Journey with You

I rent this movie from Blockbuster a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it.

Vitus is the story of a child prodigy who has everything he wants except the chance to be a normal kid. At six, Vitus is both incredibly talented and wonderfully precocious. When it becomes evident that he has an exceptionally high IQ and can play piano like a young Mozart, expectations run high. His parents love him, his grandfather understands him, but no one knows the truth that his real genius is in his heart.

This movie really made me think. Think how we sometimes put so much pressure on our children. As soon as the baby is born, we have a “schedule” in our mind: when should he smile, crawl, sit, stand up, and walk. When should he start talking, reading, and so on. We tend to forget that everyone child is different and they have each own personality, strengths, and weaknesses. We tend to want our child to do whatever other child is doing.

Raising a child is kind of like offering a child food. You need to offer a variety of food but you can’t make decisions for them. I used to get upset when Cyrus didn’t eat something I offer but I don’t anymore. You can’t make choices for your child, they do. It’s their life and all you can do is to point out all different options available and let them know that you’ll be there for them no matter what.

Cyrus is almost 2.5 years old and so far we’ve only been to Toys R Us once. We didn’t even buy anything from there. We did buy a couple of toys from places like Target. Over all, we are not too fond of toys sold at these big toy stores. First of all, we don’t really like plastic or battery operated toys. After that big recall from Fisher-Price, who can be sure what’s in those plastics? Secondly, we like to support local small toy stores. These small-medium size stores actually carry some really nice toys, including wooden ones.

I want to recommend two great toy brands that I usually see at those local toy stores. They both have great varieties and both emphasize the importance of toy safety.

Melissa and Doug: Here is a part of their safety statements.

No matter how carefully we design our products, we believe there’s no substitute for TESTING, TESTING, and MORE TESTING. The key to assuring the safety of our products is not simply insisting our factories follow our instructions, but to go one step further and AUDIT, INSPECT, AND TEST, not only once, but at various phases of the production process. This is something we’ve always done.

Additionally, we specifically test our paints and coatings very frequently, to be sure our toys meet or exceed government recommendations limiting heavy metals and lead in children’s items. We have cabinets full of thousands of passing test reports, and these passing results have been verified by 3rd party independently accredited testing laboratories, considered by many to be the best scientific laboratories in the world.

They have some great soft toys for babies as well as some big wooden toys for 3 year old and younger. We have a stacking wooden train similar to the following product.

My recent purchase from them is a set of 12-piece beginner puzzles. They are made out of wood so the little ones can’t break it. Other than farm animal scenes, they also have vehicles, wild animals, and sea life.

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Seven years later, is America safer? I do not think so.

The only way to help America be a safer place is that America can be a good member of the global community, not the boss.

I just want a safe place for my child. That’s all a mother wants.

You can read the article here.

If you are interested in the book, please go to My First Year in Purgatory . Org. You can preview the first 10 pages from there.

Don’t ever do this: taking a two-year-old to the zoo ALL BY YOURSELF.

I did it last Saturday and my body still ached. It was about two hours drive from my house to the Toronto zoo.  We left the house around his nap time but for some reason he was wide awake the whole time. I tried offering him some lunch when we got there but he only wanted a few of blueberries.

I used Ergo baby carrier. He was on my back pretty much the whole time. It was a bright sunny day but he decided to take his hat off and I couldn’t put it back on. I didn’t dare to put him down. For one, he might just run away from me and play and “catch me if you can” game. For two, it’s kind of hard to put him on my back now that he is so big and heavy. I know some moms can do it but I am simply not good at it.

It was SO tiring carrying him for the good three-four hours time and couldn’t sit down and rest. He seemed to be okay until the very end. Our good time sort of ended when he threw this nice little water bottle on the ground. It was a metal bottle from granddad and very cute. It dented after hitting and cement ground. I got pretty mad and spanked him. He let out a little cry and lowered his head for a good half hour, no response to any of my words.

I felt a little bit guilty and to be honest was so tired so I decided to let him down at the kangaroo section. The kangaroos are fenced in but you can walk in and get a closer look. They want you to stay on the walk path though. Even though I warned him stay where he was with me, he took off and ran towards the kangaroos. Kangaroos were all lying down and relaxes but sat up as soon as they saw Cyrus’ approaching. Kind of a scary moment. Continue reading »