Well, the “eyes” certainly have it (sorry!) as Hrithik Roshan pulls out an upset over Sean Bean. Dude, I can’t blame you, those eyes are simply mesmerizing!

Today’s contender comes to you courtesy of Dr. Nic, a huge Buffalo Bills fan.  She describes him thusly:

…the smartest QB in the NFL.  He is a Harvard graduate, a father of three, and has led the Buffalo Bills to a 3-0 start to the season.

Impressive indeed! Now just remember that I’m posting his team photo, so he HAS to look all mean and tough-like.

VERSUS

I’m going to start this post off by apologizing to all the mothers of boys out there who read this blog.

As another person who has a son, I totally sympathize with all of the exclusive stuff that goes on with girls, whether it be clothes, or makeup, or whatever that we are usually not a part of.  It’s annoying.  I get it.

But I HAVE to share this website.

You see, I was searching in vain for quite a long time for easy, quick hairstyles for my two year old and her below shoulder length hair.  I know how to French Braid, but seriously, that can only get you so far.

I stumbled across this website and hallelujah! Finally a place with a bunch of great, easy styles and video tutorials to boot!  I actually found them before the 20/20 spot, but kudos to them, they deserve the spotlight!

It doesn’t hurt that Mindy and her entire family are cute as buttons, either.

A cryptic advertisement in the local paper leads four gifted children on an unexpected journey to defeat an evil genius.  Any more than that and I’m giving too much of it away!  If you have young readers who love fiction in the vein of Roald Dahl and Lemony Snicket, then this (eventual series of three books) is for them!  The children are put in danger, have to use their wits in unusual situations, and are forced to pit themselves against adults trying to harm them.

My son could not put this book down.  He is the type of reader that when he adores a book, will stay up late in order to finish it in one day. Ahem, which is a trait he definitely inherited from me.  I try to read as many of the same books as he does so that we can have some non school-related literature to chat about, and I think I liked the series almost as much as he did.  As evidenced by the fact that the day after he finished the latest release, I demanded it from him and stayed up a half hour past my bedtime to complete it.

59% of you feel that schools can only do so much in the face of bullying, which might also mean that in this day and age, school-time bullying is coming in second to online and virtual bullying.  22% think they give it a shot, but it isn’t enough, and 14% say schools don’t do nearly enough to address the problem.

I was never a bully in school, nor was I bullied, but my personal opinion is that bullying starts at home.  By that, I mean the parents of a bully have fostered an environment where a bully feels free to act out onto other people, and there is only so much a school can do to stop that type of behavior other than having a zero-tolerance policy.  Then again, I sort of hate zero tolerance policies, so I’m torn.  When my son attended public school, I cannot tell you how many parents I saw flouting school rules on a daily basis, and I would always think to myself that these parents were teaching their children by example that rules don’t apply to them.  Man, I hated those parents.

But, on to something a bit fluffier, although maybe as controversial.  The LA Times reports on the Vinci, a tablet, Android-based computer marketed specifically to children from 1 week to age 4.

It seems that Rudy could not withstand the smoldering Sean Bean.  Don’t look at me like that.  Don’t tell me you didn’t know that Sean Astin played Rudy?

Today I’ve got a Bollywood actor whom I’d not heard of until I began a desperate search of celebrity fathers I haven’t featured yet.  But my goodness, what took me so long to find him?  He is gaw-jus.  Just look at those eyes!

VERSUS

Well, unless of course you spend upwards of seventy dollars or so on your kid’s Halloween costume.  Then I guess you get to look smug.

This “dark angel” number will set you back a mere $88.00

But it’s much better than something like this:

The main costume is $98.00, but it doesn’t include the leggings, hat, or wings.  So I dare someone to put on just the dress part and have anyone recognize it as a phoenix.

The Alice costume they have is plain as can be, it’s the Queen of Hearts that gets all the love. As well it should for a hundred bucks.

If you would like your daughter to be the “Vampiress of Versailles” you will be charging $128.00 onto your credit card.

OK, I actually really like this costume.  But, if you want it to look just like it does in the picture, it will be around $160.00

Normally I’m all for unconventional costumes, but this one is a teensy bit baffling.  And for a hundred dollars, nobody should be guessing what you are.

To be fair, they do have some more reasonably priced costumes on the site, but they are considerably plainer and generic, so I should be glad that’s reflected in the price.  Right?

I freely admit it.

Today I was that mom and my daughter was that kid.

You see, my toddler has taken to spending three or four hours of the night awake.  Sometimes screeching, sometimes whining, sometimes just laying there.

I have no idea why.  And yes, I’ve tried pretty much everything to get it to stop.

Nothing works.

Anyhoo, everyone knows that when a toddler isn’t sleeping, that means mama isn’t sleeping either.

So even though I briefly pondered not taking my son to his early morning Spanish class, I chastised myself into packing us all into the minivan.

The class is an hour, and we live fifteen minutes away, so I figured daughter and I would stay and play in the play area set up for younger siblings in the lobby.  And hey, maybe she would make some new friends!

Ha.

I don’t know if it was because she was a bit tired herself, but my daughter managed to terrorize the entire population of the play area.  Yeah 18 month old kid, you thought you had that chair.  Not according to my daughter, who actually sat down in the chair behind you and pushed you off.

She also dumped an entire box of Duplos on the floor, and then decided they didn’t belong in the play area and ran to put them out in the hallway.

She grabbed things out of other people’s hands just because she wanted them for that nanosecond, even though she had cared less about them when they were on the ground.

She threw a block at someone.

She attempted to bite another child’s banana.  Which was in his hands at the time.

The coup de grace was when she dumped an entire bucket of crayons onto the table, and of course eventually the floor, which four other children had managed not to do.

Commence the hideous, glass-breaking shrieking when I decided we needed to take a little walk outside.

Ditto when I strapped her into the car seat and on the entire ride home.

Yes, I know it’s just a phase and she will eventually get better, it just seems like the bad phases last a hell of a lot longer than the good ones.