The start of school is only a week away, how better to celebrate that then with a Back-to-school book reading by the local author Jacqui Robbins.

Jacqui will read from her new Back-to-School picture book Two Of A Kind at this AADL special event for youth (preschool to grade three) at the Ann Arbor District Library Pittsfield Branch on Thursday, September 3 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. The event will include a special kids hands-on activity as well as a book signing with the author (books will also be on sale at the event).

What a great way to start your child off for a brand-new school year!!!

Creative Commons License / photo credits: Jacqui Robbins/Matt Phelan

Free Alert - The Milk Mustache Mobile Tour in Ann Arbor

The Milk Mustache Mobile Tour is dropping into Ann Arbor this Saturday August 29, at the Busch’s on Main Street. From 5-7pm, this family-focused event will provide free smoothies and milk samples, as well as massage and health assessment on-site. Stop in too, to have your family pose for their very own "Milk Mustache" photo - Just like in the celebrity advertisements for milk!

This year’s theme is Drink Well. Live Well. As milk is being reintroducing as Nature’s Wellness Drink. Focusing on the wellness benefits of milk, the event will have a Wellness Beverage Center where people can sample milk from Prairie Farms Dairy, Inc. as well as lowfat smoothies.

As a courtesy of my readers, the mobile tour is giving me some fun Got Milk? gear to give away to my readers. I will randomly draw winners from the first five area-moms that e-mail me the answer to the following question before Saturday:

Q: How many fewer calories can you expect to consume at lunch if you drink a glass of fat free milk at breakfast time?

A: The answer can be found at www.whymilk.com!

Check back the AnnArborMom site after the event - I'll plan on being at the tour to capture some of the Ann Arbor families who are having fun at the event!

Creative Commons License / photo credits: Got Milk? campaign

Sometimes life gives you gumballs - Dealing with a lying toddler

My daughter has been going through quite the lying jag these past six-or-so-months. She is so good (and creative) with what she comes up with it amazes me. Not to mention she has the prettiest sky-blue angel eyes that look at you with adoration in her dead-pan delivery of her lies! She’ll either be an awesome poker player or one heck of an actress when she grows up.

I know that most kids go through this lying stage. My son went through the phase without telling any real whoppers - That is not to say he is cured at age five of lying, however he now understands the consequences of doing so. My daughter on the other hand still doesn’t “get it” but she’s still young. A perfect example of one of her “whoppers” was this:

We started potty training at two-and-a-half with her, as she exhibited all the signs and WANTED to wear big-girl pants. After she turned three this past winter though, we began having issues with her wetting her pants before getting to the bathroom. This was presumably because she was too busy playing to take a break. I used all the tricks to get her to use the restroom with any frequency - everything from physically placing her on the toilet, to setting a timer, to a rewards system. She would still wet her pants just a little - She'd say "I leaked". One particular day, I saw the wetness on the back of her pants and said to her:

“Gabby did you pee your pants?”

Without missing a beat she looked me straight in the eye and with a smile said, “No, Bailey licked my butt.”

Frankly I didn’t know if I should applaud her creativity, laugh at how funny the scenario or sternly admonish her - I simply WASN’T expecting that response! Bailey is our DOG!!!
I suppose age and experience have taught me to think out of the box though to get the answers I need. Actually it was probably one of the sales training sessions I sat through at one time or another. I remember one particular lesson: Don’t ask a yes or no question of someone, or you will only get a yes or no answer. I.e. A fast-food worker should never ask “Do you want fries with that?” but instead should ask “What size fries would you like with that?” I’m not sure why I remembered this particular technique in working through “getting a toddler not to lie” but somewhere along the line it came to top of mind…


The point is, as a parent of creative children (or any child really) I need remember to ask the right questions to get the answers I want. I don’t always think to do this immediately, but do tend to remember when I am getting nowhere with my questions.

One day, when my son was not quite three years old, I arrived at daycare to a not-so-smiling care worker.


“What happened?” I asked, and was told my son had used a Sharpie marker on the face of another child. OUCH! (Don’t ask why a Sharpie was within reach of my child, I am not certain of that myself.) I asked several times why he had done that, without getting an answer.
Later I tried again, this time asking, “Zach what did you draw on that child’s face?”


“Mommy I was only face-painting for her.”


(As coincidence would have it, I HAD myself, volunteered to face paint the weekend before. He was in attendance and thought the “markers” I used looked like the Sharpie I guess.)


At least I got an answer I could reason with ; We also had a long discussion on what face painting was, and that there were special face-painting pens that mommy used. He never face-painted another child at least, so I THINK he got it!


The other day I had another opportunity to sharpen my skills. My daughter was playing with gumballs from my son’s gumball machine, when out of the corner of my eye I saw her give one to Bailey. Yes, that's Bailey the dog!


Jumping up I said, “Gabby did you just feed Bailey a gumball?”


“No.”

Taking a deep breath, I dug deeper trying again, “Gabby, what color was the gumball you fed to Bailey?”

Leaning in closely so that I could hear her she whispered, “It was white!”

Just Released: Ann Arbor Parks & Rec Fall/Winter Recreation Guide

Everything you wanted to know about events and activities with Ann Arbor Parks & Recreation - Heads up townies Ann Arbor Parks & Recreation just posted their Fall/Winter Recreation Guide online! Everything from skating to swimming, classes for kids to seniors and more. Registration for all classes begins Monday August 24.

For anyone wanting even faster AAP&R, you can follow them on twitter: www.twitter.com/a2parks.

Creative Commons License / photo credits: Ann Arbor Parks & Recreation

The Watermelon Lesson

Our garden this summer has yielded many wonderful fruits and vegetables for the family. The kids revel in cooking with and sharing our bounty. We’ve made our own maple Syrup from tapping local Ann Arbor Maple trees, many types of wild black and red raspberry preserves from forraging expeditions, and we have made Mulberry goodies, Blackberry snacks and have eaten plenty of fresh garden veggies - assorted greens, radishes, carrots, potatoes, peas, asparagus, a variety of squash, cucumbers and more. The prize of the garden this year though seems to be the watermelon and the two varieties of pumpkins the kids planted. Surprisingly enough those plants have done really well and in fact flourished! My son has been dying to pick them too.

I have explained several times about how to tell when watermelons specifically, are ripe. I’ve also talked about the pumpkins being ripe after he began school - He just can’t get it out of his head though that the watermelons and pumpkins aren’t yet ripe.

When we went out to the garden the other night to harvest beans, toms and green peppers, raced over to check out their watermelon and pumpkin plants, and like little drummers immediately began thumping the fruits!

“Mom I think it’s ready, it sounds like a drum!”

“No baby it’s not ready yet, maybe another week.”

“But mom, it’s color is changing some underneath.”

“Not enough Zach.”

“But MOM it sounds like a drum!”

So I finally gave up and wander across the garden rows to take a look. Zach’s right, many of his observations seem accurate. Even the little leaves near the stem are beginning to fade some and it does appear to have a different sound when thumped. It still doesn’t appear to be fully ripe though! After an intense 20-minute debate with him though, I finally caved in - I figured the worst that could happen was that it wasn’t ripe (My husband reminded me that the worst would be rot or bugs, but we won’t go there.).

When we arrived at home, Zach rushed to the silverware drawer and immediately wanted to slice into the melon - Fine. Sure enough it wasn’t fully ripe, in fact, like a flower just coming into bloom, the insides of the melon we just beginning to hint at the pink juiciness to come. We each got a few bites of sugary goodness, but not nearly as much as if the ice-box melon were truly ripe.

The best part about this entire experience though was the ensuing lesson learned. As Zach took the last sweet bite he grumbled, “Darn, why didn’t I listen to you!” You see the sweetest satisfaction I got that day was in knowing that sometimes you let your children make mistakes and then learn from them.

A ripe melon would have hit the spot that sweltering August day, however life-lessons which are best taught by example are sometimes even better.