Dr. Susan Niebur, also known to her social media friends as WhyMommy, is one of those people I grew to care about. I did meet her once in person, but mainly know her from her activities online. She blogged at Toddler Planet about her family and, more increasingly, her own health. When I learned that she passed away yesterday, I was heartbroken. She had been fighting inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) for nearly five years and they had recently brought in hospice. I knew it was just a matter of time, but I guess you’re never really prepared for this sort of thing. My heart goes out to her husband and two young kids, who are very close in age to my own children.

The truth is that there are other bloggers who knew Susan better than I did. I’ve decided to leave the loving tributes to them and instead, pass along Susan’s message. In addition to being a wife and mother, Susan was an astrophysicist, activist, and crusader against IBC.  Since Inflammatory Breast Cancer isn’t discussed very often, I want to share it with readers and ask you to pass the information along. You could save a life. I’m sure that Susan has saved, or at least prolonged, numerous lives through her honest blogging and tireless community education.

We have always been taught to search for a lump in the breast, but Inflammatory Breast Cancer doesn’t always present as a lump. Instead, it can cause a redness, pain, heat, swelling, pitting (similar to the skin of an orange) and inverted nipples. It often presents in younger woman than other breast cancers and is highly aggressive. It can quickly spread to other organs. Susan had a wonderful IBC page with basic info, as well as links to other sources for information. Please take a moment to read more.

Susan’s message was a simple one. If you see any changes in your breast, if anything seems “not quite right,” get it checked out. She was diagnosed in June, 2007. According to her website, only 25-50% of women diagnosed with IBC live past 5 years. You may have seen my recent post about catching up on my own health concerns, and I want to reiterate how important it is to take care of yourself. I’ll repeat what I said there:

…please take a moment to make the call for yourself. Call your doctor. Call a local clinic. Just call and get yourself checked out. It is scary to think that something might be wrong. On the other hand, if you can stay on top of your health, you significantly increase their ability to fix anything that does go wrong.

In honor of Susan, please share information about IBC with your friends.

Related posts:

1. Stamp Out Breast Cancer with Martha Stewart & Ford Cares
2. The Perfect Man? A Toy Fair Love Story

Having worked for some (very) small non-profits, I can attest first-hand to the kind of impact a smaller donation can make on their ability to further their mission. That “every bit helps” mentality is part of the impetus behind an innovative new online bank, ableBanking. ableBanking isn’t open yet, but their plan is to offer customers better interest rates, smaller account minimums, and the opportunity to help out a local charitable organization of their choice just by signing up. To help kick things off, ableBanking is asking you to nominate your favorite Massachusetts 501c3 charity to be eligible for a $1000 gift. The top five nominated organizations will win.

You may not be familiar with online banking, but ableBanking will provide savings accounts (Money Market and CD) for consumers. Because they have no brick-and-mortar establishments to maintain, and due to their commitment on using marketing dollars for good rather than simple self-promotion, they will be able to donate $25 for each account opened to the account holder’s choice of charity. On top of that, on the account-holder’s anniversary with the bank, ableBanking will donate an additional 0.25% of their average balance to a charity of choice. It doesn’t cost you anything. If the math is making your head swim, here’s an excerpt from ableBanking’s website:

You won’t see big ableBanking billboards, or signs in stadiums, or tv ads. Instead, with our customers, we are going to redirect significant corporate dollars to help our communities. How much? Approximately $2.5 million for every $1 billion in deposits in our bank will go to charities. If you’re interested in the math, if a community bank has $10 billion in deposits (and many do), then our customers would be giving $25 million to charities each year – and they’d STILL be getting much better rates than traditional banks offer.

If you’re wondering what the catch is, you’re not alone. I thought the same thing. But the cool thing is that there is no catch. The idea is that consumers should be excited about their bank, and thrilled to be able to support local organizations. That’s it. Instead of ads, ableBanking hopes word of mouth will spread organically because of the benefits. In fact, your organization may choose to have a fundraiser by encouraging people to sign up with ableBanking and taking in the $25 per person donation. ableBanking has already partnered with 6 local organizations (Rosie’s Place, Greater Boston Food Bank, MSPC-Angell, Teach for America, JVS Boston, and Boston Children’s Chorus) to help tell their stories. You can learn more about each of these partner organizations as well as ableBanking through some wonderful videos on their YouTube channel.

If you’re not quite ready to move your savings account over, that’s OK. ableBanking isn’t quite ready for you to do that, either. Instead, they’re asking for something simple. Head over to the ableGiving site and take just a minute to nominate a local organization. Tell your friends to do the same. The 5 groups that receive the most nominations by January 31, 2012, will win a $1000 grant from ableBanking. It’s super easy. If you’re concerned about entering in your email address, ableBanking has assured us that they won’t be spamming you every other day. They will let you know when they launch, at which point you can feel free to unsubscribe if you’d like.

Nominations are open to all 501c3 non-profits who serve Massachusetts communities. One nomination per person, please!

Disclosure: I am being compensated by ableBanking to help spread the facts about this kick-off program. The opinions contained in this post are my own.

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I thought we left the house with plenty of time, but traffic getting into the parking garage was sloooow. By the time we got inside, picked up our tickets, and made our way to our seats, the opening music was starting. I zipped out to pick up food because there is no bigger disaster for LadyBug than to be underfed. Plus, she lives for popcorn. In all of the hurry, I dropped the ball as a mom. It was the day after a very busy Christmas. We didn’t arrive early enough for the kids to acclimate. I didn’t bring earplugs or a hat or anything for Bug. I had no idea where our seats would be and I simply didn’t prepare. And then I left right as the fanfare began.  By the time I got back, Bug was curled up in his aunt’s lap and tears were still streaming down his face. In the midst of my attempt to have a fun day with the kids, I managed a big parenting fail.

The show itself was wonderful, at least what I saw of it. It was a celebration of Disney animation from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (or the “Seven Doors” according to Bug when he was younger) all the way to the 50th animated feature, Tangled. There were so many different characters… Peter Pan, the Tick-Tock Croc, Captain Hook, Smee, Tiana, Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, Simba, Nala, Scar, Rafiki, Jasmine, Aladdin, the Genie, Tinker Bell… and the list goes on. There was flying, stunts, humor, music, and plenty of magical surprises. LadyBug was captivated. She couldn’t take her eyes off the ice and the look on her face when Tinkerbell arrived was priceless. She would have stayed all day. If you have the chance to see this show, I highly recommend it. It was one of my favorites.

I’d like to say that Bug recovered, but that’s not really the case. He had dealt with a stomach bug the week before and his stomach was hurting him off and on throughout the holiday. He wasn’t really sick, but I think all of the excitement and anxiety and running around was keeping him from getting back to 100%. That, combined with the noise (or perhaps it was caused by the noise) really kept him from really enjoying himself. It’s too bad, because  I think he otherwise would have loved it.

We’ve been invited to Disney On Ice presents Dare to Dream over February break. I, of course, wouldn’t miss it. But this time, I’ll be armed with earplugs for my little guy who apparently hasn’t totally outgrown his sound sensitivity. Then again, I have threatened to bump him for one of his female cousins since he complained loudest over the princesses…

P.S. I’ll have a giveaway coming up for that very, very soon!

Disclosure: We received complimentary tickets to Disney On Ice Presents Treasure Trove for review purposes. There was no promise of a positive review and the opinions contained in this post are my own.

Related posts:

1. You are NOT the Fun Police
2. Jiko – Grown-Up Food at Disney World
3. It’s a Small World and Family Dynamics

In the past, my focus has been on building my reputation as a freelance writer. There wasn’t any kind of specific milestone I was aiming for, but I knew I’d know when I got there. And I did. I’m not finished with my pursuits in that area, but I had gone far enough along that path that it no longer needed single-minded determination. I was free to open myself up to new opportunities and pursuits. I love when that happens!

This past year, I had some vague, but important goals for myself. Early on in 2011, I was feeling solid as a freelancer (or at least as solid as I can be until my kids are both in school full-time!). I actually wanted to be able to focus more on being a blogger. The problem was that freelancing was (and continues to be) my primary source of income. Blogging does bring in some money, but it hasn’t been as consistent or lucrative. And then it happened. All hell broke loose in my freelance world. All of a sudden, I was sliding backwards and it was not a good feeling. Several of my highest paying gigs started to dry up. I took that as a sign, but I wasn’t entirely sure of what.

Right around my 40th birthday in April, things started to happen. Good things, one after another. And most of them came from my blog. I had been toying around with an idea, but that’s when it really started to take root. I was going to need to take another leap of faith. The last big one was when I left my job back in 2005 with an at-risk pregnancy and the idea that I might be a stay-at-home mom. I waffled and waffled, afraid to take that final step. And then something else happened to force my hand. Without going into too much detail, I decided to leave About.com after building the Family Computing site for four years. It was my largest individual source of income and the decision was emotional and scary.

And that’s when I launched Quirky-Tech. I’m still building it up, but I’m so thankful to have it in my blogging family. Launching a tech blog on my own without the backing of the About.com/NY Times name was daunting. I had been building contacts for years and was afraid that I’d have to start from scratch and build a whole new reputation. Luckily, that has not been the case. My prior contacts are, for the most part, still happy to be working with me. Even better, bigger, cooler things have been happening both in front of the metaphorical camera and behind. I have not regretted the move for a single moment. Better still, my income has increased, which is what happens when you are clearly in love and passionate about what you’re doing.

So, here we are in 2012. I’ve already made another little leap of faith to start off the year and I’m anticipating many more. Heck, I’m a bit of a risk taker. I haven’t quite solidified my concrete goals for the year, but I am ready to put some resolutions on the table. There are some personal and some professional, but the way my job goes, they are closely intertwined…

• Focus on creating a healthier lifestyle for myself, and my family. I know that some lifestyle coaching expert will look at this and say that I need something concrete to measure it by. No, I don’t. Healthier is healthier.
• Strengthen prior relationships. As someone who relies on page views, freelance assignments, and contractual gigs, relationship building is of utmost importance. That said, it’s even more important to maintain the relationships you already have. That’s something I need (and want) to put energy into this year.
• Get more organized. This is a life-long struggle for me. Anyone who knows me very well is probably nodding right about now. I am not going to BE organized by the end of this year, but I want to make some positive strides in that direction. Big Guy, if you’re reading this, feel free to hold me to this one!
• Regroup and re-focus. I have some decisions to make about what direction I want to take, especially in terms of blogging. I’m not sure I want to be a “big blogger.” I think I kind of like being a smaller blogger with a strong resume. We’ll see!
• Get on top of my finances. I’m awful at this, so it’s an important area of focus for me.
• Travel. This is a vague, out-there goal, but I want to travel more with my family. One little step is to make sure we all have passports and are ready to go if the opportunity arises.

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CES 2011 in Vegas… Danny Gokey Concert

A LOT of Snow

Trip to Disney as the Traveling Mom Food Allergies Blogger

A new room for my girly little girl

A 40th Birthday! (Yikes)

A trip to NOLA for the Mom 2.0 Conference (Thanks, Microsoft!)

Lots of baking…

Forward with Ford

Visit to GE with the lovely Charlene

Family travel

More family travel

And more…

BlogHer San Diego (with some of my favorite Boston Parent Bloggers)

Bug’s First Day of Kindergarten

A Hurricane (yeah, this is the only picture I got!)

Big Guy Turns 40 (Bug turns 6)

Freak October Snowstorm (haven’t really had any snow since…)

A visit with Walter Wick

Gaming with PlayStation Family

Happy, albeit sick, holiday season…

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1. Halloween 2011
2. The Sweetest of Parenting Moments
3. New School Year Adventures

Me: When your baby teeth fall out, you’ll put them under your pillow and then the Tooth Fairy will come. She takes the teeth and leaves money.

LadyBug: Where does the Tooth Fairy put the teeth?

Me: She brings them to Fairyland…

Bug: There’s no such thing as Fairyland!

And here, as I’m scrambling to get around this apparent truth, something unexpected happens.

Bug: She must take the teeth to Tooth Town!

Huh? Tooth Town? And with that, my son apparently decides that my version of the story makes no sense, but the version that he has simply conjured out of thin air is the stone-cold truth. LadyBug is easily swayed, and their now private conversation continues with all of the little-known information about Tooth Town. Honestly, I was so baffled by the turn of the events that I can’t remember anything about it, other than the baby teeth get to join all of the other teeth that were already living there.

Sound like a happy place. Maybe I’ll head on over to Tooth Town…

Related posts:

1. Ptchou! Ptchou!
2. The Littlest Birds Sing the Prettiest Songs
3. In Which LadyBug Turns Two

I am thrilled to officially announce my new role as a PlayStation Family Ambassador. We have been a PlayStation family for quite some time now and it is by far our favorite gaming platform. When I was asked to come on board, I didn’t need to think twice. Ambassadors have been given access to a PlayStation 3 with Move, and will be checking out new games as they come out.

As the first step of the process, we were invited out to Foster City to meet with PlayStation execs, tour the facilities and have some time to get to know each other a bit better.

We had some time to chat with Jack Tretton, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment of America. He gave us a fascinating overview of how he came to Sony and how his path paralleled the growth and progression of gaming in America.

The thing that I was most excited to check out was the new PlayStation Vita. It has a 5-inch OLED screen, front and rear cameras, front and rear touch panels, and dual analog sticks. I can’t even begin to describe how gorgeous the graphics are on this handheld. In addition, you’ll be able to some of the same top-end games from your PS3 on your PS Vita. The PS Vita will also have social networking apps, so you can stay in touch. There will be a Wi-Fi version and a 3G/Wi-Fi version. If you’re familiar with some of the augmented reality-type games on the Nintendo 3DS, you’ll be able to experience that with the PS Vita, as well.

As you can probably expect, I had a lot of questions about PlayStation Move and its application in educational environments. I know the possibilities are there, but I haven’t seen a lot from PlayStation about their vision in that area. I got some good feedback around that and am hoping to be able to share a little more on progressive uses of that equipment in the near future.

They also took us on a super-secret tour, but if I told you about that I’d have to kill you and that wouldn’t be all that productive for me. Suffice to say that we had a chance to talk to some folks who make the games the wonderful experiences we often take for granted. Honestly, it was a dream come true for a gamer and PlayStation fan like me.

So, most of my reviews and content around PlayStation will end up on Quirky-Tech, but I will cross-post some back here as well.

Disclaimer: Sony paid for my travel and lodging and provided some PlayStation products for our use. There was no promise of a positive review and no additional compensation. The opinions contained in this post are my own.

Related posts:

1. Gamewright = Great Games for Family Game Night
2. 2011… a Year in Pictures
3. FlipOut–A Family Game Review

We have a few big philosophies, but these in particular stand out:

1. Giving girls the space to be what they want without pressure to do “girl” things. Ah, nature vs. nurture. Do girls like pink and purple because of genetics, or because everyone behaves like it’s a foregone conclusion? Do they play with dolls and favor social play because they have learned to do so from the people in their lives? I think it’s a little of both, but it was important to me to create a space where my daughter could choose her own path. We shied away from the pale pink and purple clothes that many purchase exclusively. We went instead with neutral pastels and bold colors like turquoise, plum, and red. We made sure she had equal access to blocks and cars as to dolls and and play kitchens. It’s challenging, quite honestly, because many family and friends around us still believe that girls prefer dolls over trucks. They give her everything “girly,” while Bug gets all of the engineering toys. I believe that sends a message to both of my children about what they should like and what their roles should be.

2. Guns. I am not a violent person and I don’t believe that violence is generally the best solution to any problem. Big Guy and I have struggled a bit more with this particular area. Not that my husband believes in guns or violence either, but we’re gamers and sci-fi fans, and weaponry plays a role in our hobbies. We both fondly remember Star Wars from our own childhoods and wanted to share them movies with our own kids. But it’s a slippery slope. Is a light saber a gun? Yeah, kind of. And I’m sure my husband thought I was a lunatic when I was furious with him for purchasing a Toy Story 3 Lego set with green army men. Once Bug started school, it became virtually impossible to avoid the influence of guns and a battle culture, even if we hadn’t been great about dealing with it in the first place. This past Halloween, Bug decided to go as a Clone Trooper (they were good guys before they became Storm Troopers). And when I balked about getting him a toy blaster, he counseled me, “It’s just a piece of plastic that makes noise. It’s not REAL.” This is where I had to make a choice. Do I blindly hold onto this rule, or do I make an occasional exception, but use it as a chance to talk more with my kids about the subject. I went with the latter, although it’s an uneasy decision for me. Still, Bug reminds me frequently that his battle play is pretend, while I continue to request less violent games. Lady Bug is younger and it’s hard to tell what she understands and what she doesn’t. This makes the whole situation far more complicated.

There are plenty of other decisions we have made as parents that are the same as some families and different than others. It’s not about right or wrong; it’s about making the choices that we feel comfortable with and that seem best for our family.

That brings us to today. LadyBug is making out her Christmas wish list and it has two items on it. The first is a My Little Pony play set with a slide. For the record, Hasbro doesn’t currently make any. The second? A pink and purple gun. And it is those minutes of parenthood in which you know, without any doubt whatsoever, that you have failed your children.

The good news? Guns are not typically girly, so there aren’t many toy gun options in pink and purple. Sadly, there are more pink toy guns in production than My Little Pony slides. LadyBug is going to have to come up with a new list and I have a whole new parenting challenge ahead. How do I explain that Santa doesn’t really make either of those toys?

Related posts:

1. Sugar and Spice and Everything Pink
2. A Pink Scarf – Challenging Gender Stereotypes
3. Play Ball

If you had asked me early last week to name one person, alive or dead, that I’d like to have lunch with, I would have answered Walt Disney without hesitation. But today my answer might be different. Today my answer might involve a spot that is a cross between Santa’s workshop and Disney’s studio. It might involve people who have jobs that are creative and fun, and that bring a lot of joy to others.

Walter Wick may not be quite the same household name as Walt Disney, but if you’ve got kids, you’re probably familiar with his work. He’s best known for the I Spy photography and the Can You See What I See? book series. Last week, I was invited by Scholastic to meet with Walter and his staff at his studio. The event was in celebration of Walter’s latest book, Can You See What I See?: Toyland Express, which tells the story of a wooden train set as it is played with, grows old, is discarded, and then is given new life. The story is told, of course, entirely through the pictures that make up the object-find puzzles.

I have always been intrigued by the details in Walter’s photography. In fact, long before I picked up an I Spy book, I was solving his visual puzzles in the pages of Games Magazine. I like looking through the images and finding strange and interesting objects and I like the way the collections of items come together to create a whole picture or story. When we entered the studio, we were surrounded by sets from the next book in line and had the chance to look closely at the details and elements in person. I was like a kid in a candy shop; all of those miniature items brought me back to the days of playing with my dollhouse!

We were joined by several people on Walter’s team, including his wife, Linda, who is also his business manager. She has decorated the studio with an amazing art collection. We also learned that she has a fondness for unique wind-up toys. She also has a knack for displaying lots of small objects throughout a space without it feeling cluttered. I could use some tips on that.

I also got some time chat with one of the freelance artists, Randy Gilman, who does much of the custom work for the books, including the actual train in Toyland Express. He shared some wonderful stories about being creative and nimble with their ideas. For example, his garage was falling apart, so he brought in some pieces to use in the attic in Toyland Express. They needed more pieces and more pieces. Finally, Walter asked him if his garage had turned into a carport. Randy comes from an artistic family, apparently, as one brother owns a prominent prop house and the other is an Imagineer (see the Disney connection?). I was simply amazed at the sort of things they just “whip up” on demand in the studio.

I could go on and on about my experience at the Wick Studio, but I’ll leave you here with a few more pictures. I’ve got a couple more posts on the subject, so I can’t reveal all of my secrets here!

A bedroom fit for a princess:

Experimenting with 3D printing:

I don’t know what these are, but they’re made out of tickets and they look cool:

Glass props:

A bottle waiting for ship…

Who doesn’t love a hedgehog?

Even the bathroom is fun:

Disclosure: While this is not a compensated post, Scholastic provided travel and meals for the day, and treated me to an absolutely magical experience. We also got to take home a few books which will delight my kids come Christmas day!

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1. Wordless Wednesday–A Perfect Way to Spend a Day
2. Mom and Son Journey to NYC – Taking on the Big Apple, Quirky Style
3. A Twitterific Journey

Just a hint of how I spent my day… more to come.

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1. Can Someone Please Get Me a Coke? One Perfect Moment – Following Polly
2. Wordless Wednesday–Quack!
3. Wordless Wednesday–One of My Favorite Things of Summer