Smiling Mom

What an inte­res­ting con­ver­sa­tion bet­ween John Ste­wart and Mike Huc­ka­bee.

There’s still time to enter the Leaps­ter Didj/Hannah Mon­tanna soft­ware giveaway!

Well you’ve come to the right place!  Recently I atten­ded a Leap­frog Event and wrote of my expe­rience.  Then I ente­red a Didj givea­way and won one for my Sis­ter in Law, Ali­son.  Yey!

Well, as all this was going on I was also in con­tact with a gal from Leap­frog who offe­red for me to host a Didj givea­way on my own site!  How cool is that?

This week I’ll be giving away a Didj Gaming Sys­tem ($89.99)  plus Han­nah Mon­tana soft­ware ($29.99).

To enter to win, please:

1.  Leave a com­ment in my com­ment sec­tion.  The com­ment but­ton is loca­ted above my post just under the title.

2. When promp­ted, leave a valid email address.

3. To be ente­red twice, please link to my post in your own per­so­nal blog and leave an addi­tio­nal com­ment with the link.

Com­ments will close Sun­day, Decem­ber 14, 2008.  I will announce the win­ner Mon­day, Decem­ber 15^th.

Ever­yone is eli­gi­ble.  Now go enter!!

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Didj™ Cus­tom Gaming Sys­tem
Currently avai­la­ble | Ages 6 to 10 | MSRP: $89.99
The Didj handheld is the fi rst grade-school sys­tem that lets kids create the
game and parents cus­to­mize the lear­ning. Using the inc­lu­ded PC– and Mac­com­pa­ti­ble
Leap­Frog® Con­nect Appli­ca­tion, pla­yers fi rst select and per­so­na­lize
an ava­tar. Then they design the game, choo­sing back­ground sce­nery, color
sche­mes or music. Most impor­tant, parents and kids can then cus­to­mize con­tent,
con­nec­ting game­play with school­work. Mul­ti­pli­ca­tion hard to mas­ter? Kids can
choose to be quiz­zed on the 6s, 7s and 8s tables. Spe­lling a stum­bling block? Kids can create
a cus­tom spe­lling list from the 10,000-word data­base and prac­tice for next week’s test.
Con­ti­nuing the stan­dard set with the Leaps­ter® Lear­ning Game Sys­tem, the Didj handheld
auto-levels, adjus­ting games to children’s par­ti­cu­lar skills and pro­gress, so pla­yers are
appro­pria­tely cha­llen­ged. All this is deli­ve­red in a sleek unit off ering the high-quality graphics
and clas­sic game­play that kids demand.
The Leap­Frog Con­nect Appli­ca­tion allows kids to move spe­cifi c curri­cu­lum con­tent for each
game on and off their Didj handheld—just like mana­ging digi­tal camera or MP3 fi les. Every time
pla­yers con­nect the Didj sys­tem to the com­pu­ter, the points they’ve ear­ned for correct ans­wers
upload to become Bitz usa­ble for enhan­ced cus­to­mi­za­tions. Best of all, each time parents con­nect
the Didj sys­tem to their Mac or PC, they can view their children’s pro­gress along LeapFrog’s
pro­prie­tary Lear­ning Path, avai­la­ble at leapfrog.com/learningpath,

Once upon a time there was a girl who named her­self “Julia But­terfly.”  Julia But­terfly was a hip­pie living in Hum­boldt County around the same time my hus­band and I atten­ded Hum­boldt State Uni­ver­sity.  When she heard that her ancient friend, “Luna” was going to be chop­ped down, she was heart­bro­ken.  Julia But­terfly sta­ged a pro­test.  She began to live in “Luna” in an attempt to save this ancient friend.

Julia “But­terfly” Hill lived in her beau­ti­ful tree Luna for 738 days.  Even­tually a deal was cut (haha!) with the lum­ber com­pany and But­terfly vaca­ted her nest.

Jump for­ward to this sum­mer, 2008 when a stand off at CSU Ber­ke­ley with another pro­tes­ting cha­rac­ter hip­pie who deci­ded to take up resi­dence in a tree that CSU Ber­ke­ley was plan­ning to remove to make way for an ath­le­tic faci­lity. (hmm, sound familiar??)

Any­way, this pro­tes­ter, Amanda Tier­ney, dub­bed her­self, “Dumps­ter Muffin.”

Dumps­ter Muf­fin.  Um, OK?

She should have really taken her cue from her pre­de­ces­sor, Julia “But­terfly” and pic­ked a more beco­ming name.

But wha­te­ver.  Dumps­ter Muf­fin it was.

Ms. Muf­fin would become hys­te­ri­cal when anyone would approach her perch. She’d flap her arms and go into con­vul­sions threa­te­ning to martyr her­self for the cause.

Sadly, Dumps­ter and a few of her friends were even­tually star­ved out of her sweet tree and promptly escor­ted away from Berkeley’s campus.

Poor Dumps­ter Muffin…

Anyhoo, after vie­wing my recent video, many have asked why, oh why, our daughter’s sweet Straw­berry Short­cake doll has been named, “Dumps­ter Muffin.”

Well, it’s a copy­cat story, I’m afraid to say.  One day we came home and noti­ced Straw­berry was loo­king a bit hag­gard and was in need of a bath.

It appea­red to have been weeks, if not months, since the last time she’d bathed.

And her hair.  Y.U.C.K.  it was mat­ted mess.  My hus­band swears that if you look close enough you can see things moving around just below the surface…

As we were escor­ting Straw­berry to the washing machine her bath, we noti­ced a note attached to her back just bet­ween her shoul­ders.  It said, “Sur­face wash only.”

Fin­ding this horri­ble note was our final straw.  We were disap­poin­ted.  Straw­berry was not living up to our expectations.

Kno­wing that Straw­berry Short­cake would never be the doll we’d hoped she would, we decide do embrace her dir­ti­ness, Hepa­ti­tis C, lice, and all, and love her for the doll she aspi­red to be.

That very day, we built Straw­berry Short­cake a perch in the only tree we had and set her free.

Today Straw­berry “Dumps­ter Muf­fin” Short­cake can be seen sta­ging daily pro­tests when she doesn’t get what she wants.  Sadly for her, tan­trums in this house fall on deaf ears.

BC: It’s with BLUE and YELLOW.  You know how I know?  Because the ocean is BLUE and your pee is YELLOW.  When you pee in the ocean it turns GREEN.  That’s how I know that BLUE and YELLOW make GREEN.

Me: Note to self… no more peeing in the ocean in front of my son…

BC on the recent election…

BC:  I wish John McCain won.  I mean I LOVE the way Barack Obama’s face looks, but John McCain’s name is WAY cooler.

Me:  ?????