Go Green

A long time ago, I vowed to my husband that unless under extreme circumstances, I would not give my business to a company with a cutesy misspelled name. It is a giant pet peeve of mine. GIANT. I'm generally pretty picky about grammar and spelling, although I admit that I am capable of making mistakes from time to time. However, blatant misspelling or poor grammar in the name of marketing annoys me to no end. It almost makes me want to call up the people who run the company and say "Do you really think that this will help you promote your product? Don't you know it just makes you look dumb?" Some examples:

~I saw a sign on the side of the road (there's some high-level marketing) that said "Tutors-is-Us" with a phone number. Are you kidding me? Not even "R".... Would anyone seriously let these people tutor their children???? (I know my own grammar mistake in that sentence... I just can't bring myself to write "his or her" and get the same effect)

~A local preschool is called "Kinder Kollege". No no no no NO! Disturbing on more than one level for me....

~This one's actually one of my favorites and a bit off-topic, but it just came to me. I remember a Chinese food place in the Bronx whose sign read something like, "Kung Pao-- We ain't just Chinese!"


This all leads me to the real topic at hand which is.... the "Greening" of our earth. I broke my own vow today, you see. I made an investment and bought my family new water bottles that I'm counting on lasting us a very long time. We got them in the mail today and we are all very excited about them. After extensive research, I decided to, however reluctantly at first, go with a company called Klean Kanteen. Ah! A double- whammy!

My family has been making more and more of an effort to make smarter, more earth-friendly choices around the house and in our everyday lives. Klean Kanteen offers an eco-friendly, stainless steel bottles that are non-leaching, toxin-free and 100% recyclable. We had been using nalgene bottles for everyone but the mouthpieces were giving us mold/mildew problems, even with diligent washing. Plus, I don't like the plastic taste of the water after the bottles have been in the summer heat for any amount of time. So I figured now was the time to switch over to a better alternative.

So, I had to suck it up and go with a good company with an unfortunate name. Score one for poor spelling and one for the earth.

I Cannot Tell a Lie

There once was a chocolate freak,

In cupboards she’d frequently sneak,

She tried to stay clear,

To enlighten her rear,

She lasted not even one week.

So much for elevated consciousness!!

Summer Transition, Had Me a Blast...

Okay, so the lyrics aren't quite as catchy as the real song.... Here we are, one day into summer and in just one morning, my children's behavior has included the following:

One hit in the head with a tennis racket.
One blow of raspberries.
One relentless tickling of a sibling after numerous requests to stop.
One stupid name-calling.
Multiple instances of potty-talk.
Kicking.
Back-and-forth arguing.
Talking back (or as Supernanny would say, "back-chat")
A tantrum over getting into a car seat by one's self.
Much nose-picking.
A poop that stunk up a waiting-room (this occurred in a diaper...)

That being said, I think it would only be fair to mention what my behaviors included in a single morning:

Taking away of sweets, TV, and computer for the day for one child, plus sweets again for the next day.
Taking away of sweets for another child.
Forcing (gently) a child into a car seat.
Saying "Are you kidding me?"
Forcing (by words) children to say sorry using eye-contact and hug each other.
Explaining to a child that sometimes out in the real world, people who touch other people without asking can get them in big trouble, like, sent to jail. Yes, I said this.


I look at my list and see the use of force twice. That can't be good. This is the time when behaviors are high, attitudes are snappy, hands are wandering. It's transition time. It always takes me a few days of walking around like a crazy woman saying to myself (and my children) "What is going on around here???" to realize that we are going through some sort of big change and with this comes a lot of craziness and frankly, some really weird stuff.

One year, my son went through a pretty neurotic stage where he had to "check in" or "come clean" about every single detail of whatever he was doing at the time that he thought he might need to confess about. I called this stage "Comments and Confessions with Tyson". One time, at a local play-place I counted how many times he came up to me to confess (I don't know where his neurosis comes from...) and in 20 minutes, he came up to me 28 times!
"Mom, I was walking by that girl and my elbow accidentally bumped her arm..."
"Mom, I was climbing up the thing and my fingernail kind of scratched the plastic stuff..."
"Mom, I was running around the corner and my foot bumped against the pole..."
"Mom, I was watching that kid, and I think I kind of made a weird face by accident..."
The kicker was when he was crying and wouldn't go into soccer because in his head he had thought that one of the other kids was "kind of chubby" and he was afraid that he would say something (which he would never do) and felt bad for thinking it!

Aahh, yes, no pressure for perfection in this family. I wonder how much of this is him, or really my parenting. I am definitely on the stricter side of parenting (boundaries, boundaries). But am I causing neuroses at age 5?

Okay, judging from the hysterics in kitchen and one of my sons singing "I tooted, I tooted, oh yeah, yeah, yeah..." I think it is probably time to sign off and go parent.

Go Summer!