The Memorable Firsts

Sally tagged me ages ago and since I'm holed up in bed with a cold I figured I should actually get around to it!

First Teacher: My kindergarten teacher's name was Miss Dick, I kid you not, but I don't remember much about her if I'm honest.  My 1st grade teacher was Mrs. Baas and from what I remember I liked her (I was only 6 give me a break).  I can remember for show-and-tell I brought in my bike and somehow she knew to choose the boy I had a crush on to help me carry it in. If indulging a 6 year old's crush isn't being a good teacher I don't know what is :)

First snog: Tim, he was 18, gorgeous and played soccer for another high school. He had his own car and drove (I was 15) and I kissed him on my best friend Dana's trampoline in her back yard.

First record: I had a lot of vinyl singles (those little records) from a very young age including Madonna, Neneh Cherry, Tina Marie, Taylor Dane and tons more I can't remember. 

First job: If you don't count baby-sitting (which I did a lot of) it was at the TP Swim Club Snack Bar when I had just turned 15. My friend Stevie and I would experiment with putting pickles, tomatoes and Airheads into the deep fryer. We also used to freeze wet baseball caps to keep cool and basically goofed off way to much. I'm still not sure why we were entrusted to using deep fryers and a grill.

First crush: Michael Jackson. I wanted to marry him and kissed my 3rd birthday cake.  I had a Michael Jackson Barbie doll and posters all over my wall. Please note this was when he was still a black man and before he turned into a scary white woman.

First hangover: I'm guessing it was at my college orientation. I didn't drink in high school (remember that and not this next part Mom) and somehow even though I was 17 I got into clubs and definitely decided it was time to try drinking. I drank strawberry vodka straight because I didn't know it should be mixed. Someone told me I needed a chaser and gave me beer. How i didn't puke I don't know.

First gig: Counting Crows at the Cincinnati Zoo with the fore mentioned best friend Dana when we were 14 or 15 I can't remember! I met Adam Duritz in the audience and got his autograph.

First flat: Not counting dorm rooms it was my apartment at The Majestic on W. McMillian in Clifton. The Majestic was anything but and while I could walk to classes at UC it was super ghetto. My parking space was often filled with sewage, homeless people lived in the laundry room and I once came home and found a man passed out over the stairs. I felt like a horrible, mean Republican as I called the police since it was snowing out but said man didn't move when I said "Excuse me Sir" so I was worried he was dead.  The police knew him and seemed more than happy to shift him for me at least until they discovered he'd soiled himself.  Classy place, right?  They've since totally refurbished and cleaned up the place so if you are a student at UC don't let me experience sway you as it is an amazing location.

First byline: I know I wrote things for my high school newspaper but I couldn't tell you what. I wrote a story for my town newspaper on our Congressman though as well. I can't tell you if it was about interning for him or about a Town Hall meeting he held but it was one or the other.

First blog: My first blog was a Live Journal (I think?) and just me rambling and writing really horrible post-breakup songs that were way too heavily influenced by Dashboard Confessional and alcohol.  I had a blog on MySpace after that which was mostly memes and then another LiveJournal blog after I'd moved over here. Started up with this one and actually stuck with it.

Feminist Friday IX Theme: Violence Against Women

This week's theme is inspired by this image my best friend sent me:

Use this image as a jump off point for your post this week. Any feminist inspired or related post based on your thoughts/reaction to this image will work.  There certainly has been plenty of stories on the news recently you could draw from as well.  Since some of you may have something to say but don't necessarily want your name on it I am happy to host anonymous posts on this topic; the info on how to contact me is below.

The Friday Feminist Mom Round up

Here's how it works. Write a blog about being a feminist mom, raising a feminist child, a rant or anything that falls under the realm of the theme for the week. You don't have to be a mom or parent to participate. Come back and link your post and post the button on your blog.


That's it.


You don't even have to be a blogger to take part - just send me your post and I will publish it on my blog for you. You don't even have to include your name if you prefer.


When you've published it, come back on Friday and via a widget thing you can add a link to your post and share it with everyone. The link remains open for 4 days.


Visit others, comment if you like them or feel inspired by them. Just go out and encourage and support other feminist Moms.


The more support you give, the more you will get back! I can't wait to meet and interact with other feminist moms around the world!

Little Charley Bear DVD Review and Giveaway!

....and the winner is:

Di Coke! Please contact me within 48 hours to claim your DVD!


Have you met Little Charley Bear? Little Charley Bear is a CGI infant series about an imaginative and playful bear called Charley. Under the watchful eye of his friend, the Narrator, Charley Bear uses his imagination to play and go on adventures where he discovers new things about himself and the world around him through active role play. Aimed at young children aged up to four years, Little Charley Bear is a gently paced show that inspires creativity, discovery and imagination.

Blondie Boy was sent a copy of Charley Bear's new DVD "Are you there Charley Bear?" with  six of his most exciting imaginary adventures, plus fantastic bonus features.  I've got to be honest, Blondie Boy was less than interested. He loved dancing to the theme music but otherwise he wouldn't sit and watch.  Blondie Boy doesn't really watch TV and I thought he might be a little young so I asked my friend Deb what her children who are 2 and almost 5 thought of Charley bear.


Both her son and daughter loved Charley Bear! They both really enjoyed watching the DVD and her 5 year old said Charley Bear had "a great imagination." The episodes are just long enough to keep a child's attention but not too long to lose it.  I like how Charley Bear started out imagining he was doing an activity and then he was transported to really doing it!


Charley Bear doesn't speak and while the episodes are driven by his imagination, they are narrated by the Narrator, James Corden. Depending on  if you are fan of him (or if your husband isn't :cough:) this may or may not be a selling point.





Are You There Charley Bear? is available on Amazon or you can find him on Facebook and BBC2 at 10:10am OR you could win your own copy in my giveaway!




To enter:
Follow my Blog publicly (link on right sidebar) and comment what was your favourite thing to pretend to be when you were little! (mandatory)


Extra Entries:
-Follow me on Twitter and tweet "I entered to win a "Are You There Charley Bear" DVD with @Melaina25 & TransatlanticBlonde.com! You can too!: http://tinyurl.com/AYTCB" and comment to let me know (1 extra entry)
-Become a fan of Charley Bear on Facebook and comment to let me know (1 extra entry)
-Blog about the giveaway and comment to let me know (1 extra entry)


Make sure to leave each entry in a separate comment.
All entries will be verified and deleted if not valid so make sure to leave the usernames you subscribe or tweet with.


The DVD is region two so the giveaway is only open to the UK and Europe. A winner will be drawn at random on June 19th at 12:00 GMT. Winners must contact me within 48 hours or another winner will be drawn. GOOD LUCK! CLOSED.


Transatlantic Blonde was provided this product to review/giveaway, but postage is paid by Transatlantic Blonde.

Feminist Friday VIII: Raising a Feminist Child

There are things I know I do as a mother because I am a feminist. I don't let gender stereotypes influence my purchases or decisions  for Blondie Boy. I don't let my being a mother define me; even though it is a very big part of who I am, it is not all I am. However, when I stop to think about raising Blondie Boy as a feminist, well I get a bit stuck.


If I was raising a daughter I think maybe it would be more straight forward, but how do you raise a feminist son?  The best I can come up with is that his father and I set a good example of what feminists are.  I think a lot of it is pretty easy. We teach him he can be anything he wants to be and support him in whatever he wants to do whether it's what culture deems to be "gender appropriate" or not.  


He's just 17 months so how to raise him a feminist isn't something that really comes into play at the moment.  When I mentioned to a colleague how much he loved Lady Gaga she asked if I was worried that this was giving him a poor template of what a beautiful woman is.  I'll give you that Gaga is very thin, but he doesn't see Gaga as anything other than someone who sings songs that he likes.  I realize as he gets older I will have to temper what the media shows him and help counteract the poor messages most mainstream media sends out about women.


For right now I think all I can do is be a feminist myself and let him follow the example his father and I set for him.  Sure someday I know I'll have to get into it more deeply with him. I'd hope though if I teach him what's right and wrong, how to respect others and all the other things you should teach a child regardless that he'd find his feminist identity on his own. 


I don't think my parents particularly set out to raise a feminist daughter, but they certainly have one (if not two) of them now.  I'd like to think that positive and supportive parents raise feminist children whether they set out to or not.  Or am I being too naïve?

Raising a Feminist Child

Here's how it works. Write a blog about being a feminist mom, raising a feminist child, a rant or anything that falls under the realm of the theme for the week. Come back and link your post and post the button on your blog.


That's it.


You don't even have to be a blogger to take part - just send me your post and I will publish it on my blog for you. You don't even have to include your name if you prefer.


When you've published it, come back on Friday and via a widget thing you can add a link to your post and share it with everyone. The link remains open for 4 days.


Visit others, comment if you like them or feel inspired by them. Just go out and encourage and support other feminist Moms.


The more support you give, the more you will get back! I can't wait to meet and interact with other feminist moms around the world!

Poopscapades

So you know we are potty training and we are being pretty laid back about it. The events of the past week have made me want to padlock a diaper on Blondie Boy's cute little tush.  If you don't like reading about poop, you may want to stop here so dont' say I didn't warn you.


The first incident resulted when while Blondie Boy was running around I thought I saw a brown mark on his bum, inspected said mark looked around the floor but merely found the Emma dog licking her lips.  Now the evidence was purely circumstantial and I'm sure no judge or jury would have convicted her, but needless to say I couldn't look at her the same.


Move forward a few days and Blondie Boy again is frolicking about naked as he likes to do, seriously this kid is a stripper, and I see it drop from his bum to the floor. He then sprints across the room dropping presents on the floor along the way. This time as I scream "Noooo" I watch in disgust as Miss Emma eats up the chocolate treats greedily.


His "shit and sprint" is repeated the next day but luckily this time we are able to keep Emma away.  I still can't quite look her in the eye though knowing what she's done.  We have a few poopscapade free days and then while I'm sitting in a board meeting I get this text from NBH:


"For Blondie Boy's next trick, how about pulling your nappy to the side under your PJs, shitting down the leg of your still-fastened PJs into the foot and then smushing it about with your got so both your PJ foot and foot are ingrained with shit. Had to bath him."


It took every ounce of willpower not to burst out laughing when I saw it flash on my iPhone. Also I was secretly excited because I could finally use this emoticon which I've been dying to use since I download Emoji.

So what is the point of this blog post, other than to obviously have my son hate me some point down the road? I don't know but maybe someone else has similar stories? Or you know of some scatological sporting events I could enter him in? Bueller? Bueller?

Feminist Friday VII Theme: Raising a Feminist Child

This week I want to know your stories, opinions, point-of-view on raising a feminist child.  How do you raise a feminist son or a feminist daughter? What does that even entail? Write about whatever you want as long as it falls under the theme.

The Friday Feminist Mom Round up

Here's how it works. Write a blog about being a feminist mom, raising a feminist child, a rant or anything that falls under the realm of the theme for the week. Come back and link your post and post the button on your blog.


That's it.


You don't even have to be a blogger to take part - just send me your post and I will publish it on my blog for you. You don't even have to include your name if you prefer.


When you've published it, come back on Friday and via a widget thing you can add a link to your post and share it with everyone. The link remains open for 4 days.


Visit others, comment if you like them or feel inspired by them. Just go out and encourage and support other feminist Moms.


The more support you give, the more you will get back! I can't wait to meet and interact with other feminist moms around the world!

24 Hour Heat Wave!

It hit 75 in Glasgow on Friday and when it gets that warm here you take advantage of it in case it goes away (which it totally did when it dropped 20 degrees today) so we broke out the BBQ and Blondie Boy's very first paddling pool! It was a gift from his Grandma with a ball game and fancy sprinklers and he LOVED it!  

I've been getting jealous of all my American friend's photos of their kids in pools so I'm glad that even if it was just for one day my boy got to swim in his backyard, too! I've promised certain readers :cough:myMom:cough: I'd post more photos of the boy so here he is enjoying the lovely Friday we had!

At the end of the evening he was very tired and his hair was very curly :)