From the time I started high school, I dreaded the day I would have to dissect a frog in biology class. It seemed disrespectful and, quite frankly, positively disgusting, to slice open and pick around the innards of a frog. Twenty years later, I never dreamed I would feel a certain kinship with that frog. But lo and behold…

How I happened to find myself strapped to an operating table came as quite the unpleasant surprise. I had my first child naturally and assumed I would have my second the same way. But at my 38-week appointment, my doctor ordered an ultrasound as she suspected the baby was growing quite large. Quite large indeed – he was estimated at 9 pounds 10 ounces, give or take a pound. Given my rough delivery with my first son that almost resulted in a C-section (and he was just 8 pounds 4 ounces), along with the possible complications of delivering a large baby vaginally, such as temporary or permanent nerve damage to the baby’s shoulders, we needed to consider all delivery options, i.e. the C-section. My husband and I agonized over the decision – the idea of a C-section was horrifying to me for a number of reasons: I wanted to go into labor on my own this time (I was overdue two weeks and induced with my first); I wanted to be able to hold my baby the minute he was born and not have my arms strapped to a table; I didn’t want a rougher and longer recovery; heck, I didn’t want to go through major surgery! I wanted the birth to be about having a baby and not about having surgery. (more…)

Whether you believe in global warming or not (and how could you not, dodo?), there is no doubt that trees are a welcome addition to our yards, neighborhoods, lives, and well-being. Trees provide shade, cooling, beauty, and oxygen. Trees keep us happy and alive. According to the National Wildlife Federation website, “If every one of America’s 91 million gardening households planted just one young shade tree in their yards or communities, those trees would absorb about 2.25 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.”

Some benefits of trees are:

• Shade trees can reduce utility bills by 15 to 50 percent
• One tree can supply enough oxygen for a family of four
• A single tree can absorb the carbon dioxide produced by four cars each year
• Healthy trees can increase residential property values by up to 15 percent

So get yourself to a garden center and choose a large shade tree today. Be sure to plant it in the southwest corner of your yard for maximum shade during the hot summer months.

I work at home so my office tends to get cluttered and messy. I have piles of paper here, stacks of books there, file folders all over. I also share the office with my husband and son so before I sit down to work I have to clear off a Bionicle, some kid scissors, my husband’s school papers, and a box of crayons. And it’s a super small room, about 9 x 10. A u-shaped desk lines the three sides of wall and an antique desk and bookcase takes up the fourth wall. This latter I have designated for my son’s use because it keeps him out of the main work area. Yes, it’s an antique and he bangs it up and draws on the writing surface, but it’s a small price to pay to keep him busy while I (more…)

My son recently turned 5. While everyone else was distracted with birthday gifts and party planning, all I could think was, “How did this happen?” How did my son zoom through 5 years of life to become the (fairly) independent boy he is now? He dresses himself, feeds himself, buckles his own seatbelt (which he calls a belt-seat), and rarely needs extended hugging and snuggling time like he used to.

I started thinking about the time passing and how it seemed to go excruciatingly slowly while simultaneously fast-forwarding us at the speed of light to a fifth birthday. And then I came up with my new pet theory: Kid Years.

Kid Years run at rabbit speed and also at (more…)

I’ve signed up for several weekly e-newsletters that tell me what my child should be doing as a five-year-old. Mostly they tell me stuff I have already figured out on my own. Here are a few things I’ve learned about five-year-olds, followed by my comments.

Reading
Kids can start to read any time between the ages of 4 and 7. My son, being a brilliant child, started reading a few months before he turned five. We were shocked when he started reading as we hadn’t really been teaching him, just reading to him a lot and talking about words. I guess that’s all it takes. (Self-congratulatory pat here.)

Dressing
Five-year-olds should be able to dress themselves. My son has been dressing himself seemingly for years. We’ve got this covered.

Music Appreciation
Kids like music. Duh!

Independence
Kids are not old enough to walk or bike alone until they are 10 years of age. Finally, a rule of thumb I find useful. I have been struggling with this (more…)

Other than the fact that I wish I had invented it, I don’t really have much of an opinion on Facebook. I joined last year because someone sent me an invitation to be his Friend and I didn’t want to be rude by ignoring him. Plus, I was curious about this whole Facebook thing. It seemed like something for twenty-somethings and I’m in my forties. But I signed up and accepted the Friend invitation. I looked at my new Friend’s wall and saw comments from his Friends. It seemed interesting. I signed off and didn’t log back in for at least a year. Then about a month or two ago I got another Friend invitation so I went back on the site. Since then I’ve accumulated 40 Friends.

All of a sudden all my friends are signing up for it. Even people much older than me seem to be using Facebook now. What gives? My guess is that Facebook is just the absolute easiest way to keep track of family and friends. Everybody these days is busy with work, family, and homelife, and it’s tough to keep tabs on loved ones. But Facebook makes it simple. Just log in and take a look at your wall. You’ll see brief updates on what people are doing and thinking.

Unfortunately, sometimes these updates devolve into inappropriate or too personal comments that I would rather not know about. My husband’s religious, conservative relatives enjoy posting personal opinions about politics that reveal an agenda that I cannot get on board with. Others Friends post personal information about their health, including talk about medications they are taking! For me, Facebook is more valuable when (more…)

Wow, imagine how honored we felt when we got an email from a publicist for Real Simple magazine asking us to blog about their latest story, “Can Facebook Be Your Friend?” She wrote,

“I follow your blog and thought you might be interested in a fun story that we have coming up in our April issue, which hits newsstands next Monday, March 23rd! With Facebook being a hot networking tool, we take a look at the popular online community in our story, “Can Facebook Be Your Friend?” Some say Facebook is the perfect tool to stay in touch. Others call it an invasion of privacy and a time-waster. If you’re unsure whether to venture into unseen territory, we share the pros and cons of today’s most popular online networking tool.”

Well! Someone from the totally awesome Real Simple magazine asking the opinion of the humble bloggers here at Any-Mom? Too cool! Of course, we can’t pass up this opportunity to be the Go-To-Bloggers for Real Simple. Look for our posts on this subject to be published this week.

We are pleased to announce that MoltoMom gave birth to a healthy baby boy on March 16th. We don’t have many details yet but we do know that the baby weighed in at 10 lbs. 7 oz. and was 21 1/2 inches long. Wow, what a big boy! Congratulations to MoltoMom! We hope to hear from her soon, but not too soon. We’ll give her some time to recover before we storm over there and prop her up at the computer and get her fingers moving over that keyboard!

What I’m fretting about today is talking to my son about sexual abuse. There are a few reasons why this is becoming a concern for me:

1. My son is 5 1/2 and is starting to go on play dates at the homes of preschool friends
2. My son left the house on Sunday and stood in the driveway talking to an old man with a little fluffy white dog
3. My son is very self-confident and will respond to adults who speak to him

Two weeks ago my son went on his second only playdate without me. The first one took place a few months ago at the home of a very trusted couple. We left our son and their two kids with a babysitter and went out to dinner. This was my son’s first babysitter experience. Yes, that’s right, in the whole entire 5 1/2 years of his life we have never hired a babysitter (pathetic, I know). We have left him with my mother on a few evenings but mostly we take him with us or we stay home. I was a little freaked out about (more…)

Last night at bedtime my son wanted to give me a kiss on the lips. He grabbed my face and dove in, lips pursed, a maniacal expression on his face.

“No way!” I screeched in alarm, turning my face away and pinning down his octopus hands.

“Why not, mommy?” He gave me his best Cute Puppy Dog Look. “People kiss on the lips. They do.”

“Because for one thing I have a cold and I don’t want you to get it and for another thing, we are not kiss-on-the-mouth people,” I say, feeling pretty darn good about this explanation. “Now lie down and go to sleep.”

He put his head down on the pillow but (more…)