On a short leash.

According to Wikipedia, a leash is a rope or similar material attached to the neck or head of an animal for restraint or control. On the animal, some leashes clip or tie to a collar, harness, or halter, while others go directly around the animal's neck.

Again, a leash is meant to be used on an animal!!! Not on a kid!!!!

I have read a lot of posts and articles on the subject and I still cannot figure out what kind of parents use a leash on their kids. Come on, how about teaching them to hold your hand and stay close to you. I understand it for some extreme cases like non verbal autistic children but most people I see using them are just lazy parents who would rather be yapping on their cell phones or texting on their crackberries while enjoying a cup of overpriced coffee instead of spending some real quality time holding and talking to their kids.

And please spare me this kind of excuse: "As a parent of 3, I LOVE knowing that I am doing everything I can to keep my children safe. And if that results in having people judge my parenting skills, go for it. Just remember parents do this out of love, not laziness." Blah, blah, blah!!!

If you love your kids so much teach them to stay close to you, teach them to hold your hands, teach them about the dangers they would encounter by not staying by your side, otherwise the day you will take that leash off, they will still want to wander away and then what?

This kid gets it.

Eileen sent an email to the entire family yesterday that I want to share with everyone. However, before I do that I need to let you know a little more about her and Matthew.
Not only she is a huge Yankees fan, she is a great Baseball fan. She has an understanding and knowledge of the game and its history that could rival Mike Francesa's and John Sterling's combined.
And since the apple does not fall far from the tree, at only five years old, Matthew is not only a die hard Yankees fan but a great fan of the game as well. He has already been to many games and knows all the retired players and their respective numbers. He could also talk to you about the Babe and Yogi, the M & M boys etc...
What he loves most though is broadcasting (or at least pretending to broadcast) and doing play by play. By the way at two years old he was already doing a perfect impersonation of Chris "Mad Dog" Russo that you can enjoy by clicking here.
So you can imagine what a day yesterday was like in our household with the passing of George Steinbrenner and the all-star game.

Here is now the email that Eileen sent. The subject read This kid just "gets it".

As you can imagine on this rainy day, the day George S. died, the TV was on here for many hours (ESPN, YES, MLB network...)
Matthew's "thing" these days is sports reporting. Just a few minutes ago, this was his report word-for-word:
"This is Matthew O in the YES studios with the All-Star pre-game show. I know you're all excited about the game but George Steinbrenner died today and he is much more important than the game. You can be happy about the all-stars but sad about George Steinbrenner."
How proud am I?

Deceptively delicious

Eileen and I decided to give the kids healthier food which is not an easy task since they are so picky. To get a few ideas we dusted off Jessica Seinfeld's book "Deceptively Delicious" that we got a while ago as a gift. Far from being a great cooking book, it is a good source of ideas to try to get your kids to eat foods that they usually do not eat.

A couple of days ago I made rice balls with sweet potato puree and I would like to share the recipe and the experience.

Here is what you will need:

-A truck load of patience
-1 cup cooked brown rice
-Nonstick cooking spray
-3 teaspoon olive oil
-Nerves of steel

-1/4 pound chicken cutlets, rinsed and dried
-1/2 cup sweet potato puree
-1/4 cup shredded reduced fat Cheddar cheese
-1/4 cup lowfat (1%) buttermilk
-1 large egg, lightly beaten
-1 1/2 cups whole-wheat cracker crumbs or bred crumbs

So now that you gathered all the ingredients, tell the kids that it is ok to watch TV in the play room, you will be done very soon.







Here we go:

1. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set it over medium-high heat.
2. When the pan is hot add 1 teaspoon of olive oil.
3. Smell poop.
4. Go change your one year old girl's diaper.
5. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and put it in the now scorching hot pan.
6. Scrape the burnt chicken off the pan, cut it in pieces, and place them in a food processor or blender. Next time I will buy some ground chicken, that will save a lot of steps.
7. Go tell the boys to stop fighting or else...(nothing and they know it, Daddy is a sucker).
8. Add the sweet potato puree, cheese, and buttermilk, and blend until smooth.
9. Go put your baby girl down for her morning nap.
10. Do not forget to change her diaper first.
11. Put one boy in time out, send the other one to his room. No more TV, today Daddy means business.
12. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and stir in the cooked rice.
13. The boys' screeching really gets to you so you tell them to go back to watch TV. Daddy is a sucker after all.
    
14. Roll the mixture into 1 inch balls and place them on a sheet of wax paper or aluminum foil.
15. One at a time, dip the rice balls in the beaten egg, then roll them in the bread crumbs to make an even coating.
16. Smell poop.
17. Poop can wait.
18. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and set it over medium-high heat.
19. The smell is too strong, I need to change my two year old's diaper.
20. Add the remaining two teaspoons of olive oil to the now way too hot skillet.
21. Add the rice balls.
22. Your baby girl just woke up crying, you go pick her up.
23. You turn the overcooked rice balls one handed (the other arm holds your girl who will not stop crying.) It takes way too much time.
24. By now the rice balls should be brown and crispy. I went for jet black and hard as a rock.

Lunch is served, I do not expect a great reaction from the kids but even Matthew who hates to hurt our feelings said "Daddy, it tastes nasty!!".
In the garbage went the rice balls and I made peanut butter sandwiches.
Do yourself a favor, unless you are wealthy enough to have a staff of nine (two nannies per kid, a maid, a private chef and a full time shrink) stick to what they like and make it as easy on yourself as you can.

Life in 3D.

I believe in willpower. I think that people with willpower can accomplish great things. Whether you want to lose weight, quit smoking, climb a mountain...willpower (and in some cases a little training) is all you need.

Last week, Matthew rode his bicycle for the first time and I was extremely impressed and very proud.

He did not want me to help him. He kept telling himself "I can do this, I can do this" and he did it. After riding it for a few minutes he said "Daddy, I am proud of myself!". And I cannot tell you how proud I was of him. I had to hold back tears (yes, I am a mush).

Not only was I proud but I was thrilled to see that he had that willpower, and the pride that he felt from his accomplishment is the greatest reward he could have gotten.

Over a decade ago, I quit smoking cold turkey after years of heavy smoking. I did not need any patch, gum or any other gimmicks. All I needed was willpower. I had the desire to do it, I had the dedication and I found the discipline. And to this day I consider it the greatest accomplishment of my life.

Three years ago, I ran the NYC Marathon with very little training, and even less sleep. Again willpower, I believe accounted for ninety percent of my performance.

One of my goals this year was to lose some weight and so I did; I am down fifteen pounds so far. Tooting your own horn does feel good!!!!

Willpower is key: Desire, Dedication, Discipline or as I call it Life in 3D.

If you are a parent and have a hard time finding the motivation just take a look at your children. If not for you, do it for them, you are their role model after all. When I get home at night and I go tuck my little ones in, I know I will never have a smoke again.

If you are still keeping up with your New Year's resolution, if you are achieving your goals through willpower, congratulations, you are living your Life in 3D so why don't you click here and show it off.

Don't potty train!!! Toilet train!!!

A big rookie mistake when the time comes is to potty train. Yes, you heard me it is a big mistake.

Q-What is the greatest advantage of having your child going on the potty?

A-You do not have to change his diapers and clean his butt anymore.

So why on earth do you want to clean a potty?

Another reason to skip the potty is that once a child is trained on the potty he might be reticent to use the toilet, so do yourself a huge favor and skip the potty.

Toilet training will be another test of your patience so make it as easy and fun as possible.

There is no set age at which you should begin to train your child however if he holds a driver's license you might want to give him a crash course.

Most Children achieve bowel control and daytime urine control by three to four years of age. However it may take months or years to achieve the same success at night.

No matter how old your child is (within reason of course), remember to not rush him, each child learns to use the toilet in his or her own time. We are finding out that our second child will be out of diapers earlier than the first one (yeah!!!!). Also do not forget that you are your children biggest role model so put your inhibitions aside and let them see you when you go.You can also let your older ones help the younger ones with the training. And most of all, praise them, reward them (with stickers), show them how proud you are and make it FUN.

St Patrick's day crafts.

When it comes to crafts, my specialty is crafts with pipe cleaners. I could make almost anything out of these chenille stems; from animals like baby chicks, or penguins to flower arrangements. (And yes, I am available for parties and workshops.)

So as St Patrick's day is just around the corner, I am going to show you how to easily make some pipe cleaner shamrocks that you can use as jewelery (pins) or to decorate homemade postcards or invitations to your St patty's day party.

For the shamrocks all you will need is a few bumpy green and white pipe cleaners.

1. Place the pipe cleaner on a clean work surface.
2. Bend the top bump into the shape of a leaf, twisting to secure.
3. Fashion leaves out of the second and third bumps.
4. Twist final bump around the center of the leaves once or twice to stabilize, then bend it into a stem.
5. Trim off sharp, pointy end of pipe cleaner.

Once you are done with the shamrocks you can turn them into anything.

Pin them to your Irish sweater using small safety pins, glue them on hair pins...just use your imagination and have a happy St Patrick's day!!

A terrible mix.

We have all heard about it, learnt about it and read about it. And no matter how much warning we got, nothing prepared us for the Terrible Twos. If you google "terrible twos" you will get 23,100,000 hits. Even reading every piece of material you can put your hands on will not get you ready for it.

Now, you finally made it with your first child; you managed to deal with the tantrums, the unwillingness to share, the indecisiveness without too much damage and absolutely no valium when child number two who is also your middle child steps right into it. All the terrible two's behavior is enhanced by an incessant need for attention (no matter how much attention you give).

Going through your middle child's terrible twos is an exhausting and trying challenge. It takes an enormous amount of patience and countless deep breaths. Keep in mind that you are his parent and that you are showing him how to deal with stress so try to have fun with it. The worst part of having a two year old is that he will grow up faster than we think and one day we will miss the toddler years.

As challenging as being a parent is, the reward is so great that my advice to every parent out there is to enjoy every minute of it. Of course going through a tantrum is anything but enjoyable but someday we will all miss it...