good book/penguins/d is for douche canoe/snooping

a couple of you have asked about the girl and how she's dealt w/ "becoming a woman." i can't take all of the credit, though my kids know they can ask us anything, and often do (the boy asked the hubs what jacking off is the other day--yes, he heard it on tv at some point) and i am sure lots of parents would probably cringe at some of the conversations we have in our house. my kids have known the correct names for their body parts since they were toddlers, mainly because i got tired of them calling everything below their waist their butt. i know talking about sex and private things makes some parents cringe and they dread having "the talk" w/ their kids, but i guess because i didn't get any of that from my parents (other than my dad, drunk, telling the hubs he should wear a raincoat in the shower--this when we were dating in high school) and i wanted to make sure my kids had the information they needed and knew they could ask me anything. i've digressed. so, another great thing is this book . i gave it to the girl early last year when she started hitting that tween growth spurt--when she actually needed a real bra and she'd shot up 6" over night. she has read it cover to cover, asked questions about things she's read, etc. it doesn't just talk about periods, it talks about all the changes going on right now--emotional, physical--and about relationships w/ friends, boys, parents. it's a good source of information. however, if you do get this book, look at it, read through it before you give it to your daughter (there's one for boys too). i didn't have a problem w/ anything in here, but it does talk about masturbation and other sensitive topics.

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yesterday there was a news story online about the secret life of penguins, so of course i read it because of my fascination w/ them. the story actually wasn't that exciting--some french scientists had tagged some macaroni penguins to find out just what the hell they did when they went out to sea for 6 months before coming back home to breed. duh--extended bachelor party dudes. no, seriously, they swim thousands of miles and eat. a whole lot. i'm almost embarrassed by the story because they should have known this. maybe there was more to it--maybe i should read the actual published, scientifical (as the girl likes to say) report. maybe they really knew they were going out to sea to tank up and were just trying to figure out where and what they were eating. yeah, that's it. but also, they had pictures of the wrong damn penguins w/ the story. really people? is it that hard to be correct w/ your information???? this is a macaroni penguin--they showed a pic of king penguins (those and emperor penguins are probably the ones people recognize the most). yes, i'm a dork. in high school i had dreams of becoming a penguinologist (is so a word, shut up) and going to antarctica. as it turns out i have no less than 9 books about penguins and antarctica on the shelf directly in front of me right this minute and i've probably only read one, partially. they're boring.

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i'm seriously thinking about this d is for douche canoe thing. at first i was just going to slap something up here as a blog post--cos that's how i roll people. do you think i actually sit here pondering blog topics, editing them, making sure they're good before hitting publish? uh, no. this is all on the fly baby. stream of fucking conscious writing. or unconscious as the case may be.

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i have inadvertently snooped in the boy's email. about six months ago we let the kids set up email accounts. we talked at length about online safety, not opening email from people you don't know, yada yada yada and that was that. they have a few friends they email, but it's a hit or miss thing and they don't email much. i know, because their computer is in the den and we can see everything they're doing. in the last month or so the boy has been emailing much more than usual. i would ask him about it and he said it was a girl, but he was private about it. a couple of times in the morning he's left his email up and since i've been home during the day i use their computer rather than my laptop. i see all these emails to and from this little girl, we'll call her the little red haired girl. the thing that's irking me is that she's jerking him around. the boy is typically a leader, not a follower when it comes to his peers. but this girl has him following her around like a puppy dog. i am alarmed. she teases him with things like, oh, when i break up w/ my boyfriend i'll go out with you because you are my best friend. dudes, they're in 3rd grade! i think this little bitch is going to hurt him. i think he's wearing his heart on his sleeve too much w/ her. oy vey. plus there's the whole snooping thing. i didn't intend to snoop. but it was there and i read it. and, technically, i could have done this at any time because i know the boy's email password, but i never did that intentionally. what are your thoughts on snooping through your kids' stuff?