mommy bytes

The Choice Between Cloth and Disposable Diapers

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:26:00 +0000

Too much fun during a timeout from 2006. Also blogged here for Anti-Cyberbullying day.

This post was originally published on BlogHer in December 2008. Since I am swamped with work and kids, I figured I'd pull out some of this great material that you may not have seen. Check out the original post for more tips and comments. And to think that I had mostly stayed away from poop talk on this blog!

When my son was born eight years ago, I thought I would use cloth diapers. Really, I did. I planned to be a green, crunchy granola mother, using breastfeeding, attachment parenting and cloth diapers. This was all before it was super hip to be green. When I was pregnant, I spoke another mom and she said I was crazy to try cloth diapers. Breastfeeding was good, because the "plumbing" was all there, but cloth diapers was another story.

My mother had saved all my cloth diapers from when I was a baby and had given me a stack of around 40 diapers with pins. Now, 33-year-old cloth diapers may not appeal to some, but they were super soft cotton in large rectangles. The new cloth diapers I received as gifts were not as soft as these. I looked up how to fold cloth diapers on the internet and I purchased some vinyl pants to go with them. I also learned that you could buy paper inserts which you could use to capture the solids and flush them down the toilet, reducing the amount of cleaning. When I was at work, I would practice folding napkins into the shape of diapers. Really, I was committed to use them! But as my due date approached, I started getting free samples of disposable diapers. OK, I thought, I would just use them when I was outside of the home for convenience. For that matter, I bought one package of disposable diapers "just in case".

When my son was born, he was immediately placed in newborn disposable diapers. The first time I changed his diaper in the hospital (I was eager to practice and didn't pawn off this work to the nurses), I was shocked that meconium was like black sticky tar. Gross! No way would I want to have to clean that off cloth diapers. When we brought our baby home, he was still transitioning from meconium to the mustard poop of breastfed babies, so we kept him in disposables. After the first week, there was no turning back. I didn't realize that newborns pooped every two hours (or at least mine did) and that nothing could contain blowouts. For the uninitiated, a blowout is where poop comes out of the back of the diaper and up the baby's back. Because breastfed baby poop is essentially liquid, it can go through several layers of clothing in a matter of seconds. If that's the case, it would go right through cloth diapers as well. Inserts would not make a difference. I just didn't want to find out.

In the early days of being a new mother, anything that made things easier was better in my book. Breastfeeding was easier than having to prepare and clean bottles. Disposable diapers were easier than cloth diapers. That was probably my main reason for not ever trying cloth diapers. We did make good use of the hand-me-down cloth diapers. Both my kids used them as security blankets and my daughter, who is nearly five, still needs one when she is upset or when she goes to sleep. They have been loved to tatters and only a few handful remain. We did pay the price for using disposable diapers in cost, guilt for filling landfills, and prolonged potty training periods because they are too absorbent for kids to understand what is going on down there.

If you look around nowadays, cloth diapers have come a long way, even from eight years ago. If I were a new mother today, and I didn't have the pressure of using old-fashioned cloth diapers that were handed down, I might just try the new cloth diapers systems. According to Consumer Reports, major brands of cloth diapers, all-in-ones, and cloth diapering systems are Bum Genius, Bumkins, Fuzzi Bunz, Gerber, Kushies, and Swaddlebees. Many systems are are convenient at disposable diapers, with velcro tabs, cool colors and designs. Look at these cute options:

Prints from Swaddlebees.

The biggest obstacle to tackling cloth diapers is the cleaning. According to iVillage, there are new materials that allow you to use a dry pail method without the soaking. An alternative to both cloth and disposable diapers are flushable diapers. gDiapers offers a diaper where you can remove a biodegradable insert and flush it, compost it or toss it. How cool is that? For the latest blogging news about cloth diapers check out All About Cloth Diapers, Cloth Diaper Mamas and The Cloth Diaper Whisperer.

The most important thing about choosing between cloth and disposable diapers is you. Do what you are most comfortable with. If you're overwhelmed being a new parent and choose disposable diapers, don't let the guilt add to your stress. If you have a support network and are comfortable tackling cloth diapers, go for it! The environmental impact of both methods have been hotly debated. Either way, all babies need diapers and all babies need parents that are happy with their diaper choice.

PSF - Finding the Perfect Pumpkin

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:22:00 +0000

On our trip to Parlee Farms in Tyngsboro, MA, the kids got to pick a few pumpkins for Halloween. Who doesn't love a pumpkin patch?

Is this the pumpkin?

It's heavy!

Dova said, "I got boobs!!"

Ahh! Adam found the perfect pumpkin and enjoyed the crisp Technicolor air. (Let's just say that I had a lot of issues with exposure settings while I was lying in the bark mulch, but enjoyed turning up the saturation in post processing.)

The kids picked out the pattern for the Jack-o'-lantern and set me to work.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

Hosted by Cecily and Emily

WW - Fall Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:11:00 +0000

What's this coming into view?

A field of flowers!

Rows and rows of the last beautiful fall flowers (these photos were taken on October 10).

Adam was drawn to them.

Dova was barely as tall as them.

I took mostly boring shots of them. But then I let Adam use my camera.

I would never have thought to take this beautiful bud against the sky!

And these new and old flowers together. Good thing we have a photographer in the house (with a little post processing help from mom).

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Silly Monkey Story - My Little Pig Roast

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:41:00 +0000

When Dova stuck this apple in her mouth while we were apple picking, it immediately reminded me of the pig roast we attended for my cousin's wedding.

An uncanny resemblance, eh? OK, in real life, she's must cuter and tastier than a roasted pig.

She managed to eat two whole apples while we were there. But with her two top teeth missing, I couldn't understand how she bit into her apples. Here's a clue:

She ate them like a vampire with her vampire teeth!

Hosted by Karen at 3 Garnets and 2 Sapphires.

PSF - Catching Some Air

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:39:00 +0000

If there's one thing that Dova loves, it's jumping on a trampoline.

Whoa, girl, stay in the frame!

I'm a frog!

Spread eagle? No problem!

Is this high enough?

How does my hair look? Beautiful as always, darling!

Hosted by Cecily and Carissa

WW - Thank you for calling. How may I direct your call?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:59:00 +0000

Apparently I am losing control of all my digital assets as I happened to find this picture from last May and it wasn't uploaded to Flickr! Here I am working the phones at my company's reception desk with All. Those. Buttons. Why are they paying me the big bucks to work the phones? Because all salaried employees are still taking two mandatory days off a month, including our regular receptionist. Of course the phones and the front door shouldn't go unmanned and it doesn't make sense to pay a temp to work the phones, which would defeat the purpose of saving money through unpaid days (a temp still comes in for vacation days).

So they recruited several of us to cover an hour each on the receptionist's unpaid days. I figured that I've worked the phones (with no buttons) at my dorm's desk in college, so I could hack it. What I didn't figure on was juggling multiple calls, people willing to wait on hold for hours, and having real nightmares that our company was losing money because I was routing the calls to the wrong place. But hey, I'm a team player!

I dug up this photo of me working McCormick desk at MIT in 1987 in my BIG HAIR. Exactly the same right?

Totally not wordless today, I know. So I'll be linking up at all the Wordful Wednesday sites!

For the truly wordless, visit Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom for more participants.

Adam loves his baby cousin

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:02:00 +0000

While Dova was busy playing fairies with her cousin, Adam took to playing with his 11-month old baby cousin in June. I would think that Dova, being a girl and always playing with dolls, would love a chance to play with a real baby. In fact she seemed totally oblivious that there was a baby around.

Case in point. Adam built block structures just so that his cousin could knock them down.

He also showed him the ropes on the spinning toy amongst the discarded fairy wings.

I love that Adam was so great with his cousin. Don't get me wrong, I had my baby fill as well...

Dova makes an excellent fairy

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:50:00 +0000

I finally got around to tagging some photographs from June(!!), when I came across these gems. Thanks to her cousin, they make a wonderful fairy pair.

This reading fairy shot is my favorite!

PSF – Climbing out the Window

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:24:00 +0000

Angela? Oh, Angela?

While we were staying in Newport, Rhode Island, for our 10th anniversary celebration, Doug was looking for me and was greeted by this open window. I quickly scampered around the corner and snapped this picture of him.

Where the heck was I? On the fire escape of the third floor of our Inn. Here's some more perspective.

Way up there. We usually stay in the round room to the right with the turret (called the Tower Room), but this time, I convinced Doug to revisit a room on the third floor. I just couldn’t resist going out on the fire escape to take some photographs.

The front steps from above.

Sycamore tree out front.

Up close and personal with the turret.

The garden and our car.

It was so much fun climbing around!

Hosted by Cecily and Kelli

TMT - Back in 26-100 with MIT Mommy

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:38:00 +0000

Although I live not to far away in Massachusetts, I rarely get the opportunity to visit my alma mater, MIT. The real MIT Mommy came by to visit last month, and I longed to walk the hallowed hallways again. After a nice lunch at Legal Seafoods in Kendall Square, we first headed to the new and unusual Stata Center, which we both had not seen and longed for the familiar creaky floors of the old Building 20.

We tried to take a photo of ourselves in the round reflective surfaces that cut across the structure.

Obviously this is a little to obscure to be the obligatory blog friend shot. And what is that strange headless version of me standing next to myself???

So we took to leaving our mark on the blackboards.

But how many people would see that? We suddenly thought of a better idea. Why don't we write on the blackboards of 26-100, the largest lecture hall where MIT undergrads have most of their freshman and sophomore classes? I was a freshman in this very lecture hall in 1983. And true to form, it has not changed a bit. MIT Mommy brought some chalk along just in case we needed it (she's a smart one!).

Here she is drawing the gear head kid that appears on her logo. She can even draw! I tried and tried to draw a hippie flower next to my blog name but failed. They kept looking like amoebas. We wrote in the blackboards in the dark to avoid attracting attention, but that didn’t make for good photos. Then she figured out how to turn on the lights from the console in front of the blackboard. She’s a genius, I tell you! She even put up her post the DAY AFTER we met. Prompt to boot!

But it was I who snagged someone wandering into the lecture hall to take pictures of us together. I’m good for something!

It was great to meet you, MIT Mommy!

Visit Tell Me Thursday for more secrets behind Wordless Wednesday.

WW - Writing on the walls

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:11:00 +0000

Visit by Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom for more participants.
Come back tomorrow for the story behind these photos for Tell Me Thursday.

Sit around a bonfire and watch the stars

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:46:00 +0000

Silky Smooth Dove Milk & Dark Chocolate Promises Collection

I’m a sucker for Dove Promises Chocolates. Every time I open the foil wrapper, I look for the promise written inside, even though I’ve read them all a hundred times. Most of them are platitudes about the goodness of chocolate, some are amusing, and some make you scratch your head. Hershey has a similarly shaped Bliss chocolates in foil wrappers, but there are no sayings inside. It isn’t the same without the words!

This fall, Dove came out with an Autumn edition, with all new promises. Promises about watching the leaves fall, about the harvest moon and all the goodness the season brings. I stopped when I came across this one, “Sit around a bonfire and watch the stars.” Immediately, I recalled doing exactly that this summer while visiting friends in Wisconsin.

We sat around a bonfire, made s’mores for the kids and looked at all the stars that we don’t normally see in our wooded area of Massachusetts. But of course I couldn’t savor that peaceful moment like a normal person, I whipped out my iPhone and geeked out.

I had just come back from BlogHer ‘09 and one thing that really impressed me was an iPhone app that someone showed me called Pocket Universe, or pUniverse for short. On the iPhone 3GS, it uses the compass to track your position and will show you the constellations in the night sky as you turn around. You can move and zoom and have astronomy literally at your fingertips. It gets a little wonky if you look straight upwards, but otherwise it works really well.

As soon as our friends looked skyward and tried to point out the constellations to the kids, I said wait – and downloaded the application right on the spot (even shelled out $2.99, which is something for the tightwad that I am). It was simply amazing how it worked, no guessing where constellations were or which stars made them up. It even pointed out the planets. For a second, we thought it was wrong when it pointed out Neptune instead of Jupiter for one bright spot, but upon zooming, the planets were actually almost right on top of one another. (Queue the music – the planets are aligned!)

Last week we went to a Halloween party where there was another bonfire. This one was really cool because they erected a structure over it holding a huge cauldron of ghost chili.

Unfortunately, this only an iPhone pic, but it was the real deal. You had to step into the fire pit to scoop out some piping hot chili, but it was well worth a bit of smoke in the eyes.

Chocolate, autumn leaves, bonfires, stars… Life is good! Except for the snow.

10/21/09 - Edited to add... No free chocolates were given to me for this post, but I would gladly take some!

PSF – Dova really plays soccer

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:17:00 +0000

Last year, we painfully endured Dova’s soccer season and vowed never to do it again. Of course we wanted it to be her decision, so in the spring we asked her if she wanted to play again. Thankfully, she said no. Even as she watched her brother play through the spring season, she had no interest in trying it again. In the middle of the summer, I got the last call email for fall registration and asked her one last time. She said yes. What? YES, MOM! We tried to talk her out of it, recalling all the troubles from last year, but she emphatically said yes, this time it will be different. Of course, I had no faith in her so I volunteered to be an assistant coach for her team. If I’m out on the field, she will have no excuse to loiter on the sidelines.

But miracles do happen. She was a completely new person this season, getting right out there at the beginning of each practice. She absolutely does know herself well! I think she was also thrilled to have “Coach Mom” on the field.

It also helped that she had some of her Kindergarten classmates on her team. She immediately bonded with her new friend over water.

There was even a boy from her class. Doug caught her flirting with him. Just look at that posture!

From what I hear, he is a bit of a troublemaker in school. She always seems to pick that type. We are going to be in so much trouble when she becomes a teenager!

The only thing about being coach Mom, is that I can’t sit on the sidelines with my huge camera (all these shots are courtesy of former coach Doug). For once, I am actually being there instead of being behind the lens. Mostly, we are just happy that she is finally enjoying herself at soccer. This season, she has even scored a few goals! We are so proud of you Dova!

Hosted by Cecily and Carissa

WW - Shiny Shiny, Necklace Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:10:00 +0000

Do these necklaces outshine last week's Shiny post from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum? This time I looked up many of these shiny beauties and updated the previous post.

Napoleon I Diamond Necklace
In 1811, Napoleon I gave this 275-carat diamond necklace to Empress Marie Louise to celebrate the birth of their son, the future king of Rome.

Spanish Inquisition Necklace
A sparkling emerald and diamond necklace of the Spanish Inquisition period.

The 98.6 Carat Bismark Sapphire
One of the world's largest, this 98.6 carat Bismark Sapphire is exceptionally large and well colored.

The Anna Case McKay Necklace
The 168-carat Columbian pendant of the Anna Case McKay necklace may be the largest fine-gem emerald that is set in a piece of jewelry.

My photographs outshine the ones in the links, if I do say so myself ... Complete with rushing from being jostled from other photographers claiming that I was cutting in line. It's a museum, people! I am a random access person!

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My Little Candy Corn

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:18:00 +0000

Like I have time to make Halloween costumes from scratch!

Check out my adventures in making this costume at BlogHer.

WW – Shiny Shiny

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:13:00 +0000

We flew through the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, but I just had to see all the shiny gems. Here are some of my favorites.

The Hope Diamond, of course.

The Hope Diamond is a famous, deep-blue diamond of 44.5 carats. It looked gray to me... It will have a new setting for a limited time soon!

Sapphire and diamond brooch. Couldn't find this one anywhere, it was one of my favorites!

Luminescent emerald brooch.

Hooker Emerald Brooch
The 75 carat Hooker Emerald Brooch was reputedly once part of the belt buckle of a Turkish sultan.

Giant sapphire, wow!

The 422.99-carat Logan Sapphire from Sri Lanka is the heaviest mounted gem in the National Gem Collection, and is framed in a brooch setting surrounded by twenty round brilliant-cut diamonds, totalling 16 carats. 423 carats?!?! I knew it was huge!

Fluorite gem, what beautiful colors!

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Beatlemania!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Since the magical day of 09.09.09 (number 9, number 9, number 9), nothing has been more prevalent in pop culture as the reemergence of The Beatles. I was tickled pink to be able review The Beatles: Rock Band and it was the perfect opportunity to introduce the kids to the Fab Four. Adam is nearly 9 years old and in third grade, the exact same age that Doug discovered The Beatles back in 1968. Back then, The Beatles were in their hey day, still recording albums. Doug was so absolute in his fandom that for years he felt that he was betraying them if he listened to another band.

Doug’s and my musical tastes completely differ (he is forever stuck in the 70’s) except when it comes to The Beatles. However, if you ask which songs of The Beatles we like, there are some overlaps, but many disagreements! Take Golden Slumbers (me) vs. Carry That Weight. Or Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help from My Friends (Doug) vs. I Want You (She’s So Heavy). I only started listening to The Beatles in earnest when the 1987 CD collection came out. I had the posters you see above prominently plastered in my apartment bedroom in graduate school. These albums are a combination of Doug’s and mine and those rockin’ kids are holding Doug’s Fender Telecaster Thinline and my Washburn electric bass (Doug is a real rocker, me not so much). Since then, I’ve added to my Beatles CD collection, still opting for used versions of the 1987 release, since I’m a cheapskate and need to cash in on everyone upgrading to the latest re-mastered versions.

When Doug and I were married 10 years ago, Doug picked a song to play with the band. It was The Beatles’ Back in the USSR. It was back in the days of film photography, so here’s a scan of the photograph. I told you he was a rocker! We were probably in the middle of singing the word ‘balalaikas’.

Nowadays, I’ve been blasting the entire Beatles collection from my iPod in the car. The kids are just lapping it all up, each with their favorite songs. Adam immediately latched onto Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and Paperback Writer. Dova loves Let It Be and Hey Jude. We’ve played Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds so many times on Rock Band that it’s become a bad dream for Doug. I tried to take a video of the kids rocking to Lucy while I was driving (bad Mommy!), but I messed up the buttons and only got a second. Still, you can see how they are rocking out.

I’m so glad to be able to share our musical past with the kids and that they can hear The Beatles on the radio like they are still around. If (when) we go to Las Vegas as a family, we are also definitely checking out Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE show.

Social Media for Small Business - What's It All About?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:25:00 +0000

If you're interested in starting a small business or have already started one and want to leverage the power of social media, you should to check out the free Hands On Small Business (#HOSB) sessions in October in November. If the idea of starting a website or that Twitter hashtag (#HOSB) leaves you scratching your head, fear no more, all will be explained!

Kirtsy and Microsoft Office Live are holding 100 FREE sessions in 20 cities about online and social media solutions that help entrepreneurs and small businesses. Christine Koh of Boston Mamas and yours truly will be teaching five sessions in the Boston area. We are excited to be part of this fun, hands on initiative!

Here are the Boston dates, locations and registration page:

Thursday, October 8th, 10:00am-12:00pm
Good Food Cafe
2378 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge, MA 02140

Saturday, October 17th, 2:00pm-4:00pm
Microsoft New England R&D Center
One Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142

Tuesday, October 20, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Microsoft New England R&D Center
One Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142

Thursday, November 5th, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Shift Communications
20 Guest Street, Suite 200 Brighton, MA 02135

Monday, November 9th, 1:00pm-3:00pm
Good Food Cafe
2378 Massachusetts Ave Cambridge, MA 02140

Christine and I will be at the first session together, and you can also see me on Saturday, October 17th and Monday, November 9th. Hope to see you there!

If you're outside the Boston area, check out all the cities that these sessions are offered and register here http://www.handsonsmallbusiness.com/

Atlanta, GA
Austin, TX
Boston, MA
Charlotte, NC
Chicago, IL
Columbus, OH
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Houston, TX
Little Rock, AR
Los Angeles / Orange County, CA
Miami, FL
New York, NY
Oklahoma City, OK
Portland, OR
Salt Lake City, UT
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Toronto, ON
Washington, DC

WW - Woodpecker sighting at the zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:48:00 +0000

We were walking outside of the bird section of the National Zoo in Washington DC and heard a rat-a-tat-tat-tat. We looked up and saw this red-bellied woodpecker.

Here's a close up:

He was definitely not on display. Perhaps he was visiting his avian brothers.

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How Do I Pay for This Test?

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:44:00 +0000

But first, the rant…

Earlier this month, I posted on BlogHer about paying for grades. When I was in school, I was paid a dollar for every perfect 100 test score that I brought home. It was my parents’ way of keeping me from slacking off at school. In the comments, I was flamed for promoting perfectionism and undermining self-esteem. PUH-LEEESE, you are talking to a person who went to MIT at 16 and expects her kids to go there as well (OK, I’ll allow the usual age of 18). Do I seem completely unbalanced, unhappy and lacking self-esteem from this apparently disgusting practice? (You tell me, there are over 5 years of blog posts to look back on.) OK, I admit that I am a perfectionist, but nowadays, I strive for perfect balance.

Apparently, all the other posts on BlogHer about paying for grades were against it and my post offered the only counterpoint. Hey, if you want to be all touchy-feely and find out “who you really are”, be “intrinsically motivated” and strive to be happy in mediocrity, be my guest. I expect excellence and the desire to improve oneself. Did I need a kick in my pants to do better in school? You bet! Do you think I expected in a million years that I would be going to MIT at 16? Never!! Only my parents believed that I could. Truly, they knew my potential far better than I ever did. In my deepest self, I am still a slacker, but I know how to pull up the bootstraps when I need to thanks to the extra carrot I had growing up (as well as the firehouse education that MIT was).

The only consolation is that when my twitter feed posted on facebook, a bunch of my friends came back and said that they totally paid for grades. I am glad to have like-minded friends in real life (plus my bloggy friend Mel, but it’s like I know her IRL).

I haven’t instituted any paying for grades for Adam yet, who is now in 3rd grade. But I chuckled when he brought this home.

This is the second spelling test in a row (of as many) that he came back with a more-than-perfect score of 105. How am I supposed to pay for that? Trust me, he already feels bad when he comes home with a less than perfect score, and not because we berate him (intrinsically motivated, woo hoo!). At this rate, he won’t be needing pay for grades. That’s my boy! We are so proud of you!

Hosted by Mommy Community.

PSF - Off With Her Hair!

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:27:00 +0000

About a year ago, Mommy's Martini had a lovely post about cutting her hair and donating it to Locks of Love. I knew several other people who have done this as well, and thought, this is something that I can easily do. My hair is extremely thick, grows like crazy and I have LOTS of it. At the time, it was just past my shoulders. I don't really like having short-short hair, so I needed to grow it a bit to get the minimum ten inches. Around February this year, I had a trim because it was getting a bit scraggly, but then I let it grow until now.

In high school, I had very long hair, so long that I could sit on it.

Back then, I didn't mind having long hair, it was cool and unique. Pulling hair out of my clothes when I got dressed meant flipping it out of my bra, shirt and pants. I could never wear a t-shirt with an image on the back because it would be completely covered. Once I got a huge rat's nest in the back which I just brushed over so it was hidden underneath. Before college, I cut it all off. Went to the salon, put it in a big braid and chopped it right off. I stored the braid in my drawer at home for a few years, not knowing what to do with it. Finally, I tossed it because it seemed kinda creepy to keep it around. If only Locks of Love were around back then!

This time around, growing my hair long drove me bonkers. Over the summer, I kept feeling my hair against the back of my arms like someone was tickling me. I would put it in a ponytail, but it was so heavy that it dropped to the base of my hairline. It looked an old hippie ponytail and not a cute ponytail. Plus it draped on my back or over my shoulder like a small animal and made me hot, defeating the purpose of putting it up. When I let my hair dry naturally, it would completely soak the back and sometimes the front of my shirt. It was time. Here are the obligatory before and after photos:

Despite the advances in camera technology, I look completely unfabulous 26 years later!! Here's how the process went.

My hairdresser made four ponytails so that afterward the sections would be of even length. She braided the 11" ponytails.

When she snapped these pictures, she said I looked like Pocahontas. Pocahontas?!? That is definitely NOT the look I'm going for. Then snip, snip, snip, snip, they were all chopped off.

Here are the braids. Yes, all of them from one head of hair.

My hair feels so much lighter now, I figured I lost at least a pound of hair. I weighed the braids on an analytical balance and it was only 2.5 ounces. Two and a half ounces?? It felt like two and half pounds on my head!!

I feel completely liberated in my short hair and I barely have to flip my hair out of my shirt when I get dressed. Most people noticed at work and were happy to hear that I had donated it. When I mailed off the hair, I saw on the donation form that it takes $1000 to sponsor a Locks of Love child. Since I wanted to make sure that my hair would be used, I pitched in some money as well. If you can, please donate to Locks of Love!!

And now, Dova has the longest hair in the family.

By the way, did you notice the "Coach" on my shirt? That's a whole 'nother story...

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

WW - Return to the Cliff Walk at Newport, RI

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:51:00 +0000

Doug and I managed to get away overnight to beautiful Newport, RI to celebrate our 10th anniversary.

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Dova masters the monkey bars

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:33:00 +0000

Never in all my life have I been able to go across the monkey bars under my own power. I was amazed when Adam did it a few years ago and now I'm completely astounded that Dova can. They obviously get their upper body strength from Doug and not me. Here she is at age five, on her first day of Kindergarten, going completely across the monkey bars.

And for a monkey encore, she flipped over on the bar.

That's my little monkey gymnast!

Hosted by Karen at 3 Garnets and 2 Sapphires.

Happy 100,000 visits

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:25:00 +0000

I only check my referral stats occasionally, but when mommy bytes hit 100,000 visits, I did want to pause and say, "Thanks for visiting, University of Wisconsin, Madison!" (even though you stayed for 0 seconds).

Back when I started this blog in the blogging dark ages, I would watch my numbers creep up a few ticks a week. Now with social networking, the blogging community, and all the wonderful organizations that I am affiliated with (BlogHer and kirtsy in particular), I can actually watch the live Feedjit stream and see people come onto the site in real time. When Knitted Kitties was stumbled in February, I had nearly 2500 visits in ONE DAY and I was in complete awe of the power of the internetz. It was really cool watching Feedjit that day, where people were coming on every second. Of course I've said before that StumbleUpon is like a blind date, all hype and no substance. You can see the exponential decline after the first Stumble day (over-analysis has always been my strong suit). I took the screen shot early on Saturday so that the decline was not that dramatic.

Here are the details on the 100,000th visit. I find it interesting that people are still using 1024x768 resolution, so I've kept the blog template to fit in that size. It's also a requirement that I use for my user interface programming at work. Despite the 30" monitors that some of our customers have, there will always be someone with a low-res laptop (including my blasted Lenovo T60 at work) who will be using my software.

mommy bytes
By Details > Visit Detail
Visit 100,000

Domain Name

wisc.edu ^? (Educational)

IP Address

72.33.63.# (University of Wisconsin Madison)

ISP

University of Wisconsin Madison

Location

Continent	:	North America
Country	:	United States (Facts)
State	:	Wisconsin
City	:	Madison
Lat/Long	:	43.0761, -89.4104 (Map)
Distance	:	901 miles

Language

English (U.S.)
en-us

Operating System

Microsoft WinXP

Browser

Firefox
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.3) Gecko/20090824 3P_UVRM/1.00.1 Firefox/3.5.3

Javascript

version 1.5

Monitor

Resolution	:	1024 x 768
Color Depth	:	32 bits

Time of Visit

Sep 21 2009 2:25:50 pm

Last Page View

Sep 21 2009 2:25:50 pm

Visit Length

0 seconds

Page Views

Referring URL

http://betwittered.c...rror_tracker.js,EWuB

Visit Entry Page

http://www.mommybyte...rograms-scratch.html

Visit Exit Page

http://www.mommybyte...rograms-scratch.html

Out Click

Time Zone

UTC-6:00

Visitor's Time

Sep 21 2009 1:25:50 pm

Visit Number

100,000

Enough blabbering... Thanks for all the visits from all of you (and you and you). I really appreciate it!

Tuesday Toot - Adam Programs Scratch

noreply@blogger.com (Angela) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:28:00 +0000

Photos courtesy of Catherine Seo.

Several months ago, we attended a meeting of BostonCHI (computer human interface) where they discussed the MIT Scratch programming language and web community. Evelyn Eastmond presented the philosophy behind the creating this programming language for young people ages 8 and up. You can create interactive stories, animation, games music and art and share them on the web. Since Adam is eight years old, I figured I would take my pocket nerd with me.
There were a few kids there, but he was the youngest to attend. Adam had no interest in the presentation so he spent his whole time programming. I was also a bit distracted, texting with Quentin who had invited us and sat a few rows back. Since I had already tried Scratch, I was already somewhat familiar with it. But there were a few things that I learned during the presentation and quickly passed on to Adam. Then the group had some hands-on time where Evelyn checked in our progress.

Evelyn Eastmond checks in on Adam's work.

Afterwards, she invited all the kids that attended to show their work. There was an eleven and ten year old that went before us. They had a neat animation of their name and a spiraling animated character. Then Adam was up. He was hardly as tall as the podium.

Please look at Adam, not his wild-haired mom.

Since he had been programming for a good 45 minutes, his project completely wowed the audience. The toughest part was figuring out how to make the trampoline say “Ouch!” only when the car bounced on it. It would say ouch after the first hit and then stay that way as the car bounced on the trampoline. But we figured it out together.

He definitely had the most complicated project there, probably even for the adults. It was awesome! You can check out his bouncing car project online at scratch.mit.edu as well. Press the green flag and then the space bar to start the animation. I am so glad that he got my programming gene. I'm one step closer at getting him into MIT.

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