Out and About With the Baby

Free to the first person to contact me by email or phone.

The ZoLi company would like a new parent to give these "green" baby-on-the-go items a try and let other parents know what you think.

This top image is a a "baby ohm," and non-toxic travel diaper changing mat.

The second image is a travel snack and formula container - BPA and phthalate free.

Call me at 414.223.5261 if you'd like to review this product and let us know what you think.

 

Happiness is a state of mind

Here's Grand Avenue Mall's Teddy Bear orchestra holiday display to delight your young children and set the scene for Saturdays With Santa. This is also the Jingle Bus's new departure point to tour the downtown's Holiday Lights Festival parks.

I'm not looking forward to spending a lot of money at Christmas. Truth to tell, though I don't usually relish spending a lot of money on any Christmas, this year we're feeling the strains of the economy. I suspect a lot of us are in this boat together.

But! Despite my concern over the checkbook, I am in good holiday spirit this year. I am thankful that my children continue to pull my mind back to the important stuff - them, family, friends, meaningful work for pay.

Remember that poignant Oscar-winning movie, "Life is Beautiful"? That's the one where, amazingly, the dad kept his little boy from knowing the deprivation and horrors of being interred in a WWII Jewish concentration camp. The dad fostered his son's propensity to find life playful, though in the midst of extreme danger. Changing our perspective from fear and worry to peace and trust is possible with practice. Kids can inspire us to stay playful and in good humor, no matter the challenge.

So, though there are all sorts of reasons to be worried and scared, the season is upon us that belongs to the children most of all. Thank goodness we live in a metro area with so many wonderful and free seasonal experiences. Let's get out there and enjoy them.

This week, Milwaukee County opens up the Red Arrow Park "Slice of Ice" season early - on Wednesday, November 26. Go skate for free at Red Arrow Park. On this special opening day, skating and skate rental are free from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., thanks to a business donor, Chartered Financial Analyst Society of Milwaukee. If you can get there, there's no charge to skate. Head on down to Red Arrow Park (that's where the City Christmas tree is) and rack up some happy memories.

Hello, Cheetahs!

We were walking, and we were talking, when suddenly - she stopped dead in her tracks. "Oh my god! Oh my god!" These are the real words my ten year old daughter blurted when I told her I had tickets for her and one friend to go to The Cheetah Girls concert on December 5th at the U.S. Cellular Arena. The show is at 7:00 p.m.

Well, it's our pleasure here at MilwaukeeMoms.com to offer this contest for one lucky, randomly drawn family to also - OMG - go see The Cheetahs in concert.

Wha??? Haven't heard of the Cheetah Girls, yet? Well, we don't want you to be caught out of the know. Here's a background article about The Cheetah Girls rise to fame amongst our tween-age girls.

Good luck to everyone. See you at the concert! 

 

My daughter, Fiona, can really belt a song out. I'm a bit jealous of her bluesy voice quality. I could never get that style down myself when I was a kid.

Regardless, she suffers from that most American of amnesias. She can not retain the correct words to the Star Spangled Banner. It tickles my funny bone to no end to experience uninhibited kids enthusiastically tearing into their rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, only to find themselves lost and confused down the wrong lyric path within a few lines.

So, with great affection for the contest subject, we at MilwaukeeMoms.com have partnered with 540AM ESPN radio on a national anthem singing contest called "Oh Say Can You Sing." The winner, whether child or adult, gets to sing at the popular Marquette v. Cincinnati men's basketball game on January 4th and also be the featured soloist to open The World's Greatest Sports Talk Show for one month.

If you enter, or are rooting for someone else who did, please let us know who that person is. Maybe you can post a link to their video or mp3 so we can follow along?

O'er the Land of the Free..... And the Home - of - the - Brave!!!!!

 

It was time for my daughter to get the basic information on puberty, how her body is going to change, and how babies are made. She's ten, but a young ten. (Sorry, sweetheart.) Next year at school, they'll give the "talk" to all 5th graders. But, I had decided my kids needed a little casual ground-laying before this.

I don't accept any money or relationships to promote a product or organization. However, I do receive digital reams of press releases every day.

Having a need in my parenting life to figure out how to start the body conversation with my daughter, I followed up on a press release link to sample DVD excerpts and accepted the review sample offered by Dr. Chrystal de Freitas called, "My First Period Kit and DVD." In it, Dr. de Freitas conducts a fairly informal tutorial with mothers and their girls. It's straight-up health and anatomy information, coupled with a nice dose of dignity, personal safety and anti-teenage pregnancy messaging.

One afternoon while my son was at a birthday party, my daughter and I sunk back into the couch pillows, got comfortable and watched the DVD. It's very tastefully done. My daughter, though awestruck with the information, looked comfortable with the doctor/mother/daughter format. When she needed clarification, I could just pause the DVD to talk about it - which allowed me the important role of explaining this information in the way I want her to understand it.

When we needed to end in order to pick up her brother from the party, I was caught by surprise and deeply touched by my daughter's expressions of gratitude and girl-pride. I hadn't expected that she would feel so honored to be brought into the circle of womanly knowledge. But she was. And I am sure that this warm memory between us will mark the beginning of many more close confidences in the years to come.

My only suggestion to the producers is that they try to film the diagrams the doctor uses for her studio audience to be more clearly visible to us in tv-land. But the accompanying print materials take care of this issue. Other than that, I do recommend My First Period Kit & DVD as a fabulous way to open your lifelong dialog with your daughter on the experience of being a woman.

At my request, Dr. de Freitas sent me an extra kit to offer as a giveaway to someone here on MilwaukeeMoms.com. If you would like to receive this free My First Period Kit & DVD, please email me meg@milwaukeemoms.com. The first email I receive will get the kit.
 

Intentional Time

Intentional time is my personal shorthand for warm and memorable time with my children: whether at home or out, funny or not, planned or unplanned. It's that time when the kids know I've put down every other concern or task and am available just for them.

MilwaukeeMoms.com's creation was an outgrowth of my love for information and meeting people. I have a pretty cool work life. I get to hear about (and sometimes sample) children and adult programming, entertainment, activities and our spectacular park and nature resources. Better still, I often learn about these things from other inspiring women and men. My work tools are great people and interesting possibilities and experiences.

This blog space is called "Time Out" as a double entrendre. Time out can mean, 'here's a good park you and your family may not know about and want to try.' Or, time out can mean, 'I spent some intentional time with my kids doing this idea and you might like it, too.'

Tonight is Family Movie Night. I love that my kids have grown out of always needing every movie to be a "Sky Kids" or other major Disney-like fare. So, I'm introducing them to old movies that made an impact on me when I was their age. My son is intrigued by the life of Harry Houdini (a Wisconsinite), so I checked out the 1953 Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh movie version of his life from the library. (Everything is inaccurate in the movie, but it'll be fun anyway.)  As a bonus, it has a Halloween theme. 

The other week, we watched the 1943 movie, "The Canterville Ghost." We used a little tv/vcr in my son's and watched in the dark.  As far as I recall, this is their first ghost movie,  other than Caspar. 

The kids dug the movie, but loved the calm time with me the most. This is the kind of time that just sets the world right, no matter what strain or heartache the week brought. You know?

My daughter's feet had hardly hit the ground on Wednesday morning before she was enviously remembering that I had the privilege that day of an early sneak-peek at the traveling Titanic exhibit, now docked at our Milwaukee Public Museum.

She's a Titanic fanatic, as, I keep hearing, are many girls aged 8 years old and up.  I will not yet let her see the passion of Leo and Kate in the blockbuster Titanic movie.  But, over the last two years, she's checked out all the books available at her school library on the subject, received four gift books, owns two DVD series, and checked out other historical videos from the local library. Just this past birthday, her Nana (not my mom) sent her a Titanic coin bank as a gift.  (A little macabre, if you ask me.    The ship hits the iceberg to flip the coin into the bank.)

Now that I've proven the depth of her fanaticism and preparedness for this new museum exhibit, here is what I predict she, and other kids aged 8 and up, will enjoy about the exhibit.

The rumors are already "out there" amongst the school kids that the exhibit has a "real iceberg" that they can touch.  All kids, regardless of their level of knowledge about this greatest of human disasters, will enjoy the simulated iceberg. 

All kids will be fascinated by the idea that what they are seeing - old paper money, combs, tiny perfume vials, a steward's jacket- are things lost by real people and recovered from the wreck.  The famous rack of intact dishes is there, miraculously undamaged and all in line.  And, the Milwaukee exhibit contains one of the collection's biggest pieces of wreckage: a massive, corroded piece of the hull.

I think kids with little to no knowledge about the Titanic disaster will be interested by this visual exposure to a riveting story.  Adults will need to help read the text alongside the exhibits and give context to people of this time period's exuberance for industry and immigration that allowed for this disaster to happen.  Why was this ship such a big deal at the time?  Why was the world watching and celebrating its build and launch?  How could such a huge project not have planned for the possible safety needs of all its passengers?

The RMS Titanic, Inc. possesses over 5,500 pieces recovered from the wreck - 270 are on display at this exhibit.  The exhibit is shorter than I expected.  I wondered what the other pieces of recovered wreckage might be.

But, finally, I'll share with you that I toured with a lump in my throat throughout this entire exhibit.  Such irony.  This is the passenger ship hailed as gold-standard and that was touted as 'too big to fail.'  Damn the lifeboats.  This thing is unsinkable. This week, the world watches the rolling damage financial institutions dubbed "too big to fail" are causing from the boiler room on up to the first-class parlor suite.   We are witnessing hubris of another kind, at this point in time.  This irony gave me an unexpected depth of experience of the Titanic exhibit.

 

Forget the feeble Jonas Bros.'s "Camp Rock." This weekend we're going to the "School of Rock," a hilarious family-viewing movie for parents of kids ages 8 and up.

The family's takeaway experience from watching this belly-laugh of a movie together is a whole new set of movie line laughs (one of which it the title to this blog entry), and the kids' new respect for our generation's contribution to Rock & Roll.

Most everyone will know the comic actor/melodramatic rocker Jack Black from one of his many movies or Tenacious D stylings. This movie is the perfect venue for him. He plays Dewey, an impassioned but second-rate Rock & Roll'r, who, following his diva-like stagedive at a gig, is kicked out by the members of his own band for seeking too much selfish attention. (Lesson one: there is no "I" in "team.")

Depressed and dejected, he intercepts a phone call meant for his geeky friend, Ned Schneebly, for a stint as a sub at an exclusive prep school. Dewey thinks he can phone-in the substitute thang by giving the kids recess all day long and pocket the pay.

The rest of the movie, really, is about the precocious school kids . These kids are smart and talented, and they respect the rules. They are the adults in this classroom and inspire "Schneebly" to grow up and care about something other than his self-absorbed self.

"Schneebly," having lost his band, realizes these kids have musical talent - regrettably of the classical variety. He hatches the plan to teach them Rock & Roll and enter the kids in the adult Battle of the Bands, thereby gaining a new showcase for himself. "Hello, Harvard, yo?" is the last thing "Schneebly" says to convince the skeptical hold-outs that the secret competitive school project, "Rock Band", will look good on their "permanent records."

Here's a snip of Jack Black as the phony substitute teacher, Ned Shneebley, teaching prep school kids that their classical music lessons have prepared them for Rock & Roll.





You might guess what happens next in this movie. The kids' effect on "Schneebly" causes him to begin to care about something other than his music and himself. (Lesson two: There's more pleasure in making others look good.) But the musical and comedic Rock & Roll path to "Schneebly's" maturity is a riot.

You and your kids will be talking old-school Rock & Roll bands and songs for days. And your kids will find a new respect for all the cool music you know about and can download on to their Ipods.

All area libraries carry this film.


Common Sense Media Rating: 8- 12 years