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My attention was recently drawn to a book titled My Beautiful Mommy. The synopsis:

"My Beautiful Mommy” is aimed at kids ages four to seven and features a plastic surgeon named Dr. Michael and a girl whose mother gets a tummy tuck, a nose job and breast implants. Before her surgery the mom explains that she is getting a smaller tummy: “You see, as I got older, my body stretched and I couldn’t fit into my clothes anymore. Dr. Michael is going to help fix that and make me feel better.” Mom comes home looking like a slightly bruised Barbie doll with demure bandages on her nose and around her waist.

The book doesn’t explain exactly why the mother is redoing her nose post-pregnancy. Nonetheless, Mom reassures her little girl that the new nose won’t just look “different, my dear—prettier!”

Dr. Michael Salzhauer, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Bal Harbour, Fla. says he got the idea for the book after seeing his patients bring their small children with them to appointments. "Parents generally tend to go into this denial thing. They just try to ignore the kids' questions completely." He is concerned that children "fill in the blanks in their imagination" and worry when they see "mommy with bandages".

So what is the message here?
1. don't worry kids Mom will be fine after her operation- ok, that's fair, but unfortunately you can not separate it from point number two.
2. Mom wasn't happy with her appearance and felt she needed to change it. Women need to look pretty.

I guess since we can't stop people from feeling they need to surgically enhance themselves, we can't condone a book that is just trying to ease the inevitable questions that follow...?

National Poetry Month

April has been National Poetry Month since 1996. The American Academy of Poets hopes to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry. So do something fun with the kiddies today and have them write a poem.

A very simple one to do is a Haiku, it does have to rhyme and it is rather short. They all follow a simple pattern- 3 lines, the first is 5 syllables, the second line is 7 and the last line is 5.

Or check out these books:

Sing A Song Of Popcorn- this book even I read as a child and is fantastic.

The Random House Book of Poetry for Children includes many great classics from, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Shel Silverstein.

The Kingfisher Book of Children's Poetry a wide variety from ballads, limericks, riddles, and to the widely popular nonsense verse.

Brush Those Baby Teeth!

February is upon, and among many things, it is National Children's Dental Health Month. Yes, the American Dental Association wants to raise awareness about the importance of oral health.

To get kids involved you can print out puzzles, word jumbles, cool coloring sheets, meandering maze and a smile calendar from the ADA's webpage.

Check out these great books from the library and read them with your kids. Letting them pick out their own toothbrush (Elmo, Dora, etc) also greatly helps in motivating little ones to brush.

For the littlest ones
Brush Your Teeth Please


Kids 4-8
Clarabella's Teeth by An Vrombaut


The classic
The Berenstain Bears Visit the Dentist

New Favorite Pregnancy Book

Sure we all got a copy of What to Expect When Your Expecting- but if you are looking for a book that offers a wide spectrum of views and a bit more personal an approach check out From the Hips: A Comprehensive, Open-Minded, Uncensored, Totally Honest Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and Becoming a Parent.



What I liked most about this book is the cartoonist bubbles that have quotes from "anonymoms" and "anonydads" as they call them. It is so refreshing and comforting to hear that you are not the only one who thinks:

"man- I didn't realize how much my social circle drinks until I stopped drinking- it was tough!"

"I was so scared about loosing the baby that I kept running to the bathroom to check my undies"

"my milk didnt come in for 4 days and I thought my baby would starve! My doula said it was perfectly normal and in the end everything was fine"



The quotes say things that more straightforward (read: dull) pregnancy books don't and they truly are unbiased and supportive of all pregnant women and new mothers. If it is your first pregnancy and you don't have friends who are pregnant yet it is a great way to hear real women talk about all kinds of issues- on your own time and in the privacy of your own home.

Book: Raising Baby Green

A new organic parenting book hit the shelves last month and it has been getting some rave reviews. Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby Care is a self proclaimed "comprehensive guide to help environmentally conscious parents make healthy product and lifestyle choices".

So who is the author Dr. Greene? Intel named him Child's Health Hero of the Internet, and he has already published one book prior to this one, From First Kicks to First Steps. That's great and all, but doesn't really impress me much. What is more impressive to me is that he is a father of four and a practicing pediatrician. I hate when doctors stop practicing to just write books and sell stuff, being in the office and seeing patients keeps things in perspective and fresh.

While writing his book Dr. Greene kept in mind that we don't want to break the bank in the movement towards organic. Here is Greene has identified 5 foods that will make an impact and are easy to switch. Courtesy of NYTimes:

1. Milk: “When you choose a glass of conventional milk, you are buying into a whole chemical system of agriculture,'’ says Dr. Greene. One recent United States Department of Agriculture survey found certain pesticides in about 30 percent of conventional milk samples and low levels in only one organic sample. The level is relatively low compared to some other foods, but many kids consume milk in large quantities.

2. Potatoes: Potatoes are a staple of the American diet — one survey found they account for 30 percent of our overall vegetable consumption. A simple switch to organic potatoes has the potential to have a big impact because commercially-farmed potatoes are some of the most pesticide-contaminated vegetables.

3. Peanut butter: More acres are devoted to growing peanuts than any other fruits, vegetable or nut, according to the U.S.D.A. More than 99 percent of peanut farms use conventional farming practices, including the use of fungicide to treat mold, a common problem in peanut crops.

4. Ketchup: For some families, ketchup accounts for a large part of the household vegetable intake. About 75 percent of tomato consumption is in the form of processed tomatoes, including juice, tomato paste and ketchup. Notably, recent research has shown organic ketchup has about double the antioxidants of conventional ketchup.

5. Apples: Apples are the second most commonly eaten fresh fruit, after bananas, and they are also used in the second most popular juice, after oranges, according to Dr. Greene. But apples are also one of the most pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables. The good news is that organic apples are easy to find in regular grocery stores.

Dr. Greene's website is full of even more useful information.

Unisex Nursery Idea

For those of you patient folks who can manage to wait all 9 months to find out the gender of your baby, I applaud you. I also understand that finding unisex items that are cute can be hard... are you sick of yellow and green yet? After poking around for a while, and thinking back to the Seussical post I found an adorable nursery that is not saturated in yellow or green and relatively easy to do.

1. Pick your favorite Dr. Seuss book (or two or three)
2. Scan the images that you want to use in your decorating
3. Make an overhead transparency (can be done on most Xerox machines at Kinkos)
4. Borrow an overhead projector from church/school/work or rent one at Office Max or Staples
5. Project the images onto the wall or furniture, adjusting for size and position and trace with a pencil.
6. Paint! Try your best to stay within the lines.
(Click on images for more info)

If you really want to go full theme, you can add Seuss crib sheets, stuffed characters, and lamps.

Free Seussical Theatre (NYC)

Theatre Works USA is putting on a free show for kids until August 17th for those in the NYC area. Seussical is 90 minutes long and designed for kids age 4 and up. Get there if you can!

Dr. Seuss's best-loved characters and stories hit the stage in this musical adventure by Broadway veterans Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, adapted from the Broadway version especially for young audiences.

Hot Diggity Dog, Only a Week Left of National Hot Dog Month

That's right. July is national Hot Dog month. The name Hot Dog is often credited to sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan, who called a hot dachshund sausage one at a baseball game in 1901.

So serve the kids some hot dogs and maybe even read a book about hot dogs together.

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! Is by the same author (Mo Williams) as "Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus", which is a favorite of mine. Mo Williams has actually won 6 Emmys for writing for Sesame Street. Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog has similar humor as the other Pigeon books.

For kids grades 2-4, there is a series of adventure books starring Hot Dog and Bob. A talking hot dog shows up in Bob's lunchbox. In the first book Hot Dog uses his weapons, ketchup, mustard and other condiments to fight off Evil Pizza who tries to take over the classroom.

If you kids enjoy the rhyming variety, try Mucumber McGee and the Half-Eaten Hot Dog. The excerpt says it all,
"Where the rain falls and the wind howls, little Mucumber's stomach growls.

But what can he do when there's nothing to chew, like apples or crackers or porridge or stew?

But wait—a hot dog!—albeit quite old . . . and wrinkled and lumpy and lonely and cold.

We all know it's true—food is better when new.

But if you were that hungry, what would you do?"

Laugh, eat and enjoy National Hot Dog Month!

Harry Potter Hysteria

NO SPOILERS. Don't worry! It seems everywhere you look there are articles talking about the spoilers (Reuters, CNN, NYTimes, Washington Post), but most are trying preserve this book endings for the huge amounts of dedicated followers.

The other big question (other than who dies), is what to do with your bouncing-off-the-walls fans under the age of 12. Its still 10 hours till midnight, that's a long time to keep them entertained. Let's brainstorm some ideas:

1. Trivia! If you don't have HP Scene It or other games, there are online resources, the best I've seen is the Scholastic version.
www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/challenge/index.htm
www.kidsreads.com/HP07/content/trivia.asp
www.mugglenet.com/games/trivia.shtml

2. Re-reading. Have them refresh on Book 6. A nice quiet activity, plus reading is pretty much always good practice.

3. Send them outside for Quidditch. Use a pool noodle for a broom and playground ball or beach ball for the Quaffle. Nerf or foam balls work well for the Bludgers, as they will be throwing them at each other. And the snitch? A gold painted golf ball or ping pong ball.


4. Use the Public Library! Many of them have events going on, and it's all free.


5. Take them to go see Order of the Pheniox (if they havent already) or pop in a DVD of one of the earlier movies. Another quiet activity... mostly.

If anyone else has ideas I'd love to hear them! Good luck to all you taking kids to bookstores at midnight.

Apparently Urban Babies Love Opera

Sorry for back to back posts about books, but this really caught my attention... introducing Urban Babies Wear Black! There is a growing realm of punk baby gear and hip baby gear, so why not a book about it too? I suppose. While urban babies may wear cute clothes, I highly doubt that they "love nights at the opera, modern architecture, and fine cuisine" like the book suggests. A screaming baby at the Opera? I'm sure that would go over well. Modern architecture is often hard with sharp edges, I can see urban baby hitting her head on a sharp corner or sliding off some metallic curved sculpture giving herself a large boo-boo. Fine cuisine? You mean green beans, bananas and cereal? Entertaining and with funny illustrations for Mom and Pops but not all that realistic.

The Lorax Came Out in 1971?

I knew The Lorax by Dr. Suess was a classic, but I didn't realize that it came out in 1971. Where are all the other books teaching kids to be environmentally friendly? There are the obvious ones like 342 Ways to Save the Earth/Planet/Dolphins/Rainforest! and Why Should I Recycle/Save Energy/Use Less Water. But I think books where the message is a little less in-your-face are nicer, or at least books where it is not in the title. With help from a friend and friendly librarian, I recommend these two:

For ages 4 to 9, try The Wartville Wizard by Don Madden. A funny story of a man who gets help from Mother Nature to reduce the trash piling up around town in a very clever way.

For kids aged 6 & up, check out Wind the World Over by Irene Boland and Vanessa Kellogg. Two friends travel the around the world in different times (medieval Europe, Imperial China...) to learn ways humans have harvested energy from wind and water over time.

Funny Because It's True

This book isn't incredibly new, but it is new to me and I loved it. Duck and Goose actually made me laugh out loud and it is written for preschool-first graders. However, the dialog in the book will sound so familiar to you, I guarantee. Here's an example of dialog between Duck and Goose when they discover a giant polka-dotted sphere, which they take to be a very large egg:

"I saw it first," says Duck

"I touched it first," says Goose

Ok, well that might not convince you, but the illustration of Goose sticking out his webbed foot out ever so carefully so he technically can be touching the sphere got me. The illustrations speak very loudly. I highly recommend.

From Comedies to Autism

Jenny McCarthy cracked us up when she wrote Belly Laughs and Baby Laughs, but now she's coming out with a new book this fall about autism. Louder Than Words: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism comes out September 6th. Pictured here with Evan in Disneyland yesterday, looks like both are doing well.