Posted on 11 09, 2006 under Master Debaters by
Noodad |
Last week at the mall I saw a kid, couldn't be more than a year old, getting her ear's pierced. She screamed bloody murder the whole time but it was ok—although she didn't like the pain, her parents were very happy.
Getting your ear's pierced hurts. Yet I frequently see little kids with their ears pierced. Clearly, the decision to pierce is being made by the parents, not the kids themselves.
Which brings us to this week's question…
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Posted on 09 21, 2006 under Predad by
foodad |
International Adoption often includes traveling to far off
countries with upside down time tables.
You know what I mean. China
for instance is 12 or 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. The good people of your adoption agency
understand this. Acclimation is one of the (best) reasons that they schedule a
few days in Beijing
before you go to your baby’s capital city. If you decide to travel to Korea, Russia,
Kazakhstan,
the same could easily apply.
While you are spending 2 weeks in China getting to know your new
baby, the excitement builds at home.
When we went, we literally had a few thousand hits to our blog while we were gone. We also had a gallery on the site and
uploaded about 100 pictures while we were overseas. Then the scary thing started to happen. We
started to get emails from family and friends telling us that they were looking
forward to seeing us after we got home. They were even proposing dates to do
so. The excitement of the moment clearly
clouded their thinking as many of these messages mentioned the week that we got
home as “good” meeting times. At the
time, even my wife and I did not appreciate the magnitude of the problem. We added additional stress to our situation
that we could have prevented with George-Bush-style preemptive measures.
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Posted on 09 12, 2006 under The Manual by
Noodad |
TV
and endless snack times can really put a damper on your kids' health.
One day you have a slender toddler running around and the next thing
you know, you have a tub of lard on the couch. You need to get your
kid's up and exercising.
One way I have discovered to keep kids interested in fitness is the use
of a pedometer. A pedometer is a device that tracks the amount of steps
you take. If your kid can count, they can use this handy device.
A benchmark of 10,000 steps a day for a healthy lifestyle has been
established. Here are a few techniques you can use to help you and your
kid to hit that number:
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Posted on 09 11, 2006 under Predad by
Noodad |
As
a soon-to-be-dad you will be confronted with some terms that are
confusing, strange, and downright-alien. Never fear! Like Frank and
Buster of the Koala Brothers, "We're here to help!" I am proud to
present the fourth installment of the Predad Dictionary. For this
installment, we will concentrate on names of medical staff that you
will come across. These people will be prodding your wife and looking
into their holiest of holy places, make sure you know they are legit.
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Posted on 07 23, 2006 under The Manual by
Noodad |
There comes a time, shortly after the birth or adoption of your kid, where you realize you need to open a new file in your brain for a whole new slew of information. After all, you have spent your entire life remembering your social security number, your mom's maiden name, and your home phone number. But now you have a kid that belongs to you—and you need to know their deal.
Remember when you were a kid and you collected baseball cards? You may have had your favorites and you probably remembered every stat of that player by heart. Growing up a Sox fan in the 80's, that player for me was The Rocket, Roger Clemens. I knew everything about his 1986 World Series, MVP, All Star Game MVP, 20 Ks in a game, started the season 15-0, Cy Young Award winning season. But, although it was important to know he went 24-4 with a 2.48 ERA that year, there were other stats that I shouldn't have bothered to remember. Like his 67 walks in 254 innings pitched. I could have easily looked that up instead of wasting valuable brain resources. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on 05 22, 2006 under Brokedad by
Noodad |
In the Boston area, we have had rain for almost 2 weeks straight. Great for the grass, not so great for kids who want to play outside. And certainly not so great for my poor wife, who has been home with 2 sick kids and no playground to go for relief. So when this past Saturday brought both sunlight and a local school fair, it was time to take out the ATM card.
Money may not lead to happiness. But sometimes money helps. And for a modest investment of $40, it sure helped manufacture some fun this weekend.
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