Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood gets a thumbs up from People magazine TV critic & McSweeney’s contributor, Tom Gliatto.

So how did the Fred Rogers Company &

PBS Kids’ Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood do?

Find out in the latest Common Sense Media:

I’m giving away an over sized (largest character: 18.5″ x 27″) set of Super Why reusable wall decals this week, Sunday 8/26- Friday 8/31 to celebrate our super readers incredible job with their reading all summer long.

Decals are made of heavy-duty vinyl and are for use on smooth, flat surfaces. Includes 4 large Super Why! characters (largest measures 18.5″ wide x 27″ high), 1 “Super Why!” logo, and 1 light switch decoration. Made to move, these peel and stick clings come off the wall just as easily as they go on. Decorate for your party, & then let your child redecorate their bedroom with no worries!

 To ENTER contest, simply:

1) “LIKE” the Angela’s Clues Facebook fanpage (if you’ve already “Liked” us simply continue with steps #2 & #3)

2) click on the “Super Why! SUMMER READER GIVEAWAY” 8/26 Post on the Angela’s Clues fanpage

3) Add a comment about your child’s favorite summer book under this post

~ BONUS ~ If you Tweet about the Super Why! SUMMER READER GIVEAWAY it’ll double your chances to win, as we will enter your submission twice for this contest

 Contest ends midnight on Friday 8/31 & a randomly drawn winner will be announced on Saturday.

Contest Terms

Tom Cruise..Katie..Surie..I honestly have 0 idea what the whole story is about, who it’s about (well perhaps who), nor is it any of my business, but my unfortunate glance beyond the CVS register definitely made me cringe today.

Surrounding that rag, were shots of all different types of people on magazines that were essentially all the same. Each one apparently had ALL of the answers that, unbeknownst to me, I needed! BUT the one with the cover photo of a Dad swimming with his daughter begged us all to ponder, WHERE’s the Mom?

Why, pray tell, is a daughter with..with..get this one..her Dad?!

Should we also inquire “Where’s the Dad?” if the child was simply swimming with the Mom, the Nanny, the Teacher, the Sitter, the Grandma, the AuPair, the Coach (see where I’m going with this?)..

32% of fathers took care of their kids at least 1 day p/wk in 2010 so why is there a need to time travel backwards on this parenting issue?

If you can shed some light on this please leave a comment below.

[Follow up post to Are you Ready for a New Pet?]

One decision made: We are getting a dog! Lots of new decisions to go..

The kids want a small “cute” dog & my husband wants one that is easy to travel with, so we are aiming for one that will be no more than 20lbs.

My husband is also mildly allergic to dogs, which we didn’t discover until after our pug had been gone a few months & his allergies miraculously cleared up! So we need to look for a low-shedding, low-dander, “hypo-allergenic” variety. Poodles, havanese, maltese, shih-tzus, bijons, some terriers, & many of their mixed-breed puppies can be good for people who suffer with allergies..so we are looking for one of these.

We also live in a city apartment, so we need a dog that isn’t “yappy” that will annoy the neighbors. We all agree we want a puppy that we can train and love and watch grow from the beginning.

When we first decided to get a puppy, I was set on rescuing one from a shelter, but after weeks of searching, I quickly realized it isn’t quite that simple. First, puppies are very hard to come by in shelters. You should be open to adopting a dog at least over a year & sometimes even much older or of unknown-age to adopt from a rescue shelter. Next, you are often unsure of parentage, making allergen prediction nearly impossible.  I also found that in our city, the shelters were filled with large guard dog types..not what we were looking for.  To find a small-dog puppy with known parentage I had to search shelters in a much wider radius & they were so rare that several in a row were snatched up before I could get our adoption application approved.

I was even told by one rural shelter that they probably wouldn’t even approve us for adoption because they don’t believe that dogs should be placed in “urban locations” regardless of whether we were fit to be dog-owners! So as much as I had hoped to “rescue” a dog, we have decided that we were going to go the route of a breeder, which poses a whole set of additional decisions and a lot more researching to avoid puppy mills.

I’ll be back with updates on our search for our newest furry family member soon but in the meantime, should you have any tips for acquiring a new dog, PLEASE share your comments here!