Shidonni

Shidonni has a great idea.  You can have your child (or you) draw a picture.  Then you can have a stuffed toy made out of it.  I think that this idea is better than the toys you get at Build-a-bear.



[via Gizmodo]

Please, Baby, Please

Please, Baby, Please is a fun book by Spike Lee and his wife.  This book have some great rhymes about how much energy toddlers have.  Our kids like it a lot

Disney Princesses on Ice

This past weekend, I took our oldest daughter to the Disney Princesses On Ice at the HP Pavilion, and she had a blast.  It was great seeing her light up when each of the princesses came out.

But, the show raised some questions for me:

1. All of the princesses tend to go by their name (ie, Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White). Why is Sleeping Beauty known as "Sleeping Beauty"?  Her name is Aurora.


2. Most of the princes have a name. (i.e. Ariel's prince is named Eric; Sleeping Beauty's prince is named Philip; Belle's prince is named Adam)  But why is Snow White's princes is just named "The Prince"?

Rose, White and Blue Parade

This weekend we had a good time at the Rose, White and Blue Parade in the Shasta /Hanchett neighborhood of San Jose.  The parade seems like the type of parade that normally happens in smaller towns.  The kids were able to sit in front and have a clear view of the floats, the classic cars and the other participants.

We will definitely be going next year.

Switched to Wordpress

I have switched this blog to WordPress.  Please post a comments if you see any problems with this change

10 stories behind Dr. Seuss books

This post has some interesting stories behind Dr. Seuss books.

[via Strollerderby]

New wake up song

Recently, we have been having a hard time with our oldest daughter getting up in the morning.  I had set her radio to start playing a Laurie Berkner album at 7:15am.  For the past week, when I get up to their room to check on them, she is still in her bed. 

Last night, I bought the song "I Like To Move It
" by Will.I.Am from the the Madagascar 2 soundtrack, and I set it to play for her alarm on her Squeezebox Boom
.  At 7:16 she came down stairs, very happy and excited, to let me know that "I Like To Move It" was playing.

I think that this will work for a while.

Rocketship Run

We are fans of Laurie Berkner and the Laurie Berkner Band.  Her music has always been something that we can sing with the kids.  Buzz Buzz and Victor Vito are great albums.  A few months ago, I saw that Laurie Berkner had a new album.  I purchased Rocketship Run
from the Amazon MP3 store.

So far, I don't like this album.  The kids do like it, and keep playing it on their SqueezeBox.  I am not sure what it is about the album th at I don't lik, but I would recommend getting her other albums over this one.

Dog Train

There is a lot of kids music that I can't stand listening to.  For example I don't like Raffi and The Wiggles.  XM Kids, Kids Place Live now, plays songs that parents don't mind listening to.  For a while, they have played the song "I Need a Nap", which is a pretty funny song sung by Kate Winslet and Wierd Al.  Last week the DJ mentioned that that song is on the album "Dog Train"
.  All of the songs on this album were written by Sandra Boynton, who is the author of a lot of the children's books that we have.

I purchased the album from Amazon MP3, and I like it a lot.  The songs are sung by some well known artists.  The kids like the album as well.

RV Vacation

We rented an RV for vacation this year, and we had a great time.  We were going to vist family for the holidays, and we wanted to have a less hectic drive down there.  Normally we would have all piled in the minivan, and driven down in one sitting.  We would have either driven down udring the day, but the kids would get pretty restless, and we would have to deal with that.  Or we would leave when it gets dark, and the kids would sleep the whole way down.  The only problem is that when we got there, the kids would be up, while we would be tired.

We thought that we would rent an RV, and take our time on the trip.  On the way to the Palm Springs area, we spent a night in Big Sur, a couple in Pismo Beach, and a night in Pomono.  This was wonderful, as we were able to play in a river in Big Sur and play on the beach in Pismo Beach with the kids. 

In addition to those stops, we were able to stop at various places along the way.  We stopped in Solvang, which is looks like a Danish village.  Outside of Solvang is a Ostrich farm called Ostrich Land.  Also we stopped at the Dinosaurs in Cabazon, which is was shown in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

My Own Shower

Our kids don't really like showers, but they don't mind baths.  Unfortunately, their baths take a lot of time, and use a lot of water.

I saw the My Own Shower at Smarthome, and I thougt that it would help the kids take showers.  I installed it on Saturday, and the kids seem to like it. We'll see if their current tendancy towards showers continues.

Bing Bang Boing

Now, this looks like a fun game.  Now why don't they make any games like this any more?  I mean, don't you miss the games that teach physics like this.  How bad are flying choking hazzards anyway?

http://www.youtube.com/v/58-LXdEkLtY

[via Boing Boing] 

Alphabet book video

This looks like a pretty cool book.  I am not sure how long it would last around the kids.

 
http://www.youtube.com/v/wnZr0wiG1Hg

Adult lollipops

This post on Strollerderby mentions some hilarious, but real, lollipops.

Britax Sale

Amazon is having a sale on Britax products.  We really like the Roundabout, and have two of them.

The Wild

Yesterday evening, we had family movie night.  The kids picked out "The Wild" from Blockbuster.  This was a bad movie.  There are several things wrong with it, but the major problem that I have with it is that it really is just a knock-off of Madagascar the movie.

There are several other problems that I have:

1. In the movie, a tugboat follwed an ocean going cargo ship to go across the Atlantic.  Tugboats are not meant to be ocean going ships.


2. One of the minor story lines is that the lions ae trying to get there "inner lion", and the thing that they are trying is to "dig deeper".  The way that they are "digging deaper" is by making a louder/deeper roar.  I think that what is meant by "dig deeper" is to dig claws into prey annimals when bringing them down.

 

School Web Site Safety

This post has some very good tips on securing web sites for schools.  The concern is that these sites could make personal information about students available publicly.

[via CNET News.com]

BlogHim Conference schedule

This post describes a proposal schedule for a BlogHim Conference.

Fisher-Price Private Connection Monitor

We've gone through several baby monitors.  The ones that we had with our two older kids always got a lot of interference, or tended to pick up our neighbors cordless phone conversations.  The interference got so bad that we usually turned the volume down all the way.

The Fisher Price Private Connection monitor is the best baby monitor that we have had.  We hain't had any problems with interference.  Also, the reception has been great even through multiple floors.

[via modern day dad]

Jumping Monkeys

I just heard the Jumping Monkeys podcast, and I like it.  This podcast covers various topics of parenting in the digital age.