Mix and match.

Can any of you tell me what's wrong with this picture?


a) Tyler is wearing a sweater in July.
b) He's got a little something on his upper lip.
c) There's a Nuby lid on a Gerber sippy cup.
d) All of the above, really, but especially the stupid sippy cup thing.

How hard is it to match up a sippy cup to its appropriate lid?

Nate says hard. Apparently, Tyler Florence agrees.

Normally, a milk ad would not be blogworthy. But I have been giving Nate the hardest time about matching up the sippy cups with their correct lid. Every time he gives Calvin a drink it's in a strange combination of cup/lid — between colors, sizes, and brands.

To me, which cup goes with which lid is a total no-brainer. Of course I do the sippy cup purchasing. But still - it's not difficult to match them up! In fact, the other day Nate gave his brother Mike a sippy cup/lid test (hoping to prove his point that sippy cups are really really hard) and he passed with flying colors. He even matched the colors correctly within the same brand.

But then there's this. An ad I ran across in Martha Stewart Living magazine featuring the exact two brands of sippy cup we have at home, mixed up.

I don't question Martha on anything, not even her editorial decisions regarding advertising, so I will trust that this — though inherently wrong — is the presentation I should be using when offering beverages to my child. Especially if I expect him to grow up to have exquisite taste and an appreciation for Good Things.

Sigh. Score one for Nate. He's such a visionary.

Really?!?

That's what I said this morning as I opened my email and saw this:


















Although I said it more like Seth and Amy, as in: really, Gap?!? The last email I got from you was about holiday delivery. We have two feet of snow on the ground. I still have my Christmas tree up. And the first day of winter was nine days ago.

So, no, I do not think I will take a first look at spring as your email suggests.

I mean, REALLY.

Business in the front, McLaughlin in the back.

I have some serious concerns about my child's hair. He was born with straight hair, but now it's beginning to take on some frightening characteristics.

His hair is starting to look...nappy.

But only in the back. The front looks exactly like Nate's — soft, straight, a little poofy. He even has the Breyer hairline. But the back is super textured and kind of kinky.

What if that's what he ends up with? Stick straight Breyer poof in the front, nappy McLaughlin afro in the back?

Poor kid. I figured he'd get one or the other...but not both. Definitely not both. That's just cruel.

Though I'm sure it would make for an outstanding mullet someday, if he decides to go that route.

WordGirl.

Has anyone with kids heard of this show on PBS?

I just ran across it (and of course I was curious, it's called WordGirl! Could anything be more perfect for me?) and here's the episode description offered by my cable provider:

"Lady Redundant Woman Copies WordGirl by Duplicating Her; Answer All My Questions and Win Stuff: Lady Redundant Woman creates a nefarious copy of WordGirl in an attempt to ruin her do-gooder reputation; WordGirl is on the case when a new game show turns out to be a plot to steal money from the contestants."

I had no idea what I'd find when I flipped to this show based on the episode description, but I certainly didn't expect to find a cartoon. For children.

According to Wikipedia, this is a cartoon for kids ages six and up that teaches the "expansive English language." Are you kidding me? It took me about 10 minutes to understand that episode description (two episode names separated by a semicolon, aha!), but six-year-old kids are supposed to get it?

I might be too dumb to be a parent.

(But I'm not too dumb to know my kid is totally watching this show.)