Bonnie Rochman

isABelt Works

Not long ago, I wrote about my naivete in assuming Iâd bounce back to pre-pregnancy size as soon as Iâd expelled the human bowling ball from my middle. When reality sunk in, I sure could have used a nifty little invention called isABelt thatâs been touted on several parenting Web sites, including Peopleâs celebrity baby blog.

Posted 6 mon. ago.

Music Review: Emphatical Piratical

These days, one of my kids' favorite books is How I Became A Pirate, by Melinda Long. In its pages, the mild-mannered soccer player slips away to sail the high seas in the company of real, live pirates (of the Captain Hook variety, not the kind from Somalia) but becomes disillusioned when he realizes pirates donât read bedtime stories or tuck you in at night.

Posted 6 mon. ago.

Music Review: Billy Jonas' Happy Accidents

My family's been a big Billy Jonas fan since we first heard the witty lyrics to âWhat Kind of Cat Are You?â several years ago. What kind of cat are you? What kind of cat are you? Tell me tell me true, what kind of cat are you? I'll give you some clues. What kind of cat are you?

Posted 6 mon. ago.

So long

For the past several weeks, my almost 2-year-old daughter has nurtured a new obsession, âFuffy,â a white puppy with a pink bow that fits in her palm and goes everywhere she does. Fuffy â Orli canât say her âLâsâ yet â is so tiny that she is easily misplaced. That makes Orli very unhappy. And that, in turn, makes me very unhappy. It is amazing the lengths a …

Posted 6 mon. ago.

A child's memory

Schoolâs back in session this week and family vacations are on ice for the next few months while the school year creeps to an end, relegated to 4 X 6 snapshots that double as Technicolor testimony of time spent splashing in the warmth of the Caribbean or zooming down wintry slopes. Older kids will surely remember the cruise to Mexico or the trip to New York to see tall buildings of the type t…

Posted 7 mon. ago.

Head injury: When to call the doctor

The morning I read of actress Natasha Richardsonâs death from a seemingly innocuous fall, my 21-month-old daughter, Orli, toppled off the bed. Too far away to catch her yet close enough to see it happen in excruciatingly slow-motion, I watched as she scooted too close to the edge of the mattress, lost her balance, then struck her head on the burnished hardwoods. I gasped. She wailed. And my t…

Posted 7 mon. ago.

Car Seat Safety

There are those parents who say you know youâve reached Easy Street when you change your last Pamper. Some proclaim going on an outing sans stroller as their benchmark. Â Others insist it all comes down to the car seat. When you can hop in a car, unencumbered by tens of pounds of molded plastic, cushy padding and the network of straps that laces them together and always seems to get hopele…

Posted 7 mon. ago.

Mean Preschool Girls

Kids are notorious for making inane statements at inane moments. They hold sway over a non-sequitur like nobody's business. Still, I was ill-prepared for how speedily a recent happy-go-lucky conversation with my 4-year-old daughter devolved into tears. One minute she was prattling on about gymnastics and her new pink Hello Kitty tutu and her latest piece of artwork; the next she was sobbing so har…

Posted 7 mon. ago.

The Importance of Play

When President Obama gazes outside the Oval Office, he sees lushly manicured grounds and, if heâs lucky, two girls cavorting on a swingset. Earlier this month, the Obama girls â Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7 â got home from school to discover a brand-new playset in their brand-new backyard. While they slaved over the three Râs, their parents (Iâll venture to say Michelle did muc…

Posted 7 mon. ago.

Screamfree? Maybe me

A few weeks ago, I got an email from someone who had read one of my blogs where I confessed that Iâm a screamer. Keeping my cool when deluged with whines and beset by intransigence is not always my strong suit. My parents are screamers, Iâd divulged; it must be in my DNA.

Posted 8 mon. ago.

about this blog

Bonnie Rochman

Bonnie is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Monday.

She lives in Raleigh and has written for The News & Observer since 1998. She has covered political unrest in the Middle East and chronicled the experiences of entrepreneurs in Vietnam, but that was long before her new bosses -- there are three of them, one more demanding than the next -- presenting her with her most challenging assignment to date: juggling the needs and perceived wants of boy/girl preschoolers and their baby sister.

Bonnie also writes kids music reviews for TriangleMom2Mom.