Comments for Thingamababy

Comment on A winter family tradition: Ogre Socks by A thought

A thought — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:18:02 +0000

Perhaps Santa could come in person? You could team up with some other dads in the community to share the cost to rent (or buy) a nice Santa suit. Then, just schedule times where each dad dresses up as Santa and hand-delivers the gifts to the skeptical children. If your kids are especially skeptical, you could have them leave milk and cookies near the entrance and Santa could comment that he doesn’t need a chimney–all he needs is the scent of milk and cookies to know that he’s welcome–and which entrance to use.

Comment on A winter family tradition: Ogre Socks by KGS

KGS — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:57:36 +0000

I feel your pain– my daughter has already started asking us to please, please have a chimney installed before Christmas. I’ve been trying to persuade her that our dog will let him in somehow, but perhaps now is the time to introduce the concept of lockpicks?

Comment on Giveaway: Putumayo’s Family Christmas CD by Audra

Audra — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:28:17 +0000

When I was seven or eight, on my request my parents gave me Dusty and Nugget for Christmas, a poseable doll and horse. A female doll designed to ride horses and play sports was my idea of a perfect toy.

http://www.angelfire.com/art/dollmemories/dusty1.html

Comment on Bikers Against Child Abuse: Helping Kids Feel Safe by Fly Boy - Oklahoma Chapter

Fly Boy - Oklahoma Chapter — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:10:50 +0000

I consider myself blessed to be associated with such a committed group of brothers and sisters within the BACA family. During the first child adoption ride I got to attend, thirty five to forty bikes roared into a small park where we had previously planned to rendezvous with the family. We gathered around our new little brother and sister and knealt down as a group in order to be on the same level. We also removed our sunglasses so they could see each of our eyes. We presented each of them with a vest – something that’s used to bond us together as a family. Both children were given teddy bears as well. At this point, we formed a single file line and would each take our turn coming up, taking a knee and introducing ourselves. Many gave a small toy or pin to add to their new vests. The little ones would then eagerly hand their new teddy bears to us so we could fill them up with love – which is done by hugging it. Both of those bears were eventually hugged by every one of us. The kiddos were told that whenever they hugged their bear, it would give them some of the love that we put in. They were also told that when the bears ran low on love, to let us know and we would make a special trip back to ‘refill’ the bears. Several other facets of the adoption ceremony took place and then it was time to leave – but only after it was very clear to the kids that they were now part of our family and that if anyone even thinks about messing with one of our brothers or sisters, they’d best be prepared to deal with the rest of us. I remember feeling embarassed while wiping tears away at different points of the afternoon. In the end, those feelings of embarassment were replaced with gratitude as I had been blessed by the opportunity to be part of something much bigger than myself.

Comment on Why is it? by Amber

Amber — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:14:24 +0000

Hmm. You could avoid this calamity by doing what I do and what my mom did. Leave Santa’s presents unwrapped and unboxed and ready to play with.

No questions as to why they’re plastic wrapped or anything–plus, when your little ones wake up at 5am, they have something to play with before you crawl out of bed.

I always had strict guidelines–you can play with what Santa brought you–QUIETLY–but you have to leave the wrapped gifts until Mommy gets up.

Comment on Giveaway: Putumayo’s Family Christmas CD by kelli

kelli — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:03:34 +0000

My Friend Mandy doll. I loved her and enjoyed making clothes and accessories for her.

http://www.dollinfo.com/fpfriends.htm

I still have her and my kids now play with her.

Comment on Giveaway: Putumayo’s Family Christmas CD by Tim

Tim — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:37:15 +0000

Since I lived in a rural area with few kids my age nearby, I spent a lot of time with my toys: Star Wars, G.I. Joe, He-Man, Transformers and Lego were the big five. Many of these were Christmas and birthday gifts, but I couldn’t begin to sort out which was which.

The one item I am sure we got for Christmas was our first computer, a Commodore 64. This saw a lot of use by me and my older brother, perhaps more than our toys:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

Comment on Six toys I’m not buying from Amazon.de by AJ

AJ — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:25:48 +0000

Phil, it’s worse than you think. Your DVDs were intentionally rendered unplayable outside Region 1 (the US and Canada). This is done so companies can charge different prices in different countries. Any claims about it being an anti-piracy move are baloney. Pirates have no trouble removing “digital rights management.”

I bought a “region-free” DVD player from my local DVD rental store so I could watch UK-minted Doctor Who DVDs a full year before they are released in America. These days it seems most fans choose to illegally download TV shows because the BBC offers no legal option for watching, short of waiting a year or more until a DVD is released or it runs a year later on an American cable channel.

Meanwhile, the new Blu-Ray discs are even more bad news, introducing even tougher restrictions. Corporations don’t understand their markets and actively fight consumers (trying to control us) rather than embracing a more lucrative business model that recognizes today’s reality. I’d gladly pay a subscription fee to watch BBC TV online.

Comment on Six toys I’m not buying from Amazon.de by Phil

Phil — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:37:29 +0000

Hey AJ – we lived in Germany for a year and learned the hard way that German DVDs and American DVD players don’t play nicely (and vice versa). That was nearly 10 years ago so maybe they’ve unified into a standard format.

Hope Le Premier Cri works in your player!

Comment on Six toys I’m not buying from Amazon.de by SarraJK

SarraJK — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:31:38 +0000

Brio made something similar to item 7. I got it for my son for Christmas 2 years ago.

http://www.amazon.com/BRIO-Remote-Control-Express-Train/dp/B0007W5S6W

Looks like it’s no longer available, but we got ours at Toys R Us.