The Temperament Specialist

Last month I mentioned that I had an appointment with a temperament specialist because of Milo and Huck's biting behaviors. Someone commented that I didn't say whether the temperament specialist gave me any practical advice to stop the biting.

The answer is yes and no. She gave me lots of what I can only assume is practical advice in the form of a ream of paper handouts on different aspects of my children's personality. "I'm giving you a lot of homework!" she laughed. Even as she was handing over this stack of trees I think she and I both knew that I was not going to sit down and read those pages.

First, I should probably explain how temperament specialists work.

·       You fill out a long survey about your child's behavior.

·       You fill out a long survey about your impressions of your child's behavior.

·       You send in the forms and wait for several months while you agonize about how you were so distracted by your children when you were filling out the surveys that your answers are probably going to cause some expert to diagnose your child as having ADD.

The appointment, when it finally came, was without the boys. It was based solely on my answers to these questions (measured on a scale with other people's answers to these questions.) I believe in the power of numbers, but it's a little disconcerting to have someone who's never met my children say all kinds of things about them. Some of these things were true --"Your children are highly spirited." Some of them were not true--"Your children bite and hit because someone is invading their personal space." Huck is most likely to hit a baby strapped in a car seat or any other child who is ignoring him. He's so used to having his brother and sister up in his grill, that he hits when someone is not.

I am not an expert in temperament parenting, and if you are please use the comment section or my e-mail to correct me. Temperament specialists believe that children are born a certain way and although there's nothing you can do to change that temperament, you can change the way you react to certain behaviors. If you want to know more, search Google for "temperament parenting." I'm not going to say that I totally buy into this, just like I don't totally buy into attachment parenting or sleep-training, or any of the other parenting techniques that are slightly patronizing and always designed by someone who has never met my children.

Here's the good news. Both the biting and the hitting have miraculously waned. It's been weeks since either of the boys bit anyone (besides each other). And their biting of each other is now limited to one or two nibbles a day (coupled with some eye poking and face pinching.) How did this happen? They just grew out of it. This has been the case for every parenting challenge I've had in the past 4 years. You'd think by now I would have learned to wait it out. But as in most things, isn't "this too shall pass" just about the hardest pill to swallow?

Water Wasters

I apologize to my great grandchildren for all the water we wasted in order to capture this video.

Wikipedia notability

I was recently listening to the NPR Technology podcast (worth subscribing to, if you're a lapsed geek like me) when I came upon an interview with Slate Columnist Timothy Noah about his Wikipedia entry. Apparently Noah recently noticed that his bio on the online encyclopedia was labeled as a "topic of unclear importance" and subject to deletion.

This got me thinking about my own Wikipedia entry, which I did not create, have never edited, and is often the source of much amusement among my friends and co-workers who never watched TechTV. This also got me wondering about the people who created the entry and continue to edit it. Anyone can find this information by clicking the history tab on most entries. I did this and what I found out was kinda disturbing, in that "too much information" kinda way. For example, one user went directly from editing my bio to editing the Wikipedia entry on "fake orgasm."

Of course it also got me wondering why I wasn't marked for deletion. From the NPR interview, the best that I can guess is that I haven't been evicted yet because the eviction police haven't found me yet. Noah makes the argument that the very nature of the Web makes it unecesary to limit entries in Wikipedia, but I have to disagree. I'm not saying that I want to be deleted, but if someone decides I'm of unclear importance, I'm willing to accept that. It will simply make me want to do something of more clear importance.

Gifts for Two Year Old Boys

I wanted to thank everyone for your birthday present suggestions for Milo and Huck. We gave them a Little Tykes Picnic Table, Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever, and the Melissa and Doug Easel.

I really wanted to get Milo the vacuum that's shaped like a cow that Nikki recommended, but to avoid endless fighting I would have had to buy two of them. The other gifts have sharing capabilities built-in, which I prefer to buying two of the same thing.

The only unique things the boys have that are truly their own are their uglydolls that their grandparents gave them for Christmas. (Ox belongs to Huck and Wedgehead to Milo.) Everything else they just have to share.

I know parents who have different theories on this. If you're a parent of twins or kids close in age do you prefer to buy two identical gifts, two different gifts, or one gift to share?

Gadget Review: Nike + iPod Sport Kit

I might have told you that I'm a runner. Last Fall I ran the Nike Half Marathon and this summer I'm running the Napa Half Marathon. I recently got the Nike + iPod Sport Kid, a little gadget that you put in your shoe to track your speed, distance, and pace and send the information through your headphones to be announced by a pleasant male or female voice.

I don't really like Nike shoes (I'm a New Balance girl, myself), so I wasn't psyched about buying the special Nike + iPod shoes that fit the sensor. But with a quick Google search I learned that there are several shoe hacks that will allow you to use the sensor with any pair of shoes. I chose the Grantwood Shoe Pouch because it was the first one I found and because at $5.99 (the price has since gone up to $7.99) I didn't have much to lose. The product arrived right away, the customer service was excellent, and it works like a charm.

I wish I could say I'm as happy with the Sport Kit. But let's start with the good parts about it:

• I love being able to track my distance, speed, and pace. Before that I was using the USATF site to plan routes and that took a lot of time. 
• I love being able to track my workouts at Nike Plus.
• I love it when Lance Armstrong comes on to tell me that I've beat my personal best for the mile. I think he has a crush on me.

What I don't like is:

• I don't like having to plug the receiver into my iPod because then my iPod no longer fits in my armband. (This can easily be solved by buying an armband from Nike, but I don't feel like it. Instead my kludge is to leave my armband unfastened and turn my Nano upside down.)
• I'm not very good at keeping track of the receiver. (This could easily be solved by putting it in the same place everytime I take it out, but since I don't do that with my keys, cell phone, or wallet what makes me think I'm going to do it with the receiver?)
• My Nano never froze before I started using the Nike + iPod kit. Now it freezes once a week.
• If you're doing a time workout your iPod will automatically announce your time at certain intervals and if you're doing a distance workout it will automatically announce the amount of miles you've run, but I can't figure out how to make it automatically announce my pace. I don't like having to press the center button to find out. Does anyone know how to make it do this?

Price: $29 

Milo and Huck in Motion

Gifts for a 4 year old

Last month I asked for recommendations on what to get my kids for their birthdays. I got so many great suggestions, so thank you.

For Annabella we took Laura's suggestion and downloaded Coppelia from iTunes, which has been a big hit and is all part of my master plan to steer Annabella away from the Disney princesses and toward a more generic ballerina. To that end, we also got her the new tutu she's wearing in this picture.

But so far Annabella's favorite gift is one we didn't even buy her. (Isn't that always the case?) After I posted this blog entry, I received an e-mail from Jens Hewerer offering me press copies of Kiddio's Audio Adventures on CD. I accepted his kind offer and gave the CDs to Annabella for her birthday. Each CD contains 1 adventure with Billy Brown (a bear) and his friend Emma. Annabella is addicted to them, which is fine by me because they're fun and they teach little lessons like working together or the importance of sharing.

Selfishly, I love Billy Brown because he, unlike anything else, has managed to keep Annabella in her room at bedtime. She's had trouble falling asleep since we transitioned to a bed almost three years ago. But we put on a little Billy Brown and she's in there for good. 

Each CD is $10.99, but you can save $5 by buying all three. You can also listen to tracks at Billy Brown's MySpace page.   

protecting her daddy

Annabella: See this street we're crossing right now? The other day when daddy was walking me to school there was a woman who didn't even stop at that stop sign.

Me: Really?

Annabella: Yes, really. She just went right through and didn't even see us.

Me: What did daddy do?

Annabella: He yelled at her really loudly, even though she was too far away to hear.

Me: What did he yell?

Annabella: I don't think I should tell you.

More cotton candy and hot dogs!

There's an interesting opinion piece in this month's Newsweek about how our parent fears could be more dangerous than the things we actually fear (old playground equipment, unrefined sugar, summer.)

I especially enjoyed the reference to an Australian study about how playground injuries are on the rise, despite extensive safety improvements.

"One of the suspected reasons: the safe new play structures are so boring that kids are taking more risks in order to have fun."

This really spoke to me since I'm afraid of just about everything. So, last night we decided to be fearless and make brownies an hour before bedtime.

We even licked the bowl.

Link to article.

Jumping Monkeys: The Podcast

Shortly after giving birth to Milo and Huck in April of 2005 I remember Leo and his family coming over for a visit. Leo admired my fat, screamy little boys and then started talking about something called a podcast.

I was sleep-deprived and exhausted, juggling two newborns and a toddler in a haze of hormones and breastmilk. I tried very hard to pay attention to what he was talking about, but only caught snippets of it-- "creating a new network," "all our friends from TechTV," "you should be on."

This was my second go round at pregnancy and childbirth, so I was already familiar with that particular postpartum feeling that sneaks into your brain when someone starts to talk about the work you did before you had a child. It feels incongruous, not at all related to your life as a mom. And yet it's also incredibly appealing, like a shiny thing that's just out of reach.

Two years later I finally had the time to get back to Leo about this new podcasting thing he was talking about. As you probably know, Leo is now one of the reigning kings of podcasting so I was thrilled when he was willing to create a new podcast with me. It's going to be geared towards geek parents and we're poised to launch very soon.

Our content will focus on technology for moms and dads. We'll interview cool parents who are doing exciting things with technology. Plus, we'll talk about the latest gadgets for parents, ways to use the Web to save money, and how to use our geekiness to be socially responsible. Our ultimate goal is to create a community of parents or grandparents of kids any age who can share their ideas on the podcast through voicemails, e-mails, and on our Web site.

Let me know what you think  by commenting below or by e-mailing me at megan@twit.tv. And be sure to stay tuned to this space for more information.