TechyDad

One of the shows I’ve introduced to NHL and JSL via Netflix/Roku is Rugrats.  NHL has developed a passion for this show, burning through season after season.  He’s up to Season 4 already, the last season available on Roku.  The show went on to Season 10 meaning that the babies were "10 years old" and yet still in diapers.  I guess it could be worse.  Bart Simpson’s been 10 years old for over 20 years!

One of the premises of Rugrats is that the babies can talk.  The adults can’t understand them, but they do talk amongst themselves in nearly perfect English.  (Some words get replaced with similar sounding ones to humorous effect.)  The only one who can communicate with the babies and the adults is Angelica (and Susie later on).  Instead of becoming "The Baby Whisperer", Angelica uses this communication advantage to impose her will on the babies every chance she gets.

Getting back to our kids, JSL has developed a problem speaking.  He’ll drop syllables and seem to expect that we’ll understand him just fine.  If, for example, he wants fruit chews for a snack, he might ask for "uitews."  If he wants his feet covered, he might ask for "ahk."  Needless to say, this can get frustrating.  He thinks he’s being perfectly clear in what he wants and we can’t figure out what he’s saying.

We had one of those moments yesterday.  JSL didn’t want to eat dinner.  Instead, he wanted to play.  But he didn’t want any of the toys we had out so we asked him which toy he wanted.  "Idoam."  We looked at each other, had no clue and, on a whim, asked NHL if he knew what his brother wanted.  Calmly, NHL said "He wants his video game."

Apparently, NHL speaks fluent JSL the same way Angelica spoke fluent baby.  Let’s just hope that NHL uses his gift for good and not evil.  And by using it for good, I mean he is now the Official JSL Translator.

I’ve talking about Sid The Science Kid before. I reviewed and hosted a giveaway for a Sid toy. I even mentioned a great episode about vaccines. So how could Sid get any better? How about like this:

Yes, that’s the complete Sid The Science Kid Vaccine episode able to be viewed online. And no, it’s not a pirated version, but a fully approved version. Don’t think it could get better than that? Well, if you go to Flu.gov, you can download this Sid episode for free.

As you may know, I’m a big fan of online video. I stream Netflix movies regularly on my Roku (especially another Henson production, Farscape). I’ve also considered cutting the cable cord more than once. (If we did, I’d be glad that PBS Kids, and thus Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train would be available via over-the-air television.) Being able to watch a Sid episode on my computer via the Internet is great. (Note to PBS Kids: Please consider making a Roku channel to stream full episodes to people’s Roku boxes on demand. My kids would love this!)

During the giveaway I ran, I promised that I’d soon be reviewing the Talkin’ Sid The Science Kid plush as soon as I received it.  Well, it took a little longer than expected, mainly due to Chanukah swamping my kids with new toys.  They went into overload mode and I knew I wouldn’t get a good opinion out of them right then and there.  So I waited for the toy high to die down and then had them play with Talkin’ Sid. Read more…

A few weeks ago, BuddyTV ran a Heroes contest. I entered and was quite surprised to learn that I won. Not too long afterwards, a box arrived at my doorstep with some Heroes goodies.

Let’s go through these one at a time, shall we? First off are the Heroes Season 1 and Season 2 DVD sets.

Also in there was a Matt Parkman action figure (as well as Molly Walker). Parkman is, of course, played by the fantastic Greg Grunberg.

Next up is a Hiro bobblehead. In Season 1, there were two “Hiro” characters. One, from the present, was a geeky sort of guy who wore glasses. The other, from the future, wore no glasses, had a goatee, and had a more kick-butt attitude. The bobblehead captures both Hiros nicely.

Finally, there was a necklace. But not just any necklace. Heroes fans will recognize this as the necklace worn by the mostly-silent, memory erasing friend/co-worker of Mr. Bennett (aka Noah, aka HRG): The Haitian.

All in all a great prize package. Thanks again, BuddyTV!

I love cooking.  You can probably tell that from my Cooking With TechyDad segments (which I have been, admittedly, slacked off on).  I love to try new recipes and even new foods.  However, this urge to try new things doesn’t always work well with a six year old and a two year old.  NHL would be happy if I just microwaved chicken nuggets half the time and made pizza the other half.  JSL would be delighted if we served him Macaroni and Cheese seven days a week, three meals a day.

Obviously, I’d like them to learn better eating habits than chicken nuggets, pizza and macaroni and cheese, but getting them to eat other things can be an uphill battle – even when the food is something they like.  Recently, I made a recipe from Sneaky Chef’s new cookbook The Sneaky Chef to the Rescue: Mexican Muffins.  Basically, the recipe is eggs and cheese baked in tortillas pressed into a muffin tin.  Unbeknownst to NHL and JSL, however, I had added a cauliflower/zucchini puree to the mix.  You can’t taste it, but it adds some additional nutrients.

The first batch went well until they discovered peppers from the salsa the recipe called for.  The next batch, which I just made Thursday night, omitted the salsa but wound up being rejected "just because."  JSL picked as his meal and eventually, with my help, ate some of his eggs.  NHL, however, decided that he didn’t want eggs and hooted and hollered for an alternative. We refused (knowing that he likes eggs) and he continued to scream.  We do provide alternatives when we know dinner is something he doesn’t like, but he doesn’t get alternatives if dinner is something we know he likes.

Sending him to his room to calm down didn’t help.  The screams coming from the other room included some choice quotes like "you need to go to jail" and "Mommy and Daddy should be arrested" (presumably for not catering to his every whim).  This tantrum was partially fueled by his allergy medicines and partially by him being tired, but dinnertime temper tantrums (or at least refusals to eat) seem to be getting more common.

My Aloha Friday question is:  Is your child a picky eater?  What do you do when your child demands something different from what you’ve prepared?  How do you defuse an all-out temper tantrum?

By the way, a full Cooking With TechyDad on the Mexican Muffins and a Sneaky Chef book review are in the works.  For now, I’ll tease you with this photo:

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #12

Sesame Street turns 40 today.  It is hard to believe that it’s been around that long.  I have many fond memories growing up watching Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar, and, of course, my personal favorite: Grover.  I even had a had a stuffed Grover that I took with me everywhere (and, unfortunately, suffered all kinds of kid-induced abuses).

Nowadays, it is my children who watch Sesame Street.  My parents, continuing a tradition, even purchased a stuffed Grover for NHL a few years back.  And while NHL might be growing too old to be interested in Sesame Street, JSL is just entering his prime Street years.  He already loves all of the characters, especially Cookie Monster.  He loves getting a cookie, saying "COOKIE" (with quite a good Cookie Monster imitation) and chowing down like Cookie Monster does.  Of course, this is all despite my repeated pleas to slow down his eating.  After all, Cookie Monster isn’t exactly a paragon of table manners.

Here’s wishing Sesame Street many more years decades of sunny days, sweeping the clouds away.  Here’s a small (and by no means complete) selection of my favorite Sesame Street moments.

Grover Serves Mr. Johnson:

Put Down The Duckie:

The Alligator King:

And, a more recent one, NPR Interviews Cookie Monster.  What are your favorite Sesame Street moments?

Hey Sid, What do you say! What do you want to learn today? I want to know what things happen and how, and I wanna know everything now. How does this thing work? Why does that stuff change? How’d it do what it just did. What’s up with the sky do you think i can fly The world is big and I wanna know why Got a lot of questions and big ideas, I’m Sid the Science Kid.

Those words begin one of NHL’s favorite shows: Sid the Science Kid. Sid constantly tries to figure out the big questions in life like: Why does a banana turn mushy? Or why does it need to rain when you have an outdoors activity planned? Those might not seem like big questions to adults, but to kids questions like these are huge. And for good reason too. Children are just figuring out how the world works and questions like these are key.

Read more…

On Saturday, we had the pleasure of seeing Walking With Dinosaurs: The Live Experience.  For those of you who don’t know what this is, you travel back in time and see some real, live dinosaurs.  Ok, they’re people in costumes and animatronics controlled by people, but the production values are so good, you’d swear the dinosaurs are real.  The scale is fully kept too, so when the Brachiosaur stomps onto the stage, it is nearly 33 feet (10 meters) tall.  And when the mother T-Rex comes charging in, she is over 26 feet (8 meters) of flesh tearing, loud roaring dinosaur.  (Reminder: Do *NOT* mess with this momma’s kid.  The kid may seem small and weak but the mother can eat 144 pounds in a single bite.  The average adult wouldn’t be more than a mozzarella stick is to us.)  The whole production mixes science and entertainment perfectly.

NHL, of course, loved it.  His favorite dinosaur kept shifting depending on which dino was on stage last.  We took JSL along, hoping he wouldn’t be scared by the loud noises.  Towards the end, he was a little jittery, but not completely freaked out.  A little reassurance that daddy was there and he was fine.  We figured the long-term affects of the show would be more evident with NHL than with JSL.  (We signed him up for an archeology summer program at the local community college.)  However, tonight JSL showed that he too liked the dinosaur show.  At least, he liked the roaring and charging parts of it.  Don’t just take my word for it, though, see for yourself.

My little JSL-a-saurus!