It was great fun. Really great fun.

What I didn't think through was that just maybe I wouldn't be ready for my half of the camp: I'm not an athlete and never played any organized sports at all in high school or college.

Predictably, the day after, I am sore as heck after two days of doing the same drills the team players do, playing one on one, two on two, three on three and four on four scrimmage games, and running around having a great time and using muscles that weren't quite ready for the burst of activity.

"Was diagnosed at about 28 weeks and we are having trouble getting it under control. Diet changes and all - the #'s are still high. They were concerned at the Doc's yesterday about baby's tummy being ahead two weeks than the rest of his body - and of course scared the shit out of me. They upped my insulin to four times a day rather than just once a day... Do you know much about it?"

Babies love to explore. Why not get together some small portions of your baby's favourite finger foods and hide them about the house. You can mix up sweet and savoury and the treat is that your baby can eat the food when they have found them. Your baby will find this game fun and will only get bored when they are full up. You can also try this with their favourite teddy bears and dolls. It is a delight to watch their little faces amazed at what they can find.

Another activity is to gather up a few old shoe boxes and cut holes in the lids for your child's hand to get through but make sure they cant see what's in the box. In the box you can fill it with lots of different sensory objects such as feathers, cubes of jelly, marshmallows, a velvet pillow, pebbles and ice to name but a few. Have a look in your cupboards and see what objects you have that have different sensations that your child will enjoy.

The disk is Disney's Imagination Movers: For Those About to Hop and it's songs from the hit Disney TV series, which we've never watched and I have no clue about other than to say that the music rocks.

With 22 tracks from the show (I believe) and an additional five "bonus songs" the disk has lots of peppy music for your little ones.

More importantly, though, with its mix of hip-hop, rap, and dance music, there are just one heck of a lot of highly listenable, quite catchy tunes. In fact, Nina's Song has been stuck in my head for days now, partially because my 5yo K- has a friend named Nina and thinks it's awesomely awesome that there's a song about her: we've listened to it at least two dozen times.

My biggest question, though, is: when did kids music become so good?

While it can be comforting to know why your little one is in such distress, the diagnosis of colic still leaves much to be explained since there is no one proven cause of colic. Without knowing what is causing the problem, it can be quite difficult to prevent and stop. Thankfully, babies diagnosed with colic are otherwise considered to be healthy, thriving infants.

Unfortunately, colic outbursts typically occur in the late afternoon or early evening when you're already tired from a full day and ready to relax at home with your family. Any parent who has experienced colic with a newborn can attest that fits of colic are likely to wear out both the child and parents. Dealing with colic in a state of exhaustion tends to make the whole situation even more challenging for parents. Needless to say when your little bundle of joy is no longer joyful, but rather is wailing uncontrollably, the only thing you care about is finding a way to make it stop and make it stop sooner rather than later.

It takes little more than a quick Google search to find an endless list of colic remedies from gripe water and probiotic drops to infant massage and swaddling techniques being are touted by parenting experts. To a new parent, it can seem that there are as many suggested remedies for colic as there are colicky babies. So what is an exhausted and overwhelmed new parent to do?

What many people probably don't ever see, however, is the model train layout in the basement of the museum building maintained by the Denver train club (and various others, I don't recall).

Sure, I could show you pictures of the "train layout" but I was more interested in the incredibly good job that the model makers have done portraying an idyllic early Colorado.

The RMS Queen Mary

We took the trip in 1963, so I have no memories of it, so I asked my Dad if he had any pictures. He responded:

"Sorry, no pictures of our transatlantic crossing. We were too busy being seasick to even think of taking photos!"

His story, no, our story, follows...

As a basketball fan, I was enthused when HP contacted me and asked if I'd help out with the launch of their slick new DV2 netbook, tied to a pretty cool NBA promotion.

What I like about it is that you can win one of ten regulation NBA basketballs signed by an active player or - better yet - a trip to the 2010 NBA All-Star Game in Dallas: includes travel, accommodations and tickets for the games.

But wait, there's more...

I am looking for a little advice. I am contemplating divorce and one of my many concerns is the fact that I co-sleep with my 9 year old boy and 6 year old daughter (in my daughters room). I love sleeping with my kiddos, but, I fear I have made them a little too dependent on me. If I were to go through with the divorse, they would obviously have to spend time with their dad and sleep over without me. This, among everything else, is going to upset them greatly.

Even though I love snuggling with them, I think I need to try and break this habit before I go do anything else. I would like them to feel comfortable and able to sleep alone, but, I don't know where to start.

My thoughts are...

I've been to auto shows and certainly have the basics of car ownership down, though I'm definitely not a car nut or fanatic. In fact, there are plenty of things I'd rather talk about than cars. But then again, I like cars and enjoy watching the evolution of automotive technology, and appreciate a sexy new sportscar or luxury vehicle.

That's why it was enticing when Melissa Smith of Automotive Media Solutions sent me this query:

"I am wondering if you would like an opportunity to document the experience of test driving a sporty Ford Focus or Mercury Mariner Hybrid for a few days?"

My initial response was that the Focus sounded interesting, but what I was actually thinking about was the upcoming Ford Fusion, which I've seen before and was very impressed with. Alas, the Fusion wasn't available (it's a 2010 model year car for Ford) so as someone who has many years of experience driving hybrids, I thought that the Mercury Mariner Hybrid would be an interesting experience.

And so, a few days ago the PR company dropped off a shiny new silver Mariner with just about every option installed, and we were off to the proverbial races!

Each of which will be inevitably followed by...

"You can pay for me to go there, right, Daddy-ums?"

What I don't want to do is freeze, panic, gasp, feel a thumping in my head and faint. No, much preferable would be to be able to say "no worries, sweetheart, we've got plenty enough in the bank to cover your tuition and basic expenses!"

The question is, how do you best set this up for your children nowadays?

The reaction? Almost no guys noticed, and almost all the women I know immediately knew what had changed. I'd say it's been 95% positive and I have heard nice things like "makes you look younger" and, my favorite, "Mmmm... nice. Sexy." Yeah, I'll take that one any time. :-)

My kids weren't so sure and when I first showed up with the new facial appearance they all agreed they didn't like it so much. Fast forward a few hours and they were no longer even aware of it or paying attention. No problem.

What's funny is that I experienced "new car syndrome" when I shaved and then suddenly I was surrounded by guys with goatees. At restaurants, the bookstore, the library, everyone from senior executives to homeless people were sporting the same facial hair that I'd just selected. Moral of the story? If I'm not going to shave like Hugh Jackman did for his Wolverine role, I ain't going to be unique on facial hair alone.

More to the point, suddenly having most of my face supposed to be just smooth skin brings up a challenge I haven't faced in years: how the heck do you accomplish that?

For the most part, my parenting style seems to be in line with attachment parenting. I have always been very attentive and responsive to my daughter's needs which has included breastfeeding, co-sleeping and frequent carrying her in a sling. But I have to admit there were times when using a stroller was the only option for me. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved carrying my daughter in a sling or Mei Tai. In fact most days, you could be sure to find her snuggled up next to me in one or the other. But there were some days it just didn't seem to work with our plans for the day.

This review has moved over to my movie blog:




Review: State Of Play

"I am a 30 week pregnant mum of a 20 month old toddler. I was at home for the first year and have worked for 6 months. I co sleep withmy toddler who is still beastfeeding ..... but he wakes so regularly at night .... I am the only one who can feed him back to sleep. He is struggling with excema that seems to be getting worse and the advice that I have had from the medical profession and homeopath is that I should stop breastfeeding and co sleeping .... I would love to find out more about anyone who has been in the same position and got through it with some sanity."