Thingamababy

A winter family tradition: Ogre Socks

AJ — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:34:25 +0000

I vividly remember the morning of one December 25th when my brothers and I woke up early and quietly whispered between our respective doors waiting for the 6 a.m. start of Christmas. We weren’t allowed out of our rooms until 6 a.m., and had even broken out my father’s ancient Official Boy Scout Twin Signal [...]

Six toys I’m not buying from Amazon.de

AJ — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:23:36 +0000

Score one for high school networking. My wife keeps in contact with a then-German exchange student she met during her senior year. He’s buying a DVD of the Le Premier Cri documentary from Amazon’s German outfit and shipping it to us. There’s no English subtitles, and our Deutsch is quite rusty, but so what. I [...]

Why is it?

AJ — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:23:28 +0000

We know that children willingly accept that Santa’s elves create all of their favorite toys that are commercially packaged in cardboard and molded plastic, complete with company names, marketing slogans and flashy graphics. Why is it that when Santa forgets to remove a price tag on one toy, the jig is up?

Music Review: Putumayo’s Family Christmas

AJ — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:03:02 +0000

Caution! Awesome auto-playing Christmas music when you click-through… A Family Christmas is the latest offering from Putumayo, the international children’s music folks. I pretty much love everything they dream up. Family Christmas is a smorgasbord of English yuletide tunes performed by a range of top notch artists. No, you haven’t heard of them all; they’re not Top [...]

Giveaway: Putumayo’s Family Christmas CD

AJ — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:02:59 +0000

A copy of Putumayo’s awesome A Family Christmas CD is up for grabs for three lucky winners. [Read my review. Caution: audio will play.] To enter, use the comment form to post a comment on this article telling us: 1) The name of your favorite, or most hated, Christmas gift you received in your childhood. 2) A link [...]

Naked Eye Astronomy for Parents

AJ — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:14:15 +0000

A little knowledge can make you into an astrophysicist in the eyes of your child. Jack Horkheimer is your inside guy for artificially inflating your intelligence. I got to know Jack in my youth via our PBS TV station. His 5 minute show came on after Doctor Who and before the station went off the air, [...]

@#$%^&*!

AJ — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:41:55 +0000

Q: What’s worse than your furnace and water heater both breaking on Thursday? A: Taking a cold shower Friday night. On Saturday my answer will change to: Seeing the bill for replacing a 25-year-old water tank with a tankless heater. Whew, we sure got some mileage out of the old one, that’s for sure. I’m behind on [...]

Baby Link Roundup #8,611: Que Sera Sera

AJ — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:49:44 +0000

This is a performance of Que Sera Sera by the Srisangwan School for children who have disabilities in Thailand. You can read a little about the school and the video. I have some reservations about this performance being used in an insurance commercial, and some Youtube commenters have criticized the song as embracing fate, as opposed [...]

Armistice Day

AJ — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:12:39 +0000

Here’s another not-baby-oriented idea from this baby blog, a bigger picture notion for when your child is old enough to learn about America’s Veteran’s Day. In the United States, the holiday began in 1919 as Armistice Day, intended to remember and commemorate the ending of World War I and to thank its veterans. In 1938, [...]

In Photos: A Japanese Halloween Parade

AJ — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:08:21 +0000

Friend of Thingamababy Buz Carter visited Tokyo last month and brought back some awesome photos of a Japanese Halloween celebration: the Harajuku Omotesando Halloween Pumpkin Parade. Buz explains: I believe it was a Sunday when we saw a kid with his mom, both in costumes walking on the sidewalk — so we followed them. Is that creepy? We [...]