Daddy's Fish BowlA Clear View Of A Father's Family Experiences

Tre’s Thursday Toy Review 10-8-09
Go Baby Go Bounce & Spin Zebra

 Name: Fisher-Price Go Baby Go! Bounce & Spin Zebra

Manufacturer: Fisher Price

Price: $58.79

Length of Ownership: 8 months

Rating: 3 stars

As you can see from the two videos, there is a correct way to play with this toy and an incorrect way.  Unfortunately, Tre prefers the incorrect way.  I really enjoy this toy, but for some reason Tre has never really taken to it much.  When we first got it, he’d stand next to it and play with the spinning handle because it played music, but would never want to get on and ride the zebra.  As he got a bit older, he would occassionally get on and take it for a spin, but it never really held his attention very long.  However, there is great potential for this toy if you kid actually likes it.  The bouncing and spinning actions are great for coordination and muscle development.  Hopefully your kid won’t create new unintended ways to enjoy this toy as Tre has.

Some kids scream for candy, some scream for cookies, some just scream.  But Tre, well he’s a little different.  The boy LOVES to take medicine, and I feel partly responsible.  When I was a kid, I used to have an ear infection, strep throat, or pink eye at least once or twice a month. I don’t know if the medicine that they use to treat those illnesses are still the same, but the pink stuff they gave out back then sure was good!  It got to the point where my parents had to request tablets because when I got older, I’d sneak into the kitchen and throw back a shot of the pink stuff.  Ah, my first drug addiction: pink liquid antibiotic medication.  I was eventually able to shake the habit, but there were a lot of cold sweats, tremors, and intense pain involved.  Okay maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but that was my childhood story and now I’m afraid Tre is following directly in my footsteps.

Geocaching's Next Superstar

Are you wondering why my kid is in the middle of the woods with a large Tupperware container?  It’s because he had just concluded his first geocaching excursion & was proudly basking in victorious glory.  What is geocaching you may be asking?  Well I’ll tell ya, it’s basically a treasure hunt using a gps device and it’s totally freaking awesome! Well, now that I’ve actually found something, it’s awesome.  I’m kidding, that’s not true; it took me a while to pop my cherry, but even when we weren’t able to locate the “cache” (official word for treasure) we still had a good time just being in the great outdoors and spending family time together.  I have to send a thank you to my buddy over at The Life of a Father of Five, the post that I’ve linked you to is the very reason that our family has now become involved in geocaching.  I foresee our family participating in the sport for a long time to come, the kids love going treasure hunting and it’s also pretty good exercise.  If you’d like to learn more check out the official geocaching site here.

Happy Birthday Ty

Today our oldest boy turns 5 years old; well actually as far as he’s concerned, he’s been 5 for the past 3 days already.  Ty was having a tad bit of difficulty grasping the concept that the day we were celebrating his birthday, wasn’t his actual birthday.  After going through a few mental exercises to drive this point home to him, we finally conceded and decided that it’d be best to just let the kid think his birthday was on Saturday; the day of his party.  It worked out pretty well, until yesterday that is, when he went to his “Kindereadiness” class. 

So yesterday I wrote this post and by the time I got home, was seriously considering posting a retraction.  I definitely put my foot in my mouth, but it was a pleasant surprise.  Read on to find out what happened.  If you’ve already read yesterdays post, just skip down to the highlighted “update” section to find out what happened.

Grandpappy, or my Dad as I call him is coming to visit.  His plane should actually be landing as I write this post.  He’ll be visiting for two weeks, so I’m sure I’ll be writing about his interactions with the kids during that timeframe.  I wish my Mom was coming as well, but unfortunately, these two NEVER travel together.  They say it’s because it’s difficult to get vacation days during the same time as each other.  I say it’s because when one of them is gone, the other is throwing all type of crazy parties, like a high school kid who’s been left at home without any supervision.  For that reason, I’ve installed super secret, high tech surveillance cameras (smile for the camera Mom) in my parent’s home, to ensure that dance fever is kept to a minimum.  But that’s not the point of this post; you know I go off on tangents from time to time.  Since my Dad is coming, it got me to thinking about grandparent names and how unusual ours are.  When the kids were born, I was thinking a simple grandma and grandpa would do, but nope, not my parents, or Fefe’s either for that matter.