This is not, nor ever will it be, a typical blog about how my baby is going to Kindergarten and OMG I am crying and getting old and taking 200 pictures until my memory stick is full and my facebook friends and email lists are going to be sick of the albums. I don’t think so. I think my digital camara is in a box in the basement with my college textbooks. I have already screwed this up. It started with the stupid blue health form last week. I just am not a good "document er" when it comes to my children. She lost her first tooth today and I think she swallowed it, so she won't be finding it in my dresser drawer in a few months or years and realize there is no tooth fairy. She has already said no fairy is getting near her pillow anyway.
Back to Kindergarten, I have been dreading this day since my first evaluation when she was 20 months old and they told me she stopped completing tasks at nine months. My only goal since then was to have her ready for Kindergarten. Public school is vicious for a normal little girl, plus, I'm a psycho. Am I really going to "Walk away" when I should? I hope so. I am going to focus on what I am going to try to do as the mom of a brand new, special needs Kindergartener. This post is going to be about "Forms."
Nobody likes to fill out forms. We fill them out all the freaking time. For the library card, for the doctor, for the grocery store discount card. You have to fill out a form to take the baby home from the hospital, you have to fill it out to get married. The cool thing is that now it is a little easier if you want to fill one out online, but still, everything must have a paper trail, especially a special education student.
Now, Kindergarten is usually the first place a child goes to venture into the big, bad, public education system. Mommy and Daddy fill out a ton of forms just to get them in the front door. If it is the first child going, you live for that little packet to arrive in the mailbox. That is when it gets personal. You get the teacher forms!
The teacher sends you a hello letter with a little form to fill out about your child. Each teacher has their own form. I have created these forms myself, and I remember being psyched to make my own. I also remember some of the answers I got back. Some parents were short, sweet, and to the point. Other moms wrote novels about their kids. Guess which kids ended up being the cool ones I would consider friends today?
This is how I approach filling out the forms for my child:
1) Fill them out. Answer the questions correctly, but nobody needs a personal narrative. Save that for your blog. :0)
2) Do NOT correct a teacher's grammar. She or he will catch it themselves and be highly embarrassed later anyway. This will only make you look like a jerk from day one.
3) Return them as soon as you finish filling them out, or they are going to sit on your pile of things at home and be forgotten about, which will irritate the teacher, who may have to send you another, and so it begins.
4) Read all of the questions and any other newsletters that come home. I speak from experience. Teachers spend a lot of time writing these form letters and coming up with these questions. Plus an administrator looks over it to make sure it is done and sent home. For you to throw it away is pretty lame. Toss stuff that doesn't say please return, sure, but read it first. I personally would save it all until the end of the year. Nothing is worse than a parent ranting and raving that they didn't know something when a teacher wrote it down in a newsletter, initialed by the principal. So please, read it out and be nice.
5)This kind of goes along with number four, but if a teacher says something like, we will read everyday for fifteen minutes, and then one day they don't because they run out of time during a science experiment, don't jump down her/his throat that it didn't get done once. Again, it is all about how you look to this person.
Now, having just said all of that, here is how my first ever public school "parent form" looked as I filled it out for my first child. I am summarizing the questions and the response that came from me.
1. Health related information-this within itself could take two or three pages, but I kept it short, sweet, and to the point. Glasses. Eyepatch.
2. How does she feel about coming to school-she can't wait to get away from me and her brothers!
3. interests-stuffed animals and, unbeknown to me, The Jonas Brothers
4. concerns frightens/worries your child?- a change in her schedule
5. what do I hope my child will learn-this one is really loaded, be careful with this answer. Teachers don't work miracles.
6. do you or your spouse possess a special talent, skill, or hobby-LOL
7. Anything else.-again, open ended for someone to go on forever. Pop some popcorn and get a diet coke if you want to enjoy reading these.
That is it for forms. I need to go fill some out for soccer and gymnastics before labor day, so I better get off the computer anyway....
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Fill Out the Form, Please.....
Monday, August 24, 2009
Walking away
I used to love to watch Judge Judy yell at the defendants and plaintiffs in her courtroom. It made perfect sense to me. They were usually idiots. Well, that isn't nice. They were people who had been caught up in the heat of the moment and weren't thinking clearly. Once two women went at it over a parking space and one started hitting the other one's car with the orange cone. Another time two teenage boys had some road rage because the one in front wouldn't go immediately at the light, and the other one honked, so he flipped him off, so then he tapped his car, etc. etc. Judy fined both boys and said, "The next time someone picks a fight with you, you drive away." That is excellent advice. Walk away, drive away, get away. Now, imagine you are the mom and your child is involved somehow.
Mommy circles can be just as vicious as who sits at whose table in the middle school cafeteria. Which pre-school, which church, which mommy and me class, and who you have your Monday morning playgroup with, all of these things have the potential of making you really enjoy or really suffer through those early years of parenthood. Now, what happens while all the moms are talking about which organic juice box is the best? The kids are playing. When kids are playing, unless you raised a robot, there will be a conflict. Some moms have common sense about this. They are kids and there are only so many glitter pink hula hoops to go around. Some mothers think that their snow princess ballerina was put on this earth for that hoop and your wild child better back off. How do you handle conflict? I mean when the other mother is unreasonable? You walk away. You keep your mouth shut and you walk away.
I am writing about this because it goes against my nature and my personality. I am always paranoid people are going to see me on the six o'clock news because I blew up at the wrong person. But if I can walk away, anyone can walk away. Don't bother with the counting and the deep breaths, just get away.
For example, sometimes at gymnastics, other mommies have it in their heads they are raising Nadia Comaneci and make their kid practice while the rest of the kiddos are running in circles. Then they scream at your children to move off the bars. You try to apologize but the woman stares at you. You want to escalate and say something nasty, and you know that the gym gets more tuition checks from you than her, but you walk away.
You are in the beloved grocery store and your son is throwing a tantrum for leftover, marked down fourth of July cookies that are filled with so much red and blue dye that even you won't let him eat them. A woman pushes her three children sitting still in the toddler cart and she has the nerve to look at them and say, "My children know how to act in public" and giggles. You want to a)let your kids out of the cart and chase her down like a pack of guard dogs, b) tell her her husband is probably screwing his secretary, or c) Just start a stereotypical cat fight in front of the frozen ice cream. But-you push your cart away.
There are many other times, at least twice in my son's preschool coat room, when I have had to walk away. Once I did accidentally say something I shouldn't have before I got out of the room. She hasn't spoken to me again ever. Oops.
This advice came down from Judge Judy and it happens to me a lot around other moms. Do not lose it and make a fool out of yourself over another woman's even more foolish behavior. WALK AWAY.
And you know what the coolest part about walking away is? If you leave out all names, you can write about it later....
Mommy circles can be just as vicious as who sits at whose table in the middle school cafeteria. Which pre-school, which church, which mommy and me class, and who you have your Monday morning playgroup with, all of these things have the potential of making you really enjoy or really suffer through those early years of parenthood. Now, what happens while all the moms are talking about which organic juice box is the best? The kids are playing. When kids are playing, unless you raised a robot, there will be a conflict. Some moms have common sense about this. They are kids and there are only so many glitter pink hula hoops to go around. Some mothers think that their snow princess ballerina was put on this earth for that hoop and your wild child better back off. How do you handle conflict? I mean when the other mother is unreasonable? You walk away. You keep your mouth shut and you walk away.
I am writing about this because it goes against my nature and my personality. I am always paranoid people are going to see me on the six o'clock news because I blew up at the wrong person. But if I can walk away, anyone can walk away. Don't bother with the counting and the deep breaths, just get away.
For example, sometimes at gymnastics, other mommies have it in their heads they are raising Nadia Comaneci and make their kid practice while the rest of the kiddos are running in circles. Then they scream at your children to move off the bars. You try to apologize but the woman stares at you. You want to escalate and say something nasty, and you know that the gym gets more tuition checks from you than her, but you walk away.
You are in the beloved grocery store and your son is throwing a tantrum for leftover, marked down fourth of July cookies that are filled with so much red and blue dye that even you won't let him eat them. A woman pushes her three children sitting still in the toddler cart and she has the nerve to look at them and say, "My children know how to act in public" and giggles. You want to a)let your kids out of the cart and chase her down like a pack of guard dogs, b) tell her her husband is probably screwing his secretary, or c) Just start a stereotypical cat fight in front of the frozen ice cream. But-you push your cart away.
There are many other times, at least twice in my son's preschool coat room, when I have had to walk away. Once I did accidentally say something I shouldn't have before I got out of the room. She hasn't spoken to me again ever. Oops.
This advice came down from Judge Judy and it happens to me a lot around other moms. Do not lose it and make a fool out of yourself over another woman's even more foolish behavior. WALK AWAY.
And you know what the coolest part about walking away is? If you leave out all names, you can write about it later....
Friday, August 21, 2009
Working Mom
It has been too long since I posted, and the main reason for that is I had to go out of town for work. I work from home and I rarely have to go in, but this week I did for basically four days. Now, I love my job and I have the best of both worlds in a lot of ways. However,when mommy goes out of town for work, no matter how hard you try and no matter how hard you plan, something is going to give. Here are some simple little examples of things that happened that would not have happened had I been at home on my laptop.
I check into the hotel two hours before my conference starts. Cool-I can take a nap. Ring Ring "Hello, Mrs. P. we would like to schedule a new meeting for Frances..." and forty-five minutes later the paperwork is done. Like I need to get away from the kids so I can schedule their lives quietly. No time to rest, go to work.
Phone rings the next morning at breakfast, "Hey honey, look, I know that they have dentist appointments, but they are coughing up lungs..." (They weren't when I left but I can hear them in the background). So I say, "OK fine, call and cancel." "Can't you do it?" I am in the middle of a hotel in Philadelphia with no access to my laptop, as it is being upgraded by the tech team. "No, Google it." He doesn't want to, but he does anyway. During my break I get a call from the dentist's office, "Hello Mrs. P., I'm sorry they are sick, we have a three month waiting list..." Ugh
Phone rings yet AGAIN! "Mrs. P., this is the school nurse at your daughter's elementary school, she can't start Kindergarten without the health form and this one isn't current." The pediatrician needs ten days to fill one out and I am not getting home until Thursday night. I have no idea where the health form is in my office at home. Call the nanny and beg her to load all three children up, get another form from the elementary school and drop it off at the drs. office, who tells her they "hope I will at least be home to pick it up."
Crawl into bed while all the young cool teachers go out on the town in Philly. I sleep until my best friend calls to see how it is going. It is never a dull moment ever.
But the baby slept through the night for his Daddy......
I check into the hotel two hours before my conference starts. Cool-I can take a nap. Ring Ring "Hello, Mrs. P. we would like to schedule a new meeting for Frances..." and forty-five minutes later the paperwork is done. Like I need to get away from the kids so I can schedule their lives quietly. No time to rest, go to work.
Phone rings the next morning at breakfast, "Hey honey, look, I know that they have dentist appointments, but they are coughing up lungs..." (They weren't when I left but I can hear them in the background). So I say, "OK fine, call and cancel." "Can't you do it?" I am in the middle of a hotel in Philadelphia with no access to my laptop, as it is being upgraded by the tech team. "No, Google it." He doesn't want to, but he does anyway. During my break I get a call from the dentist's office, "Hello Mrs. P., I'm sorry they are sick, we have a three month waiting list..." Ugh
Phone rings yet AGAIN! "Mrs. P., this is the school nurse at your daughter's elementary school, she can't start Kindergarten without the health form and this one isn't current." The pediatrician needs ten days to fill one out and I am not getting home until Thursday night. I have no idea where the health form is in my office at home. Call the nanny and beg her to load all three children up, get another form from the elementary school and drop it off at the drs. office, who tells her they "hope I will at least be home to pick it up."
Crawl into bed while all the young cool teachers go out on the town in Philly. I sleep until my best friend calls to see how it is going. It is never a dull moment ever.
But the baby slept through the night for his Daddy......
Monday, August 10, 2009
A Helpful VCUG Brochure
I wrote this about a year ago after my middle child's VCUG. I still have the brochure that the nurse gave me and I still laugh at what I read versus what I experienced. I originally posted this on my Facebook page and got several responses from other moms who felt horrible for me! I was trying to be sarcastically funny. As I said earlier, The VCUG really is painful for the parent and scary/uncomfortable for the child. I hope some day there is another way to test a child for reflux, until then, here is what happened with my then two year old son:
At the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, you get a cute little flyer to read with your child about what is going to happen.
Here it is:
A boy will be asked to lie on the table. The nurse will wash the tip of his penis around the opening where the urine comes out, using cotton and liquid soap. This may feel cold.
TRANSLATION: Your son will lie down and start to scream bloody murder when iodine hits his penis. He will start begging to go home and say he doesn’t need a happy meal from McDonalds. It isn’t worth it.
The nurse will then slide a tiny, soft tube, called a catheter, into the opening of the penis. This can be a bit unpleasant, and he may need comforting.
TRANSLATION: Your son will turn into Reagan from the Exorcist the minute the catheter gets anywhere near his penis. He will start to kick to the point that they wrap his legs with an ace bandage. He will pull your hair and scratch your face while you hold his arms and comfort him. Fortunately, he did not say any bad words to make you look bad.
The X-ray technologist will dim the lights in the room so that the television screen can be seen. TRANSLATION: They have to start over again with a smaller catheter because your son has “closed” his penis off and won’t relax. (Some male will have to explain that one to me). He did look at the television., but no Wonder Pets, so he didn’t care.
The doctor will take x-rays, moving the x-ray machine over your child as the liquid flows through the catheter and into the child’s bladder. When the bladder is full, he will be asked to urinate. More X-rays will be taken while he is emptying his bladder.
TRANSLATION: Your son looks straight at you and says, “I will not wee-wee on this table.” And you sit there for an hour and a half and stare at his full bladder on the TV screen and know he means it. Was I really that stubborn when I was a child? Am I now? Then the doctor tells you since he won’t cooperate, wait in the waiting room until he wets his diaper. An hour later you return to X-rays with a wet diaper. You finish the X-rays, and go home.
The process takes about thirty minutes. TRANSLATION: We got there at 12:30 and left at four.
Your pediatrician will call you with the results.
TRANSLATION: “Kenneth is fine Mrs. P. Keep using the syringe tubing to get the antibiotics down his throat”.
Moms have to love "helpful" information.
At the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, you get a cute little flyer to read with your child about what is going to happen.
Here it is:
A boy will be asked to lie on the table. The nurse will wash the tip of his penis around the opening where the urine comes out, using cotton and liquid soap. This may feel cold.
TRANSLATION: Your son will lie down and start to scream bloody murder when iodine hits his penis. He will start begging to go home and say he doesn’t need a happy meal from McDonalds. It isn’t worth it.
The nurse will then slide a tiny, soft tube, called a catheter, into the opening of the penis. This can be a bit unpleasant, and he may need comforting.
TRANSLATION: Your son will turn into Reagan from the Exorcist the minute the catheter gets anywhere near his penis. He will start to kick to the point that they wrap his legs with an ace bandage. He will pull your hair and scratch your face while you hold his arms and comfort him. Fortunately, he did not say any bad words to make you look bad.
The X-ray technologist will dim the lights in the room so that the television screen can be seen. TRANSLATION: They have to start over again with a smaller catheter because your son has “closed” his penis off and won’t relax. (Some male will have to explain that one to me). He did look at the television., but no Wonder Pets, so he didn’t care.
The doctor will take x-rays, moving the x-ray machine over your child as the liquid flows through the catheter and into the child’s bladder. When the bladder is full, he will be asked to urinate. More X-rays will be taken while he is emptying his bladder.
TRANSLATION: Your son looks straight at you and says, “I will not wee-wee on this table.” And you sit there for an hour and a half and stare at his full bladder on the TV screen and know he means it. Was I really that stubborn when I was a child? Am I now? Then the doctor tells you since he won’t cooperate, wait in the waiting room until he wets his diaper. An hour later you return to X-rays with a wet diaper. You finish the X-rays, and go home.
The process takes about thirty minutes. TRANSLATION: We got there at 12:30 and left at four.
Your pediatrician will call you with the results.
TRANSLATION: “Kenneth is fine Mrs. P. Keep using the syringe tubing to get the antibiotics down his throat”.
Moms have to love "helpful" information.
Head to Toe
Two out of three of my children have what we simply call kidney reflux, or vesicoureteral reflux. This sounds really horrible, so I am going to explain it in quack terms, but remember, I really don’t know what I am talking about. I say that from the beginning. So you can read this if you want, or skip over to the blog of someone more intelligent or with a medical degree.
When we pee, it comes OUT of our urethra. Sometimes, your wee-wee will go back UP into your kidneys. This is called “reflux.” None of my kids had the esophagus kind, but I’m assuming it is the same concept, where milk or formula goes down and comes back up. In the kidney kind, there are five stages of it. My kids have had level two with five being the worst.
Now, the thing is that wee-wee going back in is not the way God intended our biology to work. We are designed to get rid of it. Unless you are on the Jackass show, that is the plan. So, if all of a sudden, your child is screaming for no reason and running a fever of 103 or higher, ask your doctor to do a urine culture. DO NOT listen when they say, “teething,” DO NOT listen when they say, “A nasty virus is going around,” DO NOT listen when they say it could be from a vaccine or other shot. Politely ask for a urine culture again. If you are wrong, well, guess what, you have been wrong before and you will be wrong again, but at least now you have peace of mind. If it is a UTI, then you go to the hospital for a kidney and VCUG (bladder X-Ray). UTIs in small children are SOMETIMES a red flag for reflux, sometimes UTIs are a fluke (cleanliness, bubblebath, etc.) but you need to take the test to double check. Well, you don't HAVE to do anything, you know what I mean.
The entire thing is harder on the parent than the baby (I should say mother but I don’t want anyone emailing me that I am sexist), from watching your child scream through the “procedure” to making sure they take the antibiotics. I have already written up my middle child’s VCUG experience and it will be reposted after this, so I won’t re-do it here. It isn’t fun, but the younger they are, the easier it is. Just remember that no one wants to hear or see their child strapped to a hospital bed screaming no matter how simple it is. If the child has reflux, they need a daily low dose of antibiotics to prevent another UTI, because wee-wee going in isn’t good, but wee-wee with unidentified organisms going in is even worse, and can cause scarring on the kidneys. The procedure is done once every year or six months until the kidneys close on their own, and they will, or at least my daughter’s did. Here is hoping on my son.
If you are going through this and googling and up pops this blog entry about reflux, I am going to give you two free pieces of quack advice. The first is get your doctor to write the prescription for 30 days instead of 10. If you have to go back to the pharmacy every ten days, a) That is a of a lot of visits to the pharmacy when you could be going to Starbucks and b) That is a of a lot of co-payments in a bad economy. I would get three bottles at a time and I was able to mix them up or take them back and let the pharmacy do it if I was paranoid, but I saved time and money in the long run. The second piece of free advice is look into a pediatric dentist. Amoxicillin on your teeth can’t be good. Frances started going at 13 months and the boys followed suit. I made sure they were on the plan.
That is Kidney Reflux the Page way. I should continue to talk about Autism the Page way, Strabismus the Page way, a three year old that talks too much the Page way, I can keep going. Right now, I feel like I am playing the Eric Carle book, “Head to Toe”. If you aren’t to this phase of your parenting life yet, Eric is famous for his Very Hungry Caterpillar (who I have decided had some very serious blood sugar issues). One of my other favorites by him is about children and animals moving different body parts. "I am a penguin and I turn my head, can you do it? I can do it!" “I am reflux and I need antibiotics can you do it? I can do it.” Why stop there? “I am strabismus and I need an eye patch. Can you do it? I can do it!” I am doing it, and I have lots of friends doing what they have to do too.
May your pee be always going out…..
Page
When we pee, it comes OUT of our urethra. Sometimes, your wee-wee will go back UP into your kidneys. This is called “reflux.” None of my kids had the esophagus kind, but I’m assuming it is the same concept, where milk or formula goes down and comes back up. In the kidney kind, there are five stages of it. My kids have had level two with five being the worst.
Now, the thing is that wee-wee going back in is not the way God intended our biology to work. We are designed to get rid of it. Unless you are on the Jackass show, that is the plan. So, if all of a sudden, your child is screaming for no reason and running a fever of 103 or higher, ask your doctor to do a urine culture. DO NOT listen when they say, “teething,” DO NOT listen when they say, “A nasty virus is going around,” DO NOT listen when they say it could be from a vaccine or other shot. Politely ask for a urine culture again. If you are wrong, well, guess what, you have been wrong before and you will be wrong again, but at least now you have peace of mind. If it is a UTI, then you go to the hospital for a kidney and VCUG (bladder X-Ray). UTIs in small children are SOMETIMES a red flag for reflux, sometimes UTIs are a fluke (cleanliness, bubblebath, etc.) but you need to take the test to double check. Well, you don't HAVE to do anything, you know what I mean.
The entire thing is harder on the parent than the baby (I should say mother but I don’t want anyone emailing me that I am sexist), from watching your child scream through the “procedure” to making sure they take the antibiotics. I have already written up my middle child’s VCUG experience and it will be reposted after this, so I won’t re-do it here. It isn’t fun, but the younger they are, the easier it is. Just remember that no one wants to hear or see their child strapped to a hospital bed screaming no matter how simple it is. If the child has reflux, they need a daily low dose of antibiotics to prevent another UTI, because wee-wee going in isn’t good, but wee-wee with unidentified organisms going in is even worse, and can cause scarring on the kidneys. The procedure is done once every year or six months until the kidneys close on their own, and they will, or at least my daughter’s did. Here is hoping on my son.
If you are going through this and googling and up pops this blog entry about reflux, I am going to give you two free pieces of quack advice. The first is get your doctor to write the prescription for 30 days instead of 10. If you have to go back to the pharmacy every ten days, a) That is a of a lot of visits to the pharmacy when you could be going to Starbucks and b) That is a of a lot of co-payments in a bad economy. I would get three bottles at a time and I was able to mix them up or take them back and let the pharmacy do it if I was paranoid, but I saved time and money in the long run. The second piece of free advice is look into a pediatric dentist. Amoxicillin on your teeth can’t be good. Frances started going at 13 months and the boys followed suit. I made sure they were on the plan.
That is Kidney Reflux the Page way. I should continue to talk about Autism the Page way, Strabismus the Page way, a three year old that talks too much the Page way, I can keep going. Right now, I feel like I am playing the Eric Carle book, “Head to Toe”. If you aren’t to this phase of your parenting life yet, Eric is famous for his Very Hungry Caterpillar (who I have decided had some very serious blood sugar issues). One of my other favorites by him is about children and animals moving different body parts. "I am a penguin and I turn my head, can you do it? I can do it!" “I am reflux and I need antibiotics can you do it? I can do it.” Why stop there? “I am strabismus and I need an eye patch. Can you do it? I can do it!” I am doing it, and I have lots of friends doing what they have to do too.
May your pee be always going out…..
Page
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Yo Gabba Gabba!
My daughter is a little obsessed with stuffed animals, and a few months ago she picked out this little green monster with long arms. A friend came over with her son and held the little guy up, “Have you seen this show?” She asks.
“No,” I say, I didn’t know it was a show, I just knew my daughter liked the monster.
“It is really weird.” She says, and throws the little monster, who I have since learned is Brobee, back into the pile of stuffed animals in my playroom.
Maybe two months later, we discover “Yo Gabba Gabba!” on the Noggin channel. Huh. I don’t lie, the first time you watch this show, you either think one of two things. 1) NO. Or 2) What drugs was the creator on when he thought this show up? And you flip on over to PBS Kids or Playhouse Disney. But after a while, I get sick of the same shows, and while I could just go do something else, there are certain times of the day when we watch television, so I put it back on Noggin. Now we live to hear DJ Lance Rock in his retro 70’s orange disco suit say “Yo Gabba Gabba!”
For those of you who have more control over your life and kids, DJ Lance Rock walks up to the play table, opens his radio/toy box and says the magic words, “Yo Gabba Gabba!” Then his five plastic toys come to life and sing, dance, and teach young children lessons. Muno is a bumpy red Cyclops. Toodee is a blue part dragon/ part cat sweetie. Foufa is pink and puffy with a flower on her head. Plex is a robot, and Brobee is the weird looking green one with the long arms that ended up in my basement playroom originally without my knowledge of his fandom or popularity.
Even if Noggin didn’t put their little disclaimer at the beginning of each show about why it is ok for my child to watch one of their programs, I could figure out that my kids are learning something in addition to being entertained while I talk on the phone or read Outlander. The songs are up there with the Wiggles and (gasp!) The Imagination Movers when it comes to teaching. “Don’t be Afraid,” “Get the Sillies out,” and “There’s a Party in my Tummy,” are some good ones, but the best ones are the ones that you think should be common sense to a preschooler but they aren’t, such as “Don’t bite your friends,” “Be Careful,” and “It’s Your Turn.” Good stuff, and I hum it all the time. I have also found here lately that if I use DJ Lance Rock’s intonation, I get really good results from my children. Try it, “Know what time it is? It’s time to take a bath!” We should try this on adults, “It’s almost time to do the taxes…”
Yo Gabba Gabba has great little segments. One is “Super Martian Robot Girl,” and she definitely appeals to my science fiction fantasy loving side, and shout out for making her a female. They also have ‘cool tricks’ that people can do, and my son and daughter spent at least two hours trying to balance a spoon on their noses after that one. Their extra special, the reason everyone tunes in, segment is the “Dancey-Dance.” That is when Plex the robot zaps someone into Gabba Land to teach a dance. My own children do indeed get up for the dancey dance. I saw it a couple of times before I realized that some seriously famous people were signing up to dance with these weirdos. I mean, when someone says, “Hey everybody! I’m Elijah,” do you really look up from the dishes you are unloading to say “It’s Frodo?” No, you value your time. But then you see Tony Hawke, who you know is a skateboard king from ten years of teaching middle school, Muhammad Ali’s daughter Laila , and Jan from the Office, and you think, “What is going on with this show?” And then, it’s him. The one you should have guessed would have been on the show from the beginning. Jack Black!
Jack and I go way back, starting with my first year of marriage when he was but a technology geek in Enemy of the State. Then I loved him in High Fidelity and watched his career sky rocket, culminating with Margot at the Wedding, where he does a nude scene. At first I thought I could go my whole life without seeing Jack Black’s ass, but then I thought, good for Jack for doing it. I mean, I am willing to bet more men look like him than they do Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise.
There is Jack doing his Dancey Dance and having the time of his life. We all need a Dancey Dance. It is kind of up there with a laughing place and a theme song. If your kids are going crazy and other moms seem to have it together while you are falling apart, just start doing your own Dancey Dance and wash the crazies away.
Don’t we all wish all we had to do was say YO GABBA GABBA and the kids would freeze for a little while and we could put them up and get them back out after about an hour? Maybe once? It would be nice. I’ll say it if no one else will.
As far as education goes, Yo Gabba Gabba has one concept nailed. In 1997, when I started teaching, I had my first observation and conference with my prinicipal Sue King. She told me to always “Cement” my lesson. You always want to end with a review to make sure that the students “got it”. DJ Lance Rock does that every day. My kids know it is coming and they can’t wait to help him “break it down.”
Now not only do we have Brobee in our basement of unloved stuffed animals, but also all of the Gabba Gabba friends. I can hear my kids down there playing Gabba Land and fighting over who gets to be DJ Lance. Maybe some day we will start our own Super Music Friends show too. Of course, maybe someday I will be a good mom and put the television in the garage, but until then, Noggin has it going on.
I must get ready for my glitter hands workout, so more later…..
“No,” I say, I didn’t know it was a show, I just knew my daughter liked the monster.
“It is really weird.” She says, and throws the little monster, who I have since learned is Brobee, back into the pile of stuffed animals in my playroom.
Maybe two months later, we discover “Yo Gabba Gabba!” on the Noggin channel. Huh. I don’t lie, the first time you watch this show, you either think one of two things. 1) NO. Or 2) What drugs was the creator on when he thought this show up? And you flip on over to PBS Kids or Playhouse Disney. But after a while, I get sick of the same shows, and while I could just go do something else, there are certain times of the day when we watch television, so I put it back on Noggin. Now we live to hear DJ Lance Rock in his retro 70’s orange disco suit say “Yo Gabba Gabba!”
For those of you who have more control over your life and kids, DJ Lance Rock walks up to the play table, opens his radio/toy box and says the magic words, “Yo Gabba Gabba!” Then his five plastic toys come to life and sing, dance, and teach young children lessons. Muno is a bumpy red Cyclops. Toodee is a blue part dragon/ part cat sweetie. Foufa is pink and puffy with a flower on her head. Plex is a robot, and Brobee is the weird looking green one with the long arms that ended up in my basement playroom originally without my knowledge of his fandom or popularity.
Even if Noggin didn’t put their little disclaimer at the beginning of each show about why it is ok for my child to watch one of their programs, I could figure out that my kids are learning something in addition to being entertained while I talk on the phone or read Outlander. The songs are up there with the Wiggles and (gasp!) The Imagination Movers when it comes to teaching. “Don’t be Afraid,” “Get the Sillies out,” and “There’s a Party in my Tummy,” are some good ones, but the best ones are the ones that you think should be common sense to a preschooler but they aren’t, such as “Don’t bite your friends,” “Be Careful,” and “It’s Your Turn.” Good stuff, and I hum it all the time. I have also found here lately that if I use DJ Lance Rock’s intonation, I get really good results from my children. Try it, “Know what time it is? It’s time to take a bath!” We should try this on adults, “It’s almost time to do the taxes…”
Yo Gabba Gabba has great little segments. One is “Super Martian Robot Girl,” and she definitely appeals to my science fiction fantasy loving side, and shout out for making her a female. They also have ‘cool tricks’ that people can do, and my son and daughter spent at least two hours trying to balance a spoon on their noses after that one. Their extra special, the reason everyone tunes in, segment is the “Dancey-Dance.” That is when Plex the robot zaps someone into Gabba Land to teach a dance. My own children do indeed get up for the dancey dance. I saw it a couple of times before I realized that some seriously famous people were signing up to dance with these weirdos. I mean, when someone says, “Hey everybody! I’m Elijah,” do you really look up from the dishes you are unloading to say “It’s Frodo?” No, you value your time. But then you see Tony Hawke, who you know is a skateboard king from ten years of teaching middle school, Muhammad Ali’s daughter Laila , and Jan from the Office, and you think, “What is going on with this show?” And then, it’s him. The one you should have guessed would have been on the show from the beginning. Jack Black!
Jack and I go way back, starting with my first year of marriage when he was but a technology geek in Enemy of the State. Then I loved him in High Fidelity and watched his career sky rocket, culminating with Margot at the Wedding, where he does a nude scene. At first I thought I could go my whole life without seeing Jack Black’s ass, but then I thought, good for Jack for doing it. I mean, I am willing to bet more men look like him than they do Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise.
There is Jack doing his Dancey Dance and having the time of his life. We all need a Dancey Dance. It is kind of up there with a laughing place and a theme song. If your kids are going crazy and other moms seem to have it together while you are falling apart, just start doing your own Dancey Dance and wash the crazies away.
Don’t we all wish all we had to do was say YO GABBA GABBA and the kids would freeze for a little while and we could put them up and get them back out after about an hour? Maybe once? It would be nice. I’ll say it if no one else will.
As far as education goes, Yo Gabba Gabba has one concept nailed. In 1997, when I started teaching, I had my first observation and conference with my prinicipal Sue King. She told me to always “Cement” my lesson. You always want to end with a review to make sure that the students “got it”. DJ Lance Rock does that every day. My kids know it is coming and they can’t wait to help him “break it down.”
Now not only do we have Brobee in our basement of unloved stuffed animals, but also all of the Gabba Gabba friends. I can hear my kids down there playing Gabba Land and fighting over who gets to be DJ Lance. Maybe some day we will start our own Super Music Friends show too. Of course, maybe someday I will be a good mom and put the television in the garage, but until then, Noggin has it going on.
I must get ready for my glitter hands workout, so more later…..
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