outside the (toy) box

We’re still in vacationing at the lake house — ahhh. Today dh, dd, and I went out in kayaks for a paddle – a loon landed near us, we saw lilypads, fish jumping, it was great. Sunny, peaceful…I was so happy even the waterbugs seemed cute.  And I’m no nature-queen, believe me.  Thing 1 has been having a ball — miss formerly-petrified-at-swimming Read the complete Post.

We’re in Maine right now, vacationing at a lake house - stealing the very last week of summer.  Here we are with a dock for swimming, kayaks, a canoe, fishing gear, woods for exploring, and from a kid’s POV, there is essentially an indoor playground too — lofts and bunkbeds that make cool hiding fort-like spaces, a zillion unfamiliar books and toys, and an indoor play tent (we brought it with us, along with some crawling tunnels in case it was rainy).   Considering the surroundings I was fairly perplexed that Thing 1 kept asking me, “what can I do?”  this morning — our first full day here.  I mean, really, if all that kid friendly fodder weren’t enough, I also packed large bags of toys for both her and the baby.  And as it turns out, “Are you kidding? What can’t you do?” did not seem to work to send her on her merry way. Read the complete Post.

I try so hard to be cool — not to show Thing 1 when she’s doing something that is freaking me out.  Like, yesterday, when she told me under no uncertain circumstances that she never wants a baby to grow in her body - I reassured her that she didn’t have to have a baby, no problem.  But when asked THREE times by a 4 year old, “But how do you NOT get a baby?” It’s a bit challenging.  Still, I was cool.  No problem.  Read the complete Post.

If you are here, I am dying to get suggestions from you! 

Please write (either as a comment, or feel free to email me at mom@outside-the-toybox.com) with your suggestions for: Read the complete Post.

Well, here I am, the stinking would-be high priestess of media issues in kids lives, and I have dirty laundry.  Here is my Dear Abby moment (Is Abby out there? Anyone wanting to pretend to be Abby? We need advice!)… Read the complete Post.

Last week, the news media gave decent coverage to an important story that revealed the power of marketing to children. The study, in case you missed it (which is easy to do if you have children!) showed that McDonald’s marketing was so effective that in experimental taste tests, children believed that food in a McDonald’s wrapper tasted better than identical food in a plain wrapper. This was even true for things not traditionally associated with McDonald’s, like apple juice, carrots and milk. Read the complete Post.

Old Navy had this to say about the post on July 31 (see posting below). Since they value customer feedback so much, I thought I would post the customer service email, in case anyone else would like to be “an important part of the process.”  If you would like to complain share your thoughts as I did, feel free to email them at custserv@oldnavy.com

Thank you for your e-mail regarding our current collection of Old Navy 

styles for our Boys and Girls departments.  We always want to know how 

Read the complete Post.

As a general rule, I make a point of not taking Thing 1 with me to the mall or the drug store or such unless I absolutely have to - she’s 4 and very in tuned with the goodies that oogle from the shelves. But, I didn’t realize how long it had been since she went to the grocery store with me (dh and I have gotten in the habit of doing the grocery shopping in a divide and conquer fashion — solo while the other stays with the sleeping kiddos.) At any rate, I took her on a big grocery run recently and it was awful! I felt like it was me against the universe — Read the complete Post.