Thingamababy

Last year I reviewed the awesome 1957 memoir of childhood, Where did you go? Out. What did you do? Nothing by Robert Paul Smith.

Smith’s son Dan sent a note alerting us that his dad’s book has just been reprinted in paperback for under $10

Similarly, another of Smith’s books is also back in print, this time hardbound and also under $10: How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself. Now, how could you possibly refuse a title like that?

The second book delves into such pastimes as making a spool tank (wind-up toy), a button buzz-saw, handkerchief parachutes, and squeaking blades of grass. There are also some more interestingly dangerous activities you just can’t get in a store-bought kit, such as instructions for playing Mumblety-Peg with a Boy Scout knife and making a bow and arrow from a broken umbrella.

1. Amazon: Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing.
   
2. Amazon: How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself.

Incidentally, a perk of having a spouse going back to school is that Amazon.com gives college students free ‘Prime’ accounts (free 2-day shipping, presumably for textbooks, but it’s good on everything). I should have my copies of the books in a few days, should anyone have questions.

• Official site: HowToDoNothing.net.
• Thinga-review: Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing.

This is an audio interview between a seventh grader with Asperger’s Syndrome and his mother. At one point he asks, “Did I turn out to be the son you wanted when I was born?”

The interview was for the book Mom: A Celebration of Mothers.

At left, the flash card for "neat" under the consonant-vowel-consonant tip-alveolar assimilation section of the Kaufman Speech Praxis Treatment Kit for Children. At right, the Doctor from Doctor Who.

This is an inside joke, but I can’t resist. My 2-year-old son has verbal dyspraxia, a condition impairing his speech. One of the tools we use at home is the Kaufman Speech Praxis Treatment Kit, otherwise known as Kaufman Cards. The front of a card shows a picture. The backside lists several likely pronunciations that your child might utter when you prompt him to say the indicated word. A man wearing a bowtie? He’s “neat” of course.

The epic British family TV show Doctor Who debuted this year with a new writer/producer and new cast, along with new catch phrases for the lead character. The Doctor is sporting a bowtie now. In an almost overcompensating fashion, several times through the season the Doctor has explained his fashion sense by saying, “Bowties are cool.”

So, we can’t help but smile when the bowtie card comes up and our son says “neat.”

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Mila’s Daydreams is a blog where baby Mila is photographed in a scene with props — while she is napping. The mom works in advertising, so something makes me suspect this is fodder for a book, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.

Brazilian men swapped at birth — A nice story where two babies were mixed up at the hospital and 25 years later everyone is okay with it. Better than okay, in fact.

Inception baby video mash-up — The soundtrack to the Leonardo DiCaprio movie Inception makes any scene ominous/epic, even family videos. The linked page plays two Youtube videos side-by-side. Be sure to mute the video on the right.

My son crawling in a tunnel between two watermelon bin chambers. A glow-stick is taped above each tunnel entrance.

In this installment we discuss spending 8 to 24 hours converting a room in your home to an awesome cardboard fort. I’ve done it three times, for my daughter’s 3rd, 5th and 6th birthdays.

Here we go.

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Thanks BabyZone. Click the “girl names” or “boy names” buttons. For added fun, click “boy or girl names” and make it a gender-guessing game. Click your browser’s reload/refresh button for more.

I like Ndirt for a boy and Sonar for a girl.

In my local baby/kids forum:

I have one cardboard room free for pick-up. You will need a truck and some method of securing it to the bed, otherwise it will fly. (I know from prior experience.)

It measures 82 inches long, 36 inches wide and is 36 inches tall. It is technically three cardboard lids secured by Mr. McGroovy’s box rivets. You may want to later secure it with packing or duct tape to make it more secure.

This was part of my child’s cardboard fort party and we are downsizing because we want a portion of our living room back. In your reply, please indicate when you can pick it up. Thanks.

A more detailed blog post is to follow. Unfortunately, the fort was too big to decently photograph.

Update: Thinga-reader Midge, unbeknownst to me a local reader, took the boxes.

The best family-friendly event held this weekend in my community wasn’t found on any event calendar. It was in the news section of the newspapers under such tantalizing headlines as “Live fire training planned.”

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Thinga-googler Ed is in a debate with his wife over what to name his unborn child if it comes out sporting a penis. If it has a vagina, it’ll get his mother-in-law’s name. But the penis problem has Ed vexed.

It seems some of the more interesting names you folks suggested in my Name My Baby Boy contest caused the webpages to pop up in his search results. Or maybe he saw the Top Eleven Names I Wish I Could Give my Baby Boy. I will forever regret not naming my son Flynn.

Naturally, Ed turned to me as a sympathetic, empathetic voice in his battle over little Jasper. I mean Rufus. Or maybe Roscoe. Oh, but Ed really likes Grover. And how about the timeless classic Ebenezer? Hannibal? Homer?

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The Daddy Files is written by Aaron, a father with one son. He’s married, has two cats and one dog. They are trying to give birth to a second child.

Here is a progression of recent events:

1. All out of miracles — Their last ultrasound reveals Sirenomelia, Mermaid’s Syndrome, a fatal defect almost as rare as conjoined twins.

2. Make it stop — The doctor asks about funeral arrangements for their scheduled surgery.

3. Flying solo — Surprise, their state law requires their doctor to explain in intricate detail what will occur during their abortion.

4. About protesters — Abortion protesters make the worst day of their life a living hell (video included as the father confronts an antagonizer). Click for direct link to the video (shot sideways).

So if you’re against abortion, that’s cool. Don’t have one. But when you decide to protest and scare people and make total strangers feel horrible, then you become trash. Human garbage. Excrement. And it’s my sincere hope that more people will stand up to these bullies in a non-violent manner and let them know what they’re doing is not OK.

5. MJ speaks out — His wife comments on the issue.

I have always believed that out of bad comes good. As we were leaving yesterday I looked around and realized all the protesters were gone and a marked cop car was parked in front of the building. As we turned to go home I asked Aaron, “What did you do?” He looks at me and says with a straight face “I didn’t get arrested!”

As we drove home, Aaron told me what had happened and how he went over there and had a talk with them. I was overcome with pride that he was able to single-handedly have the cops called on him by the protesters and that the protesters had to clear out. As I settled in for the hour ride home I finally felt a sense of peace, because we were able to give someone the opportunity to get help, make an informed decision about their body and future without being taunted or bullied by the people who have no idea what was going on!

Update: 6. Goodbye Princess. And thank you. — Her name was Alexandra Christine Gouveia.

So we will think of another name if we have a daughter in the future, because we already had a daughter named Alex. And while we never got to meet her, we will love and remember her forever. And hopefully so will some of you.

I don’t care. I laughed anyway.

That’s Simon Pegg (responsible for awesomely funny movies)  in the BBC sketch comedy Big Train. Don’t bother looking for it on the BBC America channel because that channel is in love with Star Trek: The Next Generation reruns. (Having one British actor in an American-made TV program qualifies Star Trek as an honorary BBC production, apparently.) Big Train is available on NetFlix though.

It seems I’ve worried my parents by not blogging for a week. Here’s an update on my previous post, Using football to raise a world-wise child.

Our almost entirely TV-free home has been obliterated in the name of watching World Cup games with my 6-year-old daughter.

I bought a sparkly new 40″ TV and subscribed to cable, bundling it with phone and Internet service, and of course a digital video recorder. In short, I went whole-hog back into media. (Yeah, it’s not just for World Cup. Umm, it’s for the Tour de France too!)

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As I type, my daughter has a friend over. Our front room is completely occupied by a massive cardboard fort. They are not in it. It’s sunny outside, the temperature is pleasant, and we have two swings hanging from our tree. They are not on them.

They are sitting on a couch in our family room. My 5-year-old daughter is reading her friend a book.

I just told her, “You have a cardboard fort and it’s sunny outside and you want to read a book?”

The two of them look outside, and my daughter says, “We could read in the sun.” Her friend says, “I’ll go put on my shoes.”

The book: Mummies in the Morning from the Magic Tree House series. To their credit (?), they’ve just left the book on an outside table and are swinging now.

It’s okay as long as you don’t encounter any elementary school-age children. [Available from Zazzle]

Baby GoGo by Little Sib bills itself as “a modern doll appropriate for a boy or a girl to play with.”

At its core, you’re buying a 13-inch gender-neutral doll wearing gender-neutral sleepwear. It comes with a blanket and a picture book titled Baby GoGo Goes Home, for a total suggested retail price of $40. A color-coordinated diaper bag is $25, and a Moses Bed will be available this summer.

As the title indicates, the picture book’s premise is that Baby GoGo was just born and is coming home, perhaps making it well-suited to a child expecting a sibling.

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