You may suspect that I avoid going to the doctor because I’m afraid of bad news. If so, you don’t know me very well. This is the girl who, upon completing her first Judy Blume book, insisted on a trip to the doctor to be checked for scoliosis. As it turned out, I did have a mild case and spent the next year or two or whatever being photographed half naked all in the name of science. That probably makes it sound worse than it was, but for an adolescent, it was hardly a high point. The truth is that I’m a proactive worrier. Maybe that’s called being a hypochondriac. Anyway, the point is… if something is wrong, I want to know what it is and what I do to fix it.

And then Bug came along. Before he was even born, he was dealing with specialists. We had additional ultrasounds, maternal-fetal specialist consultations, and quite a few trips to the ER. And after he was born, it was like "Parade of the –Ists." He had things you would never think about. He had things you’ve never heard of. I couldn’t even make this stuff up. Before he was one, he had seen (or was seeing) a dermatologist, opthamologist, physical therapist, psychologist (ok, maybe she was for me), allergist, and some sort of developmental expert. The kid had to have surgery on his tear ducts. And then I found out I was pregnant with LadyBug. At just a year later, I was considered "an older mom," resulting in extra tests and appointments. Plus, I had problems with that pregnancy, too, which added even more special attention. She had hearing loss. Sort of. And that meant repeated visits to the audiologist where I had to try to convince a squirmy infant to fall asleep with probes in her ears. You can imagine how well that went. And then she needed to see an orthopedist. Seriously. Later we added a urologist to the mix, as well as another developmental person. We’ve worked with an OT and a speech therapist, too. I just want to point out here that Bug is only six and, other than Bug’s food allergies, they’re pretty healthy kids.

I share all of this in part because it amuses me, but mainly to explain why I let my own doctor’s visits slide, even though I knew I shouldn’t have. I had a scare in the past, shortly after LadyBug was born and knew I should stay on top of it. I was simply tired of waiting rooms and insurance papers (yes, that IS my husband, even though we don’t have the same last name) and blood draws (UGH) and follow-up visits. The last medical abnormality we had just pushed me over the edge, I think. I stopped scheduling almost anything. My kids’ physicals are up-to-date, but did fall behind schedule (bah. physical, schmysical – certainly one of the 10 other doctors would have noticed if anything was wrong) and they haven’t even seen a dentist. Yeah, I know. I’m an awful mom and my kids’ teeth will fall out and they’ll hate me forever. But at least they’ll be alive, and hearing, and walking, and talking, and all of that. [Note: It's on my To-Do list, right after my own EKG]

Anyway. I called my doctor and asked for an appointment. "When do you want to come?" the receptionist asked. I wanted to answer "NOW" but managed to come up with a reasonable time and date. And then I stopped sleeping through the night because all I could do was worry. I had finally stopped worrying (for one brief moment) about my kids and started to worry about me, which was actually scarier, because I KNEW they were healthy. I also have to blame this partly on the Grey’s Anatomy marathon I’ve been taking part in, which has me imagining all of the many ways I could be dying and not even know. That and the heart palpitations, which I might blame on Grey’s Anatomy stress as well.

I met my doctor for the first time (long story) and gave her a long list of complaints and concerns. I updated my medical history with some scary new stuff. And then I waited for the bad news. As you can probably imagine, the news wasn’t that bad at the appointment. She didn’t find a tumor the size of a basketball or anything. I left the appointment with the longest laundry lists of tests and labs and yadda yadda yadda. Who knew that your 40th birthday was the day you suddenly became old? I’ve got an order for a Mammogram, Colonoscopy (joy), EKG, and a whole host of things involving blood and other bodily byproduct. Actually, the list is a bit freaky.

You might imagine that I’d be even more stressed as I wait for more tests and test results. Uhm, if so, you probably skipped the second paragraph. The truth is that I feel somewhat better. I’m anxiously hoping for good news across the board, but right now, I’m feeling more peaceful just for taking the step to know. There is power in knowledge.

I hope that you have been rolling your eyes at my sheer stupidity for not staying on top of each and every doctor visit. But if not, 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 the meantime, please send some good vibes my way…

No related posts.

I’m pleased to be co-hosting a chat today with Dr. James Anderson, author of The Simple Diet: A Doctor’s Science-Based Plan. He’s going to talk about losing weight in a budget-friendly way. I’m interested to know what he has to say. If you are, too, please join me for a short (30 minute chat) on The Motherhood. Details below:

When: Thursday, Jan. 19, at 1 p.m. ET.  We will chat for 30 minutes.

Where: On The Motherhood, right here – http://www.themotherhood.com/talk/show?id=62336

Who: Dr. James Anderson, author of The Simple Diet, will be hosting the live chat. I’ll be co-hosting along with:

• Brett, This Mama Loves Her Bargains
• Rachael, Empowering Mommy
• Nicole, SAHM Reviews
• Jenn, SuperJenn

You’ll also have the chance to win one of five copies of Dr. Anderson’s book!

Disclosure: I am being compensated to participate and promote this chat. There is no promise of a positive review and the opinions contained in this post are my own.

No related posts.

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.

No related posts.

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…

Related posts:

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

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!

Related posts:

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.

Related posts:

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

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

No related posts.

Yeah, that's Mel on the ground re-enacting the birth of MY kids!

I know a lot of people scoff at relationships that are built via the Internet. But the fact is that I met my husband online, so I know that it’s a perfectly valid way of connecting with people who might not be in your geographic area, don’t enjoy hanging out at bars in clubs, or have other commitments that keep them from meeting people outside of their immediate circles. It’s not just a way to meet a potential love match; it’s a great way to make new friends.

I met Melanie (TheCouponGoddess) at a Stop & Shop event, but I didn’t really connect with her there. A few weeks later, we hosted our first Boston Parent Bloggers roundtable and Melanie was one of the bloggers included. Even though she didn’t know me very well, she took the time to contact me after the event to discuss something I had said. It was the beginning of an unlikely, but really great friendship. We disagree on politics, religion, and a host of other hot-button topics, but it doesn’t really matter. She’s a great friend when it comes right down to it and I feel very lucky to have met her.

Last night, Melanie was nearly taken from us. As Melanie was walking with her son, a driver came around a corner, wasn’t watching the road, and plowed into her at 30 miles an hour. They don’t even think the driver hit her brakes. It may sound strange to say that Melanie was lucky, but it’s true. A 30 mph car crash can be fatal; being hit directly by a car at that speed is serious stuff. She has a broken bone in her hand, broken finger, ruptured bladder, and multiple pelvic fractures. She’s also got a fracture in one vertebrae. Obviously, she’s also got a variety of cuts and bruises. And yet, somehow, she was able to joke with us last night, share gossip and take about the future.

Melanie has a long, long recovery ahead. She’s got surgery and months (at least) of physical and occupational therapy. With four kids, this is going to be an incredible challenge, but she’s also fortunate to have a lot of people who love her, many of whom she met online. I know she’s going to be OK. She’s strong, and strong-willed, and she’s got the drive to be successful.

You’ll no doubt hear this message from me again, but I implore everyone to simply keep your eyes on the road. It may seem like you’re just looking away for a moment as you reach for your phone and cup of coffee, or to change a radio station, but that’s really all it takes for an accident. And, unlike being under the influence, it’s not a matter of your response being delayed. You can’t respond to an obstacle you never even see.

Related posts:

1. BlogHer09 – On the Road