Texting

Do you feel like I do about texting at the dinner table? I don't like it. It seems lots of parents don't mind it judging from what I see in restaurants. Boy it's a different world out there. What happened to the family that eats together stays together, eating being conversing and eating. Oh well, we don't permit it when with our grandkids and that's about all we can do, I guess. It doesn't go over too well glaring aat kids in restaurants

Leashes

Are they still putting children on leashes? I haven't seen it for awhile but I used to not like it when I saw it, I know it's done so you do't lose your child. Can I tell you how we did it "back in the day".

We were on a car trip across the country and put all 4 kids in bright red hoodies. We really weren't as brilliant as I later thought when it became a great tool for keeping track of them. I remember that when we were at the Grand Canyon how easy it was to see them. A minor benefit was how cute all the pictures were with them in their matching hoodies. So mothers and Nannies out there, give it a try and make your job a whole lot easier.

Bankys

I blogged about pacifiers a while back. Did anyone see The View today? They talked about this for awhile. Many different opinions all prompted by a picture of Tom Cruises's daughter with Katie Holmes sporting a Banky. She is about to turn five. They seemed to want to focus on how strong the sucking instinct is with an infant and if you take the banky away too soon, they will turn to something else to satisfy this, usually the finger.

I know this didn't happen with mine. Now the one that never took to the pacifier but started immediately in with her finger was a different story as the finger IS attached. This went on for some time so I guess with her she really needed that but I didn't see any ill effects with the others and they gave up the pacifier at 4 months.

Baseball

Some things never change. The other night Terry and I watched your vice-president and my daughter play baseball [slow pitch]. The deja-vu was so strong. Susan used to play hardball on a boy's team in the days when this was unusual. She was the only girl and led the league in home runs. We were there for every game so I really had to chuckle that here we are sitting in the bleachers once again at 72 and 47 years old doing the same thing.

She banged out a triple, got an out while playing catcher and held a runner on third. Good game. Felt like all the summer nights of long ago. Some things never change.

Florida

Still in Florida after the NannyPoppinz conference. Glorious weather, no humidity, great time to be here.

Watched the Oscars here. Did you see the adorable school children at the end of the show? They showed close-ups and they all were so into singing. Quite an honor for them.

It made me think of how special children are. Sometimes you wish you could slow down time so you can really appreciate them. [yeh, yeh I also know there are times you wish you could speed it up]. But I just wanted to remind you all to appreciate them while you have them growing up, problems and all. They are special.