Kirk blAug

Of all the stupid parenting products that I have posted on this site, I think I have found one stupider than all of them put together. The My Pee Pee Bottle makers claim: Parents will do anything to protect their toddler from a dirty public restroom experience and the opportunity to make it a bit easier for themselves and their child when it is time to "pee pee". My Pee Pee Bottle® was created was created to help parents and protect children from bacterial infections and to help reinforce good potty training habits - just some of the benefits of My Pee Pee Bottle®! Yeah! Just what every parent needs to carry around. A bottle full of urine. You cannot just put your kids urine anywhere. I would like to know how this is going to be in any way easier for the kid than public toilet that they are already somewhat familiar with because it is a, you know, toilet. Some people can get really anal about cleanliness and the fact that products like this exist suggest that those peopl

Girl Scout Samoa/Caramel Delights verses Keebler Cocoanut Cremes [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah0bNlMGlz8&w=640&h=360]

Every year around Girl Scout Cookie time I hear about how several of them have two different names. There are always plenty of people asking why the names changed. I have also noticed that the conversation tends to come up more when one participant has recently moved to a different state. While this is a common conversation to come upon, the question rarely gets an answer. I wrote about why I do not think that we as a society should encourage door-to-door solicitation , including child fundraising, as there are better ways to get products when you know you want them without being told you want them by a solicitor at your door. While I was researching that post, I came across the answer to the Girl Scout Cookie names issue, so here it is straight from the Girl Scout website : Q: Why is my Caramel DeLight now called a Samoa? (or) Why are my Trefoils® now called Shortbreads? A: Girl Scout Councils choose their licensed baker, either Little Brownie Bakers or ABC Bakers. Each of the bakers

Earlier in the week, Chris read about Mitt Romney coming to a park that is located a few blocks from where we live. When she told me about it, I asked Jupiter if he would like to go to the park where we would see a guy who wants to be the President of the United States. I am thinking now that maybe he was concentrating on the "go to the park" part of that query, but for whatever reason, he said he would like to go. So yesterday we did. The platform that Romney was going to be standing on to talk to his supporters was assembled just a few yards from the playground that Jupiter often likes to play at, so it was a convenient way to let Jupiter loose to wear himself out a bit while at the same time giving him a glimpse of the political process. It is arguable how much a three year old could retain about politics, if anything at all, but he seemed interested in figuring out what a President of the United States was and why there was all this commotion about this particular guy wan

Perhaps one of the most important and fun holidays that our family celebrates during the year is Pi Day. Pi , as most educated folks know, is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. It is one of the the most used and thus important constants in mathematics, science, and engineering. The transcendental number π rounded to two decimal places is 3.14 and so on March 14 we celebrate Pi Day! Over the past couple of years, we have developed a routine way to celebrate Pi Day. Namely, we eat various forms of pie for all our meals. Since breakfast is commonly some form of energizing food, or basically a glorified morning dessert, I thought that it would be fitting to eat dessert pie for breakfast on March 14. Sometimes we get a variety of dessert pie from the frozen food section and sometimes we go to a bakery or pie shop. Perhaps this year I will bake one myself. For lunch we enjoy some form of pot pie. Chicken pot pie, beef pot pie, and veget

A few days ago Chris, Jupiter, Tsunami, and I took a quick trip back to Nebraska to see our newborn niece. We decided to fly since we really did not have a lot of time to drive, visit, and then drive again. It was Tsunami's first time on a plane and Jupiter had not remembered being on a airplane when he was about Tsunami's age, so we did not know for sure what to expect. Jupiter had been excited about getting on the airplane since we told him about the trip. He wanted to sit by the window so he could look out and so we told him that he could. He loved almost every minute of it. From the time we got on the airplane, he was very thrilled by the whole experience. As soon as we were in the air, he was fascinated by everything outside the window getting smaller, the clouds as we started to fly through and above them, and even the novelty of the tray table kept him busy for much of the hour that we were in flight. The only time there was any problem was when he developed pressure in

Apparently the UN convention on the Rights of the Child aims to state basic rights that children are allowed by virtue of their own individual existence. However, it shall not be ratified in the United States if so called "pro-family" organizations have anything to say. They want to make sure that children are seen as property of the parents, subject to all the backwards thinking that comes with that responsibility. From the Harvard Humanist Community Project : The text of the treaty itself covers a lot of freedoms such as freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion, and expression, as well as more concrete things like the rights to health care and an education.  Unfortunately, objections like those at ParentalRights.org have prevented this treaty from ratification in United States (the only other nation to similarly refuse is Somalia).  What could a “pro-family” parental rights group possibly have against this?  Fancy that, they made a list of their objections [in thei