WordPress weekly photo challenge: Indulge

My youngest turned four this past weekend. He’s officially a little man who can “do it all by himself,” as he likes to say. As for me, I feel the past four years just ran by me like a bullet train. Fortunately I have a good memory and lots of digital photos to go with it. Watching another being grow up day by day into a wonderful little person is one of my most fulfilling rewards as a parent.

I knew this weekend would be one of indulgence. Birthday presents, birthday party, birthday cake… But I think the picture below captures what indulgence is to little children. My son got a few new Playmobil toys (his older brother was very eager to try them out) and inside the box was a small flyer of more Playmobil toys.

It took my kids just a few minutes to drop all of the new birthday toys and contemplate together what new Playmobil toys they’d like to get. Children really know how to indulge!

WordPress weekly photo challenge: Indulge

 How do your kids like to indulge?

Jigsaw puzzles and genetics: nature versus nurture

Children and jisaw puzzles

I’ve been pondering this question for a while, so if you have children, I’d love you to share your input. Do you think most of our talents are inherited through our parents’ genes, or are they acquired through nurturing and practice?

Here’s a perfect example of this issue at our house:

- I (the mother) have always loved doing jigsaw puzzles since I was a little kid. If I had lots of time to do anything I want, I could spend several hours a day working on a giant puzzle. The largest puzzle I’ve ever made was 2000 pieces but I’m sure I could go for larger.

- My husband (the father) is far from a puzzle master. He clearly doesn’t like doing puzzles, and when he helps out the kids, I’m actually not sure who’s helping who the most.

- My oldest, who’s almost five, is a little like his dad. He enjoys doing puzzles more than him but sometimes struggles and his frustration can make him abandon his project before completion. With a little encouragement, he can usually get the puzzle done (we’re talking about 48 pieces here).

- My youngest, who’s just over three, is a puzzle wizard. Give him a 48-piece puzzle, provide a little assistance, and he’s done within 5 to 10 minutes. After he’s done the same puzzle a few times, he can do it all by himself and won’t even look at the original image to put it together. He clearly has great visual memory and well-developed spatial intelligence.

Because of my husband’s puzzle-making limited abilities, I’ve always been the one encouraging the kids to do puzzles, guiding them through the building process. I don’t believe I’ve spent more time with my youngest than my oldest doing puzzles. If anything, it’s been the opposite since my oldest is the one who struggles.

So why is it that my youngest can complete a puzzle faster than his older brother? Shouldn’t it be the opposite because of the age difference? Did I pass on the full “puzzle gene” to one kid, but only half of it to the other? Nature versus nurture is the age-old question, even when it comes down to jigsaw puzzles. Well, not just puzzles, since the question can extend to music, art, sports, etc.

Do you think you have passed on some talent genes to your kids and they have developed specific affinities because of their genetic predisposition? Or do you think they’re just good at something because they get to spend a lot of time practicing?

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Boys and their destructive personality

I’m the mother of two little boys and I don’t have girls of my own, but I’ve watched enough girls act and interact to know the two genders behave quite differently. Even though girls often prefer playing with dolls and other “pink toys”, they don’t mind playing with cars and trucks if  there’s no other choice. Boys will play with dolls at an early age, but past the two-year-old mark, they won’t be caught alive playing with one. My oldest son’s favorite color used to be purple, then pick. Today his favorite colors are red and black, because pink is a “girl color”. I should have taken a picture of him the day I saw him wear a pink tutu at preschool. It could have come handy some day…

Another difference between boys and girls is their destructive and nurturing natures, respectively. We all know men have gone to wars for all or any reason, while women tend to rely on mediation and communication to solve conflict. When I watch my boys play, I witness a lot of crashing, pushing, shoving, smashing, banging. Fortunately that’s mostly with toys rather than each other. The other day, my three-year-old son created mayhem throughout the new Playmobil Farm set we just bought. I’m thinking All State Insurance should hire him to play the ”Mayhem” character in their TV commercials – he’d be perfect.

The first thing I noticed were the cows in distress:

Mayhem at the Playmobil farm - cows in distress

Oh my gosh, I gasped, what happened to the cows? My youngest proudly announced an earthquake had just hit the farm. I surveyed the surroundings and noticed the rest of the farm didn’t look much better. The garden had been hit, resulting in an uprooted tree and flowers blown everywhere (guess who had to pick them all up?):

Playmobil farm hit by an earthquake - uprooted tree and damaged flowers

The farmhouse is probably the one that suffered the most:

Playmobil farmhouse hit by an earthquake

My oldest, who’s planning to become an expert in natural catastrophies, observed the farm didn’t get hit by an earthquake, but rather by a tornado. He’s right, tornadoes do create a lot of clean-up.

Fortunately for me, Playmobil toys are super sturdy and hard to break. I can’t say the same for our other toys including:
- Buzz Lightyear, whose wings don’t pop up anymore. One of them doesn’t flash because the wire has been severed.
- Motorcycles without steering wheels, cars without tires, car remote controls rendered useless without antennas
- Smashed down boxes, books with torn pages or ripped guts
- Mini fans without fan blades, stuffed animals without stuffing…

And then there’s the rest of the house, such as:
- Scratches on the couch, roken wall frames
- Holes in the wall and baseboard
- Dug up garden

I used to repair broken toys until I got tired of my labor going unappreciated. So I announced that all broken toys would end up in the trash and not be replaced, unless the boys wanted to use their piggy bank money to do so. They clearly don’t think it’s a good use of their money.

Then my oldest came up with a brilliant idea. Let’s make paper toys! They would cost no money and couldn’t break like the cheap plastic toys. Unfortunately he didn’t take in account his little brother’s destructive personality. We quickly found out paper is very easy to rip…

When I see how many submissions show up on a site like “Sh*t my kids ruined“, I understand I’m not the only parent in this situation. Actually, it’s not a bad place to visit if I want to make myself feel better.  When I see how some kids keep occupied while their mom is doing laundry, I feel A LOT better about my own boys! I think I have a couple of years before this happens in my living room…

Courtesy of Sh*t my kids ruined

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My “Every day I see a cow” blog is being showcased on WordPress!

In early January 2011, I took the WordPress challenge to post every day of 2011 on my “Every day I see a cow” blog (I would never attempt such a challenge for this blog!). I figured it would be a great motivator, especially since my goal is to report my personal daily sightings of cow.

Today I almost fell off my chair when I saw on the WordPress daily update that my “Every day I see a cow” blog was featured in the “10 WordPress theme blogs that rock“! All I can say is, HOLY COW! (no pun intended).

I’m glad to see that other people think that cows rock and it’s nice to have visitors stop by and learn about my daily cow sighting experiment. As a parent, I feel we have so many responsibilities resting on our shoulders every single day of our busy lives. It’s nice to find a way to do something out of our range of daily chores and activities. My kids have been having a lot of fun pointing out “Mama’s cow of the day” since I’ve started this challenge. It’s been a daily family fun activity for several weeks, and now they have even come up with “Papa’s pig of the day”, since their dad is convinced we see pigs every day. I actually think he’s got something going with this…

Oh, if you think you don’t see a cow every day, here’s one for you, just to remove any doubt you may have!

Every day you see a cow

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Fisher-Price recalls more than 10 million products: tricycles, activity centers, high chairs and Little People

Fisher-Price High Chairs recalled

Well, it’s been a while since we’ve heard of a major recall, but here it is! And that’s a massive recall in my opinion – over 10 million items, covering quite a range of baby and young children’s products.

For complete details on this Fisher-Price recall and to see which exact product models are affected, visit the Fisher-Price recall dedicated page on the US Consumer Product Safety Commission website. This recall affects the following Fisher-Price products:

- 14 models of Trike and Tough Trike toddler tricycles (kids can get hurt on the plastic ignition key)
- 7 models of infant activity centers with inflatable balls (the valve can come off the ball, causing a choking hazard to babies)
- 950,000 high chairs (children cause fall and get hurt on the leg pegs)
- Little People Wheelies Stand ‘n Play Rampway (car wheels can come off, causing a choking hazard)

Fisher-Price Tough Trike

Our household is actually affected by this recall. We own the Go, Diego Go Tough Trike (left) and I just ordered my modification kit on the Fisher-Price website. It was a painless and quick process, but I apparently have to wait 8 to 12 weeks to receive it! Obviously, the Fisher-Price people have never had to reason with little kids who absolutely want to use their toys RIGHT NOW! We have another, more sturdy trike we’d like our son to start using, so this seems like the perfect opportunity!

I was planning to resell the trike when my youngest would outgrow it, but it’s out of the question now, even with the modification kit (it’s illegal to sell or resell recalled products). No biggie, safety first. Check out your Fisher-Price stock and make sure you’re OK too!

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