GoodyBlog

Buckle Up, Miley!

We're pretty big Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana fans around here. She's a good role model who doesn't seem too likely to pull a Jamie-Lynn anytime soon. Plus those songs are just so darned catchy! But here's something we're not cheering about: According to Consumer Reports, in her hugely promoted 3-D concert tour movie, she and her dad are shown not wearing seatbelts while driving to a rehearsal. Did anyone who saw the movie catch this? (I didn't see it.) I have to say I don't think your average 11-year-old is going to spot this small moment and try to get out of wearing a seatbelt cuz Miley doesn't... (I hope!) but it's still a pretty big goof that the film's editors and director didn't catch it—and that she apparently doesn't wear her seatbelt. Buckle up, Miley!

The Secret Underground Hannah Montana Society

Anyone who follows this blog knows that my 6-year-old niece has already infected me with a bad case of High School Musical fever. Yes, I am certain that I am the only person over the age of 11 who describes "You Are the Music In Me" to friends as "haunting." (It'd be funny if it weren't true.)

As it turns out, my sweet, little Niecey Botwin was, in true drug pusher form, just starting me out on the soft stuff to get me hooked and comin' back for more: This past Thanksgiving weekend at home has left me with a full blown Hannah Montana habit. (Oh, how did I not see THAT coming?)

"Best of Both Worlds"? Brilliant. My favorite, "Nobody's Perfect"? A timeless masterpiece that I can't get out of my head: "Nobody's perfect. I gotta work it, again and again, til I get it right." I mean, it's spooky. It's like she knows me!

Time to fess up, all you achy breaky parents and former fans of Miley Cyrus's dad, Billy Ray. Mullets unite!! Admit you're a big ol' Momtana … and that you would've killed to have been on Oprah last week when the big O surprised everyone with a Miley/Hannah appearance)!

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Fear of Flushing: Why Kids Hate Automatic Toilets

There was an article in yesterday's New York Times about a new phobia: The enormous fear some children have of toilets that flush automatically. This is one of those advances that seem to have been designed without considering the children. When a child sits on the toilet and squirms, the sensor activates and it flushes violently while the kid is still sitting there. Super scary. Our readers write in all the time with tips to battle the infrared sensors, the most popular being to keep a pack of Post-Its in your bag. Have your children been traumatized by the automatic flush? And if so, what do you do about it?

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A Spoonful of Sugar DOES Make the Medicine Go Down

Props to Poppins. Seems like there was something about Mary's advice after all. According to New York's Cherry's Pharmacy for kids, voted Best Drugstore by New York magazine, the best way to counter the icky taste of medicine so your child will actually take his dose is chocolate: Give him a few M&M's before and right after.

Some of the award winning services Cherry's offers are custom blending specific flavors of medicine (if your child doesn't like bubble gum, they'll whip up something else, like peanut butter), and liquefying tablets for kids who can't swallow pills. They ship anywhere in the world, in case anyone's interested.

Now, we know that sugar is a touchy subject for a lot of moms and dads, and you might not want to dance with that devil. Perhaps it can serve as a last resort, though, for a kid who simply isn't taking his much needed medicine?

In light of cold and flu season coming down the pike, any other pill or medicine taking methods that you parents have perfected? What's worked for you? What hasn't? And if you have any tips for giving pills to cats, post those too. A friend's cat has caught on to the sudden windfall of fresh turkey that was coming his way.

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Umm, Wow?

Do You Know Disney?

If so, you could win a dream vacation to Walt Disney World! As part of “The Year of a Million Dreams,” Disney is launching a nationwide search today (through October 5th) for moms who have great tips for planning the ideal family vacation to the resort. If you're willing to share your travel secrets with other moms online, click here to enter or to find out more about the first-ever Walt Disney World Moms Panel. The panel finalists will get rewarded for their services with a 6-day/5-night vacation to the Orlando resort for a family of four. Goody luck!

Bet On It (Bet On It) ...

Bet on it, bet on it, bet on it, bet on it, bet on it, bet on it, bet on it, bet on it, bet on it ... Must ... break ... High School the Musical 2 ... repeating ... loop in ..... my ..... head. {Insert sound effect here of a body being sucked from one vortex into another.}

Phew. That was close. Just got back from a double birthday party celebration (my mom's and my own) this weekend, and my 6-year-old niece is addicted to the Disney Channel's ginormous hit movie sequel. And I mean waaay addicted. Like, little Amy Winehouse addicted.

Don't ask me how I successfully managed to escape the first installment of this original TV movie and hit soundtrack, but I did. But the Corbin karma has whopped me on the head this go around. Upon arriving at my brother and sister-in-law's house, I was aggressively hugged and then strapped to a chair in the dark, forced to listen to the entire soundtrack to the sequel twice. At an unearthly loud volume. I think I confessed to some things I did in the 80s, but instead of being released, I was then forced to dance. To one song called "Bet On It" in particular. About 8 times. And then to some Hawaiian themed bonus track called "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a." Then my niece "brought it down" with what she so eloquently labelled as "a really sad song": "Gotta Go My Own Way." Dinner. Cake. A rousing game of Cranium's Hullabaloo. Yadda yadda yadda. Before you knew it, we were all back to watching her favorite scenes from the movie with her own running commentary thoughout, including the blooper reel.

Suffice it to say that when my alarm clock went off this morning, it was playing "You Are the Music In Me" .... until I bolted up in my bed. Phew! Only a nightmare. But, dagnabbit, I soon found myself humming the song in the shower. And if that wasn't bad enough, it was the Sharpay version I was humming. I don't know what upsets me more: that it was her version, or that I simply know who Sharpay is and am familiar enough with her alternate version to be able to hum it.

Am I alone here? Have any of you moms or dads been infected with the HSTM cooties? Can't stop singing their songs? Doing their dances? (Trust me, you haven't lived until you've seen my brother's mad dancing skillz on "All for One." That's right: skillz with a "z.") And be sure to let us know your most embarrassing High School the Musical moment. Anyone been caught singing a tune during a parent-teacher conference or something? Don't be shy. It's all for one on Goody Blog. Your secret's safe with us! ; )

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Spankin' New Headlines

The House passes a bill that would give federal health insurance to the children of the working poor. Washington Post

Club Penguin is waddling over to Disney to the tune of $350 million.  Boston Globe

A former New York high school teacher questions a system that forces teachers to pass kids. NY Times

Scientists find that orangutans use charades to communicate. BBC News

It’s back to school buying time and teens and tweens are stocking up on luxury accessories. CNN

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Yay, Disney!

The company just became the first major Hollywood movie studio to ban images of smoking in its films. It will also “discourage” it in movies put out by Touchstone and Miramax, two of its more “adult” companies. Read all about it here. Let’s hope more companies follow suit!

It's a Date!

I'm newly addicted to the History Channel's This Day in History page. To be kinda honest, I'm not the biggest history buff and I'm always humbled by what I don't know and I should.

But a quick visit to this page and you get brief videos on seven featured historical events from the current week, starting with the current day. In addition, there's a list of other categories (from World War II to entertainment; from the Old West to Wall Street) for text-only highlights of that day's important events.

So, in just 10 or so minutes, I learned that on this day in history, July 16:

• Congress declared Washington, D.C., our country's new capital (1790)
• the U.S. completed its first test of the atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert (1945)
• The Catcher in the Rye was first published (1951)
• JFK, Jr.'s plane went down off the coast of Martha's Vineyard (1999)

And on July 17, 1955, Walt Disney's Disneyland opened its doors in Anaheim, California. Interestingly enough, though, its opening was a borderline disaster! The day was sweltering hot, and ladies' high heels were sinking into the melted asphalt while the concession stands ran out of cold drinks. On top of it all, there was a gas leak. Yikes! Obviously, we all know the happy ending for the park: It hosts more than 14 million visitors a year and rakes in close to $3 billion.

So if you're looking for a fun, quick way to keep your kids into learning and history over their summer vacation, this site is a great starting point. Due to some potential sensitivity with the dates' subject matter, though, you may want to prescreen the entries you want to share with your children based on their age range.

Let us know some fun facts you discover this summer on the site, or from anywhere else. We love to learn!

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