Momania: A Blog for Busy Moms

Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.

One of the thousands of things I’ve had to learn and come to terms with over the past five years, is that every child matures at their own rate.

I don’t know why that surprised me. I know plenty of adults who have never grown up.

Andy and his son Ty.

Maybe it’s because of all those charts the doctors and experts throw at you. You know, the ones that say things like: By age 3, your child should be doing long division and changing the oil in your car.

Kids are people, too, and their minds and personalities develop at their own pace.

I used to compare Ty with other kids his age and often was disappointed when one of his friends or his cousin, who is a couple of months younger than Ty, did something that seemed more advanced than what he was capable of doing.

Eventually I realized that he …

Continue reading No Tiger Mothers here »

Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.

Home delivery never crossed our minds.

Andy and his son Ty.

It wasn’t an option we talked about or discussed with anybody else. I’m sure it was mentioned in our birthing class, but we had always thought that Lori would give birth in a hospital.

But apparently not everybody thinks that way.

Home births were up 20 percent in the U.S. from 2004-08, according to the folks over at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That accounted for 28,357 of 4.2 births in this country during that time.

An article on MSNBC.com reported that the study found, “White women led the drive, with 1 in 98 having babies at home in 2008, compared to 1 in 357 black women and 1 in 500 Hispanic women.”

Here’s more:

Robbie Davis-Floyd, a medical anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin and …

Continue reading Study: Giving birth at home is on the rise »

Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.

Casey Anthony looked shocked, relieved and then on the verge of collapse when the verdict was read.

Andy and his son Ty.

Anthony was found innocent of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee on Tuesday to end one of the most closely watched trials since O.J. Simpson’s in 1995.

There’s been a ton of reaction to the verdict since the trial was so polarizing. Anthony was found guilty only of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.

But there’s also been a lot of blogging, tweeting and talking about Anthony’s reaction after she found out she was innocent of the most serious charges.

After the initial shock wore off, Anthony and her entire defense team were seen smiling and laughing in the courthouse. This is from the Orlando Sentinel:

As soon as …

Continue reading What do you think of Casey Anthony’s reaction? »

Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.

I read the other day that Malaysia Airlines, which has banned kids from first class on its 747s since 2004, will not allow them to sit in the pricey seats when its Airbus A380s are introduced next year.

According to a New York Times blog, CEO Tengku Azmil said the decision was based on the complaints from passengers and having no room for changing tables in the bathrooms in first class.

Having kids in first class is an extremely touchy issue for flyers who prefer that area be reserved for adults, or at least older children, who would enjoy the comfy seats, extra space and other luxuries. We’ve flown with Ty several times since he was 2 months old, and I couldn’t imagine him sitting in first class on a couple of those trips, even though he’s an excellent flier, for the most part.

When he …

Continue reading Airline CEO: No babies allowed in first class »

Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. You can e-mail him atajcmomania@gmail.com.

When kids are 4 or 5, you’re never sure what their minds grasp. I’m happy if Ty’s is focused on something other than Lego, candy, cartoons or digging in the dirt for more than 10 minutes.

Andy and his son Ty.

He grasps things quickly – when he wants to – and one of the things I’m glad he’s learned what the American flag looks like.

We bought one for our front porch more than a year ago. He wanted to know what it was and why we were putting it on our house.

I told him that we lived in America and that the flag was a symbol of our country. I’m sure I said a lot of other wise things about freedom and patriotism and George Washington and the Declaration of Independence and stuff like that, all of which led to his response of something like: “That’s red. That’s white. That’s …

Continue reading Teach kids what Fourth of July really means »

Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in.You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.

Andy and his son Ty.

Superman is a has-been.

Batman is an afterthought.

Spider-Man is so 5 minutes ago.

Ty goes through superheroes like actors go through girlfriends.

I think Superman was the first. There was something about that red cape that grabbed my little boy’s attention.

But then Ty discovered masks, specifically those cheap plastic ones that come with Halloween costumes, so Superman was out.

No mask. No love.

Along the way he had a quick obsession with Batman and a longer one with Spider-Man, but they were eventually replaced by his current favorite – Ironman.

And I’m not sure why.

He’s never seen the movies, so I know he’s not a Robert Downey Jr. fan. I don’t think he sneaks into the den and watches “Tropic Thunder” when we’re not looking. And I think the only iron …

Continue reading Superhero roulette means Ironman’s number might be up »

Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.

I don’t think a Fourth of July or New Year’s Eve passed without me, my brother, a cousin and a bunch of friends blowing up several dollars worth of fireworks.

Andy and his son Ty.

We shot all kinds, from Roman candles to those little metal things that flew up in the air to the bigger tubes that produced pretty colors and gave the neighbors something to watch.

But bottle rockets were our favorite, mainly, I think, because we could aim them.

We knew the rules. You were supposed to stick them in the bottle, which was supposed to be aimed at the sky. You were to light the fuse and supposed to move a safe distance.

Not us.

We shot bottle rockets at everything.

Trees. Cars. Houses. Each other.

We didn’t even use the bottles.

We’d hold them in our hand and throw them as far as we could at …

Continue reading Are fireworks too hot to handle for your kids? »

Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.

OK, I confess.

The other day I caught myself watching “Phineas and Ferb.”

There’s nothing strange about that. Usually.

Andy and his son Ty.

Ty enjoys it. I enjoy it. It’s our thing. We bond.

This time was different.

This time, I was alone.

Lori and Ty were gone and yet, Phineas and Ferb were there. On my TV.

The guys with the geometrically challenged heads had once again successfully gained all the permits and qualified for yet another loan to buy the parts needed to build the world’s largest roller coaster or lawn mower engine-powered chariots or a rocket or some other fantastic contraption.

I don’t remember exactly which episode was on, I just remember that at some point I thought to myself: How did I get caught up in this?

In my defense, I find “Phineas and Ferb” to be one of …

Continue reading Phineas and Ferb is a guilty pleasure »

Dad Days of Summer: While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.

Andy and his son Ty.

Three metro Atlanta AMC Theatres and the Autism Society have come together to host Sensory Friendly Films for the autistic and their families in July.

AMC Discover Mills 18, AMC Phipps Plaza 14 and AMC Southlake 24 will show “Cars 2” on July 2 and “Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” on July 23.

Since the autistic often have a hypersensitivity to light or sound, the theaters will not go dark and the sound will be lower than usual.

In addition, the theaters will not only waive AMC’s Silence is Golden policy, the audience will be allowed to dance, walk around, shout and sing. Also, families can bring in gluten-free and casein-free snacks, and no previews are advertisements will be shown.

Both movies will begin at 10 a.m. and tickets can be purchased on the …

Continue reading Cars 2, Harry Potter are Sensory Friendly Films »

While Momania’s Theresa Walsh Giarrusso takes a vacation, local dad and sportswriter Andy Johnston will be filling in. He loves war movies, obsesses over his fantasy baseball team and makes a mean stir-fry. You can e-mail him at ajcmomania@gmail.com.

Andy and his son Ty.

There was a story in USA Today a couple of weeks ago that grabbed my attention.

It was about guys with older kids from their first marriage and who had then remarried and now are raising their second set of children.

While the article didn’t necessarily apply to me, at 45, I’m older than most men who have 5-year-olds. I was 32 when I got married and nearly 40 when Ty was born, so now, five years later, it’s sometimes tough to find the energy I need to keep up with him.

One of the guys quoted in the article was 60-year-old Greg Weinlein, a retired high school English teacher who has two kids who are 43 and 37 and two other ones who are 11 and 7. BTW, he also has grandsons who are 8 and 14.

One expert …

Continue reading Report: Older guys having second set of kids »