Silicon Valley Moms Blog

Facebook Nurse In

..... Cross posted from our sister site the New York City Moms Blog

I love Facebook.  It helps me stay in touch with friends and find people I haven't spoken to in years.  It gives me a platform to promote my book and share my thoughts.  And most importantly, it provides an unrivaled distraction and procrastination technique when I'm working.

But lately, Facebook has let me down.  From what I understand, the site is removing breastfeeding photos that some moms want to put on their pages. And so, these moms are getting together for a cyber "nurse in."  They're protesting Facebook's policy on December 27th by changing their profile pictures to breastfeeding pictures.  Some plan to even gather outside the Palo Alto offices.   

CLICK HERE to read the full post at the New York City Moms Blog.

Check Out Katie Couric's Post On NYC Moms Blog

Did you know that Katie Couric has just scored an interview with Sarah Palin?  In preparation for this upcoming interview, Katie Couric  put up a post and video on NYC Moms Blog and wants YOUR input on what to ask Sarah Palin.  Click HERE to see Katie's post and video... and be sure to leave a comment!

Regardless of your political affiliation, this is one interview that you will NOT want to miss......

Seven Years Later, Still Fragmented and Splittered

... cross posted from our sister site, NYC Moms Blog.

My eyes still well up as I think back to the crystal clear New York morning that would eventually have a black cloud forever hovering above it.

September 11, 2001

I lived 200 yards from Ground Zero. My memories of that morning are fragmented and splintered.

I remember my oldest son and my one year old baby were marveling at the glorious blue sky…when BAM! A plane came crashing into the Twin Towers.

The three of us looked at our window in disbelief.

Did we really see that?

Are those flames rising above the Tower windows?

Click HERE to continue reading at NYC Moms Blog.

Do I Really Want a Full-Time Job?

... cross posted from our sister site, NYC Moms Blog. It's been almost four months since my husband's epiphany that going to a job he loathed, just clocking in his hours until he could finally retire was not the way he wanted to spend the next 15 years of his life. And so, being that he's attempting to redefine his career goals-- or what he wants to be when he grows up, I've felt compelled to break out of my comfortable but not so well-paying freelance writing career and hit the pavement in search of a full-time job. While I've gone on some interviews, I have to be honest, being that I live on Staten Island, my commute into Manhattan is at least and hour and then some each day-- which means leaving before my kids sit down to breakfast and getting home when they're ready to be tucked into bed. It's the dilemma every working mom faces-- the fact that when you're working full-time-you're probably going to get very little face-time with your kids. I know I'm hardly the first or last mom to feel this way, and maybe if I had gone back to work full-time after my kids were born, this would be a non-issue for me but the fact is I'm having a really hard time making that shift to full-time worker bee. Click HERE to continue reading at NYC Moms Blog.

Internet Withdrawal

... cross posted from our sister site, NYC Moms Blog.

My hard drive crashed this week, and I feel like I've been enlisted in a detox and recovery program without my consent.  If I could take it in for immediate repair I would do so, but instead we had to schedule an appointment days out with the Apple store, and it's likely that an actual repair could take even longer.

The first 24 hours were the worst.  I paced around, fueled by nervous energy.  I couldn't stop thinking about getting online.  Just for five minutes--just a little hit.  You know, long enough to tell my online communities why I'm suddenly out of reach.  I walked aimlessly through my apartment wondering, What is it that I do, exactly?  That is, when I'm not tweeting or checking and replying to email, or writing articles and blog posts.

I had no idea.

Click HERE to continue reading at NYC Moms Blog.

More?

... cross posted from our sister site, New York City Moms Blog.
What to do? How to choose? A third? Even a fourth? I’m too old for that I suppose. They grow lanky now my little ones and only need help with homework. They tell jokes - real jokes and have amazing stories of days all their own with me visible only at the beginning and the end. There is much to love in this new realm- many new bits to enjoy. Listening to my daughter recount her sleepover adventures at a friend's house. High-fiving my boy when he successfully sounds out "almanac". We share new books before bed now - more complex stories - making our way toward reading the classics together.

Still those baby days hang both fresh in my mind and lost over eons of growth. I remember the Pampers smell but can no longer conjure it at will. Baby talk and tiny hands. Round bellies and kissably soft necks. Baby food airplanes and potty chairs. I miss it. I loved it. Does that mean I should go back or simply live with the sweet sorrow of its departure? And if I did, would there be enough of me for number three? Would s/he be stuck in a bouncy seat, pacifier in mouth, watching our crazed family rush by like the cars on the West Side Hwy? Eagerly waiting to engage whenever the walk light illums “safe crossing”?

Click HERE to continue reading at NYC Moms Blog.

Role Model Meltdown

... cross posted from our sister site, NYC Moms Blog.

I never thought it mattered much what celebs were doing. Sure, it seemed ridiculous some of the predicaments they found themselves caught in, but I cared only enough for a minor chat after drop-off or at a birthday party. And, I have to admit, I didn't really understand the big deal with steroids. If ballplayers wanted to risk their lives to hit more home runs, wasn't that their own issue? I'd heard the arguments about athletes being role models, but I didn't really get it. Can't you just talk with your kids about right and wrong? I would smugly suggest. And I did. When Jamie Lynn hit the news - we discussed how having babies was better when you got older. When Eliot Spitzer fell from grace - we carefully discussed honesty and fidelity. When Miley/Hannah showed up on the cover of Vanity Fair - we discussed proper attire for a 15 year old. But I'd never really seen those people as role models - well, maybe Spitzer in a leader of our state sort of way - but well, I was nine when Nixon resigned - politicians are different. In any event, I had it handled, you know, easy. Ha - I can be so naive.

This baseball season, my boy has become a die-hard Yankee fan. Sure, he's watched games with his dad in years past, he's played tee ball for two years. But this year he's taken to watching every game, he holds back tears when they lose, and he reads the sports page in the mornings when he has to go to bed before the game ends. He loves the game and plans to be a "player on TV" when he grows up. And his favorite Yankee? Alex Rodriguez. Who has, in the last week, been linked to Madonna in the tabloids although he has a wife and children. Um, yeah, role models. . . .

Click HERE to continue reading at NYC Moms Blog.

The Wedding Rings

... cross posted from our sister site, New York City Moms Blog.

Every Monday morning, I drop my eldest daughter at preschool and then grab coffee next door with my friend Kristin. My 18 month-old focuses intently on her croissant as I peer across the small, wooden table at my friend. My eyes always quickly find their way to the wedding bands hanging around her neck. His wedding rings. Just hanging there.

A month ago, Kristin's husband died of cancer. He had been battling the disease for seven years. They fought tirelessly together, committed to beating this horrible, evil thing. And then one day the call came. He had died. He was 39 years-old. They had been together for 22 years. They have a 4 year-old daughter.

People said well meaning things like, "Well, at least he's no longer suffering." Everyone was so desperate to find some kind of silver lining they couldn't see the pain they caused Kristin with their words. Suffering? Kristin knows her husband would have done anything to stay on this earth with his wife and his daughter. He was not concerned with enormous suffering. He was concerned with living and loving and providing for his family.

I look at my friend across the table and I, too, always fear saying the wrong thing.

Click HERE to continue reading at New York City Moms Blog.

The Helicopter Parent

....cross posted from our sister site, New York City Moms Blog.

Two weeks ago I wrote about the fact that I became dangerously close to becoming a stage mom, after taking my daughter to what seemed to be an audition for her favorite Nickelodeon show but turned into a fiasco.

Well this week, we had something way more traumatic happen. I question whether I should talk about it but something tells me if I don't get this off my chest I'm going to burst. You see, this week the letters arrived. If you are a parent of a "gifted child" what that means is, the letters announcing that your child has been placed in a special gifted program for the next two years started arriving in mailboxes all across my neighborhood in Westchester this Monday and Tuesday.

I first heard that the letters were being sent out by a good friend of mine who didn't receive anything in the mail and decided to call the Deputy Superintendent to see if her child made the grade. And unfortunately, she was devastated to learn he didn't.

Click HERE to continue reading on NYC Moms Blog.......

My husband got “friendly” with an ice pack, while I cried in the closet.

....cross posted from our sister site, New York City Moms Blog.

My husband spent the weekend with a blue cooler icepack on his crotch. He had a vasectomy on Friday. I was never able to take the pill as it made me nauseous and kooky. So I gave in to my husband’s reasoning. He said, “you’ve done enough, 4 pregnancies, 1 miscarriage, 3 C-sections, breast feeding, and dealing with that diaphragm for years.” AMEN! I’m ready to burn my diaphragm in the fireplace. (For the record I asked my husband if I could write about this and use his picture)

The thing I wasn’t prepared for, were the raging emotions, I cried the entire weekend. I am a mother of three and my last pregnancy wasn’t planned. Don’t get me wrong. He was the best darned mistake I ever made. And my husband would have more kids if I were so inclined. Which is why I didn’t really want him to know about my sadness. And even though three is enough (for me), it is the finality of no more tiny bundles that makes me sad. No more rolling little Burritos in hospital receiving blankets, or delicious newborn scalp smells. No more endless bounds of potential born just to you. I’ll have to hold the babes of others to satisfy my newborn tingles. These Darwinian urges are fierce!

Click HERE to continue reading on NYC Moms Blog.......