My new geeky addiction

I'm not great at math. In high school, I never understood probability and statistics. Like what are the chances I'll flip a coin and get tails 10 times in a row? Or, say . . . what are the chances of getting pregnant with twins two times in a row? But I digress.

While I cannot create or use statistical formulas, I do understand the value of statistical analysis.
In one of my classes, we're looking at the difference between causation and correlation. In other words, things that happen together sometimes cause each other and sometimes don't. While preparing for my students, I stumbled across this website from George Mason University:

www.stats.org

They critically analyze news stories about research studies and give some perspective to all those scary reports about hot-topics like cancer, vaccines, and toxins. The blog is now my new fave.

It's like the adult version of the urban-myth-buster website, SNOPES, but it's not about email scams from Nigerians trying to move millions into my bank account. Both are great ways to waste more time online. Enjoy!

Palin and Clinton

We all knew that Tina Fey would make a great Sarah Palin, but in this SNL clip I can't even tell them apart!

They're finally asleep!

Day Four of Big Beds and it's been a wild ride. While moments have been crazy, it's mostly due to the extreme excitement about their new beds, blankets and pillow. I only wish I could get so excited about bedding--oh, the thrills of being 2yrs old.

Here's a recap . . .

Day One: Kids wreck their new room. Mom rethinks her decision to move away from cribs.

Day Two: Kids again spend 2+ hours bouncing around the room and fall asleep in a heap. Mom goes in to give 34 stern lectures during that time. Mom also google-searches Gypsies in the market for two new recruits.

Day Three: Alex starts to show the strain of continued sleeplessness at school and at home. Possibly due to extreme fatigue, kids go to bed after only 90 minutes of bedroom gymnastics. Is this a light at the end of the tunnel? Mom peeks in to find them asleep--both in Sasha's bed. So cute I forgive the first days of madness.


Day four: Kids fall asleep after only 20 minutes of quiet talking. Extreme exhaustion is finally working in mom's favor!

The next kids will be in cribs till they're 12

We moved to BIG BEDS today and I was very nervous. We have plotted the move, bought the furniture, PAINTED the furniture, and spent the last two weekends dismantling our office to make room for our rapidly expanding family.

Alex and Sasha were pumped about the new beds. We talked up the sheets, the wall decals (not yet arrived) and the new privilege of sleeping with a PILLOW for the first time. They actually said, "Thank you mommy! Thank you daddy! I WOOOOVE my new bed!!!!!" It was very touching.



Since we took everything out of the office (their new room), we thought it wise not to move any of their toys in until the sleeping patterns were well established. In this room the kids have beds and an empty dresser and . . . nothing else. Every item that could distract or destroy was removed from the room. Or so I thought.

The kids start their first big-bed nap and I hear a lot of activity. I went in a few times and remind them to go to sleep, but ultimately had to wait for them to calm down and sleep themselves. At various times . . .

Alex terrorized Sasha by trying to sleep next to her.

Sasha laughed hysterically at her stuffed animals.

They both ran several hundred laps around the room.

At one point, I heard a mysterious heavy banging sound. It crossed my mind to investigate, but I remembered that I had stripped the room bare (such a prepared mom!). They were probably just kicking the wall or something--no worries.

Eventually, I heard the sweet sound of *silence* and thought what every parent thinks right before disaster strikes, "That wasn't so bad. I'm a really good parent. Maybe I should write books about this and make millions helping other families with daunting transitions."

I peeked in the room after an hour of quiet and found

1. Kids alive and well. Check.
2. Kids sleeping snuggled adorably with stuffed "amimals". Check.
3. Kids sleeping in correct beds. Sheets still on them. Check. Check.

4. Flimsy window shades completely destroyed. Metal bar removed from shades to bang gashes in the week-old dresser and bed frames.


















Clearly, no one should buy this book.