This is so different for us here in southern California that I just had to share. It started snowing at about 5:30 this morning and continued more on than off until about 10. We live high enough up that we knew there was a fair chance of  a little snow this winter.

Talk about free fun on a Friday!

We woke the kids up, as they had told us that if it ever did start snowing, they wanted to hear about it right away. Wouldn’t have made much of a difference with how long it kept snowing, but we really thought it would quit much sooner than it did.

That’s first thing in the morning, as fast as the kids could get dressed. Snow, and ice beneath it. My husband wasn’t able to get to work on time because his little 3 door Saturn slid too much for him to feel safe about driving. He was able to call in, and finally left sometime a little before 10.

We only saw people driving heavy trucks until after about 8 a.m. this morning. The roads really were slick for a long time.

Selene found it pretty interesting. Obviously we didn’t give her much time in the snow. Too young.

Enough snow that someone down the street made a pretty nice snowman. My kids haven’t figured out how to do a good one yet, but then this was only their second time ever in the snow.

I did get Gage trying to throw some snowballs, though.

Selene had to be the cutest, though. Utterly fascinated. Too bad she’s too little to remember this later. She could tell it was something unusual and she was just plastered to a window every chance she got.

I’ve finally done it. Talked my oldest daughter into working on a website with me. I don’t know what topic she’ll want or if she wants a new domain name or anything yet. Just that she wants to do some of what I do.

I’ve had a website up for her for several years now. Once in a blue moon she’ll agree to do something with it, but for the most part it has just been about the links to the sites she likes to play games on.

So how did I talk her into this?

Kind of her teacher’s fault, really. She came home last week with a homework assignment to make a resolution for 2010 at home. We discussed a variety of options, such as not chewing her hair, practicing her karate more, but the one that got her attention was learning to make a website.

Her in school resolution is to pay more attention in class. I hope that one works too.

Now it’s just a matter of getting her to sit down with me and make a start. Figure out what it is she wants to do.

She has quite the entrepreneurial spirit, if no sense yet for what people will buy. She made up a bunch of  “contracts” the other day, for example. They say “Contract” at the top, then she drew a bunch of lines, then “Sign here” at the bottom. She wants to set a stand up out front and sell them. I don’t know what she’s planning on charging.

Am I raising a lawyer here?

Of course, any website she runs will be subject to a lot of rules. She’s only 7, after all.

I have no idea if she’s looking to make money online or if she just wants to do things for the fun of it. She’s talked about wanting to make money like I do before, but not recently so it’s hard to say what’s going through her mind at this moment. But it would be fun for her to make something she could keep going as she grows up.

She has a long weekend coming up, and while a part of it will be with grandparents, I think I’ll try to snag some of her time to work on starting on her resolution. I now have a good reason to push her a little on this and get her past the talk. And that’s half the struggle.

With Christmas coming up quite rapidly now, I just wanted to share my favorite tip for dealing with some of the annoying toys kids almost inevitably get. This works best on younger children, who can’t catch you at it.

Ready?

Just don’t install the batteries. Or remove them early on and keep “forgetting” to replace them.

It amazes me how often this works on my kids. My daughter has a pinball game that she was given a few years ago. She has no idea that it makes more noise that what you get from the ball hitting things or moving the paddles. It has never had batteries. The mechanical parts still work, so we didn’t see any point in tormenting ourselves with the music.

We do let some toys have batteries regularly but these are generally the ones that have better sounds to them or really require batteries and we don’t mind the kids using them. We don’t spoil all their fun after all.

The Other Way to Handle Annoying Toys – REVENGE!

Annoying toys don’t appear out of nowhere. If you’re smart, you didn’t inflict them on yourself. Someone probably gave them to your kids.

If that someone was a grandparent you may just be stuck. But if your kids see them often, just see if the kids would like to store it at their house so that they have toys ready and waiting for them when they visit. The noise is then not your problem.

Anyone else, you may have to consider your appropriate revenge. If they have kids, an annoying toy in return is fair game.

If they don’t have kids yet but plan to, bide your time. The time for revenge will come, and you might even save their gifts up as hand-me-downs as your kids will eventually outgrow or tire of them, and some will still work. Then add new ones.

If their kids are too old or they aren’t planning on having any, revenge is more challenging. ThinkGeek.com has plenty of annoying things you can buy for people, such as the Annoy-a-tron. There’s always a way to get back at the person who gives annoying toys, especially if they’re habitual.

Isn’t motherhood grand! We’ve been having quite the time getting Selene to sleep through the night to even a reasonable degree lately.

And by reasonable I mean more than 1-2 hours between wakeups.

Ever since everyone other than me and Selene got sick, she’s been waking up like that, all night long. It’s insane. Especially since trying to have my husband comfort her only rarely works. It’s Mommy or she stays awake. Let Daddy try too long and she stays up for Mommy too.

All this is making it really hard to be productive. Some of my best work times are when she’s napping. But just now I need the nap too.

Of course, she’s so darn cute I can’t stay mad at her, no matter how tired I get.

I’m going to try cutting her nap short today. She’s been napping 3-4 hours easy during the day – no fair that she sleeps a longer stretch during the day than she does at night! I just need to see if she’s napping too long.

In the meantime, I think my husband’s going to have to take a lot more parenting duties in the the evenings while the kids are awake to help me out. There’s way too much stuff I need, need, NEED to get done online. His job as much as mine when he’s home, no matter what the kids think.

Reading the news about Somer Thompson’s death drives me a little nuts. It’s not so much the coverage; such a death is rare enough that the media tends to go wild with coverage on it. The scare tactics they use on parents along with it are somewhat annoying, of course.

But what drives me most nuts are the comments people are aiming at her mother, criticizing her for working outside the home. Like there’s much of a choice for a single mom. We can’t all work at home, even when we want to.

These critics of the mother have this attitude that the mother’s place is in the home.

A mother’s place is not in the home. A mother’s place is where she can do the best job for her family.

For single moms, that most often means working outside the home. That’s also often true for married moms. Being at home with the kids, whether we have a job or a business or are home for the kids, is a luxury we can’t all manage.

I also do not believe she was foolish for letting her children walk home from school. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was walking home without parents much younger than that. Most children who walk home from school, even without parents or other children will be just fine.

No, the world is not a safe place. More children die in car accidents than from abductions every year. Children even get abducted from their own homes with their parents at home. It’s tragic, but not every tragedy can be prevented. It’s called life!

My heart aches for her entire family. It’s a nightmare that no family should have to live through. Let’s save the blame for the one who killed her, not the people who loved her.

We had a little reminder the other morning about being ready for disasters around here – specifically, earthquakes. That reminder was in the form of a teeny tiny 3.5 quake at 3 in the morning. Only reason we noticed it was because the baby started crying just before, and so we were awake already. We had another small one yesterday morning, a 3.3.

Living in southern California, that’s not much of a quake. But it’s a good reminder to be prepared for disasters in general. Which kind you should prepare for depends on where you live.

One of the big things we did was have a quake talk with the kids. Basic stuff like what to do in a quake, places of the house to avoid (that would be shelves and other furniture that might tip), where to go if they needed to get out of the house and getting help if 911 isn’t available.

All stuff we hope they never need, but should know.

We still need to rebuild our earthquake supplies. We had a good stash in the Poway house, and a good place to keep it. Haven’t quite figured out the storage problem here. Inside the house is good for the most part, but if the quake’s bad enough to render the house uninhabitable, how do you get your supplies?

It’s a relatively new house so that’s not too likely to be a problem even in a bad quake, but you never know.

I’m not big on going wild with preparations for all kinds of disasters, but I do believe in having water and food available for at least a few days for all members of the family, some medical supplies and so forth. It’s been proven that you cannot assume the government will be able to help out everyone in the event of a disaster within a reasonable time frame. Better to have something to take care of your own family.

Never let it be said my daughter isn’t imaginative. She’s working on her Christmas wish list already, and it was really hard keeping a straight face as she asked me how to spell various things.

Here’s what she wants so far:

1. Goldfish with everything I need to take care of it.
2. Harp
3. Baby Alive Girl
4. Cat
5. Dog
6. Lizard
7. Dress
8. Swing set
9. 2 mice in a cage
10. 2 bunnies
11. Horse
12. 200 pearls
13. Candy
14. Fairies

There’s a story behind that last one, and she means she wants real fairies, not dolls. At a Renaissance Faire back when my daughter was 4 a troll gave her an iridescent marble and told her it was a fairy egg, and to take good care of it so that it would hatch.

Obviously, it never has.

My daughter has decided that she needs some real fairies to come help her with it, so that maybe it will finally hatch. Since she can’t find any on her own, she wants them for Christmas.

Some nights getting the kids to bed isn’t easy. They’re bright eyed and bushy tailed when you’re ready for them to get to bed. This has lead to me and my husband joking about a drinking game for getting the kids to bed.

Standard drinking game rules, except you can’t take a drink until the kids are actually asleep.

Child gets up for drink – Take one drink.

Asks for other parent – Take one drink.

Gets up to go potty – Take one drink.

Gets up to go potty but doesn’t do anything there – Take 2 drinks.

Asks for an extra story – Take one drink.

Asks for same story as the night before – Take 2 drinks.

Complains: “I’m too hot!” – Take one drink.

Complains: “I’m too cold!” – Take one drink.

One child is too hot and the other is too cold – Take 2 drinks.

Wants to watch television with you – Take one drink.

The show you’re watching isn’t age appropriate – Take one drink.

The show you’re watching isn’t age appropriate and your child wakes you with nightmares that night – Take 2 drinks.

Mysterious owie appears. It hurts a lot. Needs kisses – Take one drink.

Mysterious owie must, must I say, have a bandage put on it – Take 2 drinks.

Child throws up – Take 2 drinks.

Gets up crying that favorite bedtime toy is missing – Take one drink.

Missing toy is at foot of the bed – Take one drink.

Missing toy is right by pillow, where it had been when you put child to bed – Take 2 drinks.

And of course, kids go to bed with no trouble at all… take a drink if you feel like it. You probably deserve it.

It seems to be pretty popular right now for moms to talk about how “bad” they are, basically making light of their mistakes and trumpeting that they’re not the perfect moms that there’s so much pressure to be.

All in all, that’s not a bad thing. We shouldn’t hold ourselves to such excessively high standards. But it’s a far cry from being a really bad mom.

Making a parenting mistake doesn’t make you a bad mom.

Taking time for yourself doesn’t make you a bad mom.

Forgetting a promise you made to your kids doesn’t make you a bad mom.

Matter of fact, most of the mistakes we moms make just mean we’re human. Sometimes they mean we’re tired. But so long as we aren’t doing things that really harm our families, we aren’t likely to really be bad.

Just imperfect. And thank goodness for that.

My mom gave my son a new toy the other day. It’s pretty cute, an inflatable remote control dump truck. He loves it, especially since he can use it in the house and not worry much about bumping into walls.

But one part of it comes with a warning to not let children use it. Care to guess which part?

That’s the truck, remote and foot pump. He’s bumped it into walls enough already that I think it has a small leak somewhere. He doesn’t seem to mind.

So…

Which part is too dangerous for children?

Did you guess:

If so, you’re correct! The foot pump is apparently the most dangerous part of this toy! See?

If you can’t read that, it says:

Warning:
This is not a toy and must only be operated by an adult. Keep out of reach of children.

I’m sitting here trying to figure out the danger. I don’t think the accordion folds of it could give so much as a nasty pinch. I don’t think fingers could get badly stuck in it.

About the only danger I can see is a kid toppling over while stomping on it. Maybe I’m a mean mom, but I don’t see that as a problem.