Blogging Gold, Baby! Blogging Gold!

My husband was determined to work on a big project this weekend. He wanted to trim a neighbor's tree that is next to our house, right outside the kitchen window. The tree was getting big and during windy storms could definitely do damage to our house. Our neighbor doesn't mind my husband doing this chore.

First, I need to describe my house to you. It's a hill house that is structurally enormous. It's also a backward house. You enter it on the top level, which is the public area. The bedrooms are down on the next level. Below that, we have a huge crawl space that is finished and is an unofficial third floor. We lovingly refer to that level as "the bowels."

Anyway, the main level is really about 5 stories above ground. We truly have treetop views up there. So when my husband wants to trim the top of the tree, he likes to do it from inside our house from the kitchen. In the past, he would use a chainsaw that's attached to a long pole. He'd try to aim the chainsaw as far as he could to get as much tree as possible. Sometimes he do it while hanging out the kitchen window, 50 feet above ground.

Yeah, that's given me some gray hairs.

This time, he wanted to use a new tool for the job. To get a rough idea of what it looked like, see here. Essentially, it's a mean-looking saw at the end of a pole that can extend to about 24 feet. My husband was excited because this saw can reach parts of the tree that he couldn't reach before!

After I returned from running errands, he was almost done with this chore. He had one last portion of the tree to do. He wanted me to videotape him using this saw. As I was positioned on the top deck of the house, videotaping him using the saw, I heard him yell, "Cut!" My first thought was that he cut himself on something. The saw blade was far away from him, but I thought he scraped his arm on something in the kitchen.

I asked him if he was okay, and he told me that he wanted me to stop filming because the saw was stuck in the tree. He tried valiantly to get the saw unstuck, but to no avail. He tried spraying water on the tree and pulling the saw any which was he could, but it wouldn't budge. He did succeed in breaking the pole of the saw completely into two pieces. So here's a picture of the view from our kitchen window:



The next day, to try and cut around the saw, he tried to use his old chainsaw on a stick, but it didn't go out far enough. He taped it to a bigger pole, but it bent too much and he didn't have the control. So, he bought a 12-foot two by four that appears to have more stability. He's going to try using this next weekend. So this story will be continued next week.

In case you're wondering why I'm not showing the video that I took of this event, let's just say that my husband isn't giving it to me. I heard him ask his iPhone assistant Siri to look up divorce lawyers as I'm drafting this post. Hehe.

Meanwhile, every time I look out my kitchen window, I can't help imagining a horrible setup to a potential scene in a Final Destination movie.

Wish us luck!

I'm a BlogHer-Featured Blogger Today

I'm so excited today! Not only is it Halloween, but BlogHer is featuring a post I did a few weeks ago in trying to get my daughter not to read as much (see here)!

Come join in on the discussion at BlogHer!

Happy Halloween!

A Surprise on my Doorstep!

The other day I came home from a hectic day to find a box on my doorstep. My husband is always ordering items off the internet, so I assumed the package was for him. I quickly saw my name on the box. The only thing I was expecting was a pair of shoes I won on a blog giveaway. This package seemed to light to be the shoes though.

I opened the box to see this inside:



How fun--a pretty, wrapped package from Mary Kay cosmetics that I wasn't expecting! Inside the box I found this:



(The toothbrush wasn't part of the gift, but the 3 eye shadows, blush, mascara, and lipstick were!).

I contacted BlogHer to see why cosmetics would just be given to me. They told me that the cosmetics were mine to keep, and I could blog and/or tweet about them, but I was under no obligation to do so.

I have to disclose that I've tried to sell Mary Kay twice in the past. I really love the products, but I just suck at sales! I've also gotten lax in wearing cosmetics. I've stopped wearing blush a long time ago because it seemed to be an extra step that I don't have time for. I've also given up on mascara because my eyes get extremely irritated right after applying it. I've assumed I've developed an allergy to mascara.

I was curious to try these beautiful colors on though, and I was determined to try everything! The mineral eye shadows in Iris, Silver Satin, and Sweet Cream are colors that I would have picked out for myself anyway (see here)! I love purples and grays! The mineral eye shadows stayed on my lids for the entire day without needing any touch-ups.

The blush in Cherry Blossom was easy to apply and added beautiful contour to my face. I found the color to be very natural on my skin, and I didn't need to rub it into my skin to not look like Bozo the Clown. The eye shadow and blush came in a nice, small compact that had applicators hidden in a compartment under the colors.

The lipstick is a beautiful color in the berry family called fuchsia. It's a nice shade that's perfect for the office!

The biggest revelation was the mascara. I tried this out in the evening so I wouldn't be caught out and about with irritated eyes. The mascara is new to the Mary Kay line and called Lash Love Mascara. The mascara was pretty subtle, which is fine with me. The part I liked best was that it's the first mascara I've tried in a long time that didn't irritate my eyes at all! I thought my mascara-wearing days were over!

So thank you, Mary Kay and BlogHer for surprising me with a very lovely gift! I plan to wear the whole collection--even the blush and mascara!

You've helped make this over-worked mama feel very pretty!

10 Ways My Daughter Is Cooler than Me

As a mom, you realize at one point or another that you've lost your hipness--and I'm not talking about the weight you lost after swearing off chocolate or wine (as if). What amazed me is how soon my daughter surpassed me in coolness. I was expecting it to happen at 10 or 11. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but I think my daughter started to surpass me when she was 6.

Oh, who am I kidding? She probably surpassed me when she was 4! 4 months that is.

Ahem.

So, here is my list of the top 10 ways my daughter is cooler than me. They're in no particular order:

1. My daughter dresses better than me. I would love to wear her sparkly skirts and shoes, but they just don't make sparkly clothes for moms. No fair!

2. My daughter is more up on current music and still can sing some classics like Don't Stop Believing. (I think my husband just choked on his saliva reading that one).

3. My daughter has play dates. Me? Not so much.

4. My daughter is invited to parties. Me? Not so much.

5. My daughter has friends. Me? Oh, never mind!

6. My daughter has the best hair in the world. I have the worst hair (see here).

7. My daughter doesn't have to worry about what eating her French fries will do to her hips.

8. My daughter can rock the Hello Kitty outfits! I'd look totally stupid in them.

9. My daughter has at least hundreds of imaginary friends (see here). I have none.

10. My daughter has better things to do with her time than to write silly top ten lists.



The one area I'm more cool than my daughter:

1. I don't go around singing Justin Bieber songs.


I guess I win.


For now.

Halloween Season--My Favorite Time of the Year

It's that time of the week--time to link up to Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday. Jenny is not having us do a letter of the alphabet this week. Instead, she wants us to address something about Autumn. Of course, I have to talk about Halloween. It's my favorite time of the year! Does it get any better than dressing up in costume and eating chocolate while watching scary movies? How can it? Perfection!

We have quite a Halloween season happening this year! My daughter went to a birthday party/Halloween party this past Sunday. She dressed up as an ancient Egyptian and looked really beautiful! I dressed up as a witch. I had bought a witch costume as Target a couple of years ago. It's a long black polyester dress with a hoop skirt. Unfortunately, the party was mostly in the backyard on a 95 degree day. I was pretty hot and miserable.

The party was fantastic though! The mom who threw the party make everything look (and taste) amazing. I've seen some of the most impressive table spreads. She should seriously work as a party planner. She made a graveyard cake that was just for decoration!

Next up is trunk or treat night at my daughter's school this Friday. That should be fun! Then Halloween will have festivities at my daughter's school, followed by trick or treating that night. Think the festivities are over? Think again! My work is celebrating Halloween on Nov. 1 with a pizza party and lip-syncing contest! I hope I don't have to work from home that day!

Whew!

A neighborhood house goes all out for Halloween. They spend about $25,000 each year to put on an amazing show, complete with state-of-the art special effects. It's been featured on television and draws quite a crowd. At last year's show, friends of mine who went saw Neil Patrick Harris there watching the show! Check out this video:




What's your favorite thing about Halloween?

My Husband Is Seeing Another Woman

I have to admit, I'd cheat on me too with this woman. She knows everything! She addresses any command given to her. She's always polite. She's pretty funny! Who is this woman? Her name is Siri, and she is the personal assistant that comes with the new iPhone.

We were having fun with Siri over the weekend. At one point, my daughter asked a question to which Siri responded, "I don't understand. Are you high?" Seriously! I couldn't believe my ears. Later, my husband and I were trying lots of different things. My husband told Siri he loved her. She answered with, "I bet you say that to all your Apple products." My husband asked her to tell a joke. She responded with, "Two iPhones walked into a bar." My husband then said, "Knock knock." Siri answered, "Who's there? I don't tell knock knock jokes!"

This is just the fun stuff. Siri can handle calendar functions, emails, text messages, internet searches all with following voice commands. She seems to get it right most of the time too!

I remember being totally amazed about six months ago when my husband and I watched the computer Watson on Jeopardy. Watson impressed us with its capability of understanding (most of the time) the complexities of the English language and being able to respond appropriately and accurately. Watson consisted of a large rooms of processors working away to make this possible.

I'm impressed that the latest iPhone has a pretty sophisticated computer that can do this to a limited degree that fits in the palm of your hand.

The technology that exists is blowing me away! I wonder what's in store 10 years from now!

Disclaimer: Apple is not affiliated with this post. I'm receiving no compensation or product (damn) for this post. I'm just really blown away by Siri.

I might have to be a little nicer to my husband now when he needs information from me. Not only because Siri is such a threat, but because he also bought me the latest iPhone as well.

Love you, honey! I'll ask Siri to make you a special dinner!

Life Well Lived--A Chance to Win $250!

It’s the end of your day and you’re rushing to get ready for an evening out. How do you create a nighttime look in just a few minutes?

This was the question posed to me by BlogHer. They asked some bloggers to give their own, original answers to this question. To be honest, people don't come knocking down my door for beauty advice. After having my daughter, I probably went about 3 years without wearing any makeup at all. However, if there's one makeup question I can address it's how to get a nighttime look in a hurry! I mean, I've attended the Oscars twice! Do you want to know how much time I took to get ready? I don't think I took more than half an hour.

My answer? I honestly don't remember what I wrote exactly. I submitted my answer over 2 months ago. I know I talked about using darker, more dramatic eye color. In particular, I mentioned liking purples and grays for an evening look.

How do I know I wrote this? Because the makeup expert at Life Well Lived mentioned my tip in her article! Yay! You should check out this post. Not only will you see my great advice there, but they have professional tips and a video demonstrating an application for a quick, evening look!

Have your own tips you'd like to share? The folks at Life Well Lived would love to hear them! Comment on the article to share your great advice. Heck, if my tip is good enough for the article, surely what you have to add will be too.

Now, I'm sure you're wondering how to win the $250 Visa gift card, right? BlogHer has a Life Well Lived Moments Sweepstakes going on here. All you have to do to enter it is to visit the site and leave a comment sharing what little thing in life gives you complete joy! For me, it's eating a wonderful piece of chocolate! I'm going over there now to enter the sweepstakes. Because winning a $250 Visa gift card before the holidays? That's pure joy!

Come join me!

Funny Memories

Yesterday, I was taking a trip down memory lane with my daughter. She wanted to hear about some of the funny things she did as a toddler, and I was too happy to oblige.

One story I shared with her happened when she was 18 or 19 months old. She was eating her lunch which consisted of a turkey and cheese sandwich. She liked to take the filling out and eat them separately from the bread. As she was eating her turkey, she quickly got up and went over to a book she left in her play area. She turned to the T is for Turkey page, held her luncheon meat up to the book and pretended that it said, "Mama! Mama!" to the picture of the animal in the book. I thought this was hilarious!

Another story I shared with her had to do with an odd quirk she had. She always had a hard time sleeping and gave up her naps at a very young age. She started struggling with her naps at around 19 months. Yikes! Nevertheless, she had an odd fascination for other kids' cribs and beds. It wasn't unusual to find her laying in bed at a play date. One time, we were at an evening holiday party. She was about 3 years old and hanging out with kids that were about her age. They were watching videos in her friend's room, which allowed us to enjoy festivities in another room. When it was time to leave, I went to get my daughter, but she wasn't in the room watching videos anymore. I ran through the house in a panic, not knowing where my daughter was! I finally found her in the toddler's room. She had climbed into the crib and was resting. I should have looked there first!

I didn't share this story with my daughter, but it's one of my favorites! When my daughter was about 2.5 years old, we went to my nephew's wedding. After the ceremony, the photographer wanted to take pictures of the whole family and made us wait while he snapped pics of the bride and groom and their wedding party. It was a hot day, and we waited for about an hour. My daughter was getting impatient (weren't we all!) and hungry. She gets grouchy when she gets hungry (don't we all!). Anyway, after we finally went into the reception hall and were seated at our table, the waiter went around to remove the champagne flutes from where the small kids were sitting. My daughter became very irate when she saw this and shouted, "NO! I want to drink wine!" This outburst made everyone at the table laugh. I was pretty mortified too. I mean, didn't she know the difference between a wine glass and a champagne flute? Embarrassing!

My daughter enjoyed hearing about her antics when she was younger. I enjoyed telling her too! It was one of the reasons why I wanted to start blogging--so I could capture these funny moments!

Autumn Colors

Jenny Matlock has thrown a wrench in my plans for Alphabe-Thursday. Normally, I write posts addressing the different letters of the alphabet. We finished the alphabet last week, so Jenny thought it would be fun for everyone to link posts about autumn colors this week. Sounds great, right? The only problem is that I live in Los Angeles, and we don't really experience seasons here. I do happen to live in the part of the city that has the hottest weather in the summer and the coldest weather in the winter. So, we do get a tiny taste of seasons here. We also have a lot of trees. Many of these trees do change colors.

The problem is that they don't change colors until much later than anywhere else. We're still experiencing daytime highs in the 90s (last week, we had temps around 105!). I took this picture last week:



Oh, this picture was taken at sunset, so you can't really appreciate the lack of fall colors. But trust me, all those trees are green. Ignore that weird blur in the middle of the photo. No, it's not dirt on my lens, but a really large spider I was trying to take a picture of that was right outside my window. She was building her web between two trees and was about 5 stories off the ground. It's amazing what you see when you're this high up.

Unfortunately, we can't see fall colors yet. The leaves are just now beginning to turn, but it won't be until mid-November that we'll start to experience fall. It may be even later.

At least we have a taste of fall here. Not many parts of Los Angeles do.

Heart of Gold

It's been a really tough week this past week. My daughter, who's usually pretty sweet, has turned into a rude, inconsiderate girl lately. I suspect it's because school is so demanding, and she's following the rules there so she's choosing to rebel at home.

My husband wants to remind her about what's important in life. His plan was to share a magazine with her about kids starving in Africa. The magazine shows the hardships these kids face, then suggest different gift amounts to help provide them with things like goats to provide milk and cheese. My husband was planning on suggesting she contribute toward a goat as part of the holiday gift to her teacher.

This plan worked pretty well without my husband having to do anything. He left the magazine on his desk where our daughter found it. I saw her engrossed in reading about these kids. I didn't talk about what she was reading. I was just letting the magazine's message sink into her head. I even had to hold my tongue a couple of times about her putting the magazine down so she wouldn't be late for school.

A couple of days ago, my daughter sat next to me and said she knew what the next thing she wanted to buy was. I was expecting her to talk about the latest toy or doll, but she said that she wanted to contribute money to help buy a goat for a starving child. I was impressed. I don't think my husband even knew that she had been reading the magazine yet! But she came up with this idea on her own, without us suggesting it.

I wish I could say her behavior at home improved too. It really hasn't, but I know that despite this rebellious phase, my daughter has a heart of gold.

I'm So Angry! I Just Need to Vent!

I've had a really tough week! All I can say is that my patience is wearing thin. Really thin.

So, my hubby wanted to cheer me up tonight. He popped in the blu-ray disc of Bridesmaids that we had rented. We had seen the movie over the weekend and thought it was cute. We heard the extras were really hilarious, so tonight seemed like the perfect night to watch them.

Only, the damn disc didn't let us watch the extras. It popped up a message saying that the rental only entitles us to watch the movie, not the extras. We have to buy a copy of the movie to watch the extras.

WTF?

I thought that when you rent a damn disc, you can view everything on that disc. I never remember seeing any caveats or disclaimers that renting a disc doesn't give you full access to the items on the disc. When did that start happening? When you rent a car, do you have to forgo the extras such as seat belts or headlights? No? Well then I shouldn't have to go without the extras then!

It's funny because this happened right after my husband complained about how the airlines are now adding extra fees to everything. Silly us wanted three seats together when we're flying during the holiday time, but these seats weren't available. The seats aren't actually sold yet, but the airline is trying to get more money for premium seats. Premium being any seat on the aisle. So, if we want to fly, my husband has to book three middle seats that are scattered through coach. When my husband explained to the ticket agent that our 7-year old daughter shouldn't be sitting by herself, the ticket agent fessed up about the seating situation. She said she can pull strings to seat a family together without them paying more for the aisle seat. Of course, we're assuming what she means by sitting together is that one of us will be allowed to sit with our daughter. I mean, we can't expect the airline to forgo two premium seats! How silly of us!

What is happening in society today? It seems like common sense is being thrown out the window so corporations can try to make more money.

Back to the Bridesmaids situation. If I were a video rental company such as Blockbuster or Netflix, I would be suing the studios big-time over this. Without letting their customers view the extras, what incentive is there to rent a video versus watching pay-per-view?

Shame on the movie studios! This is definitely the wrong choice for them to make.

I'm getting sick of all the extra fees getting tacked on to things. It's getting very old very fast.

What fees are you tired of paying?

Zombie Time!

It's that time of the week--time to link up to Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday. The letter this week is the letter "Z." I can't believe we're already on Z. Where does the time go? Since Halloween is coming up very quickly, my Z is for zombie time, although my post has nothing to do with zombies. It's just a general reference to Halloween. Hey, this logic works in my mind. Sorry if it doesn't work in yours! Everyone's a critic.

Anywho...it is Halloween season. Usually, I'm a horrible procrastinator and buy my daughter a costume at the Halloween store when the pickings are getting kinda slim. Not this year though! My daughter knew what she wanted to be and was anxious for me to get to the store to buy it for her. She wants to be what any seven-year old girl in second grade wants to be.

She wants to be an ancient Egyptian.

My daughter's been reading up on ancient Egypt a lot lately and is totally fascinated by their culture. Well, actually, obsessed might be a better word for it. One of her books showed her how to make a costume which is what gave her that idea.

Unfortunately, I'm not very good at making costumes. Not wanting to disappoint her, I explained that we had no white sheets in the house. Buying a sheet just for the costume seemed silly when I can buy a costume for the same price. I was a little panicked about finding an ancient Egyptian costume. I wasn't sure the Halloween store would have one.

The interesting thing about going to the Halloween store almost a month early is that they have a really great selection of costumes. Who knew? Nevertheless, I was expecting not to find anything, and I warned my daughter that I might have to get her something over the internet (yay ecommerce).

Imagine my surprise that the store had a Cleopatra costume in my daughter's size! Actually, they had quite a few in a lot of sizes! That's weird.

So, my daughter's dream of being an ancient Egyptian for Halloween is coming true!

Now she's nagging me to buy her black eyeliner pronto so her costume will be totally set.

Oy.

What are your kids going to be for Halloween?

The Double-Edged Sword of Social Media

A few months after I started blogging, my bloggy friends started convincing me I had to go on Twitter. Twitter would change my life! I'd get a huge increase in readership!

So I went on Twitter. And it was good. No, I didn't get a huge readership from it. But I did have a lot of fun. I always loved chat rooms, and Twitter is one huge chat room. I also began to appreciate the power that was Twitter. It really helps get your message out in a way that nothing else does. The power is all with the retweet. If one follower likes what you wrote and retweets it to their readers, you can potentially have exposure to thousands of new people. It's insane!

Also, where else can you follow the famous people you admire and actually interact with them? Sometimes they may even retweet something clever you said to them or at least to their social media person since many celebrities probably aren't actually tweeting but hire people to do it for them. Damn!

The other cool thing about Twitter is that people are somewhat slutty! The whole idea is to follow a ton of people and have a ton of people follow you. Otherwise, what's the point, right? Tonight, I'm approaching a major milestone--for me. I'm nearing 2,000 followers! I'm very excited about this landmark. My Facebook following is not nearly as impressive. I mostly reserve Facebook for friends and family.

The reach of social media is just amazing! I'm still awed by the power of it. So, what's the downside? Personally, I think representing yourself badly can have bad consequences down the road. You know the saying that bad publicity is better than no publicity? I'm not sure that's really accurate.

This thought occurred to me as I was trying to get into a chick lit book the other day. Normally, I'd read the book all the way through, hoping it picks up after awhile. But I found myself getting really angry at the author as I was reading this book. I finally decided it wasn't worth my time reading it when I finished the third chapter. It occurred to me that I wasn't giving the book much of a chance because of the realization that I couldn't stand the author.

That wasn't always the case. While I would never claim to love this author's books (and no, I'm not going to reveal who the author is), I at least found them mildly entertaining. I had followed the author on Twitter for awhile but eventually unfollowed her. I just couldn't stand her tweets after awhile. They were like fingernails on a chalkboard. She had an annoying tendency to have twitter parties centered around a television show that she was a writer on. She'd make congratulatory tweets on her amazing lines to herself. Occasionally, she'd give the other writers credit for their funny lines (while tweeting something along the lines of, "I didn't even have have input on that line, but it's funny anyway.").

Ugh, I couldn't stand reading those damn obnoxious tweets after awhile, so I unfollowed her months ago. Apparently, the hostility that those tweets caused in me carried over to her damn book that I found formulaic and cloying. I'm not buying any of her books anymore. Ever.

Please be careful about what you tweet. You really don't want to come across as a conceited, immodest person. It doesn't serve you well in the long run!

Is there anyone famous you had to stop following on Twitter? Why did you stop following him/her?

An Update (Also Known as Why My Blog Has Been Eh)

Things have been really crazy here lately! Between dropping my daughter off at school, commuting to work, picking my daughter up at school, helping her focus on her homework, getting dinner ready, putting daughter to bed, and doing more work, I just haven't had much time to focus on writing blog posts.

I also haven't had much time to visit and comment on all the blogs I love to visit.

I have to accept that there's only so much time in the day, and I can't accomplish everything I like. So, my blog posts haven't been as insightful and funny as they used to be (they did use to be funny and insightful, right?).

So, as I'm writing this at 11:44 pm, I just wanted to extend an apology to my readers.

Hang in there. I'm sure I'll have more gems to post about in the future.

For now, sleep calls!

Not Yesterday, or the Day Before that, or Even the Day Before That...

It's that time of the week again! Time to link up to Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday. The letter this week is the letter "Y." Another trip through the alphabet is almost up! It's hard to believe how fast time goes by! Anyway, Y is for yesterday. Only, I'm actually referring to more than a week ago, but that doesn't begin with a Y like yesterday does. Let's just pretend, people, I'm getting desperate!

So, ahem...many yesterdays ago, I was so out of ideas for my blog that I did a post listing the lunch items that Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) was serving to elementary school children (see here). I felt kinda lame doing this, but I did have some issues with the new lunch menu.

I ended up being surprised that people found the post somewhat interesting and commented on it! Even more surprising was that the L.A. Times had an op-ed piece discussing the new lunch menu (see here). I'd like to say that they quoted my post or interviewed me extensively for their opinion piece, but no such luck. Apparently, throwing together one post on the topic doesn't make me an expert (I wonder if two posts would). Overall, the op-ed article seemed to favor the school lunch changes while I wasn't as big a fan.

Another blogger, The Lunch Tray, wrote a post that essentially supported the op-ed piece and was in favor of the school lunch overhaul.

I'm pleased to say someone commented on her blog linking back to my post and comments to show there is another side to the story.

You have to love the blogging world and the internet!

I never would have thought a post listing food items served in a cafeteria would grow some legs to it. And by legs, I mean it exceeded my expectations in terms of the number of people interested in it (20 vs. the 0 I anticipated).

Go figure!

Put Down that Book!

I talk with a lot of the parents at my daughter's school (at least her old school). They generally had the same lament: I wish my kid would read more! I never had that lament. We were supposed to make sure our child read at least 20 minutes a day. I never really kept track of my daughter's reading. I didn't have to. She loves to read and slips it in every chance she gets.

My now 7-year old daughter first showed an interest in books when she was about 2 months old. That's when we first started reading to her, and she loved it! By 15 months, she was able to sight-read a handful of words that I taught her. After awhile, I decided not to push the reading and figured she'd have no problem picking it up on her own. My daughter started to read in earnest when she was a little over 4 years old. Once she started, her reading level grew very fast. A psychologist assessed her reading level about 3 months after she started reading and was surprised to find out that our daughter read at the level of an 8-year old with comprehension at the level of a 6-year old. Not too bad for a 4.5 year old!

This is all great, right? Well it is for the most part. The challenge is that she loves books so much that it can be hard to get her to put a book or magazine down once she starts reading it. Once her nose is buried in a book, she slows down doing everything else. This can be an absolute nightmare when I'm trying to get her to rush out the door to go to school or soccer practice. The only way to get her to hurry up is to get her to put the reading material down.

So, you will find me at various times of the day saying,"We have to go, put the book down! You can read in the car!" "Put that magazine down and eat your dinner before it gets cold!" "Maybe you shouldn't go to the school library at lunch to read and play with friends instead."

The list goes on and on. I think I must be the only mom in the world who actively tells her child NOT to read! When I pointed this out to my husband, he wasn't that happy with me. But it didn't take long before I heard him telling our daughter to put the comic strips down and stop reading so we can get going. Yup, he does it too!

This post is part of the Best of the Best series which this month addresses something that happened that was funny or special.