Repetition and The Gummy Bear Song

Do you know the Gummy Bear Song? Here’s an experiment – try playing this song just once for your child. It’s impossible! Children love repetition. Parents? It depends. I like the idea of $100 bills repetitively replenishing my wallet and personal sushi chefs slicing raw fish in the kitchen all day to feed me on […]

Makeshift Entertainment #3: iPad Camera App

While there are many fun and engaging iPad apps for children of all ages, my 20-month-old son’s current favourite is the camera app. You may be thinking, Wow, the boy is ahead of his time honing his photography skills at such a young age. Such a statement would make me puff out my chest in […]

Unintentional Innuendo

As parents we often appreciate when animated movies or TV shows add adult-targetted jokes. These jokes provide us with a special moment to chortle away and feel superior about our vast understanding of humour. While our children bust a gut over someone falling down, we take pride in the fact that we “get it” when […]

Makeshift Entertainment #2: Display Racks

Why walk all the way to the toy section when you have a perfectly good display-rack road and several makeshift cars? ____________________________________________________________________________ See “Makeshift Entertainment: Elevators” for my previous “Makeshift Entertainment” post.

It’s Bedtime. It’s Stage Time!

Do you have a toddler? Does his or her bedtime routine include crying, hiding in corners, and going Ultimate Warrior on the side of the crib? For many toddlers this has become their reality as they seek autotomy and control over their environments. Once the crying stops, however, that’s when things REALLY get interesting. It’s […]

A Little Voice in the Dark

[Darkness] “Hi. Hi. Hi. Doggy. Owl. Hoo hoo. Hi.” My wife and I roll over. Our son is up. His voice has become a pleasant alarm-clock on our holiday as we all sleep in the dark basement of my parents’ house. He’s saying hello to the dog lamp next to his crib and to the […]

Who’s Robin and Why Did He Lay an Egg?

Jingle bells Batman smells Robin laid an egg… When I think of “Jingle Bells” my mind automatically defaults to the Batman version above. Batman definitely smells and Robin is an egg-laying fool. This is what I learned growing up. I knew that Robin was a bit of a weak side-kick and that egg-laying seemed like […]