My sons are in a family member’s wedding this weekend. When I took them to get measured for the tuxes I took this picture. I love it!

My son, who is 10, wears a men’s size 9 shoe, and my one-year-old wears an infant’s size. I can’t wait to see them all dressed up in their tuxes! My little guys are not so little anymore!

When I was a kid, I remember coming home from school one day and it was “OFFICIALLY” summer. Although it had been warm out all week, that was the day our mom unpacked the shorts and layed them out for us to change into. I remember  wide open windows, the smell of Future floor wax, and a vision of fixable bicycles, all ready for routine maintenance. If we could just be lucky enough to find someone BIG enough to carry them down the stairs for us, we were golden!

I remember the last few days of school, some of us would get to take home extra school work and coloring papers to do over the summer. The girl across the street had a Barbie Camper and we would all head over to her porch with our tattered dolls and play for hours with nothing but half melted freeze pops to cool us off. Summer was full of Hula hooping, jump rope contests and the Ice Cream Man. Sometimes we only had a penny for chinese fortune gum, but it was still such a treat.

Cartoons were not on after 12:00 on Saturdays and everyone played OUTDOORS whenever we could. In our neighborhood, the kids would get in pajamas early, but we’d get to sit out on the front steps till dark if we behaved. Some nights, we would get lucky if our parents got to talking and hanging out, and friends would get to sleep over at each other’s houses. But, you always had to be on your best behavior to get anything…..even food, sometimes

It makes me sad these days to see empty streets on hot summer days. I like air conditioning, but there was nothing like flipping your pillow to the cold side or the feeling of a fresh summer breeze.

One time I handed Dylan an action figure and he said, “What does it do?” I was shocked. I answered, “It’s a toy, you play with it!” He wasn’t really interested, and it’s no wonder. The quality of today’s video games, movies and robotic toys are so advanced and realistic, they have sucked our kids in. The worst part is that some of us parents have let them! We think we are giving our kids the best, and in reality we are doing them a great disservice. This summer, my family will be  unplugged all but for an hour a day.

I know our kids think they have it made with all their gizmo’s, gadgets and games, but by the end of this summer, mine will know what it feels like to be a real, live “Lucky Duck.” Best wishes for a HEALTHY and HAPPY summer!

For most of us who have been cooped up all winter, spring is a welcome time to start spending a lot of time outdoors.  Unfortunately, Lyme disease is prevalent in our New England area.

Lyme Disease is transmitted to humans through a tick bite. Two of my sons have become very ill from Lyme disease. Fortunately, they were treated with antibiotics soon after their initial infection and have had no lasting effects from the Lyme infection. However, Lyme disease can be devastating if it is not treated immediately and aggressively. I have friends and extended family members who suffer from chronic Lyme disease, who battle serious medical issues because their infection went unnoticed and untreated for a lengthy period of time.

Last month I discovered a tick on me a couple of days after doing some yard work. It appeared to have been attached to me for a while and the site of the bite was irritated. My physician treated me prophylactically with a one-time large dose of an antibiotic just in case the tick was carrying Lyme disease. I did not have any symptoms, but I was glad to have my doctor take the bite seriously. Since that first tick bite this spring, I have removed two other ticks from my skin soon after being bitten. It is so important to check yourself and your kids every time you come in from doing yard work or spending time in the woods. This year the ticks are out in full force.

The CDC has a a great website with information on preventing tick bites, as well as what to do if you discover you have been bitten: http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/

More general information about avoiding and treating tick bites can be found here in an article from Outside Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/bojv7cn

It is important to remember not to panic if you discover you’ve been bitten by a tick. Use common sense and seek medical attention if you notice a rash near the site or anywhere else on your body, if you develop muscle or joint pain, or if you experience flu-like symptoms. When treated in a timely manner, Lyme disease will not be a lifelong medical issue.

I have watched some wonderful commercials over the years.  I really admire the people who are wise and witty enough to create ads that you remember forever.  Who doesn’t remember “Hey, Mikey.  He likes it!” and “Where’s the beef?”  I can sing the entire Oscar Meyer Weiner song,  “Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weiner…(Everybody, now!) that is what I’d truly like to be-e-e” and the bologna son,g  “My bologna has a first name.  It’s O-S-C-A-R.”  I know there are many more recent ones- I am showing my age!!!!  I love Flo, the progressive girl, the taco bell Chihuahua, Spuds MacKenzie, and the Bud Bowl, too.  I could go on forever, but that is not what I am writing about today.

I am quite surprised that I have not, until today, heard any outrage about the Ad Council’s recent campaign to urge kids to go to college.  Hey, if you can skateboard, you can go to college.  Have you seen this one?  I like watching the girl try multiple times until she succeeds, but they actually say something to the effect of “Yeah, if you can play video games as well as you do, you can get into college.” Really?  Is that the best you’ve got to encourage kids?  That, my friends, is sad.  The girl has a helmet on, but is not even wearing knee pads, elbow pads or gloves.

Another ad shows a boy graffiti-ing a huge wall in an inner city at dusk.  The first time I saw this advertisement, I thought it was about police protection.  This is pathetic!!!!  Last I knew, painting graffiti art on public buildings was defacing public property and therefore illegal.  I know that kids are involved in lots of creative projects related to graffiti, but just find it sad to think that this is what the Ad Council came up with to try to encourage kids to go to college.

I may sound a bit negative here, but this is not the best use of our tax dollars!!!!  I just think that reminding kids about school achievements would be a better way.  I know that kids like skateboarding and video games (probably too much, in my old lady humble opinion!) but there are better ways to use those activities to perk kids’ interest.  Just sayin’!

Every year since our twentieth anniversary, my husband Alan and I have gone away together for a weekend to celebrate. This twenty-ninth year we planned our getaway, but we took five of our kids with us! Since work issues and medical issues have been piling up on us lately, we thought that the kids needed some time away from the stresses of life as much as we did. Because of my son Ray’s medical problems, we waited until Wednesday to make reservations for Friday and Saturday night. If he was too weak, we didn’t want to go.

We found a low cost Holiday Inn Express in North Conway, NH, with an indoor pool, Jacuzzi, and free breakfast, and we booked three rooms- one for the boys; Ray, Teddy, and Charlie, and one for the girls; Tessa, and Charlie’s girlfriend, Rebekah, and one for us (we weren’t going to totally give up our getaway weekend to the kids!) With the days of owning a fifteen passenger van long gone, we all piled into two cars on Friday morning and headed north in the sunshine.

Along the way, Alan and I pulled into a semi-rundown looking diner for lunch. Both Tessa and Rebekah momentarily thought that the diner we pulled up to was the hotel! Much to their relief it was only a diner!

The rest of the trip up was uneventful. As we pulled into the hotel parking lot, Teddy told us that Charlie had told him that the first thing you do when entering a hotel room is jump on the beds. I informed Teddy that if he was kicked out of the hotel he was on his own.

After we settled into our rooms I received an email from my oldest son Andrew. It went something like this: “Hi Mom, We didn’t know that you guys were heading up to North Conway! We were planning to head up there tomorrow….” Somehow, I don’t think he and his wife, Amanda, were actually planning on heading north until they heard that we were, but that will never be truly known. I told Andrew where we were staying, and Alan and I were making bets on what time they were going to arrive the next day. I somehow thought that if they left Massachusetts around 8 am, they would arrive in New Hampshire at around 11:30 am. Friday night we had fun in the indoor pool, and around 9 pm Alan and I decided to leave the festivities and head to our room for the night.

Saturday morning, when we went down to the lobby for breakfast, Andrew and his wife Amanda sitting there at a table eating! Evidently, as soon as they heard where we were staying, they had hopped into their car right after work and arrived on Friday night at 9:30, unbeknownst to us. Now our anniversary getaway was a party of nine.

We had so much fun just bopping around North Conway on Saturday. One of our favorite places to visit is a used bookstore called “The Local Bookie.” Ray bought out most of the store inventory by purchasing thirteen history books. Everyone else found a few treasures, and I think the book store owner made his sales quota for the week as we walked out the door.

Unfortunately by Sunday morning, Ray’s medical issues were making it impossible to say longer. He was too weak to even sit up in his wheelchair so we decided to head home that morning. I was disappointed for Ray’s sake, but I had expected that he might not have been able to keep up for the whole three days.

We celebrated our anniversary in a different way this year. Our romantic dinner was held in front of a gas log at McDonalds, but we wouldn’t have had it any other way. We were so thankful to have the kids with us this year and make some family memories.

It seems like only last week, Dylan was a couple of pounds smaller and almost an inch shorter than he is today. Come to think of it, it was just last week!

After a growth arrest for over two yearsm it is amazing and such a blessing to see our little man grow up almost over night. They say you are what you eat, but in Dylan’s case it was how his body absorbed the nutrients…..or didn’t, for that matter. This was the second time he stopped growing in his little life and for years he wore the same size clothes and shoes. It was especially hard for him around school-time not going up a size to get ready for his new grade, but instead wearing the same thing he did in 3rd and 4th grade.

It’s been about a month since Dylan’s surgery and he is doing GREAT! That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been obstacles, pain and discomfort to overcome. It means that the feeding tube is doing was it was supposed to and getting Dylan his nutrition!! In less than four weeks, he has put on over two pounds and GREW half an inch, which in INCREDIBLE to a kid who hasn’t grown a spec in two whole years. He is taking in an extra 1,000 calories a day but more importantly, he is absorbing them. The trick is a slow rate of eight to twelve hours of feeding each day through a pump and getting to eat whatever you want, when you want (within reason of course )

We took the 11 year old for a big boy haircut today too, and then home so he can rest. His stitches come out Thursday then it’s back to school for this 5th grader!

What are some of your all time favorite toys? We recently dug out from our closet a Lite-Brite set for my granddaughter, Amelia, to play with. She spent hours plugging the little multi-colored plastic pegs into the light box and creating her own special designs. We also hauled two bags of Mega Blocks down from our attic for my grandson, Elias. He’s kept busy during the last few times I’ve babysat him, just making towers. At 16 months he’s starting to compare the shapes of the blocks, and he loves to find all the matching sizes and put them together. It is fun to see that the toys that my kids enjoyed playing with are just as entertaining to the next generation!

Play doh was something that kept my own kids busy for a long time. I also liked ink pads (washable) and rubber stamps, crayons and markers, construction paper, glue and glitter, and street chalk for the summertime. My boys (and girls, for that matter) would play for a long time with matchbox cars both inside the house and outside in the dirt. All my kids loved their stuffed animals, and my younger daughter spent most of her childhood playing with her dolls. There were so many other things that kept them busy: puzzles, books, legos, and some plain, old-fashioned sticks they would scavenge outside.

I would love to hear what you moms have discovered to keep your kids occupied and help them develop their own creativity. Feel free to post!

I like to give the twins little tokens now and then as incentives for good behavior.  Call them little bribes, but sometimes it really works.  I typically have some gum and chocolate coins in my purse to doll out as a quick reward.  So as St. Patrick’s Day rolled around, the twins started mentioning to me that the leprechaun gives out chocolate coins.  Just great!!!???  Another holiday to give them candy and junk!  Well, I got a couple packages of the gold coins, and spread them out onto the floor of their bedrooms on St. Patty’s day.  (Wow!  We really need to refinish these floors!!!)

So when the twins woke up, I expected elation as they found their loot.  What I got instead was a serious little girl.

Charlotte said, “Mom, can you come with me, please?”

“Sure, love” I said as she took me by the finger into her room.

“Mom, did that creepy leprechaun come into my room to give these chocolate coins to me?” she asked with a concerned look on her face.

Oh, shoot, my poor baby!  Freaked out by the creepy green guy!  Why wouldn’t she be?  It really is a little weird that we have all these made-up characters like Santa, the Easter Bunny and the leprechaun.  We teach our kids about stranger danger, and then this freaky looking little green man in a funky suit comes slinking around their bedroom while they are asleep!

Note to self:  Don’t hide any easter eggs in the twins’ bedroom next week!!!