Clever Parents Blogs

Barbie's Personal Image Consultant

Dear Carrie: It’s been reported lately, most notably in the Wall Street Journal, that Mattel has had some trouble lately because of slumping sales in its flagship line, Barbie. In order to get the company back on track, Mattel wants to give Barbie a makeover due to lost sales to The Bratz. How would you makeover Barbie, Carrie?

Oh, Barbie. Bless your heart.  It's hard to compete with The Bratz when you're 46.   

I think this is what they call a mid-life crisis.  You spent so many years dating a man who may or may not have loved you back (we all know he didn't love Skipper, just her boyfriend).  You've had over 80 careers.  You worked tirelessly as a doctor, an astronaut, a businesswoman, a police officer, a UNICEF volunteer, and an athlete (a World Cup soccer player, no less). You were a firefighter, the Princess of Ireland, and even a Presidential candidate.   You did all this and more all while maintaining a 39-23-33 figure. No wonder no one likes you anymore.

Barbie,  what you need is a transformation that rivals Sandy's from Grease. Remember sweet, demure Sandy?  By the end of the school year, she had discovered skin-tight leather, big hair, and really, really high heels.

Maybe that¹s all you need, but just in case that doesn't work out for you, here are a few tips to ensure you'll soon be popular once more.

• First off, ditch the Corvette for an Escalade. Make sure it has some
  24" wheels, too.  Tivo a few episodes of "Pimp My Ride" on MTV for ideas on
  getting yourself hooked up with some quality transportation every little
  girl would envy.
• You are straight-up loaded.  Buy yourself a first-class ticket to Italy and make a date to get some new threads made just for you.  I can't think of a single store that accommodates your measurements anyway.  Forget ready-to-wear ­ you need to be all about haute couture.  You were into it once, remember?  Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Vera Wang ­ you wore it all. Remember how nice you looked then?
• Find yourself a new man, one who is ready to commit.  43 years of dating Ken and you never did make it to the altar.  Granted, marriage isn't for everyone, but we all know it's what you wanted.
• Let's be honest here.  The beginning of the end for you was your pal, the MC Hammer doll.  Maybe now you could share some new friends with the world ­ 50 Cent, Orlando Bloom, a couple of Backstreet BoysŠ You get where I'm going with this, don't you?  And by the way, I know you and Jude Law are tight as ticks, but let's not showcase that until this whole drama with the nanny dies down. You have enough image problems as it is.

If it doesn't work out, sugar, don't let it get you down.  You've done it all anyway.   Take some classes at the local community college.  Get back to
gardening.  Rediscover the joy of riding in your camper (if it still runs). Aging isn't easy, Barbie, but just think ­only 9 short years till you get your AARP card (and a great discount at the cafeteria).  Who needs popularity when you get that kind of recognition?

Live Out Loud

"LIVE OUT LOUD" my mother used to say.  Now we are living in Mexico!!!  Did she think I took that statement a bit too far?  Too late to turn back now.  We are in the throws of mariachi music, auto races with cattle in the middle of the road, no baby car seats (for the local folk….),  sombreros, great food, palm trees, sunshine almost every day, and espanol everywhere. 

After extensive research regarding my husband’s job opportunity and the medical services here in Cabo San Lucas, we jumped into the Mexican lifestyle.  Anticipation, doubt, excitement, fear, and curiosity were all parts of our moving process.  These same feelings would no doubt arise even with just a trip abroad with your child.

Abroad travel holds all sorts of questions especially when dealing with a one year old.  We chose to wait until after our son’s first birthday and 12 month shots to move him down to the Baja.  We have lived here in Mexico since February 2005.  We have been back to the states twice.  I will explore those trips with you soon.  Funny and educational travel ideas to come.

WHEW.  What a time in our lives.  Our little one, Christopher, handled the transition surprisingly well.  As a traveling parent, staying calm and taking it day by day proved priceless.  Little Groove Man lived out of the pack and play for several months until the "Mexican Move" AKA "Slow Move" had our crib here.  No big deal for him. Children are sturdy little creatures, bending and molding to new environments constantly.  At times I think we underestimate a child’s abilities to adapt.  New foods, new friends, new weather, new telephone numbers…all easily accepted by the one year old. 

Jump on in.  Don’t be afraid to travel abroad with your child, but my number one advice is to do your research.  Can you drink the water, what immunizations are needed for your particular country visit, what age is appropriate for what trip, what emergency facilities are there, those being just the beginning questions to ask.  Travel insurance is always a nice backup plan also.  Relatively speaking it is affordable to losing your entire trip cost.

We are prepared with this information for our children at home; just make sure to do the same preparedness when traveling outside of the country.

We miss you America, but we are learning what we can down here about our Mexican neighbors.  Enjoy your time with your bambinos and more to come soon from your Cabo Corner.  We hope to help you in your child traveling adventures.  Adios amigos.

Big Wheel and the Streaker

I don't feel very clever today.  I'm really struggling over here.  I keep sitting down to add on to what I've written and it's just not happening. Come to think of it, I could probably tell you why I'm NOT clever.  All from the past two days, too.

• Reid figured out how to turn the key in the lock, let himself out, and got on his big wheel in the driveway before I realized where he was (this took at most 30 seconds).
• Prior to this, Reid figured out that he could untangle himself from the safety belt in his high chair and stand up in the chair, thereby giving him great access to a countertop in the kitchen (above which lives our crystal goblets and 2 fish, among other things).  All this was accomplished as I was unloading the dishwasher five feet away.  Talk about quiet.
• Lilly pretended like she was Swiper the Fox and hid my shoes and my earrings. Found the earrings, have no clue where my shoes are.
• I neatly folded all of Reid's pants and put them in a drawer in his dresser.  He not-so-neatly opened up the drawer and threw them all over his room.
• Lilly very politely asked me for some fruit snacks, which she then took to her room and used to decorate.
• Lilly's friend Davis brought a box of crayons over.  Somehow said crayons ended up in my living room, and Reid got his paws on one and colored my coffee table.  Did I mention these crayons are not the washable kind?
• I took Lilly and Reid for a walk this afternoon with my friend Alison and her baby, Sam. Sam and Lilly were angels.  Reid threw a screaming fit for three-quarters of the walk.  Bonus:  we didn't surprise anyone in front of us.  They could all hear us from half a mile away.
• Reid figured out how to unscrew the cap on a bottle in our recycling bin. Outside.  Then he tried to drink the few drops of Fresca that remained in the bottle.  Not very sanitary, but better than the dog bowl.  I think.
• Our neighbor rang the doorbell right before bathtime to bring us some muffins she'd made.  I had stripped Reid down to a diaper when I heard the doorbell and ran to see who was there.  He chased after me, but only after he had ditched his diaper.  He streaked by my neighbor and her six-year-old, then hopped on his big wheel and tried to ride down the driveway.  Thank the lord it was dark and my next-door neighbors weren't home. 
• I'm starting to understand why my brain doesn't work very well.  I'm also starting to see that I sound like a deadbeat mother who doesn't pay attention to her ankle biters.   

- Carrie, loving mom to Lilly, 3.5 and Reid, 20 months

Healthy FAST Family Meal Ideas

I'm not one to buy from telemarketers. In fact, I'm usually the one who cuts them off (nicely enough) and says good-bye. Something about the one who called me a few weeks ago kept me listening. Maybe it was that he was calling on behalf of Cooking Light magazine that I subscribe to, at any rate I bought his wares and received the book soon after the call.

The book is from Weight Watchers and is called '5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook.' The most surprising thing about it? The title is correct - easy, fast meals that are healthy. The part they don't say? The meals taste REALLY good. Like the Grouper Athenian (grouper, spinach, tomato, feta and Greek seasoning) that cooks in 9 minutes, or the mouth watering Balsamic Pork Chops made with lemon-herb seasoning, balsamic vinegar, chicken broth and pork chops that my husband loves. It's easily my favorite cookbook and the one that I actually use to plan my grocery trips. I can't say enough good about it. You can look for the best price and buy the book through www.fetchbook.info.

National Institutes of Health launch ‘We Can!’ prevent childhood obesity

National obesity rates are staggering and childhood obesity is a part of the problem. A new program launched June 1st by the National Institute of Health plans to help parents teach their children to live healthier lives through nutrition education, exercise, and limitation of recreational screen time.

“Sixteen percent of children in the United States are carrying around excess weight — that’s 9 million children who are at increased risk for chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and asthma,” US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said at the June 1st Environmental Solutions to Obesity in America’s Youth conference organized by the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, calling childhood obesity a public health crisis.

You can download free ‘We Can!’ materials including fact sheets in English and in Spanish on the importance of weight-bearing physical activity for the building of strong bones, a Media-Smart Youth program, which is designed to teach young people the skills they need to critically evaluate media messages, specifically those about nutrition and physical activity, and a brochure for parents, part of the Milk Matters campaign, explaining the importance of calcium to the overall health of children.

The core of the program focuses on helping parents teach their children to:

• Eat a sufficient amount of a variety of fruits and vegetables per day
• Choose small portions at home and at restaurants
• Eat fewer high-fat foods and energy-dense foods that are low in nutrient value such as French fries, bacon, and doughnuts
• Substitute water or fat-free or low-fat milk for sweetened beverages such as sodas
• Engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate physical activity on most, preferably all, days of the week
• Reduce recreational screen time to no more than two hours per day

A study published in the June 2005 online journal Pediatrics supports the parent-guided education approach, showing that children ages 8 to 10 who were enrolled in a behaviorally oriented nutrition education program with their parents and were taught to follow a diet low in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol reported switching from calorie-dense and high-fat foods to foods that were lower in saturated fat, total fat, and dietary cholesterol. The children in the intervention adopted significantly better dietary habits over several years compared to their peers who received only general nutritional information. Interestingly, intake of fruits and vegetables by all of the children participating in the study was still low.

The NIH will spend about $440 million this year on a wide range of research on childhood obesity.

AAP summer safety tips

Summertime is almost here! As a parent, that also means the sweet smell of sunscreen and the patter of little feet running to escape the attack. To help protect your tots from all sorts of summer hazards, the American Academy of Pediatrics has published a series of summer safety tips to keep in mind.

From the obvious to the less-so, these tips cover a myriad of things you can do to prevent injury to your little ones. From avoiding heat stress in exercising children to pool, bug, bicycle, playground and lawn mower safety... these tips are worth your review.

FIRST LEGO League World Festival underway in Atlanta this weekend

25,000 of tomorrow’s engineers and mad scientists descended on the Georgia Dome in Atlanta this weekend.  The reason: a competition sponsored by FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) that challenges these young geniuses to build robots out of Legos. The robots, built using Lego Mindstorms technology, are put through the paces in nine tasks like climbing stairs. The winner is the team that is able to guide their robot to complete the tasks in the shortest amount of time. These are clearly not the Legos we played with when we were young…

The competition and FIRST were the brainchild of serial inventor Dean Kamen who invented the Segway Human Transporter and numerous medical inventions.  The purpose of the event, like all others from FIRST, is to raise the profile of science, math, engineering and technology by making them as cool as sports for today’s kids while highlighting the positive social impact of these fields.  The underlying theme of this year’s competition was helping people with disabilities.

Given the increasing importance of science and technology in our lives (not too mention the fun these kids seem to be having), encouraging the next generation of Bill Gates and Thomas Edisons seems like a very good idea.  We’re personally looking forward to robotic knees to replace our worn down ones…

Fast and healthy meals for the whole family

Looking for the perfect meal for your toddler? Join the club. As a healthy mom, I think I eat pretty well. I watch my fat intake, make healthy selections when we’re at restaurants, at home I watch portions and have a lifestyle and habits that tend to migrate towards the healthy… and now that I have babies I want to make sure that they have the absolute best start in life by eating good foods from day one. I breastfed my first son and now nurse my eight week old, I made my own baby food so that my son would be allowed the freshest of ingredients. Now that he’s graduated to ‘real-people’ food, I want to continue in that vein.

What I’d like to see is a repository for healthy and easy dishes for families. I don’t want to have to make different meals for my babies than for my husband and me. But it seems hard to come up with regular healthy meals that don’t feel like I’m repeating myself all the time. Here are a few of the meals that we eat pretty regularly… as well as some web sites with relatively extensive healthy meal suggestions… enjoy.

Breakfast:

• Scrambled egg whites with one or more of the following: sautéed scallions, peppers, spinach, reduced fat cheese, Canadian bacon
• Breakfast burritos (we use low carb whole wheat tortillas) with some egg form (i.e. like what’s mentioned above)
• French toast (w/ low carb bread)
• Whole wheat waffles, Boca sausage
• Of course, we also always offer fruit of some sort (pineapple, orange, apple, kiwi, grapes, etc.) and usually offer yogurt (don’t you love ‘yo-baby’?). Check out Stonyfield’s recipe site for a pretty comprehensive list of recipes for everything from breads to desserts, breakfasts to main dishes and smoothies. (All of which mysteriously include yogurt as an ingredient) ;-)

Lunch / Dinner:

• Sautéed or grilled veggies (broccoli, orange/red peppers, onions)
• sautéed spinach w/ garlic and onions
• Boca burgers - whose recipe site lets you browse recipes by product (i.e. Boca burger, Boca sausage, etc. or by meal … breakfast, snacks and lunch/dinner)
• Grilled meat (salmon, steak, pork chops, etc.)
• Mexican lasagna - this meal is really good – and you can find several good recipes on the main site, Meal Makeover Moms.com as well as order their book, The Moms' Guide to Meal Makeovers which claims to 'tackle what’s wrong with today’s all-American diet and offers realistic and delicious ways to improve it.'
• Black beans
• The old standby… grilled cheese on whole wheat (add avocado or tomato for a twist)

If you’re looking for someone to do the planning work for you, you may want to check out the six o’clock scramble site. Aviva Goldfarb has created a web site that includes easy dinner recipes for busy families. If you subscribe to her site, you receive five ‘flavorful and healthy dinner recipes with side dish suggestions’ emailed to you each week, easy to prepare dinners in 30 minutes or less most with fewer than 10 ingredients, along with an organized grocery list. For $5 a month, this may be the answer for you…

Happy healthy eating!

Did Enron and WorldCom wreck the Pediatric Vaccine Stockpile?

In a story that sounds like a repeat of last winter’s flu vaccine shortage, the Washington Post reported in a story that the federal government admitted recently that the Pediatric Vaccine Stockpile, designed to prevent shortages of the 8 shots that prevent against 11 childhood diseases, is desperately low.  In fact, there are no doses for 2 of the shots.

Some of the contributors to this shortage might surprisingly be the corporate villains of the last few years.  No, Bernie Ebbers and Ken Lay didn’t steal any vaccine (at least, they haven’t been formally charged with that…) but their alleged shenanigans led the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to crack down on bad accounting.  This crackdown led to a change in the way companies can recognize revenues and that is hurting the Vaccine Stockpile. 

As part of the program, vaccine manufacturers would sell the federal government millions of doses of vaccine and then keep the vaccine in their warehouses until the government requested it.  As the vaccines expired, the companies would replenish them.  In the past, those companies could recognize revenue when the vaccines were sold to the government, not when the government actually took possession of them.  Now however, auditors are saying that revenue can’t be recognized until the government actually takes possession of the vaccines.  This means that vaccine providers must set aside and warehouse doses today that they might not be able to claim as sales for several years.  The prospect of all the upfront work and hassle with only a future shot at revenue is hardly appealing to any company. 

According to the Post, representatives from the CDC (which manages the program), the SEC, and the vaccine companies are in discussions with ending this impasse.  For a more in-depth look at the problems and some of the proposed solutions, read the status report from Eddie Wilder, the Project Officer, Pediatric Vaccine Stockpile.  If this drags on, expect political fireworks over the issue…