Samuel

I have a strong distaste for most kid’s music. I find it condescending and I think that second rate musicians often find themselves recording bad music for kids because they could get published recording real music for people. This offends me, in no small way, because I believe that children have every ounce of capacity they need to enjoy real music. So, when I make kids CDs I make them out of music that wasn’t designed for kids. Here’s the playlist for a new car CD I just burned for Arthur for a trip to Portland we’re leaving on in a few. A note to other parents; I have not vetted these songs for any small use of profanity or adult themes. In “Took A Trip On A Gemini Spacecraft” David Bowie says “I grabbed my space gun and I thought about you”. Yes, that is what he was talking about. This doesn’t bother me. If it bothers you, you should stay clear of this playlist. But none of the songs have refrains that I would not want to hear at the top of a two year olds lungs again, and again, and again.

I Love Rock and Roll Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Hound Dog Elvis Presley
Super Disco Breakin’ Beastie Boys
I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spaceship David Bowie
Video Killed the Radio Star The Buggles
Golden Years David Bowie
Soul Bossa Nova Quincy Jones and His Orchestra
Big Rock Candy Mountain Harry McClintock
99 Luftballons Nena
I Can’t Explain The Who
The Unforgettable Fire U2
‘Ol ‘55 Tom Waits
Low Rider War
Mr_ Jones Talking Heads
I Missed The Bus Skankin’ Pickle
You Can Dance If You Want To Men at Work
Stomach Vs. Heart Barenaked Ladies
Turn The Wheel Hot Buttered Rum!
Over The Rainbow Johnny Mathis And Ray Charles
Good Golly Miss Molly C. C. R.
Let It Be The Beatles
Over to My House The Inkwell Rhythm Makers

Arthur riding his new Strider Balance Bike. He LOVES it!

Recently, Arthur got himself a new toy. When he was very little, he did a little bit of work as a beautiful baby in some safety videos. His salary went into a special account for him, the idea being that we’d save it until he was an older kid. And most of it we are, but given the opportunity we had to tap it to get him one of these wonderful inventions. It’s called a balance bike or a running bike, and it’s made by the Strider Company. It’s a small bicycle with two wheels – no training wheels. It doesn’t have any pedals, but it does have an extra wide rear fork with grip tape so that a kid who gets going really fast has a place to put their feet up and coast. This way he can learn to balance on a bicycle gradually first, and add the extra complication of pedals later.

He loves it. It took a week or so to convince him that the bike was cook enough to be worth wearing the bike helmet (not a comfortable accessory, but an important one!) Once he was convinced to give it a try, he was sold. Now there is a daily bike ride at least around the block if not further afield. And he’s started getting going pretty quick. I’m going to start bringing wheels of my own here pretty soon just to keep up.

If you have a kid under 50 pounds, between 1 and 4, I highly recommend these balance bikes. They’re reasonably priced, and totally worth it. The local distributor is a friend of ours, so if you want to get in touch with her you can leave a comment here or fill out the contact form at the bottom of this (and every) page.

Hey there sport fans. Today, the family went to the Oregon Logging Conference. This seems like a strange event for a family of environmentalist, earth conscious, back to the land type organic granola crunchers like us. And it is, but there is one marvelous redeeming feature of this event; lots and lots of machines which on Saturday morning they let kids climb around on (in what is probably a massively bad idea from a liability standpoint). You can see some pictures of Arthur and his friends climbing around here. But in this post, what I want to show you is exactly how dangerous a place the world really is. I went around the displays of machines looking for pictures of everyone’s favorite stick man getting mangled in various ways. It’s amazing all the bad things that can happen to you when you’re not careful around machines. Check it out;

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These are some pictures I took back in November of the little man wrangling the chickens. He has a lot of fun with them. We haven’t really had a good garden day since then, and I’m starting to really miss getting out in the weather and doing hard work. Maybe soon.