Though we have talked about the show for months, my mother first saw an episode of "Super Nanny" last night. And she's ready to take action!

My mother and I have had lots of heated arguments about how I should educate and discipline Sean and Will. And she often disagrees with the rules and limits I've set in my house. It has been hard for me to justify my actions and beliefs all the time.

Sean woke up from his nap this afternoon and started to whine and cry about something. Usually, when my sons throw a tantrum, my mother tries to comfort them, offering them something to eat or a ride on her back. I was trying to talk to Sean and calm him down when my mother entered the room and said:

"That's enough Sean! You have to stop whining and talking like that to your mother! Your mother is tired, so stop crying and tell me quietly what's the problem and I'll prepare you a bowl of cereal, OK?"

I don't know who was the most surprised, Sean, who of course executed immediately, Will or me.

"This can't go on," she said, "I've watched 'Super Nanny' and I think some things need to change here!"

I love you mom.

I posted a story back in December about hospitals in Massachusetts banning the distribution of "new mom" gift/diaper bags in an effort to encourage breastfeeding. The prohibition of the bags was slated to begin in July, but it seems the tide has shifted. State Governor Mitt Romney requested that the Public Health Council - who first approved the ban - repeal the prohibition. Gov. Romney said, "I think that the mother should have the right to decide whether she is going to use infant formula or breastfeed...allowing her to make that decision is best by letting her have the formula and if she wants to use it, fine."

Boston Globe reporter Stephen Smith reports that the Council unanimously approved to suspend the earlier ban but breastfeeding advocates who support it are gearing up for a battle with Romney and the formula-makers who underwrite the gift bags. As Smith points out in his story, such a prohibition would be the first in the country. One council member who supports the ban said, "The marketing of infant formula undermines the initiative to nurse. I don't think there's any place in a hospital for corporate America trying to influence a vulnerable population."

Stefania Butler shared her story yesterday about why she supplemented with baby formula. Readers have responded with many kind words of thanks for being so honest about her decision - and for not making the use of formula seem evil. Stefania's story also seemed to open a door to let moms share their stories as well...and not feel guilty about their decisions.

Breakfast.  It's the meal I dread preparing most.  Mainly it's because I'm usually still a little pissed off that my three-year-old has woken me up by shoving a scratchy princess dress in my face exclaiming, "It's insiiiiiide out. Heeeelllllpppp meeeeeee!" Also because I haven't had my coffee yet when my kidlets are clamoring for morning sustenance. How I cannot wait until they are old enough to fend for themselves.

But—

I have perfected the art of the one minute breakfast.  It goes something like this:

1. microwaved Krusteaz mini-pancakes (no trans fats) and Morningstar Farms (fake) sausage
2. toasted Van's waffles spread with peanut butter and honey (no allergy issues here)
3. Instant McCann's Irish oatmeal. (If you don't have a hot water dispenser, get one.  It's life-saving.) Get the plain oatmeal and top with yogurt and/or honey. Fruit or the above fake sausage on the side
4. Cheerios and sliced bananas
5. Cheese sticks and pears
6. scrambled egg and microwaved ready-cook bacon or any "fakin' bacon" (the egg takes a minute and the bacon, about 10 seconds in the micro. Brilliant.)

How about you?  How much do you hate making breakfast? What do you do to make the task easier? Please share your ideas.

[photo: PBSkids.org]

There are a few things I dread and fear as a mother: the pediatrician's waiting room, a 6pm nap, dog poop and lice.

Cases of head lice in Sean and Will's classroom have been reported since last November. There's this sign on the school door that says "Les poux sont de retour!" ("The lice are back!") that has not been removed for about 5 months. I used to check my boys' hair daily and naively thought we were sort of safe. So you can guess my horror when I saw Will scratching his head this morning and discovered lice in his hair!

10 minutes and a desperate call to my husband later, I started an over-the-counter treatment, thoroughly cleaned rooms, washed clothing and bed linens in very hot water, sealed stuff animals in plastic bags and vacuumed the floor and mattresses (for more advice, check the "Blogging Baby size six : essentials for surviving head lice"). I have checked Sean's head about 5 times in one hour but apparently, he has not been infested.

So now I'm facing a dilemma and it's breaking my heart. I have to notify school about Will having head lice and I know his name will remain anonymous. But I don't know if it's safe for other kids to come and play in our house. I sure don't want other parents to go through the whirls of anxiety and loads of housework I've faced.

Should I cancel the birthday party? What would you do?

I remember when I was a kid, feeling like I'd hit the jackpot when I found a bright, shiny copper penny.  Into my piggy bank it would go, knowing that I needed only 25 to get a quarter, and man, back in the early seventies, that bought a LOT.  My mother would reward me by pulling all of the pennies out of the bottom of her purse and give them to me if I was particularly good, and there was nothing like the satisfying clink of each one hitting the bottom of my porcelain pig. 

Nowadays, however, pennies seem completely insignificant to me.  And they seem insignificant no matter where I live.  I mean, really, a penny in England doesn't seem like much, either.  And given the exchange rate here in Trinidad (1 TT penny = 1/6th US penny), they're REALLY worthless.  When I'm finally ready to start giving my kid an allowance, I can't imagine giving her much less than one TT dollar.  What would be the point?

What do you think?  Does anyone actually use pennies anymore?  How much allowance do you give your kids?  And while I'm at it, when did you start?

When my daughter has to go to school, I must wake her up at 7:30am each morning. I have to start by slowly turning on her light and telling her 'Five more minutes'. Then I pull the blankets off her and say, "Three more minutes." Finally I pull her from the bed as she claims to be "So....tired....." she's going to die.

So explain to me why, since we're on midwinter break this week (again, could someone explain the point of midwinter break? Be honest, it's to make me insane isn't it?), why she's woken up at 6 o'clock each morning ready to get going on her day.

Each morning I've stared at her, incredulously, when she comes to my bed to ask if she can get up now. "You can," I tell her. "But know that I will never believe you when you tell me you're 'too tired' to get up on school days ever again."

One recent afternoon, not five minutes after the children toddled outside to play, our daughter (the Girl) stumbled back into the house holding her eye and wailing. "He hit me in the eye!" she sobbed. "With his plastic bat!" He is her little brother. The lovely and talented wife checked the damage and asked if it was an accident. "He did it on purpose!" After determining that the injury was superficial, she called the Boy in to hear his side. "OK, Mom," he said and began trotting back to the house.

Meanwhile, she asked the Girl for more information. What happened? How? Why? She replied, "I was playing and I told him to hit me and before--".

"Wait. You told him to hit you?"

"Yeah, but before--"

"On purpose? You told him to hit you on purpose?"

"Yeah, but before I could tell him I was just joking, he hit me."

At precisely this moment the Boy walked in and, being the rambling truth-machine he is, confessed instantly and proudly, "I hit her on purpose, Mom."

She looked at them both for just a moment and then told the Boy to go back outside and play. She told our daughter not to tell people to hit her and then she sent her back outside to play, too, hopefully a little wiser. Good grief. The only people who need rules like that are folks with severe brain damage and children.

I couldn't stop giggling in the hospital elevator. I could barely prevent my feet from running down the hallway. I nervously knocked on the door and heard my friend's sweet voice. She looked tired but a warm happy glow suffused her face when she smiled at me. A tiny baby in her arms. She was so beautiful.

And I started to cry.

She's a childhood friend of mine, and her baby was born on the same day as my boys. As I listened to her telling me the birth story of her first child, I couldn't help being amazed at how motherhood brings women together. And thinking how much I've learned during the past 4 years. Watching her making the same mistakes I've made when Sean and Will were born, I smiled with candid affection for her. I wanted to tell her not to worry about breastfeeding, to rest as much as possible, to eat healthy, but how can you urge caution in the face of such unbridled joy?

So I just hugged her, rocked her son and kept telling her that her baby is going to gain weight very soon. "Eventually, you're going to figure out the answers to all your questions" I said inwardly. And I thought. I guess I'm not a new mom anymore.

Congratulations J and D! And welcome to the world T!

The other day my husband and daughter went to lunch together.

When she came home I asked how it was. "Daddy didn't embarrass you did he?"

She replied, confused, "Why would he embarrass me? He's just my dad."

I smirked to myself and at that point I made her repeat herself into a tape recorder. I also made her sign a document stating she could never imagine a day her father would embarrass her.

Because I guarantee at some point when she's 12-14 at least, she will in fact be mortified by her father on a near daily basis. I mean, isn't that the job of a preteen's parent? To cause them undue humiliation at every turn?

Then again, maybe she's right. I just can't imagine that those people in that picture over there could ever humiliate anyone.

With our older son, Nolan, we tried to solve boredom issues on car rides by creating fun playlists on my iPod. He loves singing along to his favorite tunes and it also entertains his little brother...untill little brother falls asleep. We also include a few audiobooks for dreadfully long rides. While listening to The Tales of Peter Rabbit keeps Nolan happy, our eyes start to get a little droopy about three chapters into the "book."

Blogger Tony Tam's four-year-old daughter, Kate, dislikes being in the car so much she frequently asks to take public transportation -  Bay Area Rapid Transit or BART - and Tony suspects it's because the two can interact more while riding the train.

Any tips for Tony on how to make car rides more fun for his daughter? One caveat - he's not a big fan of chatting while he's driving.

Camster Factor writes, "Amelia looking. Papa looking at Mama. Monkey looking."

I like how Amelia is looking from her mama's loving arms, at an image of her parents loving each other. This is a great shot for our (Very) Young Love month. Thank you for sharing it, Amelia!

For the few more days of February, we're still featuring images of the amazing love babies and children have for their families and for animals, foods, you name it. If you'd like your own child featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool - and please set them so they are downloadable. We'll select an image every day to highlight. Be sure to read the intro on the main Flickr page for more information.

I recently received an email from my friend, Kim Cole, letting me know she had finally reached the "grand opening" of her new business venture - Mom's Pizza Dough. Nearly three years ago when she was pregnant with her daughter, she came up with the idea to sell homemade, vegan pizza dough. After her daughter was born, Kim went on to handle  the formalities - the business plan, the logo, re-working her recipe, and navigating the very complicated path of getting clearance to sell homemade food. All while a stay-at-home mom.

I'm not trying to plug Kim's product (although it does taste fantastic). Mom's Pizza Dough isn't available online - you can only have the pleasure of tasting it if you happen to live in the Oakland area of California and can get yourself to the Montclair Farmer's Market. I share her story because watching Kim bring her business to life has been inspirational to me. When you become a parent it's so easy to put your personal dreams of starting your own business on hold indefinitely because you're consumed with motherhood or fatherhood. Or you're scared to take a risk because there's that little voice in the back of your head that speaks of parental and financial responsibilities now that you have a child (or children).

For me, Kim's effort is a constant reminder that says "go for it." And sometimes that's all you need to hear.

Tuesday night ... and time to get to know our wonderful parent bloggers who reside overseas.  Tonight, as we sail into the international blogosphere, we find:

• Midori of The Babe in Kyushu is Back (Japan) is bewitched;
• An Aussie Daddyblogger of Chocolate Makes It Better (Australia) is concerned about his child's latest fixation on with the word "boobs";
• Jonathan of Connaissances (France) introduces us to his daughter, Baby Courgette; and
• KatieK of Bosphorus Ramblings (Turkey) describes what it's like to be kissed by a horse.

Enjoy.

Oh, we've seen a lot of this sort of face in our house this week, so I can relate. Abigayle Grace, I'm so sorry you were feeling so bad. But I'm glad your mom sent us this classic photo.

It's (Very) Young Love month on Baby Image of the Day, featuring images of the amazing new love between your babies and family members (mom, dad, grandparents, siblings). Or in this case an image of a baby so not feeling the love. If you'd like your own child featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool - and please set them so they are downloadable. We'll select an image every day to highlight. Be sure to read the intro on the main Flickr page for more information.

This afternoon, as I was juicing dozens of limes (to make rum punch in preparation for Carnival, if you must know), my almost-2-year-old daughter tugged on my skirts.  "Up, please?"  she said.  "See de limes?"  Obviously, I couldn't hold her and juice the limes at the same time, so I pulled a chair from the dining room table next to me, so she could stand on it and watch.

Yeah.  I'm not going to be winning any safety awards anytime soon.

So anyway, while I was busy juicing the limes (and Alex was busy trying to juggle them), I remembered that somewhere I'd seen a stepladder built for kids for just this sort of purpose,  So after I finished making the rum punch (and pulled Alex down from the chair), I thought I'd do a little surfing to see what I could find.

Turns out I was thinking of The Learning Tower, by Little Partners.  This thing is great -- it has 4 sturdy side supports (minimizing the chance of your child falling out of it), can be used for children as young as toddler-age, and fits flush against most countertops.  It's exactly what I had in mind.

The problem?

It retails for US$149.95.

Surely there's a way to accomplish this, safely,  without spending that kind of money.  Any ideas?