Kirk blAug

How great would it be for me to go to the ice cream isle of the grocery store and have my son say, "I want Schweddy Balls Daddy!"? I think pretty great. However, if the group known as One Million Moms has its way , that can never happen. I am outraged! According to their complaint: Ben & Jerry's announced their newest ice cream flavor which sounds anything but appealing. Schweddy Balls is the best they could come up with. The vulgar new flavor has turned something as innocent as ice cream into something repulsive. Not exactly what you want a child asking for at the supermarket. As I already stated, that is exactly the kind of thing that would make my day. It is exactly what I would want my child asking for in the supermarket. Think of the priceless looks I would be able to enjoy as other shoppers stare at me as if I must be the most horrible awesome parent ever! In the past, Ben & Jerry's has released controversial ice creams, like a special edition of Chubby

The following is also posted at examiner.com . I occasionally write articles for Examiner under the title of Lincoln Early Childhood Parenting Examiner. If you are interested in more articles under that theme, I recommend subscribing to my content there. Pumpkin season is here and there are plenty of places to get pumpkins for pies, decorations, carving, and whatever else you might like to do with a pumpkin. The expedient option of finding one in a grocery or discount store bin exists. This involves all the fun of selecting one from a variety at the top of a bin in the main isle of the store while you are out tackling that always growing shopping list. Some families might find it more fun, however, to go out to a farm and select their pumpkins out of a patch. There are a couple of great places to go for this activity which include many other family fun activities as well. Roca Scary Farm In Roca, NE there is a  Berry Farm  which turns into a "Scary Farm" as Halloween nears.

Jupiter has a book called " Good Dog, Carl " by Alexandra Day. It is a classic book that many kids enjoy, and Jupiter is no different here. Apparently Carl has become quite popular too. He has a website and a whole series of books . This book has very few words. It has a sentence on the first page and another on the last page, but in between there are some pretty great illustrations. The pictures tell the story of a baby and a dog having fun at the house while mom goes to the store. They get into all sorts of shenanigans and turn the house into a big mess. The baby even goes for a swim in the fish aquarium. After all the fun is over, Carl bathes baby and cleans up the house. When mom comes home, assuming that Carl sat next to the crib watching the baby all day, she says, "Good dog, Carl." When I first went through this book with Jupiter, I thought that this was a very irresponsible mother. However, upon further reflection, I realized that maybe I am projecting the

Today started out pretty rainy, so Jupiter and I abandoned our plans to go to Nebraska City. As the day went on, though, the rain was subsiding and it looked like we might be able to go wander around the orchard after all. So we did. Nebraska City has a city wide Apple Jack Festival every year in September. It features patents, craft shows, art shows, air shows, car shows, a carnival, and much more. However, Jupiter was not interested in anything but the apple orchard at Arbor Day Farm . I could not blame him, it is fun to pick and eat apples right from the orchard. When we got there, Jupiter saw his friend Elsa and started following her on the trails (which are another fun thing to do at the farm). But we were there for apple picking, so we soon left the trail and went to pick some Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and a few different apples that we were not technically supposed to pick yet. We tried many of them out too. They were all pretty tasty. After filling our bag with apples, w

In preparing for the newborn who will be here within the next couple of weeks, I have rediscovered a collection of music that any rock music loving parent of a newborn should have. Rockabye Baby! takes some of your favorite rock classic rock music hits from various artists and turns them into lullabies. When I first discovered these awesome albums when Jupiter was brand new, I was so excited to introduce him to artists like Nine Inch Nails , Radiohead , Bob Marley , Pink Floyd , The Smashing Pumpkins , and much more . He still seems to enjoy it. In fact, I happen to like listening to instrumental music quite a bit and listen to it even when he is asleep, so I recommend it to non-parents as well.

We seem to hear the ice cream van that drives through our neighborhood pretty often. By the time we actually get out there, money in hand, it is usually gone or too far away. After living in this neighborhood for over a year though, we finally caught up with it. Jupiter seems mesmerized by his choice of a Batman Pop.

A recent study lead by a group at the Psychology Department of Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NF, Canada has been making the rounds in the media lately. This study finds evidence that fathers, especially involved fathers, have lower testosterone levels than their single counterparts. Much speculation has been made of this on parenting and at-home dad blogs and forums that I frequent. The New York Times brought attention to the study by casting it in stereotypical negative light in the very first sentence: This is probably not the news most fathers want to hear. Why would the author of the article assume that? Well, this Harvard professor of evolutionary biology, Peter Ellison, has one idea: “I think American males have been brainwashed” to believe lower testosterone means that “maybe you’re a wimp, that it’s because you’re not really a man. “My hope would be that this kind of research has an impact on the American male. It would make them realize that we’re mean