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I want to go to rock band camp too.  Or maybe circus camp or musical theatre camp. (I’ve always thought I’d make a lovely Maria von Trapp.)

With summer in its second week and camps in full swing I am growing more and more envious of the summer adventures available to our offspring these days.  Maxwell my ten year old has spent the past week immersed in the school of rock.  

They’ve learned the proper spellings of all the major rock bands, memorized some mandatory rock trivia, formed individual bands, practiced their chosen pieces, composed one of their own, and recorded a music video.  And tonight it culminates with a concert where all of the bands will perform.

Man, where was rock band camp when I was young? I clearly have a little case of camp envy.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if after we sent our kids off to camp for the day or put them to sleep at night we could scurry off to Mom Camp? A place where we could let our inner eight-year-old burst out of us and run free? A place we could forego embarrassment and self-conscientiousness and be downright daring with ourselves?

I think it’s so vitally important for us as mothers to unleash our creative yearnings and find ways to grow ourselves as we grow our kids.  But more often than not, we just don’t’ make it a priority. 

Well I say summer break is the ideal time to smash out of our day-to-day kid-centered grind and have a little camp time of our own. Moms need a little kumbaya and arts and crafts from time to time too.

So let’s go Super Mamas! Gather some girlfriends, put your man in charge of the kids for the evening or a weekend morning, or chip in for a sitter for a couple of hours and plan some Camp Mom activities.

Maybe it’s Guitar Hero 101, or a wine class with a sommelier from the local wine shop, or Tricks on the Trampoline (who said that big bouncy thing in the backyard was just for the kids?), or scooter races and freeze tag.  I’m not kidding…can you imagine a game of freeze tag with the moms in the hood? Be creative, have fun, tell us all about it.

 Comment on this blog and reveal how you and your home-girls will take back camp this summer.  What are YOUR camp fantasies?

I’ve been reading the book "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle, going to yoga more regularly, and posting reminders around the house to stay a bit more present and centered and in touch with myself and my family.  So last week while in the tub, where I get all of my best ideas; I had an “ah ha” moment.  Or maybe this one was more of an “ah…maybe” moment.

I was meditating on how much my kids have begun to obsess about the media in their lives. They LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to play on the computer, and to battle it out on the Wii, and to watch Saturday morning cartoons together on the couch. It’s not like it’s out of control and to be honest, these are times that my boys always get along, work together and are happily entertained.

           I think of myself as a media-moderate kind of mom.  I have never banned the box or made screen time a forbidden fruit.  But I definitely have time limits for all things electrical, and my boys are pretty agreeable when it comes time to power down. They usually get twenty to thirty minutes of computer time, but not everyday, and we generally reserve TV for the weekends.

           My husband is a TV producer, and we both firmly believe that kids need to be taught how to manage and evaluate media in their lives, not be kept from it entirely. We talk about the commercials they see and the content of what they watch.

That being said, my little idea in the tub was to completely remove media from our lives for the upcoming summer break.  I’m talking no TV, and no computer games.  These happen to be the two main time-suckers for our kids.  I have decided to allow a movie a week, as this is usually a family activity and we still have to justify the home theater we installed in the basement.

 I guess I’m just curious to see how this might change our family’s concentrated time together this summer.

           In many ways, summertime is a much easier time to conduct this little experiment, with a lot more of our time being spent outside.  But I also know how easy it is to rely on the various screens in the house to mindlessly entertain the troops at day’s end.  I am also thinking of waiting until summer because I am going to need some time to prepare.  I know full well that when push comes to shove, and the little dudes are tired and bored, there will be moments of weakness.  And I will need to have my kid-entertainment quiver filled with creative, media-free activity arrows.

So I’m starting now. 

Throughout the next months, I’ll be blogging about my journey to the great beyond.  I’ll let you know as I go how it’s all unfolding or unraveling.

Wish me luck girls…Mama’s gonna need it.

Oh, and yes I’ll be following the rules too, replacing “The Soup on E!” and “Keeping up with the Kardashians”, with the tower of dust laden books on my night stand, and the un-opened scrabble game from three years ago.

Last week while flipping through a popular parenting magazine, I was shocked to see a small notice warning parents about the dangers of the bedwetting drug, Desmopressin.  A bedwetting drug?  For real?  Now I know for sure we are a nation obsessed with meds.

Bedwetting is a part of my life right now with a six-year-old boy, who is working his way slowly but surely toward dry nights.  So I have been reading loads of tips and ideas for helping him to get through the night without his internal flood-gates springing a leak.

We’ve done the overnight “diaper” thing, (they now try and disguise them to look like boxers for bigger kids…Truman wasn’t fooled), the no-liquids-after-7:00 pm thing, and now we’re onto the wake-him-up-to-pee-before-we-hit-the-hay thing. 

He’s making progress, keeping dry more than not, and taking great pride in nights when he wakes up with the same pajamas and sheets with which he went to sleep. We don’t make him feel bad when he’s wet and we don’t over-do the praise when he’s not.

Has it been fun? No. Has it been easy? No.  Am I tired of doing peed-in laundry? Yep. 

But would I drug my kid to avoid all of it? Uh, no.

According to the FDA, the drug desmopression, when used to treat bedwetting can, in “rare” circumstances cause seizures and possibly death.  The drug causes the kidneys to produce less urine at night, so if a child drinks too much water while taking the drug, it can lower the salt content in his bloodstream, and lead to a seizure. 

When I googled the drug Desmopression I found this medication is primary used to treat a special kind of diabetes called “water diabetes”, in which the body produces an abnormal amount of urine. According to the information online, it’s in a class of medication called hormones.  It works by replacing vasopressin, a hormone that is normally produced in the body to help balance the amount of water and salt.

Desmopressin is also used to treat people with bleeding problems after head injury and/or surgery.

The side effects list for this drug, as you can imagine, is huge and all of the things listed including nose bleeds, genital pain, fast or profound heartbeat, and loss of consciousness for awhile, sound far worse than a wet bed.

Kids have small bladders and less control...they’re kids. And bedwetting is, well, just part of the parenting package.

Modern medicine is a blessing for sure, but sometimes I think we all need to take two giant steps  away from the pharmacy counter for a moment.

Now all we need is a drug to help our kids sleep through the night at six months, potty train by themselves, and learn to pick up their underwear off the floor. 

Oh, wait, I think I might be out of a job soon.

Today is Valentine's Day. A day to feel loved.  Some say it’s just another Hallmark holiday, filled with sappy cards, mass-produced boxes of waxy chocolates and stuffed frogs holding red plastic hearts.  Maybe they’re right, but who cares.

One thing is for sure.  Women and men view this day a little differently, especially if they've been married for a bunch of years and have a few knee-huggers running around.

  Women want to feel wooed, and honored and sincerely valued for all that they are. And men, well, for the sake of this g-rated site, let’s just say men think of Valentine’s Day as a day they might just get that special “play-date” they’ve been hoping for.

So this post is for all the guys who want to insure that the so called play-date with their wives is a fait accompli.  You may be surprised by what will really turn us on today. Follow these few simple steps, and we will be Silly Putty in your hands.

1.   Do not buy us lingerie.  I know you think this is something we long for, sexy nighties and skimpy undies, but alas it is not. We know full well these purchases are for you, and we’re happy to sport them on occasion when we’re feelin’ the love.  But there is a much better way to get us in the mood.  Instead of a gift box from Victoria’s Secret, get us a gift card to Nordstorm, and a sweet little note telling us to treat ourselves to something WE feel beautiful in… a new pair of jeans, a lovely little sweater, and a few cute tees. We may just feel compelled to throw in a little something sexy for you. (When I go off shopping, my husband always jokingly reminds me that a big shopping bill can usually be overlooked when a thong is thrown in the bottom of the bag)

2. Fill our mom mobiles with a full tank of gas, and leave a note on the steering wheel that tells us just how cute we make that mini-van look

3. Unload the freaking dishwasher…don’t tell us you did it, just do it.

4. When you get home, pour us a glass of something fun, pull us down on the couch beside you, (not horizontally), and ask us how our day was.  *Wait…here’s the important part: now simply look us in the eyes and listen to our entire answer.  Stop! Don’t say anything, just hush up and listen, listen, listen.

 5.   Dig out the ol’ wedding video, or photo album and suggest we look at it together. (We may have a dumbfounded, sort of shock-mixed-with-joy look on our faces for a moment, just ignore this). Next, comment on how much better we look after having three kids, and how those kids have also enhanced our already stellar intellect and management skills.

6.   Wipe the yellow goo off the toilet seat, and let us see you doing it.   

*If you live in a house filled with other little boys, instruct them do it too. 

7.   The day after Valentine’s Day, when all the cards are half-off, buy twenty of them.  Next, randomly mail them to us from work throughout the year. Unexpected love notes in the middle of the day…big turn on. *This is the gift that keeps on giving, just think of it as investing in your play dates of the future.

8.   Go ahead and present us with some good chocolates, (three pieces of expensive stuff rather than a big box o’ yuck), a bit of champagne, and a few flowers.  I don’t know a girl alive that doesn’t want to feel spoiled from time to time, even if we’re on weight watchers…actually especially if we’re on weight watchers.  Today is a day to indulge. Just remember to tell us how great those pricey chocolates are gonna look on our cute little hips.

Remember, we really do enjoy a rockin’ play-date too.  But the stuff that makes our Barbie want to hook up with your Ken is not so much those cliché acts of romance.  It’s really about having some yummy snacks, being a good pal and asking us what we want to play; and then sharing all the toys and helping to clean them up too. 

These two little words, usually spoken in the wee hours of the morning are able to evoke some BIG emotion. As you know here in the Mid West, our kids rarely get one of these special days. ( it’s the prairie, snow doesn’t scare us.)  

But this morning I got the wake-up call kids dream of.  My guys had just started rustling around under their covers when I got the privilege of giving them the news.  I peeked in their rooms, and told them that a bunch of snow had fallen overnight and that school was officially cancelled.  Their reaction was awesome.  Maxwell my 10 year old did a little happy dance, and excitedly explained to Truman my 5 year old just how very cool this was.  They then jumped out of bed, wiggled on their slippers, and then spoke very loudly and emotionally about all the awesome stuff they were gonna do that day.

Alright, I can be a bit of a mushy mom at times, (I have been known to tear up during my kid’s teacher’s back-to-school-night presentations) but hearing their high pitched voices really thrilled me, and instantly transported me back to my own childhood when a Big snow meant Big fun. Staying in our jammies for half the day, the snow forts and snowball BATTLES; which I always lost miserably having two older brothers, and the inevitable thawing out over some hot chocolate.

 Being on the mom-side of the equation means snow days are MY responsibility now…but they can be just as much fun if we let em.  I must admit that last night when I saw the snow accumulating outside I said to my husband "Man, I hope the kids have school tomorrow". ( I mean, I have a manicure appointment at 1:00pm afterall)  But without even a slight pause in his voice he came right back with "why? "It would be a blast, enjoy it if it happens". 

Ah, yea, that's what I meant to say. Being able to be at home with my kids means my work today is the opportunity to romp around with my kids in the white stuff, pour Legos all over the floor, drink cocoa at every meal, catch a mid-day movie under blankets on the couch, and forget about hair and make-up. What could be a better job description than that?

   Snow Day!.. It’s the permission slip to cocoon with my kids. And that’s just what we’re gonna do. 

PS: I couldn’t help but think about the moms for whom “Snow Day” means having to get to work, and figure out childcare on the fly. Us full time mom types should really consider reaching out and offering to help our working-mom friends. What’s a few extra snow people for one day?

PSS:  See my last post for some ideas on how to entertain your troops today once the hot cocoa buzz has died off, and you're feeling the walls closing in.