I fully realize that while Friday is the end of the work week for most of us; it does not end the week in its entirety. Tomorrow will bring a a new day, a day of fresh surprises; and by surprises, I don’t mean being surprised with a romantic getaway just because, I mean SURPRISE! I colored the walls with permanent marker!

I thought as we wrap up our week together I’d share just a few of the beautiful “gifts”; (I use that term lightly) I have been surprised with this week….

SURPRISE! I flushed your necklace down the toilet!
Being shown that poop just like clouds can take the shape of animals or even some foods!
Realizing he is definitely his fathers son; when he told me under his breath to “just worry about what I’m doing”
Learning someone taught him how to grab his butt cheeks, booty shake, and sing “oh ya, booty – oh ya baby”. For the record, despite my single days it was NOT me.

This has definitely been a Week To Forget

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Well, The Boy and I have made it back to Buffalo safe and sound!  Not a tan line to be seen on either of us thanks to Mother Nature and her mood swings, but chillin’ with Grammy and Poppy for 3 days in Florida was great!

As most of you know, it was just he and I on this adventure, his first plane ride;  and all and all, it was great.  He rocked three out of four plane rides, I think largely in part because I took all the advice I read and brought all the right things to keep him occupied.  I carried on a Laptop, coloring books and crayons, books, snacks, water, cheap little toys wrapped in tissue to make the ride fun; and the BEST impulse buy, a $1 dry erase board.  That kept him occupied for most of rides one and three.

Plane ride four you ask?  Well, rather than telling you myself, I thought I would let the letter I have written to the man seated next to us in 20C do all the talking for me.

Dear Sir,

As per the events on Delta flight 1159 out of Atlanta; Sunday February 12, 2012,I feel as if I owe you a steak dinner.

You sat next to a an extremely flatulent three year old who refused over the course of a two hour flight to accept the fact that he did in fact have to poop.  You emptied the drink cart of all their napkins to clean up the juice that “stinky” spilled; and did not even bat an eye when the sweet child “threw me under the bus” to a pin drop quiet plane by screaming at me through a veil of crocodile tears that I should not tell him to “shut up” when I had never even so much as muttered a word to him.  Your simple nod when you were beamed in the head with this sticky thing

and telling me at the end of the flight with a smile that he was “great”.

For this sir, you are a gem; I wish that the man in 19A would have been as patient.  For him I have just two words, I don’t think I need to spell them out.

Have a great day ladies!

While The Boy is only three and does not have a Facebook account,  I still worry about the day I become a Mom of a tween/teen boy and the fresh hell that will become of my life.

As parents we have valid concerns about the issues our children will be confronted with and how they will handle it; bullying, drugs/drinking, sex (which The Boy won’t have until he is married to a fine young virgin himself) and we all need to have the proper tools to get our kids through it.

I know some of you have children in the tween/teen age group and I received an interesting link to an article that lists 33 of the most common acronyms kids use whether it be on Live Chat, Facebook or Twitter.  Being your child’s “Friend” on Facebook is not enough anymore, so I thought I would share it with you so that you are ITL “In The Loop” – I made that one up myself – I have some mad acronym skills)

If any parents out there have any others that you know of please feel free to share!

In honor of Children’s Authors & Illustrators Week, I thought I’d do a book review on a unique book I stumbled on through Facebook.

It’s called Mommy Has A Tattoo, by Phil Padwe (pad-way).

I know what some of you are thinking, “Who in their right mind would write a book about, or want to read a book about a Mom with a tattoo”?

I won’t lie, even as a tattooed Mommy, I did; but then I realized what the book was about and I just had to have it.

Dude and I both have tattoos so The Boy has already been exposed to them. I feel very strongly that mine is a tasteful, beautiful representation of my life and family, however I KNOW there are people that stereotype me for it (and that’s OK); it’s those people that allow me to teach my son a valuable lesson on compassion and acceptance of others by way of something he has been exposed to in a positive way.

There is a growing population of parents in this world that are amazing, compassionate, hardworking people that either look nothing like The Cleavers or look like The Cleavers with an edge hidden below the surface. Whether they are tattooed, pierced, or both; surprisingly there are still people out there that look down on them; especially women with tattoos.

As parents we all know the importance of teaching kids from a young age that just because someone looks different regardless of why; it doesn’t mean they are bad, or scary; and I really like that the book puts a modern twist on teaching this valuable lesson.

In the story, a little boy named James is afraid of his tattooed neighbor because he looked SO different; that was until he found out this his own Mommy has a tattoo!

The kid friendly illustrations and bright colors contribute nicely to a story that without The Boy knowing that it really serves a valuable purpose, has helped this book make it’s way into our “Favorite Books Basket” and it has stayed there ever since.

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