Another "Good" Reason To Feel Like A Bad Mother

Not that I have any issues with feeling like a bad mom....So I am innocently listening to my NPR Story of the Day podcast and this story pops up: 'Baby Einstein' Videos Ineffective, Study Finds. You can listen to it yourself, but this is the blurb they have about it:

A popular series of videos targeted at babies and praised by President Bush has been found to be ineffective. A new study has found that Baby Einstein videos actually inhibit learning. Dr. Dimitri Christakis of the University of Washington in Seattle talks with Madeleine Brand.

Buried right at the end of this very serious report is the fact that later in life, all of the "lost language acquisition" is essentially made up for. Yes, not only do mothers today spend more time parenting their little ones than in any other generation, but we should feel guilty about setting the little tots in front of the TV when we are not with them. You have to hand it to better living through Science.

Thank God I actually "forced" Hayes to become more brain-dead by putting him in front of the Baby Einstein library of videos in his early childhood. Otherwise, he'd be building nuclear bombs by now!

Laughing in the Face of Cancer

Robert Schimmel is performing at Cracker's in Broad Ripple tonight and tomorrow. In every city where he performs, he asks his fans to donate comedy CDs to their local cancer centers. He provides the CD players. As a survivor himself, he understands that laughter matters in recovery. He got the idea when he would go in for treatments and listen to his own comedy CDs. The other patients eventually began to listen to comedy and they started lending these CDs to one another.

What strikes me is that it's so simple. There's no red tape, no overhead, no business meetings about what goes where and when to donate; you take the CDs to the center, he drops off the players. End of story. It's so nice to hear about someone doing something so simple, so small, and so meaningful.

I Made This

When I was a kid, my mom used this book to make some of the most memorable cakes for our birthdays and holiday parties. I remember really loving that candy was used to decorate the cakes. Talk about having your cake and eating it too! For the child of a diabetic, it was like heaven on a plate. One of the benefits of living with Mom is that I have access to all her recipe books, including this one. Although the pages are literally falling out, the cakes are still loads of fun.

I gave the book to Hayes so he could select the cake he really wanted for his birthday. It was definately a tough choice. Although the football held a lot of pull, the final choice was the Rocket. The best part about this is that I could decorate the entire thing with white icing and organic candies, avoiding dye completely! This is the final product. It was a real blast!

Garlic & Sapphires

I just finished reading the latest installment on this summer's food themed reading list: Ruth Reichl's Garlic And Sapphires. I really enjoyed it. Not only was it fun to be in on her disguises and how the restaurants of New York treated the critic so differently from the common woman, but it also gave me a glimpse into how Richard must eat. I never realized how multi-dimensional it is for the true "foodie." There was even a spiritual dimension to this savoring of food. It was the perfect summer read.

Every Day's A Holiday

I found a fun new calendar with all sorts of wacky holidays. You can access it here. Just to prepare you, tomorrow is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night. Neighbors beware.

Presidential Candidates -- So Many Choises

There are so many candidates out there, it's hard to know where they stand and who you like. Here is a quick survey to help you see which candidate(s) closely line up with you on the issues (thanks to my brother-in-law, Josh, for leading me to this). I was most closely aligned with Kucinich, and then Gravel. Who do you match up with?

Summer

One of my dear friends said this May, "It's all about summer survival." I think, dear Bryan, you are correct. I finally pleaded with another friend to have her daughter Renee come over and cure Hayes's summer doldrums. She was ecstatic to consent. I can only say that the day was a welcome relief for both Hayes and me.

I am starting to wonder why I didn't sign him up for more camps, why we didn't schedule more play dates, and why in the world I didn't think about getting a regular sitter once a week. Of course, doing it now would be utterly foolish. We have scarcely a week before we road-trip out to Maryland for one last hurrah before school starts. This, however, does not seem to quell the urge to set up a bunch of activities for the next month. It'll all be over soon and I'll be happy to be back into the routine of school and yet, I am sure, grousing about the early mornings, the "long" commute (really, it's just 20 minutes to the school), and the school politics that drive me crazy. Please God, help me not to say yes to every request simply because I am ready for a change of pace.

I swear, August is an endurance test.

Eat, Pray, Love

I just finished reading this enchanting book. Only one third of it is related at all to eating (my summer reading theme, as you may recall) and then, scantily. Even so, it's well worth the read. Although Elizabeth Gilbert is not an author I know well, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this memoir. Although I am no Buddhist, I related intimately to her spiritual quest. And although my lover is no Brazillian, I knew exactly what she means when she writes that his love knows no bounds. I was surprised that this little book lived up to the hype it is currently receiving. You should read it.