We bought a potty today for Braxton. He says “potty” a lot. He knows where the potty is. He occasionally tells us when he’s going “pee pee” or “poop.” I honestly don’t know if he’s ready. But if he is, we’ve got the equipment!

In the meantime, enjoy this little ditty from Elmo about pottying. And please leave your best advice in the comments.

One of the best ways to stay connected with your children in this hectic world is to read together.

When you need a quiet, calming story, I would highly recommend “The Very Quiet Cricket” by Eric Carle. The title character is a newly-born cricket who tries to communicate with other creatures, but when “he rubbed his wings together, nothing happened, not a sound.” The story has a happy ending with a twist: an attentive listener hears cricket chirps as the last page is turned.

For rowdier times, my new favorite picture book is Karen Beaumont’s “I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More! .” The pictures are hilarious, as the child narrator proceeds to decorate his body from head to “What?!” and the story can be read or sung (to the tune of “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No More”). Children love to fill in the missing rhymes; when I used the book in my school library, I had an entire class of second graders singing and shouting along with me.

Grab one of these stories, or anything that you think will catch your child’s fancy, snuggle together in a chair or hammock, and enjoy a special kind of togetherness.

In our rushed and stressful culture, there is still a need for courtesy, kindness, and good manners.

Children should learn at a very early age, that certain situations require certain behaviors.

Listening without interrupting, following directions and respecting property are important concepts that can be introduced and reinforced at home long before they are necessary in a classroom setting.

Family game nights and casual play dates are the time to stress sharing, taking turns, and playing well with others.

Dining out presents different challenges. Even in a fast-food emporium, little ones should understand that excessive noise and throwing items is not O.K. Restaurant dinners with an extended family group don’t have to be an ordeal if adults plan ahead. I always packed a small snack (Cheerios or crackers) and a book or paper & crayons to help my kids cope with the long wait between ordering and eating. My husband and I agreed ahead of time how to handle over-excited or over-tired toddlers. Usually one of us would go outside to soothe a son or daughter who’d had enough of grown-up conversation.

Once our children were older, we set some “Dining with Grandparents” ground rules. For my son: no baseball caps, since the sight of men and boys wearing hats while eating really offends Grandma. For my daughter: a loose dress code. She didn’t have to suffer in “fancy” clothes, just appear in neater versions of her everyday wear. Grandpa had his own rule: children could order whatever they wanted from the menu, as long as they ate it [which is how all of the grandkids acquired an early taste for Lobster tails!]

It’s true that the world is changing and our concept of “good manners” is changing with it. But there will always a place for consideration and tact. In the home, in the school, in the business world, you still need to mind your manners.

As Diane wrote about friends and moms needing Girls’ Nights Out last week, I just HAD to share about my girly night of wine and the new Sex and The City movie last night! As all of the men reviewing the movie seem to agree, it’s a chick flick of the top degree, so do NOT listen to any review by a man - seriously. I have to admit that I’m a die-hard Sex and The City fan and my best friend and I used to rent the season dvds over and over and over again whenever we were visiting one another (she was in Atlanta for 5 years - we had lots of time to make up when we DID get together!) Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see the movie with Suzanne last night, but I did get to go with one of my wonderful local girlfriends and we had a glass of wine and chatted for a while before the movie. Here’s my short and sweet (no spoiler) review of Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda’s latest adventure:

I. Loved. It.

It was everything this SATC fan wanted to see and so much more. Yes, it was rather dramatic and over-the-top in some parts, but this movie NEEDS to be like this - it’s the last installment of a legacy! It was one of those movies where the audience as laughing and crying and cheering along with the movie - my friend and I left and just kept saying, “it was PERFECT!” and so on. Sigh. It, of course, brought back all of MY memories of watching the show with friends, so that definitely impacted my feelings about the movie - I guess I can’t really tell you what I would have thought if I hadn’t already been a huge fan of the show. As for the sex part of the SATC movie, well, no-holds-barred. It was as HBO as HBO or even more so - NOT a movie for young girls to see with mom, by any means!

I’ll say it again - I. LOVED. IT.

I definitely need those nights of being off mom duty more often…………….

*no spoilers in the comments please, I know some moms aren’t as fortunate as I was to get to go on the first night!

More superwomen joining our ranks….we’re just about set for world domination with this crew!

Amy Giampetroni

Amy Giampetroni is a thirty-something, happily married, PAC Manager-turned-stay-at-home mom from southeastern Wisconsin. As wife to forty-something Dan, stepmother to 12 year-old stepdaughter Alexis, “real” mom to 5 year-old son Angelo, and “dog mom” to 7 year-old yellow Lab Josie, Amy’s BA in Psychology and Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin – Madison comes in very handy.

Amy became a stepmom after marrying Dan in June of 2000, when Alexis was just 4-years-old. Suffice it to say that being initiated into parenthood by way of someone else’s preschooler, who is only with her and Dan every other weekend, proved to be an interesting challenge with unique rewards, all of which prepared her well for becoming a real card-carrying mom to her son Angelo in May of 2003. To add another twist to the picture, Amy and Dan are also trying for another baby.

Since college, Amy has worked full-time in association management, pharmaceutical sales, and – most recently - in the legal and government affairs areas of a top national distributor to the Long Term Care industry. Prior to becoming a stay-at-home mom, Amy worked as a Political Action Committee Manager, having created and run her employer’s very successful political action committee for nearly four years. Amy loved her job and took great pride in her work, but in 2007 her son’s chronic health problems ultimately forced her to make the change to being a full-time at-home mom, something she had wanted to do for a long time. Much to everyone’s relief, Angelo’s health improved 100%, and Amy and her husband were pleased to find that their lives in general became much more peaceful and enjoyable by removing Amy’s demanding career from the picture. Nonetheless, with Angelo starting full-day kindergarten in the fall of 2008, Amy will be returning to the workforce on a part-time basis in some capacity.

In her free time, Amy is an avid reader, and enjoys working out, knitting, spending time with family and friends, traveling, antiquing, movies and dining out.

Amy is thrilled to be joining This Mommy Gig, as writing has long been a passion and hobby of hers. Toward that end, she began work on her first novel in 2007 and hopes to be ready to shop it around in the fall of 2008. Amy also started her own blog – Average Everyday Super Woman - in January of 2008. In addition, Amy joined a group of aspiring Milwaukee-area writer moms seeking freelance writing opportunities in May of 2008. If anyone has any good tips or contacts for Amy, or if you just want to say hello, please email her at amygiampetroni at gmail dot com.

Laura Thomas

Laura P. Thomas is mother to 5 (and a half!) year old Anna, and wife of 12 years to Mark. They live with a hyperactive Terrier/Heeler name Lilo in Austin, Texas, because it’s just such a super-cool city. The “P” stands for Pevehouse, her maiden name, and she uses it for a couple of reasons. One is that both Laura and Thomas are very common names. Google it and you’ll get a real estate agent in Los Angeles, but Google it with the “P” and you’ll find this Laura. The other reason is that even though she grew tired of constantly spelling Pevehouse for people only to hear them say “Oh, just like it sounds”, she’s actually quite proud to be a Pevehouse from the middle of nowhere in northeast Louisiana.

Working around Dell for more than seven years, Laura has built a background in the areas of corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, branding and online communication. She is currently part of the Global Online group and is responsible for the home page of Dell.com, as well as all Dell.com content from Investor Relations, Corporate Communications and other corporate functions. She assisted with the creation of the Direct2Dell blog and is a somewhat-regular contributor. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in Second Life. Every time she’s in-world from home, her daughter thinks it’s time to play virtual dolls, and wants to change her avatar’s hair and clothing.

Laura is proud to have earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and to have received her News/Editorial Journalism degree from Louisiana State University. (Geaux Tigers!) If she had more time, she would spend it reading, traveling around the world and writing; so, her dream job would be to have someone actually pay her to travel to exotic locales and write about it! Until then, she will satisfy her need to explore by diving into all the latest social media trends. You can find her in Second Life as Pyrrha Dell, on Twitter as LPT, in Facebook as Laura P Thomas, on brightkite as LPT and on LinkedIn as laurapthomas.

Kymberli Mulford is the proud mom of a grade-schooler and high-schooler in the Chicago suburbs, and the proud grandmother of her now-grown stepson’s four children. When she’s not shuttling her sons from one activity to another, she works in the world of educational technology – as a district administrator, a learning facilitator, a consultant, and as a blogger at Onionskin. For more of Kymberli’s “mom” posts click here!

I’m a mom, but I was a teacher long before that, and this memory from my classroom comes back to me each year at about this time. Good thing…

One hot California morning in May, I perched on an empty student desk and spent a few spare moments chatting about nothing in particular with my fifth and sixth graders.

“So, what are you guys looking most forward to doing, once school is out next week?”

“Sleeping.” (Laughter. I smiled and nodded.)

“Watching TV.” (General sounds of agreement.)

“Staying up late.” (Oh, yeah!)

“Playing video games all day.” (BIG agreement from group.)

(Silence.)

“What else?”

(Silence.)

“Um, well… that’ll take me all summer.” (Laughter.)

“No, really…”

(Silence.)

“Well, um, like after about the first couple weeks, I’m bored.”

Those last two words are like nails on a chalkboard to me. I was raised in a home in which there were plenty of books, games, craft materials, toys, etc. that I swear that I never even thought to utter those two words. (I just checked. Parents confirmed that I never said those words in my entire life.) Granted, the socio-economic status of the kids in my classroom did not offer that range of activities, or even the forethought on their parents’ part. But the concept of all of these bright kids whining “Mom, I’m bored…” in a few weeks made my skin crawl.

“Oh, come on. There must be something else you want to do.”

“Not really. I don’t drive yet.” (Laughter.)

“Yeah, and I’m broke.” (More laughter.)

“Oh, wait! I know this one! You want us to READ all summer!” (Even I laughed aloud at this one, although I secretly wished they would take that more seriously…)

“I can’t do anything. My mom always makes me watch my little brothers and sisters.”

“OK. That’s it. Your homework assignment for tomorrow….” (Groans…) “Is to come up with five things that you can do when you’re bored with the things we already mentioned.”

“With or without my brothers and sisters?” (Laughter.)

“Excellent point! Let’s categorize these.” (Groans.)

My students came up with the following groupings:

• Things I can do on my own, or prefer to do alone

• Things that I like doing with a friend

• Things that I can do to entertain a younger brother or sister

• Things I would like to do with my mom, dad, aunt, etc.

• Things that have to be done outside

• Things that have to be done inside

• Fun places I’d like to go (that aren’t too far away and don’t cost a lot of money)

They agreed that each of them could come up with at least one item for each category. (Several had five or six jotted down for each category before they left school that day.) We planned to compile our lists the next day and come up with one magnificent solution to the monotony of the long, hot weeks ahead.

In the end, that group came up with a total of 186 things to do, and we published our first “Mom, I’m Bored” Book, which each child took home – a now seemingly clunky publication with early clipart images and funny fonts that kids love. (Hey! This was done in the days before internet! It was “high tech” for that era!)

I have since spearheaded this activity with over a hundred classrooms and suggested it to countless mommies at playgroups in the spring months. I’ve done it as a substitute teacher in England (although there I was referred to as a “teacher on supply”) and have created a class wiki rather than a printed publication recently. I invite you to take the idea and run with it, in whatever direction you wish.

A few suggestions, before you begin, though…

• When you’re brainstorming with the kids, don’t eliminate any ideas. List them and see if they can’t be modified to something more reasonable later, or moved into a whole new category. With really little kids, “Go to Disneyland” seems just as reasonable as “Go bowling with Daddy.” Just move it to a new list of “Far Away Places We Should Think About Going…”

• Adjust your categories to fit your needs. My fifth and sixth graders were admittedly on the brink of more independence than your own 3-year-old and 6-year-old are. When I first did this activity with my own 4-year-old at home, we made a whole category of “Things I Can Do with a Bigger Kid’s Help.” I promptly employed the 8-year-old neighbor for a couple of hours a week at a ridiculously low $1.00 per hour. Results? My son gained a new “friend” to look up to and play with while I got an hour here and there to do stuff around the house. I got hundreds of wonderful watercolor paintings and clay sculpture masterpieces. And my neighbor kid became my new “Mommy’s Helper.” (Guess who became my very best babysitter several years later?)

• Do think about how you want to publish the results. Sometimes, I sent the “booklet” home with my students. (Have I mentioned how many thank-you notes I got from parents for this over the years?) Sometimes, I printed the categories on separate pages in big, bold fonts and made them available in the necessary places. “Things I can do on my own” might be a nice addition to a child’s bedroom door, if books and activities are available in her room. “Things that I like doing with a friend” was most effective in our playroom or where the outdoor toys were stored in the garage.

• Most importantly… No really, I mean it… Don’t publish or post the list immediately. Wait until the third week of summer, when you hear for the first time that whiny, tired phrase, “Mom… I’m bored….”

• Newer Moms: Don’t think that this is just for bigger kids. So what if your kids are toddlers and don’t read yet? Take photos of them with their favorite toys and activities and make these into a small picture book! It’s immensely powerful when they can excitedly point to a picture of themselves blowing bubbles or doing sidewalk chalk scribbles. You provide the language and the opportunity to recreate that moment.

Bottom line: Harness the anticipation of summer! Use it to fuel the fires of creativity! And for those of you who are doubting that you’ll need a list of any sort to keep your kids occupied over the summer, know that one of my own kids’ favorite activities at the end of the summer is going BACK through the list and marking off all of the things that they were able to do, all the things that they anticipated being able to do once the time constraints of the school year disappeared. When a family friend or teacher asks them, “What did you do this summer?” they have a wonderful answer. They don’t say, “Ummm… nothing.”

The New York Times recently printed an article in its Health section that I find deeply troubling. Evidently some parents whose young children experience “a nagging case of hypochondria” are being advised to use a placebo pill.

The message is clear: if you don’t feel well, there is some type of medication that will cure you. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the logical extension of this philosophy. If your life is not going well, if you’re unhappy, if you’re bored or tired or out of sorts - there’s a pill or drug to fix you up.

It’s never easy to see a little one unwell or in pain. But to condone administering placebos - fake pills - just seems wrong to me. When their illness is a minor one, comfort your children with kisses and hugs. Rock them and cuddle them and let them know they are loved. But don’t give them the message that drugs are the answer to all problems.

Ever since we started potty training with Braden when he was about 2 1/2, I have gained a new appreciation for the fact that I have two boys. I’ve often wondered when at a park or somewhere without a potty, what do little girls do? With my boys, I can simply tell them to find an out-of-the-way tree and do what they have to do.

I was reminded of the convenience of having boys today when I made a “quick stop” at a nursery on the way home from the park, and in the middle of a discussion I was having with the man working there about the azalea bush I was about to buy, Braden said, “Mommy, I have to go potty,” and started to do his little dance. I asked the man if they had a potty, and he told me to just take Braden back to the trees and “let him do the boy thing.”

Don’t get me wrong. I certainly wouldn’t have complained if I had had a little girl. I’m sure I would have figured it out, but I really do find myself at times like this thinking, “Let’s hear it for the boys.”