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We been having an ongoing challenge these days in The Daily Kool household. Our boys are at the age when we have to constantly remind them to wash their hands. It's not as if we are obsessive about cleanliness (well, maybe just a little). We do have rules, though. Washing hands after coming in from the outside, after meals and certainly after using the toilet shouldn't be too much to ask, right? Apparently, it just might be...at least for our boys. You should just hear some of the arguments and excuses coming out of our two little guys...everything from "My leg hurts and I can't stand by the sink" to "My hands aren't that sticky from the breakfast syrup." Our favorite of course, is the ever-popular "Hey, we stand up anyway...what's the big deal?" Imagine our embarrassment when our four year old proudly confessed to his grandmother how often he and his brother try to "trick us" into thinking that they've washed their hands (as if we didn't know). Seriously, they expend more energy trying to avoid washing their hands than it would just take to do it already. Sheesh!

Okay, we admit it. We are not big water drinkers, and never have been. Trust us...we've given ourselves lectures time and time again about the importance of drinking the requisite eight glasses of water a day, but who are we kidding? We can barely choke down two glasses, and that's with living in hot and humid Florida. While we take responsibility for our irresponsibility just as much as the next person (yeah, right), we wholeheartedly blame the Coca Cola company for our lack of commitment to healthy drinking. How dare they make Coke taste so darn good? We have been obsessed with Coke (the real stuff, not that diet stuff) for as long as we can remember. Scoff all you want, but our Coca Cola addiction has caused a real problem in our household. Our kids are at the age when "do as I say, not as I do" doesn't hold water (had to get that pun in). It's our job as parents to teach our children healthy eating and drinking habits, and the best way to do this is by example. But, we really don't like water. We've tried it all...tap water, filtered water, bottled water (whew, there are a lot of brands out there!), cold water, room temperature water, water with lemon (and/or lime). No matter what we do, the results are the same...blah, blah, blah. Are we prime examples of mature and responsible adults or what?

Here at The Daily Kool, our arms are getting quite the workout this summer...well, at least one arm, anyway. Our kids have been having one playdate after another at the house, and we've been doling out ice cream scoops practically by the dozen each day. Dig, twirl, release...dig, twirl release. Such is our life. It's amazing how one single perfect scoop of ice cream just seems to brighten a child's day...wait a minute, did we say perfect? A lofty, yet often elusive goal, we know. But apparently (and we've just recently learned this, mind you), a dish or cone of ice cream just tastes better to a kid if it has that professional, ice cream parlor look. Go figure, but kudos are important in the world of parenthood...we'll take what we can get. Pretty shallow of us, isn't it?

Nothing says summer quite like an ice cream cone. Some of our best childhood memories include strolling down the boardwalk by the beach with our parents, eating ice cream cones while watching the ocean waves crash against the shore. We could never quite understand how anyone could dishonor the sanctity of ice cream by eating it out of a cup. Good thing we've never quite grown up...as adults, we still love our ice cream cones, even when the sticky mess drips down the side of our arms. Waffle cones help us stay a bit cleaner...not that we care much. We just love them because they are so darned yummy!

Yesterday, we returned from our gluttonous trip to our local Carvel ice cream shop on a euphoric sugar high. Oh yeah...The Daily Kool family has officially kicked off our celebration of National Ice Cream Month! Needless to say, we were in a fabulous mood when we walked through our front door. Of course, so was our lovable dog, Pepper...we may have mentioned him a few hundred times or so in our previous blog posts. Well, Pepper (as usual) was beside himself with joy when we came home, wagging his tail a mile a minute to show how excited he was to see us. We're telling you, there's not much that beats the feeling of unconditional love from a furry friend. Wait a minute...did we say unconditional? Because when Pepper got closer to lick our faces (hey, he's a French poodle, after all), he literally took a giant sniff of our ice cream breath and reeled back from each of us in indignant shock. Okay, we realize we're attributing human characteristics to our dog (doesn't everybody?). But seriously, you should have seen the accusatory look on his face before he pointedly turned his doggie butt on us and walked away to pout on his bed. Yep, Pepper's big brown eyes can really bring on the guilt. No doubt about it, our dog wanted to be a part of July's National Ice Cream Month holiday.

Guess what The Daily Kool found out the other day? July is National Ice Cream Month! Apparently, President Ronald Reagan decided to help out the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) back in 1984 by recognizing this cool and creamy treat. How we possibly could not have known about this is beyond us...but, we would be remiss if we didn't honor President Reagan's memory by throwing ourselves wholeheartedly into the spirit of this very important holiday, right? Since the third Sunday of July is officially National Ice Cream Day, The Daily Kool will be featuring some "kool" ideas and recipes over the next week in celebration of this event. Oh yeah...we're definitely going to take advantage of this legitimate excuse to indulge in one of our sweetest obsessions!

The different views and opinions on surrogate motherhood are as vast as those on abortion. Everyone has their views and ideas of the social and ethical issues related to surrogate motherhood. Let's look into some of these issues and what the different sides think about it all. Is it morally correct to rent your body? Some would argue that renting your body to have a baby is hand in hand with renting it out for sex. You are being paid for the use of your body. On the other side, pro surrogates would say that this is an unfair comparison, as sex for money is seen to be dirty and having a baby to help someone who can't is a pure thing. What does religion say about the ethics of surrogate motherhood? Roman Catholicism and Islam forbid it. The Roman Catholics refer to the story of Sarah, wife of Abraham, in the bible. She was barren and gave her maid Hagar to her husband so that she could bare them a child. Abraham impregnated her through copulation. In the end Sarah got jealous, Hagar didn't want to give the baby up and she and the child were thrown out. Not a good ending. In Islam the belief is simple; a woman should bare only her husband's children. How does being born from a surrogate mother affect the child when it grows up? What does a person say when asked, who is your mother? Some people argue that being born from another woman can confuse a child and cause it to have issues as an adult; have feelings of confusion on the subject. The pro surrogates will say that there are many stories of successful children born of surrogate mothers that don't have these problems. It is simply explained to the child. The parents were unable to have children so they took each part of the child from the parents and put it in a surrogate to be born. Can a surrogate mother truly consent to the taking of the child after it is born? This is a major issue. Before gestational surrogating, it was only through artificial insemination of the father's sperm that a surro

When a couple cannot have children, they may look into the cost of using a surrogate mother. The details for this are very extensive. There are so many scenarios that can play out that it is impossible to give a solid figure. We can, however, look at the general costs of surrogate pregnancy and some possible extra costs.The fee paid to the surrogate mother can vary. The average rate however is a flat fee of $18,000. Some woman will do it for less and some experienced surrogate mothers will ask for more. This does not include any medical bills or food and vitamins. If at 13 weeks the ultra sound shows that the surrogate mother is having multiple children, there will be an extra fee of $5,000 dollars. There will be contracts drawn up for both parties to sign which means there will be lawyers to pay. Legal fees come to about $5,000. The surrogate mother will need to have a psychological evaluation which costs around $500. With pregnancy comes a bigger body and maternity clothes. Maternity clothes usually run you $750. The surrogate mother will have to drive herself or take a bus to the doctor's appointments. She is typically reimbursed 50.5 cents a mile. Any extra, invasive procedures, like Cerclage, DNC, Amniocentesis or FUC can be another $500. If you are going with the gestational surrogating, transfer will run you $750. Insemination for traditional surrogating costs $500 IN a case where a surrogate mother becomes pregnant with more then one fetus inside her, there is something called selective reduction. This operation removes the extra fetuses, leaving only one. The operation fee is $2,000. If at some point both the surrogate mother and couple decide to abort the child, the fee is $2,000. If a C-Section is involved, this will be another $1,500. If there is a canceled cycle fee then you will pay $350. Often times a Mock cycle will be given. This is to test the surrogate's eggs to see if all will go well. The fee is $350. When the surrogate mother gets

Over the past year, people have been keeping a close eye on the stock market more than ever. Our parents at The Daily Kool are no exception. Our father, in particular, is almost obsessed with keeping track of how the DOW, NASDAQ and S&P500 are doing at any given time. Unfortunately, as a result, he spends too of his day feeling tied to his computer and internet connection...much to our mother's annoyance.

Golf is one of those sports that has earned much respect in The Daily Kool household over the years. There is just something about the mental and physical challenge, combined with getting out in the fresh air on a beautiful grassy course, that is both relaxing and stimulating. We admit it, though...our original motives for playing golf were not entirely pure. Yep, we used golf as a front to establish potential (and often profitable) business connections...we're so ashamed! There was only one problem...we didn't account for how hard it is to stick to the green. Oh, that darn Tiger Woods...he makes it look so easy!

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, July is the most popular month to have a baby. Surprised? We're certainly not. It seems that everyone we know is pregnant these days...yep, we at The Daily Kool have been getting some major baby fever. This month has been filled with baby showers galore, and we have had the arduous task of trying to find that "perfect" gift that everyone will love. What do new parents need most? Well, sleep of course, but let's face it...we can't package sleep and wrap it in a pretty bow no matter how much we'd like to. Or can we?

Father's Day is coming up soon, and it's time to start thinking about how to honor him for the special man he is. We have always been able to count on our father for unconditional love, support and guidance. Dad (okay, we still call him "Daddy") is an extraordinary man...why should he receive an ordinary gift for Father's Day? That's why The Daily Kool will be featuring some unusual and "kool" gift ideas for Father's Day all this week.

This Memorial Day weekend, our kids are having a couple of their close friends at the house for a sleepover for the first time. They've been planning it for a week. They've picked out games, snacks, movies, crafts...they are so excited! We do have a bit of a challenge, though...our entire downstairs has hardwood floors. Even though we have a regular sleeping bag in the house (our beloved Puff the Magic Dragon one from about thirty years ago), unfortunately, it is pretty much out of the question for this weekend. There isn't enough room in our kids' two twin-size beds for the four boys to share either. How can we have a successful sleepover when we have no comfortable place for the kids to sleep?

Memorial Day weekend is coming up soon, and it seems like almost everyone we know is taking a family vacation to Disney World. What's wrong with you people? Are we the only ones who think that it is going to be much too crowded...not to mention, blistering hot? True, there have been times that we've given in to the lure of our Magic Kingdom addiction during almost unbearable climate conditions. How on earth are we supposed to stay cool in the blistering heat of the Florida sun?

Many of you may know about our beloved pooch Pepper from PoodlePicks. It may surprise you to know that he has been, by far, the most challenging dog we've ever had. At almost eight years old, he still suffers from separation anxiety. We've never had to baby-proof our house with the kids, but to this day, we do have to Pepper-proof. Before we leave the house, we have to go through the routine of closing every door, completely cleaning off the dining room table, locking the pantry and strategically putting up gates to block off the kitchen and the stairs. Heaven forbid we accidentally skip anything...we will undoubtedly come home with garbage all over the kitchen (he figured out how to open the can), empty bags of baking chocolates strewn across the floor (he breaks into the pantry and zooms right in on them), or even smelly feces on the stairs. Of course, he only does these things when we're not home...when we are, he's a perfect angel. So tell us...who's trained who here? This situation is completely our fault, of course. When Pepper was a puppy, we were told that we should purchase a dog crate for him. But where on earth would we put a large, ugly and obtrusive wire crate in our small home?

Last year, we were having an outdoor birthday party for our oldest son at the local city pool. His parties are always a hit, not because we go overboard, but since his birthday always falls on Labor Day weekend, it's inevitably the first party of the school year. And since he's in a smaller private school where all the kids know each other, we make sure to invite all of the children in his class...26 kids and everybody showed up, with siblings and both parents in tow. Seventy-five people were coming...yikes! We needed food...lots and lots of food. Fruit and veggie platters were a must...plus plenty of candy (our son loves M&Ms) to keep the kids on an energetic sugar high. There was only one problem...how would we keep everything fresh in the scorching Florida heat?

A couple of months ago on a rainy day, The Daily Kool family took on an insidious task...we decided to clean out one of our overflowing "junk" drawers. You wouldn't believe how much...well, junk...we had accumulated in one relatively little space. Oh, yes...we were lucky to get out alive. So here we were, arguing over whether we should toss out a key chain version of a shrilling chicken, when our children picked up a set of dice and began rolling away. We looked at each other and, expert procrastinators that we are, immediately said, "Break time!" Our children were about to learn an old classic...Yahtzee.

We were talking on the phone with our brother yesterday, when we somehow got on the topic of this year's Halloween costume ideas for the kids. Last we heard, our oldest son wanted a black Spiderman costume (easy), while our youngest chose to be Boots, the monkey from Dora (not quite as easy). Anyway, as we were having our conversation, our 8 year old suddenly said from the background that he now wanted to be Arnold from the Magic School Bus television show. We were shocked to find out that our brother, the brilliant pediatrician, had never even heard of this Scholastic series. How embarrassing for him, we teased in our typical smug sibling fashion. Then, much to our brother's glee, our four year old insisted that he now wanted to be Phoebe, the redheaded girl...yeah, like we'll ever hear the end of that one from big brother. Darn it...we hate it when he gets the upper hand!

Great article on the intelligence and learning capabilities of infants and toddlers -- has implications for how we approach pre-school learning with children.

If you aren't familiar with the book "The Read-Aloud Handbook: Sixth Edition" by Jim Trelease, you could be missing some valuable information about how to read aloud with your child in a way that fosters their own reading ability.