The Boston Children’s Museum may be closed for construction but they’re keeping busy in the community, bringing hands-on activities to every Boston Public Library branch via Around Boston in 80 Days.

This program runs through the end of March, but we got the scoop on two great events to cap off February vacation week. Tomorrow (Feb. 23) from 10:30am - 12:30pm at the South Boston Library (646 East Broadway, Tel: 617-268-0180), kids can get a sneak peek at two new BCM programs involving kitchen science and Twister-style fitness. And a special program (not currently on the calendar) will take place on Sunday the 25th at the central branch (Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street; Tel: 617-536-5400). Families are invited to celebrate the Chinese New Year with costume, stories, and craft from 1-2:30pm, and a traditional Chinese music concert at 2:30pm.

All events are free of charge, and free mini family photo stickers are available; one sticker is added to a big map of Boston, the rest are yours to take home.

When I was a kid, whenever a snowstorm hit my Dad marched all seven of us out to shovel the walkways of all of our elderly neighbors (which was pretty much everyone). This was an exhausting habit – particularly during the blizzard of ’78 – but I appreciate my Dad’s traditional sense of community care and respect for elders.

Not surprisingly, ever since last week’s storm I’ve been plagued by guilt about the impenetrable layer of ice on our sidewalk. Somehow between work and home and potty training, we just couldn’t keep up the day of the storm. So during the last two days of warm up, I have gone out periodically to chip away at the driveway and sidewalk. The ice has been remarkably resistant to my efforts.

Moments ago, during another round of chopping and scraping, a DPW truck pulled up and two friendly workers offered to help; they doused our sidewalk with several pounds of salt. They even offered to fill up our salt bucket (we really must get one of those…).

Maybe I’m feeling sentimental today because I visited my Dad’s grave this morning, but I had the distinct feeling that universes were colliding; as if, some 20 years later, I just got a little gift for shoveling all of those walkways as a kid. And Laurel appears to have inherited my Dad’s sense of community care. During a post-storm walkabout, she stopped for a good 10 minutes to remove ice chunks that had fallen off the banks and onto the sidewalk (shown).

Never was the difference between the handling of boys vs. girls more humorously apparent than during a park visit a while back. I held Laurel’s hand as she crossed a suspended balance beam repeating, “Go slowly Laurel, be careful!” (The suspension cables looked particularly unforgiving.) Minutes later, as we crossed the next obstacle, we saw a father jumping up and down alongside his son (who was of a similar toddler/preschooler size) at the balance beam, saying “Go! Go! Go! Run across as fast as you can!”

No doubt boys and girls are raised differently, and they also have different needs, some of which have trouble getting fulfilled in our current societal structure. This topic has not escaped the pros, and this morning, Jon (my husband) steps in with a guest post, offering his impressions of the PBS documentary Raising Cain: Boys in Focus.
“It’s a strange time to be a boy in America. Male stereotypes of the past generally (and happily) have gone by the wayside, but haven’t found a good replacement. Most boys do not have male role models at daycare or in school. And when they look at the wider world, whom do they see? Kobe Bryant? Bill Gates? George Bush? It’s pretty slim pickings.

In the PBS documentary Raising Cain: Boys in Focus, Boston-area psychologist Michael Thompson (co-author of Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys) examines many of the challenges facing boys and their parents. He presents a range of stories that span infant development to high school graduation, and that come from poor urban communities as well as wealthy suburbs. The stories are informative, poignant, and sometimes troubling. We get a hopeful glimpse inside an alternative all-boys school in New York where boys are taught that intelligence and creativity are virtues. But we also see a football coach intensely berating a young boy for crying. We see a boy who can’t sit still long enough to make it through a class. And we meet a teenager who is on the brink of going to prison, walking on the edge of a criminal life.

Thompson presents a number of compelling ideas, some of which seem counter-intuitive. He says that we need to not be scared off by boys’ tendencies toward seemingly violent play because, for most boys, play violence is not a precursor of real violence. He points out that our school systems are demanding longer and longer periods of quiet, focused activity, which tend to be more difficult for boys. And most critically, he says that boys need adults in their lives who can help them learn to recognize and express their emotions.”

PBS offers Raising Cain on DVD, with or without a companion text; their raising boys resource page also offers borrows from the Raising Cain video and book.

Last night I spent about an hour and a half trying to get the little angel, who has been ill, to go to bed.  She took a three-hour nap yesterday (my bad, I was trying to work) and would have none of her 8:15 bedtime.  Finally, I got disgusted and left her room, at which time she threw herself on the floor, wailing.  I went downstairs until ten minutes later I heard a weird gagging noise.  I looked over at my beloved.  He didn't recognize the sound.

"She's puking," I said, and we both thundered up the stairs. 

The little angel was staring at her bed.  "Look at what I made, Mommy," she said.

I briefly envisioned a two-and-a-half-year-old bulimic, but then decided she probably just got so upset she puked.  We held her and comforted her, and eventually my beloved took over because my nerves were fried, and I was beginning to feel the way I do today, which is like utter and complete shit.

So here's hoping we can get her to sleep tonight with less drama.  Oh, and there's a new book review up - the gay friend from My Best Friend's Wedding writes one hell of an autobiography.

You’d think I would have backed off coffee once Laurel started saying, “Mommy has coffee breath! Laurel has milk breath!” but old habits die hard. If you’re downtown in the beautiful weather today and looking for an independent fix, check out Flatblack Coffee Company. Possibly the only independent cafe in the financial district, this Australian-themed, Boston-based gourmet coffee company offers single country of origin coffees from around the world; most products are organically grown, shade grown, and fair trade.

You can purchase Flatblack’s products online or visit their locations in Boston (50 Broad Street; Tel: 617-951-1440) and Dorchester (1170 Washington Street; Tel: 617-298-1800).

Babies born in the Year of the Pig (this year, between February 18, 2007 and February 6, 2008) are friendly and loyal souls who crave creature comforts; no doubt they’ll find confidants in some of these amazing cuddly pigs from the ever-awesome Oompa Toys.

Among Oompa’s soft and squishy pig collection is the German patchwork Rollie Pollie Pig (shown; $24.99), the 100% organic cotton Lana Pig, the ultra cuddly Jellycat triumvirate of Large Truffles Pig, Slackajack Piglet, and Bunglie Pig, and the Peruvian hand knit Blabla Pig Rattle.

And for piggy banks off the beaten path, check out Oompa’s groovy, mod Posh Pig Banks and the bright and cheery Haba Piggy Bank.

The little angel has three dinosaurs named Star, Roar and Bob.  They play with her in the bathtub. Star is a stegasaurus, and Roar is a T-Rex, and Bob is a little T-Rex, their only child.

Today I worked from home because the little angel still had the vomiting and the high fever and all that.  I HAD to work, because hello?  I've been flitting around Breckenridge for a week with no work and no little angel.  However, my daughter is never sick the way some children are sick, what with the convenient lethargy and constant television-watching.  My daughter swings wildly from briefly napping to LOOK AT ME, MOMMY, I'M WEARING YOUR LIPSTICK! 

So tonight, in the bathtub, I decided to let her play extra-long since I'd had so many of those nasty conference calls during the day.  We got out Star and Roar and Bob. Star started dancing with Roar, and then she asked Bob if he wanted to dance.

Me (as Star):  "Will you dance with me, Bob?  The Backyardigans are totally jammin'."

Little Angel (as Bob):  "No, you can't dance with me."

Me:  "Why not?  I like to dance."

Little Angel:  "You can't dance because you have to go work on the computer."

The little angel seems to have caught the bug that half the country has - started vomiting on us last night at 6 and has been vacillating between a fever of 103 and lethargic and darting around the house demanding I stop working and play with her.  Welcome back!  Yeehaw!

That said, here are a few of the sparse observations I recorded when I could stop drinking for two minutes and borrow a pen and cocktail napkin.

1. Ski clothing is the great equalizer and the fashion opposite of army boots.  Just as nobody looks good in army boots, nobody looks bad in ski clothing (provided it's updated).  Slap some North Face on the most out-of-shape, middle-aged paper manager in the world, and he looks remotely cool. 
2. It is far better to see people in casts and crutches AFTER you've finished skiing for the day than before.
3. Never drink at lunch, especially not if you're eating on the mountain.
4. You'd be surprised how many people try to drive their normal, small-wheeled strollers on thick snow. 
5. Don't race when you've never skied in thick powder before.
6. Don't laugh at your husband when he gives himself a black eye unless you want no sympathy when your bruised shins give out on the last day.
7. Nine degrees is cold no matter how many heaters they have outside.
8. Locals in ski towns will never tell you where the good party is.
9. Ski bums over the age of 30 are kind of sad.
10. Drinking at high altitudes is not a problem is you've spent the last several months building up an immunity to iocane powder.

More when I get the photos back.  I have to go take the little angel's temperature again. 

In my dream world, I already would have mastered Korean plus all of the Romance languages. And although there's little time for the language lab these days, now it's possible to expand your cultural horizons while hanging with your babe.

Inspired by a desire to help parents and kids celebrate different languages and cultures, Il Cocco di Mamma carries a unique, worldly collection of apparel, books, and toys. Their super soft, super cool line of signature onesies ($22; 6-24 months) are printed with popular international sayings (shown; Ciao!). Elegant and colorful wooden foreign alphabet blocks are available in English, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Hebrew. And be sure to check out their nifty series of international books and CDs; if you've got Dr. Seuss down in English, now's your chance to learn it in another language.