CPSIA WTF

Looks like I need to eat my hat. Quite a while back I railed against the few politicians that voted against a bill meant to help prevent toys soaked in lead and arsenic from reaching our kids' mouths. Turns out the CPSIA went the way of so many bills passed this year. Good intentions paired with hysterical urgency created a bill that could kill the small independent toy manufacturers that have always been making safe toys and leave only the huge toy corporations that repeatedly put our kids at risk in business. The bill mandates testing that could cost toy makers up to $4000 PER TOY! So, take a minute out of your day and help vote for a change in the bill by clicking on the button below and/or write your politicians. I'll put the soapbox away as soon as I'm done eating.

Four Years Eve

Q,

You are on the verge of your 4th birthday. You are entering an age of which I can recall moments in my own existence. This really freaks me out. It means I need to become the father that I want you to recall when you're my age. Maybe something like Liam Neeson in Love Actually. Conveniently your birthday comes along every year at the same time as New Years Resolutions.

These last four years with you have been a life altering blast. No one makes me laugh, work, or play harder. To simply say I love you would be a huge understatement. You are like water to me. I couldn't survive without you. Sure, I can be apart from you for a while, but dehydration gets pretty damn miserable.

Everyday you manage to say or do at least one thing that knocks my socks off. The other day you were sneaking some treats off the counter and feeding them to Ozzi because, "He was a really good boy today." Or when the Dr. asks if you are around anyone that smokes you say, "Grandpa does, but that's naughty." And then today you tell me, "I really like this song."



Though you continue to say you want to be a "Firefighter in Space" and I will always have my fingers crossed for a Doctor Without Borders, you are certainly showing promise in the engineering department.

You continue to be the most compassionate person this side of the Dalai Lama. You are almost always willing, if not eager, to share. You readily help care for your brother, little cousins, or any other baby you encounter. You tell you're mother and I to "Calm down." and "It's not a big deal." more often than we have to tell you. I hope you never loose that.

Q, Happy Birthday. I love you. You are as awesome as awesome gets... even if, or more likely because, you insist on making goofy-ass faces every time you know we are taking a picture of you.

Edit: Thanks to KristenMary for reminding me that there are ways to put Q's engineering skills to good vicarious karmic use some day.
Engineers Without Borders
Architecture For Humanity

Happy Holidays

I'm going to be away from the blog for a few days. So until then, Happy Holidays from DK, K8, Q, Ozzi, Cyclops Santa, and the rest of the gingerbread cookies that Q made for Santa.

I Am Daddy! Hear Me Roar!

According to a new study from Montana State University, Stay At Home Dads aren't such a new phenomenon after all. Looks like the playground in Jurassic Park is filled with fathers.

A Montana State University study published in the Dec. 19 issue of Science says that males from three types of dinosaurs were sole care givers for their mate's eggs. They may even have had multiple mates and watched all their eggs at once.

"Scientists have long debated which care system, male-only or both parents, evolved first," Varricchio said. "The new research indicates that male-only care came first, evolving within the closest dinosaur ancestors of birds."

"Mr. Mom" THAT John Hagee!.. oh wait, I forgot, you don't believe in dinosaurs... or science.

Museum of Childhood

This ad really makes me wish we were back in London.... that and the near absolute zero temperature outside my frosty windows.

The Year In Blur

Ozzi,

The calender and your mother tell me a year has past since your early arrival ruined our plans for one last date night. Not that I'm bitter about that but it is a nice little story to hang over your head on occasion. Just like how, every once in a great while, I remind your mother that I turned down a date with Britney Murphy for her (don't tell her, but I'm endlessly glad I did).

You and your brother have sure made recalling this past year in detail near impossible. It's all a blur of no, stop, hold still, go to sleep, aaahhhh, and shit. And though the person who you will become is still a mystery I have learned a few things about you thus far.



You have my appetite and metabolism. You're only one but you have the caloric intake of a 16 year old.

You are a stubborn roaring belligerent bad-ass little force of nature.... just like your mom... and I love that!

You've earned yourself more nicknames than an average member of the Wu Tang Clan. Ozzi was the first. Then came Cuddlefish for your love of nuzzling and your ability to turn red at the drop of a very angry hat. Q, droppin' some robotic science, coined Ozbot and it stuck like glizzue fo' shizzue. Shortly after that you started training for Everest and I christened you Reinhold Messner.

Your big brother loves you more than I ever thought possible for a sibling and you seem to adore him even more than you do your own parents... and we're cool with that. Though there is the occasional conflict, I can already see that you two will always have each others' back... and that is more important to me than most anything else.

You are a smart, inquisitive, fast, and funny little dude... and I love you more than life itself.

Happy Birthday!

Hero of The Week: Random Lady at The Post Office

Thank you. Thank you for taking time out of your day to offer to hold a very squirmy Ozzi so I could finish putting stamps on all my Christmas Cards. Unfortunately you came along at the end of the project, but thank you anyway. Your kind offer made my day.

Economic Stimulus Part Six

I can't really do a review of a book I don't have yet, but from everything I've seen, Do Narwhals Have Blowholes? by Gibson Holub & Matt Cory has potential to join the all time favorites in my house.

Instead of weighing down this post with all my usual adjectives, here's a video of a recent reading by the author so you can see for yourself.

Hero of The Week: You?

Toms Shoes



Kiva

Economic Stimulus Part 1+1+1+1+1

Oodles of hand made crafts, art, and contests with celebrity judges. Need I say more? No Coast Craft-O-Rama this Sat. and Sun. at the Midtown Global Market.

Quote Of The Day

K8: "What did you learn at preschool today, Q?"

Q: "I killed Baby Jesus."

On Tuesday, while I was volunteering at his preschool, I was a bit concerned when a teacher mentioned to the class of 3 year-olds that "Jesus died for our sins." I'm not quite ready to get into a DEATH conversation with Q yet. I just didn't realize that he would turn these teachings into Nine Inch Nails lyrics.

DK: "Oy vey!"

Economic Stimulus Part 4

Through back channels and undisclosed high ranking sources within the North Pole, it has been reported that Santa may be hooking my boys up with a few of the most rockin' toy trucks I... er, Santa has ever gotten his hands on. Toxin free, made from recycled wood and plastic, battery free, kid powered lights and sounds, interchangeable characters, and durable, all at prices relatively comparable to Tonka. The Canadians at Sprig Toys could certainly teach Fisher Price a thing or two. Looks like Santa (and some Canadians) has been reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America too.

Banksy vs Thomas

Alphabutt

I may have to finally get those tattoos and start ironically drinking PBR to make up for my so seriously falling asleep at the hipster parenting wheel. Not only did I miss out on taking the boys to Kimya Dawson's family concert at the Cedar Cultural Center, I'm also just finding out that she's released a children's album wonderfully titled Alphabutt. Most popular for her contribution to the Juno Soundtrack, the former Moldy Peaches singer has a playful sing-a-long style that could charm kids even when the songs aren't meant for them specifically. Q certainly enjoyed her song I Like Giants when it was in heavy rotation on the Current. So a children's album just seems like the next logical step.

Economic Stimulus Part Drei

For those of you NOT concerned about the impending financial doom, might I suggest digging 6,800 quid out from under your mattress to purchase one of 999 Audi Type-C pedal cars. Then rent a Santa costume so you can bestow this leather and oak trimmed aluminum beauty upon my children Christmas morning. Of course this is contingent on all 999 not being already earmarked for all the good little boys and girls in the U.A.E.




Maybe if The Big Three manufactured limited edition high-end replicas of their 1936 race cars they wouldn't have to be begging the government for bailout money.

Damn You Irony!

I am convinced the boys are plotting against us. Worst yet, they are using what I post on this blog as fuel for their clever cruelty. "Sleepyhead ehe? Comparing me to a raver? We'll show them! Muuhahaha!"

In the middle of the night Ozzi is screaming like he's on fire. K8 and I betray our better judgment to bring him into our bed. Like roadies digging for all the green M&M's to fill a bowl in Mick Jagger's dressing room, we know we're just condoning the behavior, but, at 1 in the morning, we're not willing to endure the wrath incurred. We must have dropped a few red ones into the bowl. From 1 to 4 am Ozzi was screaming, laughing, crying, babbling, flailing, and playing like a belligerent drunk. Not drunk on alcohol, drunk on power. Power over his weak enabler parents. He bites his beautiful mother. He stage dives onto my head and gives me a face full of pee engorged diaper. "This isn't a fucking Daft Punk concert you cute crazy little shit, it's Mama and Papa's bed. It's not party time, it's sleeping time. Pleeeeaaaaaaase go to sleep. Please! AAAAAHHHHH!"

Whimpers from the other room warn us of the approach of the whining reinforcements that Ozzi has called in. Q's arrival to the battle in our bed, however, does not work out to Ozzi's favor. Emboldened by overcrowding and sleep deprivation, I gather Ozzi up and place him back in his crib. I return to our bed.... and Q. Q begins to lightly moan and stroke my hair like a teenager on ecstasy and Ozzi catches on fire again. The battle rages back and forth until eventually Q, realizing a wild and ruckus neighbor is more tolerable than a wild and ruckus bedfellow, returns to his own bed. K8 manages, with great effort, to cajole Ozzi to sleep just in time to miss the morning sun rise into our window.

Electric Kool-Aid Ozzi Test

This song, Sleepyhead by Passion Pit, came on the Current today and Ozzi went joyfully bonkers.... better hide the glow sticks now!

Economic Stimulus Part Twee

This past weekend K8 and I started, and almost finished, our xmas shopping for this year. While in the toy stores I couldn't help but notice all the really great toys available for kids older than my own. Of those, the toy that stood out the most is Totem.



Created by Kidsonroof out of Amsterdam, Totem, like most other construction toys, provides children with an opportunity to learn how to follow instructions or to build freely from their own imagination. In addition to each piece being made out of laminated recycled cardboard, they are also decorated with a variety of fantastic designs, symbols, and textures. From what I've seen Totem is a fantastic toy with endless possibilities.

Kidsonroof makes a few other ingeniously simple products worth checking out as well and even gives 5% of all profits to UNICEF. You gotta love the Dutch.

Quotes of the Day

Q is building a "zoo" out of Duplos on the living room floor. Ozzi comes along and does his best Godzilla impression.

Q: "NOOO! PUT THAT BABY ON TRIAL!"

Our oldest may not be able to write his name yet but at least he's got a good grasp of the American Judicial System. "I'll be the Judge. You be the Jury.", he says banging on the table with a plastic hammer.

It really is amazing what kids pick up. The previous day we had this conversation while looking at a globe.

Q: "Which country is Africa?"
DK: "Africa is a continent, not a country."
K8, from the other room: "Good work Sarah Palin."
Q, pointing to Africa: "Sarah Palin lives in Africa?"
DK: "No. She lives in Alaska."
Q: "Where does John McCain live?"
DK: "Arizona."

And then there was this exchange in the bookstore last week when Q spotted a magazine with Obama on the cover.

Q: "MomMom, look! Obama!"
K8: "Yep."
Q: "He's smiling. Why is he smiling?"
DK: "Because he won the election."
Q: "You vote for him? I vote for him. Barack Obama's your friend? He your friend MomMom?"
K8: "We hope so."
Q, jumping up and down: "Barack Obama's MY friend TOO!"

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof Is The Playground

I love being a stay at home dad but if we lived in Copenhagen I would definitely get a "real job" just so the boys could go to the Skanderborggade Day Care Centre. I especially love the incline scattered with beanbags.