46% of you plan on staying with relatives for your summer vacation, and as long as you can stand each other at the end of the week, then all is good.  Unfortunately, 28% don’t know what vacation I’m referring to, and 7% are doing the staycation thang.  17% are going somewhere fantastic, aaaand we are all jealous of you.  Er, “we” meaning perhaps just me.

Yesterday at Barnes & Noble, I bought the Munchkin about fifty bucks worth of books.  I’m all for borrowing from the library, which we do a LOT, but for certain series which I know he likes, I tend to buy them for him so that he can maintain a nice personal library.  He’s a big re-reader, and I don’t ever consider buying books for him a waste of money.  His sister, on the other hand, is a gleeful destroyer of books, so right now she is dealing will all hand-me-downs and whichever books my family has been unwise enough to purchase for her.

Better late than never, eh? Hey, it’s still Friday where I am.

Not suprisingly, our Brit Jamie Bamber won the “towel-only” round against Eddie Cibrian. 

This round, I don’t have a towel photo, but I’ve got a shirtless one.  I do it because I love you. Really.

Our next contestant is best known for his work as the nerdy/ultimately jerky boyfriend on Ugly Betty, but when his shirt came off, da-yum.  If that’s what they all look like underneath, give me a nerd any day of the week!

VERSUS

All right, so I’m sure you’ve already heard about young Storm.

If you haven’t, the brief explanation is that (basically) the parents of Storm are refusing to tell anyone the gender of their infant.  Even the grandparents.

Apparently, they would like to raise Storm free of the gender expectations that society imposes upon people, and let “Storm decide who Storm wants to be.”

They have so far raised two young sons in a non-conforming gender type of way, as one of them, Jazz, loves pink, having his long hair in braids, and nail polish.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the experiences they are having with their older son and his non-conforming preferences are coloring their view of what they would like society to be, and how they are hoping to somehow avoid that with Storm. 

 According to the article, they have been getting some outside pressures regarding Jazz and his preferences.  I’m sure this upsets them, and him, and they are pushing back against a society that says a boy must act this way and a girl must act that way.  Although to be fair, girls are pretty much encouraged to do all kinds of “boy” things, while boys are often frowned upon for doing girl things, but that’s another post entirely.

My personal thinking is that they should be a bit more aggressive in defending Jazz and his decisions.  They “unschool” their children, and it almost seems as if they are trying to shield Jazz from teasing and such, which as a parent I totally understand.  But there is a difference between wanting the world to be a certain way and facing the reality of how the world actually is.

How entrenched is gender?  Is it completely innate?  Is it learned? 

If gender is never brought up, does it never become an issue? 

But how could it not?

I’m not sure I would be comfortable conducting that experiment upon my child.

My daughter is a bit young for these yet, as she will pull any barette out of her hair when given the opportunity.  But, I cannot wait until she is a little bit older so that I can put some of these in her hair.  They have so many different kinds of bows, and I adore almost all of them.   And I’m not really what I would call a person given to dress my child up as a “girly girl.”  I just think they are well done and so very creative.   There are a ton, including holiday themed ones, so check them all out!

They are a bit pricey though, so maybe Grandma can find it in her heart to get some for a future birthday.

Ice Cream Cone

Pirate Girl

Caterpillar

Little Red Riding Hood

Monkey Face

Ballerina Slippers

Crab

The Munchkin recently went out to dinner with his grandparents (my parents) and when they came back, it was remarked upon by my mother than my son resembled a hungry wolf while eating his spaghetti and meatballs.

And here I thought it was a problem confined just to our house. 

Er, at least I guess I was hoping that like many other fairly undesirable behaviors, when out with other people, kids tend to put on their best behavior.

So either my son’s table manners are horrendous, or I am immersed in some very deep waters of denial.

You see, it is true that for some reason, my son will lower his head down to his plate and not so much lift his fork to his mouth, but rather shovel in whatever food he has on there.  He is also a very sloppy eater, leaving a ring of detritus around his plate. He is also not what you would describe as a delicate chewer.

It isn’t very pleasant, really.

I have no idea where he gets this from.

Goodness knows I have called him out on his eating habits many a time.  I tell him to slow down, to lift his fork all the way up to his face, and to be careful with his food.

Glinda, meet brick wall. I have no doubt my admonishments sound exactly like the teacher’s voice in the Peanuts,  “Muwaaaah, wuaaaaah, wuaaaha, wua, muwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.”

Is this a typical 8 year old boy thing?  Or will my son be shunned from dining with people other than his family?  Have people secretly been pointing and laughing at him every time we go out to eat?

In his defense, though, there is NO graceful way to eat spaghetti.

It seems that 43% of you hate housework as much as I do, but unfortunately, aren’t able to have someone come in and do it for you.  I remember when we put our home up for sale when I was six months pregnant (stupid, yes!) and for the six weeks or so it took to sell it, we had a cleaning crew come in every week because there was no way I could keep the house in good enough shape to show it.  And it was heavenly.   15% of you try not to stress out about it, 12% of you do have someone come in to clean for you, and 6% fear that “Hoarders” will be knocking on their door at any moment.  Only 3% of you actually like cleaning, and now I know why all of us get along so well!

Today I’m all about the travel plans.  Or possible lack thereof.  Some friends of ours are going on a Disney Cruise around the Mediterranean this summer, and I have to admit I’m a teensy bit jealous.

LL Cool J is on his way up to the Celebrity Dad Hall of Fame, which I must say, is way cooler than being raptured.  Seriously.

Today I’ve got two new contestants for you to ogle vote upon.

Ahem.

If you missed the awesomeness that was the new Battlestar Galactica (just ignore that last episode) then Jamie Bamber is someone you probably won’t recognize.  He’s English, though, and did such a convincing American accent that I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard him talking in an interview.  And looky, no shirt! My, how did that happen?

Our next actor is someone you probably are familiar with, although to be honest, I can’t remember the names of any of the shows he was on.  But, the man definitely works out.  Eddie Cibrian made a bit of a splash when he left his wife to marry LeAnn Rimes, and as far as I know, that’s what he’s most famous for to date.

VERSUS