Mostly Harmless

Mostly about my amusement

Tag: Kids (page 3 of 4)

January 30, 2008

Andre’s trip to Disneyland

Disneyland, January 18 to 20

How we know each other

Rao and I worked together 10 years ago on an enormous Year 2000 computer project and have stayed in touch ever since. I attended his wedding in New Jersey many years ago and was unable to blend in to the crowd of hundreds because: (1) I’m white, (2) I’m over a foot taller than anyone else there. It was an amazing wedding and I still have fond memories of it. Our most recent get-together was during my divorce, where they took great care of me. Rao’s son, Mohan is Aaron’s age and he reminded me a lot of him. Indu is a warm and wonderful woman who took excellent care of me and shared some amazingly good recipes that look very easy to make when she does it. I have not had the same success.

Travel

Disneyland was someplace I had wanted to take Aaron when he was old enough to appreciate it, and now was an excellent time. He’ll be turning five in about two months. I had packed snack items to hold us through the travel. He favors hummus, rice crackers, grape tomatoes and cheese, but lately has also picked up a taste for the carrots that still have all the greens attached. He can pretend to be a rabbit that way. Read more

December 31, 2007

Wintuk was great

Wintuk banner from their website

Yesterday Lily and I took the kids to see Wintuk. They were so so about the show until the lights went off and it all started. The girl was mesmerized and could not take her eyes off the stage.

The boy less so. After 15 minutes he started fidgeting and had to shift around. Once the magic started up on stage then he was hooked. They both liked the show a lot and each one says their favorite moment was at the end when the snow fell. The show was a lot of fun and next time Cirque Du Soleil is in town we may take the kids to see them again.

Afterwards we went to eat at that Pongsri Thai restaurant we like and walked over to see the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue. They were a bit of a disappointment; the sidewalk was insanely crowded. We had to wait on a line to get onto the line so walk by the windows.

Grown ups that tried to cut the line were rebuked. One jackass parent brought his two kids to the barrier and then pushed them to the windows. Not surprisingly the two brats kids were all over the place and were very rude.

That’s a lot of crossing out of words… Nice what some folks teach their kids, luckily my kids were too into the windows to notice. It was a good time but man, were we tired from all that walking.

Wintuk banner from the Cirque Du Soleil website.

December 21, 2007

Late Christmas shopping

Last night Lily and I left work early to catch the 5:22 PM train. The plan was to go to Toys R Us and pick up toys for all the kids we know.

It went well except we got charged twice for one of the items. Lily always checks the receipts before we leave the store so we got it fixed immediately. The customer service lady actually refunded the toy twice and we had to correct her so we didn’t walk out with a free toy. It’s the season and we just wanted to be charged for what we bought and not get anything we did not pay for.

Once we got to the car we realized that one of the kids (not ours) was getting an er, really cheap toy. I would have hated to become that kid’s Uncle who he actually wants cash from instead of a toy. We went back and exchanged it for something nicer.

There seems to be some psychological thing with kids and toy shopping. All kids that I know recognize that grown ups buy toys for other kids, but their toys all come from Santa. I used to have the same thing. Birthday toys are from grown ups, but Santa gets 100% credit on Christmas day. Santa can do no wrong and the kids idolize him.

Santa reminds me of a politician running for office. I think December 25th he gets a bounce in the polls.

Shopping took less than 40 minutes and that is just not bad. I suggested to Lily that since we were so early that we go to the mall and do some more shopping for grown ups. She is taking off tomorrow just to shop and I was informed that she enjoys shopping more when I am not around.

I don’t mind but I know I will be carrying what she buys tomorrow.

December 15, 2007

It’s an action figure

G.I. Joe action figureOn my son’s birthday I got him a G.I. Joe Sigma 6 Arctic Duke.  This one is from Hasbro’s web site.

Its very different from the one’s I had growing up (but still has the kung-fu grip). For starters it looks like it could survive anything I could do to it. I don’t think I could break this and I am sure that a 6 year old would have trouble too.

I want to start getting the kids more appropriate *cough* less expensive *cough* toys. Right now the basement is filled with toys that are wrecked and should be tossed out. Between uncles and cousins, those kids can out stock a toy store.

His grandparents had gotten him a Lionel train and he is nuts about it. I was talking to him and asking him if he likes the G.I. Joe:

Me: Do you like it?

Son: It’s okay. It doesn’t do anything.

Me: Well, I got you this doll so you could play with it. You played with your sisters dolls and I thought you’d like this one better.

Son: (Looking at me like I need pity) Daddy, It’s not a doll. It’s an action figure.

Sigh. He started playing with it some more but he’ll always prefer any Lionel train over an action figure…

August 30, 2007

Kids and TV

When I was a small kid, I had to worry about being able to change the TV station from channel 4 to channel 2. Or to channel 13. And how to get UHF.

I just overheard my 5 year old son: “Grandma? Can you record that show?”

I had to learn how to turn the TV station dial; he’s worried about working the DVR. I guess the older generations really are different.

June 17, 2007

Kids pictures from trip

Saturday we drove to Lancaster County to have a “Day out with Thomas”. We gave the kids a camera each and here are some of the pictures that they took.

First the girl: she’s going to be 4 at the end of the month.

MINI Cooper on the road small

She likes MINI’s, go figure.

Boy taking picture small

Nice picture of the boy taking a picture.

Now for some of my 5 year old son’s pictures:

Boy’s MINI picture small

He also likes MINIs.

Here is when he discovered the record button.

They did more, I’ll upload the keepers to Flickr.

June 16, 2007

Kids and digital cameras

For Christmas the kids had each gotten Disney digital cameras. These were okay but needed special software, a non-standard USB cable, and had no preview window.

Yesterday Lily and I got the kids inexpensive affordable low end HP digital cameras. I’ll post the best pictures they take over the weekend here.

March 10, 2007

Hello! I’ll be right with you!

5 year old boy to 3 year old girl at 5 am: “You HAVE to go downstairs and get my toy doggie.”

3 year old girl: “I’m scared! No one’s downstairs!”

5 year old boy: “HE-LL-O! I’ll be right with you!”

Lately he’s been picking up words and phrases from somewhere and it’s really funny. He sees an airplane and says “Look, it’s flying. How cool is that?”

March 3, 2007

A real P-O-S

POSI always know it. Be careful what you say around kids.

Today I took out the kids remote control airplane (graphic from Amazon) and gave it a whirl. Santa got it for them for Christmas.

It sucks wind loudly. It’s rated for 8+ year olds so the kids really can’t work it. I’m almost 5 times that old and I can’t work it either.

So I tell Lily “Honey, it’s a real P O S”.

Now my 5 year old son is saying “Daddy can I play with the POS?” and the girl is also saying “Daddy can you get me a POS? Please? I want a POS!”

. . .

“Maybe when you are older sweetheart, you can have a P O S of your own.”

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Jan Dembowski

Jan Dembowski

I am a software enthusiast who is easily amused and definitely mostly harmless.

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