I've been called worse but I'm actually talking about the film I watched with my kids last night.  They'd never seen it although I'd bought it for them at the Wal-Mart near their grandparents's house in Social Circle, Georgia.  Every Christmas we all go down to my ex-wife's place. I send the kids down early but I arrive on the 23rd and then it's a mad dash to buy presents as soon as I land.  For some reason they hadn't yet taken off the plastic They'd seen a few PG-13 films before and I didn't remember this one being particularly dirty. I'd also forgotten that Dave Chappelle played the mean, ridiculous stand up that tells all the fat jokes (FYI the character is named "Reggie Warrington" after my friends Reggie Hudlin, director of "House Party" and now President of BET and his brother Warrington, a pioneering independent filmmaker.  In the Eddie Murphy/Rober DeNiro movie "Showtime" Murphy's character is named "Trey.") 

The scenes around the table where everyone (all played by Eddie Murphy except the young boy) fart, predicatably, was a big hit.  Then I went out of the room to sneak the last chocolate cookie (there was only one and if I didn't eat it  it would have been WWIII between Ava and Chet). When I returned Ava, 9, asked, "What's a dick?"

I was sure she was kidding. I think by the time I was nine "dick" was just about the most-used word in my vocabulary.  After all, she knows all about the power of the middle finger and for while, until I stopped it with serious threats, she delighted in trying to trick her  little brother into getting in trouble by raising his.

"A dick is a penis," I said.

She just nodded very seriously.

Today it's been raining all day.  We got out for a bit to rent some movies.  Chet wanted the remake of "Lost in Space."   Despite my huge crush on Heather Graham (she figures a bit in Bedtime Stories because  a few times, when I was living in L.A., we did the same yoga class.) I nevertheless convinced him that we should get DVDs of the original series.  I desperately wanted to be Will Robinson when I was a kid and my first and only autograph I ever got was from Jonathan Harris, aka, Dr. Zachary Smith, in front of "The Wiz" circa 1974.  

They liked the old show all right but for me it was crack.

By the way, if you'd like to read about a single mom's love affair with her baby boy I highly recommend Storked. 

And my friend Rachel's blog about dating while single-parenting her amazing little girl is the not-to-be-missed singlemomseking. 

If you all have any of your own favorite single-parenting blogs I'd love to hear about them.