Top Secret

Reading past posts, I've come to realize that the posts about Amanda are few and far between. Like any parent who is very aware about trying to be fair and evenhanded, I now feel the need to defend my apparent lack of "blog love" for her.

Amanda has reached the age where she now realizes that there is lots of interesting information on the computer. I often feel a presence lurking over my shoulder as I waste time checking mail and looking at Facebook. The other day she startled me as I was looking up important information at http://tmz.com by asking, "Mom, why do you need to know about Celebrity Gossip?!" Ack! Outed. And to the utter dismay of Dave, the other day we noticed in our browsing history that "someone", someone who is 8 years old and too young to care, had Googled the name of a boy in third grade!

Since being 8 years old is all about being "cool", I have to be very careful about what I post about her lest her "coolness quotient" decline. God forbid one of her classmates read my blog (like they even care, since I never once talk about anything important like www.justinbiebermusic.com). So, I write this post while furtively looking over my shoulder...hoping that my secret isn't found out!

Pick Me! Pick Me!

Alison recently celebrated her 5th birthday. Among the loot she amassed were a few gift cards. Today I took her to Toys R Us to redeem one of those cards. We walked aisle, by aisle so she could decide what to spend her dough on. We walked through the princess aisle...no interest. We walked through the Barbie aisle...no interest. We walked through the Hello Kitty aisle, doll aisle, Lego aisle, and craft aisle...no interest. Finally, as we looped around the store she found just what she always wanted...

Yes, she picked the "Ned's Head" game. A fun, family game where you shove your hands into Ned's facial orifices to find all sorts of assorted goodies like stinky cheese and barf! I'm sure the parents of the child who gave us that gift card would approve.