When we bought the place there was not really that much of a backyard, it was mostly wooded and it took me a good long time to clear it off. Now we have about three quarters of an acre inside a six foot high privacy fence. I got lucky with the fencing. I was looking for a good price on swings for children when I simply drove past a place where they were piling up all of this fencing on the curb. I stopped and asked them what they were going to do and the guy said that he was just going to give it away. Of course a section of fence like this is going to cost you at least sixty or eighty dollars, so a fence like this would have cost me around a thousand dollars or more if I had bought it new. Instead I only had put about half that much in it, since I got half of the fence for free.

Of course a free fence does not sit on the curb for long, so I had to rush back home and get my trailer. Continue reading →

When my wife and I found out that she was pregnant, it was the happiest day of our lives. We had been trying to conceive a child but encountered some difficulty along the way. Immediately we started buying items for the baby. The first thing we bought was a baby monitor to watch the baby. Like with many baby products, there are a lot of variations of baby monitors, with some being better than others. For us, it came down to the Infant Optics DXR-8 vs Motorola MBP36 in a battle of the best baby monitor.

Both monitors had some good features, and they seem pretty equal in quality, but ultimately the deciding factor for us was the price. Continue reading →

Neighbors of ours have a daughter the same age as our little girl. Their birthdays are a couple of months apart. Their little girl’s birthday was held recently in their home. They have a nice big back yard and all of her friends were invited. Our little girl went and we attended too in order to have some conversation with the other adults there. They had scheduled some acts to entertain the kids. One was a Brisbane magician they hired to wow the kids through illusion and sleight of hand. I have seen magic shows before, but for this one I watched the audience of children instead of the act.

There was a mix of reactions early on in the audience of kids. A couple of opening tricks kind of got their attention. Then a couple were done where even the oldest kids were wondering how he did it. Continue reading →

When I became pregnant, my husband and I were over the moon about it. We had been trying for so long, and it happened about six months after we finally decided we had enough. Go figure! Anyway, we were really happy, but there was one thing that made me sad too. We own our own business, and I knew that I would not be able to just stay home with our baby. Because of that, I started doing research to find the best hospital grade breast pump even before I was in my second trimester.

I knew that I was going to have to pump my breast milk, so I wanted to make sure that I had the best on the market. Continue reading →

When my sister asked me if I would help her plan a special birthday party for her eight year old daughter, I was more than happy to help. She is a single mom raising four kids, and I have none, so I spend as much time with them as possible. I knew that times were tight for my sister, so I decided to handle the expenses myself too. The first thing I did was go to www.brisbanekidsmagician.com.au, a website that a work friend suggested I take a look at for the party entertainment.

I know my sister was talking about maybe blowing up some balloons and getting a nice cake, but I also knew that the kids would have a lot more fun if there was some type of entertainment there. I was thinking about different kinds of party games for kids when my friend told me about the magician that her boyfriend had hired for his own child’s birthday party. When she gave me the details, I knew that I wanted the same thing for these kids. Continue reading →

I guess my friends are all being a lot of smart alecs. They decided that all of them were going to get me gag gifts for my birthday this year. Of course they got together and hatched this supposedly brilliant scheme. You can go on the internet and see the things they got me. They are called Lullapets – the musical companions and the idea is that you can collect all ten of them. It is a little stuffed animal with a little voice recorder and an mp3 player in it. Of course they spent a ton of money these thing. They cost 39 dollars and 95 cents each according to the web page. These jokers got me three of them and so they spent a hundred and twenty bucks on all of them just because they thought it was funny. Of course they took the voice recorder and recorded obscene messages on them before they gave them to me. Continue reading →

Of course the major goal of parenting is to create a well developed person who can manage his own affairs perfectly well. If you do it right you would want to end up with a kid who could be president or who could run a major company. At the least a guy who can do an important job successfully. Obviously that requires a lot of basic skills and we are trying to teach them responsibility right now. So we are giving each of them a small number of tasks which they need to accomplish and we are trying to make it clear that they have to do what they are expected to do. It is just simple thing for the moment, like picking up after themselves. Obviously that is an important concept. You do not need the child to grow up thinking that someone else is some how responsible for going around behind them and cleaning up whatever mess they might might. You want them to realize that they take responsibility for the things that they do.

Asking them to solve problems is another thing. Continue reading →

I had my first and only child when I as forty six. Despite having a lot of experience working prior to that, I had not really spent much time learning about the new and best things for kids. So, when my little girl said that she wanted a kids balance bike last week, I had no idea what she was talking about. I wondered if it was a brand name or even a type of exercise machine that you use in your house.

She explained that it’s a bike with no pedals and that all the kids are using them. I asked her if it’s an electric bike, and she said no. Having no idea what she was talking about, I figured I better check it out. Continue reading →