What's up?

Okay. Get it out of your system. For those of you who watched the Super Bowl yesterday go ahead and cheer or jeer here. The New York Giants edged the New England Patriots 21-17.

Mitt Romney won the GOP caucus in Nevada this past Saturday. Word on the street is this soap-opera-turned-snooze-fest will continue since Romney has not garnered 50 percent of the vote anywhere.

Rolling Stone ran a sad story about bullies preying on gay students in Michele Bachmann's school district, and in particular, the high school she graduated from.

The Root published a list of 25 graphic novels for Black History Month, which is this month.

What else is in the news? What's up with you?

So, I received an email from Elisa recommending a cute video. I had it in my inbox for about a week, hoping to have some time to look at it and see when I was going to post it. I finally saw it last night. Oh. My. God. I have to share. This is probably one of the cutest family moments I've ever witnessed.

What are you up to this Sunday morning?

It's the weekend, y'all!

And today, my baby turns two. TWO. How can that be?

Seems like it was just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant, so soon after a heartbreaking miscarriage. I hunkered down and did a lot of nothing, scared of losing another pregnancy and determined not to do anything to jeopardize it.

And from that bittersweet, sometimes fearful pregnancy came Alex: an actual bundle of joy from the time he was just a few weeks old, when he started giving honest-to-goodness smiles and giggles. He lives each day with such curiosity, such humor, such zeal. He brings laughter everywhere he goes. When I rock him to sleep (and yes, I still rock him. He's my baby! :-) I stare down at his cherub cheeks, his crazy long lashes and think back to something our dear tessajp wrote when I announced I was pregnant with him: this is the baby I was meant to have.

Amen.

Happy Birthday, my sweet little guy. Each and every day with you is a gift.

What are y'all up to this weekend? We will be throwing Alex a Yo Gabba Gabba!-themed birthday extravaganza today!

Chat away!

Because I dissed Cher earlier, I thought I would give her props here...

Awful cover:

Best Time: 2:15
Tinkerbell Time: 2:18

Photo from left to right: I was honored to run the race with my best friend and MotherTalkers.com partner, Erika Chavez, her mother Guillermina Chavez, another dear college friend of ours Courtney Dyar, myself and dear childhood friend Rachel Johnston. (Not pictured: my other MotherTalkers.com partner, Gloria Riesgo.) Here we are sporting our Tinkerbell medals after the race!

Fitness is important to me. My mother’s family has this nasty tendency towards obesity, Type II diabetes and heart attacks that kill only the women in our family, not the men.

My grandmother died of heart failure in her late sixties – very surprising, considering she was the youngest and spriest of all of my grandparents. Almost three years ago, my aunt – her daughter -- died of heart failure in her early 50s, leaving three children behind, ages 13 and under. My mom, too, has dealt with weight issues and type II diabetes for as far back as I can remember.

Needless to say, I undergo regular checkups, eat as many fruits and vegetables as I can, and exercise every other day. The latter is especially hard with two small children, a paying job, a marriage and a house. But when I look at my family history of diabetes and heart disease, it is motivation enough for me to get up when my alarm goes off at 4:30 a.m..

Yes, I actually get up between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. at least two weekdays a week to go for an 8-mile run, or work in the morning so that I can run later in the day. Running has been my passion since I was a kid because it is free, I can do it anywhere and I feel great when I am done.

I didn’t run my first half marathon (13.1 miles) until June 2011 at the age of 34. This past weekend, a month shy of my 35th birthday, I ran my second half marathon through Disneyland and finished in 2 hours and 18 minutes!

Here were my times throughout the race:

• I completed a 5K, or 3.1 miles, in 31 minutes and 21 seconds, at an average pace of 10 minutes and 5 seconds.

• I completed a 10K, or 6.2 miles, at 1 hour and 4 minutes at an average pace of 10 minutes and 19 seconds.

• I completed a 15K, or 9.3 miles in 1 hour and 37 minutes at an average pace of 10 minutes and 30 seconds.

• I completed the half marathon (13.1 miles) in 2 hours and 18 minutes at an average pace of 10 minutes and 35 seconds.

I tried to run the 12th mile as fast as I could, but I felt incredibly fatigued and could not will my legs to lift high enough. That is my challenge for next time – oh yes, there will be a next time! – to end as strongly as I started. But I am savoring this personal triumph as I share my Tinkerbell medal with my 4-year-old daughter, who actually took the medal with her to school earlier this week.  

I smile as she reminds me what all of this is for: my personal fitness and health.

How are you this Friday morning?

Any exciting plans for the weekend?

Ugh.

In case you missed the hoopla on Facebook, Susan B. Komen cut precious cancer screening dollars from Planned Parenthood due to pressure by anti-choice groups. The good news is it has energized those of us who have benefited from Planned Parenthood's services. Like I have mentioned at least a million times before, they were my primary care physician when I was broke and uninsured. A whopping 97% of their services are basic health care for low-income communities, including men and children.

Without further ado, here is a Somee Card that I must share:

Enjoy!

It's Thursday. And I'm peeved.

I'm sure you saw it all over facebook yesterday: seething rage over the Susan G. Komen Foundation's decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood.

Komen denies this was a politically motivated move but here's the bottom line: they cited an ongoing congressional investigation as the reason they pulled funding. And that investigation? Is led by a right-wing legislator who was goaded by anti-abortion groups.

Planned Parenthood caught my early stage cervical cancer when I was young and uninsured. They saved my reproductive system, and possibly my life. So all the recent attacks on PP feel personal. And I am beyond disgusted with Komen. I have run many a race for the cure, and purchased my share of pink ribbon crap. NO MORE.

Thankfully, it looks like I'm far from alone. Planned Parenthood reports that donations are pouring in, mine included. Komen is getting skewered left and right (well, mostly from the left :-) and executives are scrambling to put out statements and press releases in a desperate attempt to save face.

If you want to support PP in the face of this latest round of attacks, make a donation. Sign a petition. Speak up about its importance, and any experience you have had with the organization.

And Just Say No to pink spatulas.

What's on YOUR mind today? Chat away!

Here's another HORRIBLE cover...

And, here's the original:

Katie Couric wrote a fascinating article about the girl scouts that ran at the ABC News website.

As a girl, Couric was a scout and she hailed the organization's latest initiative to raise more women CEOs and catapult women into public office. As it turns out, 11 of the 17 women in the U.S. Senate were girl scouts. Read on:

Beginning January 31, Girl Scouts of the USA will begin these programs to raise awareness about the leadership gap that exists between men and women in positions of authority across most industries and sectors. For example, just 3% of CEOs are women and just 17% of Congress....

Girl Scouts isn’t unique in undertaking this endeavor. There are many other organizations that are seeking to empower the girls of today to become the leaders of tomorrow. But the new CEO of Girl Scouts USA, Anna Maria Chavez, who is the first Latina to head the organization, told me that Girl Scouts are uniquely positioned for this goal....

I met with a troop of girls from Parkway Northwest High School for Peace and Social Justice in Philadelphia, all of whom shared with me their dreams for the future. One wanted to be an obstetrician, another said she’d like to work for Apple and help develop the latest tech gadgets. Girl Scouts is helping "to get them there," as the slogan suggests.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but key to these girls' success will be mates who will help them with childrearing as well as economic security to run for office. Eighty percent of women up to the age of 44 are mothers -- a point that is often lost in these articles.

What do you think? Are any of your daughters girl scouts?

What's up?

As of this morning at 1:22 local time, our brother site, Daily Kos, announced that Mitt Romney edged out Newt Gingrich 46% to 32% in the Florida GOP primary.

In related news, Rick Santorum, who placed third with 13%, was in his home state of Pennsylvania with his severely sick 3-year-old daughter who has Trisomy 18, a rare genetic condition. The Duggars had been campaigning for him, according to Slate.

Jezebel published an article about pregnancy discrimination. What struck me most were the comments by readers swapping stories on how disturbingly common it is to trash pregnant women in the office. What is this? The 1820s? Jeez...

What else is in the news? What's up with you?

This week I've decided to feature the worst cover songs - EVER!

Song #1 - Emotion by Destiny's Child

I HATE THIS VERSION!

This Boston Globe column hit close to home as I have a four-year-old who I admittedly make special accommodations, plea, compare her to her brother, anything, to get her to eat her dinner. As it turns out, I've been doing it wrong:

1. Don't make special food accommodations for her at meal time. Every time you do, you reinforce her poor eating habits. Make sure the meal includes at least one food that she usually likes. It takes a lot of repetition -- as much as 70 servings! -- for a child to stop thinking of a "new" food as new....

2. Make dinner time a family event whenever possible. That makes it social and fun and it also provides positive role models for mealtime behavior, not just what to eat but also how to eat it.

3. Don't compare her eating to any one else, especially not to a sibling's. Children this age (well, all ages) love to exert their independence; as soon as you say, "Your sister likes this," you rob her of her independence....

4. Put the food on her plate, "Here's dinner!" If she refuses, you can have one alternative in the fridge....

5. When she's hungry a little later, offer her the same choices as at dinner

According to the article, consistency is key. If the child decides not to eat any of the choices presented and later on says, "I'm hungry," continuously present the two choices from mealtime. The article says it takes about three days to convert even the pickiest of eaters. What say you?

It's Tuesday! And I'm feeling like a bit of an underachiever.

The culprit? This Inc. story about a North Carolina mom who started her own business a few years ago. The business now does more than $2 million in sales annually.

The product? Ruffled underwear for children. Srsly. The company is called RuffleButts.

That would never have occurred to me. I guess I just never imagined a demand for ruffled undies. I adored dressing my baby girl in the girliest of clothes, but I don't remember ever pining for ruffled undies to put her in. Goes to show you how much I know.

Sigh. Do you have any crazy business ideas that you think just might be able to make you millions? Can you think of any business success stories that confound you?

What else is on your mind today? Chat away!

I'm sorry! Again I find myself away from a computer. What songs would you like me to feature this week?

Happy Monday all! I will fill you in on my half marathon in a bit. I finished in 2 hours and 18 minutes. I am especially proud of our girl, Erika. She shaved an incredible 16 minutes from her last time for a finish of 2 hours and 20 minutes! Woot!

In the meantime, I thought we would have a little fun at Mitt Romney's expense. As it turns out, Romney has roots in Mexico, which the Boston Globe has laid out. Yet, he's been going out of his way to show the world he is no vato.

The online Daily Show for Latinos -- Latino Rebels -- had this funny piece about how some of his anti-immigrant rhetoric has come straight from a satirical website. Check it out:

The “Repatriotas,” a group of artists and activists affiliated with the Yes Lab at the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, were shocked when Romney suggested that “The answer [to the immigration issue] is self-deportation.” The group built selfdeport.org as a satirical response to stepped-up deportations and an uptick of extreme anti-immigrant laws like SB 1070 in Arizona, HB 56 in Alabama, and the Secure Communities program, which deny basic rights to undocumented people and their families. And increasingly harsh and punitive responses to immigration are not just a partisan or GOP problem. Under the Obama administration a record 369,000 people were deported in 2011 alone--far exceeding deportation rates under his Republican predecessor George W. Bush.

“The ‘go-back-home’ rhetoric is so over-the-top that we thought parody was the only sane response," said Marlène Ramírez-Cancio, a Repatriota and a member of the Latina video and satire collective Fulana. "We don't know how Romney first happened upon our website, but given the murky nature of his own family's legal status in the U.S., maybe he was just exploring his options," she says, referring to recent allegations that in the early twentieth century Romney's own family may have crossed the Mexico / US border without first securing the appropriate papers.

LOL! By the way, SelfDeport.org is hilarious. I love the "How to Self Deport" guidelines.

Seriously, it is bizarre -- and kind of stupid -- how Romney has run as the anti-immigrant candidate. Cuban Americans in Florida, a key constituency for him this upcoming election, are not going to be down with this. And since he's flip-flopped on so many other issues, it isn't going to be easy for him to change his tune come this fall.

Other rants and raves about the Republican primary? Chat away!

What's up?

Sorry for the paltry post but I just ran a half marathon (13.1 miles) yesterday. If I may say so I rocked it with a final time of 2 hours and 18 minutes! More details to follow....

In the meantime, I found this piece of news shocking: Heather "Dooce" Armstrong announced her separation to husband of 10 years and business partner, Jon, according to Slate.

What else is in the news? What's up with you?