Re-living my childhood

Amelia's Dad — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:20:59 +0000

I made a run to Babies R Us today for a new monitor but ended up re-directed to their parent store, Toys R Us. I don’t think I’ve been there since the wigglet was born and I realize now that’s probably a good thing. I found what I needed within moments of walking in but just had to wander around a bit. That was my downfall I think.
A hundred years ago (it seems) I worked as a bicycle builder and bulk items pickup guy in the back of store 7013 in Baytown, Texas. I was 17 and this was my first “real” job. I probably complained about it but really it was a perfect job. I got to build bikes and climb around the stock room racks like a monkey. At Christmas we would stock in the middle of the night and play video games or ride the bikes at lunch. This was the age of Nintendos and TurboGrafix16. I have an old love for TRU even if they are a huge, manipulative corporate giant.
So I’m wandering through the store, thinking about Amelia’s first birthday present. I wander into the doll aisle and I’m mesmerized by the ginormous doll houses. But I also secretly hope she won’t go for that type of thing. Andrea and I want to encourage Amelia to play with whatever toys she wants, not just “girl” toys. So I wandered some more to the Playmobile aisle.
Oh my! There were sets for pirates, Huns, Egyptians, firefighters, veternarians, almost anything you can imagine. Now that’s my idea if doll houses! She’ll be able to make up all kinds of stories and adventures. Like the Huns assisting a band of pirates build the piramids of Egypt and starting a fire department. Then I saw this other collection of mideval buts with a huge, authentic looking castle with knights and horses and seige engines and and…
Then there were the Legos! Oh the legos. A whole aisle of sets with themes like pirates and Star Wars. Kits for cars, dirt movers, and robots! Andrea’s dad has been involved with Mindstorms competitons for school kids in Portland off and on for years. And there’s a series of architectural models which has stuff like the Sears tower and Falling Water. And another that you build an entire city of builings and vehicles of legos. Why settle for one house when she can have a CITY!!??

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Amelia's Dad — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:27:47 +0000

It has been a while since I’ve added anything to this, partly because I’ve been swamped with work and keeping an infant happy and fed. But below is a little indication of why. The office gave us many generous gifts, one of which was this exer-saucer thing. The instructions said it was good for 4 month olds and up. Well Amelia is there so I put it together last night to see if she was ready for it. I think the video confirms, she is.

Wigglet McFancypants » BSE

Re-living my childhood

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