Has anyone had to talk to their kids about teasing others? Why it's wrong, mean, etc. My son is getting to be in that grade where boys start to pick and make fun of others. I don't see my son doing the picking on or getting picked on, but I would like for him to help other kids that might take the brunt of this teasing.

I remember when I was a kid. Kids can be brutal. I don't want my son to ever be that type of person and want to talk to him about it sooner rather than later. 

Anyone have any advice? 

I was always afraid of Excorcist. I am still afraid of that movie. Just really out there and chilling.

Also, I never liked the Chucky movies. That little doll was disturbing.

Oh, one more. There was a stephen king made for tv movie, that had a really weird, killer clown. I hate clowns.

I guess I don't like scary movies.  

I own like 5 michael stars shirts. They make the best t-shirts ever.

What a nice prize package. That's really cool, thanks. I think i can get a few entries to try and win. 

How fun. My husband always enters his office pool. I have never done one, so I am excited. I don't know the teams at all. There will be alot of guessing going on. I think you probably have a better shot that way anyways.

Thanks for putting this together. I am excited. That $50 is mine. ; )

I would have the children do a top 3 trip destination list. See if there are matching places on everyone's list, that helps make the selecting the location phase go quicker.

I would then let each member of the family get to plan one activity during the trip. Be it a restaurant type, activity, attraction, etc.

Hope that helps! The paper, how cool! 

I saw this online and wanted to share. It's a very interesting story. It's amazing just how complicated picking and getting into the right preschool is getting. Anyone have a story to share about this?

The Getting-Into-Preschool Puzzle -- Can an admissions director really evaluate a 2-year-old?


It's March, which means it's time for a spate of stories about the high comedy of preschool admissions. In certain cities—or rather, in certain well-off circles in a few cities—getting a 2- or 3-year-old into a coveted school is an enormous preoccupation. The preschool wars have adopted the weapons and lingo of the college wars: consultants, résumés, essays, safety schools, and early decision($). This year, a film crew is coming to New York to document the preschool version of Survivor. And the New York Times and the Washington Post have parodied the benighted admissions process—with missives by groveling parents and chirpy advice-givers (when filling out the admissions form, "describe your dream date, and not your actual child").

In the press (and on the playground), the selective schools are the villains, and parents either the laughing stocks or the victims. The underlying assumption is that sorting small children comes down to judgments about their behavior that are wildly mercurial. This fear is overblown—at the most sought-after schools, who you know and how much money you're willing to donate just has to matter more than your toddler's personality—but it's not groundless. Several years ago, when I was a reporter in the East Bay in California, I went to watch an admissions "play date" at an exclusive preschool. One 3-year-old refused to share his shovel in the sandbox. Afterward, the director confirmed that he hadn't boosted his application to the top of the pile.

Since then, though, I've applied five times for preschool for my two sons in three cities (don't ask). And it's not all a war zone out there: In most cities, the demand for good—or good enough—preschools doesn't far outstrip the supply for people who can afford the tuition, at least for 3- and 4-year-olds. There's an "it" choice, but if you rationally compare it with the less "it" alternatives, you'll usually find they're on par. And the main thing those less "it" schools want from you is not a perfect child or a secret handshake but a $500 deposit.

When schools check out your kid as part of deciding whether to let you write that check, they may indeed be in the business of weeding out the criers and the nonsharers. But they're not making up the assessment out of thin air. Evaluating a 2-year-old is not like evaluating an 18-year-old. Still, preschool folk can tell a fair amount about your small child. In fact, the more multidimensional (read onerous) the admissions process, the more they have to go on—and the more you learn about them.

What do preschool admissions directors want to see? Curiosity, energy, some speech, maybe some ability to sit still. In some cases, potty training. What sets off warning bells? Temper tantrums. Extreme clinginess. Kids generally aren't expected to separate from their parents when they walk in the door for an interview or observed play session. But if they never want to leave their mother's lap, "then I ask about separation issues," one preschool director told me.

At Franklin Montessori school in Washington, D.C., the admissions process includes a 30-minute play session for three kids at a time. Director of admissions Randy Crowley says most kids are apprehensive at first. But after Play-Doh, puzzles, and storytelling, a lot of them don't want to leave. "And then you know, oh yeah, that kid is ready." Crowley says she wants parents to enthuse about the Montessori method—they don't have to know a lot about it, but they should sound committed to learning. And when I confessed to her that I'd chosen my son's current preschool in part because of location, she suggested that it's better not to admit so when you're trying to get your kid in. "If a parent mentions that, especially if they also say they're looking for before- and after-care, then you wonder, are they just looking for day care?" (God forbid.)

Crowley admits that it's easier to evaluate the 3-year-olds than the 2-year-olds, because the younger ones' verbal skills are so varied, and a few months can make a big difference in terms of developmental milestones. There's another obvious weakness in the evaluation setup. However friendly and toy-laden, an admissions play session is a foreign environment. The data it spits out are data about how a child acts in a new setting, not how he acts in a place to which he goes every day, which is what school will be. The lucky kids are probably the ones who don't quite realize that they've been thrown into a toy-filled petri dish. The anxious kids may be cannier. Then there are the mishaps you can't control. On my son Eli's first day of preschool, he arrived with a fat lip topped by a woeful black-and-blue mark. Over the weekend, he'd gotten too close to a small dog who seemed calm and friendly but proved otherwise. I worried for months that his teachers were inspecting him for signs of abuse. We were just lucky that it was too late to cross him off the admitted list.

If your small child can't be relied on to negotiate a strange play date with charm and aplomb, maybe you're better off with the résumé-essay-testing approach, which gives you lots of chances to describe his less apparent charms. Presumably the added information helps schools as well, even preschools. "A single test at that age does not mean very much," Howard Gardner, a Harvard professor of cognition and education, wrote to me in an e-mail. But "if you can cull evidence from a test, a play session, a home visit, letters of recommendation (yes, the mind boggles), and they point to a consistent pattern, then you know a lot. If, on the other hand, they are wildly inconsistent, you should either watch out or select more data."

Gardner also points out, however, that the preschools of Reggio Emilia in Italy, which he says are considered the world's best, serve about 40 percent of the population without any sort of selective admissions process (except that they give preference to siblings). These schools don't weed out the kids who want their mommies or resist sharing their toys, because "you come to learn how to share. That's part of our job here," as my son's former preschool director Christine Reberkenny-Frisketti puts it. If that sounds like the right response to you, then maybe you should turn the essay you're writing to get your kid into your dream school into a paper airplane or quit worrying that he didn't get into the "it" preschool because he didn't play well with others. What's troubling about preschool admissions, in the end, is that they reveal how narrow the preferred range of demeanor for little kids is. We want 2- and 3-year-olds to be sunny but not loud, perceptive but not shy, energetic but not hyper. We want them to conform. Your genius friend who can't sit still or your tech-savvy officemate who avoids eye contact? They'd be in the reject pile.

By Emily Bazelon

I just read this one too and wanted to share with everyone. Just what exactly are our kids learning in schools I sometimes ask myself. This banner is awful and shouldn't be allowed in a school. Read this and tell me if you agree with me on this one.

Supreme Court hears 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' case

At issue: Free speech versus schools rights to restrict disruptive behavior

WASHINGTON - Scores of students waited outside the Supreme Court on Monday for a chance to listen to arguments in a test of student speech rights - a high school senior's display of a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

The message connected drug use and religion in a nonsensical phrase that was designed to provoke, and it got Joseph Frederick into a lot of trouble.

After he unfurled his 14-foot "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner on a Juneau, Alaska, street one winter morning in 2002, Frederick got a 10-day school suspension. Five years later, he has a date Monday at the Supreme Court in what is shaping up as an important test of constitutional rights.

At Issue:
Students do not leave their right to free speech at the school door, the high court said in a Vietnam-era case over an anti-war protest by high school students.

But neither can students be disruptive or lewd or interfere with a school's basic educational mission, the court also has said.

OK, my sister sent this to me and I just had to post. I made one of these for the hubbie and he loved it. Perfect for gameday snack. If you try, let me know if he/you liked it.

oh, it's not a healthy meal, sorry...

but it's quite tasty!

BACON, CHEESE AND BEER DOG

Ingredients:
1 hot dog
1 slice of thick-cut bacon
1 can of spray cheese
1 can beer (It doesn't matter what kind, but we recommend something dark. Corona probably isn't a good idea)
1 cup flour
Oil for frying

Instructions:
This one is a little work-intensive, so be ready to buckle down. First take the center out of the hot dog with an apple corer, if you have access to one. If not, just cut out the middle with a knife. Fill the cavity with the spray cheese and use the hot dog you removed from the middle as a cap to keep the cheese in. Wrap the bacon around the hot dog and deep-fry for two to four minutes or until bacon is cooked. Dab them dry with a paper towel (so the batter will stick). Mix the beer with the flour until it reaches a thick, but lump-free consistency. Dip the dogs in the batter, coating the dog completely, and deep-fry on high heat for two to three minutes or until brown and deadly.
NOTE: Don't fry them too long or all of the cheese will explode out into the oil. That's very bad.

This was pretty strange. I just had to post it. Brings a whole new deminsion to foreplay. OK -- sorry, i just couldn't help myself! 

Woman grows nipple on foot ...

A 22-year-old woman sought medical care for a lesion in the plantar region of her left foot, a well-formed nipple surrounded by areola and hair. Microscopic examination of the dermis showed hair follicles, eccrine glands, and sebaceous glands. Fat tissue was noted at the base of the lesion. Clinical and histopathologic findings were consistent with the diagnosis of supernumerary breast tissue, also known as pseudomamma. To our knowledge, this is the first report of supernumerary breast tissue on the foot.

Ranch, ranch and ranch! Sometimes ketchup, but most always ranch.

Did I mention I like ranch! 

We were chatting about being pregnant in the chat today. I was thinking about before I first got pregnant, how many children I wanted to have. I figured 4 or 5. Now that I have two, I am thinking 3 max! So funny how your mindset changes.

Anyone else change their mind on how many kids they have once they started having them?

You get those off with heat, right? Oh, I am sorry you had one of those buggers on you. They are sooo gross. The only thing worse in my mind is those close up shots they show you of bed bugs. They look like aliens when they do that close up shot.

GROSS!!! 

I couldn't help myself.

Look at the pictures of shoes. That's awesome. I have 56 pairs of shoes. It's crazy, I am a shoe whore, he he he. My husband hates my shoe area in the closet, he thinks it's too much.

My favorites are my Reef flip flops, Key West gold sandals and Mia red pumps. I picked up a pair two weeks ago. I try to get at least 9 or 10 a year.