When I was first sent a press release about kids in early childhood programs recycling, I asked myself how this would be different than recycling for kids of all ages?

Be really careful when handling glass.

Sort the plastics based on the number you see on the bottom of the container.

The process of recycling is preschool stuff, so next we ask why more people aren’t recycling? Not having curbside recycling is not an excuse, take it to River Valley Recycling.

Recycling is for the kids. It help the kids have a cleaner world when they get to the age of their parents and are raising our grandchildren.

The press release was about a program designed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is written for the youngsters so parents (and teachers) do not have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out games, ideas for motivating the kids to recycle and even craft ideas. Fun environmental projects, imagine that? Read the rest of this entry »

OMAHA, Neb. - I was a bit bummed to learn my flight was delayed yesterday. Had the flight been cancelled, I might have cried.

I was headed to Omaha, Neb. to attend the At-Home Dads Convention. I’m very excited about this trip. I attended the annual convention in 2006. I had a blast then, and I expect the same thing this time around.

I received a call on my cell phone from Southwest Airlines while waiting at the security checkpoint. On the other end of the line was a recording, informing me about the delay. I felt very important answering my cell phone in the airport. Like I was some sort of business traveler ironing out the details of a big deal just before visiting a client.

I’m traveling without the family this time (The Wife and our oldest son attended the previous convention). I feel a bit guilty for dumping my two sons on The Wife for the weekend. My intent is not to avoid the family. Rather, I feel like the convention is a way to charge my batteries before heading into a long winter.

I returned from the 2006 convention in Kansas City with a notebook full of story ideas. I also felt rejuvenated in my line of work. There’s something about surrounding yourself with others that can sympathize with your struggles and rejoice in your success that’s powerful. I’m expecting a similar experience this year.

The flight was delayed a mere 30 minutes. I arrived at my hotel slightly behind schedule. Still had enough time to make it to the meet-and-greet session. We watched a short film about the stay-at-home dad’s group in the Baltimore area and then headed to a steakhouse. I can now officially say I’ve had an Omaha Steak in Omaha, Neb.

Oh yeah, and it’s snowing here.

More to come…

Does anyone write letters to pen friends?

With so much concern about the lost art of handwriting and increased emphasis on typing skills, it makes this mom wonder.

Our youngest child has a pen pal, or pen friend (as his letter-writing pal in Ethiopia calls it) and commented that it is a neat surprise to get something in the mail.

His parents then add that it is a neat surprise to see something in the mail besides bills.

With the Internet, you can find a bunch of pen friends, but the challenge then comes of: “What do I write?”

The son, age 11, asks that question each time he gets a letter and is planning to “write back right away.”

Know any middle school students who have a similar problem?

Yes, even the 13-year-old faced that challenge when she was younger.

So I started asking the younger one a few things and told him I don’t need answers right away, I just want you to think about the answers. Then, I asked him, what did all of the things I said to you have in common?

“They are questions?” he said.

Yes. That is how you get a dialogue going. You ask lots of questions.

What are you curious about regarding their country and the way they live?

That will get those young brains working.
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Someone once told me that potty-training takes a long time. I anticipated one year of daily sheet washing and impromptu baths. But, that’s not the way it happened.

Potty-training does take a long time, but that’s because it happens in stages (at least that’s been my experience). This week, I feel we’ve entered into the final stages of potty-training. It seems to be going remarkably well, thanks to the help of a popular video game turned iPhone App called Frogger.

Bubba’s potty-training began when he was about 2 1/2-years-old. It was the early spring, and we were still trapped in the basement, waiting for warm weather to arrive. It was then that Bubba learned to go pee-pee on the potty. It took a couple of weeks, but soon he had No. 1 nailed down.

No. 2 was much more tricky. We continued to put Bubba in diapers both overnight and during naps. He usually woke up dirty and sometimes wet too. It quickly became apparent that Bubba was waiting to do his dirty work until he was in a diaper.

The situation wasn’t ideal, but I was fine with it. Bubba was accident-free in underwear most of the day. If I had to change two dirty diapers per day, that was OK.

About two weeks ago, The Wife forgot to put a diaper on Bubba before bedtime. This usually results in a wet bed, dirty underwear and a cursing husband. However, Bubba (who celebrated his third birthday in June) woke up clean and dry.

I was so happy. I bought him a toy Lightsaber and made a deal. He could play with the Star Wars weapon as long as he woke up clean and dry. This worked for a while, but soon the novelty wore off.

In desperate need of a new gimmick, I turned to an iPhone App. I had downloaded the classic arcade game Frogger recently. Bubba was crying because he didn’t want to sit on the potty. I broke out the game and let him play with the touch screen. He could play for two minutes and then owed me two squeezes of his bowels.

After a bit of back and forth, I heard a plop! I was very excited. Bubba was excited too. He continued to move the frog along the screen while I wiped. Apparently, this was great fun.

Now, Bubba poops about four times per day. I think about half of those times are really just an excuse to play Frogger. That’s fine with me. Who knew Frogger would be the key to potty-training?

A puppy he gave a Japanese name.

An interest in the martial arts and particularly the type of karate that began in Okinawa, Japan. That enthusiasm has lasted for nearly two years (on his own accord).

After all that, I should have seen the signs that our son would be glued to his Social Studies book when it came to the study of Japan.

Our sixth-grader has been fascinated by what he has learned about Japan and how different their world Is.

Have you ever heard of a capsule hotel? You could compare it to sleeping on a shelf in a closet. There is no room to stand up, barely room to sit up. People rent these for $25 a night instead of an entire room for $150.

Why? Because real estate prices (including rent) are among the highest in the world.

Overcrowding is a big problem.

“So many people commute to and from Tokyo that space on the trains must also be maximized. During peak travel periods, commuters are crammed into cars,” according to his textbook, “People, Places and Change” (Holt). “They are helped by workers hired to push as many people into the trains as possible.”

You take off your “street shoes” when you enter the school. Kind of like changing into a special pair of gym shoes that are never worn outside.

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I attended my first moms’ club meeting last week. I’ve been on plenty of playdates with other moms. But this was the first time I’ve mingled with a group of stay-at-home mothers that refer to themselves as a “club.”

The club is headed by a mom I met at a weekly tumbling class. Mary is a native of the neighborhood, and the club is mostly comprised of her girlfriends from grammar school, high school and college.

I introduced myself to the group. Everyone seemed very nice, though it was clear that I was an oddity. I received a few “Mr. Mom” comments, which I brushed off. (For the record, calling a stay-at-home dad Mr. Mom is generally frowned upon. It’s sort of like calling a stay-at-home mom who volunteers to coach Little League - Mrs. Dad.)

My two sons were a bit older than the rest of the kids in the group. They also were two of only three little boys in the group. There were about six little girls frolicking in the downstairs playroom too. As a result, I had to put out fires here and there. My boys would often pick up a princess wand and use it as a sword. Or they’d pretend a plastic hairdryer was a handgun.

I found myself frequently leaving the conversation to attend to these matters. I needed to act fast before some unsuspecting girl got whacked with a wand or pistol-whipped with a Barbie hairdryer. The conversation went on without me. That was fine.

I certainly didn’t expect everyone to sit in silence as I corrected by boys’ behavior. However in my absence, the dialogue began to go a direction I could not follow. Early conversations included a discussion about kids’ teeth with the dentist’s wife. Another interesting back and forth focused on kids’ shoes. One blind mom said she found a Web site that sells shoes with squeaky bottoms. This enables her to locate her daughter quickly despite her limited eyesight.

But after I was gone from the conversation, topics turned to C-section scars and other physical aspects of giving birth. These are things I couldn’t really join in on. I found myself staying with the kids. That wasn’t a problem, but one of the points of a playgroup is to allow adults to enjoy some conversation away from the kids.

I still had a good time at mom’s club. I just don’t know if I’ll go back.

As parents, we often find ourselves telling the kids stories about when we were kids.

Especially when it relates to things that are going on in their lives.

We are currently trying to emphasize the importance of hard work as it relates to keeping a roof over their heads and a little something to eat in the refrigerator.

“Oh, you think you have it hard. When I was a kid . . . . ”

You know how the stories go.

My childhood memories are dominated by life-on-the-farm stories (I did spend the first 18 years there, after all) and safety was not something that really crossed the minds of my three siblings and me.

After all, that involved several hours of physical work a day (after school and before homework) and even more hours on weekends. I don’t know how we got any homework done during the harvest and planting seasons. By the grace of God, we did.
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I didn’t sleep very well last night. The reason for my restless night is ridiculous.

I was worried about my 3-year-old son’s poop.

My son has been partially potty trained for months. I say “partially” because we have continued to put him in a diaper overnight and during naps. Not surprisingly, Bubba consistently waited until he was in his diaper to go No. 2.

I was fine with this arrangement. It meant I only had to change two diapers per day, albeit stinky diapers. Still, Bubba wore underwear throughout the day and rarely had an accident.

The stakes were unintentionally raised last week. The Wife forgot to change Bubba into a diaper before bed. This had happened before and always resulted in a full day of washing sheets, making beds and cursing beneath my breath.

However this time, Bubba woke up clean and dry. I was so excited. We immediately went to the potty, where he practically filled up the bowl with the liquids he had been saving overnight.

As a reward, we went to Toys R Us and purchased a toy Lightsaber ($9.99). The deal was he could play with the sought-after sword (pictured here) as long as he kept his underwear clean and dry. This arrangement worked fine for three days.

Then, Bubba decided he didn’t want to poop anymore. Perhaps, the Lightsaber lost a bit of its allure. Regardless, the bedtime bowel movement was skipped, and I feared the worst.

I slept all night with one eye open, peering at the baby monitor. I figured Bubba would have to go at some point, and I had to be ready to sprint out of my bed and into his room to oversee the process.

Morning came, and Bubba was clean and dry. I don’t know how he did it. Nevertheless, I fear this poop-less existence is building towards a catastrophe…. oops I mean accident.

One of my son’s friends commented the other day about how it is “such a bummer that summer vacation is over.”

We didn’t have a very long conversation about it, but I reminded both of the 11-year-olds that even though school has started, the weather is still nice enough to be outside — after your homework is done. Everything doesn’t have to change.

Later that same day, we learned that Backpacker Magazine’s “Get Out More Tour” was coming to our son’s favorite Army surplus and outdoors store, Champaign Surplus, in Champaign. We were definitely very excited about that.

The fact that it was on a Tuesday night kept us from getting to go, but it reminded us that we should squeeze a hike into our schedule while the weather is still nice.

We go outside in the cold, but it seems like the kids don’t want to stay out there as long when they are uncomfortable.

Here are some neat ideas we gathered from back issues of Backpacker that bring that summer vacation freedom back - if even for just a few hours:

— Get a magnifying glass and follow the insects as they scurry here and there. The magnifying glass can be picked up for a dollar at the “cheap” stores around here.
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Last week, I was driving through Bradley during the “witching hour.” My fellow parents likely know this time of day well. It normally arrives in the late afternoon - around 5:30 p.m.

By this time of day, any goodwill earned from earlier naps has been expunged. It’s not quite dinner time, not nearly bath time and hours away from bedtime.

So, it turns into crazy time. My boys use this stretch for a variety of activities, including acting crabby, fighting and just being difficult. My daily goal is to find an activity that will carry them over until supper.

I was at my wits’ end when I drove by the McDonald’s PlayPlace at 1180 N. Kinzie Ave. in Bradley. I pulled into the parking lot, thinking perhaps this would be a place where my two tots could burn off some steam.

I generally avoid McDonald’s PlayPlaces. They are normally dirty and occupied by misbehaving children. However, I was desperate.

Turns out, this is hands down the nicest indoor playground I’ve ever seen within a McDonald’s restaurant. The play area was clean. In fact, the manager and an assistant were tiding up the place the entire time I was there.

There’s a giant climbing structure for kids which serves as the main attraction. However, there are also touch-screen games and a basketball hoop, as well as about 6 other modest attractions. There’s a family bathroom that features a tiny potty for trainees and a changing table for those in diapers. The bathroom was clean too.

Again, I’m normally not a fan of McDonald’s PlayPlaces. About 90 percent of the time, I opt for the drive-thru lane. But this is one restaurant where it’s worth unbuckling the kids from their car seats and killing about an hour - particularly if it’s at the witching hour.