Category: Fathering

PlasmaCar, a.k.a., Rocketship, a.k.a. “A COOL, COOL CAR!!!”

This is the family car of choice. In our house it’s called “cool, cool car,” so named by our 2-year-old. We got him one for his birthday. (Its real name: PlasmaCar.)

My wife got it for our 2-year-old after telling me she had scouted it out and that it was “toy of the year.” I’m generally skeptical of toys of the year, but this one has been a hit.

The only challenge was getting our two boys to share the one cool, cool car.

Side note: there was and is an accompanying song. It goes like this:

(loudly) A COOL, COOL CAR!

(softly) a cool, cool car.

(loudly) A COOL, COOL CAR!

(softly) a cool, cool car.

(loudly) A COOL, COOL CAR!

(monotone) CAR.

As I was saying, the sharing was not working out too well…until Grandma came to town and got the 5-year-old one of his very own! (Thanks, Grandma!) It’s now being called a “rocketship.”

The 5-year-old now knows how to do donuts on our back deck. The 2-year-old is not far behind. It’s hours of endless entertainment for us all.

And, yes, that’s the 2-year-old in the picture above on (you guessed it) his older brother’s cool, cool car.

Photo credit: Ian Drummond

Family Friday: Annisquam Lighthouse and a long walk on the beach

Yesterday I came home from work and, not even taking the time to change out of my dress clothes, strapped on our baby girl and walked with her and my two boys to the beach.

“Look out for the poop on top of the hill,” our now 5-year-old son reminded us. “Watch out… poop on hill!” echoed his 2-year-old brother.

We went down the poop-topped hill and onto the beach in sub-50 degree weather. The 5-year-old (he of “my 4-year-old son” fame) scrambled up and down the rocks. The 2-year-old sang happy songs and found a bird feather with which he stooped down to draw a “choo-choo” in the sand. Baby girl slept, warm against my chest.

The setting sun bounced off the houses on the opposite shore. One of the houses, reflecting the sun, looked like it had windows made of pure gold.

At 5:56, the Annisquam Lighthouse turned on.

It was a moment–a long moment, since we walked for about an hour–that I’ll savor for years to come. God has indeed been good to his people.

Another 4-year-old son review of The Berenstain Bears… this time: God Bless the Animals

Family Friday this week at Words on the Word comes on Saturday. Here my 4-year-old son reviews another Berenstain Bears book. See him review the first one here.

For this review, my 4-year-old son’s 2-year-old brother joined us. The 2-year-old’s comments are in parentheses below, usually also in all caps, because that’s how he speaks. Regular font is my 4-year-old.

This is a flap book.  (That’s a book!)

There’s a little baby who has a little rope on her head with a little heart on the front, and she has a little shirt with a heart on it. And Mama Bear walks the baby down the stairs. (MAMA BEAR! DADDY BEAR! DA DOOO!)

Are you writing goo-goo words?

Sister Bear is pointing under the lettuce, a little cabbage. Do you know what’s under the cabbage, daddy? There’s bunnies; I’ll count them. 1, 2, 3, 4. So there’s 4.  There’s a butterfly under some flower beds.

(NO NO NO NO! I WANT TO READ A CHOO-CHOO BOOK!)

Mr. Possum and Mr. Skunk–the skunk is in his hollow stump and looking at a book. And there’s a light so he can see and one little hole for one little window, and only just a chair.

There’s a squirrel that’s jumping from here to here.

Daddy, how about you write up some baby words? Whatever I say will be baby words, just to be funny. Are you ready for some baby words?

Goo goo ga ga. Bloo rah rah. Dada.

There’s one little frog and four bees. The bees are making a lot of light. Bzzz!!  (BEEEEZZZ!)

How about we surprise the other guys with this one? On this page can we surprise the guys? It’s okay if we just go to the next page. (2-year-old putting blanket on 4-year-old: GO TO BED!)

There’s a fish sliding across the stream. It’s going, “Weeee!!!” And it might bump into some of the rocks.

That’s all I want to do. So we totally book reviewed it.

I liked it because of everything. I felt good when we read the book.

Find more about The Berenstain Bears: God Bless the Animals at its Zondervan product page or on Amazon by clicking the book’s image above. Read the rest of my 4-year-old son’s reviews here. Jake wishes to comply with FTC guidelines and disclose that he received a review copy of this book from Zondervan, but not with any expectation as to the nature or content of the review.

My 4-year-old son reviews The Berenstain Bears: Faith Gets Us Through

There’s three little cubs and Sister Bear says, “I’m scared.” And Brother says, “I’m scared.” And Fred says, “The Lord is my salvation.”

There’s lots of rocks. I’ll count them: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, on two sides. And there’s a mountain goat standing on one of them. One’s on one rock and the other one’s on another rock.

Then they [the Bears] go in the cave. One goat is up really high, on the top of the cave. And they go in the cave. Papa Bear is pointing at himself and saying, “I know all about caves.” Then they talk about caves.

Papa says, “Hello!” And it goes, “Hello! Hello!” That’s the echo.

Something [a stalactite] almost fell on Papa and killed him. But he jumped away.

Papa: “It’s okay, I left a string showing you the way.” The goat eats the string and they don’t know the way out. But they actually know the way out.

They all splash out, and what does Papa say? It starts with a Y. Does he say, “Help”? Or “Welp”? Um… he says, “YIEEE!”

[To father/typist] Hey, Daddy, do you know all about caves? I want to know.

They got in the water and then… weeeee!!! They got their badges. Kind of like Chuck and Friends. But Chuck and Friends don’t get weeee’d down the water. They’re just exploring. They mostly just look for stuff to help them do stuff. And the big, grown up monster truck teaches them.

[Back to the story….] I like that the goat eats the string and that they go down the water slide. It’s not a water slide. It’s actually a water fountain.

I didn’t like that Papa doesn’t know that there’s another way out. And that’s it.

I am glad I have this book. This book is good for four-year-old ages, and every age. Hey, daddy–let’s read!

Bye bye.

Find more about The Berenstain Bears: Faith Gets Us Through at its Zondervan product page or on Amazon by clicking the book’s image above. Read the rest of my 4-year-old son’s reviews here. Jake wishes to comply with FTC guidelines and disclose that he received a review copy of this book from Zondervan, but not with any expectation as to the nature or content of the review.

Another interview with Honest Toddler, who, I hear, has a book deal?

(Alex Motrenko/Thinkstock, via The Globe and Mail)

Looks like Honest Toddler has a book deal. A recent HT Facebook post from this week:

Mama’s drinking celebration wine during daylight hours. Said something about a book deal and name brand cereal from now on.

That will be a good book to read. Maybe HT will send my 4-year-old son a review copy! (Not counting on it, but that won’t stop us from asking.)

I also just found another interview with the Honest Toddler who, sadly, has not made himself available as of yet to Words on the Word for interview. We still hold out hope.

My 4-year-old son reviews The Beginner’s Bible: Bible Story Favorites

The first story is about Adam and Eve in the Garden. A sneaky snake came, and God said, “Don’t eat fruit from this tree!” Then a big lie comes into the world. Then they have to leave. And then Jesus will always come to save people from their sins.

The next story is about baby Moses. He got put in a basket, because he needed to be hided, because of the king. (He’s a mean one.) So he actually starts crying. Baby Moses starts crying. And I’ll show you, right there–there’s a dragonfly, right by the princess and the baby. Then the princess picked the baby up and said, “I want to keep you.” So Miriam prayed to God, “Please keep Moses safe.” God kept Moses safe, because he watched over Moses.

[The third story] First Joseph’s brothers think he’s bad. They sent him away, far away, to some men, two men riding horses, and the rope tied up to Joseph. And then he goes in jail. And then he meets a man in jail. The man says, “I used to work for the king.” He [Joseph] says, “I had a dream, I gave a drink to the king.” (He wasn’t mean.) Soon the man got out of jail. And then the man went back to work for the king, and he [the king] had a dream. Soon Joseph gets out of jail. And then the king says, “I have a dream. What does it mean?” “It means: save up food.” That’s what all the people did. Soon the food stopped growing. No one had any food, so they went to the king for help. And then Joseph says, “I am your brother.” And they did not know who he was. Joseph looked so different than he did before. “God is good!” Joseph’s brothers cheered. That’s the end.

I like everything about this book. This book is good for people who know Jesus. It comes with a CD that has all the stories that are in the book.

The last two stories are about Jonah (he gets spit out of a whale) and Jesus. Jesus saves everyone from their sins. That’s all I’m going to tell. That’s it. Good-bye! (You have to write “good-bye.”)

Find more about The Beginner’s Bible: Bible Story Favorites at its Zondervan product page or on Amazon by clicking the book’s image above. Read the rest of my 4-year-old son’s reviews here. Jake wishes to comply with FTC guidelines and disclose that he received a review copy of this book from Zondervan, but not with any expectation as to the nature or content of the review.

My 4-year-old son reviews Field of Peace by Joyce Meyer

This book is about baseball. Buh-buh-buh-buh baseball!

Some of the characters’ names are Boyd, Arnold, Coach Pouch. Boyd is trying to win the baseball game.

Arnold the Armadillo turns into a big ball, because he’s hiding. That means he’s scared. He curls up. The team stops and loses, but the giraffe tries to win.

When they lose, the giraffe feels bad.

The skunk has a rake. He sprays, and then the giraffe has a hat on his nose because it’s stinky!

Boyd [the giraffe] thinks that Arnold wouldn’t win the Wilds’ championship. Then Arnold was by himself in the field because they were gone. But then everyone misses him.

Boyd feels bad because he misses Arnold. So he tries to get Arnold.

And he [Arnold] did this–he batted the ball even though he was a little ball.

At the end of the book, Boyd is feeling peaceful inside. That means you’re feeling happy!

My favorite part is when Arnold shook his hands down and up, down and up, because he was scared. This book made me feel good. I’ll show you what I really like: it has “peaceful” inside the book.

My 4-year-old son received an Advanced Review Copy of Field of Peace from Zonderkidz. Find more about Field of Peace on Amazon or at Zondervan. It’s slated to release September 4. Read the rest of my 4-year-old son’s reviews here.

My 4-year-old son reviews a Duncan Butterfly yo-yo

Not long after my 4-year-old son began doing book reviews on my blog (the best part of this blog, according to some), he had an idea.

“I know, Dad. We could review a toy! We could review a yo-yo!”

I emailed the folks at Duncan, not sure if there even is such a thing as a “review copy” of a toy, but, lo and behold, we got a yo-yo in the mail this week. Below, my 4-year-old son reviews it. Before we could profitably use it, we shortened the string, using this video to guide us, although the packaging did include instructions for that. Here’s my 4-year-old son now, in order of his observations as he played with it:

I’m not really good at using a yo-yo because I just learned.

In response to his two-year-old brother’s “Is it mine?”  “Nope, not yours. It’s mine.  So don’t play with it.”

I don’t think I can do it, Daddy. This is too hard for me. It’s good! But I don’t really know how to use it yet.

It’s a good knocker. It’s a good yo-yo.

I’ll tell you how it works. You roll it up, once you already use it first, and all we have to do is just get it up to your hands and pull it down and then bring it back up. That’s the end. That’s it.

(Later) It’s really easy to use.

(Later later) I can’t really do it! This knocker’s not very easy. I got to go to bed. Good night!

The folks who gave us a yo-yo for review (thanks!) emphasized that it’s for ages six and up. I see the wisdom in their age recommendation. Perhaps when “my 4-year-old son” becomes “my 6-year-old son,” we can have another go. For now, he’s finding other ways of having fun with the yo-yo, racing through the house and dragging it behind him.

UPDATE, three days later: See his original artwork (a yo-yo) here.