As you all know, I’m a single mom raising a boy. (Before I found out I was having a boy, I had a very pink Gilmore Girls fantasy going on in my head.) His dad is not in the picture so the rearing is on me. I make sure JD spends time with my dad and brothers, because I want him to have positive male role models in his life. I think it’s important, that while I can throw a football and show enthusiasm during an airing of Monster Jam, that JD share these traditional guy adventures with, well, guys. I’m all about raising a well-rounded boy that says please and thank you without being prompted, eats all his green beans and engages in activities from sports to sand art (a recent adventure that is prob better to do outside). That being said, my kid better treat the ladies right. I know this may sound silly, I mean JD is only 3, but after watching Ronnie’s breakdown on MTV’s Jersey Shore last night, I am horrified. Horrified. I wonder if his mom is too.

I was rushing on Friday to get JD to school, so I could get to a new freelance job. I usually drop him off at 9 AM, but now it’s more like 7:30 AM. There were a lot of kids in his classroom so I didn’t feel too bad about the extra early drop-off. When we walked in I smiled at his teacher Miss *Lily and said hello. JD hid behind me and wrapped his arms around my legs. I dropped his lunch in the warm-up bin and walked over to his cubby to help him take off his jacket, hat and gloves. Next, I set out a little bowl of KIX cereal, some fresh berries and a juice box on the table and told JD to sit with his friends and have a breakfast party! JD ate a pancake and drank a cup of milk at home, so I wasn’t surprised when he ran off to the block area. I smiled at Miss Lily and shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe you can get him to eat something,” I said as I walked over to the block area to give JD a kiss (a million kisses) goodbye.

If you live on the East Coast you know that this has been one cold and stormy winter. Every week it seems there’s another snowstorm and when it’s not snowing, it’s still freezing! I love to be outside and normally I’m all for a winter-walk with JD, but not when it feels like negative degrees out. JD and I are no couch potatoes, so to beat cabin fever we play at indoor playgrounds, go out to lunch, visit the NJ Children's Museum, stroll around the Monclair Art Museum, go to the local theater, partake in story-time at the library, visit Borders…And we even hang out at the local PetCo—even though we don’t have a pet. I’m being dead serious (and you can make fun of me).

Trust me, the title is not as scary as it looks. On Wednesday I took JD to story-time at our local library. The mommy-and-me class is two parts. First, the group meets in a common room where Miss Rosie reads books and we sing songs. There’s also a simple tutorial that involves alphabet recognition, counting, colors and shapes. For part 2, the group moves into the library to do a craft. Because it was raining and snowing a lot of the moms stayed in the library longer than usual so our kids could play before settling in for a long afternoon. JD plopped on the ABC rug and began building with bright wood blocks that he thought were super cool because we don’t own this particular brand. I sat near him in a chair and flipped through a magazine.