white accordion-folded card with cutouts that make it look like a castle, or a jungle, or a celestial space background. With the “book,” kids get pages and pages of stickers in various shapes, colors, and sizes, and an instruction sheet showing them how to put the stickers together to make robots, birds, trees, furniture, and all the other stuff your child wants to populate his book with.

Put a sticker down in the wrong place? No problem, it peels up and goes right back on the sticker sheet, again and again. Sorta reminds me of Colorforms, except that you won’t end up with little triangles, squares, and circles all over your floor.

Hello Hanna’s Hello Books in Princess Castle, Robot Mission and Monkey Business, $11 each

If you don’t know Bakerella, let me introduce you by way of some of her concoctions: Red Velvet Cake Balls , Mini Maple Pancake Muffins , and the wildly popular Cake Pops. Angie Dudley, aka “Bakerella,” is a baking blogger who might be most well known for her idea to turn cake balls into cake pops. In her new book Cake Pops: Tips, Tricks, and Recipes for More Than 40 Irresistible Mini Treats you can learn her trick of mixing crumbled cake and frosting that can be molded into different shapes and decorate for any occasion.

Cake Pops is complete with clear instructions, detailed methods and techniques, and amazing photos of the charming cake pop confections. Some recipes to try just in time for the holidays: Turkey Time, Hanukkah Pops, Reindeer, Simple Santa Hats, Cheery Christmas Trees, and Sweet Snowmen.

A bite-sized change in our sweet holiday eating.

Available at Amazon.com

If I told you there was a great kid’s musical released in 1970 that was directed by the guy responsible for Looney Toons’ What’s Opera Doc? and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring a famous child actor and name-brand voice talent like Mel Blanc and June Foray, and based on a bestselling children’s novel that you almost definitely read and still worship, you’d say what? I’ve probably already seen it? Fat chance, because despite its splendid pedigree, most people haven’t even heard of the movie version of The Phantom Tollbooth.

Based on the ever-popular book of the same name by Norton Juster, child actor Butch Patrick (The Munsters, Sid & Marty Krofft’s Lidsville) stars as Milo, a little boy who’s bored in class and even more bored at home. That is, until the day that a mysterious red-and-white striped package appears in his room. It opens all by itself, revealing a tollbooth, some cautionary signs (”to be used in a cautionary manner,” says the deadpan narrator), and a little red car to drive through the booth. Milo gets into the car, pays his fare, and drives right into an animated world of mystery, magic, and oh so many puns.

The action, which features Milo trying to put a mixed-up kingdom of numbers and words to rights, is bizarro enough to please kids, and the animation is pleasingly psychedelic: check out the scene where Milo mis-conducts a sunrise for some really groovy swirling colors. The voice talent is also primo: Mel Blanc as the testy Officer Short Shrift, June Foray as several characters including the not-so-wicked witch Faintly Macabre.

In fact, the whole film adaptation is faithful to its terrific source material, gentle, amusing, and filled with wonderful pro-education messages. So why is the darned thing so rare? It exists only as an out-of-print VHS tape and isn’t available on DVD. Why bring it up at all? Until the end of December, it’s available On Demand from Comcast. Oh, and Gary Ross, director of the movie Pleasantville, is working on a remake. Let’s hope it’s as much fun as this version.

Highlights from the boards for the week of Nov 11th-17th:

IQ Mom… (66 Replies)
Let’s have a race-neutral discussion about “intelligence” and “IQ.” Let’s endeavor to discuss — in a factual, data-driven way — the following questions: (1) What is intelligence? (2) Does there exist something known as general intelligence? (3) Are intellectual qualities like musicality, kinesthetic skills, interpersonal skills, etc. properly excludable from what we refer to as intelligence? And (4) Can our definition of “general intelligence” be measured, specifically through standardized testing that often results in an IQ score?

We Like Temp Nanny Better… (18 Replies)
My nanny of 3 yrs took a sudden 2 wk leave of absence - death of a family member. She’s been a good caretaker but there are some issues. We were understanding about the leave but had to hire a temp nanny for 2 weeks. Anyway, the temp nann is wonderful - an ideal fit in every way. I would feel so bad firing current nanny but…the kids have now been through the transition…thoughts?

Don’t Want Daughter Touched or Scanned at Airport… (58 Replies)
Wondering about the new security procedures in airports. Do they make children go thru the body scanner or get a patdown? I am not really comfortable with either for my dd and we will be flying soon. She is 14 and I don’t want anyone touching her or scanning her.

Spending Too Much Time with My Child?… (53 Replies)
A lot of feedback that I spend too much time w/ my child and that he needs to be alone sometimes. I would like honest ideas about how much time you expect your child to play alone when they are still under two years old. I made the decision to stay at home so I can help my child learn and grow during these formative years. For me, that means I read frequently to him, talk to him, sing with him and play with him. Maybe he does need to develop more independence, but how much?

Anyone Regret Quitting and SAHM?… (15 Replies)
I know it is a tough job and wondering what would you do if you had to do it all over. Thinking of quitting my job. It is a great job with great benefits (and I make more money than my husband). It is just an intense job with lots of hours and entertaining.

Backwards Red-Shirting Problem… (70 Replies)
I have sort of the opposite problem to red-shirting. My daughter misses the school cutoff by 25 days, and I can’t imagine having her wait a whole year to start school. I’m worrying about this early - she’s 1 - but she is clearly bright, has a surprisingly bright older brother, and if I can say this without sounding snotty, two very smart, grade-skipping - and Ph.D parents. Some kids you can just tell, and she’s going to be socially fine.

Miscellany

iPad apps for 1-year old? (73 Replies)

Your Biggest Regret (28 Replies)

Best Advice for First Weeks Home with Newborn… (69 Replies)

Kids with Email (14 Replies)

Gentle pinks and blues and sweet lil yellows have been the nursery colors of choice for too long. Make your nursery a thing of stylish high contrast with black and white accessories.

Trend Lab’s Versailles crib bedding set has an op-art flair, with a blanket that looks sorta like an Oriental rug, and at $135 for the set of bumpers, blanket, and fitted sheet, you won’t mind all that much when baby eventually stains that white blanket body-fluid yellow.

White, however, is an incredibly bad background color for anything that’s going to be walked on, drooled on, and spilled on for the next few years. Which is why this Rosenberry Rooms’ Kinetic Rug, with a pattern of looping white on bold black, will provide edgy style, and endless function. You can plop baby on his tummy on top of it, and when it gets dirty, hang it out over the back fence to beat it clean just like Grandma used to do.

As for the crib, there are tons of black and/or white models on the market, so you can pretty much take your pick. But this Cielo crib in “Night Time” (just say black, OK?) has a stark simple shape and clean lines that will contrast beautifully with the other geometric shapes in your nursery. It’s $1,180, so put it on your registry!