This was my first attempt at making an Easter Egg Tree. I used pussy willow branches, and I coloured my eggs with an Easter Egg kit that had dye tabs you dissolve in water (and vinegar) instead of food colour. I’m going to try food colour next year because the tabs didn’t dissolve completely. There were little lumps floating around in the water, and the eggs came out a bit spotted from lumps of dye that settled on them.

Blowing out the eggs was harder than I thought. I cracked my first egg from being a bit to forceful with my needle. Also, I wanted to keep the holes small, but if the bottom hole is too small, the egg yolk won’t come out. I used a turkey baster as my egg blowing tool to force the egg out the other side. It worked fine in a pinch. It’s a bit long, but I don’t see the point of owning an egg blower.

Hanging the eggs proved to be tricky. I didn’t have any luck trying to knot some thread and thread it through the egg, so I got out my Elmer’s Extra Strength Glue Stick, and this worked like a dream. I glued the ribbon around the egg, and sewed it together at the top of the egg. Then I just tied a knot in the ribbon at the top. I need to work on my decorating, so the ribbon really save the day.

Links

I’ve put together a list of my favourite Easter craft ideas here.

Easter Egg Decorating

1. Beautiful felt-covered decorative eggs
   http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/felt_easter_eggs.htm
2. Easter egg coloring tips
   http://www.eggs.ab.ca/recipes/craftcorner/dyeing.html
3. How to make leaf imprints on Easter eggs
   http://www.ehow.com/how_2223920_leaf-imprints-easter-eggs.html
4. Egg Blow Out
   http://www.wikihow.com/Blow-Out-Eggs

Easter Egg Tree

1. Easter egg tree centerpiece using cut branches and decorated, blown eggs
   http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/easter-egg-tree
2. Hanging your eggs on the easter egg tree
   http://www.eggs.ab.ca/recipes/craftcorner/tree.html

Easter Basket

1. Easter Basket Favors—individual easter baskets made from paper cups and crepe paper
   http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/easter-basket-favors

Easter Activities

1. Egg Rolling and other Easter Activities
   http://people.howstuffworks.com/easter5.htm

Easter Bonnet

1. Flower Crown
   http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/hats/flowerhat/

A while back, I watched a program on Discovery Health about school children’s eating habits. Psychologists claimed that the most effective way to get a child to eat something he or she doesn’t like is to use peer pressure. They got a bunch of child celebrities who liked eating vegetables to go to a school, meet the kids, then eat lunch with them. The children saw their peers eating vegetables and enjoying them, so they decided to try eating them too. The experiment ended with all of the kids eating their vegetables.

Since setting up a situation where you can use peer pressure to influence your child’s diet can be tricky, they then went on to describe the next most effective way to get your child to eat something he or she doesn’t like: accustom your child to the food by eating a small amount daily. A boy who couldn’t stand avocado agreed to eat one small cube of avocado every day for 20 days. The theory was that after repeatedly tasting the food, the child’s palate would change, and the child would actually start to like the food. The upshot was that after 20 days, the boy thought that avocado wasn’t too bad. So it was conceivable that after time he might like it.

I went away from the show thinking that was something to store in the back of my head for when my daughter was older. I was bemused and amused the day I made spaghetti with meat sauce expecting to have to pick the lumps of meat out of the sauce, as usual, for my daughter, when she said “Meatballs!” I remembered that she’d just seen an episode of her favourite TV program, Pinky Dinky Doo, where Pinky and Mr. Guinea Pig are super spaghetti tightrope walkers. Since then, she has enthusiastically eaten the meatballs in her spaghetti sauce.

The other day, she wanted to eat a pickle. She hasn’t eaten pickles since she stopped eating them at around one year of age. I remembered that in a recent episode of Pinky Dinky Doo, Pinky needs a musical instrument, and tries to play a pickle because pickle sounds like piccolo.

Still, the peer pressure is not easy to arrange. So I get her to have one small bite of a food she doesn’t like. She doesn’t mind having one small taste. I’ll see if that helps.

I have to say that I’ve been 95%-100% disappointed by adhesive mounting strips. Let me explain why.

The Boon Frog Pod
I was worried by the mounting instructions that declare that if you do not follow them to the letter, your Boon Frog Pod will not stay up. Sure enough, 24 hours after following the instructions I could hear a familiar crashing noise in the bathroom as the frog pod fell into the bath tub. Apparently, adhesive mounting strips don’t adhere well to tile that is drenched and steamed every day.

I love the Frog Pod, so I used the screw mounting option to hang it on the wall. This was OK, but I really would have preferred to hang it over the tub in case there was any water to drain. A year later when I took the Frog Pod down, the adhesive strips that I hadn’t removed before screwing the frog pod to the wall stuck steadfastly to the paint and pulled it off the wall.

Extra Strength Adhesive Mounting Strips
I really liked the green leaf bed canopies I got from IKEA. They’re a bit heavy, so I used extra-strength adhesive mounting to attach them to the wall in the far corner of my daughter’s room. It looked like a palm tree. Unfortunately, a year later when I took them down, the adhesion was so strong that when I pulled the 2 x 5 strip off the wall, several layers of paint came off with it leaving a big hole that needed to be patched.

Child Proofing Locks that use Adhesive Mounting Strips
I’ve tried a few different, mainstream, brands. Mostly the locks came off fairly soon. I had one on my fridge that eventually came off in about a month. I don’t think it makes sense to have a safety product that is going to stop working at a time when I might need it to work. Most of the IKEA safety products I’ve bought that use the adhesive mounting strips used a very strong adhesive, so they didn’t come off until I used force to get them off. I should have guessed, but using force to pull them off stripped off several layers of paint as well.

NotNeutral Chalk Board Wall Panel
I got one of these as an impulse buy with my BB2 child’s table and chairs which I love and can’t recommend highly enough. The chalk board is cute, but I can’t use it because it uses adhesive mounting strips. The ones that came with it aren’t strong enough, and I’m loath to use stronger ones and have more paint problems down the road. Also, the wood is thin, so I can’t screw on mounting hardware. I could drill some holes at the top, but it wouldn’t look as nice.

Final Words
Most of the products above, I bought not realizing that they attached with adhesive mounting strips. I just saw the picture of the item magically hanging on the wall and was wowed. In retrospect, asking about these pertinent details before buying would have been wise.

1. They give a brief synopsis of each movie and an objective, 3-part rating based on 3 categories: “Sex & Nudity”, “Violence & Gore”, and “Profanity”. They give the movies a separate rating from 0 to 10 for each category—they assign a rating based on quantity and context.
   Read their description of the rating system.
2. They describe the scenes in detail so you can judge for yourself if the movie would be suitable.
3. They provide a movie search that lets you list movies according to the rating range that you think is acceptable. You choose a range between 0 and 10 for each category and select which of MPAA ratings you want to restrict the search to.
4. Besides the comprehensive list of movies, the sidebar lists movies they’ve reviewed this week, last week, and what’s in the theatres. You can read about video releases on another page.

XO Band Demo
Students in Ban Samkha village in northern Thailand has formed a band playing traditional music with the XO.

The XO laptop is designed for children with the socio-economic and environmental issues of developing nations in mind, considering everything from extreme environmental conditions such as high heat and humidity, to technological issues such as local-language support. As a result, the XO laptop is extremely durable, brilliantly functional, energy-efficient, responsive, and fun. Take a look

David Pogue of the New York Times reviews the OLPC XO laptop

Since the laptop is available in the United States and Canada, albeit for a limited time, New York Times journalist David Pogue considers it fair game for his enthusiastic review.

About the Give One Get One program
OLPC is running a program in Canada and the United States called the Give One Get One program. Between November 12 and Novemer 26, 2007, for a donation of $399, one XO laptop will be sent to a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to your child in recognition of your contribution. This is the first time the XO laptop has been made available to the general public. Note that although they will try to deliver your laptop in December, they do not guarantee that they will be able to deliver it in time for the holidays due to limited quantities.

What can you do with them?
Lots. The concept is to give the children a laptop that adapts to their environment. The screen can be viewed in daylight, so the children can use them outdoors. The laptop is water proof, so if it started to rain, that would not be a problem. The computer comes loaded with free and open-source software which provide tools for writing, composing, simulating, expressing, constructing, designing, modeling, imagining, creating, critiquing, debugging, and collaborating. The computer does not have a hard drive or a CD-ROM drive. It does have a flash drive, and built in networking capabilities, video camera, and ports for earphones and a microphone. For a full list of the specifications, click here.

About the company, the laptop, and their vision

This clip takes a look inside One Laptop Per Child at One Cambridge Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Links

1. one laptop per child website: http://www.laptop.org/
2. The OLPC Wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Home

Other side

Message at the bottom of the cup

The mugs are part of a range of Momiji Doll products designed for Momiji by graphic artist Joanna Zhou.

Momiji Dolls are small, brightly coloured friendship dolls inspired by japanese street fashion, manga and Harajuku. Each doll has its own Likes and its own Mantra; for example, Happyhappyhappy likes chocolate cake and her mantra is “Always when we dancing, oh boy! I’m happy, happy, happy!” Each doll has a tiny folded card for you to write your own message that she will keep secret forever. The dolls come beautifully packaged in their own little bags tied with printed ribbon. Each hand painted, resin doll stands about 8cm tall. You can see a closeup of the dolls and the cards at Firebox.

Momiji Dolls are available in the UK at Topshop and Utility Design, and they are available online at Firebox and Momiji Shop although they might only ship to UK locations. I’m looking for retailers and online shops in the US or Canada, and will post when I find out.

I bought my mugs at Silk Road Tea Shop which ships to Canada and the United States. The mugs are not shown on their website, but if you contact them, you might be able to get them to ship them to you.

Links

Momiji Shop
View the whole collection at http://www.momijishop.com

Designer Joanna Zhou
Joanna Zhou is an illustrator and graphic designer based in the UK. http://www.chocolatepixels.com is her professional website. The Momiji Dolls are here. Her personal blog has information about where the dolls are available, etc.

When my daughter was an infant, I couldn’t wait until she was big enough to go in the black Baby Bjorn Original Carrier I had which I thought was very stylish.

I loved using the Baby Bjorn carrier at first, but I stopped using it for a few reasons. It was a bit akward at times. My daughter usually fell asleep in it when we went for a walk. So it was great for those times when she was having trouble sleeping. Except that I could never get her out of it without waking her up.

On the Baby Bjorn Carrier, the side latch has to slide into the slide latch groove (see the wearing instructions here). That’s easy enough when the carrier is empty, but I had a to do a fair bit of manhandling to get her out of it.

Another disadvantage is that when she got to be over 12 pounds, it hurt my back to carry her—maybe because the Baby Bjorn Original Carrier has no lower-back support.

I was curious about baby wearing which is basically getting a really long piece of cloth and wrapping it around yourself and your baby. There are different ways to do it. Some look like slings; some involve a lot more cloth. I visited a few websites that instruct you how to use them and how to tie them, but I was always nervous that they wouldn’t be secure.

Well, I just saw The MetroWrap which is being marketed as “the most secure and comfortable child carrier on the market. Its unique design incorporates an age-old technique for carrying your child with the fashion demands of today’s world. The MetroWrap™ is the perfect way to bond with your child, enjoy your freedom and look chic while doing it!”

They look very secure, and they have the best instructions I’ve seen anywhere for how to put one on. You can see the step-by-step photos here . I’m quite taken with the Bling styles, but I can’t see spending the $129.99 it costs to own one. I might just go out and buy a really long piece of cloth. Now if I got one as a Baby Shower gift, that would be another story.

Links

I looked around for other parents’ reviews confirming the back-pain issue, and it looks like it is pretty common. Here are some interesting articles I found.

7 Things to Look for When Buying a Baby Carrier or Baby Sling

I thought that men might not suffer from using a baby carrier, but it seems I was wrong.
Does This Baby Carrier Make My Manboobs Look Big?

ERGO Baby Carrier - The Indispensable Tool for Our Trip

Last night we were a bit late coming home from our walk. We were on the walkway to our house, when all of a sudden she looked down, gave a cry of fear, spread her legs out again, and started crying, “Up! Up!” I went over to investigate, and I realized that she was afraid of the shadow that was looming in front of her—her own shadow. I tried to show her that the shadow was harmless, but she wanted off the ground right away and was not interested in making shadow figures on the ground or trying to touch it.

I put her down once we were inside the house, and she followed me into the kitchen for a glass of milk. Except she was waylaid by the sudden appearance of that shadow in the dining room. “Up! Up!” I started to wonder if this might develop into a problem. It seems that my daughter has just now noticed the existence of shadows, and she’s not at all pleased—not even if I sing the song. Not even if her Nana sings the song. It’s funny to think that “afraid of her own shadow” is really a possibility, but it’s not so funny that she really is afraid.

My mother philosophically pointed out that it’s only a short while that she is so little that you have to protect her from things like this. It is very sweet. Still, what if she didn’t get over it? Not that that is likely, but I’ll be happier when this has passed.

I don’t know a single adult in the world who actually wants to spend time watching or playing with all of their kid’s toys in advance to make sure there aren’t secret satanic messages stitched into the lining. Generally speaking, I just take it for granted that the CBC does not fund the Doodlebops to promote kicking puppies or whatever. But to be honest, I don’t really know because after one episode it was simply good enough for me that the monster boy was entranced and therefore not attacking the DVD player.

However, it has not escaped my notice that perhaps not every toy that is supposed to interact has quite the right message…

Up-Up Elmo (yes my old enemy, we meet again…) has a variety of phrases that he uses when played with. Mostly sweet and/or cute little things like “Elmo loves you”, “Elmo up now” and “Thank you!”

As educational tools go, quite sweet and reasonably endearing phrases. However, as the toy is designed, a switch hidden in his belly fur activates these phrases. Isn’t that clever? Won’t that reward my child for being sweet and hugging this cute toy as it requests/demands while helping build his language skills with words like ‘love’, ‘up’ and ‘thank you’?

Quite frankly, I don’t care.

You see, this is layered under a far more sinister lesson.

Remember, toddlers are young, uncoordinated, and perhaps having a little trouble mastering the principles of upright mobility. What they do have going for them is that they are absolute learning machines.

So what does the monster boy do with his Up-Up Elmo? Well what would you do if you had trouble bending over and picking up something that was a quarter of your size and weight? Something that you know will entertain you if you press a button in its tummy? Well, obviously, this is a toy that is meant to teach you to stand around for several minutes kicking something helpless in the stomach. What other lesson could there possibly be than ‘never hit a toy while he’s down; kick him, it’s easier’. Might as well call the toy ‘Roll Elmo for his Wallet’. Or “S&M Elmo” as he thanks you for putting the boots to him and tells you he loves you. Educational? Maybe, but not in the way it was originally intended.

Now, speaking toys have another problem, namely knowing when to shut up. Speak and Learn Puppy may be able to speak, but his ability to learn seems a bit stunted.

Any nudge, tap or breeze sets him off, and off he goes. “Hug me!”, “Let’s sing and play games!” and about a billion other phrases that barely have any relation to anything that happens at all. Now, that would be annoying enough, but factor in the fact that it starts a phrase whenever it moves in any way. And I mean ANY way.

So you can spend a whole day hearing it fail to complete any phrase. “Hug m, let’s sing and, foot, green f, hug me, hand, tummy, hug me!!!”

What does this teach exactly? How to tune out a demanding friend? Some sort of twisted relationship prep?

Both of these toys guarantee child and parent interaction time as you spend hours trying to undo their teachings, “No monster boy, the dog won’t be happy if you kick him in the belly…”

I wasn’t sure what the point of the statement was. I didn’t know whether it meant ‘I’m going to spoil the kid rotten in order to avoid having to deal with more subtle displays of affection’, or ‘damn I’m rich.’

Now that I have a child, I can decode the real meaning after having caught myself uttering that mysterious phrase—a sure sign of entry into the club of slightly freaked out parents. I too, without an ounce of irony declared: “I never had as many toys as my son!”

As I heard myself say it, I finally understood the actual translation; it really means, “How can the same parents, who assured me over multiple Christmases that clothing was a decent present, now shower my child with colourful plush or plastic items which seem to have no other function than to drive me entirely mad?”

Okay, first off, I’m pretty sure that we all had just as many toys as our own kids, but have forgotten about them. The same way that five minutes after pitching a fit on the living room floor, demanding that daddy get them something off of the top shelf, they drop it behind the couch and play with the TV remote screwing up all of the programming that you will need them to fix for you when they’re fifteen and can explain all of your electronics.

But that’s the thing. We think their toys outnumber ours because their toys are all armed with an arsenal of things that ours never had. Like squeaky voices that go off when you walk by, or pre-programmed demands that interrupt cuddling with your wife when you think that your child is safe in bed and you’re off duty.

I love my son. I can spend all day with him. Even when he’s grumpy. It’s his toys that make me feel like I’m being held hostage. Up-Up Elmo is like some sort of terrorist who will hold your living room hostage until his demands are met.

Picture this: you’ve finally put your energetic toddler to bed and you go lie down on the couch in front of the TV because you are so fried from chasing the tiny (but lovable!) tyrant around all day, when suddenly, from some unknown place in the room Elmo declares “Elmo loves you!”

It is kind of amusing. The first time.

Your wife staggers in to join you, and Elmo then declares, “Elmo up please.”

You share a laugh.

But does the pushy little fluff shut up? No.

Halfway through whatever TV show the satellite decides to show you, you’ve lost all track of what’s going on because electronic giggling periodically emerges every time the dog scratches.

You will end up on your hands and knees, pushing a broom handle under every piece of furniture to find the red fuzzy dictator.
That will of course be the exact moment that Speak and Learn Puppy loudly demands from the stack of toys by your foot, “Hug me!”

Elmo, not willing to be upstaged launches into another round of ‘love yous!’ and giggling.

I very much hope that it doesn’t make me a bad person to want to push two plush and theoretically lovable toys into a pit to fight each other to the death, with the sincere hope that the survivor will be so traumatised that it will do nothing more than sit shivering in the corner until its batteries wear out.

By the time you have found and subdued both toys, your relaxation time has somehow been turned into an hour of crawling around on the floor fighting dust bunnies.

Then, as you sit there, with your wife who is very considerately doing her best not to look at you like you are irretrievably insane—your hands twitching around the throats of your oppressors—gently reminds you that these are the monster boy’s very favourite toys, and no matter how bad you feel right now, tomorrow will be much, much worse should they not be here in the morning.

I very much love the monster boy.

I very much love my wife.

I will however say that beyond that, I hereby declare everlasting enmity for squeaking, speaking toys that lurk in the dark areas of a relaxing adult’s living room. You hear me Elmo? You listening Speak and Learn Puppy? ‘Cause as God is my witness, when my son is done with you, I’m coming after you, and the only comfort you can take is that I’ve promised my loving and tolerant wife that I will remove your batteries before I have the bonfire…

It wasn’t until my daughter was about a year old that I formed any opinion about bibs and their usefulness. I used to think that the one that best matched her outfit was the one for the job.

About the same time that my daughter was able to walk a bit, I was afraid that she had lost her appetite. Then I tried letting her hold the spoon, and I realized that she wanted to feed herself. She also decided she didn’t want to wear her bibs anymore, and she would throw any bib she could rip off onto the floor. I’d received about 20 bibs as gifts by that time, and all but one fastened with Velcro which she could fling off with spectacular results.

When I started to notice tubs of stained bibs and clothes soaking all over my kitchen, and that my stress level would jump if I opened up her bib drawer to find that she was out of clean bibs, I realized that I was going about this the wrong way.

I started to look for bibs that fastened with a snap, but I couldn’t find any.

After some experimentation, I found out about waterproof bibs that come in various lengths, and can be wiped clean. I found two brands: iPlay and Bumkins. They both have cute prints and work as well.

Here’s why these are the Best Bibs—the waterproof material doesn’t stain or let food seep through to the clothes underneath, and I didn’t need to soak or scrub it to get it clean. The material dries quickly. I could wipe it clean after a meal, hang it to dry, and use it again at the next meal. The longer styles are long enough to cover the lap. Since my daughter is fond of puréed soups, I thought I’d try one, and I ended up liking the longer bib even better.

As an aside, both of these bibs have Velcro closures, but my daughter doesn’t try to take them off. My guess is that the fabric is so light that it doesn’t bother her. Now she shows she is ready to eat by tucking in the bib herself.

The Nitty Gritty

i play Best Bib
To quote their description, “Super durable material is easy to clean and features bright whimsical designs. Flip-pocket catches more mess. Velcro closure. PVC-free material, easy care.”

The i play “Best Bib” is from their Stage 4 bibs for toddlers. They also have longer style called the Super Duper Bib.

Bumkins® SuperBib
Bumkins “SuperBib” seems to use the same light-weight, waterproof fabric as i play. The SuperBib is longer. I thought it might be too much until I tried it. Both brands seem to have the same styles in this material, but with different patterns to choose from.