Behavior: 1,2,3 Magic

I am not sure if I have mentioned this book before, but I was a teacher before I had children and had not problems controlling my class. My son stumped me as far a behavior. My daughter is doing the same thing now. I started this books method with my son at around 15months and my daughter is 23months and I have been doing it again. I have found it to work very well for us.

My daughter has recently started saying NO to everything that I ask and taking her clothes off after I dress her. I use the 1,2,3 method and she knows I mean business. My son used to do dangerous things, like climb onto tables and jump off the couch arms. It worked for that as well.

1,2,3 Magic by Dr. Thomas Phelan

http://www.parentmagic.com/

Interview with Mark Cuban about his new book, "How To Win At The Sport Of Business"

I recently interviewed Mark Cuban about his new book. For those of you who don't know Mark Cuban, he is a self made billionaire. He is a hard working, creative, entrepreneur. He is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, chairman of HDTV cable network HDNet, and owner of Landmark Theaters.

Many mommies who want to start a business are struggling to make ends meet
but you argue in your book, that some of the best businesses took little
to nothing to start. Why do you encourage entrepreneurs not to wait for
financing to start?

Because effort is always more important than cash.

There are many young moms who are just beginning their lives and can relate to
you when you said you were sharing a small apartment with 6 people and
sleeping on the floor. How can someone keep their eye on the prize when they’re
living on Ramen noodles?

Who cares how you are living today? I loved every minute of living in
that dump. The low rent and utilities and eating Mac n’ Cheese all
the time allowed me to afford the startup of my business. Instead of
paying myself much, I could put it in to
my business.

You knew Michael Dell of Dell Computers before he was the Michael Dell.
What can you say about being nice to people on the way up?

It's a whole lot easier to be nice to people than not to be. There are
times when you have to be tough, but a smile not only goes further,
but it makes you feel better about yourself as well.


You encourage entrepreneurs not to hire a public relations firm, Mark. How did you get the word out about your eBook?

I tweeted, posted on Facebook, [used] Google Plus and responded to emails. Nothing more.

One of my favorite parts of your book, How to Win at the Sport of Business, that completely broke my heart was when your ex-secretary robbed your first company of over $83,000, leaving you only $2000 after a year of work. If there are moms out there that have lost everything,
what advice do you have for them to pick themselves back up?

Keep working. Don’t feel sorry for yourself because it won’t do any good.

Looking back, destiny seemed to lead you from one opportunity where you
would learn a life skill to another. Do you believe in fate or luck and
how much of that has to do with hard or smart work?

There were a lot of things I didn’t write
about. So, it’s not necessarily
a direct jump from one skill to another. Starting and running a
business can be a lot of long hours. You just have to get after it and
not let up.

You were seemingly unfocused and not sure about what you want to do when
you were younger. What advice do you have to parents who are worried if their
child will ever be somebody?

No amount of
worrying is going to change things for them. They have to
figure it out for themselves. At some point, it is theirs to do or not
do.


Where can we get a copy of your eBook, How to Win at the Sport of Business?
Anywhere eBooks are sold: Amazon, BN.com, and sites that support independent bookstores too.

Twitter

I just joined twitter! I have no idea how to use it but will figure it out as I go. Come see me on twitter too!

Moving from the city to the burbs

My husband and I really expected to raise our children in NYC and thought we were going to live a very happy life there. We both grew up in one of NYs 5 boroughs and planned to stay in the city forever. We had, what we thought the perfect situation, 2 kids, 2 small dogs and a 3 bedroom apartment just off Central Park. We had everything we could ever want and we were in the worlds best city (as far as we were concerned).

Then our kids started to grow. Our son was 4 and in a private preschool and our daughter was on her way to joining him. As happy as we were we felt like we were always trying to keep our son still, contained, restrained, etc... Yet we continued to look for a private preK and plan for next year. We went through the whole process got into a new school and the night before we were to send in the deposit check we changed our minds. We just felt like this was not going to be the best move for our family. Especially our son. Everyday our daughter would nap for 3 hours and he would be stuck in waiting for her to wake up. He was playing like a normal child and we were shushing him so he did not wake his sister. Was this really how we wanted him (both of them) to grow up?

We put our apartment up for sale and it sold very quickly and we found a great house in a town very near NYC. We moved for the start of this school year. Our house is very nice, but we do miss the super! The neighborhood is spectacular but its not the upper west side! The neighbors are great, but you always have to say hello! Bottom line, the move has been good so far. The children, over the moon happy!!! The parents adjusting!!!

The town we moved to seems to be all transplants from the city. That gives us encouragement that we will love it here. I have been told that it is lonely for the first year while you make friends and that you really have to put yourself out there to meet people. I have been trying to join a lot of thing to meet people, but my kids keep getting sick, (maybe new school new germs). I do feel a bit lonely. However I am encouraged because I have found out that I am not the only one. And when I do miss the city, I hop in the car with the kids and visit an old hang out. I also make regular playdates with old friends in the city so some things do stay the same.

More to come on adjusting to the burbs...

Speech

Just like the speech pathologist had said, my daughter started talking very well in the last few months. I am so grateful not to have to add another chore to our week by having to go to speech. But I would have gladly done it to allow my daughter to become all that she should be. I find her walking around the house most days naming things and when she doesn't know what something is, she is pointing to it saying, "This is...?" and I have to answer her. Its funny and can get a little annoying all at the same time. We feel very bless that this has all worked itself out.

Interview With Anna Deskins

Me--Your children's book, The Adventures of Smitty looks magically. Tell us about it.
Anna--It's the story of a magical island of little creatures called Smilies and the mischievous little main character, Smitty. He's such a naughty boy. Haha! All the moms and kids I've shared it with have been giving me such a wonderful reaction. I cannot believe it. I have to tell you how excited I am to finally have a life-long dream come true. Writing The Adventures of Smitty was really about finding a story that I would want to read to my children at night. It has to be exciting but not scary so that my two daughters can go to sleep. Basically, I was looking for that perfect blend to read to my kids at night and decided, "Why not try writing my own?"

We've had a lot of changes in our life recently, so I want to make sure that when I put my daughters to sleep that they feel safe. I have short chapters because I know how busy we moms are but if you can just sacrifice 5 minutes at night reading to your kids, it makes a world of difference. Your kids will never forget it. And although we're running around the whirlwind of life, our kids grow up so fast, and that time that we'd rather finish watching what happened in our favorite soap opera instead of reading to our kids will never come again. I hope that The Adventures of Smitty and books like it help moms do exactly that.


Me--And it's only 99 cents this week. That's what I love about it. Now, You are recently divorced. How have you been able to continue writing when going through such a change?
Anna--Yes, it is by far one of the most challenging points in my life. To see a marriage you thought would last forever to not last forever was difficult for the two of us. I really learned a lot about myself and most importantly, it's brought me closer to my daughters. I think that's what really motivated me to finish this children's book no matter what. When you're going through changes in your life like this, you need something to hold on to. There's a part of you that wants to prove that you can make it, that you will be a success even if it's not with the partner you originally imagined building a life with. I had to keep writing, for my kids. I want to show them that they have to keep strong, no matter what.

We as women, as moms really need to stick together to support each other and our dreams. We're living in an age when I think we're finally realizing, although we want love, the men in our life aren't the answer to everything. We have to stand up on our own two feet and keep going. True love will happen, but until then, we have to keep moving forward. Our children depend on us and we depend on us.


Me--In addition to being a children's book author, you're also a small business owner. How do you juggle taking care of two daughters and at the same time running a business?
Anna--Yes, I am a fashion designer and have a retail store. Any type of creativity is what I'm passionate about. That's why writing The Adventures of Smitty was so important to me. Let me tell you, running a small business in today's economy isn't easy especially when raising two girls at the same time. But somehow, it seems someone's watching over me because my dreams are coming true no matter what. To have that many moms glowing about my children's book, means so much to me. And I know my girls are proud.

Me--When do you ever have time to write?
Anna--You mean, in between laundry, running a business, chasing my girls around the house, cleaning the house, and flying back and forth from Miami to New York? Haha? That's one thing I've learned, when you really want to do something, you find a way. Things fall into place if you just go for it and that's what I want to encourage all the moms who are reading this right now. Whatever your goal is, you can do it. Don't let the challenges in your personal life stop you from going for your dreams. Just go for it and it's almost magical how things fall into place.


Me--Where can we get a copy of "The Adventures of Smitty"?
Anna--Right now, it's available online by going to: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94655 You can also visit my website: http://www.AnnaDeskins.com where you can read more about my writing process, my recommendations for other books and my own adventures in Mommyhood.

I'm so grateful for your support and the support I'm getting from so many wonderful moms who dream of writing children's books one day too. Writing The Adventures of Smitty has been such an emotional experience for me, a true journey as I was going through so many changes while writing it. It's truly been a blessing in my life. It, along with my daughters, and that guy upstairs have really pulled me through a challenging time.

Me--Thanks for the interview, Anna. And let's go out and support a fellow mom by getting a copy of The Adventures of Smitty today. I know I will!

Newborn Waking To Feeding

A good friend of mine had a baby a few days ago. She asked me how to wake her new born up to feed her. I immeadiately thought of the friends episode wham Rachel woke her baby and she screamed for hours!
But in real life and you have a new born, you sometimes do have to wake them.

I was told from my mom, who is a pediatric nurse, to wake the baby during the day and not at night for feeding. She always said the baby would wake at night if it was hungry. My kids were always a healthy regular weight and always ate fairly well.

Another friend of mine had very small children and she was told to wake them for the first few months at night.

So ask your doctor what they recommend.

But as far as how to wake them, I was always successful feeding by: unswaddling the baby, tickling their feet a little, taking them out of their nice little comfort zone. That made my children a bit more awake and they would eat.