Book Review: @Sophie Takes a #Selfie

@Sophie Takes a #Selfie: Rules and Etiquette For Taking Good Care Before You Share

by: J. J. Cannon

Illustrated by: Bridget Doe

I remember when Tink was in Kindergarten and told me one of her little 5 year old friends already had an iPhone. By the time they got into 2nd grade, this same little friend was "face timing" her other little friend who also had the same device.

And I was all like... Wow.

CNN calls them "Generation M2" - youth between the ages of 8 and 18 whose lives are immersed in electronic media. Did you know that 93% of kids age 12 through 17 are active online? In fact, the average tween and teen spend an average 8 hours a day looking at some sort of electronic screen. I know, I know... not too surprising.

Outside of apps, video games, and texting there is this whole social media thing: Kik, Instagram, Twitter and the whole "Selfie" phenomenon. That starts pretty young too.  My nieces got their iPhones and started on social media networks at around age 13. It seems like 12 - 13 is the average age parents let that whole thing start... just by my own observation, give or take.  I know plenty of 10 year olds that already actively use their own Instagram accounts and you can be sure that sometimes there is a second one "hidden" from mom and dad's prying eyes.

@Sophie Takes a Selfie is a book that is long overdue in my opinion!

I'm not here to say whether social media is "right" or "wrong" or what age it should start.  What I AM here to say is that someone finally wrote a little handbook to help tween girls navigate the world of social media responsibly. And that someone is the amazing J. J. Cannon, author of @Sophie Takes a #Selfie.

Social Media Expert J. J. Cannon wanted to give parents a teaching tool and give kids a necessary foundation when they get ready to embark upon the world of social media. Lets face it - social media is here to stay, like it or not! We can't pretend it doesn't exist and we can't hand our kids a phone with access to the entire universe in the palm of their hand and just let them figure it all out on their own. Especially when they are 10, 11 and 12 and don't yet possess the maturity needed to navigate the dicey waters. (Heck, most ADULTS can't handle it!) Cannon encourages conversation with our youth about social media - the challenges, etiquette, pitfalls and fun.

@Sophie Takes a #Selfie opens up that dialogue.  Written especially for tween girls, Cannon presents the 'Sweet 16' rules and etiquette (and dangers) of sharing on social media platforms. What I love is that she doesn't lecture her readers, she just informs in a very cute but direct way.

Let's face it - we DO judge a book by its cover, and this cover screams out "READ ME" to young girls. It is so eye catching and cute! Sure, it's likely going to be the parent who buys this book and suggests their child read it, but the CHILD will absolutely gravitate toward it and learn so much inside the pages. Case in point, my 9 year old picked up the book after noticing the amazing, colorful art work, and read it cover to cover in less than an hour even though I didn't ask her to.

The art work really makes this book! Illustrator Bridget Doe creates eye catching images to accompany each chapter.

The book itself is less than 40 pages, its chapters are very short, easy to read, succinct, conversational and sometimes funny. Cannon's delivery is SPOT ON and she knows how to reach her audience. Topics include: Being careful of "oversharing," how to handle cyber bullying and hate speech, staying grounded and not pinning your self-worth onto how many "likes" you get or "friends and followers" you have, establishing boundaries, and protecting your privacy.

What I especially love is the strong focus on self-esteem and an ethic of kindness that runs through out this book.  I definitely see it as a great teaching tool for classrooms, girl scout troops, religious groups, and other self-esteem building projects designed for young girls.

My daughters are years away from iPhones and social media use. I'm pretty conservative with that stuff. But, I know it will be inevitable. When I hand them the golden key to this kingdom, I'm handing them THIS book too - and we will talk about it together.  They need to be prepared. They need a guidebook, and this is the best one I've seen!

To purchase a copy of @Sophie Takes A #Selfie by J. J. Cannon at Amazon click HERE.   The Kindle version is $7.99 and paperback is $13.49 - and a better way, honestly, to appreciate the adorable, colorful art work that transfixes young girls (and old moms!) It is also available on Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

Visit @Sophie Takes A #Selfie website to where Cannon shares the most current information about youth in social media. It is a great resource for kids and parents alike! The best part is that kids and parents can use the “Ask Sophie” feature for all your tricky social media questions.

Want to learn more? Here is author J. J. Cannon's appearance on FOX29 Good Day Philadelphia where she talks about about how important it is to educate and prepare our girls before they dive into the world of social media.

(This review is my own opinion, and the review was completely voluntary. I just really liked the book - AND the author! No compensation was received for writing this post. )

tHERsDay

CB loves her doctor's appointment, as you can plainly see.  We're still at a pediatrician but that can only last less than 3 more years. We've been transitioned out of pediatric neurology as well.  I guess, whether she likes it or not, she's a "big girl" now.

*****

Yesterday I finally found a dress for this weekend's gala at a little nearby speciality boutique. The best part was that there was a sale so I was able to get 3 dresses for my original budget instead of one.  BOO-YAH!  I loved them in the store, but I think that place had very flattering mirrors.  I'm scared to try them on again.

I'm back to running a little since my back injury, but it's hard to squeeze it in during my "work time" when Rella gets on the bus at noon and I have those few precious hours to myself.  I've picked up a few more freelancing jobs this Fall and still plugging away at the book so, needless to say I've created a good deal of work for my glamorous "stay at home mom" life.  Wow, I really messed THAT gig up, huh?

I've had a few publications up on the sites where I regularly contribute:

How to Make Halloween Charitable  (Well, I'm plugging this one a bit late!)
Food Dye As A Migraine Trigger
Juvenile Fibromyalgia

I've also been writing for two local print mags and one local e-newsletter/resource.  Speaking of, time to get back to work on those assignments... this afternoon I'm volunteering in Rella's class so once again I miss my 2 "work hours!"  Well, she's worth it!

Handling My Truth

Last night a friend and I went to see memoirist and National Book Award Finalist, Beth Kephart speak at the Philadelphia Public Library about writing memoir and Handling The Truth.

Her hour presentation included insights on memoir writing, selected readings from her new book, Handling The Truth: On The Writing of Memoir, and writing exercises. She taught me more in 60 minutes than I have learned in years. 

And here I am meeting her and getting my book signed!

So cool.  

One of our free writing exercises was to write the autobiography of an inanimate object we had in our purse or pockets.  

The other was to think of a significant day and write about the weather. 

Again... cool.

I love writers.

I was going to share my free writing exercises here with you but my kids are bugging me and CB needs a diaper change.

Or, it's all an unconscious rationalization for being chicken.

Interested in Beth Kephart's work?  You can learn more about her five amazing memoirs and critically acclaimed young adult novels by visiting www.beth-kephart.blogspot.com 

tHERsDay

Sometimes this girl makes me crazy.
Other times, worried. 

So often, inspired.  

But mostly, in spite of it all 

and because of it all,

this girl just makes me smile. 

******

I am super excited to have a personal essay accepted to Stealing Time Literary Magazine. It will appear in their next issue coming out this August! Visit their website if interested in learning more about this exquisite quarterly, print-only literary magazine for parents. If you are a writer, check out their submission guidelines to submit your best poetry, fiction and non-fiction.

Still can't get enough of me? I've been over at WholesomeOne talking about Osteoarthritis lately.

You can read about the Science Behind Acupuncture in the Treatment of Osteoarthritis
and also the link between Youth Sports Injuries and Risk for Osteoarthritis.

Night Swim

This summer has held a big, BIG change for us.  Early July, my in-laws moved into our neighboring town. It's a six minute commute driveway to driveway.  I am happy for them in so many ways but selfishly speaking, I'm happy for me and the kids too.

Exhibit A:  Yesterday was the first time in 9 years I went to a gyno appointment without kids. You'd have thought I hit the lottery.

Exhibit B: The girls are in heaven, especially when their cousins and aunts are here. It doesn't hurt that my in-laws now have a beautiful in-ground pool nestled in a giant, private, peaceful backyard either.

Their pool is a great place to take CB who is still in diapers, has a seizure disorder and is unable to swim - all of which makes it difficult to take her into the big pool at our swim club. Instead, we can swing by Grandma's house any time and CB is in her happy place... and I am relaxed instead of stressed.  

 

This week we went over for a night swim with our two nieces.  It was F-U-N.  Simple, yet fun.  I love 'simple fun.'  LOVE it.

At some point Tink came swimming up smiling and said "I can't believe I'm saying this... but' I'm going BUNGEE JUMPING."  

"Oh, really?" I asked. "Where are you doing that?" I was mildly confused, but kids have such great imaginations so who knew what she was talking about.

"Yeah, help me get my bathing suit off... I'm doing it! I'm going bungee jumping!"

I soon figured out that she meant SKINNY DIPPING, not bungee jumping.  She had them a tad confused. They have so much in common I can see where she made the mistake.

Don't ask me how she even knows what skinny dipping IS.  

 Switching gears a little...

I received the first issue of Pentimento, a literary magazine for the disabled community. My friend Lori is the Publisher and Editor of this beautiful magazine and has been working hard for years to launch it. Her son and CB were in school together 100 lifetimes ago in Maryland. He is also on the Autistic Spectrum. I am so thrilled our paths have crossed again and I can see this magazine bloom from concept to real.

I sat in my sunroom after sending my children out to wash the minivan. I use the word "wash" loosely.

My heart was still as I read Elizabeth Dolan's poem, and I felt a deep kinship with Erika Konya's essay "Tribes." The magazine, similar in look and feel to The Sun, is perfection. Furthermore, it fills a huge gap in their target community.  There is nothing like it that exists at present - NOTHING.

Pentimento has a website, but they are currently a print-only magazine. Therefore, they rely on subscriptions and the contribution of the community's most lovely and honest poetry, prose, photography, artwork and 'uncut' pieces. They are looking for art work and writings by children, teens, and adults living with any type of neurodiversity, physical or cognitive differences. They also welcome pieces written by parents, grandparents, caregivers and people working in the helping profession.

Pentimento is published twice a year, Summer and Winter.  Subscriptions can be purchased for $10.00/year (in the US only. $20 in all other countries). Please be patient with the website - it is a work in progress! Staff is reading now for the December 2013 issue. Visit Pentimento for submission guidelines or to subscribe. There are some remaining FREE first copies available - email Lori directly at lori@pentimentomag.org if you would like to have a trial issue for free! And don't forget to submit and encourage others you know (especially those living with disabilities) to submit art, prose and poetry as well.

Weekend Wrap Up - When Two Worlds Collide

Friday was a day where two worlds collided.  

Ok, that is a rather dramatic description of what really occurred.  Friday was the first day of a weekend-long writers conference in Philadelphia that I waited all year to attend.  A conference I have been excited about for months. A conference ripe with writers, editors, agents, experts, beginners and all those passionate about the art and craft of writing.  

Friday afternoon, right smack in the middle of the day, was also Rella's pre-school graduation. 

Of all the days.

Mother and writer, writer and mother.  The two have been at odds since the very beginning, warring within my heart and fighting over the tiny morsels of my time.

Guess which one won?

My husband and a few friends tried to talk me into forgoing the graduation and attending Friday's workshops instead, knowing how much the conference meant to me and what a difficult choice it created.   

"It's only preschool," Dr Fabulous said. It wasn't lack of caring that made him encourage me to boycott the graduation but rather his version of letting me know it would be okay. I could miss it and she wouldn't be scarred - I wouldn't be a bad mom.  He was giving me the permission I often can't grant myself - to indulge the other parts of me that take a back seat to my all-encompassing role as a stay-at-home mother. 

I toyed with the idea of choosing the conference, really considered it. In the end I asked myself this - One year, five years... five minutes down the road..which was I going to regret not attending?  

When the answer came to me in a nanosecond with indisputable clarity, I knew without question where I wanted to be - not NEEDED to be, WANTED to be.  

No obligation, no guilt. No half-heartedness.

My whole heart.

I wanted to see Rella graduate.  I would have regretted it and of course I knew this before I even consciously asked myself the question. A conference can wait, a conference can come again.  

Not everything in life does. 

I can't explain how much I love writing, how passionate I am about forging a writing career and my goals of publishing. Because of this obsession, I often feel frustrated with the little time I can devote to my craft, my projects, my dreams.  I squeeze writing in between the cracks of my day and devalue it constantly. It comes after the laundry, the cooking, the baths and the bedtimes. It comes last, it comes when I can fit it in and there is never enough time for me to make much progress.  In that respect, I have always seen writing and motherhood as mutually exclusive. The two cannot co-exist peacefully. The two cannot share the 24 hours in the day, the psychic energy in my mind, or the space in my heart. That philosophy has caused me much frustration and disappointment.  

Yet, this weekend I not only shared my two worlds but I came to realize they don't need to fight within me so much. Being a Mom is not a thing I do, a series of actions and behaviors that ensued after children came forth from my body.  Being a Mom is an inextricable part of who I am.  All the pieces of who I am makes me a better writer and person. Without motherhood, I would not be able to tell the stories I tell, see the world the way I do, or work so hard on my dreams.  I need motherhood to write and writing, ironically, makes me a better mother.  

Despite my awesome Canon, I just couldn't get a good photo of her on stage from my seat. 

 Ugh, the blurry heads in my way!!

My family comes first, before everything. Before my own life, literally and figuratively. Yet, that doesn't mean that I cannot be other things and dream complimentary, not conflicting, dreams.  Women have done it before, they are doing it now, they will always do it.  

What makes me able to write what I write and how I write is a direct result of my experience as a mother - whether I'm writing about motherhood or not.  My perspective, my stressors, my joys, my growth, my love helps fuel everything that comes from me. Take these guys out of the equation?  There are no muses, no journeys, no mountains. Maybe I need them and the tug of war that they create. Without that struggle, more than just my writing would fall flat.

I can't be two places at once, but I can make room for two things on one day.  Or at least, this time I could. I missed some of the conference, but I did get to do both. It is the art of juggling, choosing, yearning - that tug of war, that balance, that questioning, that striving... maybe that all makes the passion more passionate, the writing richer, the family happier, the soul more multi-faceted. 

Motherhood means balancing lots of things, but that in and of itself means you have a rich life.  I'd rather have too much to juggle than nothing at all, right?  I can only do the best I can and recognize that everyone else is doing the same.  As long as I'm never unclear about what is at the top of the totem pole, I am good.  

And by the way, I had an amazing time, learned a great deal and met some incredible people.  

I also learned my memoir sucks.  

But I also learned how to fix it... hopefully.

If you are near Philadelphia, check out the Philadelphia Writer's Conference next June. 

And, if you do - tell me and I will find you and buy you a drink!!

tHERsDay

Scenes from a morning.

I know I haven't written since last week.  Our family life has been dialed up a notch and I have very little free time of late - no time to write, blog, sleep, clean, or keep up with much of anything outside of the kids.  

Right now, I'm banging away on the keyboard at almost 11:00 pm so I can write this quickie blog and get to bed. Tomorrow is Rella's Pre-K graduation then I scoot off to a weekend Writer's Conference in Philadelphia. I haven't even thought about what to wear and don't even remember where it is.  

I hope I put gas in my car.

I thought I would take this conference way more seriously, but I don't even have business cards.

Or a pitch ready.

Or an outfit. Or my legs shaved.  

Those last two probably aren't as important but, ya know... 

There are 6 days left of school for the three little ones, 8 days left for CB.

I can't wait until things slow down a bit. 

tHERsDay: These Things That Are True

These things are true: The sky was cloudless and blue and the weather perfect.  We spent the morning at a playgroup in the park.  After an afternoon at the dermatologist, the girls all arrived home and we hung outside with my neighbor while the girls played.

These things are true: I took the girls to their art class, and back, to art class and back, to art class and back.  Yes, it's that many times. My essay appeared in Something Special Magazine today, page 8 (yes there are two typos and yes, that sucks).

These things are true: I have a glass of wine next to me and Dr. Fabulous just returned home at almost 10:00 pm.

These things are also true:  It was a difficult morning getting CB up and on the bus. She was uncooperative and I had to lug and lift 110 pounds of resistant teen, dodging spit balls. It was a crazy two hours surrounding that art class - After dropping two girls off for their art session, CB got into her poopy diaper while sitting for 5 seconds in the car while I talked to the art teacher at the doorway only inches away.  Her face, hand and clothes were covered.  We rushed home and I changed and cleaned her then rushed back out to pick up the two girls and drop off Pink for her art session.  We went home, and there was diarrhea number two and a bloody nose on the rug ten minutes before we had to return to pick up Pink.  Dinner was not eaten until almost 8:00 pm, bedtime was rushed, Tink had a tearful meltdown, the house was a wreck.

It was a beautiful day.  I am blessed. I love my life. Yet, these things are also true: Life, as we know it under this roof, is not easy.  Life long care of someone you love is never easy.  Life long care. Unless one lives the true extent of these words everyday, it is difficult to understand the impact.

Yet somehow, the many things that are both true and also true live together in this weird sort of harmony; bizarrely making sense.

And I am happy. I choose happy, which will always be true and also true.

************

My essay is on page 8, in the 'Mom 2 Mom' section. Click below on the image to read:  

tHERsDay

Sometimes it happens. Maybe your little one points, stares a bit indiscreetly or asks a bit too loudly "What's wrong with that person?" when they see a wheelchair or some other child behaving differently.

It's so innocent, yet you might find yourself shrinking with embarrassment in the moment, especially if you yourself have limited exposure or comfort with this population.

If your child inquires a bit too loudly about another person's differences, your reflexive response may be to duck the conversation, reprimand their poor manners, or scurry away non-chalantly.  Instead, I encourage you to turn awkward exchanges into awareness-raising opportunities for our youngest generation!

Read my full article on "Explaining Autism To Curious Children" which offers some simple insights and advice on how to turn missed opportunities into teachable moments by clicking over to SheKnows HERE.  Oh, and feel free to pass it on. (Yes, I'm shamelessly self-promoting again!)

Happy tHERsDay!

tHERsDay

I had a sick girl sent home from school yesterday.  Poor little Pink had a low grade fever and just looked beat. She got home, threw up once, slept a lot, and then her fever went down by evening.  Though this morning she was looking better I kept her home just to be sure.  

Whatever it was, it's leaving her quickly which is great news.  Now, I just need to keep the others from coming down with it.  

Since Pink was out of school today, she accompanied me on the drive to Maryland where I dropped off my CB for a 3-day weekend with her Dad.  

I'm off to tour Pink's new school this evening- next year she leaves the Elementary school and heads over to another school which houses 4th and 5th grade.  Not quite middle school... I don't know what they call it, but I'm gonna try not to cry as I tour the halls.  

So much is changin'. 

Thankfully, I can go straight out post-orientation to meet up with some ladies for a few glasses of wine.  

Because I'm kinda in a rush, I'll leave you with some of my written words over at the two sites where I am a contributing writer.  First is WholesomeOne.com - a GREAT resource for holistic health and wellness.  I'm over there discussing how we can wean our families off of processed foods.

Read the article here at

And of course, I can't stop the flow of parenting wisdom over at She Knows! This week I'm highlighting the importance of raising kids with good social skills in a high-tech world.  Check it out HERE.

On Febrile Seizures

I was completely taken off guard the first time CB had a febrile seizure.  She was 16 weeks old and weighed a little over 10 pounds.  I remember having no clue she was even sick or feverish. I was taking her out on a walk in her stroller on a warm September afternoon. It was an ordinary day, as they always are right before you are blindsided.

One in 25 children under the age of 5 will have a febrile seizure.  I recently wrote an awareness-raising piece on SheKnows offering febrile seizure facts, information, and first aid.  I hope you read it and, more importantly, pass it on to other mothers with young children.  You can jump down to the bottom of the post for the article link. 

Below is an account of CB's first seizure; an excerpt from my nearly completed memoir about unexpected motherhood. 

****

...Sitting in my daughter’s stroller, wearing her clothes, was a baby with features twisted into someone almost unrecognizable.  Her body was a plank of wood, neck arching backward, chin pointing to the sky. Her arms were folded at the elbows like a skiier tucking in their poles with fists the size of silver dollars clenched into tight, vibrating knots.  Most disturbing of all was her face. Her skin had gone ashen and her gummy little mouth looked like a ventriloquist's puppet, opening and closing without sound.  Her eyes were rolled back so far that her blue irises were lost somewhere on the other side of her skull.  All that remained of her hallmark azure eyes were two alabaster marbles.  The only blue I could detect was the soft ring painted by anoxia forming around her lips; lips that sucked the air like a fish on sand.

Panic is an interesting feeling.  It pierces you with a volt of electricity and either mobilizes every cell in your body or paralyzes them.  It can jumpstart you into herculean action or unravel your mind like a ball of yarn.  My panic didn’t rise within me like a deluge, but crashed upon me like a tsunami and I struggled to right myself in its undertoe while the cold waves numbed my emotions and movements.  Through a fish eye lense I fumbled with the safety buckles around the waist of a 16 week old baby the size of a doll.  A voice was screaming loudly and though I knew it to be mine, it felt entirely disconnected from my being, as if two nightmares had collided and I could not distinguish which was mine. The neighbors heard my cacophony through their open windows as I freed her with trembling hands and lifted her tiny rigid body into my lap, cradling her the best I could though she shoke violently from head to toe... 

****

... I waited to hear the distant sirens slice through the still air.  Waited for the convulsions to stop.  Waited on the red brick stoop of that row house, the crumbling mortor scraping the backs of my bare legs.  Waited in that dense parcel of time that panic slows down into sludge.  I waited and waited for an ambulance that never appeared. Thirty-five minutes after a neighbor placed the 9-1-1 call, still no sirens echoed down the alley, no lights blazed heroically through the narrow city streets and the seizure’s ferocious grip continued without any sign of waning.  

This wasn't stopping and no help would come.

Dread filled me with helium and suddenly I was floating above the red brick steps.  I watched myself from above, a new mother whose pre-pregnancy jeans still did not fit, bent like a comma over a baby whose soul looked as if it were being wrestled away from her.  An eerie calmness fell as I realized that I was truly watching her die.  Complete numbness shrouded me in those moments I waited for a rescue to never come and a seizure to never relent.  Numbness, as her parlor changed to the horrid color of still born babies. A frantic goodbye crescendoed in my head. A goodbye to a little girl I hardly had the chance to know but loved more than I ever believed was possible.  This, I thought with the calmness of a corpse, was the end and so I released a thousand silent I love yous like white doves in to the cloudless dome of sky and hoped it would carry her up into the heavens...

****

...I had always fancied myself as being calm under pressure and thought I’d stride through the sliding doors of the E.R. and down the slick tiled hallways poised and efficient. Instead I ran wildly, hysterically barking at the first person who made eye contact with me, exuding all the dignity of a crazed mother bear protecting her cub.  I honestly don’t know if that woman was even hospital personnel but she must have called a doctor because suddenly a tall young man with thick jet black hair in a starched white coat was in front of me with his arms out-streched and I was reflexively passing my baby's spasmatic body to him like a football.  My arms stayed cradling the empty air for the next few moments before hanging impotently at my sides.  

My baby disappeared with that dark haired stranger who ran down the hall followed by a flock of nurses in teal scrubs.  I saw a pale curtain with a faded pattern of dancing teddybears pulled across the doorway, the metal rings scraping across the steel curtain rod with preciseness.  With that efficient motion, I lost sight of the one being I loved most in this world and was escorted to a waiting room where a congregation of people cleaved from their loved ones were left in rows of hard plastic chairs to silently pray to gods and doctors.   

****

You can find my article Febrile Seizures: What Every Mother Should Know 

on SheKnows HERE. 

Night Night

Sometimes the best part of a parent's day is bedtime.  

And not necessarily because they are going to sleep for about 10 hours

 (though that is a factor, some days more than others) 

but more so because they are so snuggly and needy and sleepy and lovey.

Brazen topic change...

I'm over on SheKnows today in the world of "typical parenting" 

talking about the top 6 behaviors a parent should nip in the bud before it stops being cute.

Pop on over!

A Little Break

Wow, what a crazy Friday.  But crazy good.  And crazy crazy.  

I'm recovering now, after a late night clean up from an evening birthday "half-sleepover" party and getting up today for the 8 am Girl Scout Cookie shift selling in front of the hardware store.  While Dr Fabulous has the girls out I am working on my next writing assignment for SheKnows due this afternoon.

As for now, check out my latest parenting article over at SheKnows if you are so inclined.  I'm talking about how manners are not just a social nicety but are an effective tool for instilling and encouraging empathy in our young children.  

You can check it out HERE.

When I come up for air from the 4 different projects I need to complete this weekend, I will be sure to post all about the big 7th birthday bash.  

Enjoy this extra long holiday weekend!

Alright, back to work...

tHERsDay and She Knows

I am pontificating on how to de-clutter, downsize and donate over at SheKnows today. 

Check out my article entitled 

"A Post-Holiday Purge Extends The Season Of Philanthropy" HERE.

A little facebook share, a little comment, a little tweet ... I won't talk you out of that.  

And of course, as it is Thursday, it's HER day.  A shout out to the little CB who was apparently a pistol  at school today and ended up in an unprecedented 3-point restraint in the hallway.  

Call in the Behaviorists!  

Teenagers.  *sigh*

tHERsDay and Mamalode

I drove CB to Maryland today for her 2 week vacation with her father and grandparents.  We alternate Christmases and this is their year.  It snuck up on me so fast.  I felt like the little parking lot hug wasn't a satisfactory goodbye.  In the wake of this past week, holding my four babies closer than ever, this parting made my emotions unravel like a spool of thread, trailing down the NJ Turnpike.

Somewhat appropriately, a personal essay of mine was published on Mamalode Magazine today.  

It is similar to a piece I wrote here many years ago 

so the "old timers" to this blog might remember it.  

Nonetheless, I'd appreciate a moment to click over and read (or glance).  

Apparently, if I get 200 visitors, they'll pay me!  

Not that it matters that much, but I'm a girl who won't turn down cash.  

So shameless.  

Enjoy your Thursday!

tHERsDay and A Publication

I was all excited at dinner last night, basking in the nerdy glory of my string of articles that were accepted for publication, two of which were personal essays. 

 "CB is your muse," Dr Fabulous said. 

She sure is.  That's my BABY!!

I am happy to be a contributing freelance writer to SheKnows.com! My first piece about the effects of background T.V. on children is up today and I would feel all sorts of awesome if you'd "click over" - even if you don't care to read it, a simple little click to the article real fast would make my day!

Check out SheKnows.com!  It is a great resource for all women - single girls or mothers, the young and the mature!  It is chock full of everything from fashion trends and celebrity gossip to parenting, special needs issues, and advice.  Oh, and... now ME!