This article has some tips for parenting in a connected world.
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Anniversary
19 Feb
Eleven years ago, today, I was lucky enough to marry an incredible woman. Eleven years and three kids later, I love living every day with my wife.
Happy anniversary Sweetheart, I love going through life with you.
The Knowledge of Children
27 DecThe Kids decided to watch Fantasia this evening. Though skipping through most of the introductions of the pieces, they watched most of the segments. There are a some interesting things that I heard them discuss.
Our son had a problem with the introduction to the “The Rite of Spring” piece. Even though the movie came out in 1940, he was arguing with the TV about the comment:
And then… well, we don’t exactly know what happened. Some scientists think that great droughts and earthquakes turned the whole world into a gigantic dustbowl. In any case, the dinosaurs were wiped out
He was telling his sisters that it was an asteroid.
Then the kids were having a discussion about the differences between magma and lava, and naming the types of single cell organisms and dinosaurs.
At their age, I don’t know if I would have had those discussions. As a parent, I wonder what opportunities they will have, when they grow up.
Kids and the Holidays
24 DecWhen you become an adult, sometimes you get a little jaded with the Christmas holidays. Dealing with traffic, shopping, family drama. It wasn’t always like this for me, when I was a kid, I got very excited about the holidays. I would count the number of days until Christmas morning and go to sleep early, feeling that this would cause Christmas to come earlier. In the days before Christmas, I would play with Matchbox cars under the presents, and leave them there for Christmas morning.
Now that we have kids, the magic of the holidays has come back for me. Seeing the kids so excited about Christmas makes all of the craziness of the holidays worth it. We went to a Christmas tree farm and cut down a Christmas tree for the first time. Our daughter sing Christmas songs in the back seat of the car. Our son likes to rearrange the ornaments on the tree, over and over again.
Is is really nice to see the kids so excited about Christmas. I have been lucky enough to be able to take the last two weeks of the year off, and I am enjoying the time with the kids.
Kinect
21 NovA few weeks ago we got a Kinect for our Xbox 360. The Kinect sensor allows you to use your body as a controller for games. The implementation that Microsoft makes it very easy to get into the games.
We used to have a Wii, and the kids, especially the younger ones, had a hard time using the Wiimote, especially when absolute movement is needed. The kids really enjoy the Kinect. They haven’t had any problem playing the games. They really like playing Kinect Adventures and Kintectimals. Our 6-year-old daughter has a lot of fun playing Dance Central.
I would recommend Kinect for any family with kids, especially if you already have an Xbox in the house.
Fatherhood and Expectations
23 JunFather’s Day was this past weekend and I had a great time. Nothing really happened as planned, but I still had a good time.
We planned to take the kids to Toy Story 3 as a special treat for the kids. (Of course it was only for the kids, and I haven’t been really excited about it since I heard that the movie was coming out last year. 
). We bought 5 tickets for the 3D version online so we would be sure that we could get in.
Because of nap time, and how long it took us to get out of the house, we didn’t get there until 10 minutes before show time. The only seats that were still available were in the first two rows. The trailers were playing while we walked in, and they were a little loud. One of our daughters is sensitive to loud sounds, and she was very scared. With the combination of the seating and the noise, we decided to leave the theater.
We then went to go for dinner, but every restaurant had about an hour wait. (We should have made reservations.) The kids were pretty restless, and wanted to go home or back to the movie.
We decided to go to a nice park instead. The kids had a good time. The older kids ran and chased each other, while I played with the youngest on the little kid playground.
When I was a new father, I would have wanted to have a “perfect” Father’s Day, watching a movie and having a nice dinner. I may have been disappointed or upset that things didn’t work out as planned. Honestly, I enjoyed the time that spent with them that day. We had a lot of fun at the park, and I am very lucky that I could spend it with my amazing wife. I can’t imagine a better Father’s Day.
RoboGames
17 AprI mentioned RoboGames last year. RoboGames will be at the San Mateo County Fairgound next weekend. I think that the kids would have a blast here.
Extremely Old with You
4 AprMy wife and I have been married 10 years, this year. I am looking forward to growing extremely old with her.
(Extremely Old with You is a great song by Paul and Storm.)
Get Game Smart
30 MarMicrosoft, the Entertainment Software Association and others have partnered to create Get Game Smart. This website help education parents and children about the tools that are available to allow kids to be safe while playing video games.
I really like their focus on education about Parental Control settings, ESRB ratings, and finding family friendly games. In addition, this site has tips on how parents can talk to kids about cyber-bullying, and helping kids and parents creating balance with kids screen time.
I hope sites like this one will help prevent the FUD with video games, like stories like I mentioned before.
Dressing kids: Dads vs Moms
28 MayThis post has a pretty funny, but pretty true, graphic describing how dads and moms dress kids
