Jumping Monkeys Episode 43: Parenting Teenagers

On today's episode we talk teens with Vanessa Van Petten, author and entreprenuer. Check out Vanessa's new wiki, Rrules. Also, Vanessa wants you to follow her on Twitter.

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SPEND: Cubes and Crayons

SAVE: Photoshop Express

GIVE: AMC Summer Movie Camp


AUDIBLE PICK: Robert McCloskey for Young Children

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:


HR Check-in from Merlin Mann on Vimeo. HR Check in by Merlin Mann


OTHER LINKS:

Greg of DaddyTypes interviews Scott Pankrat, the guy who crowd surfed his daughter to Obama

Teacher Tube


LISTENER FEEDBACK:

Dave tells us to check out Mabry Online.org, a school who's doing great Web 2.0 things online.
Lori's Manga site is called Manga Xanadu.

Dermabond: Part Deux

You are drinking wine with new friends and your kids and their kids are running around the house like crazy. You are shocked at how well this evening is going. This might be the first time, ever, that you've been over at someone else's house and been able to let the kids play on their own and not worry about anyone getting bitten. Your husband actually says this aloud to your new friends, which makes you cringe just a little. Why worry them? But they don't seem worried.

"They're boys," the new mom friend says. "Let them be boys." You love her instantly.

All five kids run upstairs from the basement playroom and chase each other through the living room, around the corner, and down a hall. You hear a scream, which is most definitely the scream of your child. You and your husband's eyes meet in that silent "you or me?" look. He's up first and goes around the corner.

"Ooh," he says. "Uh oh," he says, a little louder this time. His voice is light-hearted, but there's something in his tone that tells you that everything is not OK. You get up and meet him as he turns the corner. There is blood on your son's head and pouring down his cheeks. It's all over his shirt already and your husband's shirt. You watch as it drips on your new friends' hardwood floor.

You take your son from his arms, maybe more for you than for your son. If you're the one holding him then it can be someone else's responsibility to find out where the blood is coming from and to make it stop. Have I mentioned that you don't do well in stressful situations like this?

"He hit the corner of the wall. It's a small cut over his eyebrow," your husband says. "It's not bad, but it will need to be stitched up."

"OK. I'll take him to the emergency room," you say.

And you're off to the emergency room where the doctor looks at the cut.

By that time you are calm. The blood has stopped.

"Can you seal it up with Dermabond?" you ask the doctor.

"Yes, probably," the doctor says.

"Are you in medicine?" he asks, wondering how you know about Dermabond.

"No," you say, "He has a twin brother, who did almost this exact same thing last year."

After your son has been glued you return home where your husband has already put both of your other children to sleep. Your son might have a scar, which people who can't tell him from brother will appreciate. Plus, he has a good story. Days later he will delight in telling people, "There was blood coming out of my eyes!"

You? You're exhausted. So you sleep. It is a deep sleep, the sleep of the thankful, the sleep of a mother who knows how to appreciate the near miss, who knows that every mother does not return home from a trip to the emergency room with simply a small scar and a story. 

Jumping Monkeys Episode 42: The Rookie Moms

In this episode we interview Rookie Moms Heather and Whitney, who thankfully for us are not so rookie anymore. We talk about their new book, The Rookie Moms Handbook: 250 Activities to Do With (or Without) Your Baby. Listen to find out why your infant needs his or her own Gmail account.

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SPEND: The Cool Mom Picks Mother's Day Shopping Guide (Scroll down for the geek mom's section titled "For the Mother Who's Other Child is a Computer.") Cute laptop sleeves are also available at Target for cheap.
SAVE: Hulu.com
GIVE: Action Without Borders (Idealist.org)

BOOK PICK:

Pippi Longstocking audio book by Astrid Lindgren, read by Esther Benson.

Pippi Longstocking on Amazon

LISTENER FEEDBACK:
Dave from LA loves TuxPaint. Here's a picture of his BiKernel daughter.

Speaking of Tux, Deb in San Francisco recommends TuxMath.

Leo recommends Microsoft SyncToy.

April Showers

Belly Icing
Originally uploaded by jumping.monkeys

Birthday season is over at our house. Annabella turned 5 on April 7th and Milo and Huck turned 3 on April 14th.

There was lots of cake, a new scooter, a new bike, a doll named Gigi, summer dresses for every day of the week, toy airplanes, one big faux slumber party, several rounds of "happy birthday," and cookies to be made for 50 classmates. I say "to be made" because I didn't make them. Thanks, Mom and Allie.

And yes, this is a picture of Huck licking icing off of his belly.

More photos.

You Are Stupid

Most parents (myself included) have had the uncomfortable experience of hearing their children repeat undesirable four-letter words that the parent has accidentally said in their presence.

And as the mother of three children who love to play the name game and considering the fact that one of those children is named Huck ("Huck, Huck, Bo-Buck Banana, Fanna Fo...), we've had our fair share of accidental cursing too. This might have been avoided if only the name "Huck"had been included in Wikipedia's list of names that will result in profanity in the Name Game.

Each time one of my children have cursed I've somehow managed to remain calm and not bring attention to the word and the kids have moved on without incident.

But then about a month ago Huck turned to me out of nowhere and said, "You are stupid."

If Huck was looking to get a reaction out of me, he got one. A big one.

I looked at him, shocked and said, "Where did you learn that? We don't say that word. That's not nice. We do not say stupid. We do not say stupid. Never. Ever."

Since then he has used this word every day, several times a day. According to him, not only am I stupid, but his brother is stupid, his father is stupid, and his sister is especially stupid. Grilled cheese sandwiches are stupid and so are pajamas. The mailman, the stroller, a sippy cup of milk, and the big toe on his left foot are all very, very stupid. Kids at the park are stupid. Kids at school are stupid.

He also invents different forms of the word, including (but not limited to):

• Stupidy
• Stupidish
• Stupy, Stupy, Stupy, Stu

I try to be calm when I repeat, "Stupid is not nice." I try to explain that it makes people feel bad when he tells them that they're stupid. I've tried to give him alternatives, insisting that it is way more fun to replace "stupid" with any of the following:

• Silly Willikins
• Stupendous
• Weirdo

The only thing that seems to work, even a little bit, is to ignore him and wait for this phase to pass. At least he's not biting anymore.

Anyone been in this situation and have some advice that worked?

Jumping Monkeys Episode 41: One Media Player Per Teacher

Listen to our interview with Matt York of One Media Player Per Teacher, a non-profit organization devoted to helping educate the world's poorest billion people with the use of technology.

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SPEND: Pleo
SAVE: Save on a breast milk organizer (from Parent Hacks)

GIVE: Fair Trade Certified Flowers

AUDIBLE PICK: The Tales of Beatrix Potter

POLL
In reference to Brad Moon's post on Geek Dad.

Opinion Polls & Market Research

LISTENER FEEDBACK:

Corbett recommends the Math Tutor DVDs.

Brian Niles of PTA Tech Corner says to check out High School on We TV and the PBS documentary Growing Up Online. (You can watch the whole thing online.)

Erica from Chicago says homework should reinforce the skills taught in school. She also recommends Scratch. Also, here's the link to Mitchell Resnick's podcast.

Tiny Little Racist

We live in a town where not many African Americans live. In my opinion, that's the worst thing about living in most small towns. Our town is very white, but still the man who checked us out at Costco yesterday was not the first black person that nearly 5-year-old Annabella has ever seen.

It was, however, the first time she chose to loudly ask me, "Mommy, why does that man have brown skin?"

When she asked the question, I was already pushing the cart away and I didn't see if the checker heard and I didn't look back. But there were several people pushing their carts toward the exit with me and I could tell they were all listening intently to my somewhat fumbled response. Marco was pushing the boys in the other cart behind us and also letting me field this question on my own.

ME: He has brown skin for the same reason you have the color of skin that you have. Because you were born that way.

ANNABELLA: I would not want to be born with brown skin. Or black skin.

ME: Why not? Brown and black skin is pretty. Just like your skin is pretty.

(She thinks about this for a minute. This might have satisfied her, but it doesn't satisfy me so I continue for her benefit and maybe to convince the people walking next to us that I am not trying to raise a tiny little racist.)

ME: Next year you will probably have kids with brown skin in your kindergarten class. (Sadly, every member of her preschool class is now white.)

ANNABELLA: Really?

ME: Really?

ANNABELLA: Well, if that's true then I'm not going to be friends with them. Because I don't like people with brown skin.

ME: What?

(I think my mouth dropped open so wide that my bottom lip hit the grocery cart.)

ME: Why?

ANNABELLA: Because they have short hair.

ME: All people with brown skin don't have short hair. You know that book we have at home, Uncle Jed's Barbershop? The girl in that book has long hair. 

And that's about the time that Marco stopped laughing under his breath at my efforts to apply logic to what was clearly Annabella just being contrary for the sake of being contrary and stepped in to put his many years of school-sponsored diversity training to work. He explained that being friends with someone has nothing to do with what they look like. He pointed out that his skin was a lot darker than her skin and that her brothers' skin was even darker. Then he asked how she would feel if he didn't like her just because she had blue eyes.

Annabella considered this as we finished unloading the cart and strapped the kids into their car seats. 

I wanted an epiphany. I wanted her to announce, "You're so right. I love all people for who they are no matter what they look like." Instead we were in the car headed home and moving on to other things. 

First Family Vacation

It's not like we don't go places. We do. But most of those places are vacations we take to see people or vacations we take with family or friends. Last week we finally took our first family vacation all by ourselves. We rented a beach house in Castroville, CA (artichoke capital of the world) and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was five years in the making and it was worth it.

This is a video I took of some jellyfish, my favorite thing at the aquarium. It should be noted that Milo's favorite thing at the aquarium was the escalator. You can view the rest of the pictures here.