Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Safety at Toys "R" Us


I received this email from Toys R Us a few days ago.  It looks like they want to sell toys that are safer for children.  They are now going to have stricter standards for lead in toys.  Also toys with PVC and toys that contain nickel-cadmium batterys are going to be restricted.



I think that this is a great step, but this seems to be more of a marketing message than real change.  For example, they are making these requirments only for products that are made exclusively for Toys R Us.  How much of a change will this actually be?



  • How many manufacturers make products that are only sold through Toys R Us?  How many products will this affect?

  • Will products exclusively sold at stores owned by the company that owned by Toys R Us be included?  For example, if a toy is only sold at Babies R Us and Toys R U will it be required to meet the new requirements?

  • Since Amazon has partnered with Toys R Us, will the toys that are sold on Amazon complay with the new standards?



 

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Father/Son Wii


Our son has been having trouble focusing on his school work, while he is at school.  We are trying different tactics to encourage him to do his work at school, so he doesn't get behind his class. 



What is working now is that if he finishes his work at school, we can play 20 minutes of video games, while his sisters are taking their baths and getting ready for bed.



I think that he really enjoys this time with me. A couple of days ago, when I was pulling into the garage, he came downstairs and told me, before I even finished getting out of the care that "I finished all of my seat work at school!"



It is nice to see him excited about hanging out with his dad.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Shades of Black

Shades of Black
Shades Of Black is a great children's book that our kids love.  We actually just bought another copy, since the first really started to show a lot of wear.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

The Mean Step-sister One

Our oldest daughter is into princesses, so it is not surprising when she talks about princesses.  One evening she came down stairs and said: "This is my mean step-sister one", referring to her nightgown.  What she meant by that was that it didn't twirl as much as some of her other ones.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Weeblock


Weeblock
This is hilarious.  I didn't realize that being peed on while changing a diaper was such a problem.  The Weeblock is supposed to prevent this problem.



 



[via drool.icio.us

Monday, January 7, 2008

Tiny Tots


We have decided to use a diaper service for our little girl.  We are using Tiny Tots diaper service.  In addition to not having a bunch of diapers ending up in the landfill, I am hoping that this will save a little money, as we will not need as large of a garbage can.



The only thing is that we need to make sure that her pants are loose enough to fit the larger diaper. 

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Volume control for toys

I think that there should be a requirement that any child's toy that produces sounds electronically should have volume controls.  You could say that it is to protect children's hearing, but in reality it is protect parental sanity.

Walking with Dinosaurs

Tonight, I took our son to Walking With Dinosaurs.  We had a blast.  I would recommend that anyone who has a child over 5 take them to see it.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Retail parenting?


This is a interesting article about how Target is not selling Manhunt 2, becuase it is possible for some one to modifiy some code (a config file I assume) and reburn the disk, and then be able to get access to some filtered content.



I don't know why Target is bothering with doing this. I will parent my kids, and don't need some store to do this for me.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

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.



 

Friday, October 26, 2007

Road Trip Games

This article has a list of 27 games to play with your kids while on road trips.  Our kids do like playing "I Spy".



[via Lifehacker]

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Wii for Families

Nintendo WiiThis review of the Nintendo Wii talks about how well it is for families.  Our kids love playing the on the Wii.  Our son is getting very good with the bowling game in Wii Sports.  (I am going to have to get used that at some point soon he will be able to beat me in video games.)

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Job description


The kids and I were playing around the pool today.  Our son said that he had to go to work on the other side of the pool. I asked what he does at work, and he said that he "fixes bugs".



 Makes a dad proud!

Monday, October 1, 2007

Sent back lead toys


I finally got around to sending back the Thomas the Train toys that were involved in the recalls. (The toys had been bagged up in the office closet.) Hopefully they will send the replacements soon.  (Not because the kids have played with trains recently, but because I want to make sure that we keep the sets relatively intact.)



When I mentioned this to some coworkers, they mentioned that they had some Thomas the Trains sets, but they are not sending them back, because their kids have grown out of the toys.  This concerns me, becuase as soon as people forget about the recalls, these toys may be passed down to younger kids.



 If you have some of these toys, please have them replaced.



[via Strollerderby

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Circle of teeth

One tooth in..... One tooth out.

This past week our daughter's first tooth broke through, and our son lost his first baby tooth.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

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]

Friday, August 10, 2007

diaper blow out


I wish I had thought of this before with the diaper blowout that our kids have put us through.  Parent Hacks has a post that describes a way to better handle when poop goes up their back.  The tip is to pull the onesie down, instead of up.  This keeps the poo off their head and hair.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Dwink Box Holder


Dwink-Juice-Box-Holder

Our daughter tends to squeeze her juice boxes after we hand them to her.  (With the straw already inserted.)  This usually causes juice to be squirted everywhere. 


The Dwink Box Holder is a cup that holds a juice box and should help prevent these types of spills.


[via drool.icio.us]

Sunday, July 29, 2007

San Jose Grand Prix


My father-in-law and I took the two older kids to the San Jose Grand Prix on Saturday.  We had a great time.  We saw one of the Champ Car qualifying races, and a Formula BMW race.


The thing that the kids liked watching the most was the Mini Grand Prix with the processional remote control race cars.



Thursday, July 26, 2007

Time off


I have had the luxury to take this week off from work.  We didn't have any travel plans, and the two older kids had school, so I have spent the week with my wife and the little one.


I have enjoyed this time a lot.  Feeding and holding the little one, during the day is wonderful, in addition to just when she is going to sleep at night.  Also being able to spend time with my wife, without being interrupted by the kids has been incredible.


My wife has been great putting up with me being around and screwing up the usual schedule. :)